by Jeff Drake | Aug 27, 2024 | Christian Nationalism, Uncategorized
Part 5 of my mini-series blog about the roots of Christian Nationalism
by Jeff Drake | Nov 12, 2023 | Uncategorized
This year is going out with a travel “bang!” We just spent 7 days in North Carolina to see the fall colors, followed with a few days in New Jersey to see the in-laws and even a day drive into Pennsylvania to see an old friend of Lisa’s. Two weeks later we’re all...
by Jeff Drake | Feb 4, 2020 | Uncategorized
Hi Everybody! Oh, and Happy New Year! My wife and I have been busy getting ready (finally) for an upstairs remodel. We’re hoping to actually get it done this year. I had been thinking that we could start in a month or two, but as a friend of mine reminded me...
by Jeff Drake | Oct 18, 2019 | 2019 France & Spain, Uncategorized
Well, in yet another clear case of “life interruptus,” my hopes for finishing my Alva Noe consciousness blog before leaving on our next overseas adventure have been dashed. Why? Because I was too damned lazy and besides, we are off to Europe tomorrow!...
by Jeff Drake | Oct 17, 2019 | 2019 France & Spain, Uncategorized
Provence (Roussillon) It’s always surprising how long the wait seems before going on vacation, then suddenly you’re traveling and soon, before you know what is happening, you are back, the vacation is over and you’re thinking, “Wow, that was fast!” And for this...
by Jeff Drake | Oct 16, 2019 | 2019 France & Spain, Uncategorized
Truffle Hunting! On our trip to Italy in 2017 we paid to go on a truffle hunting excursion. It was a bust! Climate change had delivered several years of drought which is anathema to truffles. To boot the Italian truffle hunter spoke barely any English at all and knew...
by Jeff Drake | Oct 15, 2019 | 2019 France & Spain, Uncategorized
Carrières de Lumières and Vincent van Goh France, of course, drips with history. One thing Lisa and I always love to do when visiting someplace with lots of history is to read about the area we’re traveling to in order to discover any interesting historical tidbits...
by Jeff Drake | Oct 14, 2019 | 2019 France & Spain, Uncategorized
Provence Outings and Carcassonne During this trip we drove all over the Lubron Valley, visiting small towns and plus beau villages. There are all sorts of churches throughout France and the Dordogne. Interestingly, so many of the monasteries are Cistercian, the 3rd...
by Jeff Drake | Oct 13, 2019 | 2019 France & Spain, Uncategorized
Sarlat-la-Canéda & environs I’m going to wrap up France with this post, then I will do one more final post about Barcelona. All with photos, of course! After one evening in Carcassonne, we got back in the car and drove to our final French destination,...
by Jeff Drake | Oct 12, 2019 | 2019 France & Spain, Uncategorized
After 3 days dealing with reordering and moving literally thousands of files between external drives and getting my Lightroom catalog back in order and two days of visitors, I finally can finish this travel blog. I have to get ready for a trip to New Jersey tomorrow...
by Jeff Drake | Dec 24, 2018 | Uncategorized
Hi Everyone! I just wanted to send out a heartfelt Happy Holidays wish to all of you! I sincerely hope that you all will have a wonderful time this Christmas and experience a fun new year! Cheers! Jeff Read the...
by Jeff Drake | Jan 26, 2018 | Uncategorized
I’ve created a new WordPress category for my use: “Jeff’s Wayback machine”. Under this category, I will post some articles previously written by me some years ago. I’ve only recently revisited some of my early writings from the 1990’s and find various things that are,...
by Jeff Drake | Jan 11, 2018 | Uncategorized
A New Year consciousness stream… 2017 is quickly receding into the past and we are already into our second week of 2018. I think I can safely say that, presidential politics aside, overall it was a good year for me and I have no reason to complain. 2017 was the first...
by Jeff Drake | Dec 22, 2017 | Uncategorized
It’s Christmas time, so I’m feeling rather reflective right now and faced with an urge to share my thoughts. Consider yourself warned. LOL! Recently I’ve been reminiscing about some of my Christmas memories as a young boy growing up in Duluth, Minnesota. I’m...
by Jeff Drake | Nov 19, 2017 | Uncategorized
I realize I have been remiss in daily postings. I’m new at this, so there is a bit of a learning curve. I am finding that a daily schedule that begins at breakfast and last till bedtime makes it difficult to find time to just sit and write. I’m not...
by Jeff Drake | Nov 19, 2017 | Uncategorized
We arrived in San Gimignano yesterday (10-5). It was my first experience driving since we were last in Italy (2009) and I got rear-ended by a teenager on a motorcycle. No problems this time! Getting around was easy, for the most part. I have to say though, that having...
by Jeff Drake | Nov 18, 2017 | Uncategorized
This will be the last post I’ll make about our recent trip to Italy, unless someone has a specific related topic they would like me to cover. If not, I’m going to move on to some other topics I’ve been wanting to write about, although reminiscing...
by Jeff Drake | Oct 29, 2017 | Uncategorized
Post-trip Reflections and Lessons Learned Wow, time is flying! We’ve been home two weeks already! Lisa and I managed to pick up head colds prior to the end of our trip, which, when combined with some rather tedious and tiring jet lag, made our travel recovery a...
by Jeff Drake | Aug 5, 2017 | Uncategorized
On August 21st, 2017, we’re going to get a chance to experience something important and rather rare. It’s not the eclipse. At least, not the eclipse by itself. What I’m thinking about is a rather wonderful side-effect we get to experience just from observing it! For...
by Jeff Drake | Jul 19, 2017 | Uncategorized
I read the book and wrote this report back in 1993. (Ben Bagdikian was an educator and journalist who died in 2016. He will be missed!). Given what we now know and think about our current media mess, this book, although dated, is still extremely valuable. If anything,...
by Jeff Drake | Jul 14, 2017 | Uncategorized
I have been working on my family tree for over 25 years. Whoever originally said, “Genealogy is not a hobby, it’s a passion!” spoke the truth! For most of these 25 years, I have been completely focused on my maternal ancestry. Those that know me,...
