A phalanx of rain marches down a Coos Bay beach. Elmer and I meander in formation, minions of a gray legion. I am soaked to my shorts this winter morning at lightless dawn. I should have worn the pea coat, woolen armor, a grizzled veteran of a quarter century on the Oregon Coast, repelling, absorbing […]
Scene 1 It’s 5:12 in the morning. Rain falls. Elmer the husky and I walk through the neighborhood. It’s Tuesday—garbage pickup day. All the refuse/recycling bins stand at attention on the sidewalks. Across the street, I see a woman with long hair (no hat) carrying a large plastic tote. She moves briskly from each recycling […]
I sit on the couch and stare out the window. Rain falls. Homeless men and women pass by. At precisely the same moment, another Republican member of the US House of Representatives has dropped out of the race for Speaker. I wonder when the Whigs knew when they were about to become extinct? I’m reading […]
I drove many miles to see an old friend Gary before he passes away. Before our meeting, I visited a jetty near his home and watched ospreys diving into the roiling Rogue River. Ospreys remind me of my friend because he knew all about them. He had a great osprey story and how many of […]
I read recently a curious little book about walking picked up at my local bookstore for a couple bucks. I wasn’t looking for a book about walking. It was mistakenly shelved in the poetry section and what a happy mistake that was for me. Computers eradicate any chance of happy random mistakes and we are […]
Four months is enough. I loathe walking in sunshine. There is no nuance, little digressive thought, only heat and sweat and more and more people striving for fitness and talking on their phones. Rain drives people from the streets and trails. That’s what I crave—nobody around. The sun makes me a misanthrope. Rain makes me […]
Rain is smashing into my metal-encased domicile and sending up an old sweet sound to me. This may be the last time I hear it and I have wondered of late in earnest about that. The sound of rain in the big city just isn’t the same. I am drinking day-old cold coffee. I am […]
Rain falls. I move across sidewalks with the year of their birth etched in concrete. I read 1918. Year of the last pandemic. There’s something important in that, but I’ll let other writers assay it. I hear a man in the distance calling out loudly, unintelligible. Great, another American has lost it. I move toward […]
It was barely light and I made my way down the beach as foam blew across my path. Rain fell. Much was on my mind as I contemplated the big changes in my life that are now underway. How will I fare? How will my father fare? Where am I going in my personal and […]
Sunday. Early. Rain falls. I don the pea coat and walk to the beach, past the holiday decorations and hummingbirds feeding from the feeders the hummingbird nuts keep filled year round. I love these hummingbird nuts. As I walk down the road, I think about another Christmas tale I want to write, even though the […]