Yesterday, two days after Valentine's Day, I walked when the weather had warmed. The usual - past the site of the future Magpie Cafe - and lo, the birds had begun nesting behavior - repairing winter damage, preening and posing, chatting, and yes - kissing. Call me crazy for asking, but how do they know? The … Continue reading The Magpie Cafe, part II
Tag: drinking
The Magpie Cafe
The Magpie Cafe is a dream. Ever since I began working in the restaurant industry some fifty years ago - I've imagined having a cafe that integrated where I lived with that which I love. Mostly, of all things - I love people and conversation, good food and spirits, music, wood and wild country. So … Continue reading The Magpie Cafe
My Year-end Inventory
My Year-end Inventory is something I've been doing ever since I began journaling daily twenty years ago, in 1999. My journal began with a Christmas present from my father: Morning Pages Journal. I'll tell ya - neither he nor I had any idea the wildfire that simple gift would ignite. Twenty years ago today A … Continue reading My Year-end Inventory
Merry Christmas! Ho, ho, ho
Merry Christmas! Ho, ho, ho. Or maybe that ought to be - merry impeachment. Ho, ho, ho ... Pictured below is my first Christmas tree in my first home as a young man. I was barely twenty-seven and on my second marriage. We lived in a small cabin, in Conifer, Colorado, on a quarter acre … Continue reading Merry Christmas! Ho, ho, ho
Christmas comforts me
"It's coming on Christmas, They're cuttin' down trees, They're putting up reindeer, And singing songs of joy and peace", are lyrics from 1971, Joni Mitchell's famous song "River". It's the third track on the second side of her even more famous album Blue. The picture above shows my record, an original and constant companion, as well … Continue reading Christmas comforts me
Music: my love affair with
As I write this I'm listening to a playlist, "Top songs of 2019", complied by the streaming music service Spotify, emailed to me with the hook "Here's your year in music" and I couldn't resist. It said I listened to 726 songs. I'm also drinking, not down at the bar, but at my desk. Because … Continue reading Music: my love affair with
Simulation, Souls, or Skinner box
Lately I've been thinking about the disturbing, yet also comforting, world we live in. It's dangerous and hostile and unforgiving. The idea that we are nothing but a product of an amoral, evolutionary process - an accident - is too disturbing. Most people believe we are either sinner and saints (souls) or simulations. I disagree. … Continue reading Simulation, Souls, or Skinner box
Independent thinking, part III
"You don't get to choose not to pay a price, you only get to choose which price you pay" -- Jordan B. Peterson I disagree with Dr. Peterson. Peterson is now a famous, contemporary clinical Psychologist who became an internet/Youtube sensation for speaking out against political correctness and the collapse of truth. Because of that, … Continue reading Independent thinking, part III
Thinking of drinking, part II
My History Briefly, some personal history with regard to me and my relationship with drinking. It wasn't my idea, my parents were only social drinkers, not even everyday drinkers - it was my next-door neighbor and friend's idea (shout out to Joey D). It was right about the time of President Kennedy's assassination, 1963, and … Continue reading Thinking of drinking, part II
Thinking of drinking
And but so - I have to admit I'm drinking now as I write, but - there is a history, a long story, of which I'm going to shorten in the interest of attention. My first published piece The first piece I wrote that was published (it might not have been the first?) was in … Continue reading Thinking of drinking