Boomer Randomness

My skin cancer is gone. Gone like a freight train, gone like yesterday. The doctor got it on the first cut. I have pictures but I’ll spare you. I did email them to a friend in the medical field but she hasn’t given me her reaction yet. I don’t know if she laughed or was grossed out. I’ll bet she laughed. Why can’t every doctor and hospital be as patient-focused as this place is? I have never had such a positive experience in a medical setting. From the person at the reception counter to the surgeon tech who got things started to the surgeon who did the procedure to the tech who wrapped things up, each person was friendly, positive, fully explained every step of the process and patiently answered my questions from the most serious to the goofiest. And the doctor did a follow-up phone call this evening to see how I was feeling. So how am I feeling? Good, all things considered. The anesthetic wore off mid-afternoon and now my forehead alternates between itching and hurting. Tylenol ...

Skin. Cancer. Sucks. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that the sore on my forehead that wouldn’t heal turned out to be a form of skin cancer. Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of cancer and also the easiest to fix. I’ll find out for sure tomorrow. That is when they do surgery on the sore. In the past few weeks I have learned that three people I see regularly have all had this procedure. One is a cousin, a retired doctor, who had it about 15 years ago and has had no problem since. A guy I regularly interview on one of my radio shows told me he had it and he also has had no recurring problems. Yesterday the guy who cuts my hair every four weeks for the past 17 years told me he has had this surgery six times in his adult life. Geez. Get out of the sun. What are you thinking? These three people, the surgery center’s brochures and several web sites have all said this surgery is relatively routine. That is encouraging, especially coming from medical entities, but for t...

Gas prices are down. Woohoo!! Just in time for the holiday weekend. I won’t be going anywhere this weekend but it’s still nice to see prices way down. This evening I had my last workout at the gym before surgery. I’ll talk about the surgery in another post later. Instructions from the doc say don’t do anything strenuous for at least a week after the surgery. Too bad because all this working out stuff is finally starting to show a little and I’m going to the beach a few weeks later. Of course I won’t be trying to impress anyone with my workout results but it would still be nice to look good with my shirt off at a beach. I’ll probably be able to get in a few workouts before then. I’m still telling people how great that U2 concert was last week. I downloaded a few U2 songs I didn’t already have the other night. Great group! My favorite blues band is back in town in a few weeks but this time it’s on a weeknight. Tough choice about whether to go or not. Hard to pass up though. Spell...

A friend recently asked an interesting question … who is going to run the country in two years? I believe her question was born out of the frustration of watching endless media coverage of gridlock in Washington. Every elected leader from the newest member of Congress all the way up to the President seems to have plenty to say but is getting nothing done. Add to that the growing lineup of potential Republican Presidential candidates in the next election; the election is more than a year away but the campaigning has already begun. Some pundits and many Republicans believe Obama will be a one-term President. It is difficult to unseat an incumbent, but it certainly has happened. Ask the first George Bush and Jimmy Carter. Presidents live with the cards they are dealt and sometimes frustrations of the American public are taken out on a President who can’t seem to fix the problems they inherit. So what makes a good President? That doesn’t really matter. What actually counts are factors ...

I'm in a quoting mood today.  These got my attention: I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. - Bill Cosby Follow your heart, but take your brain with you. - Unknown Take it easy -- but take it. - Woody Guthrie In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. - Robert Frost People spend a lifetime searching for happiness; looking for peace. They chase idle dreams, addictions, religions, even other people, hoping to fill the emptiness that plagues them. The irony is the only place they ever needed to search was within. - Ramona L. Anderson Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't. - Erica Jong Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that's no reason not to give it. - Agatha Christie Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are alw...

Saw this on Facebook; not sure the original source.  It's good advice. Don't stop dreaming because you will stop Living, Don't stop living because you will stop Loving, Don't stop Loving because you will stop Laughing!

Hmm, I wonder if the title of this post will get any attention.  Wondering why the Dreaming Quote post above, which I set to post tomorrow, Sunday, already posted this morning, Saturday, even though it shows the date and time as tomorrow, Sunday at 7:35am.  It did post chronoligically, however, and looks like it posted after THIS one, even though it has been on since this morning. I know I shouldn't complaing about a free web site.  In fact I have several blogs.  They are great creative outlets for me and I even met one of my now-best-friends through this hobby.  But I still do expect this thing to work properly. OK, whining done.  Thanks for visiting.

Do you like where you live? Would you live somewhere else if you could? For almost 18 years I’ve lived at several addresses in what the demographers call the Washington DC suburbs and exurbs; and just a little further north in the Baltimore area for 9 years before that. My feelings about this region run the full spectrum from love to hate. As I begin plans to move again in the next couple of months I imagined where I’d choose if I could live anywhere instead of the forthcoming one-county relocation and I thought about the pros and cons of living here in the mid-Atlantic. Places I seriously considered at various times in the past decade or two include Asheville and the Outer Banks, both in North Carolina, Dallas, where I lived before Maryland, Flagstaff, Arizona because it felt good the one time I visited, and New Orleans, where I grew up. None of those are practical for me at this point and maybe never. The two in North Carolina were both on my ‘early retirement’ hit list but I’ve ...

I spent some time last night in an environment rich with people-watching opportunities, an unexpected bonus to an evening whose original plan was a live music performance and dinner with a friend. The setting: a weekly summer event called Downtown Bethesda Free Summer Concert Series , held each Thursday evening on a small plaza in downtown Bethesda. My goal was live music and I would have gone to this no matter who was playing but it was extra cool and unusual to hear a ska/reggae/rock band. Eclectic to the max, The Players Band’s instrumentation looks like the reject pile from the high school band … trombone, trumpet and baritone sax … but these guys make it cool. Their set list ran from originals to Jamaican-infused versions of songs by artists from other islands to a show-closing reggae version of the Peter Gabriel song “Sledgehammer.” Random people-watching observations: - Bethesda, like most of the Washington DC area, is a salad bowl of race, age, socioeconomic and ...

I finally saw U2 tonight and it instantly ranks as the best concert I’ve ever seen. I might change my mind about that over time but right now, a few hours after getting home, I am still playing this one back in my head. Here are some random thoughts about the show: - The total show is amazing, with a 164-foot tall stage “canopy” and incredible lighting that does not get in the way of the performance like so many huge sets often do. - This was the cleanest sound I’ve ever heard in a stadium show. - They opened with “Even Better Than the Real Thing” and closed the main part of the show with “Where the Streets Have No Name” (which is my favorite U2 song). - This concert was mostly about the music and an ego-free connection with the audience but of course there were political statements to be made too. You expect that from Bono. He kept in in balance, however. - He dedicated “A Beautiful Day” to Representative Gabby Giffords, who is recovering from gunshot wounds, and he...

I’m in a laughing mood today. Here are a few quotes that made me laugh out loud. Some are from Facebook friends and the rest are from humor web sites. Waste of Money: Designer Clothes for Babies -- The reason you don't buy a baby a $75 shirt is the same reason you don't but one for a college kid. They don't care either way, and will likely throw up on it. - KJ Reason #10- why I love summertime: I bet some of these grown folks wish they had thought about what their stomach and lower back tattoos would like in 10 years. Sheesh. I've seen so many unidentifiable images and so much scribble scrabble...I wonder if they notice.. - OS All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand. - Steven Wright No man knows more about women than I do, and I know nothing. - Anon It takes only one drink to get me drunk. The trouble is, I can’t remember if it’s the thirteenth or the fourteenth. – George F. Burns I went to a restaurant that serves “breakfast at any time...

Summer officially begins at 1:16 PM EDT today (that’s 17:16 UTC for my European readers). I was about to tell you that today is the longest day of the year but when I looked up the sunrise and sunset times for my area I discovered that tomorrow is a minute longer. OK, it is still only 24 hours long but there is more daylight in the Northern Hemisphere tomorrow than on any other day of the year … and less in the Southern Hemisphere (G’day Mate, Happy Winter). Specifically, tomorrow is 14 hours 52 minutes long here. Local sunset is at 8:35 PM, which means the opening act at the U2 concert in Baltimore will be done by then and U2 should be taking the stage right as sun goes down. That should make an awesome picture for somebody … not me because the only camera I’ll be able to get into that stadium is my pocket-size Canon. At least it’ll be a better shot than with my cell phone and I promise my U2 fan friends that I won’t let the battery die before the show like I did at Dave Matthews ...

Continuing a bit from yesterday, a Bruce Springsteen show, especially during the 1980s, was an unforgettable event. I have been hoping for several years now to see him again but as far as I know there was no tour planned for this year. Sadly, even if there is a tour, what would that show be without Clarence Clemons. Maybe there is a sax player somewhere who could mimic the Clemons sound but his presence involves far more than just notes on a horn. Anyway, I ran across this video and thought I’d share. This compilation is representative of the Springsteen shows I saw back in the day. Enjoy.

Music in the 1970s was in a state of flux. The Beatles were over, disco was peaking and rock was meandering between Elton John and Led Zeppelin. In the middle of that came a scrawny New Jersey kid named Bruce, singing long, involved stories about coming of age in a blue collar town, accompanied by a big black saxophone player named Clarence. Saxophone!? I have seen Bruce Springsteen live five different times, in facilities ranging in size from a half-full 3000-seat auditorium in New Orleans in the 1970s, when people barely knew who he was, to a sold out 50,000-plus stadium in Washington DC at the peak of his concert career in the 1980s. The shows were not mere concerts, they were events! Everybody in the band played and sang like it was the last concert they’d ever do. But nobody in the E Street Band made a bigger impression in both size and sonic impact than saxman Clarence Clemons. He was an integral part of the band’s sound and stage show. It was clear from their interaction on ...

Every year near Father’s Day I write something here about my Dad. Here are a few random thoughts: My Dad had a very successful career as an engineer, first with structural design, later electrical and for the last 25 years of his work life he did plumbing design. He was a very behind-the-scenes guy but his plumbing design work can be found everywhere in New Orleans, from the fountain next to Riverwalk to the drainage ditches on the Claiborne Avenue exit off I-10 to the restrooms, loading dock drains and fire sprinklers at Oakwood Shopping Center. Not bad for a guy who didn’t finish high school; he got his GED a few years after I was born. I am convinced he could fix anything made before the computer age. His hobbies included television and auto repair and his skill levels were on par with professionals. He taught himself how to repair watches and even made some money helping his mentor part time. Did I mention he built the house we grew up in? Literally every nail, screw, pipe join...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  Well, you can write them up for this shot. Those headline writers are, uhhh, clever. I'd like to write something here about Congressman Weiner and his stupid actions of the past months, but what can I write that hasn't been written already?  I am impressed that his wife has not played the 'stand by your man' role; in fact I don't believe she has made any public statement about the photos.  Oh, to be a fly on the wall in their house this week.

A work friend and I were discussing work stuff this afternoon and the conversation turned into a couple of personal things including my tendency to hang onto stuff. I mentioned that I want to get rid of the clutter in my house but sometimes struggle with deciding what to toss out. He began to offer some advice with this prelude, offered in an almost embarrassing way: “I know you’re older than me so don’t take this the wrong way and please tell me if you know this already or you don’t want to hear this from me.” I said, “Please tell me; perspective is perspective.” He and I have had conversations like this in the past and he occasionally asks me for advice relating to dealing with his aging mother. He is right to assume I’ve had that experience with that situation. We are more than twenty years apart in age but have very good insight into these matters as well as work issues. He was somewhat apologetic when suggesting advice relating to my clutter issue because someone two decades o...

Even though there is still a lot of crap in my life, I’ve been feeling pretty good lately. By “lately” I mean the past week. Sometimes I really do celebrate the little things in life. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and I’m pretty sure it isn’t a train. I completely changed my summer vacation plans. There were no long road trips in either my original plan or my new one, but there will be some beach time in the new one. I usually avoid popular beaches in the middle of the crazy, over-crowded summer beach season but for a few days this year I’ll dive right in. It’s part of that pattern-changing I’ve been writing about this year. I bought an awesome Cannondale hybrid bike more than fifteen years ago. Prior to this weekend I had only been on it once in the past ten years or more. Funny how some interests just go away but then come back. Yesterday I brought the bike down from the attic, cleaned it up, inflated the tires and took it for a spin in my driveway. All of that was pr...

You’ve heard of the TV show Top Chef. I should start one called Bottom Chef. I am out of practice in many aspects of my life but the one I’ll mention here is cooking. I’ve never been a great cook but I’ve been cooking for myself since I was 19 so I know how to cook the basics. For the past few years I’ve been attempting some new tastes and new recipes. Many of the recipes are ridiculous, wrong, too complicated or too simple. A good cook can improvise or make corrections on the fly. Tonight I was successful with that strategy. Dinner was Risotto Primavera. The recipe has at least two mistakes, one relating to quantity and the other involves timing. I was able to improvise just enough to make it all turn out OK. And there is enough leftover for two more meals, which is my usual weekend cooking strategy. Tomorrow I attack my gas grill. I’ve actually been getting better at that and I’ll try something a little different tomorrow, if it doesn’t rain.

Plenty of good music out there right now in all genres.  Check this one out ...

It’s been awhile since I updated you on my fitness plan. I have nothing else to write about tonight, so why not this? My previous doctor told me several years ago that I needed to lose 20 to 25 pounds and I’ve been working on that ever since. My new doctor also told me to lose weight when I saw him a few months ago. I seem to have permanently lost the first ten pounds and at one time last year I was down fifteen … before the holidays … you can guess how that turned out. Funny thing is this: even though the scale still says I’m only down ten I know it’s more significant than that because I’m two belt notches tighter and almost down a pants size. That’s progress. Oh, and a friend noticed my biceps. Woohoo! Nobody would ever confuse me with a body builder but I know I’m in better shape than I was when I started this process. On a slightly different but related note: the bump on my forehead that won’t heal, which I should have checked a year ago, turns out to be a form of skin canc...

I totally and freely admit that I am a "morning person". When properly rested I function better in the morning and I enjoy the morning, especially early morning before the world really starts cranking. Sometimes I am a "night owl" too, which doesn't usually go well with being a "morning person". I prefer sunrises to sunsets, although I love them both. My work hours are somewhat flexible, so I recently changed them from 10am-6pm to 8am-4pm. One of my core job duties requires concentration and if I start at 10, I am constantly interrupted by "urgent" emails asking for me to solve some kind of problem or other. If I'm at my desk at 8, I don't even look at email till 10 or 11 and I frequently get more work done in those two hours than I used to in a whole work day. Washington DC area traffic sucks even more at 6:30am than it does at 9:30am. Hopefully I will be changing address soon, which will reduce that issue for me. Ironicall...

I heard this song on the radio this afternoon and now I can't get it out of my head. Enjoy.

It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about? - Henry David Thoreau Time = life; therefore, waste your time and waste of your life, or master your time and master your life. - Alan Lakein If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to know what’s most important and then give it all you’ve got. - Lee Iacocca Time is the wisest counselor of all. - Pericles All that really belongs to us is time; even he who has nothing else has that. - Baltasar Gracian To do two things at once is to do neither. - Publius Syrus A year from now you will wish you had started today. - Karen Lamb

This morning I woke up with this thought in my head: the most significant choices we have to make these days are how to spend our time. That is perhaps the real point I was trying to make in yesterday’s post. Every day we face time-based decisions and often the deciding factor is quality versus quantity. Drive to work, which takes less time, or use mass transit, which might take more time but is less stressful. Work on a report in your home office after dinner, which might help your career a little, or play with your kids, which improves the quality of their lives and yours. Spend most of Saturday mowing, edging and trimming your 1.5 acre property and cleaning your 2500 square foot house or leave your 1000 square foot apartment for an all Saturday bike ride with a couple of friends. Our contemporary culture places a high value on multi-tasking, doing many things at once; in other words, on quantity. Accomplishment always seems to have a number attached. We attempt to hit numerous g...

My favorite line in the Clint Eastwood movie “Dirty Harry” is this: “A man’s gotta know his limitations.” While I do believe most people can ultimately surpass limits, there are limits and it is healthy to know what they are. If you know how far you can go with something or know potential results of certain situations, then you can choose how to deal with it. I had to make an interesting and frustrating choice today. First a little background. Many of us Boomers, currently ages 47 to 65, are unprepared for navigating life in 2011. Our parents could not possibly have anticipated the complexity we face in every aspect of our lives, and could not teach us how to effectively deal with everything from quantity of product options to population density to traffic congestion to technology, career and relationships. In their era, the husband worked, the wife stayed home, the man had the same job for most of his life, their house had one phone, one television, one family car. A serious traff...

Kenny Chesney's massive tour rolls into my area tomorrow.  Opening acts are Uncle Kracker, Billy Currington and the Zac Brown Band.  I'll be there all day and hopefull will see all four acts.  I might even meet some of them.  Actually I've met Kenny five or six times but only for a minute or two each time so he probably doesn't remember me.  Here is a cool acoustic version of my current favorite song of his.  Enjoy.

I saw this on a Facebook friend's page tonight and decided to share. She did not know the author so I looked it up, especially because it seemed so familiar. Turns out it is the script for an Apple commercial. Awesome! Enjoy it! Think about it! Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. - Apple Inc.

I passed up a "Slurpee break" invite this afternoon. The 7 Eleven is only a block from the office but I just didn't want to walk out in that heat again - had already done that for lunch. So I poured a hot coffee instead … at 4 PM. What was I thinking? My favorite typo this week … co-worker Josh is scheduling a little happy hour thing at a local watering hole. He intended to type "drinks at Growlers" but, well, the "i" and "u" keys are adjacent and he missed. It came out "drunks at Growlers." Probably more accurate anyway. Yes, this post is part of my 'random' series.  The typo in the title is intentional. Sarah P and Donald T having lunch together this week seemed more like a SNL skit than reality. The thought of either of them seriously considering a run for top dog of the free world is scary, but less so than the possibility that either could win. I’m no Republican but I’m pretty sure that neither of them represents ...