I lived with and under that tarpaulin for maybe seven months. Obviously, I did not want to move into the RV in the first place. I’m an RV fan, but for travel…
Do you want Search?
Search
-
-
2016: how does it feel?
I was sitting at the bar in Oswald’s, one of Santa Cruz’s nicer restaurants, chatting and flirting. This was during the year’s gap between girlfriends, sometime during the summer. First a woman…
-
A Hike in the High Sierra
I did reach the top of Mount Tallac, the craggy mountain that dominates the Southwest shore of Lake Tahoe. But only just. The last few hundred vertical feet had been very hard,…
-
Nick’s 30th Birthday
Nick came home for his 30th birthday. At least, I feel like it’s his home here in California, although his mother makes her home in Paris, and he spent half his childhood…
-
2015: ch- ch- ch- changes!
It’s Christmas Day, an incredibly beautiful day here in Santa Cruz after the wind and rain of the last few days. As we drove home, the air was clearer and brighter than…
-
Suzanne and the Jolly Schlepper on Holiday
The AirBnB listing for the apartment said that it was a fourth floor walk-up, but the comments on AirBnB warned us that it was more like five floors. It was five, and it…
-
2014: a great vacation in Europe, and then some!
Another year done, as Charlie delicately reminded me recently. I was trying to help him recognize a girl he knew whom I had met, and told him that her hair color was…
-
2013: me and the boys
Happy Holidays, everyone!! It’s been a solitary year here. I don’t say lonely, because with the possible exception of holidays built around families, I’m having a fine time – so many little…
-
Happy Birthday NextSpace!
Santa Cruz Mayor Ryan Coonerty is a chocoholic, as am I. We both work at NextSpace Santa Cruz, Ryan for PredPol, an interesting start-up that uses technology to help police forces do…
-
When bankruptcy doesn’t work.
On Monday morning, August 1, 2011, Nick (my oldest) arrived at work to be told that he was being laid off immediately and would not be paid the last month’s salary of…
-
2012: car crash, court date and colonoscopy!
You know that you’re getting old when the McCartney featured in the Queen’s New Year’s honors list is named Stella. Stella? Oh, that’s right, Sir Paul’s daughter, honored for services to British…
-
For the dear departed: Vi Warrington (née Smith) and Angela Hodgetts (née Stock)
Aunty Vi died in England in April this year, and her son Ron had arranged a memorial service for her in August. She was mum’s last surviving sibling. That was it: a…
-
Two reunions – Cambridge NY and Yale
October 2012: stumbling off the red-eye at JFK, I took the New York State Thruway, Interstate 87, north to Saratoga Springs, spent a few hours on client matters in a Starbucks there,…
-
Adventures (mini) in the Sierra Nevada.
A short weekend road trip into the mountains, just one night away, became two satisfying if modest tales. The first was planned. Sort of. I’d been itching to see Ron and Dennis…
-
Living with Nick, again!
When I told Alex that I was going to post about what it’s like living with Nick now, he replied instantaneously, “there’s a Kern’s can in the shower!” That’s what it’s always…
-
An internet detective mission for Aunt Angela
This postcard started a long piece of internet detective work, that unfortunately failed. At least at first. While I was visiting her in February 2008 at her home in East Sussex, Aunt…
-
2011 in review: damage control
It’s the time of year when we look back on all that we’re grateful for, an easy job here. We’re especially grateful for teenagers and twenty-somethings! I was quietly watching the Beatles’…
-
Tom and Morgane come to town!
-
Disney Weekend
They may be getting older, but Disneyland still works for my next generation. And for me! So much for small talk. Nick called me a few weeks after I first uploaded this…
-
“Peace Train Sounding Louder”
On to Paris, for a couple of days. I was going to see Tom, only he didn’t know it yet. Tom had actually been the trigger that started me on this whole…
-
Steam Trains in Scotland
My summer vacation, taken early this year, focused on trains. I fitted in a few friends and family, of course, but this vacation was all about trains. Most of them were real,…
-
UEFA Champions League Final 2011
It may be a coincidence, and it may be karma, or it may be nothing at all except a combination of circumstances that arose for no reason at all, but I personally…
-
Patriot Guard Riders
You don’t expect much from the airport shuttle, not from any airport shuttle. A timely arrival at the airport is all that is promised and all that you need. So when you…
-
Christmas 2010 and Alex’s Birthday
During dinner last night, Charlie asked when there would be new photos posted up here, reminding me that it has indeed been a while. It’s Easter Sunday today, and Alex and Charlie…
-
Snowseeing in Tahoe
The most beautiful sight in nature on the move is big waves pounding on a rocky shore. It’s one of the sights of Santa Cruz, whenever the Pacific works up a swell.…