Once again, I had to take my Ram pickup truck to the dealer. This time, it was just to make sure it was OK before the warranty ran out. And once again, I bought a pack of smokes and went out to talk to the homeless.  The first people I ran into were Mack and…

After I wrote my most recent piece about wandering around in the world of the homeless, called “Fixing The EGR“, some folks accused me of being compassionate. Funny, but I don’t see it that way at all, for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that we grew up without much money. My “new”…

My faithful Ram 1500 had a recall notice for the Exhaust Gas Recirculating system. They said it would take about four hours, so I figured I’d wander the streets of Santa Rosa. In a previous post called “Fixing The Brakes” I spoke about how I think it’s wrong to ignore the homeless. I don’t mean…

In this New Year, to counterbalance these most fractious times I thought I’d tell a tale of humanity and caring. I’ve had the privilege of living in a wide variety of countries and societies. And having not always been entirely sane myself, one way that I judge societies is by how they handle their crazy folks.…

I was watching the TV series “Call The Midwife” tonight with my gorgeous ex-fiancée. It takes place back in 1964. Two of the characters were old gay men, very much in love in a society where it was still “the love that can’t be named”, the love that at the time was still very illegal…

My old friend Patrick Purcell is a wonderful man with a lovely Solomon Islands wife … … a bunch of children and grandchildren, and even more friends. I’ve known him for thirty years and more. I last saw him when I was in the Solomons a couple years ago. We caught up on old times,…

Here, in order from the top, is the story of my wandering into the world of LSD-assisted psychotherapy … a strange tale indeed, and kids, don’t try this at home … Best to all, w. Another Tale of Derring-Don’t Well, now that Justice Kavanaugh has endured the attempted suspension of the presumption of innocence, and…

I had breakfast today with an old friend of mine I hadn’t crossed paths with in a while. And by an “old friend”, I mean a guy like me in his seventies. We spoke of many things, including the evanescent quality of life, which reminded me of my dear friend and father-in-law, Billy. So I…

I said a bit ago that I’d be offline for a couple of weeks because I was going to the Nevada desert. As some folks correctly surmised, I was headed for that bizarre congregation of extremophiles called “Burning Man”. And what is Burning Man? It is an eight-day festival of the impossible. It is a…

Here, one by one, are the twelve posts that tell the story of my most unusual voyage to the Gulf of Siam and back … read them from the top one down, come and join me on an aquatic adventure. w. I Am Invited Overseas Back in 1976, when I was about 30, a wealthy…