Boomer Randomness

Well, I was pretty lazy this weekend.   Part of me wants to excuse it because I’ve been working my ass off for the past few weeks and I needed to change some patterns and take a break.   Another part of me wonders why I am sometimes incredibly lazy.   I did make some progress in my ongoing ‘finish unpacking U-Haul boxes’ project but some of those boxes contain important papers, documents and bills and those items remain in the boxes. My guest room needs to function as a guest room soon and there is now almost enough room in it to achieve that purpose.   That room also serves as a home office and eventually a home studio.   The walls will also provide display space for some of my art prints and photographs.   The walls remain bare in that room. It is Monday night, the end of the third day of my three-day holiday weekend.   The weather was great but I barely stepped out of my apartment to enjoy it.   I went to the grocery store, one block away, ...

This blog started out as a collection of observations about the ‘baby boomer’ generation so I should probably observe once in a while. Today is Memorial Day, a day to remember those military men and women who gave their lives in the service of our country.   I didn’t always have such a positive attitude toward the military.   I was coming of age at the end of the Viet Nam war.   It was a tumultuous time in America and I clearly remember the peaceful and not-so-peaceful public rallies and demonstrations, especially those protesting the war.   I did not like the military and did not believe we should be sending our citizens to fight someone else’s war. Then I found myself in the Army.   I learned that every job in the military was designed to support the fighting, from cooks to truck mechanics to accountants to medics.   One huge killing machine.   I still hated the military but as I met soldiers returning from Viet Nam I began to understand their p...

So I’ve been on my own about six months now and I’m still happy I finally did this.   Is it what I expected?   Yes and no. In the yes column: I have control of my life in a way I haven’t had in more than 15 years.   I do what I want, organize things to my liking, pursue my interests without having to justify my actions.   It is a liberating time in my life.   I have said this before … marriage is a great thing when both people are fully engaged in it, paying attention to each other’s needs and interests, are supportive of each other and build a life together without sacrificing their individuality.   I didn’t have that.   Now I am building a life by myself. In the no column: I expected to accomplish all my goals at once, to instantly transform my life from the frustrating struggle of the past eighteen years into the exciting, diverse conglomeration of all my interests.   Who the hell was I kidding?   No matter how flexible and spontaneou...

I spent a few days in New York this week, on business.   Right.   My business is a business but it’s fun so it’s almost hard to call it business . I now get to New York a couple of times a year and I am starting to actually know a little about it, even beginning to know my way around a little.   Some random observations: - Like the song says, New York is the city that never sleeps.   Places are open late and people are on the move at all hours. - It’s called ‘the Big Apple’.   I don‘t know why.   Maybe I’ll look that up before posting this. - Some say New York is a dangerous city.   Maybe it is but the only time I don’t feel safe is in the hair-raising taxi ride from the train station to my hotel each visit.   I am shocked that none of my taxi rides involved a wreck and none resulted in the death or injury of a pedestrian or bicycle courier. - This visit I walked down to the site of the most horrible catastrophe in American history...

Today was my radio station’s annual music festival at a local outdoor venue.   The reserved seats are under cover but the lawn seating area and the concession area that rings the venue is out in the open.   We do have a catering tent for our staff and I did spend some time in there between showers. Some randomness: - The event is in May or early June every year, which means there is always a chance for rain.   We often get downpours, then the sky clears and there rest of the afternoon and night are great.   The last two years saw almost no rain.   We got rain today; no downpours but definitely periods of steady rain. - The waterproof rain jacket I wore is no longer waterproof, which shouldn’t be a surprise because I bought it in 1999.   It was definitely waterproof then because I wore it in driving rain on a beach in North Carolina the day after I bought it as I was preparing to evacuate the approaching Hurricane Floyd.   Now it is water re...

I've got stuff on my mind, things I want to say, observations I want to make but I'm busy this week.  Actually that is one of my observations ... I am BUSY this week, so busy that I feel like I'm drowning in the murky liquid of stuff !  I love my life but sometimes it gets crazy.  Fortunately I have some skills that enable me to straighten things out.  One of them is the ability to take a deep breath, look around, soak in the positives in my life and regroup.  When I take those steps, I return to my usual positive self and things get better.  I realize I've accomplished personal and professional goals, I have music adventures in my near future, I have a paid-for 3-day trip to New York next week (for business but it's fun business), and two dear friends are visiting me soon.  OK, that's all for this morning.  More stuff coming soon.  Have a great day and thanks for visiting.

So my curiosity about things led me to finally look up a little history regarding Mother’s Day.   A West Virginia woman named Anna Jarvis is credited with the first one in 1908.   She campaigned to make it an official day recognizing one’s mother and President Woodrow Wilson declared it a national holiday in 1914.   Jarvis eventually came to dislike the commercialization of Mother’s Day and I can’t blame her; it is definitely a ‘Hallmark holiday’ now. BUT does that really matter?   The relentless television ads and retail sales do serve to remind us to set aside a day just for Mom. My mother died almost eight years ago and I hate to admit this … sometimes I forget about her.   I don’t always think about her on her birthday, or her death day, both of which were the first days of their respective months.   I only visited her back home once or twice a year during her last few years and one of the few regrets I have in life is that I didn’t spend more ...

An interesting observation from John Lennon ...

The typical boomer, by my observation, is or has been married, has children and despite our mobile society lives fairly close to some part of their extended family.   I am atypical in that I have no children, my closest relative is 200 miles away and most of my family lives more than 1000 miles from here. I’ve read many books and articles on the nature of friendships. Strong friendships usually develop over time, shared time.   The individuals share experiences, social time, may occasionally ask each other for help and offer each other help, sometimes with very important or serious situations.   A bond is formed through these shared experiences, especially if the friendships develop during times of personal growth or change such as adolescence.   There are levels of friendship, ranging from the casual friends who might be connected by work or neighborhoods to the closest, emotionally intimate friends who can call each other at 2 in the morning to ask a favor or...

I might be the last person I know to admit how obsessive I am about things.   I finally recognized it a few years ago but it still catches me off guard sometimes.   And even though I think I hide it, apparently I do not, because my boss mentioned it today (in a friendly way, not as criticism). So, this week’s obsessiveness and the mostly good results: First, the leg thing I mentioned in my last two posts.   In my head I had already figured out a Plan A and a Plan B for scheduling the possible surgery and I imagined how I would handle the daily parts of my life while on crutches for a few months of recovery.   The diagnosis by the orthopaedic surgeon after x-rays and some conversation and inspection … I experienced a minor flare up likely caused by the inevitable rubbing of the metal pin in my leg against bone or muscle.   No need to remove the pin; in fact, it’s harder to do that now than it was twenty years ago and maybe riskier.   See him aga...

One of my best ‘finds’ on the cable TV channel lineup at my new place is Palladia.   It’s all live music.   Right now I’m watching Sade in concert; I’ve always wanted to see her but never have.   Last night I saw selected replays of the Hang Out Music Festival in Gulf shores, Alabama last year.   Saw three songs by the Dave Matthews Band; can’t wait to see them here this summer, hopefully with the friend who first got me very interested in them.   You’re not going to believe this … I ordered Hip Hop Abs today.   Stop laughing.   My abs are all flab right now, despite an intentional ten pound weight loss over the past few months and a return to the gym two to three times a week.   This dvd series looks like fun and the price was pretty low.   I’ll let you know in three to five business days if it’s worth it. I am so busy during the week that sometimes I get very lazy on Saturdays.   I had great plans to clean my place today a...

Do you cringe when you hear a 35-year-old claim they are getting old?   I bet you do if you’re a boomer, which means you are between 49 and 67.   If you’re in the boomer age zone, how did you feel about age when you were 35?   45?   Now? I ‘collect’ people who are role models for creative aging, with the hope of learning from them.   It could be people who do what they love regardless of expectations related to their age, including people I don’t know (Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Diane Sawyer) and people I do know (a former radio talk show host acquaintance who last time I saw her was still hosting a show and teaching two college courses at age 90).   My mother and her older sister each also defied aging expectations and were great role models for getting older (and their brother married his second wife in his 80s). I hope to be viewed as such a person one day, but on this day I am feeling old.   I have a doctor appointment this morning...