The Hellish Handbasket

Most of the time I forget that I'm an outcast. Every now and then people remind me that I don't belong. It's always people, only...

First off, nobody died. Just want to make that clear up front. Nobody got hurt except my bank account and the environment. I guess if the wo...

You know you aren't in Southern Arizona anymore when an older woman living her car feels the need to pull out her stun gun and press it ...

The theme of the week is persist and resist. Persist at the personal my life sucks and then I die level, resist at the existential cosmic no...

Spring in Portland is an on-again off-again phenomenon. Now you see it, now you don't. Now it's sunny, oops, now it's raining. A...

I find myself driving aimlessly around the city, looking for something that isn't here. Home, I guess, although I'd settle for somep...

When did the Department of Motor Vehicles turn into such a bureaucratic pithole? I've been to several DMV locations in the greater Portl...

I'm boohooing the blues back in my hometown, Portland, Oregon. Cool but not freezing, raining but not all the time, and relentlessly gra...

I've been dividing my residence between the Homewood Suites parking lot in Tucson and the BLM Ironwood National Monument land just west ...

The temperature is rising in Southern Arizona. In a month, nobody without air conditioning would choose to stay here, if they could leave. E...

This week I got my teeth cleaned. The dental hygienist, let's call her Lulu, led me to the first room, just off the lobby with an excell...

This week I was reminded once again that there are penalties for being a nomad. The USPS, in an effort to stem the flow of drugs through the...

Wherever you go, there you are. It's an old adage, but a good one. Wherever I go, I can't escape myself. I keep trying, but my body...

Like most people around the world, I have a hill of beans in front of me. Individually, each one of our little pinto bean molehills is not a...

Everyone copes with stress in their own way. For example, one of my family members is writing Substack newsletters identifying and excoriati...

When the world seems to be falling apart, when up is down, and nothing makes sense, I recommend finding something to alter your mood. For so...

My lovely sojurn in paradise, i.e., Scottsdale, has ended, and I'm back on the road. I've stopped enroute for a couple days to enjoy...

In theory, when my life is free of conflict, there shouldn't be much to write about. Maybe today is one of those days. I haven't had...

Greetings from sunny Scottsdale. Yes, I'm back in paradise, walking the dog, taking out the trash, and pretending I'm a friend of th...