At 11 o’clock this morning, Beagle Man posted —and I quote — “He’s been an absolutely perfect and wonderful dog so far on this trip.” That’s me he’s talking about, just so you know.  One hour later, he’s screaming his guts out at me.  Can I please tell my side of the story?  So we were playing fet…

LA/XC-5 DAY TWO AND THREE: POSTING FROM DES MOINES, IOWA Two-day mileage from Austintown (suburb of Youngstown), OH to Des Moines, IA: 770.4 Total LA/XC-5 mileage: 1,230.6 Road Music:  Saturday: Sirius Cycle (stuck with “The Spectrum” for awhile — enjoyed the wide range, everything from Florence +…

LA/XC-5 DAY ONE: POSTING FROM AUSTINTOWN, OH Today’s mileage: 460.2 Total LA/XC-5 mileage: 460.2 (duh) Road Music:  Sirius Cycle (one-time-only explanation:  I tend to start my road days with the news — especially during this freaky, weird, and scary, but enormously entertaining election season —…

* * *COUNTDOWN: 6 DAYS TO LA/XC-5 * * * Once again, oldest son Matt will be hitching a ride for a short stretch on my just-around-the-corner (starts in less than one week from today!) Beagle Man cross-country-road-trip-with-dog.  As you might recall, Matt joined me and Kemba on our northern return…

* * *COUNTDOWN: 17 DAYS TO LA/XC-5 * * * What?  We’re picking up and driving from here to Los Angeles — again?  I thought that trip back in April of 2015 was a one-off!  What a nightmare!  Does Beagle Man even remember?  How I was so nuts over being stuck in the car all day and the motel all night…

* * *COUNTDOWN: 28 DAYS TO LA/XC-5 * * * Poor Kemba’s been coping with adversity this whole summer. All my dog wants out of life is to fetch the purple squeaky rubber ball that I chuck into the ocean for him.  But when he swims for it, retrieves it, and drops it at my feet, beautfully, like a good…

Last summer, Kemba’s first birthday celebration on #hermanbeach in Amagansett was a relatively low-key affair.  Kept under wraps until the afternoon of the party, and even then only signaled by a small copy-paper sign taped to the Beagle Man’s surfboard*, there were just seven humans and two dogs…

Weekend before last, on Friday afternoon, this monstrous, huge, scary ball appeared out of nowhere on the beach, in front of the White Sands Motel.  I made sure to keep as much ground between me and it as possible.  Beagle Man didn’t seem upset by the thing; he was focused on the lights being stru…

    Photos by beach buddy Scott Rudin

On Thursday, July 7, my good friend Nena (some would say my “girlfriend”) woke up having trouble breathing, so Luz and her niece rushed her to the vet.  There was a mass in her lung, it turns out, and her heart was enlarged.  Before they could even get her to a specialist, she collapsed and died.  …