I’ve known more than one person who associated a bird with a deceased loved one. Seeing a particular species was a sign that the loved one was around. Even though I found the practice ridiculous, I was always respectful of their comments and observations and let them pass. I didn’t want to upset them, nor … Continue reading Magpies

This essay was written before the deaths of both my daughter Megan and Glen Hansard. It exists in a different time, a different life. I’ve left it essentially as it was. The 2008 Academy Awards is where I heard it first. I was in the midst my acoustic folk-punk performance phase with the underappreciated, influential, … Continue reading Falling Slowly

This is an excerpt from my forthcoming--but still a long way off--book. I got in my truck on Thursday afternoon, February 13th, to leave the CUPD station and head back to Denver. The lead investigator told everybody involved they were ordered to go home and get some sleep; none of us—detectives, friends, or Vanessa, Lindsey … Continue reading Come Pick Me Up

I was a little late getting in this morning. When I arrived at the shop, the folks on the retail side were talking, moving, getting into the flow of their day; I already knew what I would be doing: the gray ’87 needed buttoning up after a fraught but eventually successful transmission install; the white … Continue reading How to Change a Flat Tire

We’re in the one-year anniversary week of Megan’s disappearance and death. I have wondered for the past few months how I would take it, how I would get through it. I’ve battled the first four days, February 12th through 15th, 2025, since they occurred. I’ve written 140,000 words of a potential book about the past … Continue reading Anniversary

Back when I was still writing my little music blog about my most embarrassing favorite songs, I wrote a piece about The Beatles’ “The End.” (And while it is counterintuitive to think that would be an embarrassing favorite song, you’ll have to read it to understand why.) Megan plays a part. It was the last … Continue reading The End, Part 2

I love The Beatles and I’m most certainly not ashamed of it. A blog composed mainly of stories about embarrassing favorite songs would therefore seem like the wrong space to write something about them. And honestly, there’s not much left to say about the four lads from Liverpool, but please bear with me here. My … Continue reading The End (from 11/29/23)

During our trip to Baton Rouge a few weeks ago Lindsey told me that Expo, a showcase for engineering students to present and display their project inventions from the past year, was coming up. Lindsey, in her very Lindsey way, had built a coin-operated miniature guillotine that chopped stickers off a roll and dispensed them … Continue reading Boulder, CO 5.1.25

I have always tried to keep a journal when I go on road trips. I've gotten better at it over the years, jotting down a few notes here and there about breakdowns, meetups, campsites, animal encounters, the bands we saw, whatever. In the past, I'd get home from the trip, toss the notebook into a … Continue reading Amazon/Kindle Release: Tuesday, March 7th, 2023!