(re-run) I live in a town that backs up to a gorgeous mountain in the middle of an otherwise flat part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Bicyclists come from all over to climb the mountain and then get their joy ride on the way down the winding road. The hiking here is phenomenal, and… Continue reading Interfacing with Nature
Category: California
Letting Go
(re-run) My cars sit out in the summer. There’s no way they can go into the garage. Fires are burning north of here and have been for weeks. The Bay Area air is smoky. I look at the blue plastic tubs of flammable clothing and think, “It would take days for all of this to… Continue reading Letting Go
Not One Iota of Truth!
Being from the Midwest means I grew up with Iowa talk and Midwestern lingo. Some of it applies across the country, but none of it seems to have made it to California. Like the pioneers who had to discard their prized possessions alongside the trail as their tired oxen could no longer take the weight,… Continue reading Not One Iota of Truth!
Father’s Day Hike
(re-run) Several years ago on Father’s Day, my three kids went with to their dad’s for a bbq, and I went on a late-day hike with my (now ex) boyfriend. He’s one of those guys who doesn’t believe in rules and always thinks his way is the best way. We took a hike on the… Continue reading Father’s Day Hike
Father’s Day Hike
(re-run) Several years ago on Father’s Day, my three kids went with to their dad’s for a bbq, and I went on a late-day hike with my (now ex) boyfriend. He’s one of those guys who doesn’t believe in rules and always thinks his way is the only way. We took a hike on the… Continue reading Father’s Day Hike
Grizzly Bear!
(re-run) An Amazon robot punctured a can of Bear Mace, sending 80 employees to the hospital before Christmas. It reminded me of this true account told to me at a holiday party. In 2008 you take your wife, Liza, and your teen-aged kids to Alaska. You stay near the Princess Lodge in a fishing cabin… Continue reading Grizzly Bear!
Mountain Lion
(re-run) The latest mountain lion attack got me to thinking about how we humans hike, bike, and enter into cougar country and should know what to do in the event that we run into one. The newspaper article today tells about the two mountain bikers in Washington this past weekend that encountered a mountain lion.… Continue reading Mountain Lion
On Guardian Angels
A friend and I had a glass of wine together the other night and reflected back on our lives and the times we should have been died but didn’t. Some would call it luck. Others would call it having a guardian angel. Some would say that was a weird way to spend an evening. At… Continue reading On Guardian Angels
A Doggy Afternoon
Little Darling, Beethoven, Squirrel, Teddy Bear, Mop Top, Tootsie, Churro, and Super Trooper. These were my playmates on Sunday afternoon at the Pet Food Express in my town. A chorus friend had asked on Facebook for helpers. It sounded fun, and I thought, why not? When it came time to go do it, I’d had… Continue reading A Doggy Afternoon
How to Relax for Bed
I closed my online costume shop last summer. I donated 500 dresses to a charity for third world girls and sorted through my aprons, pulling out all the hostess ones, the sheer ones not for cooking. I had 150 of them. I gave them to my local thrift store, the one that knows vintage stuff.… Continue reading How to Relax for Bed
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 