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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

CANCER STORIES: FEEDING PUBLIC FEAR AND PRIVATE WOE

Things you’ll never know until you get cancer, any cancer:   You’ll either be an object of sympathy, or an antenna of sympathy. Or both.   “Keep up the fight,” or, “You’re a fighter,” or “You look like you’ve got this thing whipped.”   That’s what I heard after running Hood To Coast at 49 […]

TRAUMA NATION AMERICA IN 10 POINTS

Is America The Leader In The Race To The Top Of Trauma? 10 Reasons For Yes On Trauma Nation America. Recent research shows DNA passes down trauma markers from parents to kids. That means if a father suffers a traumatic event his DNA adapts and gets installed in his children. It could be a good […]

EMOTIONAL FITNESS: AS THE BARBELLE TURNS

Does a gym help emotional fitness? The gym rat with the gallon jug, pill pack, and headband, don’t workout for emotional fitness . The only way they’d focus on emotional fitness is if they could see it in a mirror with a pulsating vein. Gym regret is a sign of good gym emotional fitness, like: […]

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boomer years

BOOMER FAMILY AND PAT CONROY

If The Great Santini Couldn’t Break His Family, What Broke Your Boomer Family? The author Pat Conroy, one year older than the first baby boomer, had a traumatic childhood by most accounts. He’s a good boomer spokesman for the voiceless masses who wonder why things go wrong. Call him a senior boomer. He mined his […]

The Car, The War

What’s the difference between a mobile society and a mobile war? You find out when the warriors hang up their guns. It’s how they drive down their familiar town road after trailing an IED blast in Iraq. Drive faster? Slower? Don’t drive?

A MILLENNIAL EAGLE IN THE SKY

Score For Boomer Music…Again. Wednesday night the Eagles played the Moda Center at the Rose Quarter in Portland, Oregon. Rock Royalty came to town to play the hits from a long career, but they are a different breed than most royals. First off, they’re not English, so they could care less about royalty. The Rolling […]

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buckle up

BOOMERPDX ON THE ROAD TRAVEL ADVICE

How To Find Places To Stay On The Road. If two people travel together, one is planner. They’ve got the calendar, the days, the stops, and how long you’ll be in each place. Two planners are a problem. With two planners it won’t be a trip, it’ll be a hostage negotiation where one or both […]

Boomer Hits The Road

10 States With The Lowest Overhead According To money.msn.com. Baby Boomers love a good deal. We’ve perfected phrases like, “What do you need to get for that?” It’s embarrassing to others when we go into bargain mode at the Safeway check-out, not so much at a flea market. If everything has a price, then so do […]

TWO MARRIED GUYS MAP DATE LIFE

What else would two married guys do? The beauty of public transportation comes with the people you meet. Two old men waited at a Portland bus stop. Late afternoon drizzle fell on the city through fading light. The sun made little effort to split the clouds over the Willamette River. Man 1: It felt like […]

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