Hope Floats Today my daughter texted me that her two daughters were signed up for several courses for the winter session of extracurricular activities. She did this not only to keep me abreast of their goings on, but also because Kim and I give her holiday money intended specifically for the purpose of keeping her daughters enrolled in such activities to broaden their horizons. This past semester it was lacrosse for Charlotte and soccer for…
How Many Christmases? None of us know what the future brings other than that it is likely to surprise us. I am sixty-eight years old, so if I want to believe the actuarial table, I have a life expectancy of 16 years. That means that including this one before us right now, I have sixteen Christmases left. If I matched my father, I would only have two Christmases left, but if I track my mother,…
A Hallmark Card One of Kim’s favorite things about the holidays is to watch countless numbers of Hallmark holiday movies. Approximately 56 million people have access to the Hallmark Channel via their cable or satellite TV access. Since 2004, this cable channel has zeroed in on what is obviously a very powerful demographic. They really do two things throughout the year, produce and play holiday movies and mystery movies. I’m not sure why that combination…
Black Friday I am not sure where Black Friday gets its name since the adjective “black” usually denotes a calamity of some sort. What I do know is that the commercial world wants us to start our Christmas shopping as early as possible. We in America have tacitly agreed to allow Christmas shopping to begin no earlier than Thanksgiving. That logically makes the Friday after Thanksgiving a big retailer day. The retail trade, both brick…
Reversal of Fortune The 1990 Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close story about the von Bulows of Newport, Rhode Island was a great movie that told the tale of two extremely wealthy and privileged people whose money did not bring them happiness, but quite the contrary. People love stories where wealthy people get their riches to rags just reward for leading puerile lives not caring about anyone else. The only thing better are stories of rags to…
The Land of Plenty With the passage of time, we all come to our own understanding of what matters and what does not. I am not so naive as to think that we all value the same things or that we value the same things at all stages of our lives. Like all aspects of our constantly changing lives, what matters to us at one age is likely quite different from what matters to us…
Going to the Mountain I still feel new to my hilltop after three years here full time. It’s days like today that make me feel that way and stare in wonder at the beauty of the distant views. It forces me to remind myself that views may be one of the secrets to the universe. If you are a believer, like I am, that state of mind drives everything, very few things other than perhaps…
A Precious Gift In 2014, someone decided to make yet another movie about the biblical apocalypse of the great flood. They gathered Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins and Emma Watson to play out the story of Noah. First interesting choice made by Director Darren Arofonsky, perhaps due to the presence on set of the fabled Sir Anthony Hopkins, the classical Shakespearean actor who trained under Sir Laurence Olivier and was guided by the craft…
Oh What a Night! I know what you’re thinking and you are wrong. This story is NOT about the election that was held across the country yesterday. While many pundits are saying that Democrats are thrilled to have held off the infamous red wave, I feel that there is simply too much to not be proud of in our national state of political play to crow about too much this morning. The only comment I…
Deflated Balloons I have this digital picture frame on my desk that was given to me three years ago by my daughter as a clear message that I not forget her or her children as Kim and I moved away to our West Coast hilltop. The only people that upload pictures to the digital file that cycles through the digital device, called a Nixplay, are Carolyn and myself. It sits in the alcove where my…