Archive (Page 4) • Hit and Miss • Buttondown

Hit and Miss #401: Got energy, got mood, got links

May 11, 2025

These are some of the best weeks. During the day, you can be outside almost indefinitely, enjoying the excitement of all living things, human, plant, and...

Hit and Miss #400: Newsletter anniversaries are for living fully

May 4, 2025

Well, that’s a round number. It’s hard to grok doing something four hundred weeks in a row (though of course there’s much we do automatically for far longer...

Hit and Miss #399: New ways to understand New Ways to Bus

April 27, 2025

Hi friends! It’s very suddenly the end of the weekend, and I haven’t sent my weekly note yet. I’ve spent much of my downtime in the past few days working on...

Hit and Miss #398: “Prompt Builders”

April 20, 2025

Another GTA/401 inspired headline for you: Friday, T and I drove down to Waterloo to visit family. Along the way, I saw a business called “Prompt Builders”....

Hit and Miss #397: National interest

April 13, 2025

I’ve been thinking often of the the season 4 finale, season 5 opening arc of The West Wing. President Bartlett’s attention is split between a national...

Hit and Miss #396: Having opinions!! (also government machinery, uncertainty, and modular housing)

April 6, 2025

Hello! Nice to be back and writing you from a normal setup. (A proper screen and keyboard, a touchpad—so much glorious room to write, compared to the phone...

Hit and Miss #395: Facing backward has its charms

March 30, 2025

I’m on a train to Ottawa, facing backward because that’s just how we roll in this country. We’re freshly back from a trip to Japan for the last few weeks, so...

Hit and Miss #394: Bring on the SPRING

March 23, 2025

Hello! It was the March equinox on Thursday, the start of spring here in the northern hemisphere, a day with more or less equal hours between day and night....

Hit and Miss #393: Oh, for a greenhouse house

March 16, 2025

Hullo! We’re on the road this week, so will keep it short with some links: If you want a garden and greenery all year round, but live in a cold climate,...

Hit and Miss #392: Reading, public service reform, diagetic theme songs

March 9, 2025

Hello! It’s been a very full week, with some ups and downs. We’re looking forward to a few weeks of much-needed vacation, time just to be together and away...

Hit and Miss #391: Burning, 18F, and change

March 2, 2025

Oh boy. Where to begin, and where to go? Today, let’s meander. The last few days have been weird, energy-wise. The go-go-go of the last few weeks finally...

Hit and Miss #390: Try carpolling

February 23, 2025

Picture this: GTA, 2025. You’re driving down the 401, pondering whether Alto will ever be real enough to make you reconsider driving from Ottawa,1 when,...

Hit and Miss #389: Shovelling the snowbanks

February 16, 2025

Whew! This morning, I pre-shovelled the driveway as the storm started to intensify, listening to Robin Wall Kimmerer in conversation with Krista Tippett—I...

Hit and Miss #388: Hair of the dog

February 9, 2025

Friends, I did it! After many years of missing out on Canal ice skating fun (some climate induced, others self-inflicted), I skated the full length...

Hit and Miss #387: “Brace for impact”

February 2, 2025

Where was Begu now? … It was a worry already worn smooth from use and there was nothing she could do. She set it aside to watch Oswine’s entrance. Nicola...

Hit and Miss #386: Paying attention

January 26, 2025

What a week. I’ve been sick for much of the week (physically so, some sort of respiratory fun, though, with waves hands at the news, feeling sick in various...

Hit and Miss #385: Government innovation with TREES

January 19, 2025

Hello! It has been a few weeks of writing at work, so I’m a bit word-ed out. I’m also happily tired after a pretty full weekend, so will just move ahead to...

Hit and Miss #384: Mercurial January

January 12, 2025

Hello! In what seems to be a trend, my mood this weekend has been mercurial. Partly, I think a stressful upcoming month at work, but also, as my therapist...

Hit and Miss #383: “Finish”

January 5, 2025

Hello!! Yesterday was pretty so-so—irritable all day, like I’d just started it with the wrong mindset (though T’s suggestion of a midday walk did help). Then...

Hit and Miss #382: Some books from 2024

December 29, 2024

Hello! Back in Ottawa, cozily ensconced in freezing fog and other “how’d they come up with this” weather phenomena. I woke at 4 this morning and couldn’t...