Sunday Morning Essays

Finding Noah My son packed his car, stepped over things that shouldn’t be on the sidewalk, avoided the homeless tents to protect himself from an airborne virus, and said goodbye. He got in his VW and drove one way from San Francisco to Dallas along highway 40. He is staying with us while he looks for something to rent.  A few months after he arrived it was Halloween, and we were talking about haunted places near Dallas. My travel companion and I knew a few.  For example there is a prestigious all-girls Catholic high school close by named Ursuline in which a nun looks down from an attic window. Long dead, she showed up in a class photo which is now on display in the entrance along with some trophies. There’s also a grande dame hotel built in 1912 downtown called the Adolphus with many ghost sightings hovering over visitors' beds. While talking around the kitchen table, we went to Google and looked up others. It turns out there’s a lot. One caught our eye as particularly gruesom...

 I Made a Critical Mistake Before going on to the next chapter of my travel companion and my flu-season slash election-year Americana road trip I have a confession to make.  I really screwed up.   For many years now, my travel companion offered little resistance to my avoidance of manual labor. This is outside of say, opening the door or helping get the suitcases in the overhead bins.  We lived in a downtown high-rise where I could call someone if my towel rack was wobbly or a lightbulb  needed replacing.  I did every thing I could think of to imprint upon her mind that there was simply no use in asking me to saw a piece of wood or use a screw driver because I lacked any skill.  Instead, she would do it.  I wore a suit jacket every day and multicolored socks.  When I sipped on a glass of wine or a cup of coffee my pinky finger was purposely extended towards the casual observer across the table.  When we camp outdoors I set up the kitchen...

A Subaru Called Betsy and a Box of Face Masks The Motel Blue Swallow in Tucumcari My travel companion and I had to close our yoga studio a few months ago. Apparently this year we are having a particularly severe flu season and only essential businesses, s uch as nail salons, car washes, liquor stores, and access to CBD, are allowed to remain open. Schools are still in question. Yoga studios are definitely not essential.. At least in the eyes of our county government leaders, much like the rest of the country.  Counties in my home state of Texas are run by the county judge and a group of two to four commissioners. I looked up the bio of one of our commissioner team members. “With her professional background and training in commercial interior construction & design, Commissioner [..]”  While impressive, it didn’t build my confidence that she understood the intricacies of epidemiology and which businesses would cause an uncontrollable wild fire of viral co...

 Is This Even Legal? Photo: This is one of the many flags that mysteriously appeared one morning lining our street. In the background you can see our new house and the prehistoric horse apple tree (see previous blog). The undulations on the lawn a clear sign that a mammoth was there. TAXES, AFTER ALL, ARE DUES THAT WE PAY FOR THE PRIVILEGES OF MEMBERSHIP IN AN ORGANIZED SOCIETY.” — FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT My travel companion and I scratched our heads this weekend when we walked out of our Texas home to go to brunch (brunch is a big thing here in Dallas). The streets in our neighborhood were lined with American Flags. When I was a homeowner in the California Bay Area I wouldn't dream of putting the American Flag in front of my home. It would be considered too divisive. I cringe at the thought of the community backlash over my flag after a quarterback for the Bay Area team the 49ers decided to kneel during the anthem. The 49ers weren't even doing that well...