Syracuse and snow, together again

We walked up the Syracuse University hill to the Carrier Dome yesterday in the fall. The temperature was in the 40s, the grass was holding onto some green and there was a bit of blue in the sky. We walked down the hill from the Orange’s bitter 17-16 loss to Pittsburgh in the winter. The…

A street busker who makes his city feel at home

A familiar voice pleased my ears the other night. A quick dodge through a couple of book aisles brought me to the sight of Eli Harris, bouncing with his guitar, working the crowd inside the Syracuse University Book Store. I do believe it is the second time over the space of three decades that I’ve…

A thorough look into my annual trip to the eye doctor

I got the A-OK at my annual visit to the eye doctor yesterday morning. It was typically uneventful. That means I walked in straight and fast and departed eye-dropped into submission, groping the side walls to ease my way out the door and onward to my car in the parking lot. That may be exaggerating…

Root, root, root for your own team

I had the chance to watch football Sunday in one of those places that proudly subscribes to the NFL Sunday Ticket. In Jake Hafner’s Restaurant and Tavern in Syracuse, they know how to throw a party for the NFL. Walk in, and the banks of flat screens are labeled with notecards underneath, two helmets per…

Dog and DeMille on a quiet Sunday morning

A gray Sunday morning in Syracuse, N.Y., but Ellie B still longs for a walk. Oh, she’s had her time romping in her fenced-in backyard, but she knows that out that front window awaits the big, real world to sniff. I have other ideas. It’s a great time to get in some pages of “The…

One last mow turns fallen leaves into something smaller

Welcome to Mulch Madness. Most of the leaves around our house in Syracuse, N.Y., are down. Oh, there are some stragglers still up on the most stubborn of trees, but to my eyes, they’re far enough from our lawn proper to remain off our little piece of the earth after they fall. Saturday was indeed…