I escaped to Monterey with the dogs for two days. The sky was white, but I couldn’t smell the smoke that was choking the San Francisco Bay area from the Butte County fire. I watched the news, forty-eight dead, hundreds more missing, the town of Paradise 80% gone. Telephone poles still falling, burned-out cars along… Continue reading California Burning
Category: Monterey Bay
How Thrifting Improved my Day
Okay, I admit it. I am a thrift store junkie. So when I go to my fave beach town, I make sure to stop at every thrift store at least once. That makes for six stops, nine if I venture down to Carmel. This trip I stayed in my town. I wandered into Second Chance… Continue reading How Thrifting Improved my Day
If Only I Could Clone Myself
I saw a bad pun about cloning. One guys says, “I don’t really get it, cloning.” The other guy says, “That makes two of us.” Some days I wish I could clone myself to get all my stuff done. And I’m retired! Sort of. I still write for fun and money. By the time I’ve… Continue reading If Only I Could Clone Myself
My Autumn Travels
I am in India, then Hawaii, then Europe, then Mexico. I have seen monkeys and camels, but no tigers. I have seen the Taj Mahal. I am having the dead skin on my feet bitten by little fishes. Then I am touring a castle in Germany or visiting a beach town in Italy. I can… Continue reading My Autumn Travels
Worker Woes in Monterey
I went down to my little beach house to see how the trees came out after the tree trimmers did their work and how the new fences turned out after the fence company built them. I hadn’t been there in person because of my dogs. I trusted that the companies I hired would do a… Continue reading Worker Woes in Monterey
A Solitary Life
I am at my beach house just two blocks from a beautiful state beach along the Pacific Ocean. People find out I have a house and wonder why I spend most of my time in the Bay Area. It used to be because my kids were there, but now two of them have left, and… Continue reading A Solitary Life
The White Album
The last time I saw the Beatles cover band in the Santa Cruz mountains hippie town of Felton, I noticed that most of the crowd was coupled off, and most of the couples didn’t dance. They were too old, being die-hard Beatles fans for fifty years. It was a shame. The floor is real wood.… Continue reading The White Album
Don’t Get a Sun Burn
You think you know someone. You’ve sat across from your brother in law at countless holiday meals. You raised your kids together, although far enough away that you only saw them four or five times a year. You know George loves Monterey, but you didn’t know the whole story. You knew he’d been in the… Continue reading Don’t Get a Sun Burn
A Chance of a Ghost
This is not a Halloween story. No words written in blood on the hallway walls, no moaning spirits or flickering lights, or candles blowing themselves out. Just a feeling of not being alone. Ghosts, if you will, leftover energy from those who came before us. As a child I was called the sensitive one. I… Continue reading A Chance of a Ghost
Prom with an Older Woman
Alan was a sophomore when he got asked to junior prom by an older girl. He rented a tux from his date’s father, Mr. Cohen, who owned the local men’s shop in Monterey. Alan’s dad had to play chauffeur in his 1962 Chevy Bel Air, since Alan didn’t have his driver’s license yet. When they… Continue reading Prom with an Older Woman
