The Hellish Handbasket

It might be human nature to want to feel significant, to know we've made a difference by existing. I remember reading stories of pioneer...

My quest to escape the Tucson heat this week inspired me to relocate to higher elevation. I'd noticed on the weather forecasts that Sier...

My younger brother used to be able to shoot down house flies with rubber bands. That takes some real skill. I don't have that skill. I r...

I can only remark that life is so strange so many times before it stops being strange and starts being the new normal. Everyone has challeng...

A new freedom can lead to a new happiness. So they say. I was skeptical. The hardest part, I discovered, is launching from the familiar into...

I was sifting through my hundreds of raw source drawings, created over many years of sitting in meetings trying not to argue, cry, laugh out...

After an interminable week of debilitating pain, it seems my clenched jaw has finally relaxed. What a relief. There's a thing called TMJ...

Last week I left you with a cliffhanger—would I survive the dental debacle or would I run screaming like a crybaby into oncoming traffic? We...

Here we are again. I'm here for my weekly therapeutic blog dump. Stand back, all four of you blogbots, so you don't get spattered. U...

To avoid living in the present, which is fraught with fear to the point of frantic dissociation, I am employing a technique known as visioni...

In spite of the general and specific terrors of living with other humans, for some reason, I have been enjoying my interactions with people....

The neurologist was everything I'd expected but not quite what I had hoped for. I knew I was setting myself up for disappointment. How c...

What was I saying last week about suffering being optional? Oh, brother. I stand corrected. Suffering is mandatory. It's the human condi...

The Chronic Malcontent here, coming to you from open desert somewhere between Parker, AZ, and Lake Havasu City. I’m parked on a swath of BLM...

I’m writing to you from Bureau of Land Management (BLM) desert land outside of Quartzsite, Arizona. BLM land out here occupies many square m...

The end of a year inspires me to look past the daily grind of living to the broader panorama of my life. Maybe you could say I'm looking...

I'm always shocked when my car speaks to me, but I've learned to listen when the horrible chime jangles my nerves to tell me somethi...

Here we are again, heading into another holiday season. It's not my favorite time of year, because 75°F is still too cold for this hotho...