Boomer Randomness

A neighbor called me a renaissance man this morning. Hmm, sounds kind of cool but I'm not sure I earn that title. I was on a treadmill at the time and the rest of our conversation was about music, women, jobs and apartment construction techniques of the 1990s. Yep, exciting topics for a Saturday morning in the fitness room. The mention of my guitar lessons triggered his evaluation. I know what he means but I decided to research the term a bit anyway. One definition of Renaissance man: a cultured man of the Renaissance (15th century Italy) who was knowledgeable, educated, or proficient in a wide range of fields. Cultured? I do occasionally wear a tuxedo and I like Mozart, although I'm usually more at home in shorts listening to Kenny Chesney, U2 or Stevie Ray Vaughn. On the other hand, my iTunes does have a wide range of music and my social calendar runs from charity balls to beer bars. The part that might fit me, and many people I know: knowledgeable, educated, or p...

Diners are an interesting part of our American past. Although the first diners appeared in the late 1800s and were often horse-drawn night lunch wagons, they became a popular part of American culture in the 1950s at the beginning of the serious ‘car’ era.   They were often next to bars in cities or near factories and open 24 hours a day to serve the round-the-clock urban night owls and shift workers. Stainless steel exteriors and casual atmosphere were typical. Diner fare featured meatloaf, burgers, club sandwiches, bacon and eggs. And coffee. Plenty of coffee. The diner where I had dinner recently has all that plus lemon chicken piccata and Atlantic salmon. I ordered lemon chicken. And a beer. I considered getting meatloaf but I'm trying to stick to the healthier diet my neurologist recommended as part of my MS therapy. Nice to have options.  I pretended my lemon chicken was meatloaf and my Honda was a ’57 Chevy.

Buying a song back in the day, 60s, 70s, 80s, even 90s ... Go to  store, search for the album, initially on vinyl, later on cassette or CD single, take it to the counter, stand in line, pay the cashier, go home, put the 'thing' into a player on one room in your house, hit play, enjoy your song. Total time, about 30 - 45 minutes. And now ... click the iTunes app icon, type the song title in the search box, click Buy Song, type in your password, watch it download, hit play, enjoy your song anywhere, any room, no room, car, backyard, park, subway. Total time, about 2 minutes. I wrote this at 10 pm one recent night, shortly after buying two or three songs I wanted at that moment. Couldn't do that back in the day. Sometimes I miss searching though vinyl albums and singles in a store. Sometimes. But not the other night when I had to have those songs. I'm listening to one of them now. On my phone. Wow.

The thing that bothers me most about political rants on Facebook, political discussions/arguments at my neighborhood bar and political speeches by most politicians is that so many people think that their opinions and those of their political party are the only correct ones. My ultra right wing Republican friends say, in effect, that anything said by a Democrat is wrong. My ultra left wing Democrat friends say anything said by a Republican is automatically wrong. I say both schools of thought are wrong. There also seems to be an assumption that all Democrats believe in exactly the same thing and are all 'liberal' and all Republicans believe in exactly the same thing and are all 'conservative'. Wrong again, in my opinion. And that is exactly the issue: these are all opinions. Not facts, just opinions. Our great country was founded on finding common ground among disparate beliefs. If you assume that each party stands for only one thing and that the reputation o...

When I was moving out on my own a few years ago and negotiating plates, wall art and furniture, my ex asked me if I wanted a few of the plants. I said sure, I'll take two. The two she suggested looked good to me and appeared to be easy to care for; a definite plus because I'm not good at caring for plants. As I put the plants into my car she asked if I remembered where the larger one (pictured here) came from.   I did not. She told me it was the plant my office sent me after my dad died fifteen years ago. Wow, I had no idea that plant was still alive. I remember getting it but lost track of it years ago in the jungle of our house. As I sat next to it on my patio sipping my coffee this morning I decided to learn more about this plant. My GF said she thought it was some kind of lily. I would never have guessed that. Armed with that speculation, however, I found it on google in about ten seconds. Spathiphyllium is also known as the Peace Lily.  It has Asian origi...

A creative writing seminar I went to a few years ago suggested an interesting writing exercisd.   Start writing and keep writing without stopping, no stoppint to edi, just write whatever comes to mine, for a certain length of time.   I don’t remember how long , so I icket 4 minutes as I began to write this.   Today is Saturday and plenty is on my mind, but several times today I took a break to just look out my window.   What a nice site.   My patio overlooks the courtyard in my apartment complex.   There are plants everywhere, and trees, grass, some natural wood landscaping.   A pleasant site.   It relaxes me.   The adjacent neighborhood is pretty cool too.   This is a very walkable neighborhood.   I try to walk everywhere, to the grocery store, my wine hangoug, restaurants, my guitar lesson, the farmer’s market.   I say try because since my MS diagnosis, y wlaking has been somewhat limited, compered to just two years ago. ...

Spending time outside in nature is calming and therapeutic. There is scientific backing for that assertion. Of course we didn't need scientists to verify what our moms and dads already knew. Boomers, you know what I'm talking about. "Go outside and play."  Sunshine and fresh air all lead to physical activity. Playing outside was generally healthy for the body and recent scientific studies point out that the great outdoors is good for mental health too. A random collection of reasons why green is better than screen: Cognitive improvements, a  sense of wonder, deeper understanding of planet earth. Creative exploration. Psychological benefits for children related to unstructured play.   Learning. Burning off excess energy and increasing mental activity with activities like hiking, riding, fishing and gardening. Being outdoors increases concentration. There are mental and physical positives related from fresh air. Vitamin D. Here's one I like: Spendin...

Numerical narrative: 1776, 2016, 4th of July, youngest person at the party: 2, birthday boy: 81, oldest 84, number at the party: 25, give or take, number of people whose names I didn't know or couldn't remember: 12, give or take. Blowing bubbles, chasing bubbles ... and that's just the adults. Wine was involved. Screaming kids. A few short political comments and reactions to Fox News Channel. Quiet commentary, maybe because they know I'm the only registered Democrat in the room and they didn't want to offend me. Or maybe they were just being quiet at that moment and it had nothing to do with me. More screaming kids. They're playing and having fun. But they're screaming. Tattoos. Pizza last night instead of leftovers. Nobody remembers why we ordered pizza at 9 and ate it at 10. Maybe wine was involved there too. Daddy, I'm going to miss you. Don't go. I'm just going for a day to pack the house. No I mean don't go to Afg...