Taillights like domino dots, only red. The anticipation of what a summer night could yield as palpable as the humidity at the intersection of then and now, where I idle. At least there’s a breeze. Windows down, the heat backed off enough to coax me out of my air-conditioned, sensory deprivation pod, arm dangling out the window, hand air surfing, dipping and diving, ribbons of warmth weave through my fingers like batter. Moist. Night. Air. Motown streams from the … [Read more...]
Holes in Our Hearts and Maybe My Head
July 11, 2013 By
**Originally posted, July 2011, Revised July 2013** The sign in front of the Standard Artificial Limbs store always makes me think of my step father. On the day he died at the VA hospital in Albuquerque, after my mother and I summoned the rest of the family to tell them he’d passed, once everybody took turns patting him on his rapid cooling forehead, we all walked out into the broiling parking lot, the blacktop almost spongy under the August dessert sun, with my … [Read more...]
Peace and Love My Little Bird
July 5, 2013 By
Dinner guests gone, my out-of-town relatives tucked in for the night, I went outside last night to blow out the candles on the patio. I sat. The weather has been blessedly mild in St. Louis the past few days. Unheard of for it not to be hotter than a fire cracker on the 4th of July. The evening air was lovely, scent of gun powder notwithstanding. We'd had a good night. People I love, dotted my well worn deck, with the warped plank that's curled up on one end. I cover … [Read more...]
Lure of the mic, uh, I mean “road”
May 28, 2013 By
Well... okay, so most people are not tuned in to the radio on Memorial Day Morning, but me and ol' Charlie waxed poetic about the Art of Acceleration. Here's a link if you'd like to give a listen to Off the Leash Behind the Mic on the Charlie Brennan Show. … [Read more...]
Ageless Warrior
April 24, 2013 By
So, today's my birthday. I've been trying to be breezy about it. You know, basking in the well wishes on Facebook, with all due thanks. Heading to New York tomorrow to see Paddy Boy, son number two. Even got free tickets to see Letterman! Too bad the guest tomorrow night is kinda lame --- especially compared to the star studded line up so far this week. Oh well, I'm lucky to have gotten tickets at all. I should be happy. Blame it on the Irish in me, I'm still feeling a … [Read more...]
A Writer’s March Madness
March 24, 2013 By
This is what happens when it either rains or snows continually for days on end. You wake in the morning to the dulled down, concrete colored sky, tree branches and leggy, brown rose bushes that you didn't get around to properly pruning last summer, holding their crooked, gnarly fingers up to the sky, futilely looking for some semblance of a ray. This is full-on March madness. It was two years ago today, on a merely rainy day as opposed to a blizzard, that the … [Read more...]
Celluloid Dreams
February 24, 2013 By
The journey continues. Amidst dreams fueled by my own shameless desire for fame (at least I'm honest) and those who lovingly feed those delusions (maybe, maybe not) that Off the Leash will eventually become a best seller, then a screenplay, and then of course an Oscar nominated film, where I’ll stride the red carpet confidently thinner and face lifted, somewhere amongst that fantasy lies the snow-turned-to-charcoal-slush mounds of the perilous here and now. The way … [Read more...]
No Ruts In Our Shoulders
January 14, 2013 By
My friend and I were laughing smugly the other night about being Kate Hudson-like when it comes to our endowment -- modest. That's okay with us, less gravitational pull you know and no disfigurement from overburdened bra straps. Then I read a comment this morning from Sioux, a reader who had commented on my Death By Girdle post. It reminded me of something I wrote three years ago, about the unblinking truth of the YMCA locker room, which seems particularly prescient … [Read more...]
The Dude Abides, Revisited
November 26, 2012 By
I sent this picture to my special gentleman friend over the weekend. He was out of town. With 75% percent of my offspring in town, I suggested we go bowling to work off some of that pecan pie. And here's the pic my dude sent me in response. Completely apropos, considering the story I published on A Woman With a Past: The Post-Apocalyptic Approach to Men, nearly two years ago to the day, on November 27, 2009. Many things have changed since then. Three things have … [Read more...]
The Privilege of Breathing
November 21, 2012 By
It was one of those "stuck behind a truck with a ladder" moments yesterday. Do you ever feel this way? Like your entire life is stuck in slow moving traffic? Zero forward momentum? I’ve frequently joked that “My Life Behind a Plumbing Truck” will be the title of my next book. Lord knows this book isn’t moving fast enough. Most authors, unless they’re either lying or have no ego, (unlikely) will tell you that they dream of their book being on the New York Times Best … [Read more...]
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