Monthly Archives: February 2019

Rain. I wake in the night to the steady drumming on the roof and when I awake at first dim light it is still raining.  In the car the rain is a metallic chatter on the roof.  No pigeons in … Continue reading →

I went to a fly fishing show in Pleasanton. Chris and Ellen Strempek took me. Ellen cast several rods that were light as a feather and more than a thousand dollars.  I spent ten dollars to put new backing on … Continue reading →

  The power has gone out and PG&E tells us that it will be for “an extended period of time.” So I am sorting out old files, tossing out old statements, cleaning up the debris, wondering when I can get … Continue reading →

Four o’clock in the morning and I can’t sleep so I turn on the light, put on my glasses and pick up the Scandinavian crime story.  And then I begin to think about what I am doing.  I am submerging … Continue reading →

Once, on Red Clover Creek, I stopped fishing and sat on a stump listening to the creek and the occasional stellar jay squawking in the trees.  I took the tip of my knife and began to count the rings in … Continue reading →

There is a sameness to schools.  Every day the same divisions of time, rooms that look the same, schools designed to look and act like factories. It’s hard to stir up anything that feels spontaneous. When my brother graduated from … Continue reading →

For fifty years I interacted with people. They came in bunches of thirty, sat in desks in a class room but I talked with them, tried to get them to talk with me;  at the mid morning break I talked … Continue reading →

I bought a new watch. Like its predecessors, it’s a Timex watch, the one that John Cameron Swayze said on the telly, “it takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”  Only now it doesn’t tick. An electric battery keeps the … Continue reading →

I learned to sail on an eight foot El Toro sailboat that I bought at the Berkeley Marina.  I launched it there and learned to sail by trial and error.  I occasionally acted as a crewman for Dan Goltz and Jerry  … Continue reading →

Hang gliders came off the Keddie ridge high above Indian Valley. The fliers drove the narrow dirt road up to Mt. Hough, veered off to come to the edge of the ridge and from there they launched themselves. It was … Continue reading →