Also, how I wish I had some Icy Hot — Marketers know our weak spots. For me, it’s square in my lower back, between two surgery scars and just under the tattoo of a barbell with the Wonder Woman logo holding the plates. …

Or how things get messy, fast — It ended up being a rainy day — which, honestly, was probably perfect. Not that we needed rain to cancel her plans. That happened the night before. Her last visit was in February of 2021 right after she turned six. …

Grace Jones, stoner radio, and COVID dreams — I’ve always thought Grace Jones was a real vampire. This is probably due to my first exposure to her being in the 1986 movie Vamp. I was 11 or 12 at the time and believed vampires were real. I still might. I don’t think about this often, but the stoners…

A love story and picking the right lotto numbers — Asbury Park in New Jersey is about a 90-minute drive straight out of Pennsylvania on the turnpike into and onto the Jersey turnpike. We have a lot of turnpikes out here. Someday I will google that. Usually, the trek is a day trip to either camp out on the beach…

And the fostering of my banana trauma — The suction tool hung off the corner of my mouth like a kindergartner’s Christmas ornament, making it difficult to object to the smell of the fluoride paste about to be slathered on my teeth. Bananas permeated. It was unmistakable and putrid. I remember the last time I ate a banana…