International touristing during a pandemic: Getting There.

  Peter and I went to London for 6 weeks a couple months ago. I wrote short weekly notes home to friends and family. Now we’re home, but the trip remains a happy memory. Here are some of the highlights. The trip itself was full of surprises. Doing the online forms for the Passenger Locater…

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Dreamcatchers and masks

A fully vaccinated friend was over for dinner a week ago. Peter and I, also fully vaccinated, are tentatively stepping back into the pleasures of having (fully vaccinated) friends to dinner, and eating at other friends’ (fully vaccinated) houses too. Indoors!! What a treat! It feels so new to have other people in our house,…

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The Beginning of the End, or?

Or is it the end of the beginning? Maybe it’s just the end of the first phase of our Covid-19 pandemic: the scramble to identify the virus’ strong and weak points, to develop vaccines, to realize it’s a global problem, to stumble as we learn a thing or two about delivery and care, to disentangle…

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Stuck in the mud?

Time flies when you’re having fun, but not, it turns out, during a terrible global pandemic. But it’s not so much that time has been stuck in the mud for the last eleven months; it’s me who’s lost momentum. My wellies got sucked down, my umbrella blew away, and my jacket’s soaked through. I’m the…

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Pieces of New

Below is a draft of  the beginning of a book I’m working on. What’s it about? That’s part of the problem–it’s about too much: traveling, COVID-19, getting old, seeing too many contradictions between happy travels and refugee travels, between our green living world and the firestorms of the future.  But here’s the start. Tell me…

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One COVID-19 (True) Story

July 17, 2020 The port-a-potty stands directly outside our living room window, on the parking strip of our across-the-street neighbors. They are having their house painted, so the port-a-potty is for the house painters, who happen not to be working today. Crossing my living room intent on one errand or another, I look out the…

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Remember Pigpen?

My brother recently sent an email to family showing how the corona virus surrounds us by sending along a picture of the Peanuts’ character Pigpen. An apt analogy, I think, and with the advantage of making the invisible visible. Worth thinking about as we consider re-opening our stores and restaurants and planning large gatherings. What’s…

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