RobZerrvations
Musings from a Meandering, Mischievous Mind
Thank God We Didn’t Invite You.
Ninety minutes to the north of us is the town of Anacortes. In my youth, I spent several summers there, my aunt and uncle running a hotel in town. They would take me boating in the San Juans and as a kid of 12 and 13, driving a boat was a pretty big adventure. We'd also take the ferry over to Guemes and weekend in a house they rented there. It's the first time I had ever stayed on an island, and it's where I learned how to walk through the tall sea grass at low tide to find Dungeness crabs for...
A Nike With A Helluva Kick.
Being a kid in the 1960s was really wonderful. I kind of feel sorry for the kids today who are growing up in a much different time. Perhaps it feels the same to them, but there isn't as much mystery and awe as there was when I was young. After all, it was the middle of the Space Race, the dawn of the hippie revolution, the Red Scare, an unjust war in Southeast Asia, the beginning of the computer era, and a time when you still ate together at the dinner table and talked about all the amazing...
A Power Trip.
I live in a relatively quiet cul-de-sac in Shoreline these days. I say relatively, because the guy who lives next door loves to talk on his cellphone outside in all weather and all times, blathering on about something or other with seeming great importance. It's a nice place to live, don't get me wrong. Coming from all the way across the country and trying to find a place to live in Seattle again was a hit or miss proposition at best and we really hit the spot right on the head. Still, it's...
We’re All Going To Pot.
Washington is going to be voting on an issue of great importance this November. No, the issue at hand isn't about fixing infrastructure or changing the tax structure. It's about pot. Yes, the state is deciding whether or not it wants to go to pot. While it could be successfully argued it went to pot in the 1960s and continues to do so to this day, voters get to decide to legalize it. To all those potheads out there, we're talking about weed, ganja. Medical marijuana is already legal here, and...
Otis The Hutt.
My very first boss in communications was Annette. I both loved and loathed her at the same time. She was a brilliant writer who thought she could write circles around me. She could at the beginning, but it wasn't long before I was turning circles around her. Perhaps that's what made her so hard on me. Looking back, she was not a nice boss at all. In fact, she's the worst boss I have ever had. No one else comes close. It's not that I made life easy on her. I admit that I was something of a bad...
They All Float Down Here.
I went to the McCleary Bear Festival about a month ago. It's a lovely, small town kind of festival and it's always fun to go to these, largely because it's easy to be a big fish in a small pond. The Janmeister and I met up with some fellow rogues and headed over to the assembly area for the parade. It was there that I had my first real flashback since I've been back in the Northwest. As I looked across the field of gathered floats, I noticed someone who was very familiar - Jud Turner. Jud is...
The Space Cadet.
Having been away from Seattle for a time, I've been trying hard to get into the vibe again. It's good to know that the Seattle Weekly rag is still around, as is The Seattle Times. But new since I left the Emerald City are the two magazines that are dedicated to everything Seattle, well, Washington I guess, since the Seattle Met just spent half an issue covering Mt. Rainier. I was casually thumbing through the latest edition on the bus the other day. Well, thumbing threw is a bit analog in my...
San Francisco, Open Your Wha?
A lot of people who know me think that I have only lived in two places - Washington and Florida. But there was a time when I lived in California, too. I had just started dating Psycho, you know, the Texas Twister. This was back when she was still a fairly normal girl, one who had moved from Texas to San Francisco. She had gotten a new job, one in sales, and had packed it all up and in to go to the city by the bay. No, not San Francisco. San Mateo. I said "by the bay." No one can really afford...
A Salesman’s Best Friend
Many years ago at Green River Community College, I had a sociology teacher who also had a habit of teaching life lessons. Mr. Guinn was a fountain of trivial knowledge that really wasn't all that trivial. For instance, he told the class once that if we ever break a law, break a federal one because the prisons are far nicer than those in any state. In comparison, it would be a life of leisure. I'm still not sure how he knew this, but it still sounds like good advice. There were countless other...
Poverty For President.
Remember the old song, "Where Have All The Flowers Gone? I think it should be updated for our world today. Instead of flowers, it should be dollars, as in: Where have all our dollars gone, long time passing. Where have all our dollars gone, long time ago. Where have all our dollars gone, gone offshore, nearly every one, Oh, when will we ever learn, oh, when will we, ever learn. Yup, all those rich folks, the ones who don't even want to pay what the rest of us pay, have found ways to stash...
The Commonality Of Grief.
Kathi Goertzen died a couple days ago. So did Helen Gurley Brown. Gore Vidal died, too, as did Marvin Hamlisch. Along with Kitty Wells, Sherman Hemsley, Chad Everett, Ernest Borgnine, Andy Griffith, Nora Ephron, Don Grady, and of course, JP Patches. Not just this year. But in the last month. There's no escaping death and unlike any other generation before us, we grieve for those we never may have never met, but they were part of our extended family just the same. We are a mass culture, the...
It’s In The Mail.
When I graduated from college, I was sure that the world would beat a path to my door. Who wouldn't want to hire me for a cushy job in public relations or marketing. I guess they were using a different path back then because I didn't even get my foot in the door. I was fresh out of college, married, a kid on the way, so I was quickly running out of options. I had a folder an inch thick of rejections. And then out of the blue, I got a job, a real job. I guess your first real job is always...