About two generations back, nearly every male would be looking forward to Opening Day in November.  The primary hunting season ran from late that month to late January, and the opening and closing days might as well have been school holidays, so many fellows were “sick.” Read more

After the instant relief delivered by last week’s cold front and the first day of fall actually feeling like fall, I’d almost forgotten that Earth has just experienced another sweltering, record-smashing summer and how long it had been since any northern air had made it this far south – very early August. Read more

Recently I visited Bracketts Farm in the Green Springs National Landmark District. It’s located just north of Zion Crossroads, off of Route 15. They were having an “open farm” day, so we loaded up a couple of cars with some friends and off we went. And let me tell you, dear readers, we had an awesome visit! Read more

In my youth, this was the month college students returned to their dorms for another year of spartan living. My college was all-male, which probably accounted for much of its plainness. The double rooms came with two desks, two chairs, and two cots or a bunk bed.  Read more

As September kicks off (high school football is back!), we are still enjoying the long daylight of summer, 13 hours on the 1st, but will lose more than two minutes of light each day as our tilted orbit moves us steadily into fall’s growing darkness. Fall begins at 3:21 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on the 22nd, the Fall Equinox, the moment when our nearby star is directly over our planet’s equator. Read more

Remember folding paper maps? I suppose in the age of GPS, most of us don’t think of them, and if we do, it’s to recall just what a pain they could be. Unless you pulled off the road, they were impossible for the driver to use. If your shotgun partner was your navigator, he’d take up most of the front seat unfolding a map. Then he’d have to partially refold it to highlight just that part of the country you really needed to see. And of course, he’d have to shake it out to full size to begin refolding it. It wouldn’t take many openings and closings before it would begin to tear along the creases, and that would create new problems. Read more

Although the official 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics are over, medals are just now being awarded in the Schupp household for their personal Olympic competitions. Without further ado, below are the categories and results. Read more