RobZerrvations
Musings from a Meandering, Mischievous Mind
I’ll Have The Belgium Waffle.
When my daughter was 16, I let her go to Belgium. Looking back, I'm not quite sure why I did that. But it seemed like a great opportunity for her at the time and hey, who am I to stand in the way of adventure? But now that my son has just turned 13 and can't seem to remember to change his underwear every day without prompting, I can't help but project three years ahead and think to myself: "You want to go to Europe for the summer, Parker? Are you out of your mind?" It's not like I sent Becca...
You Think Congress Is Bad? Try a Pirate Meeting!
The current deadlock in Congress over the debt ceiling and just about everything else it seems, must appear to some people to be shear lunacy. After all, can't a bunch of grown men get along, finding ways to move forward for the good of everyone rather than their own selfish interests? Not if you were a Seafair Pirate. As I've been making my way through my memoirs with my editor hat on this week, I came across Chapter 13, which was actually written three or four years ago when I first started...
It’s My Daughter’s Birthday But Who’s Over The Hill?
My daughter's birthday is today. My first born, she hits the big 3-0. To herald the arrival of this milestone, my ex-whatever wrote me to ask how it feels to be an old man. I thought it was supposed to be Becca's milestone, not my own. Still, it was hard to believe all this time had flown by in my life. While it doesn't seem just like yesterday that she was born, it does seem like it was just yesterday that she moved in with my ex-whatever and I in Port Orchard. This was actually 16 years ago....
When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Eat Prunes.
I'm still not sure why I ever got my high school diploma. But I think it had a lot to do with Kevin Kever, not Larry Harwood. The story begins innocently enough. A bunch of my friends at Hazen High School were suffering some serious seniorititis. We were literally counting the days until graduation and back then, there wasn't exactly a lot to do in a day except pass your yearbooks around in class so everyone could sign them. Our senior year had been easy for all of us, largely because we had...
My Best Friend As A Kid.
Growing up on NE 28th Street, there weren't any kids my age. I had been caught in the bottoming out of the Baby Boom generation... I was the youngest kid on the block outside of Michael Hanshew, a late addition to a Catholic family of nothing but girls. He was about six years younger than me. That didn't mean I didn't have friends. They just weren't the kind that you could go down the street and knock on their door at any time of day to see if they could come out and play. I think my mother...
I Have Found Me A Home.
Yes, the title of today's RobZerrvation is a Jimmy Buffett song. And it serves today as the inspiration for a thoughtful piece on where I will be spending my golden years. Yeah, right! My son thinks he's found it for me. We were in the car joking about how he would someday have the power over his mom and I on where we would be placed. He said something about how if his mother didn't mind her P's and Q's in the coming years, he was going to put her in a home with a beautiful view of a cemetery....
I Think I Just Skipped Again.
I was talking to my son yesterday about the "good old days" again. The subject was music and we got into a discussion about the music he likes vs. the kind I like. As we skipped back and forth between tracks on our respective devices - I on my iPad, he on his iTouch - I had to laugh about my life again and how the world around me seems to mirror it. I say this because I sometimes wish my life was more like an iPod and less like an LP. For those of you too young to remember LPs, they were giant...
And The Shy Shall Inherit The Earth.
I was fairly shy growing up. I know that's hard for many of you to imagine, at least if you've met me as a performer/entertainer. But if you were to meet me at a party and I wasn't wearing a pirate costume, you'd hardly notice me at all. Instead, you'd find me in a corner somewhere, quiet, but enjoying the party as I would be observing all the little things around me that helps fuel my life as a writer. Hey, this isn't called RobZerrvations for nothing. I only recently came to find out that...
An Acquired Taste.
I wrote a few days ago about my first kiss, which was also my first real taste of beer. Well, it wasn't exactly my first first. My father used to let me taste his beer, but I think he put the equivalent of a half a shaker of salt in it to make it taste better to him. I couldn't really taste the beer... it was more like a liquid pretzel. As I found out that particular night at the party, beer is an acquired taste. It takes some getting used to. Actually, it take a lot of getting used to. Over...
A Fine Example Of Getting A Gude Edumakation.
As a writer, I come across a lot of outrageous statements that are presented under the guise of fact. So yesterday, when I first saw this story, I refused to believe that anyone in this country could be so misinformed and misguided. But in light of the news today and a follow-up interview with Teri Adams, I have to admit she's a dangerous person. Most of the time I dismiss crackpots who are either far to the left or far to the right. I'm a middle of the road guy. But Teri takes the cake. You...
Don’t Talk To Strangers. Not!
My son and I have the most wonderful conversations. As he grows older, it's becoming more and more apparent that he has my odd sense of humor and gift of observation. It was he who brought up how creepy children's shows are today. He particularly dislikes Dora the Explorer and wondered what the guy who wrote the words to her Map song was thinking, It goes like this: I'm the Map I'm the Map I'm the Map If there's a place you got to get I can get you there I bet I'm the Map (12 times) Yes, you...
Hey, They’re Just Rules.
My friends love to chide me about the sliding scale I have regarding rules. I have some rules that I follow very rigidly. And there are others, ones that some people would call laws, that I don't follow at all. I don't profess that there's any logic behind it, but my rule book was definitely built on a sliding scale. I didn't really give it any thought until a week or so ago. During a gathering at the condo for the 4th of July, the topic of my rule book came up. And Jan blurted out that I...