#53: On the Last Day of Summer Break

On the Last Day of Summer Break I’m home alone, cleaning house, sweeping, dusting, mopping, emptying the trash, doing small errands that have been waiting a long time, like those framed drawings of France that needed hanging, and that boat painting; now they’re up. I put away all the piles of rags and brushes andContinue reading “#53: On the Last Day of Summer Break”

The Going-Back-To-Work Blues Is A Real Thing

20 blog entries later, and the summer break comes to a close. Teachers report back to their schools in my district on Monday. Time to take stock. Time to look ahead. It’s been a strong summer. I blogged, I wrote fiction, became an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church, agreed to marry a coupleContinue reading “The Going-Back-To-Work Blues Is A Real Thing”

#52: Stupid Human Facebook Tricks

(with apologies to all my friends guilty of the following) I think one has to earn the right to post pictures of one’s food. First, it must be good food, carefully prepared, photogenic food, artfully arranged, economically described. Otherwise, I don’t want to see anybody’s food. And I refuse to respond to posts that testContinue reading “#52: Stupid Human Facebook Tricks”

A Talk at the 30 Year High School Reunion

Note: I include this as a post on my blogsite mostly for those classmates of mine who would like to see it. Don’t know if it will make sense for other readers–parts of it will, perhaps, others not so much. For example, to get the opening gag, you’d have to know that I now teachContinue reading “A Talk at the 30 Year High School Reunion”

Why I’m Thinking All The Time About Tiny Houses

Every few years or so I adopt a new obsession, embarrassingly, around some kind of thing I’ve come to believe will change my life in all kinds of positive ways.  I say embarrassingly, because usually the obsession revolves around some material thing.  Let me give you a quick run down of the last decade, forContinue reading “Why I’m Thinking All The Time About Tiny Houses”

The Power of Retreat

The truth of the matter is I didn’t read a single word of Moby Dick. I remain today on the same page I was on a week ago. Thanks to the generosity and kindness of my wife and son, I have been on retreat for a week at St. Mary’s College in Moraga for theContinue reading “The Power of Retreat”

#51: Benefit Car Crash

I misread the advertisement for a benefit car wash as a benefit car crash, honestly enough, my eye glancing quickly over the headline, eliminating the ‘a’ in car and the ‘w’ in wash, the brain filling in some redundancy so that sense could be made–because no one would advertise a benefit crash without specifying theContinue reading “#51: Benefit Car Crash”

#50: On Trying Again To Read Moby Dick (Again)

I’m not reading again, but instead, trying again to read for the first time, the problem being, as I’ve said before, not one of starting but of finishing, which, I fear is, but hope is not, a general pattern in my life. Call me Ishmael. What a great first line. I read it twenty timesContinue reading “#50: On Trying Again To Read Moby Dick (Again)”