Opinion

The best-made plans, as they say, are invariably subject to change. I had lots of projects in mind for the weekend ahead. Since I am working on a new book, I like to squeeze in some “me hours” in my free time, stolen minutes...

If you have been a reader of my scribbling, you are aware that I’m not a huge fan of the computer age. I use it often, but I sure hate to. It seems like I’m always having a problem with an assignment or order...

Did I ever tell you about my pickup? Oh, no need to reply. If I go one day without speaking about the “Green Machine,” I start to get the shakes and Lorraine runs out of the room. Don’t get me wrong, she knew that...

At the heart of California’s $59 billion agricultural industry are the hardworking migrant farmworkers who harvest the food that feeds our nation. Their labor sustains our economy, but their children, who face extraordinary educational barriers due to the migratory nature of their parents’ work,...

Gilroy’s early life started, well, in Gilroy. My friend and neighbor called me from the Gilroy shopping outlets and told me what she had found in the parking lot there. “Well, bring him on home!” I told her, as you do. A few years...

My wife is pretty much the center of my life. She is constantly giving me gifts of items that I may have mentioned in a casual conversation weeks or even months ago. Oftentimes it is a great surprise and something that I would treasure...

“I’m a traveler,” I brag, as people wow at my ability to whoosh through time zones without a care or jet-laggy attitude in the world. Well, mostly. I remember a pilot friend of mine telling me that anytime you land where you intended to...

It sure is cold enough for me. This morning I had to get up early to go to a dentist appointment over in Monterey. When the old alarm clock said, “It’s time to get up,” I just pulled the covers up and said to...

“Take care of yourself!” they rant. “Diet and exercise, exercise and diet.” Yes, we all know about that. Some of us consistently live by excellent habits, others less so. I’ve always loved to swim and walk — that’s my idea of exercise — and...

When I was a very young man, I rode around with my dad as he went from field to field down in Santa Maria. It was just about my favorite thing to do. My dad was the foreman of a company that grew flowers...