I was lucky enough to spend time in nine states during the week of July 15-21 — California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine plus Texas, Illinois and Pennsylvania on flight layovers. The best images of the week definitely come from the Midwest and New England. Let’s take a look! (Remember, to see any image at full size, just click on it.)
Tag Archives: houseboating
40 for 40
As I mark the passage of 40 years on this planet, I’ve had plenty of chances to reflect on those four decades — the happy moments and the sad; the wins and the losses; and everything in between. As I rolled these years over in my head it struck me that perhaps I could put together a list — in no particular order — of 40 various people, places and things that have affected or influenced my life, brought me great joy or even provided simple lasting memories.
To my loved ones: you are ALL at the top of any list I would make like this, so realize and recognize that before you note to yourself, while reading, “What about me?” For all my cynicism and dark wit, I just love living and experiencing life so much that I could never touch on everything that’s made a mark on me in this or any space. But I can give you a decent set of examples — one for each year that I’ve lived.
- Sunrise at Haleakala Volcano on Maui
- The Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day
- “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter S. Thompson
- Clear and crisp winter days
- Houseboating on the Mississippi River between Wisconsin and Minnesota in July
- Cannes, France (though Antibes is better … and Monte Carlo is 100% overrated and overdone)
- Night-blooming jasmine in the spring
- Growing up hearing the “boom” of the Disneyland fireworks every summer night at 9:30 and thinking that — just a few minutes away — magic was possible
- Speaking of magic, Magic Johnson … and Larry Bird
- Game 4 of the 1987 NBA Finals
- U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” performed live
- The Cask & Flagon in Boston
- Vin Scully
- Bourbon whiskey (particularly Maker’s Mark and/or Booker’s)
- Gin (particularly Bombay Sapphire and/or Hendrick’s)
- Game 1 of the 1988 World Series
- Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction”
- “Ask the Dust” by John Fante
- Chick Hearn
- The beach, anywhere at anytime
- Drinking an Old Fashioned at the Alembic Bar on Haight Street in San Francisco after a visit to City Lights Books
- The Parker Palm Springs
- Driving Sunset Boulevard on a summer afternoon
- The roar of the crowd at any sporting event (preferably the roar is for the team I’m rooting for)
- “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
- The opening innings on a clear summer night at Dodger Stadium, with a view of the mountains beyond deep center field
- Showing off “My Southern California” to out-of-towners
- That my job has allowed me to see parts of Ireland, England, France, Spain, Morocco, Monaco, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Germany
- Interviewing someone I’ve never met and knowing by the end of the interview that this is actually the kind of person I want to highlight
- Santa Barbara
- The final line of Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road”: “It’s a town full of losers / And I’m pullin’ outta here to win”
- Jack Nicholson
- My dad’s fudge
- The 2005 USC-Notre Dame game
- New York on a cold day just before Christmas
- Taking a break on a hike of the Grand Canyon to simply breathe it all in
- Driving between Ventura and Santa Barbara on 101 on a summer morning
- “The Boys of Summer” by Roger Kahn
- Watching Stanley Cup playoff games in person
- The W Lakeshore Chicago