Siftings
Feb
23
Solo
Sophistication is overrated. You can have your luxury car. Jeeps rule. You can savor your artisanal coffee. I’m good with water. Save your complicated schemes for someone else. I’m fine with a few simple rules. One of which is to never walk past a neighborhood lemonade stand, Cub...
Feb
16
Taking Cuts
Goodbye ping, hello zing. Leaving the Seaside Spartans in the batting cages as the sun sets over the bay, I arrive at the Sustainable Seaside meeting at the Oldemeyer Center without changing out of my coaching garb. I take a seat in the back as about thirty-five people, including two Seaside...
Feb
14
Uncorrected
Live long enough, bear the scars. Hiking in Big Sur, I come across a stand of burned redwoods. An idyllic stream is burbling past the stand this morning, but I’m guessing it was dry as the fire flashed by years ago. I stop, look up, and see the trees are ok, still green on top and inching...
Feb
07
Tagged
The short answer is no. The landlord asks if I saw this morning’s paper. He says he’ll get it for me, before I can get to the long answer. The long answer is I haven’t touched a newspaper since January 9. Nothing special about January 9, except that’s when I set out from Davenport. The Quad...
Feb
03
Down The Middle
“A little less shoulder, a little more hips.” I’m throwing batting practice in early February. Nothing new bout that, except we’re outside. The Seaside Spartans have started official practices and I’m assisting Coach Beza.
The batter is powerfully built, but he’s swinging completely with...
Feb
01
Grip
The handholds get less convenient as you go. That always seems the way on a rock wall. There’s plenty on the bottom, and that tricks you into starting up. There’s enough in the middle, so you keep going. You may have to move laterally, but a path can usually be found. But there’s little to...
Jan
29
Craig’s Friday Countdown (bonus edition) Rejects
The Monday(ish) Report sails onward, replaced by the "Manifest". The office brainstorming of what to name a weekly compilation of info bits had some peaks and valleys. A dozen rejected names for the effort follow:
12. Seaside Update – Too conventional and backward looking.
11. Craig’s...
Jan
29
Craig’s Friday Countdown Office Books
Not saying these are my favorite books. That’s easy to prove because P.D. Eastman’s canine day in the life masterwork isn’t number one. Am I the only one always surprised about where the dogs end up while reading Go Dog Go?
Am saying the lack of a television affords sufficient evening hours...
Jan
26
Little Dog / Big Dog
There are days when you wrestle words together into something resembling a sentence and a tinge of satisfaction results.
More to follow on Friday, but there also are days / nights when you come across a sentence ... sometimes a paragraph ... a couple times in a lifetime an entire book ... and...
Jan
25
Mailbag
An unopened letter falls out of one of the books. I’m unpacking books from boxes onto my office shelves and, suddenly, it’s April 21, 1984. Charles H. Russell wants his money. Not his money, really, but the student loan money he is demanding on behalf of the bank. Mr. Russell is (was) the...
