Opinion

“How do you get rid of a hot tub?” You know, the plastic mini swimming pool that you couldn’t wait to get into and rid your old body’s aches and pain’s; the one that you spent your children’s inheritance convincing your wife that it...

You know I occasionally meet someone who has read my input for this fine periodical. They say something like, “Oh I love your column and my mother never misses it.” Occasionally, I even get questioned about how much the paper is paying me for...

If I thought that it happened to be just the occasion and just the right type of youthful Big Sur denizens (that’s where the bulk of them were from) that made Buddy such a hit, I was dispelled of that thought when we moved...

So after last week where I told you of the wonder of living in Gonzales, you might have thought I was just putting words on the paper, and you would have been right. I do love this town, and now I want to illustrate...

It is an uncommon occurrence in my own life to find myself in a situation where I become distinctly and acutely aware that I am—in that moment—a minority. This once occurred when I attended a young adult LGBTQ organization in Long Beach, where black...

What you don’t always appreciate is how much you love your home when you are away and, especially, your critters. On about the third week of our trip, we started to really think about heading home. We were missing it. But we had a...

When I came to Gonzales, it was a wonderful little town built around the splitting of Highway 101 and closing off development to the south. Almost every citizen knew each other, and businesses that had been thriving for years on Highway 101 began to...

What a lovely gift, I said to just myself. A weekend away for my daughter and her man and I will take care of their ranch. I will enjoy so much peace and quiet and even get time to work on my next book!...

Greetings and congratulations to those of you who have completed the prescribed course of academia and have now, or soon will be, granted a diploma from your respective Salinas Valley schools. As has been pointed out to you all, your graduation is an important...

I don’t know the extremes to which one can go to be called a pacifist, so I don’t label myself one but do join the majority that eschews violence. I don’t like witnessing people fighting in anger, and I’m sure I’m not alone in...