Category Archives: Original Writing

The Charitable Side of Collecting

My friends know I’m a Disney collector.  For almost thirty years, I’ve belonged to the Disneyana Fan Club (DFC, originally the NFFC, http://www.disneyanafanclub.org/), and it’s been a very rewarding experience on many levels.  I know most people have their outside interests and passions, but I also realize occasionally these passions can get a bit… extreme. 

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On Trees and Relationships

I have a ginkgo tree in my front yard.  It was not my doing; it came with the house.  If you’re not familiar with this type, it’s sometimes referred to as the maidenhair tree.  The only surviving species in the division Ginkgophyta, it goes back at least 270 million years (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginkgo_biloba).  The probable reason there is

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My Eclipse Day

It seemed like a good idea at the time.  Studying the map for the August 21 total solar eclipse, I realize I was only about 300 miles from the path of totality (where the moon’s shadow completely covers the sun), or about a half day’s drive.  I’d never seen a total eclipse before, so I

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Mountain Climbing 101

For some reason, I can’t import any of my photos into this article.  Photos are on my Facebook page.   Several weeks after I’d signed up for my Africa trip, the travel agency called me.  “Would you like to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro?” I thought that sounded like  a real adventure.  At my age, this would

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