I hate even typing the above words. I caught Bill Moyers the other night and it was like getting hit in the gut with a sucker punch. When he got to the physician in Nashville, who described on a flow chart the hundreds of offshoot companies that have formed from the… Read full post »

The more I read about the kidnapping and return of Jaycee Lee Dugard the more troubled I become. The police, parole people, sex offender authorities, virtually everyone who was supposed to be checking up on this asshole, really dropped the ball. They squandered dozens of opportunities to find this ha… Read full post »

So yesterday I hit the ground running. Shower and a shave, where I got rid of four days of scraggle. Had a coffee date with a lovely lady who I'm getting to know. Got home and got on my bike and trudged uphill for four miles and turned around and… Read full post »

Seeing Steve Hartmann tonight on the evening news, and his piece about Charles Kuralt's story on the Chandler Family Reunion really got my nostalgia wheels turning.

Over the years, 'On the Road' was always the highlight of any CBS news broadcast. I think I must have seen 'em all. I want to… Read full post »

Two of my sons went to see Harry Potter at midnight (early Wednesday morning) and when they got home at 4 a.m. I asked them how they liked it. They were both non-committal (and really tired) and said they were disappointed that it strayed so far from the book. So I… Read full post »

I'm 66 and just finished a 12-mile bikeride, half of it up about a 5% grade. I'm doing about 50 miles a week these days. I also hit the gym 3-4 days a week to work the weights. I've lost 15 pounds in the last six months. I had the bow-legged… Read full post »

I wrote a while back about my kid, a sophomore at NYU and his liveblogging exploits at a school building takeover by a band of goofs.

Those efforts helped him land a pretty good summer gig at our local newspaper, the Albuquerque Journal, writing a new blog about the goings… Read full post »

Ok, ok, it's a gag post. But forchristssakes it may be the only way I can ever make it to the 'feed' or the faves or somewhere on the front page that might last for more than 28 seconds.

Or not.

Well, the meds did their thing, and I'm feeling enormously better. It was one of the longest months I can recall. To those of you who were so kind as to inquire about how I was doing, a hearty thank you.

To bring this ridiculous saga up to date, I… Read full post »

I stopped the antidepressants a month ago. Felt ok for a few weeks but the last two weeks have been overwhelming. I'd been taking the pills for like 12 years and got to thinking - I was sick and tired of relying on drugs to feel ok. And, the side effects,… Read full post »

Tracie Egan, who labors under the nom de plume Slut Machine, is now out of the closet as the spiritual leader of Jezebel.com. She's one of the latest breed of raunchy female writers who are showing up on the internet, writers like Moe Tkacik, Charlotte Roche and Miranda Purves. She also… Read full post »

Natasha Richardson was buried today, and it's been a sad week for me. I can't explain how devastated I feel about her death. When I first heard she had been hurt in a seemingly minor fall on a beginner slope during a private lesson my interest was picqued.… Read full post »

I've been procrastinating, avoiding, refusing to do what I know I have to do. The thing is, that when my father died I was left with a terrible guilt and sense of loss that went far beyond losing my dad. I still carry the pain of all that with me, and… Read full post »

On a recent trip to San Francisco I found myself in Golden Gate Park on three separate occasions. I'm glad I had my camera along.

I love it when the bridge is partially obscured by fog.

… Read full post »

I was 18 and the alcoholism that would plague me for the rest of my life was becoming evident, though I wouldn't recognize it as a problem for 30 years. I had gotten off work at the Lucky Store where I was working as a bag boy, and attending the local… Read full post »

A year ago I had both knees replaced, and just in the last couple of months I have virtually no knee pain. For the ten years before the operation the pain was sometimes so excruciating that I couldn't walk at all. When I could walk, if I had to hurry, like… Read full post »

I just caught Sicko on cable. That was the 2007 Michael Moore documentary on the state of our healthcare system. I hadn't seen it for a few years, but the outrage I felt then came screaming back to me. The way our HMOs try so very hard to either deny treatment… Read full post »

My last post was a self-pitying self-indulgence, and garnered a few comments, most fairly supportive. But, you know, the way I see it, you're allowed one of those. If you keep it up everyone gets sick of you pretty quickly, and you're in store for a major tuneout!

So I've waited… Read full post »

I knew I was an alcoholic 25 years before I quit. It took a DUI, very public firing (TV weatherman), my inability to get a decent job and another DUI before I finally quit. I'd been to Hazelden in the mid-80s and a couple of subsequent out patient treatment things, but… Read full post »

In my last post I blathered on about how the Feds should give the 'people' the handouts rather than unload it on the very institutions which had a large roll in getting us into this mess in the first place. This lay theory was explained to me over lunch with Jon,… Read full post »

So I'm having lunch with a friend who used to frequent my craps table and the Ultimate Texas Holdem tables. He a real estate investor, and about a year ago I was seriously considering investing a large chunk of my retirement money with him. It would have helped finance a housing… Read full post »

I'm in San Francisco. Here's why:

I'd just come out of the gym with Charlie after meeting with Kim, a personal trainer and climbed into the car, when my cell phone went off. It was my nephew David in San Francisco, in tears, blurting out that his dad was dead. Steve… Read full post »

So I sleep late and, to assuage my guilt over not being an early riser, I plop onto my little nesting spot on the couch but don't turn on the TV, a big sacrifice. I begin reading The Tipping Point and alternately thumb through The New Yorker and Vanity Fair while… Read full post »

Yes, I did make it to the gym. Yeah, it went OK... until later that night!

Did a few leg presses on the big leg press machine, pain in the front of my knees, stumbled and fell on my way out of the contraption, looked about embarrassedly and found my… Read full post »