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BASIC APPRECIATION OF COMMON THINGS

A basic appreciation is important for context.
Things are usually more complicated than they seem.
A brick is a brick, just some fired up mud, until you see them working together.
In the hands of a skilled craftsman, a brick is a jewel.
What else deserves a second look? A towel rack.
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TALKING DOWN TO SOMEONE? WHY

How can you tell when someone is talking down to you?
It might be the clarification questions you ask that gets them annoyed to the point of explaining everything a few times, very slowly.
Or it might their regular way of communicating.
Which leads to more questions, like, “Why be a jerk?
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FALLING LEAVES OF AUTUMN

Falling leaves are the rule of the season.
The only place without a carpet of leaves is a parking garage.
But that’s Oregon, famous for trees.
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toughen up

TREATING CANCER WITH A POLYFACE FARMS MODALITY

Treating cancer like Polyface Farms. The best results save the land and the person. Machiavelli said the end justifies the means. But only if the end shares a happy ending? A happy ending in cancer is a cured patient. I’m not looking for a ‘successful surgery but lost the patient’ deal.

Macular Degeneration in SE Portland

What To Expect When You Visit Oregon Commission For The Blind. I can’t say how I’d respond to the news, but I hope it would be as well as my mother in law Judy’s reaction when she learned she had macular degeneration. But probably not. This woman is the biggest reader I’ve ever known, the […]

MILLENNIAL SELF CARE = SELF RESPONSIBILITY

  You know it’s not pledge week when NPR rags millennials about ‘self-care.’ Instead of pledging money to them, they’ll buy an ‘experience’ instead. Cue Jimi Hendrix? Gracy Obuchowicz says it’s more than just social media that has pushed millennials to the forefront of the self-care discussion. “Our generation has seen enough,” she said. “People […]

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boomer years

COMFORT ZONE AND BIG SNAKES? GET. OUT.

      If you’ve ever seen a snake wrangler in their comfort zone, they probably don’t look like this. There I was in a lovely Santa Monica apartment with nice people in Los Angeles.   They seemed like nice people, then I saw the snake in a cage.   “Do you like snakes?” someone […]

BETTER SELF? IF YOU HAVE A BETTER SELF, WHO WERE YOU BEFORE FINDING OUT?

    Life mysteries usually get solved by our better self, the part we hope others notice because it’s better than the usual.   The mystery solutions usually fall between ‘Wow, I didn’t think I could do that’ and ‘Oops, I thought I could do that.’   One shocking example was Det. Mark Fuhrman during […]

ROSE PARADE PORTLAND OREGON, c. 2018

    If no one wanted to go with me, I was still going. It’s a tradition since 1981. Back then I lived in Northwest Portland. The Rose Parade ended a mile away.   I’d start a run at Lincoln high school and take the parade route all the way back toward the start. Once […]

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buckle up

MILITARY PARADE IN ELEVEN ARMY MEDIC VETERAN STEPS

    1. Join the service and serve the agreed upon time. USMC, USN, USA, USAF, etc.   2. Go to boot camp. If it’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done the rest of your life, you’re not trying hard enough.   3. Go to school and get qualified to do a military job.   […]

GOODBYE PORTLAND IT’S BEEN FUN

If you leave, just say goodbye Portland. That’s all. Portland visitor’s say goodbye Portland when they leave. Maybe they’ll be back, maybe not. Saying goodbye Portland says it all. You came, you saw, you didn’t stay. If you did stay, if you decided Portland was the only place in the world for you, then you […]

Fighting Chuck Palahniuk, And Portland Inertia

    I didn’t have anything to prove by fighting Chuck Palaniuk, but I did with the fight against inertia on a Sunday where the NFL was on TV and Wordstock was happening on the park blocks. It was a good day to do nothing and there was plenty to back up doing it.   […]

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