A million gnats and tiny moths dance silently in the spider webs outside my window. The front door is open with the screen door latched. It’s a late spring night, all damp and cool, without a breath of wind. Suddenly coyotes yip and howl up by the mailbox 50 yards away. Dogs bark in response, [...]
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Johnny got the brick lust blues
America made me take this picture. The America that was. It wanted to say something, possibly “Help!” or “Look, I’m still here!” This scene really grabbed me. I can’t say why, but I’m usually stirred by darkness under the surface. Odebolt (“OH-dee-bolt”) appears to be doing all right, though. Industrial agriculture and will power keep [...]
Not very old and freshly shorn
Nebraska should be so lucky. Everywhere we’ve been around Dubuque, the world is green and lush. It’s like a joke, almost. A cosmic face-slap. Today we sat out in the “garden room” and had our drinks while rain fell constantly but hardly made a sound as the great green sea of grass absorbed it like [...]
The last time I stood here, here were pelicans gliding in the breeze
I could almost live in Balltown. Well, for a couple of weeks, anyway. This is the view from the scenic overlook just past Breitbach’s restaurant, and the photo doesn’t do justice to the sense of being up in the air you get along this ridge a short way from the Mississippi. (That’s the river in [...]
Just look and read below
This is the little house in Wall Lake, Iowa where my wife the classical pianist lived until she was three years old. We visited it on the way to Dubuque. Next door on the right is the house where an older woman lived whom she used to visit as a child. According to her, she’d [...]
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