First cut of the season puts a hop in the dog’s step

No rain. A tiny break in the schedule. The mower came out of the shed late yesterday afternoon at last. I do believe May 4 is the latest I’ve pushed the cutter around the lawn to start the spring season at our home in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood in the 10 years since…

That Crawfish of Louisiana comfortably opens fest season in Syracuse

Five months worth of available dancing, drinking and eating in downtown Syracuse’s Clinton Square kicked off yesterday afternoon. The spring gray broke for a stretch, my dear wife Karen and I took off our jackets, the good friends were chatty, and my very favorite Syracuse band was on the stage. I enjoyed the Crawfish Festival.…

Business wear suits you perfectly, young Linus

Our friend Judy held up her iPhone this morning to show off the picture of her nephew Linus. The dozen-plus of us at breakfast to talk about our next group cruise collectively put down our silverware. I clapped and exclaimed: “Send that picture to my Facebook page, please, Judy.” Yes, young Linus was really dressed…

A small business can still swing for the fences

A small business conference was my dear wife Karen’s assignment Thursday afternoon for the Syracuse Media Group, the company that was born from the big daily. As I was sharpening comments right here, Karen called. She suggested I drive downtown to the Oncenter and take a walk through the aisles. There were plenty of folks…

Morrisville soccer ruled, and Papa Jobe was royalty

There was a time when soccer was king in Morrisville, N.Y. … A rush of emotions hit me last month when I saw the news that Peter McAvoy, the young man who was captain for the Herikimer County Community College soccer team in upstate New York, collapsed and died. So tragic, so sad, so heart-breaking…

At this huge nursery, it’s easy to welcome spring

Last Saturday my dear wife Karen and I walked the aisles of Chuck Hafner’s Garden Center in North Syracuse for more than an hour, and I was a lot closer to getting bushed than I was to getting bored. Every year we take the drive from our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood to North Syracuse…

Back when I was a cover boy

In my day, the SUNY Morrisville journalism classes were spread through many different campus buildings. Charlton Hall. The Library. Lab-Class. The Little Theatre in the Student Activity Center, even, with those fold-over mini-desks in the very spot where the Friars put on their most excellent drama productions. No wonder I still get hit with that…

Our porch Christmas spruce is in the ground

We knew when we purchased the potted blue spruce in December and proclaimed it our side porch Christmas tree that we wanted to put the baby in the ground after the ornaments were packed away and spring thaw arrived here in our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. Here’s the pre-Christmas post where I shared the…

Don’t scold me because I’m not exactly like you

I consider myself told off. And I’m not too thrilled about it. Earlier this week, I wrote about the bad dinner experience for four of us at The Cheesecake Factory at the Syracuse mega shopping, dining and entertainment complex Destiny USA. It generated a fair amount of commenting here on WordPress and on my Facebook…

Our flowering Robinson crabapple grows up in spring two

Our front yard Robinson flowering crabapple survived its first winter in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. The snow, the cold, the wind, the snow, the snow, the cold … our little beauty is entering its second growing season with us in good health. I see the buds to prove it. Lots of bus, from…