Long Story Short

Other than teaching and preaching, most of my jobs have been little more than labor exchanged for living expenses.  Here at the EPA things have been better than that.  I love nature and it makes me feel good to be involved in practical activities directed at saving our environment.  It was a wee bit on [...]

I’m slowly coming around.  I don’t miss the west coast so much that I feel like crying when I think about our move anymore.  This Saturday Joy and I will pick up our "new" 17-year-old boat.  She is a 32′ Carver Mariner out of New York.  Joy is itching to get her cleaning supplies aboard [...]

We are in the coldest part of winter.  Any trip to the shore entails subjecting oneself to cold wind penetrating to one’s body’s core.  It is really quite foolish to subject oneself to such weather.  It is also foolish to even consider buying a boat.  Boats are not necessarily that expensive to buy, but to [...]

When my little dog, Moku, decided it was time to go out this morning, sleet had just begun to fall.  By the time I left for work, the snow was piling up (by North Carolina standards).  The main driving lanes on the freeway remained clear and people drove with caution.  When I came to my [...]

As I prepared for work this morning, I thought about something that has brought me great comfort in life.  Every culture has their rituals.  As a free church guy I always heard a lot of grumbling about the "empty rituals" of the high church.  The implication was that we were too spiritual for rituals.  But [...]

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq learned the same lesson older US politicians learned in the last congressional election, the broad use of cell phone videos by the hoi polloi means that if you have your pants down you will be caught (on video).
Praise be to the internet and the people’s video!
There is, however, a dark [...]

My daughter bought me the set of cd’s "Birding by Ear." 
I took a field ornithology class about 30 years ago at the Terra Alta Biological Station of West Virginia University.  A group of students walked (or waded) behind an older, charismatic wildlife professor.  When he heard a song that he was going to teach [...]

No it wasn’t the Sugar Bowl, but West Virginia did manage to come back to beat Georgia Tech in the highest scoring Gator Bowl ever.  To top it off Penn State beat Tennessee and USC trounced Michigan.  I got a nice family picture for my office, spoke to my close friends and family by phone [...]