In her poem Blackbirds, the poet Julie Cadwallader Staub wrote, "...and when I turned my face upward / I saw a flock of blackbirds / rounding a curve I didn't know was there / and the sound was simply all [...]

I have avoided writing about overtly political topics in this blog, mostly because it’s divisive and I need space for other aspects of my writing life. Satire is a reliable outlet for frustration, angst, and general world-weariness, but as [...]

I'm following up on a previous post on the meaning of home and how laughter helps define it, and on another post on the science behind the benefits of laughing. Here’s an example, one of many, of how the weekly [...]

Yes folks, it's that time of year again, where thoughts turn to zombies and we are reminded by the Center For Disease Control and FEMA that the federal government has preparedness pages for the apocalypse. I kid you not, see [...]

My friend Kristen, who is an otherwise upstanding Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, was visiting our home with her husband, Lou. We all knew Kristen takes fitness seriously, but over pre-dinner drinks she surprised us by saying, “Did I ever [...]

It started innocently enough, with our local sailmaker and friend Carol Hasse saying, “Oh, you MUST meet these two new friends of mine! You will absolutely LOVE them!” So she set up a blind date of sorts at our [...]

A 7-hour, 460-mile drive on I-90 from coastal Washington got me to Wallace, Idaho and a campground next to a pub, to which of course I repaired, forsaking camp ramen. It had been an easy drive except for the [...]

Small is good. My car is set up for sleeping in if I don't want to pitch a tent. And the tarp-awning works well for sitting under in rain. When you think about a road trip, what comes to [...]

Compilations of best first lines in novels abound on the internet, and they usually include Call me Ishmael. (Herman Melville); and, Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon [...]