I had to get a new battery for my watch the other day. This required a trip to our preferred local jeweler, who performs this task for a reasonable price while I wait. I value such service these days of self-checking and automated voice prompts.
My Victorinox Swiss Army analog watch is nothing fancy. It tells me the time on a round face, no digital partner, and the calendar date. The date, just the number, is accurate as long as I remember to adjust it in 30-day months and in February. That’s it. There are no additional dials or features. My watch doesn’t tell me how many calories I have...
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We recently watched a television show where one of the characters mentioned “Occam’s Razor.” I opined to my Beautiful Mystery Companion and daughter Abbie that I was a strong believer in this philosophic principle — and somewhat surprised that it was being mentioned in a television show. That led to a brief discussion of its principles, which can be boiled down to this: The simplest explanation of an event or a phenomenon is usually the best and most accurate. In other words, an explanation that requires the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct.
Occam’s Razor is named after...
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Many people may rightly say, “I had nothing to do with how this all started. I have nothing to do with the sins of the past. My ancestors never attacked Indigenous people, never owned slaves.”
And, yes. Not one of us was here when this house was built. Our immediate ancestors may have had nothing to do with it, but here we are, the current occupants of a property with stress cracks and bowed walls and fissures built into the foundation. We are the heirs to whatever is right or wrong with it. We did not erect the uneven pillars or joists, but they are ours to deal with now.
― Isabel Wilkerson,...
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Cold, wet weather dominated much of January, slowing down progress here at Three Geese Farm on a number of projects. Still, we managed to make some headway. As always, there is no dearth of items to tackle, even as the trees lay bare and the grass brown.
Through a long-term loan, we acquired a 20-year-old side-by-side, aka UTV, that I am attempting to resurrect. I managed to pull it inside the shop with the tractor – a tricky endeavor I managed to complete unassisted without crashing into anything, slowly towing it with a canvas strap. Since this Kawasaki Mule has been sitting outside for more...
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It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.
– Alice in Wonderland
I spent Inauguration Day assiduously avoiding the news. It was a holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, but I am off work on Monday anyway. Save for one errand in town to have a windshield replaced that had cracked for no discernible reason, I spent that chilly winter day hunkered down in front of the iMac, getting back to work on a book project too-long delayed.
About that windshield: There was no rock chip evident, just a long snaking crack starting where the sticker is at the lower...
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“I am simply a ‘book drunkard.”
― Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables
I share that sentiment with Ms. Montgomery, the Canadian author of Anne of Green Gables, a hugely popular children’s novel adapted for stage, screen, and television since its publication in 1908. Several years ago, my Beautiful Mystery Companion gave me a wooden tchotchke with that quotation on it, which now sits on, well, a bookshelf.
With the passing of the holiday season, and another stack of books arriving as gifts from my family, who understand and share this addiction, I am taking...
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On New Year’s Eve in 1999 – 25 years ago – I sat in the publisher’s office at the Daily Sentinel in Nacogdoches as the clock approached midnight. Across the Angelina River, my counterpart at the Lufkin Daily News was doing the same. A buddy who was the local manager for Southwestern Bell sat in his office as well, as did the fellow who represented the gas company. All of us were waiting for the clock to strike 12 to see if the “Millennium Bug,” also known as the Y2K phenomenon, would wreak havoc on our computer systems.
All of us remained stone-cold sober as we sat in our offices,...
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It’s been a big year. I hope the next one can be smaller.
— Amanda Anne Platt & the Honeycutters
|———|
Another year. Jeez.
I am writing this as the penultimate day of 2024 turns into New Year’s Eve. I admit having only a vague idea what “penultimate” meant until I heard it used on an NPR story I listened to while walking just after Christmas. I Googled it on my phone while hoofing it. I didn’t have to, but you know. It’s what curious minds do in this magical age of instant access to information. For some, that means only the “facts” they want to hear. For me and others...
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Suddenly, it is Christmas.
It is going to be a wet Yule week. The rain is welcomed after a particularly dry (and ridiculously warm) autumn. During this three-week break from working in the LeTourneau library, I shuttle here at Three Geese Farm between working in the shop on my latest woodworking project, a large Craftsman-style ottoman, to wielding a chainsaw out along Glade Creek, which runs through our property.
The ottoman will replace a fake-leather one that the cats over the years have largely destroyed. We keep it covered with a quilt. Pet owners know the routine: Buy nice furniture...
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And the sky is a hazy shade of winter.
— Simon and Garfunkel
The shortest day and the longest night approach as the winter solstice arrives Saturday. It is what Noah Kahan, a young energetic singer/songwriter from my beloved New England, calls “the season of the sticks.” That’s a Vermont name for the time before official winter. It comes just after all the foliage has fallen, leaving the bare limbs hanging in the air like abstract sculptures created by amateur art students.
Here in East Texas, stick season arrived just a few days ago. Leaves skitter along the driveway, fill the backyard....
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