It always happened without warning. Sometimes it progressed slowly, so I was lulled for a time into thinking, maybe it's not really happening. Maybe it's just me. Sometimes it happened swiftly, overnight, and there was no doubt in my mind that something had gone terribly wrong. It was always something different, something new. And it…
The Happiest Place on Earth?
For nearly 45 years, I have managed to avoid it. As a child, it was easy. My father wanted no part of it, therefore my sister and I were denied any opportunity to experience it. We wanted it, back then. All the other kids got to see it. We were The One Family in America…
Pool Blues (and Greens) – The Navage Yaps
Late Summer 2013 When Handan and I first saw the backyard of the house we now call home, we both fell in love with it. There was a beautiful little pond with koi and goldfish spanned by a lichen-covered footbridge, there were tidy beds of flowering shrubs, there was a lush green lawn, and there…
The Navage Yaps – Recipe Misfires & Mysteries
It may come as a mild surprise, but building and fixing and landscaping and DiYing are not my favorite activities. Hard to believe, I know. I mean, who wouldn't want to be crawling around on their hands and knees all day pounding nails into a sub-floor or cleaning out a shed in the cruel August…
The Navage Yaps – Early Spring Garden 2017
Welcome to The Navage Yaps. In these posts, I'll yap about whatever comes to mind or whatever I may be doing at the moment that isn't related to our projects. I meant to get this yap out yesterday, but as usual, a bunch of other crap crept in and stole the hours from my day.…
Behind The Scenes at The Navage Patch
If you're reading this blog post, chances are you've read countless others by gaggles of DiY bloggers. You've doubtless gazed upon the seemingly perfect lives of people who have it way more together than you ever will, you sorry sap. Their houses are freaking spotless. Their kids are scrubbed to sparkling perfection, with nary a…
Picks of the Patch 2016
I gotta be honest here - I don't read a lot of other blogs. When I'm not working or writing for The Navage Patch, I'm toiling outside, reading about science or politics, cooking, cleaning, driving people around, drinking martinis or melting into the sofa while the latest addictive Hollywood drivel streams into my eyeballs through…