Welcome to My Blog
Quotidian Thoughts?
For a while I've been wanting to add a section to my website where I could jot down thoughts every day, or jot down everyday thoughts. I'm not aiming for completeness or length or rhetorical perfection (those I try for in my blog--ok, no comments from the peanut...
An Escaped Herd of Horses
Looking out the plate glass window in front of me, I see in the distance sloping lavender hills dotted with pine trees. The sun is coming out after a brief rain and the sunlight plays with the colors and turns purple to maroon and brown to tan. Closer to me on the...
The Day After Irene on Eleuthera
It's the color of the water on the Caribbean side. The Atlantic side has bounced back a bit, and under blue skies this afternoon it was characteristically turquoise and many shades of delectable blue. Every time I've seen the Caribbean sea today I've tried to figure...
Irene–Thursday Update (nearing the end, I hope)
Our cable went out around 11:30pm last night and we went to bed. We did figure out an alternate method to access the internet, so it was good to have a contingency plan. We then had no BEC power or cable; we still had water and landline phone service. It was blowing...
Irene Update 8-24-2011
I'm posting this here not so much as a writing exercise but because I know people want Irene info and photos. I've written a couple of short entries today and posted them to the Eleuthera message board. I am repeating those posts here plus a little more info, plus...
Preparing for Irene
Most Bahamians here on Eleuthera seem resigned to Irene, the currently Category 2 hurricane that is projected to be Category 3 by the time she hits Eleuthera sometime late Wednesday/early Thursday. Right now analysts project the eye to pass directly over the island at...
A Bahamian Potcake Story
One thing that prevents me from traveling to and enjoying Mexico is the stray dog population. They're skinny, flea-bitten, hollow-eyed pups that dodge cars in the street as they look for scraps to eat. They drink from those whitish rain puddles by the road and wander...
Reflections through a Southern Window
Sitting in a restaurant on a warm summer evening in Atlanta, I idly looked out the window and watched a middle-aged black guy amble by on a bicycle. He had on a white t-shirt and a baseball cap and wasn’t rushing to be anywhere. He didn’t look particularly bothered by...
Will’s View of Eleuthera
After I wrote Eleutheran Magic I did not immediately post it. Instead, I sent it to Freddie and a very few other people including my nephew Will, who just turned 17. What follows is Will's response to me. I find it beautiful and touching and a great commentary on life...
Eleutheran Magic
A while back, maybe last year, I was trying to figure out how to attune myself with the universe in order to be most receptive to its ability to meet my needs. Actually that sounds rather pompous and self-centered, so I should also add that I think such an attunement...
Bahamian Idol
A couple of days before I left to come here to Eleuthera, a friend and I were riding bicycles in Atlanta. We ride bikes together a lot and probably enjoy the conversation as much as the exercise. On occasion we talk about American Idol, the iconic reality show that...
Rational in the Light
Paradise. That's how a friend of mine here in Eleuthera half-jokingly refers to the remote Bahamian island. "So how's living in paradise?", he'll ask. Well I've been here now for five days and I think I'm ready to hesitantly answer that question, as long as no one...
Motorcycling and the Art of Life
Twenty-one years ago I dated a guy, John, who was really into motorcycles. At the time he worked out of his basement selling vintage BMW motorcycle parts and working on customers' bikes. I knew nothing about motorcycles other than my Dad had a little Honda 90 when I...
Trying to reason with cancer
It's difficult to imagine how I would handle cancer in my body. Here in the United States, the medical community advocates a combination of three treatments: burn it (radiation), poison it (chemotherapy), or cut it (surgery). These treatments may or may not be...
Water Magic
A friend hosted a birthday dinner for me last week and I talked with him about the gathering the next day. "It was lovely", "Everyone talked to everyone", "The environment was so relaxing". I credited the weather, which was unusually balmy for mid-March, allowing us...
Why People Buy Houses–And Why They Aren’t Buying Now
Settling in at the lunch table in a crowded downtown Decatur diner, I started to read an article in the AJC about declining 2010 home prices in Atlanta as compared to 2009. The median sales price was down 7% in one year…and 2009 was not a great year itself. As an...
Return to Little San Salvador
A tenuous dawn bathed our little cabin on the cruise ship with a gentle light, and my eyes opened. I hadn't slept well that night, I don't know if it was something I ate for dinner or the excitement of being in the Bahamas again, but regardless I had butterflies in my...
Searching for Caribbean Soul
Lots of really large boats leaving this lovely harbor in St. Maarten, the dutch side of the Caribbean island in the West Indies…they are all cruise ships and the sunset beckons. I am sitting out on our little stateroom balcony, relishing the changing hues of the water...