My World of Wonders - Wednesday Ws - December 10, 2025

 Where have I been this week? Last Thursday I took the subway into the city for a long walk, including the Folger Shakespeare Library, and National Gallery of Art. Friday was spent installing an art gallery show, then in the evening bowling in the condo community center with our LGBT neighbors. Saturday morning was the monthly community coffee, and Saturday afternoon was the opening reception for the new art show. Sunday I went out to Mt Vernon for a walk in the cold. Tuesday evening we went into Old Town Alexandria to have dinner with an old friend. 

Who have I talked to this week? Wow, lots and lots of friends and neighbors.  

What have I been up to in the kitchen? Last Thursday I made Swiss Steak, Friday I made Pizza, Sunday beef stew and homemade bread. 

What have I been reading? Barbados the Island of the Yellow Bird by Ralfy Mitchell. I need to go to the library soon, very soon. 

Who did I reach out to? The daughter of one of my high school friends, I stumbled across a christmas photo of her from 28 years ago - scanned it an sent it to her.  She has had an eventful year, and sounds like she has found happiness.  

What else did I do? I mailed a dozen Christmas cards, the stack seems to get smaller each year. 

What is on the easel? A self Portrait, it is coming along and looks somewhat like me.  

What made me smile? I was exercising in the pool this afternoon, and there is a great view of the community Gallery from there. Two people walking down the hall, stopped suddenly to examine art on the wall. Mission accomplished if someone noticed. 

Travel Tuesday: Adventures in My Neighborhood

A Clever Sheep at Mt Vernon 

The old Main Drive at Mt Vernon 

Ms. Fox at Mt Vernon 

Aladdin the Camel is spending Christmas at Mt Vernon.  His keeper, replaced all of the doors in my condo shortly after I bought it. 

Stay Away!

Good to see the youngins are playing safe.

A Stream through a nearby park.

Nice Bike Racks at a local park 

Behind the Building, updated steps. 

 

Monday Moods: December 8th - Becoming Less of a Capitalist

I agree with you, I have grown to hate the advertisements on my blog. It has been a noble experiment. When I started them, I had no idea how much revenue they would produce, and Google makes money on our content, so why shouldn't I get a little slice of that? And I have, a tiny-tiny slice, like less than $100 a year. If you have a super popular blog with a thousand or more followers, and 1,000,000 views a month, you can probably earn that much per month, but for me, it has been a tiny amount of money.  

I can remember when $100 was a lot of money.  When I was growing up, mom and dad had envelopes for each of the kids to keep their savings in. Despite being the youngest of the four, I was the first one to accumulate $100.  Once a tightwad, always a tightwad. My ex and I saw the musical South Pacific, and I acquired a new nickname that night, "Stingy Bastard!" 

As much as we all hate the advertising, I have a strange request that will speed up the ads going away. 

Please click on the advertising and look at the offerings.  You don't have to buy anything, but if you do that might speed things up even more. (The adds pays a tiny amount for every ad placed, quite a bit more for a click, and some of the adds pay a bonus for a purchase.) 

Let me explain this strange request.  The account account only pays when it has accumulated to a threshold amount, at the current rate I am a couple of months away from reaching the next payout level. The more adds that are clicked on, the more credits to the account. When I reach the next payout level, I will shut off the adds. I am so close, I don't want to walk away from months and months of accumulating credits, but once it reaches the next payout, I can take that final payment and turn off the adds. 

Another nail in the coffin for my working career.  Letting others earn the profit without going after my tiny share. A little less entrepreneurial spirit of capitalism. 

A great relief for all of us at being able to read my content, unencumbered. 

The Sunday Five: Footwear

1: Describe the shoes you wear most days? 

2: Do you wear shoes in your home? 

3: How often do you replace your shoes? 

4: Do you have "hiking" boots? 

5: Do you have shoes for special occasions? 

My Answers: 

1: Describe the shoes you wear most days? I wear running shoes, mostly Asics Cumulus, almost all of the time. 

2: Do you wear shoes in your home? No, I prefer to be barefoot at home. 

3: How often do you replace your shoes?  I wear running shoes because of the way they support and cushion my feet, they need to be replaced a couple of times a year. 

4: Do you have "hiking" boots? A couple of pairs, including one nearly waterproof pair. 

5: Do you have shoes for special occasions? I have two or three pairs of really nice leather dress shoes that I wear a few times a year, for relatively short times.  

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: 50 States in 52 Weeks - Wisconsin

Wisconsin is on the western shore of Lake Michigan, north of Illinois and south of Minnesota. I have been there only once. It was strange I had been to all of the states around it, and not Wisconsin for a long time. So a few years ago when we were in Chicago for a few days, I scheduled a day-trip. We took the train from Chicago to Milwaukee, had lunch, wandered around the spectacular art museum on the shore of Lake Michigan (image above) and took the train back to Chicago in time for dinner.  We wandered through a great market near the train station and had lunch in a working class local bar. 

Much of the state is farmland and woodlands. It has a rust belt post industrial vibe. The southeast of the state is close enough to Chicago for commuters. Someday I will see the interior of the state. 

We will visit next summer, Cousin Ray, who produces the podcast Life Between the Vines lives about 90 miles north of Chicago O'Hare, in Wisconsin horse country. I have promised him we will visit next summer when we are in Chicago for ABA Meetings. 

A nice place to visit in the summer. A chilly place to visit in the winter.  

 

Fabulous Friday: Music

I enjoy a wide array of music. There is almost always music playing in the background of my life. Classican, jazz, rock from the last half of the last century, a little country and western, folk music, solo piano, harpsichord, or cello. I prefer a singer that I can understand.

I dislike and avoid music that is angry, or vulgar. I also avoid classical Opera, the one's where it sounds like the vocalist is being tortured. Some modern Opera in English and in a register within the spectrum of normal human communication is enjoyable. 

Music adds a rhythm to my life. It can make me laugh. It can bring me to tears. It can quiet the noise in my brain. 

Music is fabulous.  

Thursday Ramble: Three Years Ago

I had to double check the embedded data on the photo to verify the date. It seems hard to believe. Three years ago, we were in Spain.  An overnight flight as I recall from New York, I remember finding an empty middle row in the back section of the plane, putting up the armrests and stretching out and sleeping for a few hours - one of the best transAtlantic flights I have had.  We spent a few nights in Madrid, then about a week in Malaga, then back to Madrid to fly home. 

It seems longer ago than that, but it feels like just yesterday that we took that trip.  My resounding memory of Spain, is that by and large the people were happy. Not in a fake, I get paid to smile way, but in a genuine life is good way.   There seemed to be a focus on living comfortably, making the most of what is at hand, and taking time to just be you. 

The markets were spectacular, and the restaurant food reflected that. Fresh, local, seasonal in a relatively warm and sunny climate results in wonderful food that is savored. 

It is nice traveling to places where you don't have to live with the bureaucracy, or politics.  It is easy to avoid the politics when your language skills peak at ordering lunch. 

My photo archive is approaching 110,000 images. Many of them remind me of places I have been, things I have experienced. Digital memories of a life well lived. 

Where to next? San Antonio, Bermuda, the Azores, Carthenia, Barcelona, Rome, Milan, Vienna, and Paris are on the agenda for 2026. More adventures, that I will look back on in three years and wonder how it can be so long, seems like just yesterday. 

Where were you three years ago?