RobZerrvations
Musings from a Meandering, Mischievous Mind
The End Is Near.
I've been on a fiction kick lately. Well, at least about how life sometimes parallels fiction or vice versa. We eventually even reach "The End" in our life, when we turn the last page and close the book. The End has always been a bit tricky for me. In most cases in our life, The End is pretty finite. You know you've reached it. You accept it as a finality. For instance, in the working world, you know when a job has come to an end. Either you walk into your boss' office and tell him or her to...
Can’t We All Just Get A Lawn?
Looking for a place to live in Seattle isn't that easy. It's not just because the vacancy rate on rentals is impossibly low right now and every rental seems to have multiple bidders, but because it's tough to find just the right place. I admit that giving up our view in Florida was hard. Who wouldn't want to live in such a lovely place. No, I'm not talking about the drop dead gorgeous view of the ocean and Indian River. It was lovely because there was absolutely no maintenance. A condo on the...
A Story Worth Sharing.
In the world of marketing, communication, public relations and the web, the big buzz word these days is "story." What is the story? How do we tell our story? Is there a story to tell? The buzz list goes on and on. Stories are hip these days. I, of course, knew this a long time ago. Stories are what makes the world go round. It's the reason why we go to a movie, read a novel and stay glued to a magazine article. Stories resonate with us. We get them and with good reason. Well, a couple of...
What Might Have Beens.
Facebook is an amazing tool. Sure, it can make you absolutely batty when someone fills it full of minutia and banalities. Let's face it, a lot of life is indeed mundane. At other times, however, it can be a crystal ball, allowing you to look at what your life could have been. I think there are more than few of us who have searched for people from our past. Let's face it, we're curious what happened to the "one that got away," the "one that never could be," or the "one that came too close for...
Busted.
Last Tuesday was a big day for me. I hadn't done anything like it since 1992. Back then, it felt a lot different, mostly because taking a trip back then was a little more hit and miss and I did it all took place downtown and in White Center. When I stopped doing it, it wasn't really a conscious decision. I simply changed my routine. Instead of doing it there I did it in my car instead. Daily. I admit. I was a younger man back then and it didn't matter where I did it. It was fairly inexpensive...
Shh, It’s A Secret, Facebook.
An amazing thing happened last week. Amazing only in that it is so late in coming. It seems that the Associated Press finally apologized to one of its long dead reporters. It only took them 77 years to admit they were wrong. If you didn't see the story, let me recap. Edward Kennedy was a war correspondent in World War II. As the war came to a close, he was one of the privileged few to witness the Germans unconditional surrender in Reims, France. He was about to get the biggest scoop in...
Why Were We Ever “Friends?”
I have always had an odd idea about friends, I guess. I suppose I'm a bit of a Pollyanna about the whole friends thing. And don't get me wrong, I have had some great friends, some who are still my friends all these years later. Maybe they are to blame for how I perceive friendship. We've had our good times and some really bad times. We've enjoyed hours of laughter and years of not speaking, often because the tears were still flowing because of something one of us had said or done. And still,...
I Thought Of It First. No Really!
Throughout my life, I have had a passion for inventing. That's the good news. The bad news is I suck at engineering and manufacturing, so most of my brilliant ideas continue to swim around in my mind and not in the real world. Others have found their way into reality. In a world of "only ifs," I probably could have been wealthy right now. Or at least got credit for something others brought to market. Case in point: Skydiving Tunnels. There's one of these in Orlando and now one in Tukwila, just...
Fiction? My Whole Life Is!
I have a confession to make. While I love to read, I don't read fiction. Over the span of my lifetime, I have perhaps read less than 50 books that were fiction. I managed to make it through The Old Man and the Sea but never could mount an assault on any one of Hemingway's tomes. I read the whole series of Tom Corcoran books about his fictional crime investigating photographer in Key West, but have yet to read a single James Bond thriller (or see a single James Bond movie). I have read Tom...
Third Times Not A Charm – Marriage Encounter III.
I can't really write about my first two marriages and ignore the last one. It was epic in all respects, much like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies that defined the various stages of our relationship. I met Diablo during the release party of Pirates of the Caribbean I in Key West. I probably wouldn't have ever married her, but damn if Pirates of the Caribbean II wasn't released in July 2006. So there wasn't another option, except leaving her marooned mid swoon and heading back west. As we...
The River Of No Return.
I don't like rivers much. Not because one of them drowned my brother, mind you. Rather, it's because I've been sold down a few of them over the years. O.K., so I don't like being sold down the river. It's not fun. I don't think there's really a worse feeling on earth to have someone you trust completely sell you out. The first time happened oh so many years ago. I had started a non-profit group along with my pirate mates Waterrat and Black Bart. We spent an entire summer dreaming up a new...
The South Won’t Rise Again.
My son lives in Manassas, Virginia. If you don't know its place in history, it was where the Battle of Bull Run was fought between the North and the South. It was the first battle of the Civil War. The South won that battle and if they hadn't have been partying it up afterwards, they could have easily marched right onto Washington D.C. and it would have been game over. If they had crossed the river that day, we would all be having a hankering for Moon Pies, moonshine and pecan pie. I liken my...