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Posts published by “Crawdad Nelson”

Walking Home in the Rain

The sheriff’s dispatcher gave exact coordinates over the phone, out to seven digits I believe, so we knew exactly where the hiker was in relation to other planetary objects. But from where we stood at…

Eureka, 2011

Eureka has a steamy, half starved look, especially late in the year from the second story as I turn to my right and stare out the window, stuck on a phrase or worse. A generation…

Starting Out In Fort Bragg

If I still believed the things I was told when I was a teenager, barely able to distinguish truth from fiction, I would be as cranked up about a vast liberal conspiracy to control my every action, take my guns away, and teach my offspring to be sexual deviants as the vast majority of Americans. Actually, that’s not exactly correct.

Revolutions Incorporated

Probably my favorite Fourth of July memory is the afternoon in Arcata when I got drunk early and wandered over to the ballpark just as the Redwood City team was taking pregame infield. Their massive…

Siwashing It

The road out of Gualala, at least the road I chose, climbed from a pleasant creekbottom, cooled by tall trees and damp breezes, abruptly and continuously uphill for several miles. It doesn't matter how many,…

The Cans

Saving the earth through recycling is big business, judging by the number of can and bottle buyers set up in parking lots and empty corners throughout Sacramento. Somebody is obviously making some money, which must…

Passing Through

I found myself on the grassy series of knobs headed uphill into dark woods, the old stage coach route which picked out a somewhat more precarious path along the coastal bluffs than the present highway,…

Disturbing the Peace

I’d prefer not to call the cops. I don’t have anything against cops and I don’t fear them. Some of my friends and relatives are cops, like most people probably. It’s a big industry. I’d…

The Fox’s Lair

At dawn I’m in the grassy roadway just a few yards away from the Caspar cemetery, a peaceful and rustic spot surrounded by a venerable stand of Sitka spruce: the bluish, lichen-bearded grove briefly visible…

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