Retired Navy after 23 years. I retired at the age of 40 years old. I've been out longer than I was in. All of the ships I served on have been made into razor blades. I had fun and I lived my life the best I could. Most of my shipmates are gone and I try to stay in touch with the remainder. It continues. Substance abuse counselor, builder of wooden boats, furniture maker, prison non-violence workshop facilitator, life observer, activist, reader, writer, geriatric subject of interest, generous tipper. I stay involved.
All Over Again Seventy years ago, Buddy was standing on his tip-toes to look at his eyes in the bathroom mirror on the second floor of his parents’ huge house. Eleven rooms with seven bedrooms. Nine-year-old Buddy stretching himself tall with an assist by pressing his palms down on the rim of the ceramic sink … More All Over Again
GOODBYE NOTES Part Cuatro To the teenage boy in Ensenada, Baja Mexico in 1977. I’ll tell you man, you got me good. I admire an expert in anything and what you did to me was top-drawer-slick. We were standing across the street from one of those curios shops and you were selling serapes. I … More Goodbyes, Part Cuatro.
Pearl clutching and other fainting couch scenarios. Here is a thread I got involved in this morning. Greater minds are circling in on solutions that I would never have dreamed of. Problem is that the solutions are not for the problem at hand. These solutions are only good for impressing each other with bullshit. There. … More Colin Kaepernick Stirs it Up. Good.
GOODBYE NOTES PART TRES To the young man, older than I by a few years at least, who picked me up on the Ohio Turnpike in 1958 while I was hitchhiking. You had a new Chevy sedan. I don’t recall the model but I do remember those flat and fat fins. I was standing on … More Goodbye Notes Part Tres
Eric wrote a nice affirmation of Nina’s writing on the cover of this book. The second part of the sentence clinches the whole together nicely. Without the second part I am troubled by the first part. Here is what I wrote while sitting outdoors with a glass of scotch one afternoon. It all came together … More Nina Olff
“I am what I am, and that’s all that I am.” ― Popeye There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths. – Friedrich Nietzsche: Human, All-Too-Human “Blood is thicker than water…” -Somebody Who Didn’t Know Better GOODBYE NOTES (Part dos) To the fella I locked eyes with at … More I Write my Goodbyes Part Dos
The things are looking up at The Castle. The warmer weather and greenery freshly splashed about the Royal Grounds have increased my happiness quotient. I’ve been doing the little jobs about The Castle and attending to the Royal “Things To Do” List. This change makes for more positive change. Sort of a regenerative feedback loop. … More Salt! Mustard! Vinegar! Pepper!
Indelibly marked onto my brain are those days of hotbunking. Oddly, I have no personal experience with the activity. I didn’t have a bunk on the boat for about a week. My first trip to sea was a rush job. I was recruited directly off the submarine tender Orion; no sub-school. By chance I’d been … More Hotbunking. A Step Up for Many. I Know.
All seriousness aside, my spirits are good and this is an attempt to lighten myself up more since my dark hours during this past week. The older I get the more dark my thoughts. It is natural I believe. Another issue to deal with during our days. I plan to post “goodbyes” every so often. … More Inspired to Write My Goodbyes Before it’s Too Late.
How difficult it is to write a simple line of thought to a dear friend without causing all kinds of anguish/activity. Today has been a downer for me. I have, like other times before, wondered about suicide. I’m a bit more positive now. I have not dressed all day. I have been playing computer games … More I Write a Note to Nina.
Playing Fair and Being Kind 