An Editor, an Editor, My Kingdom for an Editor

I finished my first real ebook yesterday.  Wait a minute, I hear you saying, you’ve been using an electronic reader for more than a year now and must have read a lot of ebooks.  True, but this time I’m talking about a dedicated ebook, published through Amazon and offered as a $2.99 Kindle download.  The […]

Tubac Car Show

What, another gearhead post?  Sure, why the hell not? Every January the Santa Cruz Valley Car Nuts put on a car show at the golf course in Tubac, Arizona.  Classics, collector cars, muscle cars, sports cars, trucks, exotics … it’s a nice show, and I found it much easier to take in than the enormous […]

Car Mania (Updated)

Three years ago I visited the Barrett-Jackson auto auction in Scottsdale, Arizona.  I figured it’s been long enough, so yesterday I drove up again, this time with my friend Ed.  It was a long day: two-and-a-half-hours on the freeway going and coming; another four or five hours tramping around the tent city at Barrett-Jackson, ogling […]

Idiocracy Now

My experience with new year’s resolutions has been generally unsatisfactory.  With me … and with almost everyone I know … resolutions are prescriptions for self-induced stress, ultimate failure, and consequent depression.  They suck. That’s not to say I haven’t made deals with myself and stuck to them: I successfully quit smoking years ago and more […]

Out with a Bang

The year, that would be.  Out with a bang.  Shot right through the brain. This Christmas we added a compact 9mm pistol to our arsenal, so Polly and I took it and its big brother (a .357 revolver) to an indoor range this morning.  I wanted to get the feel of the new pistol, and […]

Festivus Roundup (updated)

The outside lights are up, strung along the eaves on the front of our house.  Polly and I put them up two weeks ago.  But the tree?  That’s a different story. Our old Martha Stewart Omniliving Holiday Tree® has become a Ghost of Christmas Past: threadbare (yes, artificial trees shed too), one entire section of […]

It’s the Hap, Happiest Time of the Year

What time is it? Time to write the annual holiday letter to friends and relatives. It’s the hap, happiest time of the year! Here’s one good reason to keep a blog or diary: when you can’t remember all the things you’ve done over the past year, you can go back month by month and look […]

Ride Report: BMW K 1600 GTL (Updated)

I’ve wanted to ride BMW’s new six-cylinder flagship touring bike ever since it came out. Last weekend I had my chance: two days and over 500 miles on a 2011 K 1600 GTL. I’d driven up to Las Vegas to spend Thanksgiving with my son Gregory in Las Vegas.  Greg, as he has done before, […]