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TAUGHT IN SCHOOL, LEARNED AT HOME

Where I come from what I learned in school, what I was taught in school, was echoed at home.
What I learned at home made me a better student.
Can I blame my parents that I wasn’t the valedictorian? Or salutatorian?
Or top half of my class? Maybe.
I just asked my wife, “What’s the most important thing you learned in school?”
(Since she’s soon to retire she’ll have time to appear here.)
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DIFFERENT SOLDIERS? HOW DIFFERENT

The men in uniform during WWII were different soldiers, different kind of people.
The Axis powers carried an extreme devotion to duty, an extreme devotion to their emperor, and an extreme devotion to cruelty over helpless victims.
By the way, this isn’t new, not breaking news, but a reminder for short-memoried morons who ought to know better.
All of the extreme devotion of the German and Japanese armies ended with their defeat?
What exactly ended?
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BABY BOOMER CRY TOWEL

Who else needs a cry towel? Everyone.
Who admits it? Not everyone.
The problem is not everyone had a cry towel when it counted.
Like when they were a baby.
You can see it in people who think of kids as just another mouth to feed.
Instead of the biggest thing ever, that baby found themselves born into a convenient file.

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RECLAIMING MY TIME ON SOUTHERN OREGON COLLEGE SIXTY-FIVE YEARS LATER

Southern Oregon College Graduating Class of 1960: My dad.
He transferred after two years at Central Oregon Community College in Bend.
It was a well used path to the first college degree in his family.
He was thirty years old, an old 30.
Back then thirty was older, fifty was a grandparent. Hit sixty and you’re probably dead a few years.
Southern Oregon College changed his life. And, I’d like to say, since davidpdx strives to honor higher education, it changed my life too, although five year old me was still only five years old.
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RETIREMENT GYM GUY IN EVERYONES FUTURE

Meet retirement gym guy, the man who’s been everywhere, done everything, driven every kind of car made, and needs you to know all about it.
They know what you should do, when you should do it, and where.
With emergency warning levels, you’ll learn about their most recent illness, surgery, and recovery.
It could be going better, they say, but it is what it is.
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toughen up

Portland Mole Removal

  How many Portland baby boomers remember when they were pregnant, or their significant others were pregnant?   Didn’t the world seem full of pregnant women?   They were everywhere and you were part of it.   Then you had your baby and you didn’t notice as many pregnant women. Instead you saw a million kids. […]

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 […]

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

YOUR NAME, YOUR TRUTH

In a time not so long ago your name wasn’t good enough. Hard to believe in the land of straight shooters and honor, but John Wayne didn’t start out as John Wayne. Neither did Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis. It was a different time. Benedict Cumberbatch says those days are long gone. Still, there’s something […]

A BOOK NO PARENT SHOULD HAVE TO WRITE

And Every Parent Should Read. Conner Luby died in a car crash. As I wrote that line in the lobby of a hotel near the Arizona State campus a one year old boy turned the corner before his dad showed up. We both smiled and he wobbled along when his father caught up. The dad […]

HOW A BOOMER HEART BREAKS

Which generation has the best broken hearts? Baby boomer heart breaks lead the pack. Remember the first time your boomer heart broke? Something went wrong. Someone said the wrong thing. Was it a mistake, a misunderstanding? Don’t get the shovel and start digging it out. Don’t check your high school year book. If you cut […]

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buckle up

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.

HOW TO INTERACT WITH RAJNEESH CULT MEMBERS ON PORTLAND STREETS

    Most days after work in the 80’s I walked the same way to my NW Portland apartment. The path took me past a place called the Martha Washington on SW 11th. I walked the same way so I could talk to an interesting woman from the museum.   Note to remember: All museum […]

GREEN CORNER OF MIDDLE EASTERN MESA

    “Green Corner is off Southern and Alma School. I’ve been there,” I said, flooring the rental car through the round-about on Bass Pro Drive.   “So you know the way? I should stop looking at the GPS?” she said. “Fast corner.”   I’d been there five months ago with DD. Alma School was […]

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