What are you reading? It’s one of my favorite questions. Here’s a list of the books I’ve read recently, along with my best guess at the next few. I do this every once in a while on Shoulblog: previous posts are here and here and here and here and here and here. This time, it’s...
New Tricks For An Old … Grasshopper
This week the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials are taking place in Omaha, Neb. Since I recently began swimming again after decades away from the pool, I’ve been watching with extreme interest. Every four years, it seems like the technology for broadcasting the Olympics—and even the Olympic Trials—gets better and better, and the programming folks...
Support Shoulblog!
IMPORTANT: Please read and understand the comments below about required minimum donations before you even think about taking this seriously. So it’s time for me to come to you for help. Make no mistake: this blog will always be free, and I thank you most sincerely for reading it. That’s really all I want from...
The Captains’ Return … Returns!
There have been 161 posts on Shoulblog so far. And the one that, by far, gets the most traffic over time is About That Statue, a series of pictures of the Lewis & Clark Statue on the St. Louis riverfront. The statue, named “The Captains’ Return,” was somewhat unique in that it was regularly...
Inspecting The Troops
This picture was taken 20 years ago this week. It was back in the days of film, when you’d shoot a bunch of pictures, and then you wouldn’t know what you’d gotten until you saw the prints a few hours or a few days later. The occasion was a Coast Guard ceremony for the...
Fitbit
Apparently, bending over and tying my shoes is worth about 25-40 steps. The act of leaning over to my left side while I’m sitting at my desk, unzipping my briefcase and pulling out a phone-charging cord and then plugging it in, is also worth about 25 steps. Rubbing my wife’s shoulders while watching TV, about 30 steps...
Back To The Pool
On January 24 of this year, I jumped into a swimming pool and swam laps for the first time in many, many years. It felt great—for about one and a half laps. Then the pain started, and once it started it didn’t go away. I managed to complete 1,000 yards that day, but I...
Woodstock Square
A few shots of the square in Woodstock, Ill., the town where my wife, Jean, grew up. You may recognize some of the locations; the town—particularly the square—was where the movie Groundhog Day was filmed. Woodstock has latched onto the fame it earned from the movie, but trust me, it was a cool place before...
Pictures Of 2015
One blog post a week. That was my goal for the year as 2016 started. Ahem. It’s now Groundhog Day, and this is my first post of the year. “Getting back in the habit” is harder than you might think. Anyway, before it recedes too far in the rearview, here’s a look back at...
Mississippi River Cleanup
Yesterday I helped clean up a portion of the Mississippi River bank. I was part of a group of 200–300 volunteers who boarded boats from the cobblestones under the St. Louis Gateway Arch and rode downstream a few miles to an area on the Illinois shore, where we disembarked and, trash bags in hand,...