On the morning of November 19, 2009, my knowledge of Panama could be summed up with these words—canal, Noriega, and John Darwin, the Brit...

I recently returned from 9 days of hiking in the Eastern Sierra. Many wildflowers were still in bloom, especially above 8,000 ft....

Last year my friends convinced me to grow vegetables. Reluctantly, I got two elevated, raised beds for my back porch and then found an...

Emerging from sheltering at home is like being born again. Many things that I took for granted before, are supremely enjoyable now like:...

On March 18, 2020 (see The Journey Begins) I started writing about my time at home during the pandemic. At that time, the authorities...

When I first stepped onto Main Street in Bodie, it seemed to me as alive as any small town. After a few minutes I began to see how wrong...

On our way back from a recent road trip to the San Juan Islands, we decided to drive the Lost Coast. I think is was more than 20 years...

I am from a long line of orphans. Perhaps the line isn’t that long, but abandoned babies don’t have the luxury of genealogy. My...

I wrote the following essay in a workshop on the literary essay. The constraints were to use the words mountain, turkey, and Carolina...

A few weeks ago I took a workshop on the literary essay, led by Perrin Kerns (image below). I didn't know what a literary essay was when...

The hotels industry reopened this week in Monterey, so I booked a room at the Spindrift Inn on Cannery Row. Situated on the beach, the...

Today I took a drive down the coast from San Gregorio to Capitola. When I passed through Santa Cruz, the temperature had risen to 80...

For decades, differently abled people have been fighting for the right to participate in society. Accommodations for wheelchair users are...

One of the benefits of working at Apple for 22 years was that I was on the forefront of all new technologies. I was required to try out...

When the shelter-in-place order began in March, 2020, I starting writing a blog post a day. Back then, it seemed all we had to do was to...

There are forty six countries or dependencies in the world whose entire population is less that today’s USA COVID-19 cases....

I started the year reading a nonfiction book—Squirrels: The Animal Answer Guide, by Richard W. Thorington Jr. and Katie Ferrell. I bought...

The day-over-day increase in COVID-19 cases in the USA from November 1 to November 2 was about 83,000 people. The day-over-day increase...

I started taking Spanish lessons in the fall through Pimsleur. It's an approach that relies heavily on listening, repeating, and then...

A friend called me to find out how strangers could attend a Zoom even uninvited. Uninvited guests are photo bombers. In her case the...