"The day of "always starts with "the night before..." Settle in, as this one might be a tad long... Charlie, Max and I had planned to camp on Owl Creek Pass the night before, and maybe even get cleaned up in the creek. We were three days out, and I was in full Lazarus mode, as in "I stunketh". But it was not to be, as a huge storm rolled in and the temps plummeted;…

The viciousness and divisiveness on Facebook has got me questioning Charlie's continued involvement on it. The whole purpose from the beginning was to create a safe haven from the vile crap elsewhere on social media; the problem arises when we log on to make a post and invariably get sucked down into the septic tank. And I don't believe for a minute that an "algorithm" is involved, as I have never once expressed any interest…

When Charlie, MacDuff, and I decided to head west a few weeks ago, we always like to get an early start. Once a particular time is set, it seems like time slows exponentially as the day of departure approaches only to speed up when it actually arrives and finds us unprepared. This is much like a roll of toilet paper seems like it will be the same size forever until poof!, so to speak, it's…

Happy Charlie Bravo Day! There's three types of people on this planet: people who don't like dogs, people who like the idea of dogs(unfortunately, this is the largest group), and then there's "dog people". These are MY type of people. These are people who somehow connect with dogs on a molecular level but cannot explain how, they just "do"; there is no try. And then there's my Aunt Ginnie. She is easily one of the…

Charlie had had enough of the sweltering Arkansas soup known as July air, so MacDuff and I were heading out for his daily dose of two wheeled therapy. We were mounting up when a shrill little voice pierced my eardrums; "HEY! WHATCHOO THINK YOU DOING, MANG?" I looked down to find a tiny preying mantis sitting on the tank of the Honda, so I said "we were going for a ride, as if it's any…

A few years ago, the Casa had an unwelcome vistor for a few days; a huge barn owl, easily 2' tall, set up shop in a tree not twenty yards from our back porch. You could sometimes just make out his dim shape against the night sky, sometimes you couldn't see him at all, but you just knew he was there. I could only imagine what an owl of that size could do to a…

All that wander are not lost, and all who lean are not off balance John Steinbeck called it "vacilando", the Australians go "walkabout", now I find out that 18th century French had an urban version of the same called a "flanuer". Originally the term is coined by Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) and refers to somebody who observes the city or theirs surroundings, and experiences an actual physical stroll but also is a way of philosophical thinking…