Rusty Bucket Ranch Blog

A crick in his back woke up Marty before dawn.  He had slid off the aluminum lawn chair sometime during the night, and crashed in the redwood needles.  His arms and legs were numb with cold.  There was barely enough light to see the house 50 yards away.  He stood…

To prepare for the big kegger party, they moved a lot of stuff out of the house and into the shed, and took down anything that could get broken.  Marty covered the family heirloom couch with plastic, but it looked so weird that he took it off again, not wanting…

Marty was looking forward to his first summer vacation as the pilot of a truly interstellar vehicle.  That old, cracked VW bus had been more like a cheap satellite.  Now, he felt like he had 20,000 tons of rocket power underneath his ass every time he hit the accelerator on…

At the time of her birthday in May, Julie moved back to the Rusty Bucket Ranch with her dogs.  She didn’t want to talk about what happened between her and Ron, but it was clear there had been a major breakup.  At least she had a better place to stay…

Marty rationalized that the money he made from selling doobies was justified, because it was intended for a definite purpose, and not just to buy more weed.  His goal was to save up enough money to get a real car.  Impressively, when he reached his goal, he stopped.  The proceeds…

Spring came bursting out all over the woods.  Mike was spending more and more time driving around with Annie, because his trusty Stanger could take them places where they could make out privately in the back seat.  Annie’s artist parents took a dim view of them going anywhere without a…

The winter rainstorms that swept down from Alaska and lashed the West Marin coast gradually let up as the days got longer.  Eventually, the creek subsided enough to trigger the annual salmon run, and it was the biggest one the redwood canyon had seen since the White family moved in. …

The weeks after the holidays were slow at the pet store, and Marty spent a lot of time in his room while it rained and poured outside.  The swollen creek rushed so loudly outside his window that he had to turn up his stereo to drown it out.  The cabin…

In the days before Christmas, as NASA’s intrepid Voyager probe escaped the orbit of the moon, Marty’s own, earthbound vessel was grounded when the car virus struck again.  It wasn’t the engine block that killed his Volkswagen bus, as Julie informed him in a matter-of-fact tone, but the two “good”…

Thanksgiving was coming, and Marty was glad he had enough money to help procure some of the supplies.  The extended White family planned to have a big meal again in their little “soup kitchen in the woods.”  Frank and Frodo were there, as well as Otter and Rabbit, and Dirk…

Marty needed something to distract him from his love problems, and figured it was time to get a car of his own.  Every week, he’d get the Classified Gazette hot off the press near the pet store, and circle anything that was remotely interesting.  He used different color pens based…

Marty finally got tired of listening to Mike and Annie fuck their brains out all night long, and asked them to tone it down a bit.  Annie laughed and said, “We need to find you a girlfriend.”  They were a little more discreet after that, but he still spent most…

Marty was also taking Driver’s Education in high school, which was ridiculously simple.  He easily memorized all the traffic rules he needed to know in order to pass the test and get his license.  He was already driving Marge’s little Toyota on the back roads of Pt. Reyes (when she…

Like many a heartbroken poet, Marty could always find solace in books, music, and art.  He was starting to define himself as a person, and more importantly, to make choices about who he wanted to become.  In every course of study, he did the work needed to get a good…

When Marty’s sophomore year started, he learned that the school paper was looking for a cartoonist and illustrator.  Oddly, his school was named after a privateer, and the mascot was naturally a pirate.  The newspaper was called The Jolly Roger, and it flew the skull and crossbones on its masthead. …

Freshman football lasted for one year only at Drake, then the sophomores had to join the Junior Varsity team.  Coach Conner was happy to see the speedy young freak at tryouts a few weeks before school actually started, but Marty could tell he was disappointed that he hadn’t gotten much…