Category Archives: Anecdotes

Julia’s Squeezy TV Remote

I was fortunate to have known all four of my grandparents as a child. The last to survive, my maternal grandfather, Clark, recently passed at a month shy of ninety-nine. He was a machinist, a veteran (though he never talked about that), and tinkerer. He had a motorcycle, the first one I ever rode on.Continue reading “Julia’s Squeezy TV Remote”

On the Ledge, Waiting for Flouride

We were waiting in line, up against the wall in the hallway outside the lunchroom. My feet were on the dark brown strip of speckled terrazzo bordering the wall, it was separated from the main field of the hallway floor by a thin brass line. I stood on the darker brown floor along the wallContinue reading “On the Ledge, Waiting for Flouride”

A story about church and trust and death

Monsignor Hannan reminded me of a wadded up piece of paper. Pale, bent, and curled up awkwardly at the edges in his arthritic stubs of fingers and permanently creased and bent black leather shoes. He had little, wet, blue eyes. Like someone had flung two droplets of water onto the wadded up paper, and they’dContinue reading “A story about church and trust and death”

Getting Pulled Over Up North: An Anecdote In Which I am as White as I can Be

I’m riding my 2006 Honda VFR up north, out of Seattle. This is around 2013. It takes a good sixty miles or so to get out of city traffic and finally past the last straight stretches of highway 9, a final thirty tedious miles of four-lane stop-and-go heading north, broken into seemingly endless intervals byContinue reading “Getting Pulled Over Up North: An Anecdote In Which I am as White as I can Be”

My Friend, the Fluorescent Light

I have this thing I do at work I want to tell you about. I’ve somehow become the Fluorescent Light Expert. I inspect and maintain the fluorescent light fixtures in this large showroom where I work. Despite my ignorance of fluorescent lights or the physics of electricity in general, I’m considered the expert on allContinue reading “My Friend, the Fluorescent Light”

Bike #2 and the magic raffle

I have one clear memory when it comes to my second bike, which was also my first road bike. It was a Schwinn World Sport, I believe from 1980. Unlike most all of the other bikes I’ve owned, I don’t really have memories of riding this one. I do remember I got a handlebar-mounted touringContinue reading “Bike #2 and the magic raffle”

Bike #1 and the James Street Jump

I was around five when I got my first bike. It was a white Huffy with a Snoopy numberplate that said BARNSTORMER on it. I remember my grandmother said it was too big for me. I remember I thought it made me a big kid. My father took me out back behind our house toContinue reading “Bike #1 and the James Street Jump”