RobZerrvations
Musings from a Meandering, Mischievous Mind
The Blame Game.
The world seems to be filled with blame these days. I regularly hear the chorus of "oh, whoa is me, life is so unfair" out there. I guess that's because it's the easiest thing to do; blame others for all your problems in life. There are those white folks who blame the Hispanics or the blacks for their problems. Others blame the illegal immigrants or Muslims. Old blame the young. The young blame the old. Democrats blame the Republicans, the Republicans the Democrats. But the sad truth is, the...
The Long And Short Of It.
I have been watching these commercials lately about the little blue pill. You know the one. It has senior women running for their very lives at The Villages in Florida, that swinging senior singles community that has the highest level of sexually transmitted diseases in the nation. A new era has unfolded as old men, once stripped of their virility, pop a little blue pill and for the next four hours, become the cock of the walk, literally. Hundreds, nay, thousands of horny, sex crazed old men...
The Time Tunnel.
I used to love the television show Time Tunnel. Every week, Tony and Doug would be transported to another place and time, while all the time, the Time Tunnel team was trying desperately to retrieve them from the vortex of time and space, usually against all odds. It was good fodder for a young boy. To think that you could be whisked away to an alternate world, one where you could change history. Of course, Tony and Doug never could manage to change the course of history, nor should they have....
A Man For All Seasons.
It's the day after New Years. The tree and all the decorations have been returned to the garage. The Christmas music is over. The holiday baking, done. Today, it's 27 degrees outside, with a predicted high of 33. My friends in Florida still think I am nuts for leaving all that fun in the sun, trading in shorts and sandals weather for wooly mittens and a Goretex jacket. First, let me say I am not a big fan, or even a minor fan, of biting cold winters and waist deep snow. I talked to my daughter...
It’s Critical. I Think.
Increasingly, we seem to be living in a post-truth world. We seem to refuse to believe the most basic of absolute facts in favor of the wildest of fantasies. To bolster our belief in the absurd, the crazy and often times manipulative, we drink the Kool Aid of faux-news sites and clickbait on Facebook and share it as if it is written on stone tablets sent from above. To paraphrase from one of my favorite movies, the American people aren't drinking the sand they find in the desert to quench...
The Clearance Sale.
Well, it's almost the end of the year and in the spirit of the holiday season, I've decided to give away a lot of topics that really didn't warrant a thousand words. Now, It's not that a thousand words are somehow magical. It's not like the heavens will suddenly open up and swallow me whole if I came up a couple words short. But it seems to be the number of words I usually suck up exploring a topic. Of course, I'd like to think about having an inexhaustible supply of words. I guess all writers...
Poor, Poor Us!
The elections are done. The unrest is not. For some reason, many of us can't accept an outcome that doesn't match our expectations. Instead, we once again bitch that we were ripped off, that the other side stole the election, blah, blah blah, blah blah! Don't try to justify it all to me. I've seen the popular vote. And I know that the Electoral College ultimately decides, and as we all seem to know, the outcome is pretty certain. I'm not asking you to just get over it either (I probably...
75 Septembers.
I used to waste a lot of time. I mean, really waste it. After all, back when I was in my 20s, I had a lot of time to kill. Time seemed infinite back then, so I would mire myself in wishes without making them so, drama that had no possible resolution, inexcusable errors of judgment that sent me back into the dark ages a time or two, and dead-end relationships which never held the promise of ever leading anywhere. I can wish all I want to have that time back. But, as we all know, wishing doesn't...
A Story of Our Eventual Ruin.
The current election cycle, hell, the state of America at large for that matter, is all our fault. Why? Because we have forgotten a fundamental truth about what drives us. No, this is not about economic wealth or the lack thereof. It's not a racial divide or even the lies of politicians that is causing all this ruckus. It's not being rich or poor, living on the right or wrong side of the tracks, being an evangelical Christian or an atheist, or being one of a seemingly endless choice of...
The Used Car Dealer.
I admit that I have a pretty old car. It's a 2004, in fact, a Saturn VUE. Yes, it's true. They don't make Saturns anymore, but in my defense, I didn't pick the car. It was a consolation prize of sorts. I guess my ex-whatever felt I should get a consolation prize for putting up with her in that joke of a marriage we had. While I've lost a house or two in other competitions, I've never 'won' a car in the end. That said, I have never been attached to the Black Widow as it's come to be called. I...
I Sure Hope So.
I used to be one of the most pessimistic people on this planet. When I was in my twenties and thirties, I could have won the Lottery and still found something to bitch about. I could find something wrong about everything. As I look back at this part of my life, I like to see myself looking a bit like Joe Btfsplk. For those of you who aren't comic strip fans, he was a character in Lil' Abner comics who walked around with a dark rain cloud perpetually over his head. To be fair, Joe's cloud was a...
My Apologies.
I went to see Uncle Bonsai last week. For those newbies to Seattle, and for those who have never been part of the music scene here back in the 80s, Uncle Bonsai is a singer/songwriter trio that writes hilarious songs, such as "Cheerleaders on Drugs" and an entire suite dedicated to the life of poor, hapless Doug. Trust me, you have to see or hear it to believe it. OK, take a moment to hear and see it. I'll wait. One of the songs they do is an apology for all the songs they've written in the...