Recent Entries

• A tale of two balconies, separated by a lifetime of living and memories

  October 29, 2024

  I never had a house that was my own. For almost my whole life I have rented apartments and have been quite content with that. Although I am a porch person by sentiment and nature, I only once lived in a house that had a porch and that was for ten years at my mother’s…

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• A creek that nurtured my soul and lifted my spirits during bad times

  October 18, 2024

  When I lived in southern Mississippi, there was a lot of turmoil in my brief time as an instructor at the university there, and I had to tough it out for a year. It was the most toxic and miserable work environment I have ever found myself in. But there was no getting out of…

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• Determination and the rugged spirit of starting over after Helene, but can life ever return to normal in the mountains of North Carolina and elsewhere?

  October 16, 2024

  I’ve watched a lot of videos of the destruction all over the mountains of NC, but this is down-to-earth one of the best.  This guy and his neighbors  have a strong spirit, but I simply don’t know how they’re going to build back.  Most don’t have flood insurance. Even two weeks later it’s difficul...

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• From Chubby Checker to “Maggie May”

  October 11, 2024

  (Author’s note: I am confidently composing this,  knowing only too well that no one under 40 reads these essays, and so most  of you will know what I am talking about and not consider me too ancient.) When I was in grade school we had these odd disks called 45 rpm vinyl records. (Instant recognit...

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• Milton Is the hurricane that scientists were dreading; it comes on the heels of Helene whose flooding devastated the mountainous areas of five states

  October 9, 2024

  Unless you live up in the AppalachiansMountains and foothills of five states devastated by wind and flooding from Hurricane Helene, it is almost impossible to grasp how many lives were lost, how many homes were washed away, bridges destroyed, and livelihoods lost — all covering a vast area. And n...

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• Where have childhood, youth and innocence gone? Young vloggers tackle the meaning of life

  October 4, 2024

  Is this the Pinnacle of life. No seriously. I mean look, what is your highest ambition? Is it this? No, no it’s not. You know this. It might be the highest ambition of your chemical mind, your brain your body. It’s the desires of the flesh. It’s the entertainment. It’s the pleasure. It’s the dopa...

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• A weekly ritual that saves me from the abyss of loneliness

  September 26, 2024

  Sunday is my one social outing of the week. Religiously, I head out to visit my brother and his lady friend at the beach. I’ve been doing this for three years. He is a great cook and prepares excellent meals, sometimes favorite New Orleans dishes we both enjoyed when we were growing up, such as&h...

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• The Voyage of Life

  September 17, 2024

  My life is based on a true story. Author not known Seven years into retirement, I find myself looking back on the past more and more often, thinking of my past friends, jobs and careers with increasing emotion, even pathos. I even on occasion admire people I know who are still working in their 70...

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• Memory Vault, Part 2: A lifetime of memories and artifacts can be found in a cardboard storage box

  September 9, 2024

    Part 1 https://www.opendiary.com/m/oswego/memory-vaults-what-to-do-with-the-minutia-of-our-lives-6283945/ “The Sum of Trifles,” Title of a book By Julia Ridley Smith Here in Part 2 I continue my inventory and annotation of the contents of a selected storage box, one among many personal mem...

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