I took the donate button out of my Appeal post after getting enough to make the trip. The generosity of the FTB community has been overwhelming — thank you all for the kind words, well wishes, and donations! Special thanks to Greta Christina and PZ Myers for telling their readership about this post. I have a flight to Los Angeles at 5:30 a.m. I'll drive from there to the Eastern Sierra, where my Dad lives. I don't know how many days I'll be there. I'll keep you all informed as much as I can … [Read more...]

Um. My Dad appears to be dying. And I’m pretty much broke. He lives in a little town in California; I live in a little town in upstate New York. I haven’t been in very close contact with him the last few years, but it hasn’t been all my doing. The rough-barked cowboy bastard had his phone switched off a year or so back, and his lifelong habit is to never return letters or calls, so most of our contact has been one-way, through the mail. I set him up an email account about a year back, … [Read more...]

Touchy-feely time. I’m actually a little nervous about what I’m about to write. It’s not one of those “guy” subjects a man gladly talks about. It’s not a neutral subject either, like the weather, or geology, or politics. No, it’s definitely one of those girly-girly, Oprah and Dr. Phil subjects. Yep, I’m gonna talk about my feelings. I have it figured you should never lie to yourself. You can tell all the lies you want to other people (I’m not condoning it, I’m just using … [Read more...]

Charley’s not a very big guy, but he’s solid, and every inch of him you can see is either burned a deep tan by the sun, or covered in tough hide from a lifetime of hard outdoor physical labor. Below the neck, everything inside that hide is either hard muscle, rawhide-strong tendon or solid bone. And there’s this: Charley has a reputation. He’ll fight anybody, anytime, and he’s never been known, in any town within a day’s drive, to lose. If you catch his hands still for a second, you … [Read more...]

Falling Rock was never seen again. Black Deer questioned Grey Owl and Running Wolf when they returned with the trophy, and became suspicious. He delayed his decision and sent all the tribe’s warriors out to look for signs of the missing brave. They came back with no sign of him, but expert trackers believed Falling Rock may have been attacked, had escaped, and might return. So they waited, but they also continued to search. Years passed and Black Deer died, but Shining Fawn never married. … [Read more...]