Remain calm, be kind, and carry on regardless!
You've reached the online journal of Richard Rathe — online since 2004! In this iteration I'm trying a few new ideas: minimal markup, working with mostly plain text, and moving beyond the timeline. I call it BLIS (BLog It Simple). Find me online…
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Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Birds, Guttenberg, Iowa, Purple_Martins
Oct 29, 2026
Rest in peace Patrick Stewart. I will miss your voice.
Critters History Travel Video 2019
On my trip west this year I made sure I had time to visit this unique area. The Dinosaur Tracks are located within and along side the Purgatoire River within the Comanche National Grassland. It is located 35 miles south of La Junta, Colorado off the lightly maintained County Road 25 (upper left in the map above). The last few miles are on a primitive forest service road that ends at the Withers Canyon Trailhead and Campground (four sites with fire grates and a pit toilet).
Birds Boats Flowers Nature Photography 2026
An occasional journal of photographs and activities on the Lake thru the seasons. I walk or kayak almost every day and these are the flora and fauna I encounter. The photographs are mine unless otherwise noted. Entries are in reverse chronological order.
Commentary History 2026
The Election has finally come and gone. It was a whirlwind day for me working the polls. At the end of the day we helped nearly 400 voters cast their ballots. We were in the community hall of a small Baptist Church in a small rural community. The voters were diverse and I was struck by the number of disabled people who came in—even tho they could have voted early or by mail. There is something satisfying about voting on the actual election day. 🙂
Commentary Protest 2026
Visiting the Iowa branch of my family for the fourth No Kings Protest against Trump and his Lickspittle Poltroons in the GOP. The Orange Man is more unpopular than ever. It is very important that we get out the Vote!
Commentary
Frank Wilhoit (2018)
There is a quote from a few years ago that adds political framing I find useful. I propose using it as a test or razor
(à la Occam) when evaluating political actions and legislation:
Books Commentary History 2026
I've reworked these extended quotations from The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman (1986) for today's wannabe King
Trump. In a few pages she describes the bad policies and attitudes of the French King Louis XIV. I was struck by the deep parallels with the policies and attitudes of the current administration and the flock of Lickspittle Poltroons that compose the current GOP. Tuchman's words speak to greater truths. My words are my own and speak for more immediate truths in desperate times.
Camping Galleries Travel 1986
We were three college buddies with lots of skiing and camping experience between us. So when I moved to Wyoming we decided to take a little winter trip inside Yellowstone National Park.
Critters Galleries History Road_Trip_2026 Rock_Art Travel 2026
We decided to get a room in Green River Utah for two nights so we could: visit nearby Dinosaur Track and Rock Art sites that day, return to have a real cooked dinner, head out early the next day for Arches, then on to Nine Mile Canyon the next day.
Galleries Panoramas Photography Travel 2014
About a year ago [2013] I upgraded the iOS on my iPhone 4s. A few days later I discovered a new option in the Camera App—Panorama Mode! Over the next few months I slowly realized that this was a serious photographic tool. Now I take it along as an important part of my photographic gear. It appears to work like a slit camera, but instead of moving the film, you must move the camera. This has interesting ramifications if some or all of your subject is moving (see my Treatise on Panopainting).
Bookhouse History Panoramas
L. P. Gallagher (1914)
I came across these rolled-up postcards
(yes, they have a place for a stamp and address on the back!) in an old collection of regular postcards that had nothing to do with Duluth or Minnesota. After some research by friends and family we came up with approximate dates. Based on the early automobiles and horse-carts we dated the downtown view before 1920 (Full-Res Image).
Camping Everglades Galleries Travel 2005
After driving down from Naples, we reached the put in at Coot Bay Pond around 11am. We were on the trail by 11:45. There was a ten mile per hour breeze out of the north, so we had a headwind most of the day. We headed directly into Whitewater Bay for the first few hours before turning up the side bay leading to Roberts River.
Birds Flowers Galleries Iowa Travel 2025
Pikes Peak is a state park in Clayton County, Iowa, United States, featuring a 500-foot (150 m) bluff overlooking the Upper Mississippi River opposite the confluence of the Wisconsin River… The Iowa incarnation of Pikes Peak, a particularly high point overlooking the gorge of the Upper Mississippi, and like Pikes Peak in Colorado, is named for Zebulon Pike. Pike visited the area in 1805 during his first expedition.
[wikipedia]
Galleries History Travel 1976
In 1976 I was a sophomore at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. I had already done a few cross-country, multi-state bicycle trips in High School and continued planning short trips during my weeks off. The Bikecentennial was too good to pass up! In 2002 I scanned my 35mm slides and created this travelogue with representative quotes from my journal. What you see here is the current version updated in 2026, fifty years later!
Commentary Technology 2009
I like to listen to audiobooks on my iPod. I have a subscription to Audible.com and buy one or two books a month. In the beginning things were fine, but about two years ago iTunes stopped remembering my Audible password. I get around this by double-clicking on any Audible file and put in my password when it asks. This fixes the problem long enough to sync. But if I quit iTunes, I start over. If I forget, iTunes automatically deletes the files from my iPod. Needless to say this is a major pain in the butt!
Hdr Nature Photography Plants 2012
The Cellon Oak Park is located three miles south of La Crosse off highway 121 in rural Alachua County. For years I’ve driven the highways nearby and never knew this gem was there. The tree is magnificent in person. Well worth a trip!
Books Commentary Reviews Technology
Neil Postman (1985)
This important book helps explain the current state of our society, media, and education. Postman begins by contrasting the two great futurist novels, 1984 and Brave New World. He concludes that Huxley made the better prediction—no need for a police state when we have television!
Books History Reviews
Barbara Tuchman (1984)
With America “At War” [2006 & 2026] on several fronts, I was stimulated to recall this wonderful and important book by the eminent historian Barbara Tuchman. The first line says it all…
Birds Flowers Galleries Road_Trip_2026 Travel 2026
While attending a family wedding I camped on my Brother's property in the Sierra Foothills. This turned out to be a hook-up place for Wild Turkeys in the area. About six Toms (males) appeared every day in pursuit of a few hens (who appeared to completely ignore their suitors 😉). Other birds included Hawks, Owls, and California Towhees. The area also supported a herd of deer and many wildflowers, including this Yellow Star Tulip (actually a type of lily).
Birds Flowers Galleries History Road_Trip_2026 Travel 2026
My target for this segment was inspired by a used book I came across while working at my local Friends of the Library—Sinagua Sunwatchers
by Kenneth Zoll. At first I had a bit of trouble finding the site online because the name has been changed very recently to better reflect its Native American origins. [The old name V Bar V
referenceed the now defunct ranch on the property.]
Birds Nature Science Video 2011
Plain-Tailed Wrens (Pheugopedius euophrys, Ecuador) cooperate to produce a duet song in which males and females rapidly alternate singing syllables.
From Neural Mechanisms for the Coordination of Duet Singing in Wrens
by Fortune, Rodríguez, et al in Science 4 Nov 2011.
Commentary Galleries Iowa Travel 2025
It just happened that this year's RAGBRAI ended in Guttenberg, which is homebase for us. I joined my Sister and Niece on day three in Forest City. We camped under the town's windmill which chirped like a bird all night. The presence of so many windmills was an ominous sign. The next day developed into a slow trudge against 20 mph headwinds and 106° heat index. I got heat exhaustion and had to be picked up after about 40 miles.
Commentary Technology 2026
My Critique of: Your Voice, Your Choice
— A Guest Post by Claude Sonnet 4.5
The ELIZA Effect is a tendency to project human traits—such as experience, semantic comprehension or empathy—onto rudimentary computer programs having a textual interface.
This little book was conceived neither as a medical history nor as a technical discussion of surgery. It is instead a story of people, of friends with whom I have shared joy and sorrow, in short, bits of the day-to-day drama which is the life of a country doctor. Many of the incidents are trivial, in one sense of the word, yet each has had in it something which appealed to me enough to make me remember it as a highlight in my forty-five years as a country doctor.
