We sat on our side of the fire, illuminated in the soft strobes of gold and yellow shooting up to the sky.  The stones containing and constraining the fire were warm on my bare feet and embers blew up and away into some great god while I listened to what turned out to be a mostly acoustic jam session. I have been isolated now for months.  With one exception, the few friends I had left town or just moved on to something else.  I try to make new friends, but I am not good at it.  I’ve alw... Read Full Story

This is the list of crap ‘Wired’ magazine says you need to be a hardcore adventurer: 1. Black Diamond Ion Blinding, tiny, and tough, this headlamp is impervious to almost any abuse and cheap enough that you won’t care if you lose it (until you need it). $20, blackdiamondequipment.com 2. Leica Ultravid 8 x 20 BR The best compact binoculars we’ve ever used: water-resistant and burly, with a bright, clear image. $700, leica-camera.com 3. Keen Powerline These kicks... Read Full Story

Fact: The police cannot find you if you have handy camouflage in our backpack. Fact: You should be a little nicer. Fact: that second shot was a bad idea. Fact: somewhere, someone would appreciate this ridiculousness. Fact: searchlights are at the wrong angle to illuminate the right sorts of canal banks when you’re under the tamarisk. Fact: I should be a better person. Fact: Some day I may be. Fact: I hate police. fact: Lazy, fat,  fucking pieces of crew cutted shit. Fact: Used to be one... Read Full Story

You know, she said, reliability is its own sort of sexy. I would not have normally agreed, but she was laying there, nothing but flanks and legs, on my couch. We spent the night, the day, and half another together. In the swelter of the living room with the hard summer sun we had gotten reacquainted. Which is to say, she never really leaves. She’s not always available, but I can count on her to return. She asks about my writing and about my working and a million other questions I wo... Read Full Story

<Are they ever, really?> <Ever what?> <Love songs.> How far is it today? How long will I have to sacrifice this passive lack of pain? When I get to the school house, will the sun set on me and will I be able to put my thoughts, such as they are, to bed?  Maybe I’ll make it around that half-mile concrete track with the lightning going up my heel and hitting me in the gut enough  times it stops. Maybe if I go on to the football  field and run twenty yard suicides, maybe ... Read Full Story

Bitches: I will be gone for a while.  OMG at will, text friends, update Facebook accordingly. But don’t cry for me.  I will return.  I have no doubt that this legendary hangover will result in me sullying a pristine canyon full of pictographs, petroglyphs, and Anasazi/Ute/Navajo ruins with my own foul hangover vomit about a mile into this backpacking trip.  Why? Going away party. I am sad. : ( That is my face.  It frowns.  Bitches! Bring me my sympathy! Anyway.  This concludes this ramb... Read Full Story

It’s hard to explain sometimes, how life is a constant battle.  It’s hard to explain how you may be there and you may be engaged, but your mind is fighting another war, one farther away and more present than any fight here.  And when you break into the mode of fighting and killing, that it [...] Read Full Story

One and the same, friend. Posted in Uncategorized Read Full Story

So, I have one friend who I consider my nerding out free pass.  He’s the guy who will not only indulge my intermittent desire to discuss Star Trek, but will also do me one better by somehow making connections to dragons and what may be Tolkien references. I am a very exclusive nerd.  If it does not blow something up, I probably don’t care.  If it is not the product of some orogenic belt, I probably do not care.  If it does not involve music (not to say band trivia), I probably do ... Read Full Story

I make no secrets about my recent foray into the running world.  I’ve always been a somewhat devoted gym-type person, so exertion is really not that big a deal.  Running, however, is one of those hobbies that, much like representative democracy, has nebulous benefits that are not immediately perceivable and a jealous nature.  But I have been trying.  I have forsaken all others, save the random mountain biking excursion, for this one semi-love. I’m able to run ten miles, now.  I us... Read Full Story