hi everyone — thanks again for checking this. I apologize if it takes a little while to post some of your comments and get back to you. Lately, ‘bots’ have discovered this website, and I am getting lots of truly annoying ‘comments’ that are actually links for dubious products or are from companies that want me to monetize the posts on my site. I don’t want to use this site to shill for silly products. Down with bots! If any of you readers have some advice about bot repellents, I am all ears. The upshot is that some of your kind words and comments are getting buried in a morass of bot messages. Sorry about that. I hope you are all holding up OK — I realize it has been quite a rough month. I am glad that I got a bit of camping in this summer. My family and I went up to the totality zone in Central Oregon to see the eclipse. It was one of the most intense camping trips we’ve done in a while but we loved it. We were in a goat and sheep farm way up there near Terrabonne. There was a lot of improvisation going on — no plumbing so the ‘toilets’ were composting buckets with pool floatation devices instead of seats. (the kids soon discovered an extra box of floatation devices and started bopping each other on the head with them!) There was also a hootenanny, a goat roast, and a projection of “Game Of Thrones” against a sheet that was hung on the side of a barn. We drove like crazy to get there and drove like crazy to get back but it is worth it. I’ve been working really hard on some shorter pieces, which I hope to bring out into the world soon, binging on good books, and enjoying some occasional speaking gigs. I did an Under The Stars reading for the good folks over at the Capitola Aptos Rotary Club the other day. Please feel free to check in with me if you’re out in a forest somewhere reading my book and would like to talk about it via the comments section of this website. Good camping to you and I hope to see you out in the forest. If you are in town this coming week, please stop by the New Bohemian Brewing company and say hello. My wife, Amy Ettinger, will be reading from her book Sweet Spot: An Ice Cream Binge Across America, during a special event on Wednesday, October 18th, that also features coconut stout brewed especially for the occasion and served with vanilla ice cream. In a month of heartaches and heartbreaks, you will not want to miss any occasion that allows you to combine dairy products and quality brews.
