In the wonderful book I read last year THE GREENGAGE SUMMER, the protagonist, a girl named Cecil, the second oldest among 5 children thrown into dire straits, is having a distraught moment. The Mystery Man who has befriended the children for the summer is comforting her. She cries to him, referring to her beautiful older sister, “I’m not beautiful like Joss.” He kisses her and says, “No, you are beautiful like Cecil.”

If you ever find yourself comparing yourself disfavorably to someone, someone real or just some image you have wished you could live up to, you can tell yourself, “I’m not beautiful like her. I’m beautiful like [your name here].”

My first produce of the season!

White mohair, white mums!

Just me hanging out.

No, I thought I’d bring out the Lorraine dolls at give them each a prominent position in rotation.

Tonight’s wanderings. Last week was Salmon Hole. This is Old Red Mill. Both are spots along the Winooski River. Non-winter is just so much bigger and full of surprises.

Saturday night. The world is so much bigger in not-winter…

Not so long ago I asked my brother what he was drinking lately, what he was listening to lately, what he was reading lately. Since then, I’ve taken up dry Riesling, re-read the SILMARILLION, and added some lute music to my nano. I’m still not him.

Electric blanket, Ambien, oatmeal… the holy triumvirate of comfort, that carry me through the best 12 hours of my 24-hour day.

Happiness is also, for the other 12:

Brand spankin’ new Sunday papers.

Books

Meal planning, food shopping, cooking, eating, eating at restaurants

Programming, debugging, when something works, when something doesn’t work and you figure out how to make it better, when something doesn’t work and you’ve discovered something important that saves the US economy

Contrarian viewpoints, philosophy & ethics, deep human history, big picture thinking

2023 – Yellowstone

2024 – Total solar eclipse

Two life-changing experiential years in a row. Though I guess every experience is technically life changing.

If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?

This is a line from a song in SOUTH PACIFIC. It was also something my Aunt Alice used to say, back when I Was Very Young, and she wanted to encourage me to dream big.