Minister Of Mocha

As I am sitting in my “corner office” (aka the table in the corner at my local Starbucks), I found out that Rhino Records has put out a re-issue of the album Tim by the Replacements. As with most of the things that Rhino does, they have remixed the album and included a wide variety…

I went into the “Office” (aka my local Starbucks) this morning to get some writing done. I was able to get my favorite corner spot. They even had Sumatra brewing for the dark roast choice. Life was good! Then as I made my way over to the corner my shoes made a horrible noise as…

It’s a day of remembrance in America. I was incarcerated 22 years ago and watched the horror of planes crashing into buildings on the day room television until the power was cut and we were sent to our cells. For the next 30 hours or so we sat in our cells without any indication of…

I woke up this morning to my phone alarm blaring. I was in a bit of a fog. I knew the alarm meant “get up”, but I had no recollection of setting it. My mind spun like the reels of an old fashioned slot machine, then one by one the reels stopped and I remembered.…

For quite some time I’ve had a morning routine that includes coffee. I’ve also had a coffee routine that includes all day! Sometimes I blend soda into the routine in the afternoon and late into the evening. (By “sometimes” I mean constantly!) My nutritionist daughter has pointed out that I should probably lower my caffeine…

So you might be aware that Southern California got it’s first Hurricane/Tropical Storm in several decades this weekend. Your MoM couldn’t help but think about the “Rise Up!!” tag line as I watched the water rising toward the doors of our house. The streets turned into rivers and my backyard became a small lake. We…

I was sitting in my daughter’s living room this morning when my grandson brought me a book to read to him. It was a board book about dinosaurs. If you’ve ever read a board book you will know that they are pretty basic. We read about the different dinosaurs. When we got to the end…

This past week found your MoM driving from Portland, Oregon to basically Abilene, Texas. We saw a ton of beautiful scenery then we hit the plains… Just to set the stage properly, I do not really enjoy the Great Plains. It’s so flat out there you could basically use Texas as a straight edge! We…

Today is graduation day at the prison where we serve. It’s not graduation day for everyone there, but it is for the men in our program. It’s kind of bittersweet. The prison will be closing soon, so today is also our last day there. Every time we are ready to graduate a class for this…

I spent last week at the annual Celebrate Recovery Summit at Saddleback Church in Orange County. It was our first time back with an in-person Summit at Saddleback since before the pandemic. Everyone was very excited to be there and it definitely had a reunion atmosphere. Since my wife is now a State Rep for…