Alone tonight, I write a blog.  Anne and I successfully completed some 134 miles on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia finishing up last Saturday.  The walk went well starting out warm and ending up chilly.  The trees in the valleys had greened up, but those on the ridges remained in gray dormancy.  The wildflowers were putting on a show everywhere.  Trilliums and star chickweed were especially abundant. 

Reflecting on our planned two week hike starting on Monday, I realize that the past four months have been  tumultuous.  We enjoyed them but were stressed and separated by the decline and death of my father and also challenged to provide necessary support to Anne’s parents in Florida during January and February.  My return to PA for two weeks in February for Dad’s end made that tougher for both of us.  We sorely missed each other. 

Late morning, I am alone, well rested, and with no pressing matters - at least until three o’clock, when I have to pick up Joe, Mark, and Rob at the airport and convey them to the Estero Island Beach Club.  Anne is taking Mom and Dad Woods and Mom Strehl there now.  I remain at the condominium and should be working on the two-weeks of mail - bills, 1099’s and the like - that has accumulated since I left to go to York for my father’s final days.  Looking at it all and considering my mood of peaceful relief, I decided it could wait a little longer.  I hav

Richard Feinman reportedly commented that the trouble with dying was that it is too d. boring.  It is also miserably uncomfortable.  At least modern medicine and - for now - the law allows it to be relatively painless. 

Considerable excitement, controversy, and name calling is being generated by a government decision to require religious employers who regard contraception to be sin to provide insurance coverage for contraception to their employees. 

The cost for this new life-bird was about $25 for auto fuel. 

A busy but successful day in the Sunshine State.  We awoke early.  Mom and Dad Woods said good-by to Mary Helen, then Anne and I took her to the airport for a return to New York.  Leaving her there, we stopped at the Six-Mile Cypress Preserve to walk about the swamp on boadwalks.  It was cold.  We put on jacket and gloves. 

On this overcast and freezing morning we might rather be in Fort Myers.  But as ready as we may be, we remain in PA at least until Thursday.  Still, we perceive a successful outcome to a battle of sorts that we have been engaged in for almost a month.

Dad Strehl is to be discharged from the rehab hosptial on Wednesday.  He may be ready to die, but his body is not quite ready to give up.

            On the morning of August 30, 1996 I started my first fire by friction using a bow drill I carved myself.  As a participant at one of my later workshops put it, “I felt like a cave man!”  The feeling that comes from the experience is very deep, joyful and primal.  The experience was compounded as I had been working for 5 days for this fire.  My wife, twin daughters and I spent that last

Anne and I returned home last night after a 600 mile (round-trip) $215 dollar (gas, tolls, lodging, and restaurant meals) expedition to Ashtabula, Ohio on the shore of Lake Erie.  Our life-list now includes the Black-tailed Gull, a handsome dark-mantled coastal bird typically found along the western edge of Asia.