This week I learned about the death of one of my greatest influences growing up. I guessed immediately when I saw his daughter's name on the text message and it hit me like one of the baseball bats we used to swing together. He grew up in Northern New Jersey four years ahead of me doing the same in Western New York. He was just enough older especially in those developing teen and early adult years to be a perfect role model. My earliest recollecti ..read more

 NOTE: I often see insightful profound quotations by famous authors online. It made me wonder about my own writing and I just don't see any, not even a phrase of a few well-chosen words that lingers, That changed last summer I was thinking back through my writing and recalled one from this piece. I know I put it on facebook but couldn't find it on the blog so maybe I neglected to post it. Anyway there is a line in this that resolves my spiritual beliefs perfectly, something. I had never been able to articulate before and it came out by surprise. (Oh yeah, the panic? I couldn't find this ..read more

Let's set something straight. The Incident Command System developed years ago to fight California fires has become the model for emergency responses worldwide. I first encountered it in Alaska's Prince William Sound after the Exxon Valdez oil spill and participated in several practice drills for 12 years afterward. ICS provides an orderly method for meeting the demands of large fires and oil spills and perhaps other disasters as well. The president's insult directed at management of the California fires is a disgrace and does nothing to further the effort. I'd like to see him sit at any desk ..read more

        So, this day started out with a grand plan to take care of a bunch of organizing and repair chores, but first I had to go to the store for some supplies. That accomplished, I pulled into my parking spot and was in the process of attaching the electric cord to my engine's heater when I slipped on some ice and crashed to the ground. I have been in Alaska for 50 years and this was the first time I ever slipped on ice and fell. I was more embarrassed than hurt, I thought. Now this part is cool. I had just about righted myself when a woman who lives here ..read more

I occasionally come across posts about aging and now and again one will mention the value of memories. Yesterday I realized I have a tangible way to relive memories. I have this blog with 1,120 posts and they are always available. I never even thought of that as a reason for starting the blog, but now I am so glad I did. And I can share those memories with anyone who wants to without tedious interruptions in our lives. I only wish I could have started sooner. Winner, winner for the consummate sinner.  Want to stop by for a drink or two and a chat ..read more

  A DAY IN THE LIFE (or night) I had the strangest thing happen last night. As near as I can figure out I woke up from a deep nap around 5 pm yesterday and mistakenly thought I woke up at 5 am today I had planned a lot of housework and feeling rested i went right into it. I worked for some time, then after 11 I sat down to do some work on the computer. It was then I noticed the clock on the computer said 11:30 pm. I spent about 15 minutes thinking the computer was wrong and that I had to change it to a.m. To complicate things I had closed the sun-blocking curtains when I took the nap and ..read more

London      As I moved through the last couple of days I wished people I encountered a Happy New Year. But deep inside I felt like a hypocrite because as I look forward I don't see a happy year at all. With threats to the very foundations of our democracy and some very personal, I just don't see a happy 2025 ahead.  Personally, first is Social Security which Republicans have been trying to get rid of since the days of Franklin Roosevelt when it was installed. I depend largely on Social Security which I paid into since 1958. Second, the place where I live is pa ..read more

This morning in discussing our feelings with an online friend I wrote that I felt cut loose, like I am not even connected to the earth any more, Afterward I thought more about that and what I came up with is all our lives with the ups and downs, successes and failures there has been a sort of foundation under us, a government that took care of things we needed but had no control over, as simple as highways or weather reports, little things and big things. The list is immense. I'm not confident that foundation is going to be there going forward. Mark Fuerstenau Same fears here. The morning af ..read more

Written on the Fall Equinox 2024: Lately I have come to fear September. It goes like this. During or close to September 2022 three women who had been close friends over the years died within weeks of each other: Lael Morgan, Nancy Lethcoe and Sue Whittom. I have written about them in the Memorials section of this bog. Individually and as a group those deaths hit me hard. A year later, in 2023, I had barely recovered when two men I felt close with died within that same month, Jimmy Buffett, though I had not known him personally,  I felt like a kindred spirit with. The other, Joe May and I ..read more

Rally round people: Maybe this is what's wrong with the Democrat Party. Their leader stumbles a little and instead of circling the wagons around him, some of them stand off to the side loudly sniping, raising and questioning about whether he could or should or they want him to quit the campaign altogether. They're encouraged by the punditry who go on and on looking at polls and imagining authoritatively what will or won't happen if this or that happens. For crying out loud the opponent here is a felon 34 times over and he lied at least 30 times in an hour and a half debate. That's one every th ..read more