biography
Writing aside for a moment, here’s several pursuits I enjoyed: traveling, piloting a small aircraft, snowboarding, and mountain biking. Honestly, I started writing as our income took a nosedive (back and shoulder joint pain also figured in) and other pursuits became relegated to the past.
travel
I set out backpacker style. It’s a lot cheaper, and to me, infinitely more rewarding. Street food, traversing on public busses, bunking in mom-and-pop pensions, hostels, and hotels. Sometimes I would hook up with an adventure outfit that facilitates transport and arranges mountain treks. I’ve set foot in forty-five different nations, including Bolivia, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Rwanda, Mali, Senegal, Malawi, Uganda, Cambodia, Vietnam, and a slew of others.
Colombia
Honduras
Cambodia
Bolivia
flying
I earned my wings as a private pilot in 2007 and bought a 1964 Cessna 182 the following year. In the ten years I owned an aircraft, I logged over a thousand hours in Pilot-in-Command (PIC) time. A lot of mountain flying among the peaks of New Mexico and Colorado, flights over the Grand Canyon, and plenty of cross-country flights to see friends relatives in Michigan, Tennessee, and other domestic locals. It grieved me to have to sell it, but my ass became too damn poor to afford it any longer.
Colorado
Cockpit
New Mexico
California
snowboarding
&
mountain
These pursuits are pretty self-evident, no details necessary. Lift passes became too pricey for the new budgetary restraints. And my back began giving me trouble, which nixed my local bike riding in the environs of the Manzano Mountains.
biking
Alaska
The Driveway
arrested
At the age of forty-five, I got busted: possession of cocaine and molly. No convictions, so I’m not a felon. I was placed in the Pre-Prosecution Program (PPP) and had to be randomly drug tested weekly, meet with a probation officer monthly. A year of that, and I skated off with no record. Having a lawyer and no priors got me on the program. My short stay in the detention center was so goddamned boring, totally unlike the Hollywood portrayal. Although I did have a chat with a guy in for second degree murder. He was shocked this was my “first round” in jail, considering my age, lol. I’m a late bloomer on all counts.
Hey kids, don’t get caught with drugs!
rural life
in
My wife, Kathleen Eickholt, and I moved to a little adobe ranch with eleven acres in Mountainair, New Mexico in 2015. The property is adjacent to two huge unoccupied tracts, and also to the Cibola National Forest, Manzano Mountains. We can only see one house from ours. It’s quiet, there’s rattlesnakes, bears, mountain lions, and a host of less exciting fauna. We have three dogs and walking them every day (and never encountering another human) is a blessing. We’re situated at 6,800 feet and we always get snow in the winters. Gathering and chopping wood every winter for the firestove is work, but I really don’t mind it. This Grizzly Adams shit is right for me in this period of my life.
new mexico
La casa
The family in 2018
A 5-star sunset
Three pitties
Seven Years
I was a midnight weekend driver in Albuquerque, ’15-’23. Out of 10,000 rides, folks have told me I should be thankful I was only attacked twice. I was not harmed in either incident, but that was two of the three times I’ve been in a fistfight after high school. The job enlightened me as to the plight of the homeless. Routes took me past the camps every night. The unhoused need rides, too, often from their job to the shelter. That’s one of the things that radicalized me—seeing people with full-time employment not being able to afford an apartment. I actually liked the job; I met a lot of interesting people. But Uber kept cutting the pay until it was hardly covering expenses. No one wants to drive all night to clear $20.
of uber
The early days
The final days
fitness
This section is nothing more than an excuse to post shirtless pics.
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