Grass is green and the sky is off-white. This is what the children of summer will be tought. Even if we don’t teach them, they’l…
Challenged
In the early days of our town there was this town and some other nearby towns. None of the towns felt particularly connected, owed in large …
RIP
Every person since the beginning of time has ended his or her life with one path or road that they traveled more than any other. There̵…
Limit
I’ve reached it. The limit. My limit. Our limit. The frost on my lawn and my breath stuck in the air, all of it is too much. Our taxe…
Wind
The wind kicked up again. It was calm two days ago, and calm the day before that. But then yesterday it picked up and today it’s stirr…
Summer Dreaming
I’m cursed with a malfunctioning ability to dream. It wasn’t always this way, but it has been for most of my adult life, or at l…
Home
I’ll be home for Christmas, so the song wishes. I’ve been struggling to find some Christmas spirit this year, why it’s be…
Thanksgiving
What a curious thing it is, this year. I sit here at this desk worrying about which customer will buy and which customer will sell, worryin…
Difficult Times Ahead
It seems to me there are two seasons of a man’s life. Some would suggest there are more, but they would be wrong. No one would sugges…
Over
What just happened? Is it still summer? I remember the summer days. I remember seeing them through my car window, and out of this office win…
Endless Summer
The license plate said that. ENDLESS SUMMER. If you capitalize it, then it seems like some sort of horror film. It screams at you and demand…
My Factual Opinion
What a terrible time it is to be a man of conviction. Or a woman, I should add, so no one gets mad at me. There’s nothing that can be …
Youth
What is it about youth that we so envy? Do we envy youth because of our own cherished memory of it? Is it that we can imagine a time in our …
Force
Years ago, I wrote often about the need to carve out time and dedicate that time to the enjoyment of this place. It was the time of our live…
If
This morning, I decided to do the thing I’ve done for nearly all of the past 24 years worth of mornings. I woke up, cleaned up, dresse…
Winter Is Over
The ice boats found their smooth patch of ice on Saturday. It was breezy without being windy, sunny without being warm, and the ice was slip…
Pier Guys
This morning things seem ideal. I woke up, which is a nice start to any day. My house was warm, my children healthy, and when I sat on the …
Sunday
There are days in our life that matter more than the other days. The days that matter do so for various reasons. Some of those days are mom…
Battle Royale
There’s a battle inside each of us. Every day. Each season of our lives, a battle. Sometimes, the battle is easy to understand. Easy t…
Frogs
In the middle of a Wisconsin summer, there are things that happen that you might not know about. I didn’t know about them, when I spen…
Just A Kid
It’s raining again, and this time it’s getting to me. The sun shines, but then it doesn’t. Here, then gone. Like a rising…
Weather Malaise
Well, I have it. The malaise. But this case is so severe it should be capitalized, like Malaise. I should add something more to it. Like T…
Memorial Day Weekend
Well, here we are. On the cusp. Don’t forget, this isn’t it. This is the cusp. This isn’t summer. This is a dress rehearsa…
May Flowers
For all of the moving I’ve done, and all of the land that I’ve called home, I have only owned one prized Oak tree. The trees that typically …
Winters End
It’s over. That’s it. There’s nothing left. We made it. No more winter, not here, anyway. Sure, up north there’s sti…
Major Storm
I’m not sure why you’re spending the time to read this. It’s coming. Can’t you see? It’s not far away now. La…
Cool White
( A rerun from 2017)
The problem with this tradition is that it’s based, at least somewhat, on emotion. On feelings. Which is wh…
In Between
I’m sitting here again. Like Groundhog Day, without the square. Just me and this computer, this desk. This street. A few snow flurries…
Happy Thanksgiving
There’s nothing more to write. It’s just Thanksgiving. We should be thankful. I am thankful. We should also be aware that on ou…
Cold And Frosty
What a mundane life it would be if we missed mornings like these. Mornings like this. The cold morning where you’re not really cold. T…
Decisions
On a day last week, in the afternoon of that day, there was a choice to be made. The sky opened after a period of rain and a period of warmt…
Wish
I used to wish for things. Lots of things. In the third grade, I wished that a girl I liked wouldn’t move away. She did. Later, I wish…
Seasons
In the northern reaches of this state, where monuments to large men and larger fish draw worshippers and summer starts and ends in the span …
One Last Summer
Somewhere, sometime, there was a decision made. It was a decision based on indecision, really. This would be it. A lifetime here, in this pl…
Gone
This week wasn’t like the other weeks. It wasn’t like the one before it, or the two before that one. It’s been a week unli…
Not The Same
I don’t really know exactly how Hamburger Helper works. I assume it’s just a powder mix, with some starch to bind and some salt …
Today
It’s another nice day here. The sky is calm and the birds are chirping. Some water from the sky would be nice, but that’s an op…
Scarred
It’s still not clear to me whether or not the air conditioning worked. I remember a serviceman arriving in his rusted Suburban, the sm…
Municipal Musings
Last weekend, it was hot. You know that. I know that. It was super hot. Smoking hot. Summer hot. If you were here, then you were less hot th…
Memorial Day Weekend
To all of the soft people who complain about winter and whine about spring, you’ve made it. I mean, I’ve made it to, to this pla…
Lilacs
There was an old Lilac outside my childhood bedroom window. It wasn’t a great bush, or tree. Whichever it was, it wasn’t the fin…
Forty
This weekend, I’ll turn 40. It’s no big deal, really. No feat, nothing particularly impressive about passively allowing time to …
Along The Way
I love my kids. I really do. Of the few things in this life of which I’m certain, that condition is firmly assured. But I can’t …
Walk This Way
Somehow, someway, someone once decided that walking was a nice thing to do. Let’s go for a walk, someone once said. Others joined in.…
Selling Season!
It’s here. The time of year Any Lake, Wisconsin has been waiting for. This is their time. It’s all Any Lake, all the time. At le…
Winter
I entered February with a heavy heart. Things were happening that were beyond my control. These things were beyond your control. They were…
2018 State Of The Market
(Lake Geneva lovers to the left of the podium, smiling and clapping, standing. Michigan lovers to the right of my podium, scowling, sitting,…
Happy New Year
If you’re reading this, we made it. You made it. I made it. We’re the lucky ones. It’s freezing cold today at the lake, te…
Merry Christmas
While watching a movie, I think it’s common to live vicariously through the lead character. This probably isn’t true for some m…
Gifts
A man in a sweater. He’s sitting on the couch. The sweater isn’t very nice, implying it’s not his dinner-sweater. It̵…