Writing this from Keuka Lake, where the summer has officially started — Friends Greg, Matt, Jim, and Jill arrived last week, the lake is warming up, and it finally feels like home again. Last month was the road trip and Jerry's passing; this one is more about settling in. Jerry's memorial service at the church and Ferris Hills on May 23 was beautiful and felt like the right send-off. We've spent the weeks since getting both cottages ready for guests, birding, and joining Greg and Matt (and Matthew and Lauren) in New York City for a few days of theater and food.

A few things from the blog since last month: Julie and I hit our 35th anniversary, celebrated quietly at a new-to-us restaurant. I re-entered the photography world with a Canon EOS R6 Mark II and the results have been great — Baltimore orioles, common mergansers with ducklings, green heron, northern yellow warblers, the usual suspects at the lake. And while deep in shrub-trimming I found a blue jay fledgling hiding in the branches.

1. What I've Been Reading

Articles

1. The 100 Greatest Bird Names of All Time — Robert Francis at Bird History. I've been in a birding stretch this spring and this was a perfect companion. Genuinely funny writing.
2. The Emacsification of Software — Everything is becoming an extensible editor with a plugin ecosystem. The thesis holds, and it maps well to how I think about Obsidian and Claude Code as daily tools.
3. Slow Mode — Val Town on intentional friction.
4. The Global Fertility Crisis Is Worse Than You Probably Think — Derek Thompson. The numbers are sobering and the "why" is still genuinely contested.
5. The Types of Candidate You Find in the California Gubernatorial Race — Scott Alexander on California politics.
6. Socialism Has a Future. Central Planning Doesn't. — More interesting than the source might suggest. The distinction between market socialism and top-down planning is real and worth taking seriously. Goes well with my reading of Hayek last year.
7. 100 Novels MBR Readers Would Die on a Hill For — Good list fodder. Noted a handful of titles I hadn't heard of.
8. Beyond the Prompt: Claude Code — Arpan Patel on workflow with Claude Code. Some things I already do; a few angles I hadn't thought about.
9. Paul McCartney's 'Boys of Dungeon Lane' Is a Wistful, Playful Delight — Variety review of McCartney's new album. Two listens so far and it is solid.

Books

1. Continued the John le Carré binge — finished The Looking Glass War. Bleaker and slower than Spy Who Came In From the Cold, but that's what it's supposed to be. I guess he was criticized for showing the ineptitude of the made-up British intelligence unit, but I suspect these doomed-from-the-start missions happen more often than we suspect.
2. Finished A Parade of Horribles by Matt Dinniman — book 8 of Dungeon Crawler Carl. The series keeps finding new ways to be weird. Glad I switched to the audio books after book 3. Was a good road companion.
3. Working through Golf is Not a Game of Perfect by Bob Rotella, gifted to me by uncle Don. It is old and the stories are at times tedious but the core of it holds up and I'm enjoying it.
4. Part-way through Cry of the Kalahari on a recommendation from my personal Africa guide Ken. Ken and I will be wandering through the CKGR about a month into our ~9 week Africa adventure starting later this summer. Very good so far.

2. What I've Been Watching

Theater

The NYC trip (June 6-9) was organized around two shows:

1. Ragtime — This opened our NYC trip and was on our arrival day, joining Matthew, Lauren, Greg, and Matt. It was very good but not awesome. Singing was exceptional. Maybe I'm not a huge fan of revivals?
2. Operation Mincemeat at the John Golden (Sunday matinee, TKTS score) — I had seen the two movies based on the operation and Matt suggested the show based on some reviews. For Julie and me this was the star of the weekend. Touching, hilarious, couldn't believe the pacing and role-changes with 5 actors playing every role.

TV

1. Your Friends & Neighbors (Apple TV+) — Season 2, finished recently and better even than season 1.
2. The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (HBO) — The original 2015 series. I know, I know. We aren't done with season 2 yet but this has been an awkward and fun watch.
3. Mad Men — Started this second watch-through, solo. January Jones might be the best of the cast in seasons 1 and 2.

Movies

1. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning — After re-watching Dead Reckoning we finished our M:I journey. Satisfying.

3. What I've Been Listening To

Music

1. Album Club: Sixteen Stone - Bush on May 29. Jim's pick. This was in heavy rotation for me in 1996-1997 so I was very familiar, but forgot how good the album is start to finish.
2. Paul McCartney — Boys of Dungeon Lane — See above.
3. Album Club: Close to the Edge – Yes , conducted live with Jim this weekend. I had heard only bits and pieces of early Yes work and this album (especially first side) was in constant rotation for me.
4. I'm enjoying revisiting the 80s work of the Rolling Stones alongside Steven Hyden and his Catalog Club.
5. Guitar lessons have me listening harder to Neil Young (deep in Harvest Moon and Heart of Gold) and adding the Rolling Stones' acoustic side to the rotation. Wild Horses is my new lesson song.

4. What I've Been Playing

Golf

The range at Lakeside is finally open, which helped. Caught up with Erik at Golf Evolution in Erie at the end of May for a session focused on hinge and takeaway. I'm not playing well right now, but there's always hope. I'll be back for a lesson with Erik tomorrow as I head to Michigan for a bunch of golf. Pickleball resumed too.

Board Games

The past few weeks I've been studying BCS (Battalion Combat System) rules in prep for my first real plays of Last Blitzkrieg with Allen, MMP's Ardennes operational wargame. Also still playing Italy '43 with John, and some Imperial Struggle with Doug.

The Keuka gathering turned into a proper gaming week. Heavy anchors on either end: Power Grid with the France/Italy board kicked things off (3 hours, won by the narrowest of margins), and 18Lilliput closed the week — another 3-hour rail build that Matt took decisively but with an asterisk. In between: Clash of Cultures (best civ game), Torchlit (dungeon crawl filler trick taking game), and Trickadee as a lighter night-ender. The Gang got played three times — cooperative Texas hold-em. Just One made a late appearance with the full group including Julie. Also played Flip 7 a couple of times.

5. What I'm Attempting

1. Wildlife photography cadence. The Canon R6 Mark II is installed and delivering. Next step is getting out for a dedicated morning session before summer guests fill the schedule completely. The BirdNET Raspberry Pi is also running at the lake now — passively logging species by audio.
2. I'm building my own photo digital asset management MacOS app. After just a few weeks it is already better than digiKam (for my use) and harkens back to my love for the original Adobe Lightroom. I'm now integrating wildlife taxonomies and related tagging, with import directly from eBird and iNaturalist.

In about two weeks our constant rotation of hosting folks begins. Tomorrow I'll start my van trip to Grand Rapids MI area for a solstice golfing event with The Fried Egg. Hoping for at least 54 holes played this coming Friday.

-Chris