©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

Life, One Sip at a Tim Ticket to Ride ©2021 R.G. Ryan If I live to be, well, older than my present age, I will never understand the ebb and flow of customers. I mean, yesterday my favorite coffee shop looked as if a convention had convened on the premises! The line to order was … Continue reading Ticket to Ride

Life, One Sip at a Time ©2021 R.G. Ryan Classic cars of all shapes, colors and vintage lined the street along with hundreds of appreciative strollers drinking in the lines and shapes of automotive history. The Beach Boys cover band across the way pounded out the hits as onions, sweet relish and chilidogs saturated the … Continue reading Coyote Brothers

Life, One Sip at a Time The Regular ©2021 R.G. Ryan She sat across the restaurant from us. A senior lady of some years, alone at a table for four, her electric wheelchair parked within easy reach. Her clothing seemed to have been selected by virtue of expedience or comfort rather than to meet any … Continue reading The Regular

Life, One Sip at a Time Ocean Beach, for the uninitiated, is a sleepy little bohemian community that, by all appearances, has been forgotten by time. Either that or it exists in an alternate universe accessible from Interstate 8 and Sunset Cliffs Blvd. Which, come to think of it, may not be far from the … Continue reading You Have to Dig for It

Life, One Sip at a Time Over there on the wall of my favorite coffee shoop hangs a black and white photograph. I stare at it nearly every time I’m there. Today I find my attention rivited. I can’t help it, for within its faded depths I began to see a story unfolding.   Three … Continue reading Every Picture Tells a Story