I don’t remember exactly when my mother announced she wasn’t “doing” Christmas or Thanksgiving any more. Probably around the time I went off to my first year of college up in Dallas after we’d all moved to Houston. I do recall her saying that nobody cared. That wasn’t true, because we loved to eat, and [...]
family
The block ahead has half a dozen empty storefronts. Can’t buy groceries or nails for half a mile.
For the record, real-life hero journeys kind of suck. On the other hand, the cool thing about being an artist is you never get to quit. None of this lying around and feeling guilty like my mother did because the doctor used forceps to pull my brother Bill out after he got twisted when she [...]
Heavy smoke from out there, somewhere. (Looking back into the plume.)
I keep thinking she’s in the bedroom asleep, and then I remember I took her to the airport in Albuquerque this morning. She landed in Minneapolis at almost the exact moment I hit the last stretch of bumpy dirt road on the way home. I cried a little on the freeway. All my sins, you [...]
Not a hamster but our Pontiac Vibe three days ago
“Ouch! He bit me!” I thought hamsters were supposed to be cuddly little beasts, but this one was out for blood. I was only ten or eleven at the time, which didn’t help. This was a long, long time ago and I was on my own, a nerdy Air Force brat in Germany. Elvis had [...]
Bill in Germany around age four, a long, long time ago
Oh yes, I watched that debate. As I tweeted to someone, “I’ve never seen anything like that in my entire life!” It’s relevant to this post, but that comes later. This is all about my brother Bill. Someday I’ll write the book about my family that will end all family histories—no one will even try [...]
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