Congratulations, you have landed on This Is Drivel, my web page & blog. Scroll down to see blog entries, or click “POSTS” above.
I changed the look of it recently but haven’t quite figured out all the bells and whistles yet, so bear with me.
about The Author
Living & work(ed) in Madison, Wisconsin (2005-2025)
After retiring from military service, I began living the civilian life in the Madison area. “Retirement” is a bit of a misnomer here; after becoming civilianized, I had to get a job because a military pension isn’t quite enough to pay the bills. I worked at a bank that folded after the financial crisis, then for state government before I finally called it quits.
US Air Force (1984 – 2005)
I spent half my professional life in the military at far-flung bases all around the world, the point at the tip of the spear defending the freedom of Americans (so they told me).
Posts
-
I finally bought a recumbent bicycle. I’ve wanted one for years but the price always scared me away. Used recumbents cost more than a thousand dollars; new recumbents cost more than two thousand. It was hard enough to make myself spend more than three hundred on a nice Trek bicycle back in 1998. But Monday…
-
Comedian Tom Popa said something like, “The best day I can possibly have is one where I don’t have to recover my password for anything.” I couldn’t agree more. I did not have a best day today. I got a subscription to Apple TV over a year ago to watch the Tom Hanks movie “Greyhound”…
-
Last week, my pile of books to be read (TBR) was down to just two. Today, it’s up to seven. At the top of my pile: Right now I’m powering my way through “Solaris” by Stanislaw Lem. I read this science fiction classic when I was in high school, didn’t understand it at all. The…
-
Four days ago, I was taking photos of flowers popping up from the leaf litter in neighborhood yards. I didn’t believe it was too good to be true, because there it was, right in front of me, but I was keenly aware we would in all likelihood have to suffer through at least one more…
-
I go on walks daily through our neighborhood, usually in a wide circle around our house, or down to the road that runs along the lake shore. Toward the end of winter, I keep an eye peeled for the first sign of spring, the sign that gives me the greatest hope that winter is finally…
-
I was working in an open-plan office: Lots of people milling around lots of desks in a big open room. My boss called me into his office. He said I was going to be reassigned to another department. Didn’t say which department or what I’d be doing, but said my new boss would talk to…
-
There were signs early Monday morning that the weather was going to be extraordinary, but I had no idea until I got out into it how glorious it would turn out to be. Sunny, calm, so pleasantly warm it could have been any day in the middle of summer. I just loafed along the trail…
-
I want to spend the morning sitting on the sofa with a book, nursing a big mug of very black, very strong coffee. It’s the perfect day for it, cold and rainy and windy. Going out to do almost anything today would be no fun at all. I can stay in, I can stretch out…
-
Sometimes I hike a segment of the Ice Age Trail, but I don’t finish it. I leave it half done. I have the best of intentions to return to the segment to finish it off, but then I don’t. Now that I think about it, I’m like this with washing clothes, too. I can wash…
-
Today was a good day to walk a couple nearby segments of the Ice Age Trail. I wanted a segment close to home — an hour away by car or less — because I felt like doing more walking than driving this afternoon. Opening my guidebook, I started flipping through pages of maps in nearby…
This Is Drivel 