In Robert Reich’s latest column in the New York Times I have finally found a mainstream voice for my own thoughts. Although I despise Wal-Mart and never shop there, I don’t actually blame Wal-Mart executives or Sam Walton for the destruction of downtown shopping districts. That decimation lies squarely on the shoulders of American consumers: … Robert Reich on Consumerism

I’ve finished redesigning our Web site. There are a few things I’d still like to tweak, but overall, I’m done. At least for another couple months. My one complaint is that I’m not a graphic artist: I’d love to have some stylised drawings of Newburyport in the blue bar at the top. At the top … Updated Design

It took me a moment to figure out what this is. It seems if you pull on the chain, you can open up a pipe between the salt marsh and a little pond. The pipe runs under the ground where we were walking, which is why it took me by surprise.

Last weekend we returned to Plum Island and walked out into the salt marsh. Unfortunately, it was bitterly cold; so we couldn’t stay long.

During the blizzard, I saw these folks trudging through the snow as I made my way back home. They were really enjoying themselves. No really.

It’s hard to imagine that come summer, this salt marsh will be teaming with life. In fact, I suspect it’s currently teaming with life, but it was a little cold for me to hang around long enough to find out.

In addition to being rebranded with a new name, our home on the Web will be getting a fresh coat of paint. Plus, I’m fixing some of the things that annoyed me about the previous incarnations. Probably the biggest improvement is with the photography galleries: browsing forward and backward now keeps you within the same … Redesign In Progress

Our previous Web-site hosting company, Mesopia.com, corrupted our MovableType database during a recent server relocation. Our only choice was to recreate the database based on static HTML files I downloaded from our Web site. This has taught me several lessons: Always generate a backup version of every posting in XML format with all the data … Rebuilding from Static Files

As we left the beach and walked across the boardwalk towards the salt marsh, we spotted this weird monument in the dunes.

On Saturday, 5 February, the temperature topped 50°F. So we went for a walk along Plum Island. It was so warm, in fact, that I decided to take off my boots and walk barefoot along the beach. We walked a total of 9 miles, half on the beach and half along the road that winds … A Walk on the Beach