Sunday we drove to Philadelphia to see a good friend. He was driving into the city from one direction and we from Jersey, and we agreed to meet in South Philly. We drove past what I noted was a Vietnamese restaurant and then lines of police cars and small groups of policemen, and lots of people walking vaguely in the direction of a giant pinata that Jim promptly dubbed “like the Trojan Horse” (it was a burro shaped pinata) and that we later realized was part of a Day of the Dead celebration. Jim found a barely the right size …read more

Mid-70s weather last week and Charlie’s still wearing his blue fleece jacket with the hood pulled far over his head, or his fleece vest with the zipper all the way zipped, or his fleece gloves (which, having survived several turns in the washing machine, are decidedly un-fleecy). He’s not been wanting to shed his winter gear at the end of April because, for the past several months, it’s become his routine to wear all those items whenever he goes out.
There’s another reason besides the strong force of habit for why Charlie has been keeping his fleece “armor” on. Charlie—-like seemingly …read more