Boomer Randomness

So today is my birthday.   Started my day with emails from my sister and one of my best friends and a text from another of my best friends.   Then I got greetings from two of my radio stations (because they send birthday emails to everybody who notes a birthday when signing up to get their other emails).   Got two birthday emails from managers at work, including the very top guy in the local office.   And seven co-workers sang happy birthday to me at a meeting and gave me an ice cream cake. At last count, 82 of my Facebook friends posted birthday wishes, which is a record for me. Definitely feeling the love.   Also feeling an awkward indicator of the opposite, further proving I do not understand women like I thought I did.   In the middle of seeing all those awesome greetings from FB friends, I realized I had been ‘unfriended’ by someone who actually is/was a friend before we ever connected on Facebook.   She is one of my ‘concert buddie...

Most boomers can remember a time in our youth when we had four television channels to choose from, the local affiliates for NBC, ABC, CBS and PBS.   Those channels ‘signed off’ around midnight each night and started up again around 6 the next morning.   Now we have hundreds of channels to choose from and most run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When I moved to my new apartment I upgraded my cable service, adding some channels, but I have no idea how many channels I have to choose from.   I can click through more than 900 but many of those are part of upgraded subscriptions.   My best guess is that I can watch at least 300 of them.   Some are duplicates … the local channels are available in digital and HD (high definition) … but that still leaves a couple hundred. This afternoon I surfed through, taking notes for this blog post.   Some highlights:   - There is more than one HBO.   I think I get seven in English and those sam...

When did we accumulate all this stuff? I have repeatedly asked myself that question over the past month as I packed up my stuff to move from a fairly large house to a not-so-large apartment.   Movers got what I thought was most of my share of the marital property but I’ve been back five times to get more stuff.   Last Saturday I even had help from a friend with a van, yet there is at least one more car load of my stuff back at the house.   Now I am surrounded by mounds of boxes and dusty items from the recent past and the distant past.   I hate the clutter but somehow feel at home in it. Objects we collect and keep over time can serve as reminders of various parts of our lives.   When viewed as a whole, they tell our life story.   Why do we keep so much and how do we learn this behavior? My ‘stuff’ education most certainly results from being the son of organized packrats.   Mom kept the silliest things but each had a story.   Sh...

Day before Inauguration 2009 No matter who takes the Oath of Office as President of the United States of America, the inauguration is an exciting event.   The ceremony is a public display of the peaceful transition of power from one person to another, and for second-term Presidents it is the peaceful continuation of power.   Despite the incredible amount of security involved this day is open to citizens and several hundred thousand people go down to the National Mall to get as close as they can to the swearing in. I was there when Bill Clinton took the Oath in January 1993.   Every four years since I said I would go but, well, it’s cold in January in DC.   And I hate crowds.   So I usually talk myself out of it.   Last time I actually had a chance to be in the media gallery but that would have required being there four or five hours ahead of time, so I helped arrange for another of my media co-workers to go instead. It is still exciting t...

This gun debate is making me crazy.   Why is it always about the extremes?   Yes, Americans have the right to own guns but no civilian needs assault weapons or high-capacity ammunition clips. Who are they trying to defend themselves against?   A responsible gun owner with children living in the house will have big guns locked up in a gun safe.   If a home invasion occurs, by the time the gun-owning homeowner gets the assault rifle out of the locked cabinet, they are dead.   The school safety issue … having armed guards at schools might increase safety but it might not.   That proposed solution is not completely clear. Teachers carrying guns around at school is not the answer either.   Most teachers, even if trained in the proper use of firearms, are not trained or experienced in high-intensity active shooting situations.   It is entirely possible they may kill a kid rather than stop the shooter. Two people who are close to me (a fri...