The rocks were jumping from their beds to stub my bare toes, inspiring me to drop several ineffective f-bombs on their vindictive semi-porous surfaces, when I saw him. He was crawling on his hands and knees, each lunge more careful than the last, across the palm-sized stones leading to the ocean. An empty wheelchair was […]
I don’t know how it happened. I didn’t push a button on my phone or turn a knob on the car radio. I’d been traveling in silence along most of the Great Basin Highway, lost in the thoughts only a long drive can inspire. So the opening chords of Hallelujah startled me yesterday, as I […]
Rain is sheeting across the pasture right now, the lower flood plain of the ranch staying true to the FEMA designation. Brothers Osbourne is playing the halftime show for the Detroit/Chicago game, and just as I start singing along with the first song, the power goes out. These two guys are on stage in front […]
When my first Labrador died over a year ago, a friend was there for me. She was there 9 years later when I had to let the second one go, too. If you don’t think animals can be part of the family, you should stop reading now. She had to let her own dog go […]
My lab and I were headed to the river yesterday when an old Dodge truck sputtered out of the animal shelter parking lot, struggling to accelerate in front of us. Old, as in my age. Ancient. The pickup’s tailgate was rusting over the missing bumper, and I assumed that the driver and woman perched next […]
‘When’s the next one?’ The audience was filing out of the historic La Paloma theater when Jack Tempchin, a living legend of a songwriter, asked that question from the stage, to no one in particular. I didn’t know. I felt like I’d been holding a bird in my hand, this little dove, and I’d finally […]
‘This is the most fun I can remember.’ She’s been on the planet 74 years, living in the same house for half a century, and served her country during the Vietnam War. Countless, untraceable moments have led her to now, surfaces we barely scratch as we talk about where we came from. I guess I […]
People are walking back and forth in front of the camera pointed at the open guitar case, set up in front of bookshelves at a Phoenix Barnes and Noble. The video is over a decade old, and he looks younger. We all were younger then. The song is undeniable, a gift. Maybe not a hit, […]
‘I’m on a conference call right now.’ Except he wasn’t. He was standing in the middle of the street, laboring under four trash bags stuffed to stretched-plastic capacity. His streaked hoodie was pulled over a frayed hat, grimed shorts drooping to his calves. I’d just said, ‘Hey man,’ when he abruptly turned to me with […]
Giant wings blocked the fading remnants of day outside the window, before collapsing somewhere above, close to the nest of baby swallows clinging to the eave over the back door. Dusk masked superfluous details, so the feather color eluded me, but I was sure the bird was a hawk. I hustled outside to discourage her […]
My first glimpse of that stretch of sand was from the top of those stairs, now pictured on the front page of the newspaper. I knew I was standing on the edge of a welcome, needed free-fall into the unknown back then, but I never could have predicted the particular tidal ebbs and flows, the […]
She’s always smiling, always, even when she isn’t taking the order. Two fish tacos, no salsa. Which I rarely have to say, because I’m a frequent flier at this tiny taco shop on the corner. She knows. But she isn’t smiling. She’s staring solemnly off to her right, looking for an answer in some ethereal […]