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TAKING PART IN FAMILY LIFE

Family life takes time. Ask the Baldwins with their seven kids.
Keep that in mind, you youngsters, when you decide it’s time to join in.
Join the club, the family club, sooner than later.
Why?
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THE TRUTH, GETTING A HANDLE

Getting a handle on the truth shouldn’t be a big hurdle to clear.
All it takes is a little self-awareness.
The truth is your friend if you’re not too sketchy.
Will it set you free? Well . . .
It depends on the sort of shackles your used to.
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‘DOING RESEARCH’ AND OTHER EXCUSES

What counts as doing research?
For writers it’s an easy answer: Everything is research.
And because everything is research, the trick is finding what matters more.
Is it writing about where you are, how you feel, the people you’re with?
The correct answer? All of the above.
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TWO STORIES + ONE MAN = GREAT LITERATURE? OK LEO

Where does great literature come from?
From more than two stories, but first about ‘that man.’
The great literature man.
Where does he come from?
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GRACE AND DIGNITY FOR AGING MILLENNIALS

I became my ‘brother’s keeper’ through misjudgment, and it wasn’t my brother but my father in-law.
Same idea, though. I think it’s the same idea.
And it was misjudgment, not a mistake.
What happened?
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toughen up

GET A LIFE, THEY SAY. WHAT DO YOU SAY AFTER THAT?

“Get a life” isn’t the worst thing you’ll ever hear. Don’t make it worse. Get a life translation: What ever you’re doing is either wrong time, wrong place, or just plain wrong. Get and new life and make better decisions? Is that the idea? Before you transform yourself into someone you don’t know, don’t want […]

GYM RAT CONFESSIONS: FEAR DRIVEN EXERCISE

    Every fitness center, every last one, from 24Hour, to LA Fitness, to Curves, has a mayor. They also have city councilmen/women, department heads, and gym rats. The gym mayor checks their constituency. They spot, they talk. They walk from machine to machine. Gym councilmen / women spread an array of weights and surgical […]

AR15 PURCHASE QUESTIONS THAT NEED ASKING

    The Washington Post ran an nice piece about a guy buying his first AR15. He’d wanted one for years and finally the day came.   Money, motivation, and gun show all came together for him.   The WaPo research seems pretty good, even with a tag of fake news thrown around.   The […]

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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 […]

BABY BOOMER RETIREMENT FEARS

Big life and big fears? Or the other way around? Baby boomer retirement fears come in all sizes, like our houses, which we fear. A doctor might say fear that won’t go away is a medical condition. You could get a pill for that. Instead, try and choke your fear down and carry on. What’s […]

MILLENNIALS LIVE WITH PARENTS

Is it a good thing, or failure to launch? Talk to baby boomers and ask when they moved out. You get the same answer most of the time. “Right after high school,” is common. “After college,” is usual. It’s ‘after’ something. After deciding they don’t want any parent telling them what to do? After hearing, […]

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buckle up

VANDERBILT DAYS AT THE OMNI GROVE PARK INN

You don’t need to be a Vanderbilt to fall in love with The Omni Grove Park Inn. If you were a Vanderbilt, or a friend of the Vanderbilts, you’d stay at Biltmore House back in the day. That day began in 1895, and you’d travel with your staff, which included someone to dress you for […]

THE EXPLOSIVE BEAUTY OF THE NW

One Rule: Everything Changes. No, this isn’t the only region with snow on the mountains and this isn’t the only mountain. The Cascade Range pops up like continental acne, fueled by ocean crust diving under the heavier land plates, melting, and voila, volcanos. Capturing the power of geological force is one thing, capturing elemental force […]

PORTLAND 1980: HOW TO SETTLE IN A NEW TOWN

    One song stuck with me on the bus ride from NYC to Portland 1980: The second verse of Lodi, by Creedence Clearwater:   I rode in on the Greyhound I’ll be walkin’ out if I go I was just passin’ through Must be seven seven months or more Ran out of time and […]

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