What a great title right? I thought so too until I remembered that time Richard Simmons invited me into his kitchen for a pep-talk. As I Drove Across the country in late 2022, embarking on an unknown new chapter of life that began with a shaky and concerning phone voice (my mom’s), packing…

This is about my mom. About leaving Nashville and writing down goals. And about Yosemite. And about payback. and about love. Once upon a time I was a car salesman. During my second week on the job they had us write down our goals for the year, both personal and…

When a parent leaves or when both parties realize the marriage is untenable it’s rarely a good thing. But what about when your father leaves you to go build wheelchair nature trails and film a bunch of hikers across the USA in 1980? My father was John D. Olmsted. Son…

I think it’s the heat From my limited knowledge that’s the cause of the word-shortening phenomenon here in the south. Of course Nashvillians are quick to point out this isn’t the “real” south, especially as so many transplants have moved in and changed the demographics in the past five years — ish. When I first…

When my father was dying there was a leaflet on the table in the little hospice house in the woods that I avoided for at least a week before sheer boredom led me to open it. If memory serves there was a simple line drawing of a boat on the…

This is the story of how I tracked down a girl in a magazine by pretending to be a California University. And how I actually managed to talk to her. In 1992 I was a college dropout. Still sounds strange to write, but I bailed on college at 19 years…

And shopping for Bourbon like a local What an odd phrase. Have you heard it? I’m sure you have. Unless you’re under 20 maybe. Or have never been outside of California. I love phrases. Especially old ones. In fact when the world-wide web thingie was in the honeymoon phase, “A…

And maybe we deserved it Monty was the new kid. Monty was bigger than every kid in fourth grade. Hell he was bigger than the sixth graders as just a fourth grader. But he was new. And he was big. We were all taken aback when he showed up in…

A stream of consciousness thought journey I’ve spent many a Friday night alone but somehow this one felt different. Starting out it wasn’t even a bad day. I slept in a bit partly because it was 19 degrees outside and aside of three inches from my weird wall heater the…