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RURAL OREGON FROM COAST TO WILLAMETTE VALLEY

September 15, 2021 by

Rural Oregon has never looked better through my windshield. Looked so good I extended a drive by hours just to see more. No, I wasn’t lost. The backroads from Charleston to Coos Bay showed places I’d never seen, and I like to think I keep my eyes open. It looked like rural Alaska without the […]

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OREGON STOPS: FROM CLAUSEN OYSTER TO CRESWELL BAKERY

September 14, 2021 by

The roads around here are not in drive-by country. Oregon Stops make you pull over, or turn around and go back if you missed the turn. Clausen Oyster is one such Oregon stop. What makes Clausen’s a good stop? Oysters in every size I could imagine. Even better?

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SANDCASTLES AT SUNSET

September 11, 2021 by

Sandcastles, from the most ornate to a bucket of wet sand turned upside down, all have one thing in common: They don’t last. But instead of mourning the loss of the castle, think of this: You have a chance to build another one, a better one, one that will last. Knowing it won’t last never […]

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OREGON DUCKS FOOTBALL FLASHBACK: IT’S HOW YOU FINISH

September 5, 2021 by

The Oregon Ducks played an opponent out of the Power Five conferences for the first game of the 2021 season. It was a tune-up for the biggest game on the schedule: Ohio State next week. They were supposed to roll in, roll up the score, and bore us half to death with plays called and […]

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BEST LIFE TO LIVE IS RIGHT NOW, RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE

August 19, 2021 by

“Live your best life,” they say, but what’s it really mean? I’m pretty sure ‘they’ don’t mean take a page from the bi-polar play book and create new personalities based on internet scrolling. Mental health is no laughing matter, but what is it about some people who display red flags and call it their best […]

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HOLDING GRUDGES TAKES A SPECIAL KIND OF STRENGTH

August 7, 2021 by

Holding grudges is a time honored tradition between races, religions, nations, and families. “We don’t like them.” “Why don’t we like them?” “Why would we?” This exchange gets played out between young and old, men and women, brothers and sisters. Eventually holding grudges turns into something completely different than how it started because no one […]

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MARRYING KIND? HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE

August 1, 2021 by

Being the marrying kind takes practice. Eventually things work themselves out. From the relationship vault: A few weeks into a sizzling new romance, Lovey and I were in my Lovejoy apartment late one night when the building buzzer started and wouldn’t stop. I got up and pushed the front door button. After all, the place […]

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ADVERSITY TRAINING ONE BLOG POST AFTER ANOTHER

July 13, 2021 by

Adversity training comes from two sources: Those who have faced adversity, and those who will face adversity. Pro Tip: We all face adversity. How we deal with it tells others who we are. While I’m not an adversity trainer, or in adversity training, I am a man and therefore qualified to add senseless context to […]

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EVERY DAY IS A NEW CHANCE FOR SMALL CHANGES

July 8, 2021 by

Every day has promises to keep with miles to go before we sleep. Sound familiar? It was a poem written by an old man named Robert Frost. When I first read ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ I chalked it up to a reflection on mortality. Reading it now, instead of a high school […]

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AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE UPDATE: NOW WHAT?

July 2, 2021 by

We all understand American Independence from a historical point of view. “Freedom from the tyranny of taxation without representation.” And other tyrannies? What about independence from other tyrannies? Can we get freedom from self-imposed tyrannies? Personal tyranny? If so, how? That’s the question, how? You could read an essay for starters. It’s an Oregon-born essay […]

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