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GENTLE SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD TIMES

December 28, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Who doesn’t make gentle suggestions? Call it good manners if you know the difference between a request and an order. ‘Would you please help me?’ instead of, ‘Get over here and make yourself useful.’ This happened recently:

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: American President, anguish, Baby Boomer blogger, berlin, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, Cold War, control, current times, Eastern Europe, education, family, follow through, gentle suggestions, good manners, history, iron curtain, john kennedy, life in order, Love, manners, MARRIAGE, misunderstood, politics, request, revolution, Russia, sensitive, sex, Soviet Union, stalin, story, suggestions, travel, wife, writer, writers, writing

BE DIFFERENT, BUT HOW DIFFERENT

December 24, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Be different, be better, be something. Just not the old coot where every day is the ol’ same ol’. It’s not the same, day after day, and neither are you no matter how you try. Why not be stable and dependable? That’s different enough.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: agreeable, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, be dependable, be different, be stable, behavior, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, different, Divorce, drifter, family, fitness, gut, gut feeling, history, leeway, loyalty, normal, normal behavior, silver anniversary, unconcerned, wife, writer, writers, writing

DREAM YOUR DREAM TODAY

December 20, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Write about your dream? Let’s Go.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, dream, dreams, education, family, Love, writer, writing, your dream

UNCHECKED SPEECH, GUARDED WORDS

December 18, 2025 by David Gillaspie

If you’ve heard unchecked speech, then you know guarded words when someone says them. One might be a raving crack-head angling for another piece of the rock. The other might be a priest in a confessional. Each has their place, sometimes more than one place. There’s only one problem: If they switch back and forth […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, art museum, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, blog, blog post, blogger, boomerpdx, booze, despair, drinking, drunk, education, family, family tree, guarded words, history, history museum, homeless, I love you, learning, Love, married, MOVING ON, old guy, old man, Oregon, speech, story, street people, unchecked speech, weight of loss, writer, writers, writing

EMPATHY HAPPENS, EVENTUALLY

December 15, 2025 by David Gillaspie

The man in the tap house said, “Empathy happens,” and he reminded me of how important it is to stop in for a beer when the occasion calls. I’ve known him for years, just not the way my wife knows people. She’s knows people like no one I know, so she asks questions that she […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, Baby Boomer blogger, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, citizenship, education, empathy, empathy happens, family, good person, history, leadership, learning, Maslow's hierarchy, needs, Oregon Ducks, safety needs, writer, writers, writing

MAKING CHANGE, EXACT CHANGE

December 12, 2025 by David Gillaspie

With regular money transactions heading toward ‘tap and go’, the people making change, giving exact change, are growing more rare. You’ll find them at the drive through window, picking through coins for just the right combination. “Here’s four quarters instead of a dollar,” they say. Or, “$6.50 for my grande latte half-caff with oat milk? […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, baby boomer, Baby Boomers, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, drive through, education, exact change, family, GUITAR, husband, learning, making change, MARRIAGE, mcdonalds, music, Oregon, patience, patient, Starbucks, story, time, wife, writer, writers, writing

GREAT WRITING: WHEN WORDS MATTER MORE

December 6, 2025 by David Gillaspie

From Google AI on current sentence construction: Basic Structure: Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) Subject: Who/what the sentence is about (e.g., Matt). Verb: The action or state of being (e.g., eats). Object: Receives the action (e.g., pizza). Example: “Matt eats pizza.”

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Baby Boomer blogger, books, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, Death, education, family, fitness, GenX, genZ, great writing, history, inspiration, learning, married, matter, millennials, music, North Bend, Oregon, Portland, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, Portland Oregon, reading, sentence, sentence structure, story, structure, travel, words, words matter, writer, writers, writing, writing books

YOU GOT BENCHED. THEN WHAT?

November 28, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Your favorite fading sports star got benched. It happens sooner or later. They couldn’t play up to standards anymore. It’s worse when it happens to a promising star with everything in front of them. The pressure got to them, they got hurt, and lost their way. It happens to everyone eventually. We all get benched. […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, blog, blogger, boomerpdx, education, experience, family, good morale, high morale, learning, Love, MARRIAGE, married, millennials, morale, paying attention, universal truths, unlimited possibilities, value education, wishful thinking, writer, writing

MY COUNTRY TIS OF THEE

November 26, 2025 by David Gillaspie

My participation in the civic life of my country is pretty minimal. I do my part. That’s me and Abe doing our part together. He does his oversight from his seat, me from mine. Only one of us writes about it.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, civic life, Constitution, education, elections, family, good luck, hopes and dreams, learning, married, millennials, my country, North Bend, Oregon, senate, story, travel, virus, White House, writer, writers, writing

GOOD TEAMMATE? BE ONE FOR THE TEAM

November 25, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Either you are a good teammate, you’ve been a good teammate, or get out of here. That’s me in the dark Oregon hat in back. We’re on the breach in Seaside after Hood to Coast. It felt more like a deathbed after a short illness. But I’m not complaining, didn’t complain then, don’t complain now, […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Baby Boomer blogger, blog, blogger, connections, culture, education, family, fitness, good teammate, history, millennials, North Bend, Oregon, outgoing, relationships, reserved, school, socially shy, story, team, teammate, travel, work, writer, writers, writing