In the Navajo vernacular, this time of year we often get what is called male rain, níłtsą́ bikąʼ. These are drenchers that come on strong and swift, rutting out driveways, turning the river a sudden brown, and they’re usually finished just as fast as they started. This happens when upwellings of heat from the ground […]
Weather
I usually like the beginning of the school year, but this year I want a do-over. Lucky for me, there’s a new year starting next week: Water Year 2026! We had a surprise storm this week, complete with purple veins of lightning and raindrops filing our barrel to round out the end of water year […]
Last week my family traveled to Oregon for an end-of-summer trip. We wanted to start in Bend, in the central part of the state. There we would hike and explore a bit—somewhat to her dismay, I was especially eager to take my daughter up South Sister, one of the Three Sisters volcanoes—before driving down to […]
This first ran on August 17, 2022. Three years later, August 20, 2025, same. Except this year we also have infrastructure, (it’s like measles: you get it, you suffer, it goes away) which we have often enough that I know code for the street markings: gas is yellow, electric is red, sewer is green, water […]
Here’s a picture of something I found and put in my mouth. You get to guess what it is. The season for these where I live is just getting going, and this first ran four years ago, so it’s about time to show it again. First, is it organic or manufactured? Don’t scroll down to […]
Yesterday afternoon, all at once, my son and I started to feel a little sluggish. For me, a little afternoon slump isn’t so surprising. But for a kid who’s usually climbing up doorjambs, ripping off pull-ups, or teaching himself how to do a corkscrew flip on the trampoline, it’s weird. But there we were in […]
An American: You guys have something called Flying Ant Day. Is this some kind of national holiday? A British person who is tired of ants: I can see how you’d get there, given the past 14 years of British politics. Quite the opposite, though: it’s the summer day we all dread because unlike other commemorative […]
I wrote this post a few years ago after being off the grid for a week and coming back to a bunch of messages about an emergency. I’m about to head out again, and I do always have that worry–what if something happens when I’m gone, and I’m not here to help? But reading this […]
