Category: Uncategorized
-
Crowded with incident
3 February 2025 Here we are, nearing the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, and I am tallying the ups and downs of the past fortnight, beginning with the medical marvel that is the cardiac ablation I had at Mass General in Boston on 21 January: heart surgery as out-patient procedure. Is’t…
-
Reservoir of cheer, “American Primeval,” and a wide receiver
18 January 2025 After a stretch of bitter cold and howling gales, today’s temperature broke 40o and no wind blew. A better night’s sleep than of late primed me for a most enjoyable stroll to and along the Madbury reservoir, tricked out with ice fishermen and rendering a spacious new world version of a winter…
-
Tenth Day of Christmas
4 January 2025 Perhaps I am not alone, Dear Reader, slouching my way into the new year: this holiday season has been a curious mixture of alternating cheer (largely solitary) and anxiety. Leading up to Christmas there were promising developments (the arrival of the Rye Beach Landscaping crew and their marvelous French excavating machine, appearing…
-
Chapel Hill Grad
23 December 2024 A week ago Sunday was a good day, a full moon and the graduation of our other granddaughter, Isabel, from UNC Chapel Hill. Like her sister Olivia part of the Covid Class of ’24, Isabel had weathered a pandemic AND calculus to earn her B.S. in Environmental Science, and Lord knows we…
-
Nutcracker Magic
7 December 2024 Last Saturday it was my great pleasure to accompany my wonderful neighbors Anne and Peter and their 6-year-old son Leo to Boston to see Leo’s first Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky’s confection has loomed large in my personal history, starting with my parents’ providing me a boxed set of 45’s to play on my little…
-
St. Augustine Respite
18-21 November 2024 Seeking an escape from the woes of this soon-to-pass year (my sister’s death, Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and the return of felonious Trump), I had a pre-Thanksgiving reunion with my brother-in-law Richard and nephew Daniel in our nation’s oldest city, St. Augustine, founded in 1565 (Shakespeare was then one year old) by…
-
The Plunge
15 November 2024 The leaves are down here in Madbury NH and we’ve had our first November night of temperatures consistently in the 20’s; though my snowplow guy Dave staked the driveway weeks ago, this is the first morning it seemed plausible I’d awaken to snow. We’re on the threshold—in so many ways. Last Monday…
-
Necessary Distractions, Before and After
8 November 2024 For several weeks leading up to Election Day, I was trying to find reasons to hope—or at least to calm the malaise made physically manifest in vague nausea, weakness, and occasional arrhythmia. I found many temporary reprieves, one in the accommodating generosity of the folks who tended to my lawnmower and others…
-
Taking Stock
7 October 2024 On this the last morning of my 71st year, I asked the phlebotomist drawing blood (completely sans pain; she was really good at her job) whether my 71-year-old blood today would be any better than my 72-year old blood tomorrow. She replied that the 72-year-old blood would be even better, and asked…
Georgeann Murphy 