We reached Brussels before sunset, perfect for checking out the Bourse Christmas Market. We’d picked the right lodging in some ways and the worst in others. The hotel was right next to the market and the hub of the city, but it was also somehow very loud at night with clanging and banging and strange […]
The Other Half
For many years Sam has wanted to visit the famous Christmas Markets in Europe. For many years I’ve wanted to at least set foot in the country where just under half my DNA originated (at least after the walk out of Africa where almost everyone’s originated). Dad’s half I connected with in Bavaria in 2016, […]
A weekend 80 years in the making
Maybe a year ago we started floating to immediate family the idea of a surprise visit to Ohio for my father’s 80th birthday. We’d done this for my mom in the Before Times and it was complicated enough then arranging surreptitious transportation all the way to the Shire. After months of random conversations about how […]
The Risks of Rationalizing Caution
Why Write? Many years ago I used to post political musings here. This stopped (well, oops, I guess it happened again with Yellowstone) when I decided: Now that I’ve been “blogging” for over two decades I’ve seen the dangers of free expression (#2 in the above list) sneak up. I’ve regretted things I’ve said and […]
Yellowstone 2023
The Prologue We’d long planned a Long Yellowstone (multiple puns intended, as in the Long family) trip, but as time ebbed on, some Longs had young kids ill suited (yet) for dangerous national parks (some of the acid in those Yellowstone pools will boil and burn your flesh) and other folks (me) became concerned about […]
A Bolt with the Blue or: the Iceberg with no ICE
Like all middle-aged folk, I only half expected flying cars to arrive by now, but I fully expected electric cars to be available by now. In 2016 our household had to purchase new cars (plural because working from home permanently wasn’t a thing yet) and at that time the only all-electric (now called BEV) option […]
Family Visit 2022
I don’t blog much anymore. Partially because of self-induced covid precautions drastically narrowing the field of potential topics and partially because in today’s internet-of-things landscape blogging feels like throwing a stone into an ocean on another planet. The current consumption mode seems to be doomscrolling through three second copy and paste clips on Tiktok while […]
Parents Visit 2022
In the Before Times, a visit from my parents would begin a minor adventure. However, during a despite-what-Swanson-heirs-say ongoing pandemic, one must find enthusiasm for outdoor eats and indoor treats. In April the Biden administration had extended the mask mandate beyond the timeline of the trip, so I had fewer worries about a plane full […]
What a trip
On Saturday we were up earlier than normal in order to make our 10am flight at LAX. This was our first flight since the start of the pandemic and we were nervous about covid and the experience in general. Other than keeping watch on who was and wasn’t wearing their mask properly not much had […]
Thundering Waves
After our disastrous 4 hour drive down to La Jolla two weeks ago we did a little google maps research and discovered that Sundays seemed much better than Saturdays. Everyone is traveling to the beach on Saturday, but Sunday appears reserved for locals. So we set out on Sunday, this time half an hour earlier, […]