My older brother is a genius. No hyperbole, a legit genius. During the time he was working for Hewlett-Packard, eventually ending up as the head of one of Hewlett-Packard’s two research labs, he made a number of discoveries and advances which were patented. However, none of the patents were in his name. Instead, because they…
I grew up on a remote cattle ranch with no phone or tv. So as kids we played games with each other. One was called “Would you push a button?”. Well, the game didn’t have an actual name, but one of us kids would ask another kid a question like “Would you push a button…
The brakes on our van have been shuddering, so I took it to Valley Tire and Brake. I was in town and had to wait, so I took a walk. Not far from VT&B there’s a lovely section of tree-shaded creek. It’s in the city, so it has concrete sidewalls, but it’s peaceful and pretty…
After I wrote my last piece about my trip to Fiji, things have just been moving too fast to write. I’ll just take up where I left off, at Janice’s Skinny Bean Cafe in Pacific Harbour. It’s in a large complex of shops and apartments called “Arts Village”. I used to live in one of…
This year I skipped Easter. I boarded my plane on Not-So-Good Saturday, the day before Easter, flew across the International Dateline and landed in Fiji on the Monday after Easter. Go figure. I got off the plane, cleared customs, rented a car, and started down the Coral Coast. Stopped at Natadola, but they’ve changed the…
“We’re waxing down our surfboards, We can’t wait for June.” SOURCE: The Beach Boys, “Surfin’ USA” I’ve been getting my gear ready to go surf Frigates Passage in Fiji. Ten years ago I swore to surf Frigates at 70, so now I gotta go do it. Hate it when that happens. Frigates is a natural…
Due to a complex series of misunderstandings and coincidences, I once found myself spending a long time in a small boat on the ocean in bad weather. I was forced to do it because the people on shore responsible for arranging the paperwork and landing details couldn’t be bothered. I learned a very important rule…
