The White Vans: PART 4 On the news the next day, I learned that someone had set fire to all three of the white vans I rode by. The fires caused their gas tanks to explode. Authorities found skeletal remains of several people in the wreckage of all three vans. Every law enforcement and public … Continue reading POST 40: The White Vans, 4-6

The White Vans PART 1 I worked as an elementary school teacher for over 30 years. At some point, during many different school years, our school district sent an advisory letter home to parents. These parental advisories were always somewhat alarming. They usually said something along these lines:  “This morning, before the start of school, … Continue reading POST 39: The White Vans, 1-3

Behind the main post office in Modesto, there’s a large parking area surrounded by a cyclone fence. Along with a small fleet of mail delivery trucks, postal workers also park their trucks, cars, and motorcycles there. During business hours, the gate to this area is normally left wide open because mail trucks enter and exit … Continue reading POST 38: The Attack on the Post Office

NOTE: This is fiction During the first week of his second term as President, Donald Trump pardoned over 1,500 people who were convicted and imprisoned for crimes related to the January 6, 2021, assault on the United States Capitol to disrupt Congressional deliberations certifying President Biden’s election win. Many of those who invaded the Capitol building … Continue reading POST 37: The Scary Paranoia Scenario 

THIS IS A FANTASY ABOUT A FANTASY! TOTALLY INVENTED BY ME, the author of this post! It is not real! I never gave it any consideration, any thought at all, because, well, dude, it’s Superman! However, the political climate in the United States in 2025 finds us in a proto-fascist environment. Based on mythology promoted … Continue reading Post 36: SUPERMAN is an Undocumented Immigrant!

Sometimes, time gets away from us, right? I did not post anything to BrightModesto.com after August 2024. I underwent hip replacement surgery in April 2024, and spent a fair amount of time doing physical therapy and so on. I did not stop writing, but I put my admittedly limited author energy into posts on the … Continue reading Post 35: August 2025 Author Update

The Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve are two days of the year during which many neighborhoods in the United States sound like war zones. This is because many people celebrate these holidays by shooting guns into the air and setting off fireworks both legal and illegal. Bang, sizzle, swish, pop, and kaboom are … Continue reading Post 34: Fireworks on July 4, 2024

The teacher opened the suggestion box he kept in his classroom. His students used the box to share ideas for their class, but also to correspond with him about issues that they felt were too embarrassing or controversial to discuss openly in class. There was only one note in the box. It said, "I know … Continue reading Post 33: The Suggestion Box

The Time Travel Bureau Division of Historical Research 2404 CE (Deakness was 8 years old) Playing amid the ruins of an ancient shopping mall in the area once known as Modesto, California, two little brown boys (well, who isn’t?)  suddenly stopped playing on fallen ancient concrete pillars, and standing alert like two prairie dogs, tapped their … Continue reading Post 32: The Time Travel Bureau

Two small ships momentarily tracked as UFOs landed in the United States. One landed in Modesto, California this year. There was a glitch in the navigation system that caused a time shift. The other ship landed several years from now in the middle of a Nebraskan cornfield. As they got closer to our world both … Continue reading Post 32: Natasha Burris the Extraterrestrial*