Last year’s dream trip for Gaston. San Quentin Penitentiary, near San Francisco

It all started when I took Gaston to Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco. I had been there as a teenager for a short while, when the streets were alive, and wanted to see it again. The Haight is where it all began, beginning in about 1966 and lasting several years until people like Charles Manson, hard-core bikers, and drugs like [...]

Because this is a hockey blog, I should mention that Washington, with Alex Ovechkin scoring a pretty goal, won a big 4-0 game against the New York Rangers- minus-Sean Avery-because-he’s-been-a-jerk-and-deserves-to-sit, to close the gap to 3 games to 2. I didn’t see this game however because I’ve been driving like a madman all day and am now two hours north [...]

I’m in Salem, Oregon, and will be in San Francisco late today. I just put my back out lifting up my suitcase, but more importantly, we were at a sports bar last night and there was no hockey and no hockey talk, which was to be expected, I guess. Just a lot of basketball and baseball on [...]

Have you ever been to one of those low-life motels where you check the sheets for bugs and are afraid to take your clothes off? That’s where I’m at now, in California’s Napa Valley, a few hours north of San Francisco, and where the front desk guy, between spoons of rice, finally got me hooked up [...]