About

gary varner

Hi, I’m Gary Varner: a writer, traveler, and curious observer of life. Welcome to this site where I share my writing: contemplations about life, insights into subjects important to me, commentary on travels, occasional poems, creative writing, and more.

Several ways you can follow along:

  • Bookmark this site to visit,
  • Subscribe to new post email notifications (see footer),
  • PayPal donate to help support the cost of keeping this site going (link coming soon…)
  • Follow social feeds:  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (links in footer), and/or
  • Use RSS feeds to read new posts (link in footer).

My recent background includes retirement from corporate life (communications specialist) at the end of 2018, then spending a year downsized and living in a rolling, 21′ camper van wandering America and enjoying its natural wonders. After 2019, I sold the van and settled in Ann Arbor, MI, as my home base with lots of plans for more travel across America, Canada, and Scotland/UK. But thanks to Mr. COVID-19, our mutual unwanted societal guest, those plans have to wait.

To help during quarantined days, I opened an online stationery shop, Notegeist, to keep myself busy in a passion that connected me to the wider world. Although intending to write a lot during 2019, the shop consumed all mental energies, so writing went on hold too. Now that I’ve closed the shop (end of 2020), I’m devoting full-time to writing efforts.

I hope you enjoy reading along as I write, and I appreciate your time to read what I create. If you want to contact me for any reason, please use the contact form here.

And for you true geeks, I created a Colophon page on the nuts and bolts of this site at the bottom of this page.

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. – Lao Tzu

Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little. – Tom Stoppard

Chilling outside Whole Foods, downtown Honolulu
Ghost Ranch – Chimney Rock
Koko Crater upper right, Oahu, Hawaii
Van life living and working via coffee at sunrise – Florida
Famed Waikiki Beach
White Sands National Monument, NM
Cave Kiva petroglyph, up in the Hueco Tanks State Park, Texas
Hiking Davis Mountains, Texas
Crane at bird sanctuary, Florida south of Sarasota
Hueco Tanks State Park, Texas
St. Augustine lighthouse, Florida
Main Gate – Renaissance Faire, Ohio

Site Colophon

Companies and components that make this site work:

  • MailPoet – Service/Wordpress plugin driving new post notifications, Fresh Bits Newsletter magic.
  • Simple WordPress Membership plugin – The core intelligence behind the membership (aka Supporter) program here.
  • WordPress Envy Blog Pro theme by PreciseTheme with some significant PHP/HTML hacks and CSS customizing by yours truly.
  • Fonts used: Google Special Elite (typewriter-look headers); Google Karma body fonts
  • Owner’s fuel: Ann Arbor’s RoosRoost Lobster Butter Love coffee (god, that’s such good stuff…)