One of the greatest joys of retirement is spending more time with your adult children and their families. After hanging up the shingle and leaving behind the demands of work life, you are blessed with oodles of time to spend at your discretion, and, if you are fortunate, some extra resources to spend in ways … Continue reading Operation Secret Mouse →

What follows is the shameless use of a blog post to simply record some instructions for the next time I want/need to prepare the King of Christmas dinner: Prime Rib. At least, I have come to associate Prime Rib (PR) with a December holiday meal akin to turkey for Thanksgiving; however, growing up this wasn't the case. My … Continue reading Prime Rib (for printing) … →

Prior to retirement in June 2021, just short of the minimum age at which to collect Social Security, I had piled up a number of inherited and lifestyle related medical issues. Among them, high blood pressure, high levels of cholesterol, and an enlarged prostate accounted for five of the medications in my daily pillbox. None … Continue reading What’s your type? →

Winter weather in the Willamette Valley promotes sobering moments of reflection. Back to back atmospheric rivers crashing over their banks into the Pacific Northwest turn the sky and ground into indistinguishable horizons sealed together with fog and unending drizzle. It's like the weather god died, rolled over and began decomposing. The stagnant air is trapped, … Continue reading Falling into gray … →

I feel like social media has already told me that soup season is back on again, but I don't need the prompt to get my taste buds in the mood for the treat that is home made vegetable soup. I am particularly anticipating the next iteration of this fall favorite because Janet is using filet … Continue reading Vegetable soup … →

In these pages, I have already divulged one of my guilty pleasures: Tik Tok. Well, here is another one of the time sinks that I have fallen into in retirement: watching the House of Representatives on C-SPAN. Ever since the 15-rounds of voting that it took to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House, … Continue reading Proposed resolution … →

I definitely have a morning routine. From letting the dog out, to grabbing the newspaper off the front lawn, to downing my meds with 8 oz. of Clamato, sharpening the #2 pencil in preparation for taking on the daily crossword, brewing a cup of Keurig coffee, microwaving and toasting an English muffin (to be overlaid … Continue reading It can’t be that bad, right? →

I spend a lot of time on my I-Phone. We still subscribe to the anemic local newspaper, but I get most of my news and information from the likes of CNN, NYT, WSJ and the Oregonian. Specialized apps for weather, banking, real estate listings, shopping, music, sports, dining and travel get regular attention. Social media … Continue reading Down the Tik Tok Drain →

Traveling to the rural parts of New Hampshire and Vermont is a good way to hide out from the onslaught of violence and dysfunction in the Middle East and in Congress. Cellular service is largely non-existent in the White and Green mountains and good Internet access is not much better. Back at home, remaining ignorant … Continue reading Wars & Rumors of Speakers →

I just checked a foliage tracker, and our upcoming visit to New England (10/1 to 10/12) should put us in the middle of peak to past-peak colors as we wend our way up from Boston, along the coast of Maine, over to New Hampshire and down through Vermont. New England has been through the weather … Continue reading Fall Foliage →