The best shot was the one I didn’t see coming

On Sunday morning, I got up early and drove my younger daughter to her synchronized skating practice. Upon dropping her off, I realized that the sun would be coming up shortly, and I decided to greet it as it did. The sunrise was a dazzling display of clouds and light and water and sky. The

Thought for the day

People you once knew Didn’t get this day So think of them And move forward Dedicated to Jim Meredith Griffin High School Class of 1986 May 7, 1968-January 27, 2016 

Beauty with a side of thought

Last night, I was watching my older daughter’s play at an outdoor venue in the suburbs. The previous two shows had been cancelled because of rain (such are the perils of outdoor performance), and it looked questionable whether last night’s show would meet with the same fate. But the huge puffy clouds in the sky

Spring’s first sunrise

Winter, you’re dismissed.

Spring is coming

This morning I walked out to a part of Lake Michigan that normally is under water. The hard freeze of this winter created many frozen glaciers, and they have finally begun to recede. The lake is now reclaiming the space it occupies in the warmer months, but winter will still linger for a little bit.

At the end of the day

I often go on about Chicago in this space. It’s home, and where I spend most of my days, so it feels like a natural subject to write about. The problems that this city has are very well-known by now: Violence, shootings, segregation, parking meters, to name just a few. But one of the things

Nature in all of its beauty

I came upon this bluff in a state park in Door County, Wisconsin. The first time I came to it, I was content to let the wind blow through my hair, and enjoy the beautiful view of Lake Michigan down below. But the second time, two days later with some others I had brought along

Going to the dogs

As part of my ongoing attempt to preserve bits and pieces of my life from the pre-digital photography era, I am presenting some commentary for an image that dates from somewhere around 1996. I was never a dog person growing up. The neighbors across the street had a dog, and the lady next door had

My second favorite place on earth

I grew up watching Cubs games on WGN in Chicago. It was a central part of my youth, just like the school I went to and the things I did to keep myself amused and out of trouble when I couldn’t watch or play baseball. I watched other shows on WGN too, like Bozo’s Circus