Life at 3 miles an Hour

On the beach one more week….my chair was calling me. So here I am with the chair, the sun, the mountains across the water and perfect families pushing their children in baby SUV’s . I wonder if kids who spend their early years being pushed in these huge contraptions will be predisposed to driving Escalades when they are older? Whatever happened to the umbrella stroller? I don’t see those much anymore in the land of excess. Not many people are staying in here this morning, they’re on the run it seems, even more than usual. They’re running to their busses, running with their dogs, running behind their baby coaches, clinging to handbrakes. It would seem to me that any transporter of cute helpless little humans that is in need of a handbrake just needs to slow down. What are we teaching our kids anyway, that life is always about running? You’d never see anyone running behind an umbrella stroller. One bump and those things fold up like an accordion. I remember, one thing that mad...

This morning I’ve changed up my routine. My daughter needed a vehicle more than I needed to go to the beach. Don’t weep for me because, as this is Seattle, all I had to do was walk out my door and I’m in another purveyor of caffeine. This morning, I’m not just in some old substitute. I am in the one and only Hotwire Online Coffee drinking my favorite caramel latte highlighted with cinnamon. I also have opportunity to actually eat an amazing breakfast concoction from by favorite baking establishment, Companion Baking Co. The bakeress is none other than my own gorgeous wife, and yes I have to buy the stuff once in awhile like any other neighborhood consumer. Trust me, it’s worth it. The only thing I’m missing is my favorite chair and the crowd of the retirement group that has been following me around for the 3 years that I’ve been writing this blog. I doubt they’ll find me here and even if they did, there’s no room to congregate. Starbucks was good for the view but the community...

And so begins day 29 with no rain here in Seattle. If we make it through the day, we’ll set an all time record for this time of year and possibly severely damage our reputation as a rainy, gloomy, fleece and umbrella haven. And yet, Al Roker continues to talk about “clouds and showers in the Pacific Northwest”. I wonder if he’s ever been here? My lawn would whole heartedly disagree with his observations. All of this sun has come at a price. The emerald city has become a bit more brown….at least on my block. My own water bill has become an investment as I try to keep some green in my back yard. This has become my own version of an automobile bailout….investing way too much and way too late. My back lawn has become a parable of sorts for me. It is a living example that no matter how much the investment, if the foundation is suspect, then you’re simply peeing in the wind. If you’re a guy, you get the analogy. A few years ago, some very well intentioned people made the inves...

Some days are more “Monday-ier” than others. I know that I’ve shared this sentiment before, but today it has come to pass once again. Arriving down here at the beach quite a bit later than usual, the first sign should have been the lack of parking. It’s a gorgeous day, to be sure, but it’s easier to enjoy when I can park. The other sign was the “retired bunch” beating feet to get their caffeine before I could get to the door. Apparently it was important this morning for the eight of them to get ahead of the one of me. Whatever…. it was enjoyable to have contributed to their unplanned morning jog. It didn’t matter to me, even though I’m the one on my way to a JOB! But the sun is out and the only thing bitter here is the coffee. At least I have my chair, and my headphones, and my live DVD of “The Boss”. Not really having any idea where I was going to go with this today, I decided to enjoy the concert footage for a bit. It’s very therapeutic . It inspires me that guys who are e...

So yesterday afternoon, after what has seemed like years, I finally began to feel like I was getting my bearings. You know what that it is….it’s your internal balance and sense that all is right with the world. It’s been a long haul in the weeks since our house was broken into. I’m not sure if that was the start or not, but at least that is as far back as I can remember at this point. I haven’t felt at all like life was much of anything that is familiar to me. I haven’t been to the beach much, which is never a good sign, and even when I did come I wasn’t interested in writing anything. We even threw in a weeks vacation that was wonderful but really probably only served to keep me from going completely over the edge. Anyway…..back to yesterday afternoon… I was feeling level again. Last night we relaxed out on the deck with the urban version of a campfire, a chimnea. I even had to buy the bundle of wood from Safeway. I did bring it home and split it so I keep a bit of my mascul...

I tend to use my writing as a barometer of how life is going for me. As I look back over the years of these posts, I can usually tell what general frame of mind I was in. Whatever seemed to be the general tone of my existence usually leaked out through my keyboard to leave a permanent recording of my mental state. Someday, someone could come along and trace my progression into madness….whatever. Probably some first year Psych student could pull that one off. If the writing can tell something , then I guess probably the silence can as well. Some weeks, the words just run over from my life onto the screen. Sometimes the inspiration doesn’t come so easily. It’s been so long since I’ve even felt like writing. It may be the longest gap since I began this almost 3 years ago. I’m not really feeling very much inclined this morning to write either. Last week, my wife and I took a short sabbatical to worship the mouse down in LA. We took full advantage of the sun, the palm trees, a wo...

This past week we had the, quite unplanned, unwanted, unnecessary, uncool, opportunity to know what it feels like to be a victim of idiot thieves. We joined the thousands who have been victims of “forced entry burglary”. Our house was broken into on Wednesday afternoon within the one short hour that we were across the street at the office. The general theory is that we were being watched…..like I should feel important or something that low life thieves with bad family histories were watching my life. The only thing that I take comfort in is that, for all the effort they went through to turn our house upside down like a CIA raid, there was not much to be had. I wonder why that is? Oh, yeah, because we don’t have much. Don’t get me wrong, as far as much of the rest of the world goes, we are wealthy beyond measure, and we are grateful and enjoy everything that we have. What I mean is, in the land of thieves, it wasn’t exactly “Oceans Eleven”. Certainly not worth going to jail for...