Posted inSports

Oregon’s softball team shows how far women’s sports has come since 1966

I just finished watching the Oregon softball team come from behind in the final inning to beat Kentucky and advance to the Women's College World Series.  It was an amazing game. Since I was recording it, and the Ducks were down a distressing 5-2 at the end of the sixth, I figured there was little chance a comeback was in order. So I acceded to our dog's wordless demand and took her for a walk just before the seventh inning got underway. Returning home, I settled in to watch the final inning. The end result -- four runs scored in…
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Posted inHome life Web/Tech

First day with Pictar iPhone camera grip: I’m impressed

I was a Kickstarter supporter of the Pictar camera grip for the iPhone, which isn't really an accurate name for the gadget, since in addition to being a grip it also offers an easy way to control the basic iPhone photo features while adding new ones through some software magic. Having recently gotten my Kickstarter reward, I tested it out on a dog walk here in rural south Salem, Oregon. Before sharing some of the photos I took and my first-impression review of the device, here's what the Pictar grip offers: Well, you don't get an iPhone with it, obviously.…
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Posted inHome life Retirement community

A big burn pile reminds me why we’re not in a retirement community

My wife are I are at an awkward age (which keeps getting awkwarder). I talked about this three years ago in "Too old for ten acres and a big house -- too young for retirement living." I guess you could call us tweeners. Senior citizen variety. At 65, my wife and I are beginning to find that the joy of maintaining our large 1970's era house on ten rural acres is beginning to wear thin. So we've started to think about where we'd like to move when and if we really want to. But only a year later in 2015…
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Posted inBooks

Life lessons I’ve gotten from the “Gray Man” novels

Last year I wrote my first blog post about the Gray Man, "Lessons for living from a fictional assassin, the 'Gray Man.'" Now I've read two more books in the six-part series about Court Gentry, so it's time to update the life lessons I've absorbed from the astoundingly engrossing novels. What I said last July still holds: But something about the Gray Man appeals to me on a deeper philosophical level. Again, this is weird, because the fictional Court Gentry seemingly isn't much like the real person Me.  Seemingly.  This excerpt from "The Gray Man" points to the main thing…
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