• Category Archives day by day

  • This is the category closest to just being a plain diary. Places I go, things I do, people I see, what’s happening in my life.

  • It’s Been A While, My Friend

    Posted on by Don Comment

    Whenever we visit my Dad’s grave, I take a little walk to see if I can find my friend Mike’s final resting place, but I’ve never had any luck. My Mom and I were at the grave yesterday, and I had my usual fruitless search, but this time, on the way out, I stopped at the grounds-keeper’s office and asked for help. The guy told us to follow him, drove out — to a completely different section of the cemetery than I’d remembered — stopped his truck, and directed us to Mike’s grave. So much for relying on memory…

    gravestone
    Mike’s Grave in Old Tennent Cemetery

    I’d never seen the headstone; the last time I was there was for the funeral, just before Christmas in 2003. Now, twenty three years later, my Mom and I were there to place a rock on the stone. We stood by the grave for a bit, reminiscing, and then we headed home.

    Here is something I put together just after he passed, a photo collage for his girlfriend, and here are some things I wrote about Mike over the years (though some of the links in that link may be broken).


    day by day looking back

  • Slipped One In Under The Deadline

    Posted on by Don Comment

    Last post before June…

    We went out last night to the concert at the Rose Garden, but the vibe really didn’t click for us (food truck choices) so we went for sushi at Steak & Steel, where Joe & Laura met up with us. We all walked from there to Red Stag for dessert before calling it a night.

    Today I have a little yardwork to do, then this afternoon we’re going on a friend’s “Magical History Tour” of Fountain Hill by bike.


    day by day

  • May Days

    Posted on by Don Comment

    We’ve had a pretty good week: our quartet met last Sunday, Anne and I had Iris a few times and also got in a few rides this week, and last night was opening night at the Velodrome — we went with Joe & Laura. We went to the farmer’s market at the Rose Garden this morning and we’re about to go back there for tonight’s concert (and a food truck dinner). It’s still a bit chilly but life has been good!


    day by day

  • More On The New Toy

    Posted on by Don

    So here I am, posting at home from the new machine. I have it mostly set up the way I want it: photos, music, GRAMPS genealogy are now installed — these all required moving database files, but the transfers went OK. The desktop is mostly the way I like it, and I’m actually using it right now to pay bills today (sigh).

    I’m slowly finding out more about this laptop too. Most interestingly, it has no Ethernet port, no power port (you use one of the USB-C connections), and there is a microSD port rather than a regular one. I guess times change… but there are still two USB-A ports along with the two USB-C “thunderbolt” ports, so I guess things also stay the same.


    day by day tech talk

  • Touching Base

    Posted on by Don

    Man, where to begin…

    I guess the first thing to say is that I usually stop posting when I’m blocked by news in my life, usually bad news, that I don’t want to share yet. I can’t think, or write, about anything else until I get it out of my system, so all writing gets blocked for a while. This has been happening for a while but the latest tale can now be told, to wit:

    This isn’t really my story to tell so I’m deliberately being a bit vague, but my son-in-law had a major health scare. He needed some major surgery, but is recovering now and the surgery seems to have done the trick. We’d all been under a great deal of stress until we got the good news from the hospital, now maybe a week ago. The major problem was found while the doctors were investigating a less severe (unrelated) problem he has, so now he’s back to square one on the original issue, but things are looking up.

    Meanwhile, and I might have mentioned this in passing already, but here’s some good news: Ben and Jennie are expecting — the baby will be here sometime around the beginning of August. We are all over the moon. They also got a new apartment, only a few blocks away from us, and are both now busy teaching.

    Laptop Update: My current laptop is suddenly showing signs of physical wear. It’s mostly a problem with the hinge — the electrical connection to the screen seems to be wearing, and the screen blacks out unless the lid is in just the right spot. So, I bought a new laptop this week. I want to go with Linux Mint, and was thinking of getting a DELL or even another System76, but really I was leaning towards Lenovo, and eventually settled on a Yoga 7.

    This is basically a commodity laptop, pretty straightforward (except for a touchscreen and the hinge’s extra flexibility): 16GB RAM, 1TB storage, Intel CPU and GPU. Not bleeding edge by any means, but at least as good as my old laptop and (most important) it feels physically robust.

    I wiped the drive and installed Mint, which was a bit of a nail-biter but mostly went smoothly. Installed a ton of my favorite software, got my databases up and running, got QGIS going & migrated my projects, and I’m now working through migrating my music/photos and local website. I have a lot still to do but the laptop is now fully functional — I walked with it across the river to a coffee shop, and spent the afternoon configuring software and browsing.

    This afternoon is the No Kings protest in town, and I’ll probably take one of the bikes out for a ride tomorrow.


    day by day tech talk

  • Long And Busy Weekend

    Posted on by Don

    Anne & I went to the Philly Bike Expo yesterday with her brother Joe. We saw a few friends, checked out the exhibits (I favored the rides and trail network booths over bikes & equipment), and went to a few seminars, then we grabbed lunch at the Reading Terminal Market and came home.

    Friday we had a family dinner (Emmi & family, Joe & Laura and Ben & Jennie) to plan for Jennie’s upcoming baby shower. We also pulled the trigger and ordered our new shades for the living room and dining room, and did a bunch of shopping, and I got bunch of Mom’s bills and financial stuff done.

    Thursday was the funeral for my sister-in-law Tara’s mom. She was a sweet woman and very close to our family, and it was a long difficult day. We drove down around 7:00 AM in pouring rain, and came home in a sleety snowstorm. Visibility was garbage, but luckily nothing was sticking on the road. Still, long drive there, long dat, and long drive back.

    This morning we went to a housewarming brunch at Ben & Jennie’s new place, and tonight we’re invited to an Oscars party but I don’t think we’re going. Personally, I’m beat.


    day by day

  • Well That Didn’t Take Long

    Posted on by Don

    I stand corrected: winter came back last night. We got maybe 4 inches, but other parts of our extended area got up to 12″ or even 18″. The snowfall totals didn’t really follow a set pattern either; they were almost random, maybe a bit heavier south and east of us. (It was the same in NJ: my mom’s town got 6 inches while nearby Freehold got 19″.)

    We were out in the storm last night. Joe’s Tavern (our usual Sunday night spot) was closed, but we met Joe & Laura and Sarah at Red Stag. The snow was really beautiful, on all the trees and falling from the sky.


    day by day

  • A Fast Two Months

    Posted on by Don

    Last post was January 7th, and here it is late February already!

    Not much to say here right now: we are super busy with family stuff — some good news, some not so good, but none of them are my stories to tell. I’ve picked up the cello again, and we got our quartet going again, so I have some music to work on. I’ve read a few books, and maybe I’ll write about them here eventually. My mom is back from Florida, and I’m visiting her again (now that the snow is not so bad) to help with finances etc. Iris is growing and thriving — I sometimes miss when she was a baby, but I absolutely adore the little girl she is becoming.

    The world is still mostly grey/white, but the days are longer and you can feel things getting ready for spring.


    day by day

  • Rest In Peace, Henry

    Posted on by Don

    Kevin “Henry” Mortimer 1964(?)-2026

    I knew him from grade school, and high school, and years of early adult friendship. We called him Henry because he and my brother Kevin were inseparable, and my brother’s girlfriend at the time thought two Kevin’s were one too many, and he “looked like a Henry,” and… there may be more to the story but it’s now lost in the mists of time. He lived in Florida for a decade or so, moved back to New Jersey and our paths crossed occasionally. The last time I saw him was when he came to my Dad’s funeral.

    Kevin passed away yesterday, peacefully as far as I know. He’d hit his head in a fall earlier in the day (or maybe the day before — I’m getting the story second-hand). He went to bed, and his girlfriend found him unresponsive in the morning. He died of cardiac arrest in the hospital.

    Wake and funeral early next week. I think I’ll go out and down a bottle of Budweiser for my friend Kevin tonight.


    day by day

  • First Post!

    Posted on by Don

    Happy 2026!

    We had a small party last night, a bunch from Anne’s knitter crowd, and at midnight we walked over to (or under, for most of the crowd) the Broad Street Bridge, where Anne and I lowered a — well, not a Peep, but a large knitted chick named “Confetti” over the side and down to the waiting crowd below, as they counted down to the new year.

    Anne’s been meaning to do this for a few years, ever since the traditional “lowering of the Peep” in our town was moved from the correct and proper midnight to the lame and family-friendly 6:00. Well friends, it finally happened, and it was good. I didn’t take any pictures (I was busy, and couldn’t really see much anyway), but pictures and video were taken, maybe I’ll post some here if I get a my hands on any.

    We just relaxed for most of the day today, hanging with Iris and letting the traditional pork & sauerkraut cook. Jennie took off this morning to visit her folks in LA, but Ben and Emmi & Kyle came over for dinner tonight. Almost immediately after dinner Anne and I drove across the river to meet friends and watch Jack Murray and the Blue Tarp Wranglers do their annual tribute to Hank Williams at Godfrey Daniels.

    Tomorrow is a hike in Jim Thorpe along with a visit to some family up there, and I may post my resolutions in the next day or so but for now I’m going to bed.


    day by day