Year
2025
20 entries
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Monday, January 13, 2025 · Don Krumpos
The Wolf Moon
Tonight is the full Wolf Moon. I started a new full time job on the 6th at Door County Land Trust in Sturgeon Bay as their Communications Manager. I like it so far. For the New Year we went to…
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Tuesday, March 11, 2025 · Don Krumpos
Gertie, My Fierce Little Shadow
I met her in December 2008, in my Minneapolis apartment. I set down a fresh bowl of food and watched her take her first careful steps into our life together. She was a tortoiseshell — bold, independent, a little unpredictable.…
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Tuesday, March 11, 2025 · Don Krumpos
Goodbye, Gertie
Today, I said goodbye to my cat of 16 years, Gertie. We had to let her go as her kidneys were failing, and in her last days, she hardly moved or ate. A part of me hoped she would rally…
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Sunday, March 23, 2025 · Don Krumpos
The Milwaukee Public Museum
We went to Milwaukee this weekend.We met Erin's friend Allie and her husband Erik, and child Alec, and Wes too. We stayed in a hotel in Silver City, Milwaukee. Wes met us for dinner at the restaurant in the hotel.…
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Friday, May 23, 2025 · Don Krumpos
Gatekeeping the Glow
I’ve been turning this over for days now: the threshold between letting my child roam into the digital thicket, and holding back the brambles just a bit longer. It’s not a battle between “screens” and “nature”—that’s too simple, too binary.…
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Friday, May 23, 2025 · Don Krumpos
Turtles on the Mississippi
Today Donnie and Logan came to visit us. They came over for dinner on the Thursday and we went to Red's on the Friday. I taught a screenprinting class at Peninsula School of Art on Saturday. We went to Powers,…
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Monday, November 24, 2025 · Don Krumpos
Childhood time is circular. Seasons repeat without urgency. Days loop and blend.
Childhood time is circular. Seasons repeat without urgency. Days loop and blend. You don’t “lose” time; you just exist inside it. Then somewhere — often around adolescence — time snaps into a line. A progression. A conveyor belt. A deadline…
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Monday, November 24, 2025 · Don Krumpos
Draft / emotional inheritance map
Draft / emotional inheritance map When I read through my mother’s journals, a pattern becomes unmistakable: Sacrifice was the currency of love. Everything was done “even though” it was hard. Money was always tight “but God would provide.” Time was…
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Monday, November 24, 2025 · Don Krumpos
The fake flowers on the morning school walk with my son triggered something
The fake flowers on the morning school walk with my son triggered something I didn’t expect — a small, bright flash of my own childhood. We didn’t have many flowers growing around the farmstead. Winters killed everything. But I remember…
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Monday, November 24, 2025 · Don Krumpos
I don’t want to abandon the “interesting life.”
I don’t want to abandon the “interesting life.” I want to refine it. I want my child to grow up around: • art • story • music • ritual • the living world • creativity as normalcy • parents who…
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Monday, November 24, 2025 · Don Krumpos
Draft / identity processing
Draft / identity processing I was not a “little adult.” I was, if anything, a late developer — the kid who loved toys into adolescence, who played in the sandbox until twelve, who preferred drawing to chores, who found magic…
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Monday, November 24, 2025 · Don Krumpos
Draft / memory + gratitude
Draft / memory + gratitude One thing I can say without doubt: I was raised inside a village. My mom took us everywhere — hospitals, nursing homes, neighbors’ houses, prayer meetings, casseroles delivered in Pyrex, errands for elderly relatives, hair-fixing…
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Monday, November 24, 2025 · Don Krumpos
Draft / pragmatic reflection
Draft / pragmatic reflection One of the questions I keep turning over is whether my cautiousness around money is wisdom… or inherited fear. My parents were heroic with their frugality: every dollar stretched, every purchase planned. They took risks only…
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Monday, November 24, 2025 · Don Krumpos
Draft / memoir entry
Draft / memoir entry I keep circling this question: why do I hunger for an “interesting” life? Not glamorous, not Instagram-worthy, but mythic — textured, strange, handmade, meaningful. It didn’t come from nowhere. I grew up on a small, ramshackle…
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Monday, November 24, 2025 · Don Krumpos
Draft / reflection on parenting
Draft / reflection on parenting Now that I’m a parent myself, I keep asking: Does interesting require chaos? Does stability require boredom? My wife and I are building a life rooted in art, story, ritual, place. A downtown building for…
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Monday, November 24, 2025 · Don Krumpos
Scarcity shaped me.
Scarcity shaped me. Abundance tempted me. Both confused me. I grew up watching money stretch thin across weeks. Savings were theoretical. Debt was normal. Supply chains were mysterious and vaguely immoral. Wealth felt like something other people had, and maybe…
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Monday, November 24, 2025 · Don Krumpos
I was a maker from the beginning — that part survived fundamentalism, poverty,
I was a maker from the beginning — that part survived fundamentalism, poverty, grief, debt, confusion, and whatever flavor of adulthood I’ve lived. What got stripped away wasn’t the creativity. It was the permission to trust it. Everything I’ve ever…
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Monday, November 24, 2025 · Don Krumpos
The Winter Where the Pipes Froze
One winter the pipes froze for three days. We melted snow in pots on the woodstove. We flushed toilets with buckets of water carried from the barn. I remember thinking it was a grand adventure. My parents did not. Adults…
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Wednesday, November 26, 2025 · Don Krumpos
Three blocks.
Three blocks. He stops at every fake flower to dust off frost. He studies insect tracks. He admires stick bugs like miracle creatures. I want to hurry him. I don’t hurry him. This is the paradox of adulthood: I need…
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Tuesday, December 9, 2025 · Don Krumpos
Father-Son Weekend
My main thoughts are mostly on Arthur. I just really love being this little boy's dad. He is growing so fast and I am enjoying every moment of it. We are playing the old school NES and SNES Mario and…