Picture this midwest evening.... 5 nieces and nephews, sitting in the back of my son’s pick-up truck, watching the sun go down; playing a little Kenny Chesney in the background, whilst the deep voices of the bullfrog weigh into the conversation. Sweet, right!? Evidence of a frisbee toss, badminton gone bad, and silly wiffle golf ball tosses, aimed …
One of my partners was in the office last week. I have to admit I was jealous. Seeing her on Zoom sitting at her desk made me want to be sitting in my office right next door. We have decided to reopen slowly and so I know that I will not have the experience of sitting next door for a little while – but still. She indulged me and toured arou …
For months my husband and I have anticipated this. We have discussed this back and forth, imagining what it would look like. And, like everything else you anticipate as much as we have, it happened very differently than expected. I am talking about eating in a restaurant. On Saturday night, we took a ride on our friend’s boat. It was just …
The title represents one of two relevant song titles I considered after deciding on this blog. You see I had another topic in mind – another discussion – perhaps another day, certainly another blog. When I retired for Friday eve, I opted to bring the laptop upstairs to leave on the dining room table for easy outside deployment yesterday. The laptop …
This past week marked my Mom's 90th birthday. My sister and I were so happy we could see her. Until that point, no one was allowed in the assisted living center where she resides so it was a game time decision whether we could see her or not. Thankfully, we were good to go. I asked her how old she thought she was but she did not know. When I tol …
This blog is written with my wife Joanne’s permission because, at times, she is forgetful and relies on me to remind her of things. We good naturally refer to this practice as her short term Rent-A-Memory and it is my pleasure!I still have lots of room in my memory bank and I remember much. I awakened to Jackie Robinson’s earth shaking/game changin …
I’m not sure how many times I’ve seen the statue of Teddy Roosevelt in the front of the Museum of Natural History in New York City. The statue that is now being taken down.I first saw it as a child on one of the many trips I was taken on to the Museum. More recently, I passed it with a grandchild that I was taking to the Museum.I must have been exp …
Here we go! My one and only, amazing son and I are taking a 12 hour road trip to visit family in Illinois. Just he and I, the open road, snacks and lots of conversation. Many years ago, 19 or so, I placed my son in the backseat of my car at 9pm and drove through the night, peaking into the Chicago skyline at about 5am the next day. We arrived at M …
I think about my father all the time. He was one special guy. Fiercely loyal to his family, smart, honest, and hard working. I think about how our lives, and in particular my mom’s, would be different if he were still with us. And, I think about the things that were quirky and unique to him. He danced in a special way that as a family we ofte …
During this quarantine, it always lifted my spirits to have a Zoom or Skype conference call and “see” people. Even if those calls were necessitated through work, seeing other people always added a smile to my day. Now with the nicer weather and things opening up a bit it has been nice to see people-- other than those in my quarantine group-- in …
Once again I get to take advantage of a Sunday blog gig falling on a day where we give thanks; this time to our dads (I even qualify for this one.). Let me start with a tradition I started sharing a wonderful song for this special day by current Poco bassist and vocalist Jack Sundrud. After my morning coffee outside (See spot in pice at left.). …
My office has been back up and running for over a week now. It's feels somewhat normal because we are all there...of course with appropriate physical distancing, masks, wipes, sanitizer and a cool looking sign on our front door stating you must wear a mask when entering. I missed the interaction, impromptu meetings between staff to discuss market …
One the easiest, yet most positive things a person can do is just say Thank You!Not “no problem”, just a heart felt expression of appreciation and gratitude. Say it. It rolls off your tongue easily: Thank You!I recently was the beneficiary of 2 such expressions of gratitude and they felt SO good. I did not expect them and they really were not ne …
In the midst of everything that is going on, we strive for a few moments of calm. Over the years, I’ve tried to adopt various forms of relaxation - unfortunately most efforts have not been successful.Recently, we came across the app “Calm” and have been using it every morning.Five minutes of guided meditation.Recognizing the need for calm was the f …
Creating stabilization in an unstable situation, can be helpful to ourselves, our friends and family. Especially now. Placing ourselves back at the helm of life, can be difficult, but it is very important to try and reframe our thoughts. Our social situation reminds me of being tossed at sea, in the middle of a storm; wondering when, or if its goin …
