A Dog’s Life

by | Sep 9, 2010 | 0 comments

Buddy came to Lyday Farms as the property of an itinerant worker as we were just beginning to build the place.  The worker didn’t last long, but Buddy may outlast us all.  As you can see from the portrait above, Buddy is not exactly a work of art, and if he was of a breed, he would not be an outstanding representative.  Actually, all one can say about Buddy’s appearance is that he looks like a mongrel, which he is, and that he has about the ugliest ears ever seen on any dog of any breeding. Evidently his putative owner thought he was more of a Boxer than anything else and felt that clipped ears were de rigueur and got after them with his mama’s pinking...

It’s a Road Trip

by | Aug 26, 2010 | 0 comments

The Great American Road Trip.  Some do it out of necessity.  Some do it for fun.  We did it because, well, I think…..to tell the truth, I don’t really know why we did it. We had to get to Santa Fe to visit our dear friends, enjoy the cooler air and to eat and drink for free.  Plus I’d had an itch for some time to visit Larry McMurtry’s eclectic group of used book stores in Archer City, Texas, and it was kind of (not really) on the way, so the car/road trip thing seemed to fit.  That was before I got out the AAA and plotted out the route and mileage.   I ignored the reality of a long trip through uninteresting topography and went with the fantasy of a...

Darwin’s Galapagos

by | Aug 7, 2010 | 0 comments

S. and I announced our intention to take a trip with each of our eight grandchildren without considering the considerable consequences.  Chief among these consequences is the curious choice of places on this planet that would be suitable for a multi-generational ten day outing and selected to visit.  It’s now lost in the mists of my declining memory whether our darling granddaughter Annabel suggested the Galapagos Islands or if I suggested that she might want to suggest the Galapagos.  In any case, in April of 2010 we found ourselves breathing the lofty airs of Quito, Ecuador and frolicking in the not so warm waters of the Humboldt Current surrounding the...

Goooooooal!!!!!

by | Jul 17, 2010 | 0 comments

Only just now has enough time passed that I can post this long awaited piece on the World Cup 2010.  Well, it’s really not exactly about the World Cup, it’s more about soccer (football) in general.  How, you might ask, do I know that enough time has passed?  Easy….I no longer can remember who won.  Actually I did remember that the Netherlands was in the final match, but I couldn’t remember their opponent.  You, of course, remember that it was Spain who won by the typical score of one to nothing or one nil if you prefer the British articulation.  And that’s part of the story. There are dramatically opposing positions on the relevance of an activity that...

The Last Words

by | Jul 12, 2010 | 0 comments

Those of you who know me well know that in the last several years I have developed what might be called a morbid interest in obituaries. Get it….morbid…..obituaries.  Sure you did.  But I have, and I’ve come by this interest honestly not morbidly.  Let me tell you why. Some time ago I was researching a piece that about military veterans of WWII.  This research uncovered the fact that soon the last veteran will have died.  As a result of that disconcerting bit of news, I started to look for obituaries of these veterans in the Dallas Morning News and the New York Times….the only two daily news publications that I can bear to read on a regular...