Letter from Home | A collection of essays originally written for Flagstaff Live!

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Smoked

Smoked

Posted by on Jul 24, 2025

At first glance it was apparent that the Englishman was a far more serious cyclist than any of us. He wore a skin-tight body suit emblazoned with a heraldic red rose icon and the word “Lancashire” in huge letters. His bike was sleek, expensive, and immaculately outfitted with state-of-the-art panniers, and he had the slightly mincing walk that cyclists...

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Tending Fire

Tending Fire

Posted by on Jun 12, 2025

The sight of a giant smoke plume on the horizon is one of those sights that I regard as quintessential Arizona. Having never encountered wildfire before I moved to the state, the idea that a swath of forest or grassland could suddenly be turned to charcoal and ash and threaten towns and lives was new and scary and fascinating all at once. So when I was...

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Shooting the Moon

Shooting the Moon

Posted by on May 1, 2025

I never learned to be much of a poker player. In school the game we played during lunch periods or at other odd free times was spades, about which I remember very little. No matter. Another game sticks much more in my memory, and it’s one that I still play on occasion with family and friends: hearts. It was my mother who was the prime instigator of this...

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Shooting the Moon

Shooting the Moon

Posted by on Mar 20, 2025

I never learned to be much of a poker player. In school the game we played during lunch periods or at other odd free times was spades, about which I remember very little. No matter. Another game sticks much more in my memory, and it’s one that I still play on occasion with family and friends: hearts. It was my mother who was the prime instigator of this...

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Dry Winter

Dry Winter

Posted by on Feb 6, 2025

Every year around midwinter I seem to find myself back down in the Sonoran Desert for a spell, if only to shake off sub-freezing temperatures and remind myself what the warmth of the sun feels like. This year, it was a several-day trip that I took to Yuma a week ago. The immediate purpose was to see in person how the midwinter production of leafy green...

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