page contents Google

OLD PORTLAND, YOUNG PARENTS

Make that old Portland, youngish parents. Or not so old Portland, and not so young parents. We weren’t teenagers, but if you ever want to feel like one push a stroller around downtown. With two kids it’s like a double punishment, like sent to your room AND missing dinner. What else?

NORTH BEND HEROES START HERE

 Calling North Bend a small town is a disservice to real small towns everywhere. Driving south on 101 and crossing the North Bend Bridge takes you under this sign. If you’re not paying close attention and keep going the same direction, the entire area of the largest metro complex on the Oregon coast feels like […]

THE LEADING AGE, I MEAN LEADING EDGE

The leading age comes after long years of experience, and putting it into practice for the benefit of others. The best blacksmith in town learns to pound steel into the correct form and he teaches others the same skill before his elbow sidelines him. The best woodworker shapes stock into useful pieces and helps others […]

PICK A SIDE AND STAY THERE, OR NOT

What’s the problem when you pick a side? You’re stuck. You talked the talk, walked the walk, then something changed. But you’re stuck. Either stay on the bus as it goes off the bridge, or hit your eject button.

QUIET LIFE STARTER KIT

Does a quiet life begin with keeping quiet? If so, how’s it going? Or does it mean something else? Let’s go with something else:

SITTING DOWN AND SHUTTING UP? OK BOOMER

As we’ve seen over the years, sitting down and shutting up is not a baby boomer characteristic. Never has been. No one has ever called us the Silent Generation, the Quiet Generation, or the Compliant Generation. We’ve been called a lot of things, just not those.

PROMISES MADE IS ONE THING, THEN WHAT

Make a promise, keep it, and you’ve got promises made. It’s that easy, and that hard. It’s a badge of honor, but not a permanent one. Screw up, break your word, and you sink back into the muck with the rest of us losers trying our best to remember what we said we’d do. So […]

BE INSPIRED BY SEEKING INSPIRATION

To be inspired you have to seek it? What about seeing something accidentally, or unexpected, that hits just right? For some it’s a sunset, a beautiful sunset, the most incredible sunset since the night before. Call it inspirational, and you like it because it makes you feel inspired. Then what? Drinks? Take me for example:

NEVER COMPLAIN, NEVER EXPLAIN, UNTIL NOW

I’m not a complainer, I never complain, and it’s a problem. If you don’t complain, then people think you’re perfect and living a perfect life. I don’t know a perfect anyone, let alone them living a perfect life. It’s sure not my life, probably not yours either? But you don’t complain? Thank you. Now it’s […]

FIGURE THINGS OUT BY WRITING THEM DOWN? OKAY BOOMER

Is it true you can figure things out by writing them down, or is there more to it? Who said, “I don’t know what I think until I write it down?” Who? Don’t panic, it was Joan Didion. I know questions make some people nervous. (Me) From National Public Radio: