The Kudzu Files

Among other things I’ve had going on, learning to drive a tractor has taken its place. The extent of my tractor driving is, so far, using it to mow the area around a cabin and pond on property my wife’s family owns about 40 miles from home. I’ve learned a few things: [...]

I never buy bananas at Walmart. Almost never, anyway. Sometimes I forget, and I buy bananas at Walmart. I did that earlier this week. The bananas looked so happy and bananish sitting there on the display. So I bought some, and the next morning when I peeled one to add [...]

This is just too cool, I had to share it:

This guy uses trained hawks or other large birds to detect thermals for his paraglider. Here’s the link.

I read an article today in the Chronicle of Higher Education that talked about how the nation’s journalism schools are filled to overflowing this year, even as journalism jobs are disappearing in droves. As I read the article, I thought about a report I heard recently - maybe on BBC World Service (to which [...]

I miss 9/12/2001. Obviously, not the pain and suffering of that next day. But I miss the feeling that, in the midst of such fear and loss, we were united as Americans. All across this country, people instinctively reached out to help not just the people of New York City and Washington, [...]

I’ve always had sleep problems.  I’ve used a CPAP machine for eight years for sleep apnea, and I do sleep better than I did years ago.  But I still wake up almost every night in the wee hours, 2 or 3AM.  For a long time, I’ve kept a radio by the bed with a pillow [...]

Chrysler’s emergence from bankruptcy and yesterday’s acquisition by Fiat got me thinking. As I understand it, the bankruptcy allowed Chrysler to basically shed all the bad things - high labor costs and years of debt - and keep just the good things. I do wonder where exactly the good things have been hidden [...]

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we [...]

I was having lunch today in a fast-food restaurant, with my head, as usual, in a book. I happened to look up in time to see a little man come into the place. I noticed him because he was walking in a sort of half-crouch. Not the bent-over walk of an old man, [...]

I was at Walmart tonight.  I wanted shampoo.  I couldn’t find shampoo.  Not just regular shampoo, anyway.  I could find vitamin-enriched shampoo, fruity shampoo, shampoo for damaged hair, shampoo that could clarify, fortify, moisturize, thicken, and nourish with coconut milk.  I can find hydrating shampoo, raspberry shampoo, grapeseed shampoo, and shampoo with conditioner in a [...]