Blog
Perseverance
A long time ago my son wrote a paper about me and the subject was, "perseverance." I remember because it was during the most challenging part of my life that every ounce of energy remaining in me was all about perseverance. Still is. At a crossroads of a decade,...
Spring snows
Spring snows are always the most damaging to the psyche. March 21st passes and you think to yourself, we're in the clear and the sun will shine more and the furniture can go outside and, and...bam! And it's a wet heavy snow, always the worst. There is a solution:...
A return to routines
The first day home is always a return to routines and that's not all bad. The visits with friends and family during vacations are always fabulous, wonderful and gracious, but once in the door of your own home and a feel for your bed and favorite pillow the relaxation...
Tasting wine
While hanging out in California, we've obviously tasted a whole lot of wine, but while tasting wine with others it's always interesting how people respond to what each bottle has to offer. The Pinot's we've sipped have had old world traits, and some, the new mellow...
Life of a writer in Napa
So, the life of a writer in Napa. And yes, staying at some friends who live amongst the vines on a hill in a 150 year old family plot where the house could make any magazine. Oh, and they're really great, friendly people. The grapes, by the way, turn into Truchard...
Somewhere California
We left Yosemite and our cabin headed for Folsom and family and passed through Somewhere California. The terrain was ever-changing, from snow to foothills, up and over through range land, and into the grids of small towns and cities that then reach to the urban...
Eight miles, a Manhattan an a piano
It was a frosty morning when we started the walks and the hikes in Yosemite little did we know then we'd find eight miles, a Manhattan an a piano. Bridalveil Falls was first, and true to the warning signs, the trail was ice. We carefully made our way to the end of the...
Detour
We had a detour yesterday. We were having a grand time seeing the sights, reading historical pages and wandering through museums as we drove south on the historic Gold Rush Highway 49 from Eldorado County down through Sonora and toward the south entrance of Yosemite,...
Watching scenery
I was watching scenery on Highway 49 in the Gold Rush area of California and noticed my sister-in-law wrestling with her smart phone apps. I frequently notice this scenario of people who are so mesmerized by their phones that they forget to look up and see. There is...
Waiting for the explosion
I've been wrestling with an internal struggle, more of a feeling, I suppose, that sometime very soon things in D.C. are going to explode. How this explosion may look, I have no idea, but the splat over the hinterlands will have far-reaching effects. In my first set of...
Sun rise
The sun rise over San Francisco Bay is always amazing. The water is a black hole during the night then appears as a lifeblood of the Earth's circulatory system in the morning, the bay's estuaries branching off into hundreds of miles of blue. It also portends an...
A Whole Different World
Today I'm writing from a hotel next to the Detroit Metro Airport, and it's a whole different world. Coming from a quiet enclave where the loudest noise in the morning is the cat and the traffic outside disappears after the school bell, it is always startling to be...