Two months ago I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I had volunteered for a study for men over 50 with BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia), where peeing becomes increasingly difficult. Sometimes I'd wake up in the middle of the night having to go really bad, and just couldn't. Not much fun. So,… Read full post »

I just watched the finale of The Killing on AMC. I was convinced the show would reveal the killer, but we're left with this weird bait-and-switch, implicating the cop Steven Holder. I am left with a terrible emptiness in the pit of my stomach, since we really don't know whodunnit, dammit!… Read full post »

My son's about to graduate high school, and I waited all day to see him. I called him about 2 and he was busy with friends and wouldn't be home until late, so don't worry about dinner. So off and on during the day I reminisced, about when my kids were… Read full post »

 My son, a senior at NYU, moderated a panel on blogging and the changing landscape of journalism over the weekend, and the opening sentence of the accompanying article reads: "You don't want a job in media, honestly, you don't!" The above article is quite illuminating. Anyway, it got me… Read full post »

Overheard at a 12-step meeting today:  "For years I'd say, 'I'd give my left nut for that house,  I'd give my left nut for that car or I'd give my left nut for that woman. Then a few years later I was diagnosed with testicular cancer - and lost my left… Read full post »

    I've been in drug and alcohol rehab since the end of February, dealing with my latest relapse. This explains why I've been away from this blog for so long. I have very limited access to the internet, so this, and future entries, must be brief. Suffice it to say that this… Read full post »

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 »