Siftings
Aug
01
Probie II
“Jump in back!” Random midweek afternoon, and I could be at Village Hall at my desk. But I’m not. I’m in a field next to another field on fire, running toward Brush 36. “Running” might be a bit of a misnomer, as I’ve got my full bunker gear on. Until that last brush with mortality rendered the...
Jul
08
Into The Dusk
“Staying here alone is crazy. You're a crazy man. Crazy!” I didn’t travel 3,500 miles for a psychiatric assessment from a stranger, and certainly not from some grandfather wearing rental booties to keep his New Balances dry. The stated reason for heading to Denali National Park was about to get...
Jun
26
Here Comes The Twister
on the eight year anniv ...
And you may ask yourself, "How do I work this?"
And you may ask yourself, "Where is that large automobile?"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful house"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful wife"
Letting the days go by, let the water hold...
May
02
Probie
The elderly man is chatting me up as we’re rolling him to the ambulance. If I said his frailty did not remind me of dad in his last days I’d be lying, and there’s no reason for that. We’re rolling him on the stretcher to the ambulance and he’s just being him. Not that I know him well, having...
Sep
07
Worst of Times
Lu Fareed is a PhD candidate conducting research into local government leadership, using the Covid pandemic as a case study. He interviewed me for his research. The transcription of the interview follows (thank you, everyone at Seaside):
Crisis Leadership Interview...
Apr
03
Totems
Ooo, let’s go up there! Amanda has seen the condors in the distance, soaring over the bluffs in Pinnacles National Park, and she wants a closer look. So, up we go. A girl – no, young woman – after my own heart.
Been more than a year since I’ve seen Amanda, Colin or Marcia. Hundreds of...
Feb
16
The Crying Scene
In the movie, it would start raining. In life, it did. Stay at home order lifted and a four-day weekend means four thousand miles is doable. No less an authority on cars that Mr. Clarkson himself declared the world’s fastest car is a rental (extreme example here), so there I am standing at the...
Jan
01
Do-overs
Been a year. One whole ride around the sun. Three hundred and sixty-five dawns and, after that blinding yellow orb sinks into the Pacific just down the street, just as many sunsets. There were twenty-five rodeos round the hydrogen gas bag before I met her, but that was just fate taking enough...
Dec
26
21 From 2020
The year wasn’t great, but there were some great tunes along the way. Here’s some that were mostly new in 2020, but all pertain to it somehow.
21. American Aquarium – Me + Mine
2020 - one long lamentation.
20. Sturgill Simpson – Ronin, Remember To Breath, Sing Along, A Good Look, Make...
Nov
21
Red
Was it a throwaway line? Or was it insight? Interviewing a collection of fire chief candidates, all of them tell stories of service, dedication and preparation for the position. Which is how it goes at the fire chief level. You don’t get to the interview phase of the contest without decades of...
