State of Mind

“It’s just much, much too cold. The valley never warmed this morning and the trout are really, really put off. They’re just not eating anything,” Nigel consoled and rationalized for us both.

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Back Out West

So, on October fifteenth, my packed-to-capacity Kia Soul merged onto the Pennsylvania turnpike, headed west. Susan was in the passenger seat and Washington State lay somewhere out on the horizon.

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Before the Morels

And maybe it’s also all about learning to appreciate the things that aren’t morels – aren’t the most glamorous, desirable, well-publicized organisms out there, the stuff that’s often walked right past, crushed into the ground below our heels as we keep up a good pace to the morel patch, checking again today for first signs of disturbance in the thin leaf litter.

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The Catfish of Affirmation

Catfish were simply the most likely fish that were in season, were probably waking now from winter semi-dormancy and could be found close to home. I knew the kinds of places one would set up for catfish on a typical summer night but these weren’t likely the right venues for tonight.

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Crippling Complexity

On October 22, 1853 Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal, “As for the complex ways of living, I love them not, however much I practice them. In as many places as possible, I will get my feet down to the earth.” It sounds nice but isn’t this merely the rumination of a 19th Century […]

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Just the Fundamentals

I’m back in Export, Pennsylvania now, a quiet place just outside the Pittsburgh metro area. I’m still trying to, in a sense, get back to normal after a long walk across the continent. I don’t really think most people would find my life very “normal” in the conventional sense (no climbing of the career ladder, […]

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