As promised in my last series of posts, here’s the story of why I took a break from publishing essays due to turning my full attention to doing something really hard, to make something right. I’d been in denial about it for decades, it was time to make
Past The Lights Aug. 19-22, 2023 (Days 11, 12, &13). If a day is defined by the abundance of the sun’s light and heat, then I hereby argue that the final three “days” of our epic road adventure that I’m about to describe were, in fact, one
A-Wonderin’ Note: As previously reported, I got behind on these daily RV trip posts due to there being so damn much awesoming going on and sometimes being so tired that I would pass out before finishing writing, having to finish it when time allowed the next day, which became less
What A Life Is For Aug. 17, 2023 (day nine)- Taos to Santa Fe. My mom texted and asked if we were getting on each other’s nerves yet. I have deliberately omitted any such detail because, as anyone who has ever embarked on any kind of multi-day road
Crowbarred Aug. 16, 2023 (day 8): Denver to Taos. With our face-melting Red Rocks experience now behind us, we turned down the volume and shifted into New Mexico bliss-out mode, a state we all wanted to soak in, and had three days in three cities to do so. First was
Can’t Be Young Aug. 14, 2023 (day seven): Colorado, part deux. The Litty Titty RV Committee, as we refer to our party of five, decided to make this day a “down-day” at the rad Denver West KOA, our first day with no significant driving time, but with evening plans
YMCA Aug. 14, 2023 (day six): Wakeeny to Denver’s drive had an electric undercurrent as we all anticipated the event that was the impetus for this whole endeavor. It was the day before the big day. The many rounds of Uno and Go Fish and the creation of more
Two Fingers Aug. 13, 2023 (day five): Jolted from sleep by thunder that sounded as if it came from the ground, we quickly got out of Lawrence for a long, flat drive across Kansas, where the Simpsons-intro clouds and blue sky were in IMAX, and the wind tossed the RV
Free State Aug. 12, 2023 (day four): Awakening to a morning rain relieved us of the previous day’s oppressive heat, long enough to pile into the RV and get the hell out of Dodge, which is something one can literally do in Kansas, but still only figuratively in Missouri
Set Your Monkey Free Aug 10 & 11 (Days 2 & 3): The 1999 Fleetwood Jamboree Recreational Vehicle on loan to us from Kelly’s dad has kickin' A/C when hooked up to electric and parked to function as a temporary domicile….just not while driving to function
*Dear Reader, My last post was in February 2025 and as of this writing it is now almost July. I know that’s too long, but perhaps you’ll cut me some slack, as I do have a pretty good reason: I was getting sober, which I am presently writing
The first time I heard Rufus Wainwright’s voice was in the late nineties, in one of the nineties-est ways possible: on a mixtape made for me by a rad woman I struck up a conversation with in a coffee shop. I didn’t think I liked that kind of
A quick note: In a spirit of mercy to myself and to you, my reader, I decided to table a piece I started writing directly referencing recent national events that we are all processing and likely needing some space away from, so I decided instead to offer you this for
It’s August in the late, hot summer of 1989, weeks before we start our senior year in high school, and we are sitting in my 1980 Honda Accord hatchback in Amy’s driveway, listening to Indigo Girls on cassette. Amy is singing softly with the tape: My place is
(A typical interaction between Me and the Universe) Universe: Teaching moment or torture? Me: Umm….torture, please! Universe: Ok, here’s a teaching moment. Me: (……..) The other day I was in a traffic situation in which someone did something super selfish and shitty, I honked and they flipped me off.
(alternate title: Heavy Mental Parking Lot) “Two hundred years of American technology has unwittingly created a massive cement playground of unlimited potential, but it was the minds of 11-year-olds that could see that potential.” -Craig Stecyk, 1975- from Skateboarder magazine In one memorable mid-eighties summer, a convergence of events considerably
Somewhere, in recent years, I heard this wise little nugget; that you make the path by walking. And, man…did I need to hear THAT, because until that moment, the central premise of my self-pitying mid-life crisis narrative had been that a half-century of cautiously side-eyeing and waiting for “the
News
New essay up now (The Opposite Shore), new hosting site (Ghost), new URL https://nondrowsyformula.ghost.io/. I can now deliver these writings as a newsletter, and am working on embedding audio so you can listen to me read my essays and rest those tired peepers. Thanks so much for