Outside Festival Foods

Manyu was not out of town for more than a day when I tried to pick up a young woman outside the supermarket. She was standing alongside a grocery cart full of food when I went into the store, and she was still standing there when I came out. After I loaded my own...

Alone Again Annually

Is it better to clean the gutters while Manyu is gone so I am not constantly reminded to be careful, or should I do it while she is home so there is someone to call 911 if I fall off the ladder? It’s a good question, but it’s also a moot one. This year about half of...

A Gathering of Tree Huggers

Thursday and Friday mornings I sit at the welcome desk of our neighborhood nature center. My days of leading groups in the outdoors are over, but I am happy to sit behind a desk for four hours a week and free up the paid staff to do the work that they were hired to...

Street Fishing

Two Sundays ago on a drive home from Winona, I tuned into public radio to catch the last part of Wisconsin Today. I was expecting coverage of the October 18th No Kings protests, but instead got a story about fishing. Not just any fishing, but street fishing. Street...

Geese, Knees, and COVID Shots

In William Kent Krueger’s most recent novel, the first page is about leafless trees, total darkness by 8pm, and the aches and pains of climbing out of bed.* There is no doubt in my mind that the seventy-four year old author wrote these words on a day much like...
Steven Simpson