An eggcellent Easter breakfast

The bunny left brown eggs in our fridge this morning for Easter breakfast. Most eggcellent choice, Hoppy! Really, though, I hear they may have come from the country farm of my friend Steve and his wife Mary. My dear wife Karen may have picked up this dozen when Steve made a delivery at his other…

So shoe me

I made a decision in life that will affect me down to my sole. After a half-century of crossing, pulling, looping, crossing again and pulling tight, I’ve taken the stance that I’ve tied enough shoes in my life. Double knots in the time of need included, I figure that I’ve come to closure with, say,…

Now and then

Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and I passed this pretty little corner of a neighbor’s front yard this April 19 in our morning walk through the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. Nice looking pine backed by a lawn yearning to turn green. Rather unassuming, though, right? But does it look vaguely familiar? The last time…

Now you are the beholder

The symmetry of spring cleanup caught me eye quickly this morning as Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and I started our loop around the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. Across the street from the home I share with my dear wife Karen, four neighbors had placed bags from outdoor spring cleaning at the curb for…

What say you about my depth, breadth and selection?

I had great hopes earlier this week when I clicked the clicks, filled out the blocks, and sent my request to take part in Blogging 201 away to the powers that be at WordPress. It’s coming up on 14 months since I started this blog. Blogging U, you say? OK, I’ll try it. Except they…

When that school newspaper came off the ditto machine, I was hooked

My writing quest goes back to the days of the ditto machine. It was the eighth grade. I loved sports. I tried out for the junior high basketball team. I made it to the final cut before Coach Herb Friedman did not call out my name. We lived in a big school district on Long…

A throwback to what made my father happy

One look at this photo, and memories of what brought my father Frank joy smack me in the back of the head. Yeah, sometimes he’d do that, too, figuratively, with just one of his parental death stares. But not when we were tooling around the village of Stony Brook. Our father was proud of this…

A snowy spring hiccup

That is not the sight I wanted to wake up to on April 16 in Syracuse, N.Y. Not when just a day ago when I took a good, long look at this garden in our city neighborhood of Eastwood front yard, I was noting the yellow flowers of this forsythia that’s the cornerstone of the…

First color in our yard beats the return of snow

It’s been awhile coming this spring. With the winter we’ve had here in our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, it’s seemed like forever. Flower power arrived yesterday. We received the first burst of color. It came from the plant above, the one that we thought was from a tulip bulb that Karen missed when she…

Now that’s a front moving through

When my dear wife Karen and I pulled out of our driveway to drive an hour west to the Waterloo Premium Outlets early this afternoon, the car dashboard thermometer read 80 degrees. We enjoyed the last hour of the spring warmup, strolling the outdoor quad of stores in shirt sleeves. I wore shorts. But while…