I haven’t written for the last few days because we have been traveling. Wednesday night, after our Service of Reflection and Remembrance, Ginger and I loaded up a rented van with some furniture, pictures, and household goods we had packed in the barn and began driving to Durham, North Carolina (in New England, you...
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I spent the day in the yard installing the arbor and planting the climbing roses I got Ginger for her birthday. As I sat in the back yard, resting before finishing dinner, I thought of a poem I wrote as we settled into the house on Trinity, preparing for Ginger’s parents to move in with...
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As David Letterman was finishing up his years on late night television, one of his last guests was Tom Waits, who wrote a new song for Dave called “Take One Last Look.” I wept as I listened because Waits captured the mixture of feelings that flow as we move from one chapter of life...
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One of the things I love about my job as a trainer at the computer store is I get to know people. Mine is the one position in the store that sees repeat customers because they have purchased a one-year membership that allows them to come in as often as they can make appointments....
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If you have followed this blog for any length of time, or if you have read Keeping the Feast: Metaphors for the Meal, you know about Thursday Night Dinner. We gather each week with friends around our table for no other reason than to be around the table together. OK, so it also gives...
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I spent a huge chunk of the day working on my book. The time was one of my birthday gifts from Ginger. As I sat writing about home, I realized once again how much I have come to love Durham and the people who make it a wonderful city. Over the past few months...
Read more →My friend John moved to Okinawa for a year. He’s on an academic sabbatical. He is also a master meat smoker. When he left he gave me a whole frozen packer brisket, ready for me to try my hand at smoking it. My friend Roberto, who owns Old Havana Sandwich Shop along with his...
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the scallop shell was still swinging from the side of my backpack as I walked from home to our coffee shop to drop off cookies and write still a pilgrim I suppose this time in my own town broken sidewalks instead of trails sites made sacred by our stacks of stones and stories the...
Read more →Tonight marked the Second Annual Pi(e) Night here at our house. Last year 3.14 fell on a Thursday, so the inaugural event (please remember there is no such thing as a “first annual”) fell on our regular dinner night and we had a blast. Eleven of us gathered this evening — some veterans, some...
Read more →For Valentine’s Day, Ginger gave me a waffle iron. Actually, she gave me a replacement waffle iron. She gave me one several years ago that I wore out making waffles when I worked at the restaurant at Duke and I wanted to put chicken and waffles on the menu. One of our friends suggested...
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