The storm dumped so much water in such a hurry, it suddenly fell asleep. Rain-rain-rain swimming pools of rain falling nonstop from the blackness of the sky and then BAM. NAP TIME. All gone. So quiet. The crickets were like, SCORE!, and started singing and celebrating as the eerie silence Read more…
I wanted a tattoo. Because now I can claim I’m a free spirit and will not be defined by conventional office jobs. They hold no magic. “You’re Not the Boss of Me!” I holler at no one in particular. I know the fierceness of the wind and the desperation of Read more…
The sun is a little softer these days. Gentler. No biting and screaming and punching. ‘He’s gone soft,’ I smile to myself. So it’s September now, and I don’t mind all that much. The plums have been consumed and the peaches long disappeared into cups of yogurt and almonds and Read more…
Winter Is Coming, they all say. Some because of Game of Thrones. The rest just mean that it’s late August and they’re sick of summer. I sucked the sunshine through my teeth. Not Yet. Don’t Go Away Yet. I Need You. School is starting and the nesters with young are Read more…
Lovely blue sky innocent happy happiness. It was seventy-four-hundred degrees as we busted out the hand pump and stuck the nozzle into the tube down by the water. Truckee River Floating Time. Dry bags full of cell phones and car keys secured with ropes to our floating palace. Ice in Read more…
It’s just one of those evenings. The crickets are carrying on, yelling’ about this and that. The sky is purple and there’s only one cloud and it’s grey and the sun passed on and the stars didn’t wake up yet. It’s just one of those evenings. 80 degrees with no Read more…
I don’t spend a lot of time talking about when I made more money hustling dice than I did working my eight-to-five. Or the time I decided to move to Ft. Collins on a whim but ended up living in my car for a few weeks and then just coming Read more…
Day Whatever. Smoke poured into the valley, menacing and dark. I closed the windows on the house and turned on the air conditioning. What a thing. Air Conditioning. Conditioning The Air. I looked at my foot, still peeling from the swelling going down. From the beating the trail imposed. No Read more…
Day 71 Pit…pat…pit-pat…pit…pat-pat-splat. Light hit the side of my tent and my eyes sprang open. My heart pounded out of my chest. Was I on a road? I never pitch my tent on a road. How did I forget my rule? Was a car coming down the road? Did they Read more…
Day 70 Miles Hiked 0 The morning campfire crackled and popped, sending up little curly-queues of smoke as the flames licked the sides of the cowboy coffee pots. I sat with Carla and Richard and Cindy, telling stories in tones hushed by the morning light. Most of the camp was Read more…