TAOS, NEW MEXICO — The Taos Farmer’s Market is held every Saturday from May through November in the parking lot of the handsome adobe courthouse. In previous years when we attended, it was held on the historic plaza, but apparently vendors ran out of space. The Farmer’s Market is a popular event in this small town, which holds great attraction to many visitors, including us. It has become one of our favorite places to visit in the summer — at 6,969 feet above sea level, summer temperatures are usually 15 degrees cooler than East Texas. A light hoodie is pleasantly required in the morning,...
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Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance.
— Paul Simon
ABOARD THE DURANGO-SILVERTON NARROW GAUGE RAILROAD — In 1881, this railroad began operating between Durango and Silverton, Colorado — two towns willed into existence by railroad magnates to transport tourists, gold and silver. The gold and silver played out long ago, but the tourist trade remains healthy. My Beautiful Mystery Companion and I are attempting to escape the Texas heat with a road trip out west, eventually landing in Pagosa Springs, an hour west of Durango. We bought a pair of tickets on the steam train...
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We have a new family member. Bob doesn’t require feeding or being taken outside to do his business. He hums and squeaks but does not bark or meow. He does require regular maintenance in order to efficiently operate. Other than that, Bob is trouble-free, content to spend his downtime beneath the spare couch in the front room, safely docked in his station. Bob is a robotic floor cleaner, a Father’s Day gift from daughter Abbie.
I would never have purchased a robotic floor cleaner on my own but am grateful that Bob has joined the household. He got his name because “Bob” is in the brand...
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The remnants of Tropical Storm Beryl came through the Pine Curtain on July 8, after hours earlier leaving a half-million folks without power in the Houston area. We were far more fortunate than Bayou City residents, where more than 100,000 are still without power a week later. But the six-plus inches of rain that pummeled Three Geese Farm certainly had consequences, though nowhere near as dire. Our experience drove home the perils of hobby farming. It also reinforced my gratitude that we are not actually trying to make a living at this endeavor. So please read this in the spirit intended — not to complain...
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PHILADELPHIA — Besides touring the famed historical spots in the birthplace of America, several other interesting venues landed on our mostly unplanned itinerary, which might be of interest to readers considering a trip to Philly — a friendly, easy-to-get-around city that vies for the top of our list of American cities to visit. Here are some suggestions after our trip there. I heard from several Facebook friends responding to a call for advice before we headed north. So I am returning the favor based on our limited time in the City of Brotherly Love.
First off, you should consider buying...
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PHILADELPHIA — This is our first trip to the birthplace of America, a fitting place to visit just before Independence Day. The weather is just slightly cooler than Behind the Pine Curtain, just enough to make it tolerable to walk these historic streets. My Beautiful Mystery Companion and I booked a hotel across the street from Independence Hall, where both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were crafted, debated and ultimately adopted by the Founding Fathers — a term that is a bit cringeworthy but accurate. White men ran the show in 1776.
So let us praise Betsy Ross,...
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PHILADELPHIA — It is 2 a.m. on a Wednesday morning. I am sitting in a hotel bathroom typing away because insomnia has again rudely reared its annoying head on our first night of a short trip to this historic city. I am trying not to wake my Beautiful Mystery Companion. The bathroom is the only place to not do so, without heading down to the lobby. The clatter of the hotel room door opening and closing into the hallway would no doubt wake her. Best to hide in the bathroom, laptop on the sink counter, the room’s only chair rolled inside. I keep banging my knees against the shelf beneath the sink,...
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“I’m 95 [expletive] years old with one foot in the grave and I can barely move. I know I’m in overtime. So everything in your life becomes more meaningful.
And one of the last things I want to be able to see is for the Celtics to hang up banner No. 18.”
— Bob Cousy, Boston Celtics, 1950-1963
Bob Cousy got his wish.
Cousy is generally considered the greatest point guard of his era. He played on six NBA championship teams when I was a young child growing up in New Hampshire, listening to gravelly voiced announcer Johnny Most call the games on AM radio. I was 8 when the “Houdini...
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More (mis)adventures in hobby farming, here at Three Geese Farm, where recent torrential rains threatened to send Glade and Witcher creeks out of banks and left a chunk of our land temporarily submerged.
I fear the imminent official arrival of summer mirrors last year, when the deluges of late spring promptly stopped as a heat dome covered the state and rudely refused to leave. Not that there is much to be done, other than endure it and plot escape routes to cooler climes. The grass grows ridiculously quickly as I watch helplessly, since the zero-turn mower is still in the shop, awaiting replacement...
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“If, for example, we consider books as medicine, we understand that it is good to have many at home rather than a few: when you want to feel better, then you go to the ‘medicine closet’ and choose a book. Not a random one, but the right book for that moment. That's why you should always have a nutrition choice!”
— Umberto Eco
My medicine/book closet, as Italian historian and philosopher Umberto Eco charmingly called it, is mighty close to full. The only solution, of course, is to build more bookshelves — more space for additional medicine to cure what ails me. Or at least to help...
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