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Just Jot it January 2025 - We did it!
Yay! We did it! We made it through what seems like the longest month in history, January 2025. 🎉 I mean seriously, is it just me? Or was that a looooong month? Despite time traditionally flying when you’re having fun, I did have a wonderful time blogging every day and visiting other blogs whenever I could. I hope you did too! So tell me how you did with the challenge this year. Did you post every…
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Sam and the Sliding Door
Her imperial Majesty, Xenia ( Empress of all she surveyed) viewed the sliding patio door with unalloyed joy. Previously, all expeditions outside commenced at the rear door; now, they started and finished conveniently by the dining room. The small porch offered a convenient perch from which she could view her domain in clement weather. At last, she could enjoy a panoramic view of the birdfeeders…
Tradition!
The “Red Head” was my great-grandfather’s nickname. He was a mariner from a line of mariners and most favored Nicholas as either a first or middle name. Saint Nicholas is the patron of sailors, so it fits with the family’s maritime connections. On my mother’s side of the family, she came from a small island in the Caribbean where seamanship, fishing, and piracy loomed large in the types of…
The Train Show!
I’ll drive to Amherst tomorrow for the big January model railroad show. It takes place at the large exposition center called the Big E. Yes. I have been there before. But this model railroad show is a continually growing and changing phenomenon. If you miss it one or two years running, that third year, it’s an entirely different sort of show.Model railroading is a hobby and an industry where…
January Fun
This time of year, I’ve begun to plan the garden. True, the garden area is an icy, snow-covered waste, but before the snow came in December, I was pacing out possible locations for new raised beds. Getting older has not meant a retreat from gardening, just a strategic redeployment. Creaky knees and an aching back started a change from regular ground beds to thirty-inch-tall beds. The first of…
Not Just A Name
What’s in a name? Lots of concealment, shifting identities, enigmas wrapped in mysteries; you know, the usual stuff – a reluctance to specify who you really are. In the everyday world where people live only one life, you might have a nickname, but most folks know you by a name assigned at birth. Right Roger, Elaine, and Mary? Criminals on TV go by Scar, Hojo, Blackjack, and Boom-Boom. Normal…
Shipshape!
My morning reading includes reviewing a couple of newsletters from coastal communities and one or two on shipping and maritime affairs—pretty standard fare for someone whose professional interests are maritime. Today, I lingered on a shipyard ad. On their website, I found an overhead panoramic view of their operation. Having just a tiny bit of a familiarity with shipyards like theirs. I began…
Being a Good Leader
My first professional job out of grad school helped shape my ideas of leadership. Many are inspired by sterling examples of leadership, while others fumble and do whatever seems to work. Others follow textbook examples like they are gospel. In my case, I made my way by doing the opposite of almost anything my boss said or did. I called him Jolting Joe. He was always restlessly smoking a Camel…
