The Thursday Ramble: The Vastness and Diversity of the World

 Last week we flew a little over half way across the country. Looking out the window, I was reminded how vast the country is, three hours in a 737, only covers about half way across the country.  Looking out the window there was fields of snow, small towns, large cities, expressways, railroads, country roads, forests, fields, pastures and waterways. There is an amazing mix of small towns, villages, settlements, small cities and huge cities. I am always surprised by how much open country there is. Miles and miles of fields, grasslands, and forests.  

Day to day, we see the world as it is, where we are. Our little corner of the world. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that everyplace, is like where we are. Flying over the country, I see the vastness and diversity of the land, of the world.  

It has been about six months, since my last airline flight. Long enough, maybe too long. 

This is not my best Ramble, it is a replacement for a political rant that I just can't bring myself to suffer through. 

My World of Wonders: February 11, 2026

 

Where have I been this week? The Hilton on the Riverwalk in San Antonio Texas. 

What have I been up to in the kitchen? I made small pizzas last Wednesday, then we left town for the rest of the week.  I miss cooking when I travel. 

So what have I eaten away from home? A nice crispy chicken sandwich with German potato salad in the airport in Charlotte, A Mexican sampler platter on the River Walk in San Antonio. An omelet, steak and shrimp, sliders. Scrambled eggs, enchiladas, seared scallops. A breakfast buffet the highlight of which was scrambled eggs with cream cheese, Mexican street corn, and enchiladas Verde. Eggs Benedict, and a wild boar pasta. A meatball parm sandwich with fried in the airport. 

What is in the photo above?  A couple of weeks ago Doc Spo mentioned lapel pins in his blog and showed a box he has filled with them. For decades I have collected pins, hat pins, lapel pins, collectible pins when I travel. At one time they were all on a hat, with the pins the hat was too heavy to wear. I have them five drawers filled with them, in a wood tool chest. And I will keep adding to the collection.

What was the weather like? Cold and windy in DC, sunny and 80's in San Antonio. It was nice, really nice, to have a few days away from the cold. 

Who have I talked to this week? About a dozen aging lawyer colleagues,  Lorraine, Jack, Al, Bob, Karen, Robert. I had lunch with Amy, my former boss. My sweet bear, who went with me on this trip. 

What did we see in San Antonio? The Briscoe Museum of Western Art. In a converted stone library building it is a compact and amazing collection, there will be a couple of Travel Tuesday posts when we get home. The highlight was an exhibit of the best high school art by students in Texas. The talent in that show, reassures me that the future of art is in brilliant hands.

 

Travel Tuesday: A brief stop in Iceland May 2025

 

Monday Mood: Be Kind to be Remembered

There I am, looking every minute of my age, bearded because shaving is too much bother, grey because that is what happens if we live long enough, fat, a bit flabby, far from a model, more of a bad example of an aging man, and I think to myself, "who cares" as the short video from the young and beautiful guy, says, nobody cares.  

Few people will notice, those that do will think what they want to think. They may think, does he know he is fat? Yes I do. Does he know he would look better with a better haircut and beard trim? Yes I do.  But for the most part they will not notice or remember me. I am a person they see in passing. 

If I am kind, if I say please and thank you, if I hold the door, and let the other person go first, helping in ways I can, they may remember that, but probably not me, not what I look like, or who I am or who I was. People remember the kindness, more than the person who was kind. 

A good number of years ago (before I had my spine repaired and rebuilt) I fell in a subway station, a very kind person helped me to my feet, not an easy task, and walked with me to my car that was parked in the garage. I remember the kindness, but not the person. (I send out into the cosmos a very heartfelt THANK YOU to him.) I also remember that the station manager, 50 feet away sitting in a glass cubicle, didn't do anything to help. He hardly looked up, didn't ask if I needed help, didn't offer to call for help. 

Don't worry about what you look like, or sound like. Be kind, people will remember your kindness. 

The Sunday Five: Seeing ourselves

Happy Blogiversary to Doc Spo 

1: Do you see yourself as your age, younger, older? 

2: How do you feel about fashion? 

3: How much time do you spend on your appearance most days? 

4: What would you tell your younger self about appearances? 

5: How do you really feel about tattoos?

My Answers: 

1: Do you see yourself as your age, younger, older? I have a hard to understanding that I am getting older, in my mind I am 30, in my knees I am 95.

2: How do you feel about fashion? The older I get, the less I care. 

3: How much time do you spend on your appearance most days? I don't always bother to run a brush through what is left of my hair. 

4: What would you tell your younger self about appearances? Those that judge you based on your appearance, don't really like you anyway. 

5: How do you really feel about tattoos? I understand the desire to do something taboo, something forbidden, but I have never wanted anything that permanent. Tattoos on the face, or neck, I find unattractive. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

 

The Saturday Morning Post: Be Fearless

A couple of months ago someone asked Ken in France how he became so creative in the kitchen, and he responded that he thought of himself as being more fearless in the kitchen than creative, and he is. He is always willing to try something. He is always looking for new ideas, new inspiration, reading about different ways to make great food. Being fearless, makes him very creative. 

I thought about this, and it applies to creativity in all forms. To create art in any form, we must first be fearless.  Willing to try new ways of doing things. Part of practicing is trying new ways of doing the same thing. In painting, try pure colors, try blending colors, use a brush, use a palette knife, finger paint, use paint that flows. When you see or hear something, be fearless and try it. I watched an interview with James Cameron, who will forever be the mastermind that brought the movie Titanic to the big screen. He said when he is "80 years old, with an oxygen tube in his nose", he wants to be "trying do things that he does not know how to do." That is fearlessness, that is a root of creativity. 

In your art, try creating something this week that you don't know how to do, be fearless. 

Foodie Friday: Roll Ups

While the snow was falling, I had a couple of days at home to play in the kitchen. These were inspired by something I read in a cookbook. 

Buy or make a basic pizza dough. 

Pizza dough is easy enough to make. 

Start with one cup of warm water (105f +/-) a sprinkle of sugar, and a tablespoon of dry active yeast. Mix and set aside for 5 minutes, it will start to smell yeasty and bubble a little. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer stir together two cups of flour (bread flour if you have it on hand) a large pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Stir in the yeast mixture and stir together to form a ball. Knead, by machine for about five minutes on low or medium low, by hand about the same.  Adjust as needed, I added a couple of tablespoons of water. 

Cover and set aside to rise for an hour or two. 

Divide the dough in half, 

Roll out in a rectangle. 

Top with fillings. One of these was tomato sauce, cured Italian ham and shredded mixed Italian cheese (Pizza cheese mix.) The other was softened butter, sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkled with chocolate chips. 

The filling can be whatever you like, what you have handy, or what you want to use up today. 

Roll up, slice into rounds, and bake in a 350-375 (F) oven for 20-30 minutes.  

Store in the refrigerator, reheat in the microwave for 30-45 seconds. 

The Thursday Ramble: Media - Media Everywhere

Growing up in an era and place before cable television, our options were ABC (American Broadcasting Corporation,) CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System,) and NBC (National Broadcasting Corporation.) All of these were air-wave broadcasts, received on a large antenna. All of them had genuine news programs, with real verify the facts journalists.  PBS (Public Broadcasting) came late to the countryside and reception was spotty. I recall the family switching between the NBC and CBS for the evening news. NBC had the funny weatherman. CBS had Walter Cronkite. 

In an era of air wave broadcast, television required a federal license, permission to use a specific radio frequency. The bandwidth licensed was quite wide, limiting the number of licenses available in a given area. This same system is still in place. With improvements in technology the bandwidth is narrower, allowing more licenses hence Fox and others have joined the fray. When the administration threatens the media, the strongest power is the authority to revoke a broadcast license. YouTube does not have a broadcast license. With online access does the broadcast license really mean that much today? 

There are still areas in the country that do not have cable television, and where high speed internet is difficult or expensive to access (The United States and Canada are immense land masses.) The majority of the population in both countries live in area where high speed data is widely available by cable, fiber or phone networks. 

For the majority of us, if NBC, ABC, and CBS left the broadcast world and went to streaming video only, we would hardly notice the difference. I am not sure why they don't just shrug their shoulders, tell the news the way they want to, and say "see you on CBS-Tube, NBC-Tube, and ABC-Tube."  The advertising model is slowly changing to support this move, if the broadcasters all moved - the money would move with them. 

My World of Wonders February 4, 2026 edition

What surprisingly made me smile this week?  We went grocery shopping last Thursday, and unintentionally ended up on Senior Discount Day, an extra 10% off.  It was the first time I had been in the grocery store on Senior Discount Day. I don't know why it made me smile, once a stingy b@st@rd, always one? 

What have I been up to in the kitchen?  Roast Salmon with noodles, slow cooked pulled pork, chicken and tortellini soup with corn bread. Lamb stew.

Where have I been this week? Close to home. We did a grocery store run last Thursday. Beyond that the gym, the pool, a reception at the Grill. 

Who have I talked with this week? Giuseppe, Ruth, Mary, Marcel, Warren, Paul, my sweet bear, and Zack.  

What was on the easel? I finished a 24 by 24 inch color block, and have primed in a deep red an 18 by 24. I have an idea for this, if I can make it work.  

What have I been reading? The extreme cold weather has made this complicated, I ran out of library books, took a couple of days off, then went to the bookcase in the building library. I locked up a history of Emma Lazarus, the wrote the poem that is featured at the Statute of Liberty.  The book had a hidden history, the bookplate shows it was a gift to a young woman, in 1967. It was a history book, that is a history of itself. 

What brought a sense of relief this week? It took over a week, but my Mac rebuilt my photo archive - messed up by a recent operating system upgrade. There are over 101,000 images in the file. 

Where am I headed? San Antonio Texas for an American Bar Association Senior Lawyers Division meeting. 

 

Travel Tuesday: Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to get out of the house for a few hours while some maintenance was being done. I hopped the subway into the city, and spent a couple of hours in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. I was there when the museum first opened for the day, and had an hour or so, before the children descended with the accompanying cacophony of noise. I would pay to have a couple of hours of silence in a couple of the museums. 

 

Monday Moods: Free yourself from Regrets

If you are reading this you woke up still alive this morning. I sincerely hope that you see that as a good thing. Human life is surprising robust and at the same time shockingly fragile. Someday, we will not see the sunrise again.

What can we do today to reduce the regrets when that morning arrives? 

Reach out and tell others you love them. Leave a kind comment on a blog, stop and visit, make a phone call, send a text, send an email, send a "just thinking about you" greeting card.  I regret not reaching out to my grandmother in the last few months of her life. 

Take a moment to savor your meals today. Slow down, smell the coffee, let the chocolate slowly melt in your mouth. You will never regret the enjoyment of even the simplest of meals. 

Step outside, even if only for a couple of minutes and breathe.  Even if cold, or hot, or wet. You will never regret a moment to just breathe. 

Take a moment to forgive. Forgive others, not for them, but to free your mind from the burden of holding onto past transgressions. 

Take a moment to forgive yourself. We all make mistakes, the burden of which is regret. Forgive yourself, say you are sorry, free yourself from the burden of regret. 

The Sunday Five: People!

1: Are you an introvert, or an extrovert by nature? 

2: How do you cope with People? 

3: Is it easier to be alone in a city or the country? 

4: Are you ever intentionally difficult, just because you feel like being difficult? 

5: When was the last time you wondered how someone made it out of the house without assistance? 

My Answers: 

1: Are you an introvert, or an extrovert by nature? I am probably more of an extrovert, but I am also very comfortable spending time alone. 

2: How do you cope with People? As long as they are not trying to hurt me, I ignore them. 

3: Is it easier to be alone in a city or the country? I can be perfectly alone in a city, I don't really like crowds. 

4: Are you ever intentionally difficult, just because you feel like being difficult? Very-very seldom. 

5: When was the last time you wondered how someone made it out of the house without assistance? Everytime I drive my car, I wonder how some these people made it out of their driveway without hitting anything. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

 

The Saturday Morning Post: Take Ten Minutes

Ten minutes, that is all it takes. Find a photo on your phone or computer, go to Chat GPT, or Google, or whatever AI program is running on your phone, your tablet, or your desktop, and ask the AI to create art based on your photo.  The product is not a photograph, it is art created based on a photo with tools that are now readily available.  

Work with it a little bit, the first version of this, added a person just over my right shoulder looking at the viewer.  I didn't like that, so I used the magic eraser function on my phone to take him out - what it did was turn him around facing in the other direction.  

Before we mire ourselves in the debate of "is it art?" We can pause and think of the past. The guys and gals painting on cave walls with the burnt end of stick, very likely raised the same question, when someone tied a tuft of hair on the end of a stick and created the paint brush - is that really cave painting? It is, but it is different, technologies change, the creative process evolves. From oil painting to photography, portraiture changed, but it is still an art. 

I took this ten minute art challenge one evening with a group of friends.  I was surprised by how fast and easy it was. Try it and see if it brings you joy. 

This one is going into a show with the theme of Portraits and Self-Portraits, clearly described as AI created art based on an original photograph. 

Freestyle Friday: Pardon Me, Do you have any Breton Whisky?

A couple of decades ago, we rented a Gite in rural Normandy for a week, and discovered Breton Whisky in the local Carrefour Supermarket.  As I recall, it was inexpensive, something like 15-20 euros a bottle. I am always up for a novelty - so I packed a bottle in my bag for the trip home.  The French generally do things very well, or not at all, and this was no exception. It is very-very good. 

Several times in places that claimed to have an extensive whisky selection I have asked, "do you have any Breton Whisky." The response is almost always a dull stare, only once has the answer been yes. 

It is a single malt, the primary grain is malted barley, very much in the style of what is made in Scotland. Light, flavorful, with a little smoky wood in the background.  The bottle became a treasure, kept in the back of the cabinet.  As the level went down, and I went in search of a restock. Virginia does not offer it - liquor sales in Virginia are run by the state with a large catalog, but few rarities. I found a store in New York city that stocked it. And I have bought a couple of bottles there. The last of those was in the back corner of the cabinet, tasted once in a rare while. 

A couple of years ago we were in Provence, and I looked for it, asked about it, and the answer was "that is from Brittany, not here in the south." An honest answer, but it didn't replace my diminishing supply. 

A YouTube video recently talked about those open bottles, the special one's saved for just the right moment, sitting there oxidizing in the back row. And the YouTube was right, once in the bottle whisky does not get better, and a partially full bottle is slowly oxidizing. Better to enjoy it while it is at it's best. Hence as I write this I am sipping the last of the last bottle from Nestor in New York. 

You can see Washington, DC from the top of the building across the parking lot, and DC has a very liberal liquor sales licensing. As long as the city gets the tax, they don't care how the retailer gets it. (There a several shops that buy and sell unopened rare bottles.) 

A careful Google search revealed a couple of places with it on their websites. The first one listed it and showed it as out of stock- they would special order it and let me know when it came in. The second place, a small shop on P Street near Dupont Circle, showed it in stock. They can't ship to Virginia, but I can pick it up. And I did. They had three varieties, the standard bottling, one aged longer, and one finished in sherry casts. And they had it on the shelf, just below a single malt made in India. Talk about a wide selection of rare and exotics. The aged in sherry casts is wonderful.  

Friday Face Off: 

Nicole at DVArtist, Art, Food, Gardening, regularly features the Friday Face Off, a chance to post a portrait you have been working on. 

Here is my latest. 

The Thursday Ramble: Dumb Luck

AI Generated image from original photo of the Jones Point Lighthouse. The building is one story and the light tower on the top is missing. There are no mountains across the water. 

Two days in a row last week, I solved Wordle in three without resorting to any help or reference works.  Some of that is knowledge, starting with words that contain commonly used letters, knowing what letters are most likely to appear in second or fourth place, knowing what letter combinations are most likely, but most of it is luck. Very bright people that I know, struggled with the same two puzzles. 

At times like this it is easy to react or have people say, "you are on a lucky streak, you should buy lottery tickets this week!" Smile, my rational brain tells me that luck does not run in streaks. The impulse of our random reward brains is to think that because we have received rewards recently, luck is more likely to pay off again. But the reality is that luck is entirely random.  Casinos make their money on people who win a little and keep losing thinking that because they won a little the big jackpot has to be next. The big jackpots are often won on the first spin of the slot machine. Luck is random, and unpredictable. 

The weather forecast across the middle of the United States this past week talked about a large winter storm. Literally the forecasts for our corner of the world ranged from 1 inch to 24 inches of snow. I have been here when we had 24 inches of snow in one week, it takes a while to dig out from. But I have also seen snowmageddon forecast, only to get 2-3 inches. In either case, don't panic.  It is down to the luck of the winds, the drift of the clouds, sooner or later the big snow will hit, sooner or later the snow will entirely miss us. There is no reason to panic. 

My World of Wonders January 28, 2026

Where have I been this week? Aldi for a little shopping, the gym, the pool, the community center for a couple of meetings, and the Dentist. 

Who have I talked with this week?  Jack, Veronica, Shelly, Mary, Giuseppe, Marcel, Zack, Linda, Amy, Warren, my Sweet Bear, and Dr. Z. 

What random thought occurred to me this week? I remember being deeply disappointed as a kid, that comic books were not funny. I expected them to be funny. I only bought one. 

Who did we hear from this week? We received Bob and Kel's holiday letter, mailed before Christmas, most of it arrived in the mail this week, not all of it, but most of it. 

Yes, I know the photo is blurry, the non-blurry one has my actual address on it. 

What change is happening slowly on my blog? The advertising has been turned off, what is appearing now is finishing out contracts that were agreed to before I changed the settings. As those finish the rest of the adds should go away. 

What have I been up to in the kitchen? We had a couple of days of not cooking. Steak and baked potato, bacon and scrambled eggs,  a chicken and rice casserole that was not very good. Beef stew. Pizza rolls - more on those in a couple of weeks, and roast turkey with homemade cornbread dressing. 

Who am I sending healing thoughts to? Larry a neighbor, who has received conflicting test results, and is still in pain. 

Who deserves a slap this week?  One of my credit cards was compromised, the bank denied the charge, sent me a message and is replacing the card. Fraudsters deserve a slap, not a pardon. 

What was the outcome of the storm? We had probably 6 or 7 inches of snow and sleet, frozen precipitation. There is a layer of fluffy snow with a crust of slippery ice on top. The weather is staying well below freezing, with intermittent sunshine. It will take longer than usual to clear or melt because of the temperatures. That is the freezing temperature of water, if it was the freezing temperature of oxygen we would not need to worry about the weather. Fortunately we didn't get freezing rain, an ice storm is probably the worst storm I have ever endured. 

Travel Tuesday: The National Gallery of Art - I Needed That!

A couple of weeks ago, I really needed to be in grand spaces, filled with awe and wonder.

 

Monday Moods: Get Out There

 Get up, Get Out There, and Explore the world around you. 

There are joys and wonders in every corner of this vast world. 

In your neighborhood, or half way around the world, 

See, Hear, Smell, Feel, and Taste the wonders around you. 

This week, try something different, 

Listen to the silence - the birds - the rhythm of the traffic - the sound of a train in the distance. These are the music of the world around us. 

Sing out loud, in a choir, or to the tune in your head, so that others know there are human sounds to be heard. 

Brighten the day of others by your radiance and kindness. 

Bring light into the world by your presence, your words, your action. 

To answer the questions about the weather here: