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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
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The cold spell broke last weekend. It broke so hard that temperatures climbed into the 60s on Monday. Insane. To take advantage of the balmy weather, I’ve been tromping around anywhere the ground is solid enough to walk on (there’s not a lot of that right now). But for four weeks, it rarely got warmer…
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Oh I am so very sore this morning! And a little bit tired, even after a good night’s sleep. I spent the better part of five hours yesterday chopping up brush and stacking it in piles which towered over my head. It’s getting harder to recover from that kind of workout than I did when…
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Way, way back (peers through the mists of time) in 2006, My Darling B worked on the west side of town, almost in Middleton, at the DMV. I worked at a bank in the center of town, right on capitol square. Every morning, she would drop me off on the square, then continue on to…
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Not too far from where I live, only about 40 minutes away by car, there’s a lonely little segment of the Ice Age Trail which winds around the eastern shore of Gibb’s Lake in Rock County. It’s one of those segments of the IAT that’s connected to other segments via a long road walk. From…
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After hiking the southern half of the Scuppernong Segment yesterday, I went back today to walk the northern half. Conditions were much the same today as they were on Tuesday: Sunny, clear skies, a light breeze, temperatures in the twenties. Perfect, except for the temperatures. I dressed for cold weather, packed a lunch, and hit…
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The only explanation I can come up with for going out to hike seven miles through the snow in sub-freezing weather today is this: It had been so effing cold for so long that 18 degrees F seemed like a pretty reasonable temperature to hike in, actually. No, really, it did. I stayed inside for…
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Before the weather changed to plunge us into a subzero deep freeze overnight, I had the opportunity to tramp around in the UW-Madison arboretum yesterday while temps were still in the high teens. NOAA said it was 14 deg F but my dashboard thermometer said it was 18 deg F, which somehow seemed, I dunno,…
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After almost a week of near-zero weather, the temperature when I got up this morning was a much more bearable 14 deg F! And it was supposed to get up to a balmy 20 deg F! We’re having a heat wave! I haven’t been out and about much in the past week due to the…
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For the first time in ages, I gave blood once again today. According to my donation history, which I can review online — because doing anything these days requires an app or an online account — the last time I gave whole blood was on July 25th, 2024. I donated platelets on August 7th, 2024,…
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It was way too cold to go wandering through the woods today. I went for a hike anyway. Temps this morning were between 15 and 20 degrees, according to the NOAA. The thermometer stuck to our front window read 12 degrees when I got out of bed, 14 degrees when I left the house at…
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