One note, I didn’t have a helmet for my ride. Like all high school kids, I seemed to do a few things at times that would have made my mother nuts if she’d known what I was planning. One of those things was that I was secretly planning to do a bike ride to PointContinue reading “Jumping back to high school for a summer bike ride-Then”
Author Archives: rbwalton
Walking by myself, and never alone- Now
Sunday, May 31, 2020 It has been a year and two months now since you died. Sometimes in a dream, you come to me to explain that the doctors were wrong, and you did not really die. I can almost believe that, in the dream. Your doctors were not infallible, and they did miss aContinue reading “Walking by myself, and never alone- Now”
A Sunday at Peet’s- Now, but also then
It is a rare Sunday visit to Peet’s, a coffee shop in the town where I live. Only one of the regulars that I have become used to seeing on my more common weekday morning visits is here. I have known of Peet’s since my college days, in a much earlier life. Then I couldContinue reading “A Sunday at Peet’s- Now, but also then”
More forestry- and the summer tries to get me again-Then
We had a study plot to look at that required us to drive 20 miles or so into an area over roads that were not maintained. Scott drove in, claiming roads were too far gone to let anyone else do it, and he had been out here before. This was fine with me. Even thoughContinue reading “More forestry- and the summer tries to get me again-Then”
Worrying about the future; past- Now
Contemplating the future is probably not the most sensible use of my time, but it seems to have been foremost in my mind recently. It makes no sense, really. It will be what it will be. If in my past, I had known of and contemplated the details needed to reach this particular present, I might notContinue reading “Worrying about the future; past- Now”
Further adventures as a forester-Then
This hyperventilating hike in the forest was only the first of many threatening situations during this summer. Aside from my “brush” with heat and hyperventilation, it just seemed the summer was out to get me. Eventually, I became acclimated to the heat and altitude, but the summer still caught up with me when I foundContinue reading “Further adventures as a forester-Then”
High school moments and beyond, then and now
Things were always changing in my younger years. The Beatles had just stopped being the Beatles, or so it seemed at the time. Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were both killed at a time they had so much more to offer, at least potentially. The Vietnam War escalated. College tension increased. Riots andContinue reading “High school moments and beyond, then and now”
End of college and start of my short Career as a Forester- Then
It was the end of my time at the Cal Berkeley School of Forestry. Classes were ending. Graduation was coming up, and with it, my trip to the south to work as a pathologist on a long-running Forest Service/Cal Forestry joint research project. I was actually going to miss going to school. I was justContinue reading “End of college and start of my short Career as a Forester- Then”
Mistaken identity at gunpoint- then but told now
Wednesday, May 27, 2020 After I realized my forestry career was over, I lived in Oakland, CA, for a short time, across the street from Highland Hospital. I remembered hearing back then that, generally, this wasn’t a very safe neighborhood. And that was without the proximity to Highland Hospital generally. Specifically, my apartment was justContinue reading “Mistaken identity at gunpoint- then but told now”
Friends, Now
When I count the number of people in my life who have been truly good friends, I get a very small number. There were many casual friends from my old employer. I used to see them every workday. Some of them I had known for more than 20 years. After that long, I would haveContinue reading “Friends, Now”
Memory is the Key 