A popup ad on my Facebook excitedly promised “The End of Television!”   Well, I got pretty excited because I’d been waiting a long time for the moment when we finally got sick of TV and did away with it once and for all. One of my favorite movies is “Network” where people chuck their TVs out their upper-story apartment […]

Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’ll get.  – Forest Gump I got the kayak on the river for the first time this year on that 50 degree day we had on Saturday a few weekends ago. Paddled upstream about a mile and a half. The river was up several feet, but still not over […]

“You never miss the water ‘til the well runs dry.” – Lil Ed and the Blues Imperials Water is one of those things that seems like it’s everywhere. Until it’s not. Then it may be too late. Water belongs to none of us and yet belongs to all of us. If the water dries up, it dries up for all […]

Late last fall, I took a walk in forested bottomlands where the Sangamon River meanders through. Well-established trees grew on top of oddly geometric earthen dikes, now breached in several places, and therefore long past their useful function. A coyote hastily dashed across the makeshift, vague trail out in front of me, long gone before I could click on my […]

When it is seventy-five below zero, a man must not fail in his first attempt to build a fire—that is, if his feet are wet.  Jack London, To Build a Fire Not to be overly critical of classic literature, but I think that a fire’s a pretty nifty idea even if it’s a relatively balmier 10 or 12 below, and […]

He said, “I love you.” And she said, “I’m glad you think so.” Yes, he was very much in love with her. Or at least, he thought he was. It just felt so right. She was a nature girl, always dressed in earth tones and strikingly beautiful in that natural way. They spent almost every weekend afternoon together and during […]