RobZerrvations
Musings from a Meandering, Mischievous Mind
All Growd Up.
The last of my children is about to become a man. Well, kinda sorta. While he will be turning 18 in May, as all us old farts know that doesn't make you a man or an adult. It's simply another baby step into adulthood, steps we keep taking the rest of our lives. In my own RobZerrvations, I seem to think the current generation wants to grow up far faster than we did. We were pretty happy living at home with our parents. In my case, my mom still made dinner for me and even did my laundry, largely...
Food For Thought.
I have lots of opinions. I know. Big surprise! Many of them are shared right here, in RobZerrvations. Others are far more personal, and yet, far more plentiful. It's about ordinary, day-to-day stuff mostly, about raising children, updating the house, surviving our workaday world. As I said, pretty mundane stuff and not much to write home about, or at least to write about here. But I learned yesterday that some of this stuff is actually quite useful, at least to Kat. She is the...
The Money Pit.
I should have never watched the movie, The Money Pit again. The first time I watched it, I had purchased my first house, which wasn't really a money pit, in part because it was well maintained before I bought it and in part because I wasn't there very long. As we all know, my house buying history has been iffy at best. Two at bats, two strike outs before this one. I have great faith that I am in this one for the long term, but still, I can't get The Money Pit out of my mind. If you haven't...
Liar. Liar.
This year's election circus has taught me something. No, this isn't some diatribe about the Republicans or the Democrats. Rather, it's about lying and our increasing acceptance of it. As you've probably noticed in the presidential elections this year, there's a lot of lying going on right now. Some candidates have a tad more truthiness than others. But it's looking more and more like you can't get to this level of power without becoming something of a liar, if not an all out pathological liar....
A Discriminating Taste.
The alarming rise of open hatred in this country, especially hatred wrapped in a red, white and blue bunting, is something we should all question. Yes, there's a large part of America that wants to be all white. They are even afraid of their own shadows because they seem unsettling dark. They want to vilify those who are even the slightest bit different than them, preferring to view the United States as a Baskin & Robbins where only 31 flavors of vanilla is served. Nope, not even French...
Home Sweet, Um…
I am no longer stuck between a rock and a hard place. The rental is just a fond memory as a bunch of exchange students move into it, and most of the boxes in our new home have been emptied and added to the mountainous recycling pile in the garage. It's funny how the big green house already feels like home. Even friends who have visited us over the last two weeks have mentioned this. The house, long forgotten, long unloved, seems to have responded to our presence, giving us a cozy place to...
Pop Nonsense.
As a writer, I try to stay dialed into pop culture. It keeps the writing relevant, being able to reference a popular song or a hit movie when the task requires it. This has never been a difficult undertaking for me, at least historically. But more and more, I seem to be more and more out of touch. I used to wonder how people could do this, lose touch. I remember asking my mom why she didn't know who so-and-so was during the 1990s. She would just shrug her shoulders and say, "I guess I'm...
A Fixer Upper.
Things apparently went well this week. Kat and I are homeowners. Well, that's what people like to call it. In truth, we will join the millions of Americans who willingly go in debt to own a piece of dirt topped off with some sticks. It's been that way since the beginning, I guess. I'm sure at some point an enterprising cave man or woman noticed that people were living in caves for free around town and decided they should be bought and sold instead. The dawn of real estate. It's not that...
I Am Your Father’s Hook.
Life is such a seesaw at times. Just when you think you get things figured out - BAM! - your ass smashes to the ground. It's not that some mean little girl jumped off it when she was at the bottom. While I used to think life worked that way, you come to find out that, well, there's never a mean little girl on the other end of the seesaw. It's just life, getting its kicks, making you think that everything is going swimmingly, then BAM! - you bottom out. Before anyone thinks my relationship is...
You Can Count On It.
I've been bothered as of late. It seems that the next generations coming through the pipeline don't seem to understand the concept of accountability. I can safely say my generation learned the lesson well. It was often pounded into our thick skulls by our parents when we were late from a date or were somewhere we weren't supposed to be and they found out, using their sixth-parental sense. I certainly understood the laws of cause and effect. One time I learned it the hard way, mouthing off to...
The Fickle Finger of Friends.
When I was young, I didn't have many friends. In elementary school, it was Bob Core and Mike Culver. In middle school, pretty much Bob Core and Bob Cochran. In high school, Tim Davidson, Scott McComas and Wally Hazen on the male side; Jeany Hahn, Michelle Ritchie, Cheryl Haglund and Chris Koura on the female side. I had lots of acquaintances though. You probably have them too, the ones who you think could be your friends but you just never made that odd transition. In adulthood, the same has...
House It Going?
I have never bought a new car. Yes, I have "owned" a new car once, but I didn't buy it. I wasn't even really consulted about it. It just showed up one day. The same could be said of the two houses I "owned." The first one really was a nice house, but I didn't pick it. I think it was the big hot tub and tiki bar in the backyard that swayed heads, even though I was adamant that I wanted the Brady Bunch House, the one with the family room. I knew deep down that with a young boy, the living room...