OCTOBER 2025

Well, hello…

It’s finally starting to feel like Fall a little. I mean, for some of you. For me here in SoCal it just feels like “not summer.” I walked out the front door first thing this morning and there was the tiniest bit of chill in the air, and I smiled a little and declared to my daughter in the kitchen, “It’s Fall!” It quickly gave way to 73 and sunny, but I’ll take it. • Working for yourself affords a certain amount of freedom…I rarely get started until 10:00 am during the work week. Just not a morning person. But, so far, that “freedom” hasn’t translated to a lot of vacation time. This past week I took two days off to head to Oklahoma for a gathering at the Illinois River to celebrate the life of an old classmate. Spent most of Thursday flying and 3-hour delaying (not vacation). A friend of mine described Dallas Love Airport as “an old school shopping mall with an airport attached.” But the delay gave me enough time to settle the age old debate, “In-N-Out or Whattaburger?” And the winner is: the highly overhyped, but still good, In-N-Out. Got into Tulsa late and met my pal Mary Beth downtown for an amazing dinner at Yokozuna in the Blue Dome District while still recovering from turbulence tummy. Friday was mostly working with my Tulsa clients, and that’s fun, but again, it’s not vacation. I DID get to finally meet William from Baloney Maroney’s vintage food trailer in person, and tried out his awesome smoked baloney sandwiches and baby back ribs. And they really were great. Highly recommended. Plus…an ice cold can of RC Cola. Heck yeah!

I headed to War Eagle Float Trips and Cabins that evening to meet friends an hour away, and my friend Randy, who drove in from Nashville, made Oklahoma tacos…soft and doughy flour tortillas with meat, diced tomatoes, shredded cheese and lettuce. Not as authentic as I’m used to here in San Diego, but it sure hit the spot around the campfire outside. A nearby skunk got the leftovers before spraying the camp owner’s dog later that night. There was a lot of yelling and shooing. I was strategically positioned about 50 yards away in the dark with my cellphone at a certain angle, pleading with Verizon to give me just one bar of service so I could check my all-important text messages. My eyes are still burning from the skunk.

Randy volunteered to make breakfast the next morning, which consisted of scrambled eggs and Spam® breakfast burritos. When my kids were little, we had a friend who literally grew up in a trailer park and would make what she called “Trailer Park Taquitos” with deep fried Spam® as the filling. Those were actually tasty, so I had high hopes (against all odds) for the Spam® burritos. Now, I don’t want to throw Randy under the river raft bus here, especially since he volunteered to get up early and make breakfast before our 12-mile float trip. But, I might have traded that extra half hour of sleep I got for some bacon or sausage. (Love you dude.) • Our friend that passed away this year was a bit of a troubled but interesting guy, and we all found out later in life that he was amazingly creative. He made fireplace mantles out of old piano keyboards, and he painted in his spare time…very well I might add. And it may not have been a real vacation, but I’m glad I got to go spend a weekend with old pals honoring our fallen friend. ••

Update…

Last newsletter I told you about the big Julien’s Auction House auction at the end of September for a bunch of Tony Hawk’s personal collection, including the actual skateboard he did the very first 900 in history on. The auction was a big success, but most impressively, his 900 skateboard sold for $1.15 million dollars! A new record for a skateboarding collectible. Congrats Tony!

The Lowdown…on FX & Hulu…

There is a new show on FX and Hulu called The Lowdown starring Ethan Hawke and featuring a ton of great people like Kyle McLachlan, Peter Dinklage, John Doe, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Killer Mike and more. It’s becoming a big hit and it is filmed in Tulsa, created by the award winning director/producer Sterlin Harjo of Reservation Dogs, and is loosely based on the story of a real guy in Tulsa in the early 2000s who exposed a lot of conspiracies and corruption. Great characters, perfect amount of humor injected, and a non-stop storyline. I know you’re going to love it. I’ve been lucky enough to team up with Mary Beth at Meadow Gold Mack’s, who is buddies with Sterlin, and we’re creating the unofficial official merchandise from the show, only available at her store. There will be more soon as the episodes unfold and the catchphrases and locations reveal themselves.

Art!

I change up the stuff in my online store from time to time, and you may remember some “found art” sculptures I made this past year from rare old pinball machine and arcade game parts. I have put them back in the store, just in time for holiday shopping and they are currently on sale for only $99 each! Plus shipping of course. Check em out! If you prefer Venmoing me directly instead of going through the website, I am happy to do that too. Hit me up.