July 16, 2024 The run up to this epic trip in Dad’s Bus was fraught. LA was hot, I was stressed getting ready for the memorial and battling depression and of course there were all the “we are about to leave on a very long trip in a very old car” worries. Working on prayer…

This is a (another)placeholder because my computer crapped out and the rest of the regular blog will follow, with all the 8 by 10 color glossy photos, and that’s not to mention the aerial photography, but the images below are from the trip as seen though the windshield of the Bus, a teaser for the…

July 26-August 11, but today is August 3rd This post is basically a place holder for the real blog posts with lots of stories and images. We left Los Angeles on July 26th, headed up the coast to Ashland, Oregon for my father’s memorial on August 2nd. Sadly, my computer locked up and has no…

“Tell me how you die and I will tell you who you are” –Octavio Paz                   Overview: My father has died. Perhaps there is another way to say this, that he has passed, or passed over, but the blunt facts remain: my father, Billie Gene Hicks, is not on this planet anymore. I will never…

My father, Billie Gene Hicks, died on March 3, 2024. This is a blog about the love of his life. Written on the back of the photo in Dad’s ungainly script: At Paula’s Retirement Party, 2013 March 14, 2024                   When I was just a sorry teenager lamenting my lot in life, my father was…

November 15, 2023 Adoptable dog! Jenny’s Experience at the Fur-ever Friends event             Setting this event up took lots of work (thanks to all who helped), and the day before the event we had lots of challenges getting permission to have the shelter on campus with dogs, so I was very tired the morning of…

November 4, 2023             The image tells the story…only read if you want to know about student loans and one person’s experience! The night before my birthday—November 2nd—Happy Día de Los Muertos!– I found a letter in my mailbox…well, actually two letters. One was from AARP, welcoming me to being old, and these folks are…

August 7-13 2023 Ocean Point Ranch and San Simeon State Park, CA Arrival             August 7 was the day Tirian was leaving and Robert was arriving, but because I don’t have a cell phone, I wouldn’t know when he would get there. We had a breakfast by the fire pit–bread, apples, cheese—and then T packed…

August 3-7, 2023: Central California Coast The Train and the Trip             If you live in Los Angeles and you haven’t taken the train north to Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo, you are missing out. It is a quintessentially Angeleno experience because you depart from Union Station with all the pomp and circumstance and…