Tyranny of Schedule
We recently visited relatives Grace and Mason, who live an adventurous life in Big Sky, Montana with their dogs Pippi and Birdie. Pippi is a high energy, small size dog. When Grace and Mason stayed with us in Bend during a…
Beer Sunday
We were in Ossiach, Austria, getting ready to leave for another day of hiking the Alpe Adria Trail. We were staying at the CMA Carinthian Music Academy, housed in an ancient monastery. I forget the particulars, if there was some confusion as…
Taking Risks
One of the phrases I grew weary of hearing during the early days of the pandemic was “Out of an abundance of caution…”. I understand that when exercising judgement, it’s appropriate to consider all the information available, the source and…
An Outward Focus
A friend (two different friends, actually) forwarded an article from the September issue of the Atlantic titled “How America got Mean.” The author, David Brooks says he’s been obsessed with two questions for the last 8 years: Why have Americans become so…
What Are The chances?
I read an article long ago, which I have not been successful in locating again since, that (as I remember it at least) described a few reasons why when we run into people we know, it’s not as statistically improbable…
Small World: 2
We have ‘small world’ experiences all the time, to a degree that seems statistically improbable to our friends, especially for a couple of introverts. Even for us, one weekend in Portland a few years ago was a very concentrated slug of…
The Case for Plan B
[Guest post by John Potter] Photos courtesy of Damsel in Distress. All the reputable wilderness checklists include having a contingency plan, and wilderness training generally includes how to use one (e.g., make one, share it with the group, etc.). Everyone…
Small World
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, also known as Bacon’s Law, is a parlor game that became popular in the 1990s when, in an interview with a magazine, then-prolific actor Kevin Bacon mentioned that he had “worked with everybody in Hollywood or…
Keep Saying Yes
A few years ago in the alley, my buddy Mike, who is a big skier and biker, confided that he had been feeling like he wanted to do some great bicycle adventure. He knew I had ridden across the U.S. in…
Lessons from Derek
Our middle son Derek was born severely disabled in 1987. Seventeen years ago, he died on Mother’s Day in 2007, right before what would have been his 20th birthday. With the recent Mother’s Day, I paused to reflect on the lessons I gained…