(Deck before. Work in progress. All photos Socotra.) I am down on the farm and the light is just coming up. The first truck and horse trailer did not rumble down the lane-and-a-half blacktop until nearly seven, dawn still minutes away. I contrast that to the morning in Arlington, and the difference is stark. Here […]

(Defending World Champ Cardinals celebrate the end of the Nationals pennant drive. AP Photo Nick Wass.) “The question of how baseball could be so cruel to this city may be answered some day. It existed in horrible form in the nation’s capital for decades, and then it vanished for 33 years. It came back gnarled […]

(Jayson Werth slams it out of National’s Park. Photo AP). Can’t do it this morning. Well, maybe I can, but there is so much I have to ignore that it makes me a little disoriented. Bear with me- I am sure you are inundated as well. I drove my younger boy and a buddy out […]

I suppose it is the passing of the icons in a life that marks the path we all travel, eventually. I have difficulty in thinking that the blazing blue eyes of Paul Newman grew rheumy, and are stilled by the ravages of lung cancer. He will be forever young in my mind, though I know […]

I was over at Mac’s place yesterday to have a chat and catch up for the week. After I signed in at the front desk, Paris the attractive young woman at the desk permitted me access to the elevator and the ride up to the fifteenth floor. Mac had the door propped open to his […]

I not longer claim to understand the technology that is humming around me, any more than I comprehend the apparently baseless depravity of the political process. As you know through weary repetition, I am trying my best to avoid the steady barrage of ads on television and commercial radio. I am sticking with alt-rock on […]

(Jeff Henderson’s Funky Rock Beverage Dispenser. Photo Socotra.) Sorry- I am disoriented by a lot of the circus that masquerades as our democratic process, and Columbus Day isn’t helping me out. Maybe you are too, unless you are retired and every day is Saturday. I am not, at least not until we do the Thelma-and-Louise […]

(The garage waits. There are several projects lurking there, and the photo albums of a family now on both sides of the Great Divide. Yeah, I know. Those gutters are growing little pine trees. Photo Socotra.)   Strangest year of my life, I thought, sitting out on I-66 with a variety of fellow citizens, including […]

(Genghis Khan, born Temujin, was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his demise. He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia).   I have been up long enough this morning to be agitated, but I am not […]

It is the anniversary of Nimitz Day this morning, sixty-eight years since the phalanx of motorcycles escorted Chest Nimitz down Pennsylvania Avenue. The Fleet Admiral is one of the great leaders in American military history, but there are only two things in public service that remain dedicated to his memory. One is the lead ship […]