Consider that at the very moment I set out for the Menlo Park Veterans Affairs Hospital...I was thinking about serious things, like commitment. You know, like doing things properly, all the way, which includes getting there...wherever 'there' is...on time. I had cut it rather thin on the promptness side. Having dawdled away the morning. Well, not quite all of it, but enough of it to shave down the time I was supposed to commit to my short story. Which got short shrift, the short story did, 'forcing Read more [...]

How much driving is enough? If you don't do a lot, and for some reason think you should do more, how much more should you do? Drive, drive, drive. Is that enough? What about Healdsburg? Is that enough driving? From this fair suburb, it is 100 or more miles to that good Sonoman place. Shouldn't that suffice? What if, at the last minute, your spouse throws you an automotive curveball, vis-à-vis dropping her off in the hilly center of San Francisco? Is that enough? Or is that too much? Einstein Read more [...]

There was a time when I rode Amtrak's Coast Starlight to Seattle. But it was another time. I was younger, my body more resilient and generally stronger. Not to mention my balance which was better too. It's wonderful to have perspective. If one really has it. Mostly, I feign it. The San Jose Amtrak station was my point of departure from 1997 on, when I began taking the overnight train north. In that era, the Union Pacific regularly messed with the Starlight, sending it into sidings for hours while Read more [...]