The Beasts of the Field In the eighteen months I have lived on my hilltop in San Diego, I have gotten used to the critters that inhabit the chaparral. There is a very well defined ecosystem and while I am no zoologist or naturalist, this is how I see it. The baseline are the little ants I see here and there, inside and out. They don’t seem to be around much in the winter months,…
Tiering Up Today we drove the last leg of our Eastbound journey from California to New York. That rounds off to 2,800 miles in seven days of driving for an average daily ride of 400 miles. Today’s ride was only 335 miles, so about five and a half hours plus whatever stops we decided to make. We made it a forced march at 5mph over the speed limit (which I figure put us marginally over…
Ski In Ski Out A road trip across country at my age is bound to raise lots of memories. Indeed, today was a day of memories unlike yesterday. There is nothing wrong with the ride from San Diego through Las Vegas and up through the Virgin Valley Gorge into the red rocks of Southern Utah. In fact, it’s fair to say it’s one of my favorite areas of the United States, but we were just…
You Guys Playin’ Cards? There is a great scene from the the classic movie, National Lampoon’s Animal House, where the new pledge, Kent Dorfman (a.k.a. Flounder) ,who comes into the fraternity as a legacy based on the membership of his older brother, walks into the house and sees a group of upperclassmen at the poker table and says, “Hi guys……you guys playin’ cards?” It’s a showstopper because its the moment that Flounder establishes himself as…
A Room Without a View This week we are hopping from one roadway hotel to the next. Tuesday night was in the Holiday Inn Express in Richfield, Utah. It is right next to Rt. 70 and part of a highway exit dedicated to Rt. 70 travelers. Everything you need is within a hundred yards; a gas station, a minimart, a McDonalds and slightly better restaurant for those preferring not-so-fast food. The hotel has dug itself…
Susie and Pete We had dinner last night at Susie and Pete’s house in Wabash, Indiana, Kim’s old home town. Kim and Betty even stayed there last night since the Charley Creek Inn, in downtown Wabash is not so pet-friendly. Gary and Oswaldo and I stayed at the Charley Creek Inn, which, despite it’s uncharacteristically unfriendly approach to Betty, is an old, turn-of-the-prior-century hotel, restored with love and a refined eye for detail into a…
The Blue Origin of Life This morning I am reading articles that are making me simply pop with enthusiasm to write stories. Thus is the burden of a fertile and inquisitive mind since we are destined to depart on our cross-country road trip as soon as Kim finished her ablutions. It was a strange last night at home since Betty Poop has a case of explosive diarrhea which seems to have been brought on by…
Party Time I am sitting here at party-central this weekend. It’s almost 2pm and we have an open house from 3-6pm where we are expecting 40-50 people in total. Yesterday we had about thirty people for brother-in-law Bennett’s 70th birthday party. Yesterday was a fully catered party with what had to be the most California healthy menu I’ve ever seen. They called it a “Mediterranean Menu”, so I will know now what that means, lots…
The Girls at the Beach The other day Kim asked me if I thought my sisters would like to have a copy of a picture she found of the two of them in our mother’s hands, standing at the beach. Out mother had her hair being whipped about by the coastal breeze and the girls looked somewhat less than as exuberant as her. Kathy, the eldest, with her dark pixie haircut was looking up at…
The Silver Lining Script I am going to declare right up-front that I have “borrowed” this title from a combination of two sources. There is the 2012 movie Silver Linings Playbook from David O. Russell, staring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro. That told the story of a slightly mentally ill man who moves home with his parents and tries to get over a bad marriage by entering a dance competition with a…