Getting Outside Saturday: Twenty Below (A photo Haiku)

categories: Cocktail Hour / Getting Outside

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Good morning!

Bad Advice Christmas: Find Your Own Island

categories: Cocktail Hour / Getting Outside

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Just got back from four days on Masonboro Island. Might have to spend all my holidays there…….Some pics…. Continue reading →

Getting Outside Saturday: That Time My Plane Almost Crashed

categories: Cocktail Hour / Getting Outside

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Madeline Roorbach, Alive and Well in South Africa

You always wonder how you might react: calmly, a stony demeanor; screaming, rivulets of tears streaming down your face; praying, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee…” There I sat, seat 21D—the aisle seat which is clutch for airplane travel—as smoke poured into the cabin through every vent onboard. I pushed the home button of my iPhone and saw that it was just before 2 p.m. CST. My hands were numb but I pushed the shortcut to my mom’s cell phone. No service at 30,000 feet. “Call me ASAP,” I wrote, and pushed send: Delivery Failure. Continue reading →

Getting Outside Saturday: It Was the Best of Times

categories: Cocktail Hour / Getting Outside

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Lymphoma isn’t curable in canines, but the last of your savings account buys you a nine-month remission. You and your white dog, Io, sit on the floor with Tycho during his treatments. You bring Tycho back to strong with soft-mashed eggs and warm chicken. It will be the three of you for as long as you can. You are all together in your home when Tycho dies. You are pressed against him and watching his life pass out of your hands. You don’t make a sound because there is no sound to make. The next day you load Tycho’s body into your SUV, and you and Io drive him the four hours down the mountain to the crematory in Fort Collins. Continue reading →

Thankful Things

categories: Cocktail Hour / Getting Outside

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Here’s a very short essay I wrote for the Maine Sunday Telegram, and which appeared yesterday with pieces by other Maine writers, like the fabulous Monica Wood. See the whole feature online here, and here us read. My bit goes like this:

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Getting Outside Saturday: The Falcon and the Sparrow

categories: Cocktail Hour / Getting Outside

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I want to tell you about something I saw one day while I was out trying to get some new peregrine falcon pictures for the book project I am working on when I saw a falcon circling above me, climbing for altitude. Higher and higher it climbed, and then suddenly it folded in its wings, and dove out of the sky like a rocket! Continue reading →