Every time we leave our condo, Beth asks two questions of me: Do you have your mask? Do you have your cane? They are related questions. I wear the mask because it’s required in our building and in Illinois, yes, but more because I want to be part of the solution—and help stop the coronavirus. […]

I think we’ve mentioned Half Sour, our neighborhood restaurant-tavern, more than once here. It’s become our new local—at least when we could have a local. While I was in the hospital, Beth ordered takout from Half Sour fairly often, thanks to all of you who treated us with gift cards! After I was released from […]

Everyone I know is coping remarkably well with the universal craziness of life today (all things considered), but everyone has bad days, sad days. Lately I’ve noticed a healthy tendency for people to just be honest about those times. It’s an oppressive time, and while I maintain hopes for better times ahead, those hopes are […]

Last night, I watched the White Sox beat the Cubs in an exhibition game, part of the teams’ preparation for a truncated season. That season will be 60 games, if they’re lucky enough to finish; a normal season is 162 games. There were no drunken brawls between the contentious fan bases in the stands, because […]

Awhile back I wrote about an especially kind musical instrument maker and repairer. The short of it was, after a valiant effort to repair my upright bass, the effort failed. He kindly agreed to take it off my hands and save me lugging it back upstairs, and he even refunded, in full, the repair fee […]