Blue Planet Journey

  Perhaps nothing defines success in America as much as home ownership. When Caroline and I married, our life together started in a 900 square foot rental in northern California. It was located on state-owned property, on a university research station, and the rent was set by a process where an assessor compared rent for similar ranch housing. Our rent? $81.25/month.  Our first home. Painting by Geneva Butler. That allowed us to save for a house we bought about 5 miles north, which we owned for about 18 months before moving to Utah. We lived in our beautiful Utah home for 32 years. But, with kids and grandkids living hundreds of miles away, we decided it was time to live closer to family. The beloved house went up for sale. Over those 32 years, we, well, lived. We used the kitchen and the appliances. Our cats barfed on the carpet.  Our kiddos spilled their popcorn, drinks, and sometimes blood. Dust, and possessions, accumulated. Selling the house meant we needed to consid...

  I don't remember when I saw my first Little Free Library, but I remember it was a head-turner. "What a great idea!" I thought. That first one was in the DuPont Circle area of Washington DC, and Elan was donating some of his books. I love books. I love reading them, seeing them, and holding them. I've spent a fortune on books, and I've given most of them away. I have favorite books that I buy every time I see one at a thrift store or garage sale, and donate them to friends. Once, I collected a couple dozen copies of Ed Abbey's Desert Solitaire , and gave them to a group of Utah Conservation Corps volunteers, since they would be working in Utah's Red Rock country.  When I retired from Utah State University, I donated hundreds of technical books to the USU Library. Hundreds of popular books went to thrift store Deseret Industries. So, free books at the neighborhood level just seemed to good to be true. You know that saying, "If something sounds too goo...

The global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus has been with us for 2 years. We are learning to live with it, and the virus with its various mutations is still teaching. Everyone's life has been affected. We didn't have a vaccine for the first year, then the deadly Delta variant and the uber transmittable Omicron variant entered the scene. We've had the mask wars, the hydroxychloroquine and iver mectin (both antiparasite - not antiviral - medications) debacles, and vaccine fear-mongering. Today's tragic metrics: But life goes on for most of us. We adapt.  In this blog, I've chosen 1 photo from each month (well, not always), beginning in January 2020, to represent my journey through this pandemic. You'll get a sampling of what I've done, what I've learned, and what I believe, in these months. The purpose? The purpose is to demonstrate that, pandemic or not, life continues. We traveled, we volunteered, we visited with our children.             ...