By the way, for all those I may have offended with my unflattering portait of television, I am sorry only that I didn’t show more tact. Some of you may actually like television. But my true opinion of the medium is that it’s offensive, unclean, obnoxious, contemptible, odious, invidious, revolting, distasteful, low, foul, corrupt, bad, …

The BGF is fine, by the way. I put in three quarts of new Mercon V transmission fluid, just like the owner’s manual said to use, and started the vehicle, backed it up, and drove it down the driveway, and it was fine. It was a little shakey on startup; maybe that was due to …

Our dogs will stop at nothing!!!! to destroy Jessica’s plantings. Flowerbed? Dig it up. New lawn? Dig it up. Newer lawn? Refuse to play anywhere else; chase each other relentlessly for eight hours a day until the grass seed is ground to powder. Fence? What fence? Doggie repellent? That’s for city dogs. Flowerbeds strewn …

I posted this post from home on Friday, when I had the day off (and back when my internet connection was working). Looks like it didn’t stick to the post. So I’ll try to replicate it today.
(Sorry for not catching it sooner. My life is already so full as to strain credulity, but last week …

Long ago, when these mirror-like office lighting grids were born in a Chinese factory, they sighed and said, Well, we’re off for a boring existence. We’ll hang for thirty years with fluorescent lights above us and underpaid employees below, reflecting lights cheerfully, swinging down every year or so to have our bulbs replaced, gathering dust, …

We finally have high-speed internet, and we didn’t have to use a satellite to do it. So far we’re still in the testing stage, but this is a good thing. I have heard from very few rural dwellers who are desperately in love with satellite internet (two reasons: speed, latency and weather interference. Oh, wait, …

When I was designing our house I referred frequently to the Not So Big House books by architect Susan Susanka. She notes the efficient use of living space on a boat, where space is so limited that not one square foot is wasted. At the design stage, our finances forced us to shrink our house …

Well, it’s the 2nd week of March and I’ve burned less than four cords of wood since the season began last October. The cost to me? Oh, a lot of entertainment last summer with chain saw and maul. The thrill of assembling the most Dr. Seussian wood shed in the county. The delight of a …

My gallery in Calistoga, California (Stix and Stones Gallery, wish they had a website) called some time ago with an announcement that they were running low on original artwork by me, and that they would like some more, please.
This is a good thing.
So I have created four new originals which I will be featuring in …

Warning: this is a messy procedure. Learn from my woes and surround your interior chimney with an old sheet before proceeding.
Well, since we never actually had winter around here I’ll detail this procedure and post the pictures from when I cleaned the chimbley around Christmas time. The principles are still relevant and I’ll do this …