Monday, March 21, 2011
The Vantage Point
This last weekend was nice,but normal in many ways, until I thought of all the people in the world that might disagree. We were attacking Libya, Japan was still reeling from the earthquake, tsuami, and the nuclear reactor meltdown. The moon was up and bright, the closest to earth in 18 years. All of this, and I was out surfing, mowing the yard, and watching videos with my wife at night, just moving right along, looking forward to a vacation in the near future. It really just depends on where you happen to be sitting when it all goes down. I am gladly accepting the distance this time around..
Monday, February 21, 2011
The Gift (from 9/8/2001)
It has happened again. One of those moments I have that won't be forgotten. Once my family was friendly with another family that had children the same age. We participated in our children's sports together and generally hung out at the events. As we grew to know each other, I found that the father and mother were very modest, in fact I had known them for a while before I found out that the nursery they owned was in fact a chain, like Home Depot. Once I realized they were wealthy beyond my wildest imagination and just visiting us normal folks, I changed and felt a little jealous that I could never provide for my family like that or give gifts they could afford to buy. My life was changed again when we were invited to their house for dinner.
She cooked everything from scratch and he doted on us like the perfect host. I thought, what more could anyone give you than their time and love? She could have called the best caterer and have them bring one of everything without blinking, but instead we ate family style, and every bit of it was authentic food that she had made.
Note to myself: Make sure my kids get that lesson as well!"
She cooked everything from scratch and he doted on us like the perfect host. I thought, what more could anyone give you than their time and love? She could have called the best caterer and have them bring one of everything without blinking, but instead we ate family style, and every bit of it was authentic food that she had made.
Note to myself: Make sure my kids get that lesson as well!"
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Looking Back
As I find myself recovering from another form of the flu, the knowledge that being healthy is not something to waste, comes frequently to mind. I can look back at some of the physical things I did this year, and realize how lucky I was to be able to even want to do those things. Right now, it would be risky to walk on the treadmill. I can't wait for the energy to come back, but in the meantime I can reflect.
Life has been interesting for sure. My house is really getting fixed up after years of neglect, and music has been a strong force the whole time. A lot of surfing, mostly due to having young friends that wanted to go all of the time.
2011 will be the year Dusty gets his CD out there, and we'll soon find out whether I'm a pessimist or a realist. I'm predicting a closet full of unsold CD's, but the music sounds awesome and I would just love to be wrong...and it wouldn't be the first time.
Life has been interesting for sure. My house is really getting fixed up after years of neglect, and music has been a strong force the whole time. A lot of surfing, mostly due to having young friends that wanted to go all of the time.
2011 will be the year Dusty gets his CD out there, and we'll soon find out whether I'm a pessimist or a realist. I'm predicting a closet full of unsold CD's, but the music sounds awesome and I would just love to be wrong...and it wouldn't be the first time.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
What The Flu Is Good For
Man, if you ever needed a reason to quit complaining, a good bout of the flu will do it. I'm finally starting to feel myself again. Do you remember feeling so sick that you didn't even care about what you were missing? It didn't matter if it was the prettiest day of the year, all I could think of is, what if you never got better? What if the rest of my life was feeling that bad?
I'm starting to feel cheerful now, still coughing enough to make most folks show the sign of the cross and move farther away, and still trying to recall how I could jump up every morning and run 5 miles. Trying to think about how I don't have enough stuff, enough money, the best job, all of those things that just seem to be one big WANT.
Yup, the next time I wake up feeling like a good 5 mile run, I'm going to remember that THAT is the thing I really wanted...
I'm starting to feel cheerful now, still coughing enough to make most folks show the sign of the cross and move farther away, and still trying to recall how I could jump up every morning and run 5 miles. Trying to think about how I don't have enough stuff, enough money, the best job, all of those things that just seem to be one big WANT.
Yup, the next time I wake up feeling like a good 5 mile run, I'm going to remember that THAT is the thing I really wanted...
Sunday, November 21, 2010
The Reminder
Sometimes the stories are for me, a reminder when I need it...
I stood on the balcony of a hotel on a nice summer day, late in the afternoon. The sun was casting a copper tint to the ocean and the wind was on the surf, leaving little but mushy shorebreak. I was a little sunburnt and had seen better conditions earlier in the day. It wasn't really even worth the trip down the stairs to surf in that crap. It was then I spotted something unusual, and saw other people on balconies around me looking in the same direction. There was this young boy ripping up the shore break, flying up and down the break. It looked as if there were no waves, but his rides were longer than what I got on really good waves. I shook my head in disbelief, and my neighbor on the next balcony said, that's Kelly Slater, he's out there every afternoon.
Kelly, oh yeah, he's the one that grew up to win more world surfing titles than anyone else. He's going for number 10 now, just in case I need the reminder....the surf is good enough for me.
I stood on the balcony of a hotel on a nice summer day, late in the afternoon. The sun was casting a copper tint to the ocean and the wind was on the surf, leaving little but mushy shorebreak. I was a little sunburnt and had seen better conditions earlier in the day. It wasn't really even worth the trip down the stairs to surf in that crap. It was then I spotted something unusual, and saw other people on balconies around me looking in the same direction. There was this young boy ripping up the shore break, flying up and down the break. It looked as if there were no waves, but his rides were longer than what I got on really good waves. I shook my head in disbelief, and my neighbor on the next balcony said, that's Kelly Slater, he's out there every afternoon.
Kelly, oh yeah, he's the one that grew up to win more world surfing titles than anyone else. He's going for number 10 now, just in case I need the reminder....the surf is good enough for me.
Monday, October 4, 2010
What a Day
Wow, the weather this weekend was like something from a travel brochure. On top of that, we had waves that were not too big or too small and Dan and I got plenty of them. My Munoz board was back from ding-repair and made me remember why I need to really take care of it. I surfed until I could barely lift my arms and left for home, knowing that it could not get any better than that.
Sunday, I did chores and shopping, while my poor wife is trying to get over some kind of stomach flu. She lay there reading, and I could not stop smiling while working like crazy. Mowed the lawn without breaking a sweat, and I just did not want it to end. Was out in the yard until dark and still wasn't tired...what a difference temperature and humidity can make in my outlook.
The good news is that we have a week of this coming up!
Sunday, I did chores and shopping, while my poor wife is trying to get over some kind of stomach flu. She lay there reading, and I could not stop smiling while working like crazy. Mowed the lawn without breaking a sweat, and I just did not want it to end. Was out in the yard until dark and still wasn't tired...what a difference temperature and humidity can make in my outlook.
The good news is that we have a week of this coming up!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The Pie On The Side Of The Road
It’s hard to imagine right now, sitting here at home, that only a few months ago, I would have given anything for a good, sweet pastry. There is something about going on vacation that sends our normal dietary habits away and sets free the spirit that wants all of the really good stuff that you usually tend to avoid.
Bakeries come to mind as the kind of place that I don’t spend much time in, but once on this vacation, that was the first place I was looking for in a new town. We landed in Portland, Maine and it wasn’t long before we found Two Fat Cats, an un-air-conditioned little old house in the shopping district of Old Port. Four very sweaty women were hard at work making dough and pastries and there was little doubt that what was for sale was made right there on the premises. I was already drooling before our turn at the counter came up, but I let the Missus do the talking because this place had the distinct appearance of a place that was by women, for women, and frequented by women. She got up to the counter, asking about freshness and instead of being insulted, the young woman offered samples. We bought way too much and a good portion of that never made it back to the car, but the one thing everyone wanted us to like was Woopee Pies. They never caught on with us and we could only hope that the guy that cleaned the rental car after we returned it, would appreciate our Woopee Pie tip.
The bar for bakery taste in New England was raised quite high by a chance stop on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. We were cruising down a steep hill, returning from an afternoon of testing the limits of our GPS, when the Missus spotted a small wooden stand on the side of the road with pies sitting on it. That and a small lockbox was all that was in sight. We saw a house a little ways away from the road, and thought we needed to stop. A cute young woman was carrying a pie up the driveway from the house and we decided that we had to have a couple of those pies. It turned out that the young woman and her husband were baking pies and running the business for her mother. Little did I know at the time that I was in for some of the best dessert I would have for a very long time...all because of a chance stop in the middle of Nowhere, Maine..
Bakeries come to mind as the kind of place that I don’t spend much time in, but once on this vacation, that was the first place I was looking for in a new town. We landed in Portland, Maine and it wasn’t long before we found Two Fat Cats, an un-air-conditioned little old house in the shopping district of Old Port. Four very sweaty women were hard at work making dough and pastries and there was little doubt that what was for sale was made right there on the premises. I was already drooling before our turn at the counter came up, but I let the Missus do the talking because this place had the distinct appearance of a place that was by women, for women, and frequented by women. She got up to the counter, asking about freshness and instead of being insulted, the young woman offered samples. We bought way too much and a good portion of that never made it back to the car, but the one thing everyone wanted us to like was Woopee Pies. They never caught on with us and we could only hope that the guy that cleaned the rental car after we returned it, would appreciate our Woopee Pie tip.
The bar for bakery taste in New England was raised quite high by a chance stop on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. We were cruising down a steep hill, returning from an afternoon of testing the limits of our GPS, when the Missus spotted a small wooden stand on the side of the road with pies sitting on it. That and a small lockbox was all that was in sight. We saw a house a little ways away from the road, and thought we needed to stop. A cute young woman was carrying a pie up the driveway from the house and we decided that we had to have a couple of those pies. It turned out that the young woman and her husband were baking pies and running the business for her mother. Little did I know at the time that I was in for some of the best dessert I would have for a very long time...all because of a chance stop in the middle of Nowhere, Maine..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)