Bill's Blog

We had to drive up to Marquette to pick up my new eye glasses and sort out our children’s medical insurance through Blue Cross / Blue Shield. That is a fact of life when you live in a remote area, driving 90 minutes through forest to run some errands. It turned out to be a fantastic day with the kids and my brother Jimmer. We had a delicious Lake Superior Whitefish meal at the famous Vierlings Restaurant near the Marquette harbor. We then headed out to Wetmore Landing to spend the afternoon swimming and sunbathing. It was an absolutely perfect day on Lake Superior on our final full day in my beloved Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was a rare calm day on the lake with no waves, temperatures in the 80s, and clear blue water. It was a great way to say goodbye to another glorious UP summer.

The Pines (2012) is a classic airplane read. The science fiction thriller has tight chapters ending with a hook, a protagonist trying to put together the mystery along with the reader, and a plot that keeps escalating. It is easy to pick up and read on my phone between travel disruptions. The North Carolina native author Blake Crouch is most famous for his novel, Dark Matter, and he is the head writer and showrunner of the Apple TV series based on the book. This novel is the first of three novels called the Wayward Pines Trilogy. It too was adapted into a television series back in 2016.

I don’t want to spoil the book too much in this blog post. Stop reading here if you want to pick up the book yourself.

The book begins with Ethan Burker, a secret service agent, surviving and car crash and waking up in the small Idaho mountain town of Wayward Pines. Crouch writes in the Afterward that he was inspired by David Lynch’s 1990 television series Twin Peaks. I have not seen the series but know it is set in a seemingly idyllic small town that has dark and mysterious undertones. The science behind the science fiction is decent and thought provoking. It turns out to be a apocalypse story set thousands of years in the future. I particularly like the “abbies” creatures evolved from humans through the effects of climate change on our DNA over the generations. I am mulling over reading Book Two in the trilogy and checking out the Apple TV series Dark Matter. Idaho is a beautiful state, most of it in the Rocky Mountains. I’ve been Twin Falls, Boise, and the Snake River Canyon and would like to travel to the northern part of the state someday.

The Idaho theme continues…

True Crime novels and documentaries are a guilty pleasure of mine. I call it “guilty” because they can be a bit low-brow and can be disrespectful towards the victims and their families. They are popular because of the story telling and the “whodoneit” aspect that turns the consumer into an armchair detective. I think is a great genre for adolescents to become interested in reading, podcasts, and deep-dive documentaries. I downloaded the three-episode Netflix Series, “Idaho Murders: College Nightmare” on my phone and finished watching the second half of the series on the journey between JFK and Tashkent.

This is the story of four university students from the University of Idaho in the small town of Moscow. On Sunday, November 13, four students (Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin). The documentary really hit home for Nadia and I with two of our three children currently in university. The interviews with the parents and family members of the victims were particularly heart wrenching. It was such a tragedy to end the lives of the promising, enthusiastic youth with everything in front of them, careers, marriage, children, etc.

It was a difficult crime for the police and FBI to solve because it was not a crime of passion, involving an ex-boyfriend, or someone who personally knew the victims. They eventually found the murderer because he left a knife sheath with his DNA at the scene. Forensic scientists eventually matched the DNA to him and from there, they matched his car, that was spotted on several security cameras in the neighborhood and is mobile phone pings to local towers. Without the sheath, I don’t think this crime would have been solved. The murderer is a psychopath who formally and informally studied serial killers and criminology. I think his goal was to become a serial killer and this was his first attempt. Modern tracking technology, CCTV, mobile phones, DNA analysis, etc. make it much more difficult for serial killers to get away with their crimes than previous generations. He was in the news lately because he wants to get out of the plea deal he made instead of taking it to trial. He is currently serving four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. From watching the documentary, it looks like they have enough evidence to convict him (his DNA at the scene, receipt of purchasing that type of knife, his car and mobile phone in the area that night, etc.). The series did receive some criticism from people who thought it was released too soon after the events and it was a money grab for Netflix. There were two other documentaries (Amazon and Peacock) already released. I thought the producers and writers of the documentary did a good job respecting the victims and portraying the students. None of this brings back the kids and my condolences go out to the victims and their families. The Moscow Chief of Police, Anthony Dahlinger, really did a good job of telling the story with compassion, dignity, discretion, thoughtfulness and authenticity. He is a role model for policemen everywhere.

We spent the last night of July in the Dauble Tree by Hilton NYC Airport Hotel. The hotel is located just outside JFK airport in the Borough of Queens New York in the neighborhood of Jamaica. Our only familiarity with Queens is from the 1988 movie, “Coming to America”. Eddie Murphy played an African Prince who journeyed to Queens, NYC to find a wife. The neighborhood around the hotel matched the movie, with it being poor and a bit sketchy. We were warned by two different hotel employees to be careful, especially at night. We managed to go for a walk down 140th Street to the Rockaway Boulevard restaurant district. It was quite unpleasant so we turned around and ate at the hotel. We were surprised to see that it was a predominately East Indian neighborhood and the homes were actually well kept, although close together and protected with iron gates on windows and doors and fences. The streets in the Indian section were free of litter and pleasant, but Rockaway Boulevard was full of trash and dilapidated buildings. We didn’t see any white people on our 30-minute walk, a big change from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where 99% of people are white.The name Jamaica has nothing to do with the Caribbean Island nation, but is the early English colonists in the 1650s changing the Lenape indigenous name of “Jameca” or “Yameco” meaning beaver pond. Looking at the map I didn’t realize that Queens is actually on Long Island.

One of the zippers in a large front pocket of one of our suitcases broke. Thanks to being in the USA, Nadia ordered the delivery of kilt or sewing pins to temporarily repair it. You can get anything at anytime in America, the consumers paradise. Kilt pins are heavy duty safety pins and something I will add to my travel pack in the future as they are very handy. We had a nice dinner and watched a Netflix Documentary on the murders of four students from the University of Idaho in 2022. I got halfway through the second episode when I fell asleep. 

I listened to a portion of one of my favorite podcasts, The David Frum Show “Making sense instead of making noise.”  He was interviewing fellow Atlantic writer Jonathan Chait. Chait mentioned Presidents and politicians using humor was not in opposition to dignity and insight, but was a display of intelligence. He went on to say that humor is how humans adjust to discomfort and are able to discuss possibly taboo subjects. I use a lot of humor in my leadership and interactions with people. A day without laughter is not a good day. 

It is always sad to end our summer holidays, but this year was even more emotional. For the last 24 years, Nadia and I have always travelled back to school with at least one of our three children with us. Today marked a milestone of beginning our lives as “empty nesters”. Ocean graduated in May and will be starting her freshman year at Northern Michigan University in August. I gave Oliver and Ocean the biggest hugs. I hope they can take care of each other.

We spent our final full day by running errands and finish packing in Caspian in the morning. My brother Jimmer kindly helped us and lent moral support as we were running around doing last minute things. He and I drove together from Caspian to Green Bay, and Nadia went with Oliver, Ocean, and Ollie’s friend Aurelle. We met patches of heavy rain as we made the 2 hour and 40 minute drive southwest to stay at a friend’s house. We stayed at Mark and Danell Bonnetti’s farm near Green Bay’s Austin Straubel Airport. Jimmer and I were trying to detect the point where the Northwoods becomes Wisconsin farming country. We surmised around Gillette, Wisconsin. We laughed at the memories of frequent family trips south that we took at kids as my parents visited with my mother’s relatives in Green Bay. The trip south on highway 32 brought back many fond memories for us. 

Mark and Donnell are always gracious hosts. They provide a “Wisconsin farming” experience for us. We fed the chickens, made flower bouquets, and talked about the challenges of raising adult children. Mark, Jim and I have been friends since high school in the 1980s, so it is great to catch up. Donnell taught us a lot about chicken behavior and I learned the origin of the term “pecking order”. Chickens have a social hierarchy on who sleeps where on their roosting areas. 

We ate a Scott Subs, a shop near their home that is a franchise of the original Scott’s Subs in Iron River, Michigan. We were good friends with the owners, Scott and Marylin Radloff when they were first starting store. I remember he took over the Friendly Store, a candy shop and turned it into a fantastic and highly successful submarine sandwich restaurant. 

We woke up, showered and packed and headed to Austin Straubel Airport. It was a tearful goodbye for Nadia as we gave Oliver and Ocean a lot of hugs and kisses as we left the USA. 

I couldn’t put down Patrick Radden Keefe’s story of the November 29, 2019, death of Zac Brettler. I remember reading the story in The New Yorker of the 19-year-old Brettler jumping from a luxury apartment into the Thames River at 2:00 AM. Part of the book is a true crime story, going through the Scotland Yard investigation and its aftermath. Keefe intertwines a lot of history and background. The book gave me a good picture of ex-Soviet oligarchs and other rich, shady characters and how much they have invested and been protected in the City of London. He also delves into the family histories of everyone involved and touches on Idi Amin’s expulsion of South Asian immigrants in the 1980s out of Uganda, the background of the Jewish community in London and how the UK played a role in Jewish refugees from the Holocaust, the crime scene of London, etc.

I won’t get into the details of how the case is resolved so as not to spoil the book. My big takeaway from the book was from a parent’s perspective. Matthew and Rachelle Brettler were two hard-working, kind parents to Zac and his brother Joseph. Matthew worked in finance and Rachelle was a successful journalist and they were pillars of the Jewish community in London. It was heartbreaking to experience their grief at the death of a child and their search for answers. They felt guilty and responsible for Zac as all parents in the same situation would. Zac became infatuated with wealth and Russian gangsters/oligarchs during adolescence. He was exposed to these kinds of families at the private boarding school and eventually private day school the parents sent him to. I understand this feeling of inadequacy when I studied at Adrian College. Some of my classmates came from upper-middle-class families. Like Zac, I came from a solid middle-class family; although Matthew and Rachelle earned much more than my parents, they were not at the level of many of Zac’s classmates’ families. During the normal period of adolescence self-discovery and inadequacies, he took on the persona of a the son of a Kazakh oligarch. He was a world-class liar and there were probably some mental health issues that he was dealing with. I thought is pertinent that his ex-classmates knew a lot of what he claimed were lies. We have all known a few people like that in our lives.

Zac’s parents wished they had intervened more strongly at some point during his high school years. Zac continued to tell lies and take on this new identity. Keefe brings up a really good point towards the end of the book. How much can and do parents really know their adolescent children? How much do the pressures of social media algorithms have on them? The police shared with the parents Zac’s search history and text messages. His lies got him mixed up with real dangerous con men and criminals that ultimately led to his death. Keefe goes in depth about the lives of these guys and it is not pretty. The depravity of their ethics and morals is absolutely horrible. I don’t know how some people can live like that.

In my opinion, Zac did not try to commit suicide by jumping from the balcony that night. It was a five-story building and a challenging but not impossible leap to reach the water. Keefe goes through all the possibilities backed by evidence and testimonies. He had a lot of information to process, including mobile phone records, CCTV footage, investigation notes, interviews, etc. I think Zac was trying to escape a gangster who was shaking him down. The book made me disgusted with many of the British enablers that invest the ill-gotten wealth from around the world. The UK should clean this up.

A fascinating story and Keefe did an amazing job writing an insightful and thoughtful page-turner. I highly recommend it.

My son Owen was fortunate to be assigned to the mountain town of Zarcero for his US Peace Corps service. The village is sits at an elevation of 1,736 meters (5,700 feet) in the Central Cordillera Mountain Range in Costa Rica. Zarcero is firmly in the tropics at almost 10 degrees north of the equator. Because of the elevation, the climate is like an “eternal spring” ranging from 50 F (10C) to 70 F (21C), never freezing and never getting too hot. The most distinctive feature of the climate is the daily arrival of clouds racing up the valley and sweeping over the town and surrounding mountains. All day long, clouds come through, causing dense foggy conditions for a while, followed by clear, sunny skies. Some days the clouds stay longer, especially in the afternoon, but while we were there, they came and went like a ghostly spirit.

Besides its refreshing mountain air, Zarcero is known for dairy and agriculture, especially organic farms producing cheeses, coffee, jams, and a wide range of fruit and vegetables. Between the pastures and fields, patches of forest give the landscape a dramatic look.

What struck me the most about Costa Rica was how laid back everyone was. The entire country felt sleepy, even when we were in the capital of San Jose. Everyone dressed very casual, with t-shirts, shorts, and sandals, no one on the roads with expressing impatience with slow drivers, especially on the many narrow, windy roads through the mountains. Lots of people had tatoos, perhaps indicating relaxed social norms.

Both Nadia and I are fluent in Spanish so we talked to a lot of Ticos and I think we got an inside view to the culture. The unhurried vibe was relaxing, but I suspect if you want to get things done, the bureaucracy, cultural inertia, etc. would be a challenge. Owen is facing a bit of this in his role in the development of Zarcero. We have not been to Latin America in a long time (2018?) and I forgot how Catholic they are. We saw many roadside and home shrines to the Virgin Mary and Jesus.

I see why many Americans are choosing to retire here, instead of the traditional Florida or Arizona of the generation of senior citizens from the 1970s. It is under 3 hours flight from Miami and the relaxed, accepting culture that emphasizes social connections would be enticing. They also have a warm climate with access to two oceans. We found it to be a bit cheaper than the USA, but not as cheap as I thought it would be.

We had a fantastic week with our son and getting reacquainted with Costa Rica! Pura Vida!

We missed the poor air quality in my home in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan last week. Above left is a photo I took from the airplane on Monday showing the hazy skies over Marquette, Michigan. The photo (right) shows the vast forests of the Upper Peninsula surrounding the Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport in Gwinn, Michigan.

Wildfires in northern Ontario and other parts of Canada generate smoke that the Westerlies (the prevailing wind patterns) bring over the Great Lakes. The thought that came into my head is that this is another sign of the impact of climate change. I don’t remember Canadian forest fire smoke causing poor air quality growing up here. Here is what Claude and I found regarding data for Canadian wildfires. It is a big country, and there were some conflicting data sets, but below is a summary table.

Historical Average Area Burned Dating Back to the 1950s	3 million hectares (UN Food & Agriculture Organization)
Ten-Year Average (2015-2025)	4 million hectares (Farm Week Now – Canada)
Twenty-five-Year Average (2000-2025)	3 million hectares (Deseret News – LDS media Salt Lake City)
2023 Fire Season	17.3 million hectares (Statista – nice table)
2025 Fire Season	8.8 million hectares (Farm Week Now – Canada)
2026 Fire Season (so far…)	2.78 million hectares (Medical Daily)

The fire seasons of 2023 and 2025 were huge outliers to the historical average. The amount of precipitation and lightning strikes annually determines the amount and intensity of forest fires. Global wind patterns are also highly variable, so it is bad luck this summer that put the smoke right over the Great Lakes. It will be interesting to see how future fire seasons go over the next 5 to 10 years. I sense that a drier North American West will cause more fires and hence, more smoky summers for the Upper Peninsula. This is a direct result of too many byproducts of fossil fuel consumption in the atmosphere causing long-term climate change. I fear for the forests of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the future. Ezra Klein’s conversation with Bill McKibben is a good listen for people wanting to learn more.

Thankfully, thunderstorms, steady rain, and winds the past couple of days have cleared the skies, so today’s range is between 11 and 19 AQI in the Western Upper Peninsula. I love the fresh air of the UP! Oliver and I took advantage of the changed conditions and played a set of tennis (6-1 victory for me). After playing poorly against my son Owen in Costa Rica, I want to play more tennis this week to improve my game. Oliver’s tennis game is strong, and we had a great time yesterday!

We booked evening flights on our last day in Costa Rica so we could maximize our time with Owen. It was a great decision, and we had a delightful day with our eldest son. There were heavy rains most of the evening on Saturday evening, and we woke up to a cool and cloudy Sunday in Zarcero. I loved my morning yoga workouts on the patio with clouds coming up from the valley and whizzing by me. It was like those fast-motion cloud formation and dissolution videos, but in real time. The cool breezes, bird calls, and lush, tropical foliage made for a both a soothing and invigorating environment for my daily yoga practice. It would be an ideal place for a yoga retreat.

After packing the car, saying goodbye to our Uncle Jack, and tidying up our Airbnb, we drove the 90-minutes to the San Jose suburb of Alajuela. Nadia wanted to buy a speaker for Owen and pick up a few things, so we went to Walmart. Yes, Walmart is in Costa Rica, one of 19 countries internationally where they have stores. They are strong in the Americas, but in the last 10 years, they exited 8 countries, including the UK, Japan, and Brazil.

We found Garage 69, a sports bar to watch the World Cup Final. As one headline trumpeted, “Football Won!” as the Spaniards outclassed Argentina with their superior play and sense of sportsmanship. Argentinian behavior and dirty play were disgraceful. They were constantly complaining to the officials, purposely flopping to draw fouls, and grabbing, punching, and pushing Spanish players who were outplaying them. The atmosphere in the bar was fantastic, and the waitress gave Owen and me free shots of Chiliguaro. Guaro is Costa Rica’s national spirit, a liquor distilled from sugar cane that is a bit lighter than rum. Bartenders mix in tomato juice, cilantro, lime juice, and lots of Tabasco sauce to come up with the Chiliguarao. It tasted like a Bloody Mary and locals see it as a rite of passage for visitors.

This was the first time Nadia and I returned to Costa Rica in around 30 years. Nadia completed her freshman year of college at the Universidad Latina. We visited her old apartment, which has been converted to government and University of Costa Rica (UCR) offices. Her university is thriving, with Arizona State University purchasing it and offering a dual degree program, similar to the American University of Technology in Tashkent. I lived in the nearby Apartmentos Tairona and was studying botany at UCR and working at the Tropical Science Center. We didn’t meet then, but shortly thereafter, we met when we both worked at the Santa Cruz Cooperative School in her parents’ homeland of Bolivia.

My address was “50 metros oeste de Taco Bell” so we stopped at the famous (at least to us) Taco Bell for a photo opportunity. San Jose addresses start with a known landmark (Taco Bell, Fig Tree, etc.) and then use units of 50 meters (I thought of it as a 1-block) how far away and in which direction. The government has been moving trying to formalize their mailing and physical address systems since 2010, but the Ticos are slow to take it up. It is estimated that millions of dollars are lost annually in misdirected mail and driving around trying to find a location. I would think Google Maps has helped, but it is a quaint idosyncrocy that I hope stays. The locals joke that it is why they are always late for events.

The suburb of San Pedro in the mid-1990s was a cute area, and with the San Pedro de Monte Mall and the students of UCR making it hip. It was an up-and-coming area. 30 years later, it looked a bit dilapidated with crumbling roads and lots of graffiti. It was a bit sad that areas like San Pedro become worse over time. Both the Universidad Latina and the University of Costa Rica are doing well, however, and it was nice to revisit the area after so many years away. We finished the night by cruising through the City Mall in Alajuela, a large and beautiful commercial area near the airport.

It was bittersweet to say goodbye to our eldest son. It was such a fabulous week reconnecting with him and experiencing his life in the Peace Corps. We may not see him again until Christmas or next summer. We are proud of his development as a person and a professional.

I feel fortunate to still be able to play tennis at the age of 59. I no longer give my son Owen a decent game, but he humors me, and we get a good practice in. Officially, he won 6-3, 6-2, but he could have blanked me 6-0, 6-0. I didn’t play at all this spring or summer, but I will make a point to play at least weekly in the 2026-2027 academic year. I love tennis; it helps with my balance and coordination and is a good workout. Tennis also connects our family together.

Owen continues to play often and is good enough to play NCAA Division II tennis, in my opinion. I struggled returning his serve, a rapid, high-spin ball to my high backhand. He has textbook groundstrokes and good strength, stamina, and OK agility. Owen is left-handed, which also gives him an advantage in matches.

We played at El Cafetal Sports Complex in the town of San Ramon, Costa Rica. The complex has paddle ball courts, a sand volleyball court, and a couple of tennis courts. The lush tropical foliage behind the complex made for an exotic tennis experience for me. We could feel the heat and humidity of San Ramon, which has a lower elevation than Zarcero. The city itself has about 11,000 people, and the canton or county has a population of 97,000. It is the nearest town to Owen’s village, being only 19 kilometers by road from Zarcero. However, the trip takes between 30 and 40 minutes because of the narrow, windy road through the coffee and dairy farms of the Central Cordillera mountains.

We had a snack and lunch twice at the Nectandra Cafeteria in San Ramon. The sandwiches, coffee, and juices were delicious. The adjective that kept coming to mind when describing the towns and villages of Costa Rica is “sleepy”. The Ticos are super relaxed and casual. I can see why North Americans a moving to Costa Rica to avoid the uptight and busy North American lifestyle. Owen confirmed that he rarely sees someone wearing a suit and tie. The dress is very casual, lots of shorts, t-shirts, spandex and tight tops on women. I also noticed lots of tattoos and everyone being very subdued and generally smiling and content. The “pura vida” catch phrase aptly fits the culture. I guess with such nice weather, lush plants, blue skies, and a fairly small population, it makes for a sleepy, happy vibe.

One of the perks of working in the education sector is being around young people. They keep me young at heart and hopeful for the future. We hosted Owen and his Peace Corps friends, giving them a short break from their daily routines at their sites and offering them a slice of the Americana lifestyle. Will, Jillian, and Marcelo are impressive volunteers. Kind, poised, articulate, and having a desire to do some good in the world. The media has been a bit pessimistic about the future of the USA and the world in general, but anyone who spends a bit of time with young adults like these can’t help but think the next generation is alright, and we should be optimistic about a brighter future. It is a huge change in lifestyle to serve in the US Peace Corps. Volunteers are dropped off at their site and expected to adapt to a much different culture, integrate themselves into the community, and play a part in improving the lives of people around them. That is not an easy thing to do! Owen and his friends dived right into their service and are doing just this. I am proud of them and the US government for keeping the Peace Corps.

Owen and I drove a loop through the Central Cordillera Mountains here in north central Costa Rica and collected the three volunteers. They are all about 1-3 hours away from each other, although public transport options make the travel time longer. We met Will and Marcelo in the plaza of their nearest towns. We drove out to Jillian’s village, which is about 4 miles from one of the main highways. It is a world away, a collection of buildings amidst dense tropical forest. It felt very rural, and Jillian showed us the community center project she is helping to develop. The change from her former life in downstate Michigan to this is profound. My son Owen’s post is in the picturesque mountain village of Zarcero, which is a bit more developed, but in many of the same ways, a big change from what he was used to growing up in cities around the world.

My Uncle Jack prepared a gourmet breakfast and dinner for us. It was a refreshing change for them from the typical Costa Rican cuisine they regularly dine on at their sites. We also went for a nice walk in the hills around Guadalupe, the village next to Zarcero where our AirBNB is located. We got to know them and had a lot of laughs. Nadia and I are thankful that they are good friends and take care of Owen and each other.

Last night, Owen’s host family treated us to a family dinner. Lorena, his host mother, and her sister, Aida, prepared a Tican feast for us, her two sons and their families, and two of their cousins and their girlfriends all came to dinner. It was a full house! Nadia and I feel much better after this trip knowing that Owen is living with such a loving family that has embraced him and thinks of him as one of their sons or grandchildren. Owen is fortunate to be with such a loving family and friends. We leave Costa Rica with peace of mind that the next 15 months will continue to be a positive formative experience for him.