Life Through The Plum Tree

Life Through The Plum Tree

The Santa Rosa plum tree in our backyard is wizened and has many tales to tell. Her age is a mystery to me. So many beautiful moments in our family’s history have occurred within her arms and in the shade of her leaves. A chronicle of our children’s lives can be...
Making Lemonade

Making Lemonade

The other night Carol and I were watching a movie. Like most people, we’ve been watching lots of movies lately. This was a sweet independent film about a struggling improvisational comedy troupe set in New York City, the type of film we’d normally pay to see at our...
Driving To School

Driving To School

Today is crisp and clear, typical for a winter morning in Sonoma County. A thin layer of frost clings to the roofs of the houses and cars in our neighborhood. The sun has just begun to rise, painting the eastern sky in pastel hues of pink and orange. My son Sam and I...
What I Took

What I Took

Last October, for the second time in three years, my family and I were forced to flee our home in the wake of the Kincade Fire. Fortunately, our home and neighborhood escaped unscathed. Having to decide once again what to take with us as we evacuated was a sobering...
One Acorn at a Time

One Acorn at a Time

My wife Carol and I bought our first house, the one we currently live in, in November of 2002. Our home sits at the end of a cul-du-sac in a quiet neighborhood on the northwestern edge of Santa Rosa, CA. On one side of our front yard is a thick row of hedges. They’re...