Riverwords

Over a month ago, my wife and I visited Colorado. We went to Ft. Collins and went rafting on the Cache le Poudre, a beautiful mountain river that turns out to be a lot of fun in a raft and wetsuit! Ft. Collins is a cozy little ag college town, and we had a fine [...]

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A while back, a co-worker told me about Blood Meridien by Cormac McCarthy. This guy was older than me, like most of my co-workers at the time. He was thin, and had a kempt beard as long as I knew him. He had a bleak sense of humor, and as I got to know him over [...]

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The job goes ever as the job must, with apologies to Seamus Heany. Fortunately, today there was plenty to enjoy. It was my night to cook. I got ambitious and tried to make chicken pad thai, one of my favorite treats at local Thai eateries. The experiment was a god awful smelling mess at first. [...]

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It’s harvest time in Iowa, but the sky isn’t cooperating. We’ve had a caravan of clouds rolling west to east for days. It just spits enough rain all the time to keep things damp, but sometimes it comes down hard and pounds the vent outside my bedroom window like an out of tune drum. I’d [...]

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Today was a day of trains and zoos and Spiderman. My son turned three, and we spoiled him as much as we could. Pizza and waffles. Tigers and frogs. Cake! Oh my. I’ve been reading Cryptonomicon, and finally reach that page count where I’m suckered in. Stephenson’s chapters are frenetic minutiae with kick-in-the-gut closers that keep [...]

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The Iowa weather’s turned cold again. We had wonderful weather, spring waking up the ground and the trees. Now, there are lazy fat flakes in the morning sky, just enough to remind me that April likes to tease. I got used to the warmth, actually. Seven days in the Carribbean will do that, extreme sunburn [...]

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It seems lightning does strike twice. Unbelievable. We had a signed contract to sell our house. Again. It is now meaningless. Again. No sale, no deal, back to where we started. Last time it was the buyer had no power of attorney because he had some mental deficiency. This time, it was some woman who [...]

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I turned 32 today. And, here I am too tired to type much else. I’ve entered a new position at work, and it’s kicking me to pieces. I’ve been toting around a new Moleskin journal like some kind of totemic fetish, and all those damn blank pages are getting heavier in my pocket.

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My wife and I have been trying to sell our house for over two years. Just before Christmas, we tried to figure out what to do about it. It ended in a humorous bet. I bet her that our house would not sell by next Christmas. She agreed, being convinced the house would sell well [...]

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For over two years, my wife and I have tried to sell our 105-year-old home. This week, we did it under less than agreeable financial terms. We’re eager to move on. Of course, this happened the week I started a new role at work managing a staff of seven.  I spent last night collapsed on [...]

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