Category Archives: Uncategorized

In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. —Norman Maclean, “A River Runs Through It” Let him be standing just like that, legs apart in the stream, one hand on the rod, the other pulling … Continue reading →

…this woman was laboring to bring this little blonde girl into the world, a baby showing up early (a habit not cultivated for the rest of her life), the baby tiny at 5 pounds-ish, the woman, even pregnant, lithe and … Continue reading →

Today I shall behave as if this day is the day I will be remembered. —Dr. Seuss Did any of them think that as they went into work Thursday morning, that this would be the day they would be remembered, … Continue reading →

It was her brother who gave her the nickname. Kevin was all of 3, doing battle with words that wouldn’t wrap around his tongue quite right, including his older sister’s name. Consequently, Lauren came out Nonen. He became Kebbin, as … Continue reading →

That song, a big hit in 1963-64, just cracked you up and cracked up your daughters, too: Hello, Muddah, Hello, Faddah, Here I am at Camp Granada, Camp is very entertaining, And they say we’ll have some fun if it … Continue reading →

I am awed by people who do what seem to me impossible feats. My friend Ed Cole, for example, who, bit by bit, is hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, which runs 2,650 miles from the Mexican border to Canada through … Continue reading →

Sue Lester was (luckily for me) the girl next door when my parents moved my sister and me in 1966 to this out-of-the-way place next to a lake named Folsom. Sue and I were 8 years old, though she would … Continue reading →

We went to serve, as thousands of people have done, the patients of Kalaupapa. Though there are only ten Hansen’s Disease patients left of the 7,600 banished to this isolated peninsula on the island of Moloka’i, we went as kokua … Continue reading →

Every year about this time I go to my college’s graduation ceremony—sometimes in cap and gown as a “perfesser,” but more often lately in a maroon Sacramento City College shirt that says “staff” on it. Staff at my college are … Continue reading →

One of the things I’m often asked by people who read my posts is, “How’s Annie?” And the answer is pretty much always, “Her usual happy self.” My friend Nikki traveled to China to adopt Annie two summers ago and … Continue reading →