Before I resume work in April, 2015, I wanted one last getaway. Greg and I flew to southeast Asia for a 16-day tour of Vietnam and Cambodia. As the Vietnam coastline is so long, on this trip we tackled just the south and center, landing in Ho Chi Minh City, …
Plane travel shortens distances and commodifies the exotic. I sit in a chair while the Earth hurtles below to appear magically somewhere else and shockingly different, yet the cramped flying experience remains universally the same. Our first flight carried Greg and I from San Francisco over 14 arduous hours to …
Today is my last day of freedom. Although I start tonight a sixteen-day trip through Asia, I feel like a kid at the end of summer vacation just before school starts. No more empty days of San Francisco wanders. I’m excited for the work ahead. I want to meet my …
I have the urge to drive somewhere, anywhere, so I take one last road trip north over the Golden Gate Bridge, across the verdant irishy Marin hills, to non-descript Santa Rosa. This afternoon, I visit the Charles Schulz “Peanuts” museum. I’ve always loved comics, preferring the humor of daily comic …
I survived. The year gave out freedom and held on to my breath. Although I planned for twelve months of unemployment and budgeted for even longer, job searches are unpredictable. Towards the end, I conserved and did without. Push off dental appointments. Enroll in California’s healthcare for the unemployed. Cook …
As I walked meditatively around a crater rim in Death Valley National Park, I planned for the future, not just the coming week, but for the rest of my forties. In ten days on March 25, I celebrate my 42.5 birthday. I will be 25% done with this important 40s …
What did I learn from Death Valley? As arduous as a whole day driving may be, an extreme change in environment at the end of the day softens the long day of travel. Death Valley’s season, climate, topography, density, and demographics are so different from San Francisco that every day …
A long time ago – let’s see if I can remember when – early 2008, after New Year’s but before Valentine’s Day, I drive south from Mike’s apartment in Denver, Colorado through New Mexico. I park the same ol’ Toyota at White Sands National Monument for a quick five-mile hike. …
I love camping alone. I can be messy. No showers for days. No sponges either. I wipe out cooking pots with wasteful paper towels. I do buy ice every day to refrigerate perishables, but dysentery lurks. I fill the car with junk: empty beer bottle, tour maps, ticket stubs, apple …
A day after signing a job offer, I away into the desert. Sensing shackles, I seek freedom – one last mission before retirement. Go south, young man, to Death Valley, not to find myself – for I have already this year – but to reflect on what I have wrought. …