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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

SNAP, CRACKLE, POP: WAKING UP OLD AND MOBILE

Fight waking up old by not moving? Oh those magic moment between sleep and awake. You could be any age at any place and be a vital force. So you don’t move to enjoy the moment as long as it lasts. Then you swing out of bed. Your back cracks. Take a step and your […]

BABY BOOMER DEATH MARCH

What Happens When That Music Starts? From the Washington Post: “In January, the CDC reported that an average of six people die every day because of alcohol poisoning and that 76 percent are ages 35 to 64. Three-quarters are men.” That party bus of life shifted gears when we weren’t looking. The baby boomer mantra […]

PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS, pt2: FAMILY TRAUMA

Illness defines family trauma over time and it’s exhausting. Remember the movie Ordinary People? The family dynamic wasn’t defined by illness, but death of a child. It didn’t go well for the emotional state of all. There’s was a sudden adjustment with a lifetime effect. Living with a pre-existing condition, or around others with pre-existing […]

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boomer years

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 […]

SHOOTING GUNS IN THE BOOMER ARMY OF 1974

The all volunteer Army was still new in the mid-70’s. No one opened a draft notice anymore, no life changing letters came in the mail. At least not that letter. In those days the Army was run by baby boomers straight out of Vietnam. Every Drill Sergeant had a story to make your toes curl and […]

CLAM DIGGERS, CLAM DIGGING, CARRYING A CLAM BUCKET

Life according to clam diggers.   Thoughts of childhood should come with warnings. If it’s one happy, golden moment, after another, it’s not a memory. It’s a Hallmark Card of childhood. Real memories include trying time, leaning time, and what to never do again time. Did you have friends or relatives who owned land and […]

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buckle up

PORTLAND SUCKS? TELL US MORE ABOUT THOSE FEELINGS

Say Portland sucks and you might be right, but why ruin it for the rest of us.   If Portland sucks for you, that may be just the tip of your iceberg. Blame the city for what? Your attitude, your entitlement, your butt-hurt life? Why not? You don’t know what you want and it bugs […]

DEPORTED IN PORTLAND: MEDICAL TOURISM VIA TIGARD AND BEAVERTON

If you need to be tough, but are a secret wussy man, bring the right back up. I brought Jason Witten to get deported in Portland. Not too many tougher than that. Together we deported in Portland; both of us on just this side of crazy celebration, yet calm.

BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAIN HUG FROM GROVE PARK INN

Or, How the Grove Park Inn cures your ills without pills. The Omni Grove Park Inn, GPI, comes packed with the sort of history that ties people to places through material anthropology. And it’s a clever knot. With an original main lodge dating from 1913 flanked by wings added in the ’80’s, the property sits […]

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