I gratefully spent a few days at the sea this past week. So much to look back on and to write about. First some time with good long-time friends, sharing a place up north of Bodega Bay, off Wright’s Beach. A wonderful quiet time of good cheer. Then I drove down to Santa Cruz, music …
Category Archives: essay
Limbo Land
A few weeks ago, after years of saying no to my dermatologist’s recommendation of a two week efudex treatment on my face and upper chest, I said yes. It isn’t pretty or fun. And you don’t get a picture here. Look it up – effing efudex. The fact that I couldn’t go outside made my …
I Just Called…
“…To say…I love you…” There it was again, playing on the radio as I drove my grandkids to school the other morning. “Have you ever been to a funeral?” my 8-year old grandson asked as we drove past the cemetery. I’d just mentioned in passing, covering over the scary cemetary thinking, that I enjoy walking …
No Need to Bow
I opened my email the other day, and courtesy of a meditation group I follow, I was given a task to do: for every letter of the alphabet, write down something that you are grateful for. At first glance, I balked What the heck my next thought was Okay, let’s do this. I …
Russell Alvin Thomas
Born May 4, 1918, Dad was the youngest of three boys. He was a bit of a rake, he said. He was certainly a story teller. We never knew what to believe. Did he and his brothers really get sent home by the cops when they climbed up the old windmill at Ocean Beach? Did …
May Day
May Day. I opened my eyes, rolled over and looked out the window. A couple of birds hopped through the arbor grapevines into the feeder. May Day thoughts as a child came to me, rhyming songs and dancing around some May Pole (or maybe a tether ball pole), images of little children tossing flowers in the …
Piece o’ cake
It’s so easy to lose track of time, what day it is, the day of the month, when I’m coming and where I’m going. Somewhere. Check my written itinerary for assurance. The family and friend visits are the cake, the train is the icing. Put it together, a bite at a time, I’m a happy …
A journey of eleven thousand five hundred miles begins with a single step.
When I purchased my Amtrak cross country trip weeks ago, back in May, I was told I could pick up the Rail Pass and boarding tickets at my first boarding, which would be in Lamy NM. OR, I could pick up them up at the San Francisco Transbay Transit (temporary) Terminal. A new (bigger and …
Continue reading “A journey of eleven thousand five hundred miles begins with a single step.”
Dear Governor,
You didn’t know Jorge. He was just one of thousands of mentally ill patients living in one of your state mental health hospitals. I wonder sometimes how his sister, his only surviving relative, is doing. I wonder if she knows the truth about how and why he died. Jorge didn’t die from his heart disease, …
Micrófono Abierto Bilingüe con Chocolate
I moved from San Francisco to Napa CA in 2009 to take a new job. I wasn’t looking forward to living in what I thought of as a white-bread community. I soon realized how ignorant I was. I chose a working class neighborhood in which to make my home and eventually became active in the …
Writer Paints 