Getting ready to make strawberry mango jam. Also drinking a Blue Moon mango wheat beer and listening to U2.

Excited to see Robin Sloan has written a new novel. I enjoyed both Sourdough and Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.

Walked out to the clearing where we’re building a new house and saw the lunar eclipse, clouds drifting over just as the last of the glare faded and redness started. Wish it had stayed clear. But I have vivid memories of a blood moon over Idaho in my youth.

Wish you all could smell these berries we just picked at Waller Family Farm. Hot out there in the sun, but fun to be out with so many other families gathering fruit for jam, pies, and for me a muddled strawberry, ginger syrup, and vodka cocktail.

Only found that one turtle on my slow walk through our woods. Now the rain is back so I am on the porch reading Sea of Tranquility: A novel by Emily St. John Mandel 📚

Heavy rainstorm just passed over so I came out to the woods to look for turtles. In five minutes I found the first. 🐢

Sitting in the Durham Food Hall with a cortado, rereading Atul Gawande’s brilliant Being Mortal, I had to hold back the tears. Coming time for me to have conversations with my parents. Grateful for this book and it’s guidance.

Last Saturday I made a rock wall and flower garden at the top end of the new paved driveway. Underneath one rock I found this snake. At the time I thought it a black snake but when I looked at this photo I realized it was a ringneck snake.

Finally downloaded the images and videos from the GoPro camera we took to St. Croix in March. Here’s a green sea turtle that was in the shallow water near the Frederiksted pier. #turtle

Via DF, I see an uplifting story about how the internet helped Noah Grey, the creator of the early blogging software Grey Matter. I used that in early 2001 as part of my evolving Zuiker Chronicles blog: from hand coding to Blogger to Grey Matter to Typepad to Textpattern.

Pre-show dinner at trattorria at 44th St. & 9th Ave., window seat watching so many people walk by. Love the energy of this city. So different than tiny Chapel Hill. Got a great view from atop the Empire State Building.

With Erin and Oliver in NYC to celebrate Oliver’s birthday #12. A gorfeous day to walk. Just sat down for breakfast at a corner diner. Lion King tonight, Miss Liberty tomorrow.

A moment of confusion every time I hear the opening notes of Change by War on Drugs as I think I’m about to hear Solidarity by Rhythm Corps, a Detroit band I was introduced to by my college roommate in the late 80s.

Glad to get a haircut from my regular barber Kirby (Arrow North Hills), and on her recommendation I walked around the corner to discover Jubala Coffee for flat white and fresh drop biscuit.

Fiddling with the Smol Blog, adding a new page to pull in all posts about the various islands I’ve called home or visited (using the category+filters function) including Paama, St. Croix, and Hawaii.

Lots of rain today, but once it stopped I went for a walk out back and happened upon these (maybe a chocolate clover?).

Our daughter, Anna, is 21 today. So proud of her and grateful for how she has brightened our lives.

Blew out a quad muscle during warmups this morning, so had to leave the Sunday soccer just as the guys were splitting into teams. Bummed. This regular outside fun with others is so important to my health.

The 2011 Ford Ranger went to the shop for an oil change. Two days later, the power windows stopped working. Coincidence perhaps. I stopped by the auto supply store in Carrboro and bought a 30-amp cartridge fuse. Back home, fuse in, windows are going up and down again.

Just watched the first episode of Tokyo Vice. Very intriguing.