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

  • IAT Hemlock Creek Segment 5/22/2026

    Just one week after volunteering to help build new trail for the Ice Age Trail Alliance in the Blue Hills of Wisconsin, just northeast of Rice Lake, I went back up nort dere this weekend to check out the seasonal opening of the Wisconsin Canoe Heritage Museum in Spooner, Wisconsin. I learned about the museum…

  • wild goose chase

    wild goose chase

    I set out on a hike this morning and I got one, but not the hike I thought I would get. My plan was to hike a ten-mile stretch of the Milwaukee River Segment of the Ice Age Trail near Kewaskum. To walk that far, I planned to drop my bike off at the southern…

  • Blue Hills trail building 5/13/26 – 5/17/26

    I spent five days last week in the Blue Hills of northern Wisconsin, helping a gaggle of about 90 volunteers build new trail for the Ice Age Trail Alliance so they can re-route the IAT through a more scenic part of the county. It’s a beautiful part of the state that I don’t visit often…

  • TBR 05-07-2026

    TBR 05-07-2026

    “Platform Decay” is the latest installment of a series of books from Martha Wells nicknamed “The Murderbot Diaries.” I read it in two days and enjoyed it, but then I enjoyed all the books in the series, although I enjoyed the earlier books more than the later ones, if I’m honest. The books chronicle Murderbot’s…

  • new ride, who dis?

    new ride, who dis?

    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…

  • frustration

    frustration

    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”…

  • TBR 4/9/2026

    TBR 4/9/2026

    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…

  • ides of March

    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…

  • peek-a-boo

    peek-a-boo

    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…

  • no plan

    no plan

    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…

photo of the author and the author's best friend