whatever it is i do in my spare time
Over 1100 days ago, I went for a 50 mile walk. There was no particular reason for it. I wasn’t walking as part of an event, it wasn’t part of a group charity drive and it wasn’t to get anywhere. I never left my island, in fact. As someone who enjoys walking and walking long … Continue reading 60 Miles →
Having promised myself if no one else that it wouldn’t be another eight year span in between book reviews, here I am back four months later. I’d put it off again, but my list is already long enough to be barely manageable. As I’ll cover shortly, it’s been an interesting and eclectic few months of … Continue reading Books: Spring 2026 →
Another year has come and gone, and a lot has happened. Most of it, given the realities of the world around me, bad. But I only have so much control over that. My focus here will be mostly the good, some just the memorable (such as when Sully got sprayed by a skunk). And as … Continue reading My 2025 in Pictures →
When I started posting quick reviews of things I’d been reading back in 2014, I didn’t commit to any regular schedule. As it turns out, that’s a good thing, because my first follow up was a year later, my second was two years after that and, as far as search can tell me, it’s been … Continue reading Books: Winter 2025 →
Over the past few years, I’ve been relatively fortunate with my health as I’ve gradually ramped up my walking mileage. I’ve gone from an average of 8.3 miles a day to 8.5 to a tick over 8.6 so far this year. It’s not that walking doesn’t have wear and tear on your body, far from it. As Dean, the person responsible for getting me into this habit, and I were laughing the other day, something always…
As years go, 2024 was one. It had its share of wonderful moments, its scary moments and some devastating lows – you probably know the worst of them. It was a year of some family travel, as we got to visit London, Paris, New York and Nova Scotia – though not without some notable complications. … Continue reading My 2024 in Pictures →
Things were going pretty well with our summer until Eleanor ended up with pneumonia. Eleven days later she was hospitalized with a high fever and a partially deflated right lung having not responded to a double course of azithromycin and amoxicillin. After she slept the first night in her hospital bed hooked up to an … Continue reading I Have Squandered My Days With Plans of Many Things →
About a year ago, we bought a wood fired hot tub – specifically this one from Goodland. We love it and use it every day it doesn’t rain and some days when it does. And It’s utterly amazing in the snow. Anyway, for those that want the background, I went through our thoughts around buying the tub and our initial experience in a lot more detail here . When I wrote it up, however, I promised to follow…
If 2022 was a year of cautious re-emergence from lockdown for myself and my family, 2023 was an acceleration of that trend. One that came with benefits, but also a personal cost for myself as I’ll get to. It was indisputably a cost worth paying, however. Life was not back to normal, to be clear. … Continue reading My 2023 in Pictures →
Let me be clear about this up front: we were not hot tub people. If someone had told us a year or two ago that we’d end up buying a hot tub – much less a wood fired one – well, I can’t speak for Kate, but I would not have believed it. Neither of … Continue reading We Bought a Wood Fired Hot Tub →