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ARMY ENLISTMENT? HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Me: Today is my Army enlistment anniversary. Did you remember.
Wife: It’s also the day my Mom died.
Me: It is? I mean, yes, it is, and also my anniversary.
Wife: I’m glad you remember it.
Me: And there’s another thing to celebrate on the same date.
Wife: What?
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BOOMER BLOGGERS UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL. TOO CLOSE?

As a cohort of boomer bloggers, I read all about them.
From posts and opinions, to ABOUT pages, we’re all about challenges and adventures, the places we’ve been, places we’re going.
Take this picture for example. It’s from the Portland Art Museum page.
Does that big golden ring look like an adventure, some kind of portal? Yes?
What do you do when you see a portal? Jump in.

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WANTED MAN vs NEEDED. THERE’S A DIFFERENCE?

If you’re waiting for a wanted man to make life better, you’ll be waiting a minute.
This man was a one-float parade around Silverton during my last visit.
You could hear him from blocks away with his booming sound system blasting AC/DC.
When I left, he followed my car out of town, then turned back at the city limits.
He was either a one float parade or a motor escort service.
Either way, I asked myself: Are there town characters everywhere?
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ONE PORTLAND JOURNEY: MINE

I got off the bus at the end of my Portland journey, only to begin the real deal.
This is where I lived after breaking up.
My usual move after a break up was moving to bigger and better.
For instance, I broke up in Delaware and moved to Brooklyn, NY.
Here, I broke up in far SE and moved downtown Portland.
This building had a lot of break up apartments, so I was in good company.
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CLASSIC PORTLAND RIVALRY

Social media Portland isn’t for the weak of heart.
It’s either heaven on earth, or a hell hole from the underworld sticky goo.
If you showed up recently, things are looking better; if you’ve been here a minute you’ve seen the ups and downs.
Lastly, if you’ve lived here your whole life? Uh oh.
[Read More…]

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toughen up

NORMAL TO NEW NORMAL A SHORTER WALK

    Exercise geeks always have something wrong. Not the biggest complainers in any room I’m in, but it’s always something. Why? Because small nagging aches and pains are proof of a finely tuned machine.   Like a racehorse where every muscle glistens down the backstretch. Or a fastball pitcher, guys who look like their […]

GUN TALK THE WRONG WAY … AGAIN

Raw Story posted a gun column about white men and guns. It was the sort of gun talk white men with guns shouldn’t identify with. “White men stockpile guns because they’re scared of black people and feel inadequate, science says.” That’s the rawstory title. It’s raw, but even more, it’s lazy, but a site called […]

PRE-EXISTING CONDITION AFTER CANCER DIAGNOSIS

The day a cancer diagnosis becomes a pre-existing condition   Like we learn everyday when things change, everybody is different. What you do after a cancer diagnosis isn’t the same as someone else. They might go along their way as if hearing a bee buzzing nearby. Shoo, cancer/bee. Or they might fall down on their […]

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boomer years

THE BOOMER END OF THE SPEEDO CHALLENGE

    Any challenge but the Speedo Challenge?   Even without a dashing, single-ski dock start, or the dive team Speedo, the man carried a lethal air. He looked like he could fight death and fear, and win. It made him an icon. Leaping off a houseboat deck rail into thin air with one foot […]

ART WALK OF SE PORTLAND, AESTHETICS AND SWEAT

It’s The Art Walk Of Portland, Not Breaking And Entering. Art As Beauty. My art guru suggested a Saturday art walk. I had a week to think about it, but said yes right away. Art and walk both sound like a good time. Art Walk? Twice the fun. Ceramics, paintings, and all inside houses you’d […]

WHO GETS FOOLED AGAIN? WHO? WHO?

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Baby boomers grew up with The Man. It wasn’t daddy, but daddy knew The Man. Sometimes daddy was on The Man reserve. Who is The Man? It’s the police Man. We saw him at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The Man swung a hard […]

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buckle up

POLICE STOP TRAFFIC TICKET SAFETY DRILL

A traffic officer pulled me over coming down the ramp to the straight stretch to the Portland (PDX) airport. Of course I didn’t think it was fair, just an opportunistic wrong place, wrong time deal. And I was ten mph over the limit. In the van were my two kids, wife, and a French exchange student late […]

TURNING PORTLAND INTO A STOP ON THE WAY TO SEATTLE

Turning Portland skyline The First Interstate Tower and Big Pink set a future that didn’t happen. Concerned citizens got a break before turning Portland into mini-Seattle One tall building was enough, or so the thought went, but two is better? Because they’re bookends instead of standing side by side, the space between them look as […]

PORTLAND PLANNING VIEW FROM SOUTH WATERFRONT

    Does the top pic look anything like a Portland planning Christmas card? Stacked apartments dot the SW Portland landscape like a vision of Chicago from the Sears Tower.   That’s not the welcome mat Portland planning rolls out for new pioneers. Where’s that world famous food cart court next to a tap room? […]

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