Here in Newport, Oregon, we really have just one road going through town. 101. Highway 101. The 101. Locals insist that we call it just: 101. So 101 it is. My family lives in The Sea Hag Luxury Apartments on the north side of town (name of apartments changed so my stalker can’t find me….
Category: Journal
Are We Poor Now, Papa?
Growing up in rural Menomonie, Wisconsin, people had perceptions of our little family. Lots and lots of different perceptions. Most of it was that we were a rich family. We, unfortunately, were not rich. We weren’t poor, but we sure as shit weren’t rich. My father’s name was Norman Keith Rockwell. He was a cartoonist…
House People in an Apartment
If you’re “building a house,” are you really building a house? I live on the third floor of an apartment in Newport, Oregon. There are stairs involved. I’d complain, but we have a nice view of the Pacific from our deck. My office on the other hand… My office is on the parking lot side…
The Portland Airport & Sneaker Migraines
My little family of three got the privilege of going to the Portland International Airport last week. I got the privilege of a migraine as a thank-you gift. We live on the Coast of Oregon and I am LOATHE to leave the seaboard in summer. Often, when it’s 62 degrees in Newport, it’s 105 in…
Urn Living: My Father’s First Time On a Plane
This is my father pictured below. Norm Keith Rockwell. He went by Keith, but people loved to call him Norman Rockwell because who wouldn’t! He WAS an art teacher and a magazine cartoonist, not the painter, not that that mattered. In 2023 he died after a short illness he was hoping would be a bit…
I Was Secretly a Ghostwriter for 19 Years 👻
Just found out a year ago. I’m a ghostwriter. There, I said it. Now you know my deep dark secret. But I never tried to become a ghostwriter, per se. In fact, I didn’t even know I was a ghostwriter until about a year ago. Why? Because the definition of what a ghostwriter is has…
Writing a Tsunami Novel During a Real Tsunami Advisory
I live in Newport, Oregon. It is a nice little city on the Central Oregon Coast. Last week, on Wednesday, in the late afternoon we got tsunami alerts coming into all our phones and emails and texts and ham radios. We were under “TSUNAMI WATCH!” That’s something easy to forget about around here. The constant…
The Lutefisk Mafia Of Southern Minnesota
The criminals of Fargo (movie and TV Show) are not so far from the truth. I lived in Minnesota for over a decade and man, oh man, I have seen some things. Some… criminal things. In MINNESOTA. It ain’t all church socials, Velveeta hotdish, and Garrison Keillor in Minnesota. No sir. There are also ne’er-do-wells….
The Wisconsin Cheese Curd Way
Fresh, room temperature, Wisconsin cheese curds. Salty and squeaky. If you haven’t had fresh cheese curds, you haven’t really had cheese curds. You just had “cheese.” I lived in Wisconsin for most of my life, but just over ten years ago we got on the real Oregon Trail, Interstate 90, never to return. Well, except…
Thank You, World Book Encyclopedia
I grew up in small town Wisconsin in the 1980s. In the before times. Before the internet times. We had a good little public school system, but I wasn’t exactly an honor roll student. Regardless of my standing at school, people thought I was smart. “He’s so smart!” they would say. Also, “He’s so arrogant!”…