My friend Jim began pestering me to start a blog a couple of years ago and, as I do with most of Jim’s suggestions, I resisted. (Still not on gmail.) Then one day as I was telling him about my yoga class in an arts center supported by a pawn shop, I realized that, while I might not be all that interesting, the world I live in has a definite quirky appeal. It took me another two months to decide whether I really wanted to blog about the three-hundred pound female gangbanger down the street who scares the wadding out of me. (She also scares the beat cops, so I’m not particularly embarrassed about my timidity.)

Then I started blogging for the Green on McLean community garden, and I found myself wanting to write about more than squash. I strayed often into other neighborhood events. Or wanted to.

What clinched the deal is that I realized I could use the pages of this blog to put up some other stuff I’m working on–stories, articles, books, even photographs and videos. Maybe someone will look at them and give me feedback. Writers love feedback, even though it often sounds as though you put two microphones too close together and got, you know, feedback.

Anyway, I guess I’m now a blogger.

And here’s a picture of the boat house at the Humboldt Park Lagoon, a couple of miles from our house. No, it has nothing to do with anything except that the boat house is just one more surprising thing in this poverty-stricken, gang-ridden part of Chicago.