The brief, brilliant essay Silk Parachute, which first appeared in The New Yorker a decade ago, has become John McPhee’s most anthologized piece of writing. In the nine other pieces here– highly varied in length and theme–McPhee ranges with his characteristic humor and intensity through lacrosse, long-exposure view-camera photography, the weird foods he has sometimes been served in the course of his reportorial travels, a U.S. Open golf championship, and a season in Europe on the chalk from the downs and sea cliffs of England to the Maas valley in the Netherlands and the champagne country of northern France.

Some of the pieces are wholly personal. In luminous recollections of his early years, for example, he goes on outings with his mother, deliberately overturns canoes in a learning process at a summer camp, and germinates a future book while riding on a jump seat to away games as a basketball player. But each piece–on whatever theme–contains somewhere a personal aspect in which McPhee suggests why he was attracted to write about the subject, and each opens like a silk parachute, lofted skyward and suddenly blossoming with color and form.

- Powell’s

Sarah, 15, had her first date yesterday. We accompanied she and Chris (of course) for dinner (Olive Garden) and a movie (AVATAR). A corner has been turned. More…

Beginnings of another weekend snowstorm.

Woke up to a morning reminiscent of the San Luis Valley. More frosty photos from today here.

Between Pierre and Wall, where we broke down…and I mean really broke down…the day before, en route to Thanksgiving in Minnesota.

After nine days, seven of those on the road, we made it back alive last night. Can’t say the same for the Land Cruiser, which is still engine-less and sitting in a garage in rural South Dakota, waiting for a transport rig to pick it up and deliver it home to us. Despite a pretty traumatic 24 hours, when the dust settled (or the smoke, in this case), it could have been so much worse…and for that and lots of other things over those nine days, we’re especially thankful.

About 50 more photos from Thanksgiving and Sarah’s 15th birthday (Saturday) are over here.

In case you haven’t heard, Ryan and Kyla will be parents in May.

Check out all the photos from today.