I was midway into my first cup of coffee one long-ago morning when my 16-year-old daughter plopped her one-gloved self (it was the height of Michael Jackson mania) down at the kitchen table and informed…
Posts published in “Essays”
Memories of Wolf Creek are etched in my mind forever. I will never forget my first trip. We drove north from Boonville through the giant redwoods. The bright day almost turned to night as the…
For an elder, (or for anybody in fact) contemplation of the tableau of US history can become a habitual 4th of July conversation.. As commonly told and commemorated on Independence Day, our nation’s story begins…
Was it hot in Ukiah last week? It was Thursday when the sun quit spinning in the sky and the meteorologist heat index registered between OMG and WTF. Yeah, well I’m a Buckeye. Weather in…
A case can be made for dropping out of your life every once in a while just to see what you can see. It doesn’t matter where you go or what you do. The point…
I grew up in Seattle, but I’d had enough of living the expected life. My girlfriend had dumped me, and I hated my job. I had only a few friends, and a yearning for something…
Here’s a short list of things that worked fine until we fixed them, at which point every solution wound up a failure. MARIJUANA: For decades weed supported Ukiah and Mendocino County economies despite it being,…
I swear the sweltering desert heat sobered me up 17 years ago as much as the program at the renowned Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage. I arrived there 17 years ago today and sweated…