Ulysses S. Grant is the first former U.S. President to visit the Comstock in Nevada after being stationed at Fort Humboldt in Eureka, Calif., before the American Civil War. Mark Twain also published Grant’s autobiography before the retired General died of esophageal cancer. He is also quoted, after inspecting Gettysburg, as saying, “War is Hell.”…

Thank you to author, historian, and friend Janice Oberding for reminding me of this small memory involving one of my favorite wester-fiction writers. We’d been out two and half days, trailing a smaller target and without interdicting them once. It was midday, and Skipper decided we’d set up a bivouac near a small brightly painted…

There is little to be proud of in this narrative, and as my classmate and long-time friend, Laureen Kinnaman Roberts, said, “Sometimes you have to let God fix it because if you try, you are going to jail.” The deputy lit me up as I turned left from the radio station’s parking lot and onto…

2:32 a.m., pst., Five bell alert: Russia invades Ukraine. My heart falls in sickness My soul screams with agony My spirit prays most earnestly: “God, bless our children, our blood-treasure, Those with boots on the ground Standing where they need not be.”

“You don’t choose Virginia City, the city chooses you,” goes the old saw. It’s true. With a layer of crystalline snow on the ground and two small quakes, leylines are active. Leylines are positive or negative energy bands circumscribing the Earth, shifting between the two energies. Where these lines intersect, an energy vortex appears. When…

Spooner Summit was slicker than I would have enjoyed, but we made it into the valley. From there, we caught U.S. 395 to U.S. 50, through Carson City, Mound House, Dayton, Stagecoach to the Infinity Highway, leading to I-80, and Spanish Springs. Am I writing a travelogue, or what? Between Dayton and Stagecoach, there were…

Outside my usual beat, I couldn’t sit home ignoring the cold air, which I find relieves my dry hacking. To that end, I harnessed Buddy, and we headed for Tahoe. I drove right into a regular old dragnet as authorities hunt a large and rather hungry burglar. He’s a 500-pound black bear, nicknamed ‘Hank the…

Having purchased my Girl Scout Cookies from Monique Vasko, I allowed Buddy to guide us south on C Street towards the truck, where I felt like I was slipping through a busy dream state because of my medication. From out of the Silver Queen stepped James Cleek and his lovely sister, dressed to the nines,…

A short sketch to catch up after coming down with whatever I have had since Wed., Feb. 2. My sinuses are plugged to the point my eyes hurt, a dry hack from postnasal drip, and body aches with chills and fever. While all the symptoms pointed to acute sinusitis, others said differently, so COVID it…

She untied the lightly knotted plastic bag and removed what it held, a medium container of LoMein, white rice, and several fortune cookies. One of the cellophane wrappers though still sealed and filled with air, was empty. Daisy studied it, wondering if it might have a deeper meaning. Hunger stirred in her, and she forgot…