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SUNDIAL BRIDGE TELLS TIME IN CALIFORNIA

The Sundial Bridge over the Sacramento River tells time. One side is the walk across tempered glass. The other side had the clock part when the sun is right. But what time is it when the shadows moves to the surrounding woods? Tree o’clock. More later. I’ll be here all week, tip the wait staff […]

PLAYLIST SONG BREAKDOWN: DISCUSS

70’s kids heard classic rock when it was new. And we’ve heard it ever since, song after song after song. Like many 70’s kids I took a guitar lesson and forgot about it. My big song was Down In The Valley. I learned it in Jansen Music in Pony Village, North Bend Oregon. When I […]

HOME DECORATING, HGTV GYM RAT VERSION

For a charming throwback look, start with the basics. The image above is one never seen on HGTV. Not on the Property Brothers, Love It Or List It, or Rehab Addict. The most likely place to find this sort of furniture? Fixer Upper with Chip and Joanna. But what would they do with it?

HOW PERSONALITY AFFECTS HPV16 GYM COMMUNICATION

I heard a story about a man from a good communication source: My kid told me an older man at my gym with an outgoing personality told him he had the same thing I had, meaning hpv16 neck cancer, throat cancer, tongue cancer, he wasn’t specific but it was cancer in the body part between […]

COLLECTORS, SMALL MIRACLES, GOOD LIGHTING

Collectors call an empty cabinet, “A blank canvas,” into which they start throwing things like a Jackson Pollock painting. To them it’s one of many small miracles to create. Every drip is important, every splash significant; every teacup and tray, too. At least that’s how they explain it when asked “At what age did you […]

CAREGIVING EXCERPT FROM WORK IN PROGRESS

My caregiving days ended the morning I came downstairs and found Ken laying still in his hospital bed. Very still. I was suspicious. A large red circle nearly two feet in diameter stained the bedspread drawn up to his chin. What. The. F?

ARMY BRAND DD214 WON’T WASH OFF

Not sure when it begins, but a lot of men feel remorse about not having an Honorable Discharge and a DD214. What did they miss? Listen to guys in their late 30’s and early 40’s reflect on the sort of soldier they would have been, or their opinion on what makes a good soldier. The […]

BEST GIRL, BEST DAY, BEST BEER STOP: TAPPHORIA

The first ‘best life/best day’ of the year to hit seventy degrees feels like being a tourist in a familiar town. The leaves on the trees are greener, I noticed little flowers of many colors. Even the plants my wife bought and left in the garage darkness look like they want to come back to […]

WHO LIES ABOUT ABANDONING NYC

I spoke to a woman recently who moved to Portland Oregon from Brooklyn New York, just casual conversation in a Safeway line. We had something in common since I moved here from the same place, though she didn’t start in North Bend Oregon. She was big city all the way with no perspective on the […]

WHY WRITING? WHY WRITE A CANCER BOOK?

This is gonna be short because I’m writing a cancer book. See what I did there? Didn’t say writing ‘my cancer’ book. Cancer book is more than enough. The whole ‘my cancer’ talk is a bad track. Who really wants to claim it like that. Instead, I’m giving it a good thrashing, plowing the cancer […]