THE FATHER LIFE

Last century I worked for the Palace Hotel in downtown San Francisco as an Assistant Hotel Manager. As part of the Sheraton Hotel management group it was taken over by the larger Starwood Hotel Corporation. I was there for the merger/acquisition, and before removing myself from the company I got a taste of [...]

Ten years ago I gave up surfing.  At the time I was only able to get into the water occasionally and I wasn’t paddling well.  I recall being in the water at Fort Point, under the Golden Gate Bridge.  I had a hard time getting into the lineup and jockeying for position.  I was not [...]

Eight year old Skylee had a 102.4 degree fever this morning at about 7:30am when I checked it, shortly after waking up.  She had the fever for the past two days, but this was the highest point.  With all the talk of swine flu and the grim implications I was pretty worried.  At what point [...]

Imagine your greatest fear.  What was the scariest experience in your lifetime?  Unquestionably mine was paddling out at Ocean Beach on a 20 foot + day all by myself.  You know something is not right when you are the only one in the water.  I found a channel beyond the pounding [...]

Elementary school began yesterday, and on the one hand it seems hard to let the summer go, but on the other hand there were some moments I could have done without.  For instance, all summer long I put off getting my bi-annual haircut/head shave because my eight year old told me, [...]

Since April 16th I have been trying to ride my bike instead of drive whenever I can. I’ve ridden 900 miles and lost about 15 pounds in the process. My weight is down to 165, which amazingly enough is where I was when I graduated from college! Almost daily people ask me [...]

After they had been bathed, brushed, and tucked in for the night I started to tell my five and seven year old daughters a special bedtime story about the time I was stalked by a great white shark out at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach.  I started the story with a low and even voice, [...]

Since April 16th I’ve been on a bike riding odyssey, logging all the miles I ride instead of drive this spring and summer. Rather than ride in the morning before work for exercise, like I typically do in the colder, wetter months, I ride during the day from place to place. I ride with my [...]

This spring and summer I’m on a bike riding odyssey. I’m going to ride 1,000 miles instead of driving. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still got to drive. However I will ride when I can and certainly during ‘spare the air’ days. We had two ’spare the air days’ in April [...]

When I started skateboarding again I knew that I would eventually wind up injured.  It was only a matter of time and a question of how severe.  I made it roughly two months.  In that time I regained my form, exceeded my expectations, and pushed my boundaries.  It got to a point where every time [...]