On a pleasant sunny Sunday morning during the spring of 1994, my appendix became inflamed and was well on its way to rupturing. By the time I was whisked into surgery, I was in agony unlike anything I’d ever endured. It was the most painful experience I had ever known, until now. [click to continue…]

“I don’t think this will work,” came part of the answer to my early Monday morning pillow inquiry from Jon. “I’ve been in two long-distance cross-border relationships already and neither turned out well,” [click to continue…]

“TIMBER!” I shouted as Griselda literally knocked Brain over, thereby confirming I had totally and now completely fallen in love. [click to continue…]

When I arrived at LAX, I soon discovered that instead of continuing my trip on a series of small narrow-bodied jets like the one that made the twenty minute hop from Palm Springs to LAX, I would now spend the next few hours comfortably seated in an empty center row of seats aboard a spacious Air Canada Boeing 777. I had the use of two overhead compartments to store my carry-on suitcase and computer bag, ample leg room, and no one in the seat in front of me to invade my space with a seat back. [click to continue…]

AARP Travel, Powered by Expedia, is nothing if not efficient in determining how and where its users might want to travel. The surprise I got while searching for deals for Jon was a package offer for a deal on flights from Palm Springs to Toronto for less than the cost of Toronto to Palm Springs flights, which came complete with a 30% three-night hotel stay discount. [click to continue…]

His camping trip with Brodie behind him, and after a brief stint hitting the books back in Owen Sound, Jonny began preparing for his last big summer of fun adventure, Bear Week in Provincetown. [click to continue…]

Whether it be friends or family, partings are always difficult things. Saying goodbye to the first person in your life whose outpouring of feeling was not merely a projection of your own desperate desire to love as well as to be loved was an experience unlike any other I had ever had. [click to continue…]

“You can’t believe how incredibly difficult it is for me, especially as a writer,” I said to Jon’s best friend Brodie during one of our video chats prior to Jonny’s coming to Palm Springs, “to find words to describe just what and how I feel when I’m talking with him.” [click to continue…]

I knew from our extensive conversations, in addition to his interest in photography, Jon really enjoyed seeing new sights, especially if they provided great photo opportunities. I’d sent him a list of some of the Coachella Valley’s most popular attractions. He wanted to see and do them all. Unfortunately that would have taken weeks, if not months, and, as it was now officially summer, some of these destinations, like Joshua Tree National Park, might be way too hot to enjoy. [click to continue…]