abucketandapen

[abucketandapen]

Getting my Bearings 

A moment of quiet on the University of Chicago quad. There is little that is more wonderful than Fall on a college campus, especially when you no longer need to worry about grades, tuition, or a hangover. Scholarship, or at least the life of the mind, calls me. Whether that entails a formal return to school or just a lot of time spent in libraries, this time, I return to campus for nothing more…

[abucketandapen]

Midnight Arrival 

Midnight taxi ride

[abucketandapen]

Finally, a Good Hat that Fits

I have reached a certain age, I suppose, when I am starting to wear hats other than ball caps. My problem is that my head is somewhere around a size 8, so finding one that fits has proven impossible. A good Stetson fur-felt hat had long been on my wish list. Fortunately, the Stetson-Resistol factory in Garland, Texas was only about a half-hour down the road from my sister-in-law’s spread east of…

[abucketandapen]

Dawn at Camp 3 Falls

Morning was the best time of a summer day in California’s Traverse Ranges. A trickle of sea breeze sneaked in from the West, and the high desert to the east was only starting to preheat.  From 64ºF at 6am, the temperature would rise one degree every twelve minutes for the next six hours, and the humidity would fall below 20% and stay there until long after sunset. But for this moment, it was…

[abucketandapen]

Cracker Barrel El Paso

Cracker Barrel is for my family what Denny’s was to me growing up as a kid: a dependable place to take the family for a meal on a road trip that had enough on the menu so that all of us had a choice. Add to that consistent quality and servers who embody the phrase “cheerful hospitality.” Not to mention apple butter. And biscuits. I know this place is not everyone’s cup of espresso, but we love it.

[abucketandapen]

Equinox Dawn, North Pacific 

It was not quite the longest day of the year, but it was close, so the overnight flight eastward over the North Pacific was less than four hours long.  The sunrise came on slowly, first a hint of a horizon, then a gradual glow before the flare of light as the Sun bathed the plane and my face in the morning, and the clouds below seem to yawn and stretch into infinity. This was always the part of…

[abucketandapen]

Mugology - Special Edition

My late father-in-law offers his own candidates for Coffee Mug of the Year, both thrown, glazed, and fired by his grandson. We miss you, Ba.

[abucketandapen]

Reflecting on work

In the Shanghai office. 

[abucketandapen]

Inspiration

“Inspiration is everywhere. Carry a notebook.” – Victor Hugo

[abucketandapen]

Patchology: National Scouting Museum

It is too easy to take for granted the forces that have created and continue to drive the existence of a scouting movement in the United States. A trip to the National Scouting Museum should eliminate any doubts about why this organization exists, and must continue to exist, as a critical part of our national youth development infrastructure. We visited the museum in June 2017, just as it was…

[abucketandapen]

Do Something Great

J.J. Abrams once said that Macs almost challenge you to do something great. I feel the same way about Moleskine notebooks.

[abucketandapen]

Flashback: my first camp cooking recipe

Kosher dutch oven Shepherd’s Pie for Troop 234’s adult leaders (basically, me and Dan E.) Morro Bay State Park. Six years ago today.

[abucketandapen]

SCRIBEdelivery April 2020

I have no idea how Chad and Kristen at #scribedelivery managed to deliver a box every month through the Pandemic, but they did.

[abucketandapen]

Paperback Indians

“When I write about the destructive effects of alcohol on Indians, I am not writing out of a literary stance or a colonized mind’s need to reinforce stereotypes. I am writing autobiography.” Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, from the Introduction.

[abucketandapen]

Retrograde 

I’m not interested in a divorce from reality. A short separation, on the other hand, seems to be a good idea. I am the egg-man.

[abucketandapen]

History is back

A great problem with too many of us is that, subconsciously or otherwise, we bought into this idea that the tectonic political changes of 1989 had brought about a world where the rules had changed. This is the essence of Francis Fukuyama’s treatise “The End of History,” but the problem went even further. We began to believe that the normal rules that applied to business, to markets, and to…

[abucketandapen]

Donghua Sunrise 

Dawn in Pudong. I was excited: I was a shower, a taxi ride, two flights, and a town car ride from home after a long and trying trip.