b.rox

My sinuses are clogged. I’m kind of dizzy and disoriented. I’m blowing a lot of snot. And the cold seems to be wanting to take up residence in my chest. When I inhale really deeply I can feel a rattle deep in the bottom of my lungs. I’ve got a doctor’s appointment for tomorrow. So [...]

I had a strange dream last night. I don’t remember too many details, but an artificial intelligence figured prominently. In form it appeared as a great, golden, glassy globe, encompassed by a hollow disk, so that it loooked something like a ringed planet. It may have been extraterrestial in origin. I spoke to it at [...]

Went home early yesterday, and took today off, because I’m just not feeling that great. Xy had a cold for three or four days earlier this week, and I’m afraid I’m coming down with it. My main symptom has been a sore throat — only it’s not my throat exactly but more the nasal passage [...]

The timeshare company stuck us with the wrong dates for our condo! Then they said if we wanted to change, we’d have to pay the $150 fee again. That chapped my ass. I really don’t want to be at Table Rock Lake on July 4th. Then again, the only reason we’re even going there is [...]

Posted a set of 40-odd pix from Saturday’s rail walk:

We had our first really summery day yesterday — it hit 92º, and that’s a record. But the humidity was not so high, and we still haven’t turned on the AC. We must be hardcore. Maybe tonight, though.

Michael H. and David B. and I went for a three-mile hike along an abandoned railway corridor that cuts through Mid-City. We think it’s an excellent candidate for a rails-to-trails conversion. This was an just initial exploratory scoping. More to come. (I took a couple hundred photos!) I also got a sunburn.

Today was graduation day for the sixth grade students Xy teaches. Xy received a number of gifts and the following card: To: Ms. Paxson aka Ms. “P” Thank you for being the Language teacher I ever had. This from an honors student.

Seems like there’s always something in the morning paper to make my blood boil. This morning it was a story about a legislator from Slidell who wants to get “gay books” out of the children’s section. The book that sparked this particular episode is King and King, which seems to have provoked a federal legislator [...]

The university where I work is located on the edge of a neighborhood called Gert Town. Back when I lived Uptown, I used to ride my bike through Gert Town every day. Some people said I was crazy to do this. Gert Town is an economically depressed neighborhood populated almost exclusively by African Americans. I [...]

I just took a call from a NY Times reporter. He’s working on a book about creative responses to annoying situations. He wanted to ask me about remote-control honking, which I wrote about back in February.

I take my coffee black — no cream, no sugar. (Actually I don’t take my coffee at all at the moment. After two and a half weeks without caffeine of any kind, I’m back on the iced tea. But that’s a subject for another post.) Xy, on the other hand, takes hers with enough sugar [...]

It’s official. We’re headed to Table Rock Lake for the first week of our summer vacation. Kimberling City, to be precise. I’ve got a few misgivings. I don’t really know much about the area, but the more I learn, the less I like. This wouldn’t have been my first choice. Or my second. Or my [...]

I went to the Farmers’ Market in Mid-City yesterday and picked up some cilantro pesto for dinner. It was good (but pricey at $5.50). I also got a bottle of fresh-squeezed juice: apple and lemon and habanero pepper. Wow! It was delicious, ice cold and spicy hot. I’ve never had spicy fruit juice before. In [...]

Even though I don’t teach, I still experience the mood-shift at the end of the school year. It’s time to pull the nose up off the proverbial grindstone, step back, take a deep breath, relax a little, and reflect. Since Xy does teach, she experiences this even more deeply. However, we’re not quite on the [...]

Xy & I have been living in New Orleans for six years now. But we’ve only been married for eleven and a half years. That means that more of our married life has been here in New Orleans than in Bloomington, Indiana. And somehow that seems very strange to me.

Classes are over. Commencement has come and gone. It is now OK to wear shorts to work. This is my official policy. Did I mention this is my favorite time of year? The atmosphere on campus is mellow, the weather’s heating up, and all the promise of summer lies ahead. I love summer. It’s my [...]

I keep forgetting to mention that, after two and a half years of work, the BibleDudes website was officially launched last month, and I’m just as proud as punch. We still have plenty of content to add, so this project will be keeping me busy for years to come.

The radio alarm woke me up Thursday morning with news of bombs going off at the British Embassy in Midtown Manhattan. And I thought to myself: “Shit. That’s where I’m staying tonight.” A few hours later, I was in New York. I checked into the Vanderbilt YMCA, just a few blocks away from the British [...]