Boomer Randomness

Valentine’s Day is an interesting day to be on my own again and a predictable day for there to be television specials about romance and dating. A report about online dating got my attention.   This report didn’t have any definitive conclusion but it did point out some obvious flaws in the idea that a computer can match people.   They even interviewed human matchmakers for comparison. I’ve been thinking about dating a lot lately but I am in no hurry to dive in.   Honestly, I’m not really ready for that yet.   If it happens, great; but I just ended an eighteen year relationship and it wouldn’t be fair to jump right into another one.   It is still on my mind though. Much as I hate to admit it, I am over 50; if you’re a regular reader you already know that about me.   Last month I signed up for Our Time,  the most highly advertised over-50 dating site, just to see who is on it.   It’s free till you decide to actually contact someone so ...

I have to use three different kinds of eye drops four times a day each as part of post-cataract surgery.   Sometimes my reflexes cause my eye to close right as the drop gets there.   Sometimes I miss entirely.   I hope I’m doing it correctly. I am meeting friends for drinks in my new neighborhood tonight, my first social venture since moving here in December.   I wonder if that woman I met at the grocery a few weeks ago hangs out where I am going.   Hmmm. A broken clock keeps perfect time twice a day. It’s sunny and 37 where I am right now and there is no snow on the ground.   A few hours north of here it is colder and two to three feet of snow is on the ground. I can’t lean over or do anything strenuous for another week … doctor’s orders.   That means I can’t really finish emptying the messy mountain of moving boxes stacked right behind where I am sitting right now.   Fortunately the rest of the apartment is clean and strai...

One reason I love country music is that there is a song for every emotion.   I am especially drawn to songs of hope with lyrics that present a positive solution to a real life negative problem.   This song a great example.   It also happens to be a huge radio hit right now.   And even though Gary Allen didn’t write the song, he is the perfect singer for it because he has been there himself.   The title is cool too: Every Storm Runs Out Of Rain.

Like many boomers who grew up during the early days of human space flight in the 60s and 70s, I am a bit of a space geek.   While channel surfing during my ‘take it easy because you just had eye surgery’ day home I discovered the Science Channel and a whole series of programs about future human flights to Mars.   There is actually a lot of research going on right now in preparation for extended extraterrestrial travel in search of life on other worlds and I am fascinated by some of the detailed planning required to take such a journey. The lag time in voice communication, for example, is only seconds for a lunar trip, so people on those missions remain connected to the home planet in a way similar to travelling from America to Australia … distant but attached.   The communication delay to Mars is seven minutes in each direction.   You know that lag time you see on network television when the anchor in New York asks the reporter in London a question and it ...

Most people who do what I did today are much older than I am.   My Mother did it in her late 70s, for example.   And the technology is much more advanced now than it was then.   My visit to that facility lasted just over two hours but the actual ‘thing’ only took about fifteen minutes.   Today I had my second cataract surgery. It is my understanding that most adults eventually have some kind of cataract issue and I have known since my 40s that this was coming.   Basically the lens in the eye becomes cloudy and hard.   This condition usually develops over some years and the determining factor leading to deciding on surgery is when the cataracts start to affect quality of life.   Cataracts were developing in both of my eyes for a long time and I reached that ‘qualify of life’ point more than a year ago.     I had the first surgery done last year and had this one done today.   Typical surgery removes the lens and replaces it ...