On Driving Teachers

My driving teacher was an older lady with no time for anyone’s shenanigans.  She was a former prison guard and had very strong ideas feelings about racism and race relations that she was not shy in sharing. She told me, very early on, that if she shouted and ripped the wheel from my hands (I’m …

So Your Wife is Out of Town for a Week

Day 1 You’re up early to wave your wife off. You’ve carried her suitcase to the waiting Lyft, now back for a coffee and check of the work email. Modern tech means that you’re never really apart. At least not for very long. You can share the ride to the airport, the breakfast, and then …

On Meeting a Quiet Englishman

I have a car. I live in Austin, so it really helps, even if I took to driving like a teenage boy takes to soap and water. But, I do have a car. But, maybe about 9 months ago, the manufacturer of my car (who shall remain nameless) sent me a recall notice; my passenger airbag …

#Illinois2018 – Do You Waze?

Every time I travel, it’s like I’m catching up on what the outside world already knows. On our trip to San Francisco earlier this year, the number of people Lyft-ing and Uber-ing on the curbside outside hotels and restaurants was remarkable – to me. Maybe this is just how the world works for the modern …

San Francisco Tales: Part II

Part 2: Your Ride With Raoul The story so far: I am flying to San Francisco. My first time in California. Even this early in the vacation, I was beginning to think we’d made a tactical error. As we were in San Francisco for such a short period of time, we thought that using Lyft …

San Francisco Tales: Part I

Day 1: Anxiety Multi-Pack My idea of San Francisco started with Karl Malden and Michael Douglas in Streets of San Francisco. No, earlier. Vertigo. And later, Zodiac. This, then, was the San Francisco I knew, the one I was flying towards. Murder, serial killers, obsession. Less dramatically, the reviews of the city from people who …