T’was ten days or so before Christmas, five years ago to the day that this issue of the Citizen came out. Preparations for the holidays were stirring. The artificial tree was up, standing beside Carol’s baby grand piano, in front of the huge picture windows overlooking the Sangamon River. We’d tried real trees, but our cat Shadow kept climbing […]
Not far north of here at the Sangamon River Forest Preserve stands a house. And in this house lives Doug Sanders, Champaign County Forest Preserve Grounds Supervisor. Recently, I was fortunate to be Doug’s guest. Doug hasn’t lived there long and hasn’t had a chance to learn much of history of the house, but he was nonetheless glad to show […]
“Expert says model shows no leaks for 1,000 years” NewsGazette Headline, August 17, 2012 I woke up in my red Adirondack chair down by the Sangamon River one afternoon last week. I guess I’d fallen asleep, but I felt good; refreshed, like I’d been asleep for years. I looked around and everything just looked different: the trees looked different, […]
Some things never change. Some things always do. Forty years ago: the 1972 Elections. Fates hang in the balance: fates of candidates, the future of the country, and the fate of the Sangamon River. And highly popular incumbent Richard Nixon was poised to handily defeat the liberal George McGovern. Here in Illinois, incumbent Governor Richard Ogilvie was, shall we say, […]
I was walking our black lab Josh the other morning along the river’s edge in our backyard, and once again I spotted Harry fishing in the river on my property down on the Crooked Creek delta. He just doesn’t get it. This is my land, I own it. And he knows he’s not supposed to be there. Most mornings, as […]
Carol and I sat on the front porch in our rockers, sipping a ‘Little Woody’ Semi Dry Red from Sleepy Creek Vineyards and watched the Harvest Moon rise. It’s unusual this year that the Harvest Moon, the first full moon after the Autumnal Equinox, happened in September. And this evening, the cloudless sky presented a stunning silent show: the full […]