Since we moved to Brentwood just last 24-Jul (was it just 10 short months ago?!), the following has happened, in no particular chronological order: •My dog has been poisoned and died; •My partner has been viciously attacked by a police dog while standing lawfully in the middle of our living room (eight stitches, by the…
Category: Reciprocal Affection
Disgust
There comes, in pretty much every town I’ve lived in, an extended moment, usually early on, where I truly detest the people in the town. I’m currently in the midst of one of those moments with Brentwood. I’ll get over it. Maybe.
Future Beagles
It’s been just over a week since Bayley left us. My heart still aches, but I’m pretty resigned. Dogs get old. And when they get old, their parts wear out. His kidneys were gone. I wish it weren’t true and that he was lying here on the couch next to me as usual, but he’s…
Farewell, Pookus.
Bayley Murphey Beagle 20-Aug-1994 — 2-Mar-2007 Dear Bayley Murphey, Thank you for being such a wonderful and good dog, a loving companion, for keeping us sane, for loving us unconditionally, for being such an incredibly important part of our lives for 12-and-a-half years. Thank you for putting up with all the picture-taking, ear rubbing, nail…
Life in Brentwood. Yes, Indeedy.
I started a new teaching assignment last week: 60 sixth graders in two classes. They’re an energetic, fun, and talented group and I like them all very much. I’m happy to have the job and finally feel up to being an actual teacher in charge. It’s had its rough moments, of course, behavior-wise; this is…
Contrails in the Moonlight
While soaking my weary joints in the hot tub tonight, there was a beautiful, round full moon directly overhead. As I lay steeping in the 103-degree heat, clouds of steam swirled up into the sky and the last leaves on the tree in the front yard fingered out the light from the streetlamp; it was…
Birthdays: Another Chalked Up
How I felt on my 43rd birthday last week: Credit: «PBF Comics». Fabulous, really twisted stuff there.
Number 236
«Happy» «Beethoven’s Birthday!»
Good News
My sister’s biopsy was benign. Thank god.
Orion, Warrior of the Night
The clear, cold night sky above, a hot tub sending clouds of steam up into it, warrior Orion guarding all below. A late fall night in California. The hot tub is one of about only three places where I get relief these days (the other two being the jacuzzi tub in the bathroom and the…
A Phone Call
My sister may have breast cancer. I don’t know how to respond to her news. This is not supposed to be happening. Surreal. I don’t want to think about it. I don’t like all this getting older.
Hot
Currently in Brentwood:
About the Banner
That photo in the previous banner was of the temperature reading on the Jeep as we entered Brentwood. It was 114 degrees Fahrenheit when we got here …
It's Hell Being Offline
Posting and pictures have been temporarily disrupted because internet service hasn’t started at the new house. I’ll have things to post, especially pictures, hopefully later today as our service provider gets its act together. Things are good, but we’re very tired and sore. We are in Brentwood, the dog has his backyard, the stuff arrived…
Heading West — Day Three
« Photos from Day Three » Rainy Again Written @ 11:42 CST | Thursday 13-Jul-06 | Gothenberg, NE We hit a small spot of rain, but it’s nothing like day one. We’re 36 miles from North Platte, NE, which will be our first stop of the day. Jeepy needs gas and beagle needs walkies. I’ve…
Heading West — Day One
« Photos from Day One » The Very Rough Last Night in A2 Written @ 13:30 EST | Tuesday, 11-Jul-06 | Ann Arbor, MI The beagle gave me a rough night. After the farewell party, I went and gassed up the Jeep and then back to Ann’s to spend the night. I was informed he…
Farewell, Ann Arbor!
This is the last post on ASquared AirBeagle. And my last blog post from Ann Arbor. Beginning Tuesday night, we become BSquared AirBeagle, the BSquared meaning Brentwood Beagle. The beagle and I will leave Ann Arbor Tuesday morning and drive to Davenport, IA, our first stop. On Sunday, the whole family gets reunited when we…
A2 to B2
As you can see from Frank’s post below (and the graffiti on the masthead above), half of us is in California and the other half is still in Michigan. (Or is that 1/3 in California and 2/3 in Michigan, counting the beagle? Better put it that way …) Yes, I wouldn’t have minded, in some…
Goodbye Ann Arbor
I’m in California as of yesterday afternoon ….. goodbye, Michigan! There a lot of friends and colleagues I’ll miss, and also a lot of things about Ann Arbor that I’ll miss. It’s amazing how many people have told me that they’re envious that I was coming back to California. It’s true that Michigan is going…
Moving On
Yep … Steve’s right. After almost 32 months in Michigan, nearly but not quite 3 years, we’re on our way back to the Bay Area, something I have to admit I truly never thought I’d never be saying. (Which points up ever more succinctly the wisdom of that old adage “Never say never.”) It’s been…
Winter, Blah
Not much snow (ergo, not much winter). We’re almost a month into winter, and it’s been mostly rain, fog, overcast skies, and the occasional stretch of sunshine. Last year at about this time Steve was driving us through the heaviest snow of the season to get to the North American International Auto Show at Cobo…
Notes on Caribou Coffee
Caribou Coffee (corporate headquarters in Minneapolis) about a month and a half ago opened a franchise on the corner of Packard and East Stadium, a somewhat curious place for a coffee house except for the fact that it’s a one of the busiest intersections in town and will attract, presumably, plenty of vehicular traffic. The…
Another Ann Arbor Winter
Winter has settled in with a vengeance and the solstice isn’t even until tomorrow (at 1.30pm, to be exact). The storms began well before Thanksgiving and there have been at least three or four of them since then. The temps have been getting steadily chillier and chillier, and the snow on the ground, since it’s…
The First Snow of the Season
Yesterday was the first snow of the season ….. just a few flakes, but there was a definite dusting on the ground this morning, and the temps are unmistakably wintry. I guess Indian summer is officially over.
Mike Cox: Republican Hypocrite
Before I forget, I didn’t fail to notice that the « Fascist Michigan attorney general who is trying to strip faithful Michigan couples of all their health insurance is himself an adulterer »: ‘Attorney General Mike Cox announced Wednesday he had an extramarital affair and accused the state’s most famous attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, of threatening to expose…
27th Most Liberal City in the US
According to a new study released by the « Bay Area Center for Voting Research », Ann Arbor is the 27th most liberal city in the country (Detroit is 1st, San Francisco 9th, Flint 10th, New York 21st).
Birds of Summer
Saw a bird hopping around on the grass on my way to the bus stop Tuesday morning that I couldn’t identify (nothing new there, I still can’t identify most birds) — gray and brown tail feathers in alternating patterns, sort of robin-sized, and sporting a prominent bright red spot on the nape of its neck….
Price of Tea
Recently the price of tea went up from $1.59 to $2.12 at my favorite pitstop, Cafe Ambrosia. Seeing as how the price hadn’t been hiked in 2 years, they were entitled to charge a little more. Nonetheless, there’s a subtle psychological barrier that makes it unappealing to buy a pint glass of tea for over…
Retro Post—24-Aug-03 #3
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] Oh, those heady first days … and now it seems like we’ve been here forever instead of just a year. Ann Arbor: Day Three It’s a puzzling place. The…
Summer Is Icumen In
Signs of approaching summer everywhere. The temperature was up in the high 60s today. Robins aplenty, but a strange and unsettling squirrel hiatus. Humidity rising. Blue sky. Roofers getting ready to lay new roofing in our complex. Guys in shorts, girls in belly shirts, both sexes in those ridiculous Venice Beach flip-flops. Oh, well. In…
Supercomputer Flash Mob
A gigaflop flash mob at the University of San Francisco’s Koret Gym yesterday. My time in 503 has demonstrated that I’m no computer science natural, but I still think this is pretty darn cool.
Cuban Librarians
Last March and April, 79 dissidents in Cuba were rounded up and tried on charges of treason for conspiring with the United States to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Most of the dissidents were sentenced to between 6 and 28 years in prison. In Castro’s own words, “We are now immersed in a battle…
A Michigan Day
What a Michigan day ….. a nice warm sunlit morning and early afternoon (I wiggled my toes in amazement in the doorway, almost astonished to see sunlight bathing the threshold) followed in quick succession by an evening howling with wind and a mild rainstorm. Still, I walked to Kroger in it. I’m a freak, I…
Traffic Nightmare
I get homesick for the Bay Area every now and then, but not on days like this: Officials are continuing their negotiations with a man who has been standing on a railing on the westbound side of the Bay Bridge near Treasure Island since about 11 a.m. today, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Virgil…
GrUncle Again
Found out today I’ll be a great-uncle for the second time. Kid is due sometime around Nov. 22. I need a rocker, cane and front porch.
First Day of Spring
It was a little chilly and blustery, but not bad. The best part was all the bright sunshine, which came after early morning thunderstorms which woke me up around 4:30 a.m. with two big loud thunderclaps. We took the dog to check out Bird Hill Park, which is supposedly the largest in AA, but parking…
Farewell, Artemis the Sweet
The rainy weather here in Ann Arbor is appropriately weepy this morning. It is with a very heavy heart that I have to note the passing of Artemis, the sweetest, most wonderful black lab in the world. Artemis’ dad, Don, called me this morning from Oklahoma City with the news that she left us Friday…
Christmas Day 2003
« Our Life in Michigan – Christmas Day 2003 »
Some Sad News
Just got an extremely sad e-mail from Donpy … Artie-moose isn’t doing well. Sudden tumor growth, bad cancer. Should know on Wednesday whether she’s going to make it. But since she’s approaching 13, it doesn’t look good. I just burst out bawling tonight and am still kinda crying. It’s extremely sad. She was the best…
Your Travel Guide to Baghdad-By-The-Bay (2002)
‘I sat in the Delhi airport and watched the big electric clock in the departure hall that tells passengers when to board. I thought I imagined that time was moving in fits and starts: 1:12 a.m. for fifteen minutes, then 1:27 for another twenty, 1:47 … Closer inspection revealed that the clock was not plugged…
A Eulogy for Brooksie Belle Ketchum Booth, My Grandmother (2001)
I wrote the following passages in two separate sections over two separate days. Part I – 2:00 a.m. San Francisco Time, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2001 The call I was dreading came just ten minutes ago – an unhappy, middle-of-the-night call – word from my exhausted and grief-stricken mother that her mother’s long battle was over…
A Memory of My Grandfather (2001)
I am inordinately proud of all my grandparents, proud of their heritage and what they did and gave to us. All of them worked extremely hard under difficult circumstances to bring, in their own way, the basics of life, love and happiness to their families. We enjoy the blessed lives we have in no small…