Photo Credit © Lovisa Photo    At times I’ll be sitting in an almost perfect state of complete inactivity, and a sharp shooting pain will come out of nowhere. It could be the side of my head, a knee joint, thigh muscle, finger or toe, or my hair (I may be exaggerating that one). It’ll […]

© Lovisa Photo 2020    The other night we were watching the Stanley Tucci series Searching For Italy. In this one, he was looking for Florence. When Tucci started talking about the bread there, I casually mentioned to Carol that Florentines bake their bread without salt, the result of a medieval-era trade war with Pisa, […]

   I have three existential fears: snakes, premature burial and standing in lines. For anything, for any reason. When I saw those lines in front of stores that had nothing to sell in the days of the old Soviet Union, my stomach would be in knots just from watching the footage. Closer to home, I […]

   No sooner I say I’m going to refrain from something, I go ahead and do it anyway. All I can say is, I sit and stare blankly into space until an idea occurs to me. If I choose to ignore that idea, then I get nothing, and go back to staring into space until […]

   I’ve never experienced writer’s block, per se. For me, staring at a blank sheet of paper or a clear computer screen with a blinking cursor for hours, occasionally wiping drool from the corner of my mouth is simply what I call my writing process. Eventually, something winds up being written, and if Carol doesn’t […]

   “It looks like something your ashes might be put in.” Carol was considering her placement of the very lovely wine box, woodburned with my full name and new brand logo, a gift from my relaunched blog’s website designer. Carol was viewing the whole picture: the coffinlike wine box she had placed above the orange […]

Our governor here in California has declared a state of emergency over the recent outbreak of 23 major wildfires. Homes have been destroyed; air quality has deteriorated. Yesterday, the temperature hit 102, and our local utility has warned of rolling blackouts.

I should have seen this coming, but what can you say about a guy who’s always thought the oncoming train was the light at the end of the tunnel.

I’ve come to realize that I’ve been living the dream for some time now. You’d think that being cut off from the amazing opportunity to travel abroad afforded to Carol and me courtesy of Delta Airlines’ Surviving Spouse benefits would leave me inconsolably frustrated, but it has not.

I’ve always been an uneasy patriot. The country was founded with all its barefaced contradictions written into its very declaration of independence and constitution. It’s hard not to stifle a smirk when reading “All men are created equal,” knowing it was written and nobly approved by…