Forgive me! I have been busy working a full-time job and surviving the brutal Latvian winter. I have been feeling the urge to write ever since receiving Christmas letters from my sister and brother where they told the tales of their year in review. It is February, and this is long overdue. From Hip Replacement …
Jeff’s life takes a turn as he get himself a brand-new prosthetic hip! Latvian medicine, is it worth it?
I know that time shifts as we grow older. I see that at 53 that weeks last a day, days an hour, and time is just slipping away. I open my eyes on January 1, and by the time I blink it is September. I just wanted to write something of little consequence and without …
Andra’s Death My sister Andra died suddenly at the age of 69 on 5 January 2025. By chance, I had visited her the day before. I was in the U.S. visiting for the holidays. On the last day of my visit, I was in a hurry to meet a friend when my sister Susan texted …
It has literally been months since I have written anything, and so much is going on in the world that I feel inspired to make a little blog post. Halloween just ended, but the scariest few days are yet to come. With 2 days until the U.S. election, no one knows what is going to …
Arnolds Grinvalds 25 October 1956–10 November 1990 Arnolds was the second child of Liesma and Vitauts Grinvalds. He was named after his uncle Arnolds Grinbergs, his mother’s brother, who had been a soldier, stranded behind in Latvia after World War II. Uncle Arnolds’ wife Alma fled the country with their children in October of 1944, …
I honestly have no idea what this is going to be about, but on this foggy morning in Riga, I felt like it was time to write something. Philosophy of Writing and Sharing I have not been writing my blog because I had this moment last year where I thought… why am I sharing my …
It has been too long since I have written anything, so this is just an exercise in writing. I have been to the USA and back, and since today is the last day of summer, it seems fitting to write a relatively interesting post about my thoughts an reflections on life. September Here I sit …
My cultural experience model went off the rails in March when I was suddenly left unemployed with no prospects in Latvia. This came as a huge surprise to me, and even though I am relatively old, and I feel like I should be in a secure place in my life by now, I am not. …
One of Those Years 26 December 2022 I had a strange message from an old friend yesterday who said that “you haven’t written much this year.” It is true, I have not. Well, that isn’t exactly true because I write everyday for my job, and I write in my journals and I write poetry and …