Was it worth it for you?

Everyone worth knowing will break your heart. They won’t mean to. Anything worth having is worth keeping, and you will someday give up your dearest friends, your parents, compatriots… even your children. That’s gonna leave a mark. There’s only one way around it: cut yourself off right now. Don’t go to that party with the … [more]

Cracked

I was having quite a nice time on the Tiger when it suddenly turned on me and pounced on my leg. Okay, technically, it failed to turn due to my foolishly misplaced body weight, tipped abruptly left and pounded me into the Alta Tecate (antonym of Baja California) sand. We weren’t done riding, so I … [more]

Fellow Travelers

Per Godwin’s Law, the longer an internet thread persists, the greater the chances of someone invoking Hitler or Nazism to “settle” the issue. A popular corollary asserts that the invoker is considered to have lost the argument through his or her specious hyperbole.   Godwin’s adage would be more amusing if it weren’t so ecumenically … [more]

In Memoriam

Fair warning: politics ahead. Outrage imminent. Abort! Abort! …or pick up your coffee and join me in a little thought experiment (for those looking for a calmer introspection on Memorial Day, there is this item in the P-I, written before I read this morning’s news). The only guarantee in this little thought experiment is that … [more]

Books! Brownies! Motorcycles!

So let’s see… ticking off a few of my favorite things: reading, writing, riding and BSing with soldiers. It’s a quadrafecta! Yeah, I made that word up — sadly, that’s another favorite vice. So here’s what we’re up to: South Sound BMW, one of the juiciest motorcycle dealerships in the PNW, holds its annual Vendor … [more]

Charmed

E-mailed NOV 04, FOB Marez, Mosul Shamrocks and Buddhas and saints. Oh, my. Dog tag chains are loaded down with tokens of safety and home, despite regs and policies forbidding anything but the issued tags showing name, SSN[1], blood type and religious preference. Plus an Army Values tag, but I never meet anyone who wears … [more]

BOOK SIGNING SATURDAY 07 MAY 2011

BOOK SIGNING:  “Nothing in Reserve: true stories, not war stories.” We’re setting up a table at Ride West BMW tomorrow to sign copies of “Nothing in Reserve.” We will have cookies and shiny new books.  Ride West will have shiny new (and used) motorcycles. You will experience a fine opportunity to purchase either a shiny … [more]

Not a Federal Holiday

We weren’t watching the news when they dropped him. We were out getting our hands dirty. We had a pipe to fix in the backyard. Should have taken care of it years ago, but there are all those pesky tactical considerations. Like geopolitics, remodeling is a complicated form of continual crisis management. Agenda items rise … [more]