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VISIT GRANDMA FOR LESSONS SOONER THAN LATER

My Visit Grandma story is about the first woman elected to the Bend City Council in 1964. My Grandma. I was twelve and she was something. My grandparents were church people who abided by Presbyterian rules. They took it very seriously. As church people do, they made it a big part of their local reputation, […]

PORTLAND OREGON FROM THE THIRD FLOOR

City lights in Portland Oregon brighten before sunrise, one window at a time, floor by floor, until an entire wall reveals the secret shadows behind steel and glass. Every city feels anonymous in the beginning. Tall buildings full of strangers become familiar in time. After that, it’s your town. A clear orange sky promises fall colors painted […]

HOW SECOND BORN KIDS MAKE THEIR MARK

Being a second born myself, I know how to make a mark. Call it a mark, a scar, it’s something to be remembered by. I’m sure it’s different with girls, and the mix of brothers and sisters, but my mix was all boys for the first fourteen years. The first, then fourteen months later the […]

GROWING OLDER WITH A SECOND EMOTION

No one cures aging; growing older is not a disease. Instead of seeing it as a problem to challenge your mental health, flip the idea of growing older into an opportunity: You are older today than you’ve ever been. What makes it different than yesterday? A week older, a month older, a year older? What […]

EXERCISE BOUNDARY UPDATE, GYM RAT 2020

Gym rat identity is based on an exercise boundary. It’s a balancing act between too little and too much, too often and not enough. Where you set the exercise boundary is based on what you see in the mirror when you take a good look. Like what you see? Don’t like what you see? Or, […]

BURIED STORIES, EXPRESSIONS OF HOPE

News hounds dig for the buried stories that explain everything. Sometimes it works better than others. They find diamonds in the rough, clean them up, and exhibit them. Where’s that buried story dog in Oregon? Asking for readers from the Top Ten states on boomerpdx overnight: Oregon, California, Washington, followed by Texas, New York, Florida, […]

INFORMATIONAL BLOG REVIEW, PANDEMIC VERSION

An informational blog does one thing best: it informs. But you know that. From a professional blogging point of view, the information on a blog needs to stay on topic. This blog, boomerpdx, sounds like a Baby Boomer blog, and it is. But like the now second biggest demographic in America, thanks millennials, the sky […]

MARATHON LIFE RULE: START STRONG AND FINISH

I lived the marathon life rule in my twenties. At twenty-nine I took the plunge in Seaside. The image is at the start of the race. No, I’m not a giant, but maybe in this crowd. One does not simply ‘run’ a marathon without consequences, not if you plan on a one and done event, […]

GYM ELECTIONS: WHY I MISS THE OLD MAN WHISPERING GROUP

Even if there’s no such thing as Gym Elections, you’d never know it. A focus group used to gather regularly, lean in, and talk the talk. Fun guys, conservative learning republicans, working out their latest take on overnight news. A retired teacher, a retired doctor, and a current fire breather, were staples, though they had […]