Oh No, Not the Warriors!

(re-run) Last week I took Sis to the hospital for a Barium Swallow test. We had just settled into the waiting room when an elderly woman with a cane came in the door. She had to go around Sis’s wheelchair to get to the check-in window. “Am I at the right place?” she asked no… Continue reading Oh No, Not the Warriors!

More Machu Picchu

(part two) Christy and I finished our breakfast at the hotel up at the top and looked into the fog. The buses wouldn’t start arriving until noon. “Let’s hike up the big mountain,” she said. “Okay,” I said. My lost and found tennis shoes were too small, but I had cut out the toes so… Continue reading More Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu Before It Was a Thing

(re-run) It was 1977. I was finishing up ten weeks of student teaching in an American oil school in Caracas, Venezuela. My roommate, Christy, wanted to travel for two weeks before we went home to the states. She wanted to visit Machu Picchu in Peru. I’d never heard of it. “It’s the lost city of… Continue reading Machu Picchu Before It Was a Thing

Introvert or Extrovert?

Most people don’t know it they are an introvert or an extrovert for the first ten or so years of their lives. By the time they get to college, they have figured it out. Is your ideal weekend spent with or without people? Are you an introvert or an extrovert or a combination of both?… Continue reading Introvert or Extrovert?

How Rustic Is It?

I have an old house two blocks from the Pacific Ocean in Monterey County. It’s a long story, but let’s just say that I had a really good divorce lawyer. At any rate, I rent it to friends only, not friends of friends. Here’s why: “What do you mean you have no WIFI?” “There is… Continue reading How Rustic Is It?

Lost in Napa

(from December 26th) I got a dog yesterday. She’s supposed to be a buddy to my two year old lab/border collie/pit bull mix. She is adorable, fast, and sneaky. She has already tried to eat Pepper’s breakfast and has snuggled alone in Pepper’s bed, a fight for the Alpha position. Pepper weighs 50 pounds. New… Continue reading Lost in Napa

A Great Personality

When George was twenty-three his boss set him up on a blind date with a woman who was a good customer for their auto parts business. George had been talking with her on the phone for over a year. The boss thought he should meet her in person. “Dinner’s on the company,” George’s boss said.… Continue reading A Great Personality

Street Dance

After hiking six miles with the senior group called DASH, which does not dash at all, but rather hikes slowly through the woods with plenty of stops for bathroom breaks, snack breaks, or count-up-and-regroup breaks, I was too pooped to go out dancing. But my friends were going, it was close (just one town up… Continue reading Street Dance

It Never Goes Away

Every year I get a notification from Facebook that it’s a certain friend’s birthday. The trouble is that the friend has been dead and gone for over four years. I read a poem at his memorial service. He was a ski club guy, not a guy I knew real well. Is there no one to… Continue reading It Never Goes Away

The Friend Date

(re-run) He said he had a girlfriend but that she didn’t like to dance. Here he was, out dancing again. He loved to talk up a good game with the ladies, but would he ever act on it? He’d been with the same woman for over twenty years. He had insisted that I take his… Continue reading The Friend Date