Charles Frenzel

As you get older you might want to follow the lunar calendar instead of the one that Hallmark or the IRS sends you each year around Christmas. For one thing, you get to divide the year up into about 13 pieces instead of 12. This finer grained resolution makes time seemed to pass slower and […]

While this post may seem strange to the younger set, my older readers will probably recognize the truth in what I say. With this caveat in mind…. As all us older versions of homo sapiens know, we shrink as we get older. Unfortunately, this is usually in height rather than in girth. I was once nearly […]

I know that there are good things to eat along the Texas Gulf coast. Certainly the old city of Corpus Christi has long been a place where one might find  good food and drink. However, after last nights debacle at Snoopy’s my faith was severely shaken. Normally I don’t like to give a negative review. […]

A couple of  years ago we acquired a garden plot next to the hundred-year-old house that momentary insanity prompted us to purchase. We discovered, under the thick mats of weeds, old stone walks, bases of fountains, lush growths of wonderful garlic, and something that we believe is a cow’s skull although it looks suspiciously like […]

Typical. Vexing. Perverse. As so often happens, astronomical events like meteor showers with top billing turn out to be total busts for me. Clouds move in during the night, daylight brings clear skies and unbelievable heat. I should be studying sun spots and solar flares. Unless, of course, an important solar event should crop up. […]

I’ve been interested in astronomy all my life. Once I might have even been considered professional. After all, I took photographic plates of interesting objects and even got paid for it. I believe that qualifies? But I also was a pretty hip programmer, the language and style suggesting how long ago this probably was. Nevertheless, […]

Time was when I used cedar planks to repair my Great Aunt’s fence which was in a constant state of being ravaged by dogs trying to get in to her garden, rabbits trying to keep from being eaten by the dogs, and newsboys trying to retrieve papers that missed the porch. My Aunt refused to […]

An unexpected hazard has appeared in my tomato garden. The ubiquitous assasin bug which has heretofore concentrated on sucking the life out of unwanted insects, is now becoming agressive enough to attack me whenever I decide to pluck a ripe cherry tomato. Some of them are over an inch long and look mean enough to […]

As I trod back and forth across my front yard this morning, trailing behind my “personal pacer” lawnmower, I paused to pull the bottle of water out of my pocket and took a deep swig. While I was at it, I eyed the grass catcher that was bulging like a spider’s sack filled with babies. […]

If someone out there remembers how the summer weather in San Marcos use to be, I’d appreciate them letting me know. I remember really hot days followed by clear, cool nights back in the forties and fifties. If I said I remember the sixties, some people would call me a liar. When I moved here, […]

Our good friend Susan got back from her trip and joined us for coffee and fresh baked herb bread this morning. Among her many beautiful and interesting pictures (she’s a great photographer) was a shot of a salamander that was larger than any that I have ever imagined. In fact, as she describes it, the […]

People wait on hurricanes in south central Texas. It’s fashionable. They bring rain and cooler weather. When they slide off in some other direction, we often sigh and think of what might have been. I’ve been guilty of this. However, I know what I’m missing by not living in harms way. My wife and I […]

This is the only currently available book of poetry by Charles Frenzel. A new edition of  Atomic Flea, retitled Nuclear Gnat and with added works, is available free from Fat Squirrel 21, LLC at Fat Squirrel Publishing.com. You can download the zipped file, extract it, and upload to a Kindle, MobiReader, or other ebook readers.Only […]

Hi, people. My new book, a thriller called A Matter for Survival, written as a collaboration with my wife, Dr. Lydia Frenzel, under the name of L.C. Frenzel, is out on Amazon in Kindle format. This book draws on characters you meet in shipyards and around the oil patch. Maybe you’ll enjoy a glimpse into the muddy […]

Comet McNaught seems to be living up to its name–at least as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know how ordinary or how spectacular this comet is since I haven’t managed to see it. Every morning I get up it’s cloudy; those mornings when I don’t I’m told the sky was clear. Last night I […]