Category Archives: Uncategorized

Late this evening, having come home from a slew of reading groups, I sat down to my computer to check my email.  Not thinking, I clicked on the file sent by an old friend to what seemed to be all … Continue reading →

A new addition to our garden produce this year has been a crop of sweet potatoes.  What I did not realize was that sweet potatoes are generally most successful in hot places.  After they are harvested they are supposed to … Continue reading →

The last couple of weeks have been weird.  We’ve both had plenty of work to keep us busy, but for several days in a row last week we seemed incapable of getting anything done.  My more-frequent-than-usual lapses into a late-evening … Continue reading →

Today we made a quick trip to Canada.  Sydney’s been having some trouble renewing his Canadian passport, and, what with his trip to England fast approaching, he’s felt a bit more pressure to make sure it gets done, and done … Continue reading →

Speaking of watermelon . . . Sydney snorted when I brought home a watermelon a couple of years ago and prepared to cut it open in the kitchen.  Watermelon, it seems, are best eaten outside, when sitting on the benches … Continue reading →

We ate our last watermelon today. In happier news, we dug up some sweet potatoes today. They were gigantic. Quite a few of them were over 2 lbs. apiece. One was a good foot long. So it appears that one … Continue reading →

In the 1920’s and 1930’s, three hundred dollars would buy you a really good mule.  The men in Faulkner’s stories are always swapping mules for a figure around $300.  I have gotten the impression that these men are much more … Continue reading →

When I was a kid I used to pepper my mom with questions about words I read.  For a long time she produced, incredibly, definitions as if she were a walking dictionary.  At some point my mom gracefully handled the … Continue reading →

Those of you who knew me growing up know that I come from a meat-and-potatoes family.  My dad, the one who got off work early, picked us up from school and almost immediately threw steaks or chicken on the grill … Continue reading →

This morning I went to campus early and by myself, working in the building where I would teach a few hours later.  It was so nice to have a quiet, lovely environment in which to work.  As you might guess, … Continue reading →