Looking at old photos of my wife and pets who are no longer with me makes my chest ache and brings tears to my eyes. I can’t do this for very long because of the sadness it brings. The feelings these photos stir up are bittersweet. I recall times of celebration, love and delight while…
Artistic Deviations
Ever since I took down the paintings off of my walls earlier this month I have not drawn or painted a single picture. My afternoons have been jam packed with other activity. I patched, sanded and painted all the holes (over 200 of them). I painted the interior of my walk-in closet, a couple of…
Walmart Frenzy
With all of the headlines (and the reality) about inflation, predatory pricing and ever increasing costs of goods, I expected that retail shopping would be taking a significant hit. Personally, even with my limited amount of purchasing and general anti-consumerism tendencies, I cannot help but notice significant prices increases in the food and items I…
Family Rescue
When Hurricane Helena hit North Carolina recently, several mountain towns near Asheville were devastated by floods and mudslides. Houses were flooded. Roads were washed away. Power, water, communications and basic services were nonexistent. People were stranded. If they were lucky, they had shelter and a few days supply of essentials. But with roads and bridges…
At Arm’s Length
In 2001, my wife and I relocated from our hometown of Pittsburgh to South Florida to be closer to the kids (who lived with their father in Miami), to enjoy the weather, and to fulfill a lifelong dream of mine. I was thrilled and looked forward to all of the experiences and adventures I imagined…
Bare Walls
After painting for 5 years, I had more than 250 paintings hung up in every free space of my home. As a minimalist, eventually this became overwhelming. I would walk past my neighbors’ homes lit up at night I’d see a few carefully selected frame pieces of art on a wall and think, “That’s what…
Respect
While listening to a podcast that I subscribe to, I realized that I hadn’t enjoyed listening to it for quite some time. It occurred to me that I do not like the host. Even worse, I don’t respect him. The host was raised in an upper middle class family and lived a life of wealth…
Nobody’s Blowing Up Your iPhone
Israel’s recent targeted attack that blew up the pagers and walkie talkies used by Hezbollah was all over the news last week. Reportedly more than 4000 were blown up over two days, injuring many people and killing some. This has been breathlessly reported by many in the media as a “James Bond type” sophisticated attack….
Red Flag Laws and Assassination Attempts
This past week, another mentally ill dude attempted to assassinate former president Trump. This is the 2nd attempt on Trump’s life in a few months. I wonder if it will make a difference as more politicians realize how vulnerable they are to lunatics with guns. Many years ago, I thought the Sandy Hook school shooting…
Not My First Rodeo
My research into getting estimates to replace my two sliding doors with French doors has grown into a full blown project that includes replacing a third slider with windows and replacing all of the windows in my entire house. Jeez. I wasn’t anticipating that. What happened was every time I met with another contractor, I…