Pause for Purpose

A Changing Job Description

We received word this summer that our restaurant was going to need major repairs – Leaky pipes under the floor. We’d have to close for two weeks – haul all of the equipment to the parking lot, jackhammer the floors, dig up and replace the faulty pipes, install a new floor and put it all [...]

Smoothies and Tatoos

I was dying for something to eat – wandering around the Novato Safeway with low blood sugar, hoping to find something healthy before resorting to Twinkies or donuts. Jamba Juice! There was a Jamba Juice stand inside the store with only one person in line. I scanned the menu for something more substantial than a [...]

Crazy, or Just Plain Mad?

I tried a new coffee place the other day and was sitting outside drinking my coffee and reading a book in front of this planter and bike rack. After a few minutes a guy pulled up and hastily parked his bike, talking angrily to himself as he pulled out his ear buds. He grabbed a [...]

The 25 Bryant

In the summer of 1958 my dad took my brother and me to our first Giant’s game. I remember finishing a French twist donut at my grandmother’s apartment on San Bruno Ave. and then catching the 25 Bryant on the corner. The bus fare was ten cents and you dropped your dime into a big [...]

One-way Shoes

When I moved to Berkeley in the ‘70’s, I soon learned about all of the colorful characters who hung out on Telegraph Avenue. Little did I know that my dog, Eddie, would also soon reach legendary status. There was a guy we called “The Orange Man” who could usually be found on the edge of [...]

Greased Lightning

This is my “greasecar”, Stella. It’s a 1982 Mercedes 300 D (for diesel) that has been converted to run on used cooking oil. I took it to a shop in Oakland called Veg Rev where they did the conversion work. Diesel engines were originally built to run on a variety of oils – the only [...]

Just a minute

I was already in a hurry when I pulled into the gas station. It was one of those discount stations that gets swarmed with customers when the price of gas is especially high. I maneuvered my way over near a row of pumps that was on the correct side for my gas tank and pulled [...]

Final edition of Still Blinking is finally here!

November has been a busy month for the Krahling family. Not only has Heidi published her cookbook Insalata’s Mediterranean Table, but Mark has finally released his collection of short stories, Still Blinking. From the book cover : “Still Blinking is a collection of stories which capture those tiny moments in time that pass in a [...]

What people are saying about Still Blinking

“If you’ve ever thought that ordinary life was, well, just ordinary, you have not yet read Mark Krahling’s quirky, humorous stories. Mark has an exquisite gift for making us pause and pay attention to people and events most of us would overlook. After reading his stories, we are called to a new perspective.” - Rosie [...]

A Book Club for the Homeless

Last summer, I learned about a book club for the homeless, founded in Boston. Peter Resnik, a downtown lawyer, made it a habit of cutting through Boston Common on his way to work. Each day he would see a homeless man named Rob and they began having daily conversations about jokes, sports, and eventually literature. [...]