Coffee and Radio Daze

It's been a while since I posted, so I'm taking a few minutes to write. I'm working at my favorite coffee shop in St. Paul, The Black Dog Café. It’s a funky contrast to the younger, hipper Spyhouse Coffee shop I was in yesterday.

As I sat down today, I was happily struck by the fact that it takes very little for my business to come with me these days. Wireless, a power outlet, and coffee do the trick. Add a chocolate and macadamia nut cookie and you have found freelancer Nirvana.

But I digress.

The point is an update. What’s happening with me? Well, I’m working like a dog on my house. A lot is happening there, mainly because my neighbor, Jake, is a hard-working kid looking to make a buck to keep his hot-rod Civic on the road. The Klancher pad is looking up!

On the wrting front, things are happening as well. I’ve been doing radio interviews for How To Build Your Dream Garage, and had a good time talking garages with Joe Prin at 580am in Idaho and Bob Long at Motor Trend Radio. You can find the Motor Trend Radio podcast on iTunes, by the way. The episode before mine features a friend of mine, Hollywood car builder and inventor Eddie Paul. Check it out if you get a chance.

I have an interview with Bob Strong aka Handyman Bob on his show Around the House coming up on Saturday, July 26 at 1:00 p.m. PST.

I have a short (VERY short) piece and a small photo that ran in Men’s Journal this month. Check out page 34. Working with them was a pleasure—they are professional, hard-working and pay well and promptly.

On a fun note, my friend Stephen Regenold (The Gear Junkie) did a piece entitled, The World’s Scariest Roads for Travel and Leisure.com, and wrote about my adventures riding the Wilderness Road in the Bolivian Amazon and Brazil's Graciosa Trail.

The Moon Over Galveston

I returned to Galveston for the first time since college, and it was a great break. This photo is of one of the breakwaters under a nearly full moon. The light on the rocks was cast by the streetlights and neon on the strip.

Back to deadlines . . . enjoy the pic!

The Trucks of Austin

Texas is all about trucks. Even in the liberal oasis that is Austin, everyone's driving one, and the best carry the patina of decades of hard work. I photographed a few of them while in Austin, went for a ride in a Pinzgauer four-wheel-drive that was used by the Swiss Army (what exactly do Swiss military people do, anyway?), and drove a 1948 Ford 1-ton around a back pasture north of Dallas. So I thought a few photos might be fun for the blog.

Some of these were trucks I found on the block while walking the dog, while others are old workhorses abandoned in the back yards of the owners of tractors I was photographing for my calendars.

A favorite of mine was the Waterloo Brewing Truck, which Joan and Bosco found just down the block. The owner's son was washing it one day as we walked past, and I stopped just long enough to find out the owner used to run the Waterloo Brewery, and the truck served time delivering beer around Austin. The gas tank consisted of a plastic can and a hose. The only drawback? That gem of a truck wasn't for sale!