I received an email asking, “What’s wrong with you – no more daily politics?” It’s nice that someone noticed that I had stopped blogging everyday and that I wasn’t focusing on national politics either. And no – there’s nothing wrong with me or anything. I jus’ took a break so I could cleanse myself of…

Each of my seven days was spent in the shade of my pup-tent, sleeping away the heat, waiting for the evening coolness to fall across the Death Valley. The hottest times of the day are between ten in the morning and four in the evening. The times I can only guess at as I didn’t…

The large rock on which I had perched myself overlooked the open basin of the Death Valley. Seated there, I was contemplating life when I saw an older model Volkswagen Bug racing along the gravel roadway below me. Fortunately, I was far enough away as to not hear the sound the jack rabbit’s head made…

The sky, painted a hue of pomegranate and mystic blue each evening, turned the playa ahead of me into a flat pink alabaster basin. I’ve learned there is a calm that falls over the Death Valley at the precise moment the sun leaves the western sky. Within minutes it’s as dark as India ink and…

En route from taking a neighbor to the eye doctor, my friend pointed to a local eatery she likes to go to. “That’s a great place to eat,” she stated. “Never been there,” he returned. A few seconds of silence passed before she asked, “So do you eat-out?” More silence – the awkward kind –…

It’s an event worthy of coverage from any news station or agency, but  no one is reporting on what happened at a California Inspection Station in Long Valley, California a few miles from the Nevada state line. The California Department of Food and Agriculture operates 16 such agriculture inspection stations that are located along the…

While researching another story that involved Del Norte County Sheriff Harold Scott, indicted by a grand jury in 1957 for operating a brothel, I ran across a name I knew all to well — my fathers. Admittedly, my heart skipped a beat to think he’d be involved in prostitution, but I pressed on to uncover…

The Nevada Health Co-Op, created as part of ObamaCare, is closing down at the end of the year because of high costs. Participants will be covered through the end of 2015, but will have to choose another insurance provider when open enrollment begins in November. Co-ops around the country are struggling. Regulators shut down one…

Stop acting like everything is fine if it isn’t. It’s okay to fall apart for a little while. You don’t always have to pretend to be strong, and there is no need to constantly prove that everything is going well. You shouldn’t be concerned with what other people are thinking either – cry if you…

We came across a small curving stream at a point where the water ran into a heavily jungled ravine. It was the perfect spot for an ambush – only the enemy had gotten there first. The stream was about seven feet wide and our point man crossed it by leaping to a rock in the…