I just got back to Alaska from Mexico. There, my beloved and I rented a casita with friends in a small beach town called La Manzanilla. One of Martty’s and my favorite activities when traveling is to rent bikes and look around a little further than our feet can take us. Rental bikes in other…

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The Victim will be sure to test your human wholeness in the workplace. You know who they are. You’ve seen them coming down the hallway and you’ve dived into any empty doorway available – to avoid them. You’ve seen them at the photocopy machine when you’ve needed to run something off. But instead you go…

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Here in Homer, traffic’s pretty quiet this holiday season. In fact, when driving through our main business district, we can all easily get a left-hand turn. No streams of RVs making their way to the spit or rental cars heading to the art galleries or visitors piling into our two grocery stores. That’s summer. And…

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Last week, I attended a meeting at a new birth cottage in town. It was gorgeous. Rounded walls, post and beam wood, river rock and tiled floors, and even an oval-shaped birthing tub. Right here in Homer. It almost made me want to have a baby. OK. Almost. And let’s face it, that bus left…

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Yesterday I went down to the Spit for a walk. I know. Not every town has a Spit. Ours is a 4-mile narrow strip of turf hanging out in Kachemak Bay. Walks on the Homer Spit mean the sea is in surround-sound, surround-view, and surround-sense. In deep October, the Spit refreshes the senses. It’s a…

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It was a sparse season again. Earlier this month, a couple of my friends and I ventured across the Bay to pick berries. No, we didn’t walk on water to rival Jesus. My beloved gave us a skiff ride to “Blueberry Hill,” which is code for our favorite gathering place. So much for our covertness.…

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A couple of weeks ago, I started feeling edgy on our deck – one of my favorite places in this world. Almost everything is in order out there like prior years. The Himalayan poppies are blooming in the yard. The badminton net is being worked over by a moose yearling. The little swallows just fledged…

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Last week, I was waiting in a parking lot when two women came out of their office building at the end of the workday. It was a semi-warm day so our truck windows were open. I caught an earful. One woman was fuming about her supervisor who was perpetually vacillating on a work project. Reportedly,…

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We’re back from Nepal! And now as I trek into work mode, my head is full of incredible images. Of majestic Himalayan peaks. The round face of a child beaming ‘namaste.’ The Tibetan Buddhist nun walking alone at the monastery. Of rippling prayer flags. And donkey train after donkey train. I was so enamored that…

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I’m getting ready for a trip. Headlamp, check. Dried salmon, check. Antimicrobial undies, check. My girlfriend Sandy and I are headed to Nepal next week. Yup, that’s right. Nepal. Something that’s been in my mind’s eye for about 30 years. We are headed out on a 21-day trek into northern Nepal with a guide and…

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