Finally made it
Well, I’ve been thinking about this place since February 22nd… At the end of the walk this morning, a couple of hundred yards from the rental car place, I discovered a new brewery I’d never heard of before. I’m going to make a plan to check it out. Today a friend was doing a...
Continue readingDiscussing Carrington with my Dad
I’ve been thinking about the movie Carrington lately. It came out over 20 years ago and stars Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce, about the shared lives of painter Dora Carrington and writer Lytton Strachey. I’d never heard of either real-life artist before seeing the film. My dad recommended it to me recently which is...
Continue readingBacking up the Back Pack
So I got this out-of-the-blue message last Friday from one of my favorite performance groups in town, The Back Pack. They asked if I’d be interested in taking a crash course in one of their performances and getting onstage Sunday night for a benefit night they were putting on. Though I was worried about...
Continue readingBuilding Bicycles in Bangkok
Well, maybe Phuket, actually. A friend of mine does computer consulting work in Thailand and is trying to open a bike rental shop. He’s invited me over to check the place out, maybe do some work on getting things up and running. Things seem to be lining up okay for me to do it....
Continue readingMr. Richard
This is a sad, kind of personal post, but I wanted to jot it down somewhere. One of my kids’ preschool teachers, known as Mr. Richard, passed away over the weekend, and it’s really hit me hard. He was one of the sweetest, kindest-hearted and generous men I’ve known. The whole class loved following...
Continue readingCascade Lakes Relay Redux
It’s done. I survived. Still digesting the event and what it means to me. My favorite part of it was probably the team camaraderie. Spending almost 40 hours in tight quarters with five dedicated runners (Bruce, Matt, Kamille, Kate & Tom) was like a condensed camping experience. I only knew one of them (Tom)...
Continue readingMy Fictional Dream Life isn’t Bad
Sometimes I have unusual dreams—as we all do—and they can stick with me in a creepy, nightmarish way. But other times, people tell me about their dreams that have me in them, and I enjoy those so much more. Here’s one a writer friend sent me last week. There’s something comic book-y about it...
Continue readingPublic vs. Private Lives
I just got done spending a week or so traveling around with my kids and dad in the northwest. Along the way, my dad was reading a terrific book of collected essays by Paul Theroux (a prolific travel writer I’m sort of embarrassed to say I hadn’t heard of before). As we got accustomed...
Continue readingDigesting Negative Feedback
I’ve been struggling with a longer work of fiction for a while, and recently had someone I trust in the literary business read it and give me some great, constructive feedback. She had a lot to say about its strengths (which I appreciate, of course) but also lots to say about its challenges (which...
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