Welcome
Thanks for tuning into my latest Deep Dive. These essays are a labor of love. I never know where my next inspiration will come from or where it will lead me, I just try and go with it, letting the words flow from my brain, through my fingertips and onto the page. Sometimes these stories write themselves, other times it feels like pulling teeth. I’m glad you found your way here. Pull up a chair, sit back, relax and enjoy!
~ Louie
Desert Island Books
Back in the 1970’s there was this thing on FM radio called “Desert Island Discs.” From time to time DJ’s would pose the question, “If you were stranded on a deserted island, which ten albums would you take?” A friend and I were reminiscing about this recently and she...
Mockingbird Music
The Northern Mockingbird is so entertaining. From sunrise to sunset it sings incessantly and I have no idea what its actual voice sounds like. Its palette of sounds is seemingly endless: chirps, trills, whistles, peeps, coos and everything in between. You see the...
Hidden Nature Revealed.
I stood before the large picture window in our kitchen this morning and watched a Coopers Hawk systematically devour a small bird. Bit by bit he picked it apart until there was nothing left but a few feathers fluttering in the breeze. This window looks out upon our...
On The Occasion Of Your 18th Birthday
When I first met you you were wrinkled and red, covered in that white powdery stuff, fists clenched, eyes closed, wisps of hair dark and damp and plastered to your scalps. A few inches of umbilical chord, your lifeline to mom, was left protruding from your soon to be...
Teenagers On The Move!
Our teenage twins are constantly in motion. If you blink, you miss ‘em! Denali Dazzles Denali dazzles when she runs. Pippi Longstocking braids fall past her waist and become scarlet jet trails that fly behind her as she whizzes past. It’s a blur of freckles- hazel...
Ella
Ella’s ears are still pointy, that much hasn’t changed. What has changed is Ella no longer is a kitten, she’s a full grown cat. Ella was once a foster cat. Eight years ago we took her in on a trial basis, fell immediately in love and decided to adopt her. The first...
Beach Meditations
The beach is a place where a man can feel he’s the only soul in the world that’s real. Pete Townsend Driftwood…bleached bones. Tibia, fibia, a random scattering offered up by the sea, come to rest here. Finger bones, toe bones, skeletal remains of once living things....
Wonders At Our Doorstep
One of the benefits of retirement, besides the obvious one of not having to go to work every day and deal with the trials and tribulations of a regular job, has been getting to spend more time with my wife Carol. Over the past year Carol and I have made it a point to...
Salmon Creek Dream
The beach at Salmon Creek on the Sonoma County coast is one of the most spectacular and awe inspiring stretches of sand that I've ever set foot upon. My wife and I love this place. We recently spent an afternoon there, it was one of those warm and golden blue-sky...
The Dancing Crystal
In an upstairs widow in our home hangs a crystal. This crystal is a multi-faceted orb about half the size of a ping pong ball, shaped like a fat raindrop and coming to a slight point at the bottom. A thin filament runs through the top of this crystal. There are...
The Sounds Of Christmas
Out of all the holidays, major or minor, Christmas has by far the most songs associated with it. Thanksgiving? Well, there’s Over The River And Through The Woods and… Hanukah? There are two that I know of. Great songs, but still only two. Halloween? There are quite a...
Winter Closing In
The trees are nearly naked, their skeletal branches are stark against a white and overcast sky, a sky without definition. The thirty foot oak tree that stands outside our house has picked up the pace at shedding its small, light brown leaves. Like puzzle pieces they...