My neighbor Gwen read my previous blog The Solstice Zone, which ended with the teaser to stayed tuned for part two. She wrote me “I look forward to your next post to find out What Actually Happened at the Ocean.” This alarmed me because nothing actually Happened at the Ocean. I thought about 1) making  Read the Rest…

The summer solstice can be a fuddling time, what with the veil between the worlds and all.  It’s really mid-summer, you know, not the beginning. But I don’t need to rock on that horse for this post. Much better to just relate the adventures of the past few days. My birthday is solstice adjacent, which  Read the Rest…

I had a lovely birthday, thank you. I am now 64. There’s no more “when I’m.”  My friend and college roommate, The Very Miss Mary-Ellis Lacey who is actually now a Mrs. Adams, sent me a birthday card just before she and her husband left on a Rhenish cruise. (Yeah, look that one up.) Mary-Ellis  Read the Rest…

It’s my last full day on the island, my least favorite day in the weeks I spend here. It’s the day I clean the Buddha House. That’s part of the deal, leaving it as clean as you found it. In my case, it’s usually cleaner than I found it because I have the standards of  Read the Rest…

I want to tell you what Jesus has done for me. We’ll have to wait a moment until those who know me regain consciousness. Now say “hay-soos” or for the linguists among us: “xe.sus.” I know I am being juvenile about this but I love it that I have a gardener named Jesus. He has  Read the Rest…

The spring usually brings me a surge of energy and this year I am more than grateful. It has been such an awful winter what with the cold and the rain here in Seattle, the darkness of the season, our precarious political situation and probably more than anything, the death of my kittens. After months of  Read the Rest…

I’ve just come through a spate of losing things. At least I hope I’ve come through it because it’s been disorienting. I have always had a sharp memory and bloodhound’s talent for finding things, particularly if those things have sugar in them. The first casualty was a music book. It’s a collection of songs, many  Read the Rest…

On this last day of a moody year, I think it would be a good exercise for me to review all the good things about the spin cycle of the last month, otherwise known as the holiday season. The holidays begin in October when I start the fall quarter of the OK Chorale and All  Read the Rest…

Has a Windows Help Desk notification ever interrupted your computer work and/or game of Solitaire? It descends like the Second Coming with beeps and sirens and flashes. It tells you your identity has been stolen and your bank account is in the process of being emptied. It’s alarming and to one whose mind has been  Read the Rest…

I’ve been feeling a little wassail drunk with music this season. I usually look forward to it and don’t mind the iterations of Hark, the Herald Angel and his pals like Round John Virgin. After all, it’s only for a month out of the year, two and half if you’re a musician. The Chorale started  Read the Rest…