What to do with the books
I have a lot of books. In hard copy. About a decade ago I pledged that no hard copy books would enter my home by my hand. But still I have the ones I accumulated in the previous 40 or…
cmkl
French River – Pickerel River: 2026 version
The person who first declared “You never paddle the same river twice” could easily have been thinking about the French River when they birthed that pearl of paddling wisdom. Sure there’s always rainfall, snow melt and beaver activity but with…
I make my own yogurt
Cultural context: I’m old enough to have lived through the introduction and expansion of yogurt into North American dominant food culture. When I was a kid it was the weird-smelling white goop that looked enticingly like ice cream but tasted…
Setting up an email account is a lost skill
I miss it. I do. Or rather I miss it in other people. I am exposing myself as a nearly 60 year old IT-adjacent curmudgeon. But I have been running servers and supporting people in their use of technology —…
Unplanned dismount
I was out riding with the OBC June 28 on a century-ish effort to Dunvegan when suddenly I found myself on the deck, looking over my bike, putting the steering tube cap back on and checking the drive train to…
The Nerd Hutch
Since the late 1980s I have had a bit too much technology in my life. When I was working for the student press, I was so fascinated by the computer bulletin board technology we were running to distribute news stories,…
Lutron Caséta Wifi dimmers and LED fixtures: what to do when they don’t work
I should say I am not an electrician. I have over my longish (charmed) life managed, however, to install receptacles, switches and fixtures in a variety of homes with a broad range of tools and have lived to tell the…