Dear Mom and Dad, where ever you are, I know you cannot send letters any more, but trust you know what’s in mine. Maybe you can read blogs? These August 27s keep rolling by, extending the time, though not fading the memories of when you were on this earth. Seventeen, Dad, and seven years, Mom, […]
The do it every year. There are three adjacent houses in Strawberry, Arizona, where Wingfield Way turns into Tonto Rim Drive and the north edge of town folds into the forest. Each Christmas, whomever lives there, sets up a huge display of lights. Of course it’s not novel, it happens everywhere. And it’s not anywhere […]
My calendar reminders were set; it was my memory that somehow put August 27 into tomorrow. My sister’s text message corrected the off by one error. Today marks the same calendar date that my Dad passed away, 16 years ago, and my mom went, ten years later. If you take a mathematical approach (and stop […]
Oh that calendar. After the evening dog walk (where solitude yields thoughts that solve most of the world’s problems, though solutions vanish in passage through the front door) I return maybe to tinker in some code or blog something… and a pop up reminder. Tomorrow is February 8. With arithmetic, on February 8, if Mom […]
Dear Mom and Dad, I knew August 27 was looming. It was not going to not get here. While walking the dog his morning I looked at the ground. And there it was. This blog post is being written on the 26th, scheduled to publish on the 27th, because I will be off camping in […]
Alister MacLean’s Force 10 From Navarone is another old hardback I bought at the Senior Thrift store in Pine, Arizona mainly as decoration for my bookshelf. But like Casino Royale and Sands of the Kalahari I end of enjoying them more off the shelf. Published in 1968, this version’s pages are yellowed; it is stamped […]
Mother’s Day without your Mom leaves a big space to comb through the past. I cannot count myself fortunate enough that on my last visit with her in 2011 (never expecting it to be the last), that I got her to record some audio stories of her past, growing up, her family life, meeting my […]
The thing about remembering my parent’s anniversary on February 5 is knowing 3 days later is the date of Mom’s birthday. The calendar reminder popped up yesterday. Lest you think this is a sad thing, the photo above makes me smile at the fun we would have on her annual Thanksgiving visits to Arizona. From […]
They sure made the anniversary math easy by getting married in 1950. Today. 66 years ago. All I got was a calendar pop-up reminder. And a happy quick mind memory trip, with some rummaging through what feels like too small a set of digital photos. It can be hard to really imagine your parents as […]
I’ve used this suggestion a few times to participants in our UdGAgora Project who are trying to figure out what kinds of things they can have their students do, that also produce some artifact that documents their learning. Few things work better to me than having your students have to explain the concept themselves to […]
