RobZerrvations
Musings from a Meandering, Mischievous Mind
The Me-nited States.
As I grow older in this land, I become both increasingly bemused and fearful of our new-found mindset. When I was young, it was all about what was good for us as a nation, our personal desires and even individual rights took a back seat to the good of the whole at times. It's really the way our nation was formed. Our founding fathers put aside their own wants and needs in putting together the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. These brave souls who formed a new nation came...
Ahahaha!
I have been blessed with a terrific sense of humor. I only know this because even after years of classic mishaps, boneheaded misadventures and downright disasters, I can still laugh about it all. I have never really been sure where this sense of humor came from. I don't remember being innately funny as a child. Sure, I said some funny things, such as asking my dad which kind of salt I would turn into if I turned around in church: Morton's or Leslie's. But as far as being a wise guy, hardly....
Hater!
There's a lot of hate in the world today. Though we have worked and worked to become better educated and, in the process, better human beings, we continue to take two giant steps backward for every step forward we seem to take as a society. Case in point. I was watching a small snippet of Donald Trump's town hall meeting and heard someone – someone I assume is a voter – ask when we're going to get rid of all the Muslims because they are building training camps to attack us right here on our...
Riding The Stage Coach.
I can be hypercritical of many writer's work. I guess that's what happens when you write for a living. You put your work out there for others to critique, and you critique the work of others in return. I recently read Mark Manson's Four Stages of Life and I must say it was terrific. It crystalized a lot of things for me; things I am feeling now; things I've felt over my lifetime. It was something of an eye opener, really. Not quite a barn burner, but it did help me understand that there's...
I’ll Go With Creative for 500, Alex.
For most of my life, I've tried to find a moniker for me that would admirably serve as my "type." You know the kind of types I'm talking about, a single descriptor like outdoorsy, an egghead, a worthless drunk. A few years ago, people decided that I was a geek. I slowly warmed to the suggestion and stopped fighting it. But still, it really didn't describe me fully, in part because I know what a real geek is. You see, my brother Jon used to use the term in the 1970s, long before it took on its...
All The Pretty Horses.
It's pretty well established that I don't like things that go up and down or round and round. Rollercoasters: tried them, don't like them. Too much like life. That said, I can be talked into going on one occasionally, but I won't go on any high-tech coaster. Life is filled with enough adrenaline; I don't need any more and quite frankly, it doesn't give me a high anyway. Nope, I will still go on wooden rollercoasters from time to time. I will finally indulge my friends on the 20th request to...
Ready, Set, Race.
I was enjoying a sunny day at University Village this past weekend. I hadn't been there in a long time, and it's something Kat and I like to do spur of the moment - go someplace new. It was a grand time, and an interesting one, too. The place was packed with shoppers and college students, this being the closest shopping mall to the University of Washington. As such, there is an eclectic mix of people there, from the young at heart to the just plain young. Kat had to make a quick trip into...
Blowin’ In The Wind.
The weekend really blew by. Literally. As I write this, the wind is still blustering outside; the lingering remnants of a historic storm that came through on Saturday. Storms are hardly unfamiliar or unknown here. We get them regularly in the late fall and winter. They are very much like the hurricanes I went through in Florida. Lots of wind. Lots of rain. Ours don't rotate, but that's about the only difference between a Cat 2 or 3 hurricane in the Sunshine State and one of our winter storms....
I’ve Been There, My Friend.
I find myself these days, posting a lot of encouraging words to friends who are going through rough times. Though it seems like I live a charmed life these days, it wasn't always so and I want my friends to know that even during the darkest days, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. True, it may be a fairly long tunnel. It was for me in 2009. There was a point that year when I seriously thought about killing myself, with a shot to the head from my pirate doglock. I was in Florida at...
That Damned Hooker!
This is one of the rare times in life where the universe steps up and bitch slaps people. For the longest time, I have preached that it's far better to get an education when it's "free" than pay for it down the road in a sad version of the movie Groundhog's Day when you have to do everything over again. I was lucky. I paid attention to my education. I worked hard in school, nailed a 3.67 GPA and went to college in a time when a full load, 15 credits was just $83 a quarter, not including books....
I’ll Take the Elevator.
I work in a skyscraper. It's a nice one, too. It's built on a solid foundation, but has some unfortunate and unrepairable flaws. It's also under construction and I'm not sure when it will ever be complete. No, I'm not secretly working in the new Amazon headquarters taking shape next to me. In fact, I'm not even talking about that kind of skyscraper. Instead, I'm talking about the one I live in, the one I call my life. It's been built block by block over the years. Some of the craftsmanship has...
Ampersand Man.
Have you ever noticed that it’s always Batman & Robin, never Robin & Batman? In life, there always seems to be a need for a top banana in an act, the one who comes before the ampersand. And then there’s that fellow who is on the south side of the ampersand, the one I like to call Ampersand Man. It sounds kind of super heroish, doesn’t it? Ampersand Man. But as we all know, it’s hardly super being Ampersand Man, always serving as the sidekick or the second fiddle in the duo. Sure,...