Halftime

Photo by Katrina Berban on Unsplash

It’s the last day of the 6th month of the year. We’re officially at halftime.

I don’t think any of us still under the illusion that 2022 is going to make up for 2020 and 2021.

Your dumpster fire may vary.

Still, here at halftime it’s good to take a break and review the last six months before the marching band takes the field.

I do miss a good marching band. But since we don’t see those on TV much anymore, I’ll just take a look back at my personal last six months. You can go with me, or hit the concession stand and be back for the second half tomorrow.

I started the year with My Three Words for 2022.
My words are Recover, Read, Rise. I’m working on all three. Recovery is taking a little longer than I’d hoped. I mean, I am grateful that the cancer is gone, but the after effects of forty-seven years of house arrest and a summer of radiation still linger. It’s getting better. Slowly. As for reading…I’m working on it, and I continue to attempt to rise to each occasion as it…um…arises.

In January, while I don’t post a lot over there, I rejoined the ranks of Bearing Drift:

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You Might as Well Say It.

In March, I lamented with the rest of you that live is pretty heavy these days:
Though Weary, I Will Yet Rise.

In April, I took a walk down memory lane
RETRO WEEK: We Are Family

In fact the whole week was RETRO WEEK as we were spending it watching the dolphins play in the surf.

I ended RETRO WEEK with a list of the Short Stories I’ve been working on for another, yet undisclosed, project: RETRO WEEK: Short Story Fridays.

Later in April I decided to focus on one major project at a time…well, in addition to the day job, the blog, the 100 Day Project…anyway…it worked: A Decision Was Almost Made Here.

By May I was talking about the decisions that got me where I am today: Decision Points.

Also in May, my doctor said to me “No disease detected.” Beers All Around.

In what just seems to be a time of far too many funerals, we said goodbye to a dear friend: Enough.

Following the latest school shooting, we got the usual round of snarking about “Thoughts and Prayers.” I asked: But, Did you really Pray?

And with even more difficult news, I stop to think that maybe the best way to deal with things is to turn off the media. I can’t be responsible for carrying the burden of the world. Neither can you: How Much Can You Carry?

In the best of all worlds, and following up on that one project at a time theme, I published my first childrens’ book last Friday: It’s Alive

Thanks to those who have purchased. And, if you did, it would be a great favor if you could leave a review on Amazon.

Earlier this week I talked about things that “have” to be done vs. our passions: Fireworks and Passions.

When you look back like this, no matter what the crap of the day flavor might be, it doesn’t look so bad.

Am I where I said I would be when I set goals back in January. Well, yes and no.

And that’s okay.

We’re halfway through the year. Let’s not cheat ourselves by wishing for 2023 to get here any sooner than it has to.

It’s halftime.

Take a breath. Use the restroom. Visit the concession stand.

Get back to your seat before the band leaves the field.

And never stop believin’…


BORN ON THIS DAY

1917 – Susan Hayward, American actress (d. 1975)
1917 – Lena Horne, American actress, singer, and activist (d. 2010)
1956 – David Alan Grier, American actor, singer, and comedian
1959 – Vincent D’Onofrio, American actor
1966 – Mike Tyson, American boxer and actor

THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

Virginia Church Set On Fire Following Abortion Ruling
The Republican Standard
A church in Reston, Virginia was recently vandalized and set on fire in what police believe to be a protest of the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a recent report from WTOP. Read More.

The people who have accused me of inciting violence are now calling for violence
Libs of TikTok
These accusations led to a week-long harassment campaign where I received hundreds of hate messages and enough credible death threats that I left my home to stay in a safer location. The people who were so concerned about civility and calls to violence stayed silent as I received an onslaught of hate and death threats. Read More.

Top Biden Officials Reveal Plans To Continue Pushing Climate Agenda If Supreme Court Blocks EPA
Daily Caller
The Supreme Court is likely to weaken the Biden administration’s efforts to limit carbon dioxide emissions in West Virginia v. EPA, with several of the justices having probed the extent of EPA’s authority in oral arguments. Read More.

BENEDICTION

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:15-17

Summer tunes, and the livin’s not so easy…

Photo by Raphaël Biscaldi on Unsplash

One of the things that’s happened in our forty-seven years of lockdown only to be amplified by Last Summer’s Great Unpleasantness™ is the occasional afternoon nap.

There have been times, particularly after the radiation treatments, that I needed a short nap in the comfy chair.

I’m gonna miss that when I have to start going back downtown in a couple of weeks. If you ask me, an afternoon siesta can improve employee performance. But it’s generally frowned upon.

I digress.

So, I’d move the cat and close my eyes for just a few minutes.

Sometimes I would tell Alexa to play some music.

It’s funny how music has the power to stir up certain memories.

One of my go to stations on Pandora is my “Mamas and the Papas” station that give me all the great music from the late sixties and early seventies.

When I hear those tunes I am transported back to the summers of the late 60s and early 70s.

I mean the decades because I’m currently in the process of transporting out of MY early 60s.

In those summers I would spent each and every day at the pool. Our town had a community pool. It cost twenty-five cents each day to enter. My Mother would leave me that money and about fifty cents for snacks.

It is only as I’ve grown older that I realize that what seems like a small amount today, was probably a sacrifice for my parents.

And so, each summer day, all day, every day, I would be at the pool.

Okay, not quite every day because my typical pattern was to spend the first day out of school there from open to close. And, more typically than not, I would get a summer sunburn that would keep me home for a couple of days.

But when I got back, the glorious days of sun and pool were mine to be enjoyed all summer long.

The concession stand where I would often quickly spend the fifty-cents would play summer tunes over the loud speakers.

The music, along with the pool and the sunburns, defined my summers from probably around the time of first

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grade, when I went with a sitter, through my early high school years.

I stopped going to the pool every day around the 9th grade when I started to feel self conscious about my weight. Another story of the 70s that most likely will not be in a book.

We all have those unpleasant memories we’d just as soon forget.

But the music…

So when I sit in the comfy chair, or even sometimes while I’m working and Alexa plays The Age of Aquarius…or any of the other songs that are too numerous to list…I am taken back.

I miss the simple days of summer.

I mean sure, I get to get out and do things. I work in an amusement park and anytime I’m off I could be in the water park.

But it’s not the same. And certainly the music isn’t as good.

So, that’s where I am as we’re nearing the end of June. Sort of wishing the days were that simple again.

But they’re not. And they won’t be.

Still, for a few moments a day, I can let the music take me back.

Alexa…


BORN ON THIS DAY

1901 – Nelson Eddy, American singer and actor (d. 1967)
1910 – Frank Loesser, American composer and conductor (d. 1969)
1919 – Slim Pickens, American actor and rodeo performer (d. 1983)
1944 – Gary Busey, American actor
1948 – Fred Grandy, American actor and politician
1968 – Brian d’Arcy James, American actor and musician

THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

Study Confirms Fact-Checkers Are In Fact Bad at Their Jobs
Matt Palumbo at The Dan Bongino Show
I’ve been spending the past year writing on the many errors, lies, and distortions of the fact checking industry, and noticed a number of occasions where different fact checkers would fact check the same claim and come to different conclusions. As it turns out, there is a study out documenting the prevalence of this – and when the fact checkers do examine the same claim, they agree with themselves at a rate lower low enough to be deemed incompetent. Read More.

BENEDICTION

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:15-17