01 Monday Feb 2016
Tags
a not started, not finished, bedside read…
For quite some years now, I have had a goal of reading sixty books a year, which averages, you know to five books a month. As you would expect there are years that I read a bit more, a bit less, just right. However, this year, January will come and go without my having read nary a one. The flabbergasting thing is that I cannot put my finger on any particular reason why, other than perhaps a general sense of ennui, a word I absolutely love.
19 Wednesday Aug 2015
Posted in Gentleman Farming, Living, Seasons, Time, Totem Hall
I’ve been spending time on the back of a tractor, contemplating all the mysteries…
23 Monday Mar 2015
Posted in Family, Living, Passages, Relationships, Seasons, Time, Totem Hall, Vacation
Tags
beach, boarding school, children, classes, college, empty nesters, life, savannah college of art and design, spring break, tides, woodberry forest school
that last sunset…
Perhaps, I should say, spring sprunged. My youngest returns back to his boarding school later today, and in Savannah my oldest returns back to the college grind today, which all means that today at Totem Hall we return to life as empty nesters today, not a bad life mind you, but a life nevertheless…
18 Wednesday Mar 2015
Tags
beaches, children, friends, high schoolers, reunions, spring break, sunsets, tides, wants, wishes
that first sunset…
I could blame my youngest because this is what he wanted, but why bother…
29 Friday Aug 2014
Tags
bulldogs, college football, dawgs, dreams, georgia bullogs, hedges, heritage, sanford stadium, season opener, southern boys, tradition, uga 1
For me, the high holy season of college football begins this Saturday when my school, my team takes to the field.
me and uga one…
It is an acquired taste, not for everyone, though very important in my part of the world.
We start young, us southern boys, playing and dreaming as long and as far as our playing and dreaming will take us.
Throw in the generations of family men who played and dreamed before and will play and dream to come.
Mix in the atmosphere, the pageantry, the tastes, smells, drinks, sights and sounds.
Add the excitement, the energy, the contact, controlled violence.
Then you can see why it is in the blood. Then you can see why it is who we are.
26 Tuesday Aug 2014
Tags
back pain, bed making, bloglovin, books, contemplation, iphone, reading
As in, flat on my back, as in back pain, as in immobile, as in how the heck does this happen when making a bed, for God’s sake…
view from a bed, flat on my back…
another view from a bed, flat on my back…
a final view from a bed, flat on my back…
Oh well, at least I have an iPhone and a good book, or two, or three.
12 Tuesday Aug 2014
Posted in Family, Living, Passages, Relationships, Time, Totem Hall
Tags
dodge, lexus, memory, moms, moves, moving, nissan, packing, pathfinder, poodles, ram 2500, roommates, rx400h, scad, sons, u-haul
Our oldest made his return to college Saturday. This was not our first fond farewell, having over the years sent him off to summer camps, boarding school, and the first year of college, but somehow yesterday was different, he was moving into his own home, well, own home with four other roommates.
folding sheets for the first and last time…
boxed up and ready to go…
The whole process was most entertaining and it brought back a flood of memories.
i’ll just stuff this in…
it doesn’t take me long to pack…
To begin with, all our carefully thought out plans fell by the wayside. The big Dodge 2500 is still in the shop. She was going to be the workhorse of the move. So, you say, no problem, I am sure you have a Plan B. Well good old Plan B did not work out either. Since my son’s Pathfinder did not have wiring for the trailer lights, there was no U-Haul for us, not rentable. Surely, we can use one of the open-air trailers here at Totem Hall, right? Ooh, too bad, the Lexus, choice three, with tow package and harness, is no good, faulty wiring.
The end result: ah, stuff it in the back of the Nissan.
packed in the back…
packed on the side…
packed on the other side…
and packed in the front…
He is definitely my son.
How crazy time is, really. We move through it, try our best to hold on to it, swimming upstream, you know.
bye moms, bye poodle…
Was it just the other day that I was making my own moves, possessions stuffed into a trash bag, or two? Or how about renting the first moving truck, enlisting a couple of friends with offers of beer and lunch, forgetting to tie down everything in back.
bye totem hall…
Then came children, just the births alone seem long ago, though, in the grandness of time, not too far away, remembered, just not able to be captured again, the first words, the first walk, off to school, off to university.
bye son, fare thee well…
Life is such a funny game…
08 Friday Aug 2014
Posted in Living, Sporting Life, Time
Tags
120 years, calisthenics, continence, daily routine, exercise, living long, living well, moses, numbers, old age, pushups, rock stars, situps
Have I ever mentioned that my plan is to live 120 years, just like Moses and twice as corny?
coming after you, big guy…
Well, in my mind, to do that I got to keep in shape. No, really, I do. Heck, for that matter, you do too. I mean, wouldn’t it be fun if we all lived to be 120, together, rocking through the ages, still with our teeth, our senses, and, of course, our continence?
just like these beloveds, only different…
Okay, so, this is my plan. Each day, in fact each and every day, at the least, I do a set of calisthenics. This year, to date, I have done 30,590 pushups and 30,590 sit-ups.
bracing for the pushup…
bracing for the situp…
How did I get there you ask. Well, I started out on January 1, by doing 10 of each. Over the next two days following, I did 20 apiece. From January 4 through January 6, I completed sets of 30, and, well, I’m guessing you can see the pattern.
view from a pushup…
view from a situp…
Of course, the deeper question is why. For that I have no answer, other than there is great joy to be found in rhythm, routine, number counting, and living to be 120.
06 Wednesday Aug 2014
Posted in Family, Living, Passages, Relationships, Sporting Life, Time
Tags
archery, avon old farms school, bait fish, boarding school, fishing, golf, hiking, hunting, lacrosse, landlord, quail, roommates, savannah college of art and design, tadpoles, woodberry forest school
Do you ever think that life shows you, gives you, just what need, when you need it, as you need it?
stuff of boys, stuff of dreams…
Case in point, entering every day into the world of gentleman farming at Totem Hall, I pass a little corner in my home. Until yesterday, I never paid it any mind. It was just stuff. But for some reason, for some reason, yesterday was different; I sat down and, as if for the first time, I saw the stuff of dreams, stuff of boys…
gotcha…
Blessed, our family has always lived surrounded by nature. Nature has all sorts of bugs, butterflies, tadpoles, and baitfish that need catching by young boys.
boys and bows and arrows…
My two sons and I like to hunt and fish. After summer camp one year, one of the little rascals, maybe both got the idea of bow hunting and fishing. So we bought an archery set. Now the only thing left is the bow, the arrows are long gone.
walking and talking…
I take long walks on our land. Because of the possibility of running across a rattlesnake or water moccasin, just about all the time I’ll carry a stick with me. For me, it’s better than a machete, which is too close quarter.
get up and fly, dagnabbit…
My part of the world has quail. Sometimes even if your dog sets and holds, the bird might be a bit reluctant to get up and fly. The boys use this strap to beat the bushes in hopes of getting the bird to move along.
spring sports…
Both the lacrosse stick and baseball bat are relics of the past. My oldest son earned a varsity letter playing lacrosse at Avon Old Farms School. My youngest tried baseball when he was much younger, maybe not even ten, in the end deciding the sport was too slow for him.
I did not even talk about golf, or tennis, or squash, whose tools of the trade you can see in several of the pictures. And there is no way I can possibly describe how much fun I had teaching and then getting bested by my two, just a great way for me to grow up and stay young at the same time.
all gone now…
Okay, I staged this scene, but still, why not a bit of poetical license, after all we are all adults here. The oldest is off to college in Savannah by the end of the weekend, moving into a home with four other roommates. God help the poor landlord. Then our youngest son leaves for Virginia and the start of his boarding school career next week.
Time moves along downstream like a river, always present, always changing, always there, never there…
04 Monday Aug 2014
Tags
beards, braun cruzer, everyman jack, gillette atra, hair, merkur, old school, safety razor, shaving, shaving brush, soufflé dish
Time to shave.
touch of grey…
I don’t care whether you’re a boy or a girl, whether it’s a face or a pair of legs, shaving is a chore.
Of course, there are the tools of the trade.
I only break out the Braun when the beard gets thick.
charged and waiting…
I have no idea who gave me the brush and no one at Totem Hall is complaining about a missing soufflé dish.
just add soap…
We shop at a local organic co-op and though this stuff by Everyman Jack isn’t organic, it’s sold there, which should count for something. Right?
politically correct…
I found this vintage Merkur safety razor with its handy dandy vintage case and just had to have it. I use this bad boy first; you got to love and respect the old school.
men only…
The first razor I ever bought with my own money from my own job, the Gillette Atra; it is the finisher. Enough said!
my first…
Now, beard done, and it’s time to move on to eyebrow, ear, nose, and back hair, no pictures, oh, the joy of aging…
