Honesty compels me to confess that rowdy children in a small, enclosed space like a coffee shop are not one of my favorite things. Actually, now that I think about it, unruly kids are off-putting regardless of the environment. And don’t get me started on the topic of inattentive, permissive parental units! So, there I … Continue reading Birth Control

After The Storm A cold and spiteful rain was falling, driven along by a raking wind that seemed bent on scouring the earth of everything in its path. The storm had literally come out of nowhere flooding streets and taxing the flood control channels that all the experts had promised would be equal to rainfall … Continue reading Life, One Sip at a Time: After the Storm

It was a normal Friday morning. Normal because, as usual, my friend and I were meeting for coffee at a local shop, a practice of longstanding stretching over a number of years. Having met at our usual time, we were a good forty-five minutes into a conversation that was…well, if you want to know the … Continue reading Life, One Sip at a Time: In Which I Lose My Temper

The past several mornings here in the 1502 have been shrouded in a thick, ensorcelled, vaporous canopy of fog compelling in its ability to cause one to slow down; to regard one’s surroundings, and the people who dwell therein, with a more comprehending and compassionate eye. I was standing in line in my favorite beachside … Continue reading Life, One Sip at a Time: A Day in the Life

OB Funkadelic It was a perfect, late summer afternoon in the 1502 (that’s Ocean Beach to the uninitiated among you). Surfers were shredding the waves; on the beach teenaged boys and girls vied for the best position on the sand that would afford the greatest opportunity for interaction with the opposite sex; businessmen and women … Continue reading Life, One Sip at a Time: OB Funkadelic

©2021 R.G. Ryan He’s there every day. Heck, I even see him in the afternoons and evenings; always with a different group of people; always with a few recent creations tucked under his arm. I won’t tell you his name, because I know he treasures anonymity.  He was a Gunnery Sergeant in the Marine Corps; … Continue reading Life, One Sip at a Time: Resonance

Life, One Sip at a Time: The Piano Man ©2021 R.G. Ryan I sat on the patio of my favorite beachside coffee shop. You've been here with me a time or two before, so you know the drill: across the street deep indigo water set against an azure sky that hadn't seen a cloud for … Continue reading Life, One Sip at a Time: The Piano Man

It was a rare, sun splashed morning in OB, the marine layer having retreated somewhere beyond the blue horizon. And good riddance. I mean having spent twenty-two years in Las Vegas, I haven’t minded the cool, misty mornings, but when the misty mornings turn to misty, windy afternoons for days on end it eventually begins … Continue reading Life, One Sip at a Time: Hollow Girl

©2021 R.G. Ryan The tremors began when Jesse was forty. He didn't think much of it at first, passing it off as simply the result of too much caffeine in his diet. When he could no longer control the shaking in his left hand, he decided it was time to seek medical help. After extensive … Continue reading Life, One Sip at a Time: Start With Me

  ©2021 R.G. Ryan Eyes full of wonder she stood in front of the cooler staring at the vast array of drink selections. The managed chaos of an unusually busy morning at my favorite coffee shop swirled around her unnoticed. Five years old. Curly black hair. Porcelain skin set off by a little button mouth. Well on her … Continue reading Life, One Sip at a Time: The Heartbreaker