So, if you read my last blog post you already know my experience getting knocked down with Coronavirus (now officially, SARS-Cov-2).  My original reaction to Corona hit on Monday, March 23 with serious fatigue.  I found out later from a doctor’s comment it was symptomatic of becoming hypoxic – like the altitude-sickness experienced by mountain climbers.  However, they plan and train for it as part of the climb.  I was in my third-floor condo on the couch, a mere 620-feet above sea-level.  Read More

Three weeks ago, relief at arriving in sweet home Chicago turned to frustration and boiled over into anger.  I was traveling light, without checked luggage, just a carryon, so you’d think getting home should have been easy, right?  Sure, my tolerance for foolishness was not high having awakened at 6 am in Germany (11pm CST) for a 2-1/2 hour train ride and nine-hour flight to Chicago.  Landing at O’Hare I was excited to be almost home – or so I thought. Read More

These days it is unusual for someone to take on large, long-term projects, particularly, in an age of short attention spans, churning news cycles, and quarterly business returns.  Yet, this is my predilection.  Most people find it unwise, ridiculous, or even crazy to spend months, let alone, years developing an idea to see if it will work.  Hmm… have I stumbled on the definition of a creative (or worse yet, a dreamer)? Regardless, there is something in my DNA that propels me through long slogs of research, explorations of the unknown (at least to me), and vaguely envisioned, time-consuming ideas.  Read More

To begin 2016, I spend most of January in an empty hotel on Mackinac Island.  r-e-d-R-U-M, R-E-D-R-U-M!!  As a Chicago author and avid sailor the opportunity to visit in the winter was simply too unique and tantalizing to pass up.  Having participated multiple times in the Chicago-Mac Race, I was quite familiar with the island in high-season — when the primary means of transportation is by bicycle, wagon, or carriage.  Here this more than 100 year-old way of life has been preserved, and except for emergency vehicles, no automobiles are allowed on the island.   Read More