I pull into a no-name truck stop north of Sacramento. I step out of the car, flick the door shut, and pause to soak up the sun’s warm rays. I know from experience the locals see the bright sun as a harbinger of the oppressive heat that will begin stifling the...
I lift the egg from the stove and slide it onto cheese melted over wheat toast. A favorite breakfast of mine. Break the egg’s yolk and it becomes a lazy man’s Eggs Benedict. Where is the Canadian bacon, you might ask, suggesting that perhaps you do not...
A couple weeks ago I went in for a haircut. The barber, not my usual one, smelled like he had just recently emerged from a pool of that aftershave favored by elderly terminal alcoholics, the kind of aftershave their own dads wore, whether their own dads were...
I wake up in a cold sweat. Mr. Dickson was just telling me I would not be graduating. I had signed up for a class and then forgotten about it. I had failed. Wait a minute, why is the room dark? Where’s Mr. Dickson, wasn’t I just talking to him? I stagger...
When I was about 15 years old, I was really into bicycle road racing. It was my life, my main activity. I spent almost every single hour of every single day either doing it, training for it, or learning how to train for it. The thing was, I wasn’t very good at...
I recently started running barefoot. Up until a few months ago, I never liked running. In fact, for years, when people asked me if I ran, I would answer, “Only when chased.” Instead, to get my exercise, I’d head for the nearest hill. By hiking up...
