Jay Wrote

I expect that “Life Ain’t Always Empty”, my 2020 report’s utter failure to update people on COVID, politics and such will be forgiven. As will, I hope, this year’s failure to entirely avoid those topics. Plus forgiveness for the travelogue feel of this report. Karen and I drive up to the Duluth area every month or two to see Molly, Mara, Courtney and Matthew and the dogs. They are in the scrub forest about 20 minutes out of the city. We are charmed and bowled over by the girls every time we see them. Matthew is now doing security system installation work and Courtney is helping families with challenged kids. She has a much harder job.  We stopped for gas and coffee near the Black Bear Casino south of Duluth on the way home this summer. A big white Dodge Ram pickup truck parked next to the entrance of the store. Running. No-one inside. MN license plate was white and first two letters on it were “WW”. These are issued to drivers with DWI convictions. A bumpe...

 My last paid job was working as an election judge for the spring 2020 primary election. It was thirteen hours of civic service and there was no trouble. When was my first job? Was there any trouble? How about the next one? I’m referring to “trouble-trouble”, not John Lewis’s “good trouble” - maybe another essay to be written.    Misaligned.   My first paid work was mowing the family lawn in Proctor, Vermont, probably when I was 9 or 10 years old. The mower was a manual, boy-powered push mower with two wheels at the end of a reel holding four curved, spiraling blades that sliced grass off against a metal piece mounted at the bottom rear of the mower. A wooden roller followed behind the cutting platform, probably to keep the mower balanced and rolling forward or back. The handle shaft was well-patinated wood with a T handle at the top. It seemed old at the time. It was surely manufactured but it was easy imagining a blacksmith banging away at iron to ma...