Yesterday, I grew more bummed and bitter as the day wore on.  

Whatever mellow I had mustered in the morning (a fairly paltry stock) dissipated during a day full of dwelling on an error on a just completed project, worsened by the lack of response from the client on an act… Read full post »

Walking through the park,

the creek below.

Light breeze ripples the water

against the current,

corrugating the surface.

Sycamores stand opposite;

bare trunks ghostly

in autumn gray.

Wandering to the

bench at creek’s edge.

She lightly sits, embracing… Read full post »

The first time we had a bat in our home—in the condominium—was when Number Two Son was an infant.

The encounter took place early one morning, as summer was beginning. Mrs. P had gotten up in the middle of the night to nurse Number Two. She nursed him in our bed,… Read full post »

The other day, we had to take Number Two Son to Princeton. It was the first time we’d gone there in more than a year, and it occasioned some reflection because a similar drive had been part of our lives for so many, many years, but had been absent for so… Read full post »

Here in the Delaware Valley, the maples, oaks, and beeches have mainly shed their leaves--certainly the Big Maple and Little Maple in our backyard have.

The branches of both trees are almost completely bare now. We can watch the squirrels jump from one to the other—n… Read full post »

One of Mrs. P’s orchids, a Cattleya, put out two buds a couple of weeks ago. Both buds were on the tip of the same spike, and both pointed in the same direction.

We were curious how they would bloom. It seemed unlikely that they could both bloom to face… Read full post »

Twelve years ago last month, we moved into our house.  This was the first house Mrs. P and I lived in together, and it was a major change in our lives.

The first six years of our marriage we lived in a small apartment in Massachusetts. When we moved down… Read full post »

Back in the Dark Ages, when Mrs. P and I lived in Massachusetts, we occasionally visited a movie theater that screened interesting double features. Sometimes these were a predictable joining of classics—The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep, say. Sometimes they were a little more adventurous or… Read full post »

What was a nice, peaceful little guy from Calabria doing in an American army uniform in Archangel, Russia, in 1918? 

He was fighting the good fight against American enemies of World War I: Bolsheviks. 

Well, he didn’t really do any fighting. My grandfather was a regimental tailor, ser… Read full post »

A son picks uncharacteristically at his food.

It cannot be dislike; most of his dinner is gone.

Are you OK?

Looking up, surprised at the sudden question.

Yeah, just deciding what taste I want to end with.

A father smiles.   

Words © 2009 AtHome Pilgrim.

All Rights Reserved.… Read full post »

What was she thinking, while lying there in the hospital bed, drip feeding her arm, respirator filling her lungs? 

Did throbbing pain from her infected abdomen sweep over her mind in regular waves? Did her belly roil, reminding her with every pulse of her tenuous hold on life—a hold marked… Read full post »

My father had this painting of Jesus hanging in his home. When we first saw it, I dismissed it, calling it “James Garner as Jesus.” Mrs. P and I had many a chuckle over that down the years. The image seemed so perfectly to reflect mid-century Midwestern America. I… Read full post »

Last year, one crisp fall day not unlike today, Mrs. P and I were taking a not-quite-daily-enough walk in the park near home when something unusual happened, something I had not remembered ever experiencing.  

When we set out, we were quickly struck by the rare appearance of the sky, which… Read full post »

We had deer visiting us this morning. A lone doe, youngish we thought from her size, came by for lunch at the feeder . . .  

. . .  though mostly she chewed on fallen leaves, of which there was an abundance. Her appearance was not unusual. Does and their young&m… Read full post »

Thank you, Phillies, for a great year: an unexpectedly great year given a litany of troubles (Hamels’s arm in spring training, Harry Kalas’s death in week 2, the travails of Brad Lidge, Jimmy Rollins’s 0 for the first half, and so on). You tied history by being the first NL team… Read full post »

Broadwings kettle in boundless sky,

white tails flashing in shining sun.

New entrants join from hidden nests,

merging into rising circles.

They soar higher, waiting for some

trusty instinct,

their signal to peel away and sail off to the south, buoyed

by the warm airy cushion that carries them… Read full post »

 This was the moon this morning.

This was the moon 15 minutes ago. 

Words and pictures © 2009 AtHome Pilgrim.

All Rights Reserved. Read full post »

Chase Utley smashed two home runs and knocked in four, his teammates matched his RBI output, Cliff Lee pitched well enough just long enough, the bullpen walked a tightrope, and the Philadelphia Phillies found the solution to the Mariano Rivera problem (keep him out of the game), as they defeated the… Read full post »

Joba Chamberlain got the win, despite giving up a homerun in the only inning he pitched. Mariano Rivera* got the save, well earned with a masterful eight-pitch, three-out ninth inning. Alex Rodgriguez knocked in the winning run, stroking a sharp double to left with two men on base in the top… Read full post »

A prizefighter must learn not only how to deliver a punch, but how to take one and remain in the fight. Last night, in Game 3 of the World Series at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park, Yankees lefthander Andy Pettitte took a punch and—aided by his teammates’ bats—bounced back.… Read full post »

A few weeks after Mrs. P and I married, we moved into our first apartment, in Quincy, Massachusetts. The location was perfect—the Red Line was handy to take me into Boston for work, and we were relatively close to the city farther south where Mrs. P was about to start teaching… Read full post »

Backed by solo homers by Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui and supported by a not quite smooth two-inning save by Mariano Rivera, A.J. Burnett pitched a gem last night, guiding the New York Yankees to a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies that evened the World Series at two games apiec… Read full post »

It was, Yogi Berra might have said, like déjà vu all over again. 

Last year, in the opening game of the World Series, the Phillies’ Chase Utley bombed a two-run first-inning homerun to quiet a rabid hometown American League crowd and lefthander Cole Hamels spun a dazzling gam… Read full post »

OK, here we are, the day that no one (but me) really cared about, let alone waited for: the day I make my World Series predictions. 

In this corner, the defending World Champion Philadelphia Phillies, eager to be the first National League team since the 1975-1976 Cincinnati Reds (and only the… Read full post »

Sunday afternoon, we took a walk in park near our home. This time, we went to a different park than the one Mrs. P and I had trekked through the previous week. On this gloomy, rainy Tuesday morning, I thought I’d share a few more shots of a Delaware Valley fall… Read full post »