I was out with friends a few months ago and the subject of retirement popped up. One friend is contemplating it next year. He’s worked hard his entire life, saved and invested well. He’s crunching the numbers to see if it can be done. Another friend has been a firefighter and paramedic for over 25 … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Crash – The Primitives
My wife was visiting her family for a week and I was on my own to fend for myself. Typically my wife and I share the cooking duties so I’m not totally helpless when it comes to making a meal. When it’s only one, though, cooking an entire meal seems like a lot of work. … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: True Faith – New Order
I’m not a big Usher fan. That’s not to say I don’t like him. I just don’t know much about him. In fact, if you asked me to name one of his songs, I’d draw a blank. Recently I saw a clip of him watching his son playing basketball. He’s being a regular dad sitting … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Father of Mine – Everclear
I had to change the battery of our smoke detector. I opened it and found it needed one of those rectangular nine volts. I searched through our box of batteries and found one, but it was mismatched with another brand’s packaging. I didn’t even recognize the brand. Odd. My Wife: I wonder if it’s new … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Maybe – Ingrid Michaelson
I read a recent article where Dan Rather quoted a Turkish proverb. When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king, the palace instead becomes a circus. So spot on. I don’t think anymore needs to be said. I remember a friend once told me that The Greatest Showman was his favorite … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: This is Me – Kesha
My sister-in-law is an accomplished attorney, a wonderful mom and a good human being. But that’s not what impresses me the most about her. What I’m most in awe with is she is MacGyver. Something is broken? Her first instinct is to open it up to fiddle around to see if she can fix it. … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Swiss Army Romance – Dashboard Confessional
I remember meeting with a colleague and she surprised me when she said: I like how you run into the fire when faced with challenges. You’re fearless. I thanked her for the generous compliment but had to disclose to her that the real motivation wasn’t bravery, but fear itself. Fear with dealing with the aftermath … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Lose Yourself – Eminem
I already answered this prompt a year ago, but the weather is so nice today, I thought I’d give it another go. You’d think living in Southern California, my go to response would be sunny and warm. But that’s only partially correct. If you find yourself in Southern California gridlock, you’ll notice most cars only … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Full Force Gale – Elvis Costello
The older I get, the thought of eventually needing memory care in my golden years becomes more of a concern. Our friend’s mother is in an assisted living facility for Alzheimer’s. When you know someone that is experiencing it, shit becomes real. My dad had short term memory issues. He had difficulty remembering yesterday, but … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Memories – Maroon 5
I’m scheduled to have my routine MRI this morning. For those who are new to my blog and don’t know, I had a benign brain tumor removed about six years ago. I’m still blown away I had brain surgery. Since then, I go for a periodic MRI and thankfully, they’ve all come up clean. I … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Brain Stew – Green Day
I test drove a Tesla. I know, I know. What the hell was I thinking. It’s that guy’s company and we don’t want to do anything to his benefit. But after looking at all the EV models, Tesla’s battery has the longest range and the price point is the best after the federal tax credit. … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Hand in My Pocket – Alanis Morisette
Absent any new WordPress daily prompts, I pulled one from thecoffeemonsterzco. What do you find cringey? I think I may have mentioned that Swingers was a favorite movie in my twenties. It’s a story about twenty somethings, heartbreak, friendship and redemption. This is a story about Mike, a guy who left his girl in New … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: King of the Road – REM
I went away for college and ended up staying away after graduation. After 30 years, I returned to the city I grew up in. Moving back made me think how people fell into one of three buckets. Those that left, those that stayed and those that left and eventually found their way home. That’s me … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Elderly Woman Behind a Counter In a Small Town – Pearl Jam
I decided to take a pause from writing. It seemed like the right time. Since I completed the daily prompts, I haven’t felt the pressure to write every day. So the pause really didn’t free up a monumental amount of time. It just felt the timing was right. What I realized was writing is a … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: A Short Pause
Absent any new WordPress daily prompts, I pulled one from thecoffeemonsterzco. What has been the most painful physical pain you experienced? My buddy is usually really good about scouting a hiking trail. He studies maps and trail guides and we hit the highlights on the trek. I’m sure he did his homework when we were winding … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: King of Pain – The Police
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. I heard this quote the other day. The universe must have been watching over me because the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Being a perfectionist in my career, even minor stumbles get inside my head and park there for … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Fallen – Sarah McLachlan
I finally donated a certain pair of jeans to Goodwill. It had a surprisingly long lifeline. It started out as my dark jeans that I wore with dress shoes and a button down for a nicer casual look. Gradually, they transitioned from dark to blue, and I wore them with a polo and a nice … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Tiny Dancer – Elton John
The other night was the first of three musicals we signed up for. We saw Annie. In my mind, I didn’t walk in with too much expectations because we mainly bought the package for the other two: Momma Mia and Hamilton. I considered Annie to be an add on. As we drove to the playhouse, … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Tomorrow – The Cranberries
I’ve always been a late adopter with technology. Ask my nieces who teased me when I went from an iPhone 7 to a 14. Who makes the leap to double up on their iPhone but me? So when I recently started considering electric vehicles, I thought I was getting on board way ahead of my … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Learning to Fly – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
I was going through my closet looking for clothes to donate to Goodwill. I found a shirt that I haven’t worn in years. It’s a pink long sleeve oxford with that polo guy on the chest. When I was in high school, the preppy look was in. It wasn’t uncommon for guys to wear pink … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Raise Your Glass – Pink
We had just finished a two day trek down the Narrows in Zion National Park. We were back in camp, resting and thinking about our next hike. We heard about Angel’s Landing, but didn’t know too much about it. A hiker told us it was narrow, steep and one side of the trail sat on … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Angels of the Silences – The Counting Crows
When we were little kids, my family used to make the long drive to visit our grandparents. There was this painting they had that used to creep the shit out of us. It was a portrait of a little girl. Sounds like it should be cute, but it wasn’t. The eerie expression on her face … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Paint a Vulger Picture – The Smiths
Absent any new WordPress daily prompts, I pulled one from thecoffeemonsterzco. What is your favourite toast topping? We sat back after dinner satisfied. We had ordered a number of small plates for variety. It was delicious. When the server came by and asked if we had room for desert, I passed. Our friends ordered dessert … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Tupelo Honey – Van Morrison
One of my favorite hikes is in Zion, Utah. The hike is called The Narrows. It’s a two day trek down a canyon, in the river. The river is literally the trail. Sometimes the water was at our ankles, other times waist high. There were stretches where there wasn’t any dry land to the left … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Ends of the Earth – Lord Huron
I’m generally a pretty good tipper. Being a server isn’t easy and I appreciate the effort that goes into providing good service. But deep down inside, I know that’s really not the only reason behind it. That’s only half the story. The other half is tied to something that occurred long ago and stayed with … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Boy’s Don’t Cry – The Cure
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