uncommonly feeble and random thoughts

But not on my part... no siree, those days are gone. I even mow the yard sitting down. No, this is the story of the driveway replacement... aging concrete, but also with a three- or four-inch rise in one of the slabs, brought on by a tree root. Oh it also cracked the slab north-to-south entirely We hired a snowplow once, I can't remember why, and the pickup truck bounced when the blade hit the outcrop. A major impediment. And since we didn't quite exhaust our life savings traveling to Italy, we engaged a local concrete business to freshen up the joint. The first step, of course, is to remove the step (and front sidewalk). Here's the view of our front door:   "Able" is the concrete company, not a challenge as in "are you able to leap from the porch to the dirt, or more to the point, from the dirt to the porch?" Backing slowly away from that breathtaking view, we see the front sidewalk, or rather the lack thereof, with Linda's car parked at Bruce and T...

Cathedral of St. Andrew, Amalfi, inner courtyard Nearly a month in the making, this entry reveals the sixteen-day tour we enjoyed in the spring of 2025.  I've adopted (stolen) the Tauk travel company organizational schema to report on the experience. First, it's chronological, and second, I'm so challenged to make sense of the whole excursion that I'd never achieve any clarity of expression on my own.  Not to assume that I now will... Thus, a series of twelve entries have been crafted, each more or less reflecting different stops along the way. Florence, well, I still have work to do on that stunning city. Soon... Please note that I am not an archeologist, anthropologist, art historian... the list is massive. I'm also not a professional photographer. I am, instead, a humble enthusiast. And, for good measure, please note that the primary purpose of these entries is to preserve our memories of this most extraordinary adventure. Many, many thanks to Classic Travel in ...

Just for visual starters... this is the second shot I took on the trip. It's looking out over the balcony of our room, over the Gulf of Naples. We hadn't even unpacked our bags yet. The very first shot was this exact framing, a minute or two earlier, but without the boat, and wake. Photography is sometimes about preparation, but I think more about luck. From the Grand Hotel La Favorita in Sorrento at 2:39 pm. "The Favorite" indeed. My immediate sense was "omg this can't be real".  And yet, here we are. We were met at the airport, at the baggage carousel, by a Tauk guide (naturally) and were whisked from NAP (Naples-Capodichino International Airport) to a waiting, black, Mercedes limo driven by Luigi... cue The Godfather theme music.   La Masseria Farm Tour We arrived in Italy a day before the official tour began, but Tauk is such an extraordinary company, they offered, and we took, a tour of a Sorrento lemon farm.  We met a small bus and somehow surviv...

Crafting this post has a difficulty factor of about 9.9, for several reasons.  First, we arrived early to the site in order to beat the crowds - which was a big plus. It worked. However, rather than having overhead, more midday sun, we had early sun, so long shadows. I tried to take advantage of the drama but was not able to conquer the challenge. Second, the ruins did not lend themselves to my photo-narrative eye. It was a hard shoot. Last, our visit followed the Sorrento-Amalfi excursions, which were landscape-gorgeous, and it was hard switching gears.  Let's begin with a brief intro to this most fascinating city: Pompeii was a thriving seaport, just south of what is now Naples.  It was a marvel of urban planning, municpal innfrastructure, and artistic and architectural excellence. Streets and a clean water supply were vital conveniences for residents. Merchants grew rich on trade, and local restaurants/bars and bakeries did brisk business. Every block had a well. Upon ...

  Our first stop had to be the Colosseum... under construction, yet and still. It originally sported a gleaming white external facade, but that marble was stripped off to pave St. Peter's Square. We did not tour inside the structure, which was disappointing.  There are some blocks laying about, waiting for the reconstruction: It turns out there was a canvas "roof " for the Colosseum that required the efforts of a thousand sailors to deploy.   Nearby, the Arch of Constantine:   And on the other side of the Arch, a view from the Colosseum of the Arch of Titus, showing the Arch (of course), the Forum (to the right), and the crowd. Note that this is late April, at the beginning of "the season". Note also that the Arch of Titus, like the Colosseum, is under construction:   And a view to show context: on the right, the Colosseum, center is the Arch of Constantine, and to the left can be seen the columns of the ruins of the Forum. The Arch of Titus is just out of the ...