Opinion

Most of us know sunflowers. In the Salinas Valley, they are a common sight in yards and fields up and down and across the land. Many among us remember rows of the tall, large yellow blooms were spaced among the row crops as wind...

I believe it is time to take a few days off and take a trip. I can’t even tell you the last time I went to town, much less a trip of more than one day. I go downtown to Gonzales just about every...

How did my child just turn 26? It sometimes feels as if it was yesterday that she popped into the world. I recall so clearly the labor — 24 hours and counting in all, before they cut her out of me (when initially I...

And the award for the Best Airport in the World goes to … JFK! Said no one ever! After a long flight across the country, I arrived at JFK, which was freezing cold, surrounded by snow drifts and about the greyest place I have...

There is something about the silence of an empty house that is so comforting it is almost not empty at all. When the voices have left the building, the last car door has slammed and the final cup of tea has been consumed, the...

The perfect day was on order for the chosen celebration of life of our very own valley girl. Blissful sunlight through the oaks on River Road was on the menu, as was some delightful company. I arrived on top of some very ripe vines...

Well, we are finally getting some things done. During this period of awaiting for our President to be sworn in, I have kept myself busy because I already know what happens if you don’t have some structure in your life. I now know that...

If I ever again contemplate air travel, it will only be because I have lost all sensibilities and am probably living in a room with rubber walls. The last time I flew in a jet airliner I vowed it would be just that, the...

Do you remember the year 2000? I had forgotten a lot about that year until I had a chance to visit my brother, who lives in Idaho, last week. He loves Idaho, but I didn’t lose anything up there. However, it had been a...

Busy people stay busy. And not much alters with time, despite your best efforts to spend more time relaxing at home with a novel, or … ahem … working on your own novel. As many of you know, I have been trying to work on...