Charles Frenzel

Lydia signs in for herself and also adds my name to the list. There is a pleasant odor of overcooked coffee emanating from the corner of the room behind me. I resist the temptation to dose myself with a massive infusion of caffeine. The female executive and her crew have disappeared down one the hallways; […]

Reaching JPL at 8 o’clock in the morning is as easy as breaking into four lanes of solid traffic on the freeway, battling a motorcyclist for the rights to commit suicide on the Oak Road exit, and getting past a security guard set at the entrance to Visitor’s Parking in front of the main entrance […]

Friday, March 7, Pasadena, California. The bed seemed a bit hard. I recall saying that, somewhere. Both shoulders are as sore as if I had slept on a marble slab. “Quiet as a tomb,” the manager had said. Superhard beds surely can only be useful to people who either sleep on their back in kingly […]

Of course, here we are at the entrance to the Thai restaurant. My best guess at translation of the sign over the door to the Thai restaurant is “Fat Customers”. A young woman in traditional Thai garments greets us in an anteroom decorated with Buddhist prints, originals on silk, I think, and leads us into […]

One thing I’ve learned about driving into the Los Angeles basin is to stop and go to the bathroom first. There is a Jack-In-the Box at Valencia that serves this purpose. The men’s restroom is in the process of being cleaned by one of the male staff. He works around me while I use the […]

Thursday morning, and we are rolling on our way to Pasadena and then on to the Rotary International meeting in Anaheim. The fifty miles from home to Stockton, California take longer than usual. We pause on this morning’s drive while a farmer reloads a dozen or so bales of hay back onto his trailer. What […]

I imagine a conversation with a modern Jesus. He is saying, “I’m tired of serving fish. Teach them to fish…remember when I said that? Like, man, no one wants to learn how to fish, anymore. Everyone wants frozen filets.” February 22. Dense fog conceals the valley, but in the foothills the grass has turned emerald […]

California is nearly first in offering the “unlimited refill” policy at all of the fast food places. In Texas, I have to go back to the counter and purchase a refill for thirty nine cents. It’s not the money so much as the time and effort. But, I forget, they’re more energetic back in Texas. […]

I scribble in cramped, hard-to-decipher notes: I’m writing this in the parking lot outside the optometrist’s office near Sutter Creek on February 18. We’re on our way back from the post office and I’ve been asking Lydia why there are so many lawyers, bankers, and insurance professionals in Rotary Clubs. She says it’s because they […]

I’m writing this as I sit in front of the Copy Center in the shopping center across the road from Jackson Creek. Fortunately these shops are all high above the street level. I’m thinking about that nice art gallery that the folks from Mexico just put in. Their place is down on the level of […]

Happy New Year! Larry and Georgia have sent us two muffaletto buns and a jar of olive salad from New Orleans. We’re going to have mufs and wine with Sandy and Tony for lunch. Then Tony calls to tell us that Sandy has broken her foot (again), so we’re going to Burger King for lunch […]

On the twenty ninth I write in my journal that “the big storm that was supposed to move into California so far has been nothing more than a shift in the wind and a few splatters of cold drops. The weather folks are starting to talk about combined effects and next wave. I’m thinking bad […]

A few weeks later, after receiving her nomination for the next Rotary District Governor of the California-Nevada District, she is talking with her father back in Texas. It’s easy to hear both sides of the conversation. He shouts into the telephone as if he were still using one of those old horn shaped wooden boxes. […]

My wife, Lydia, and I have moved out of our house and placed all of the stuff we didn’t haul off to the county dump into a ten by fifteen-foot storage shed. There are also trunks, dishes, and an antique chest stuffed into a friend’s garage. It took us ten years to fill our modest […]

August I feel the dog’s big paws shake the bed, and I pry open my eyes. I am lying on my right side facing the window. Dawn’s light filters through the narrow blinds like an unwelcome searchlight, and all I can make out is the black shadow of Burt’s head peering at me over the […]