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Vicarious Thrills
I love having friends that are much younger than I am because I get to watch them do amazing things and feel the subsequent joy from that without having to actually expend any energy myself. I can gaze on proudly as they start new businesses, fight for causes, create amazing works of art, raise incredible…
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A Night Out with Friends
The other night I met a friend at Seattle’s Royal Room to hear Leah Tussing, an amazing blues/jazz singer. She and her band were wonderfully talented and it was a very lovely way to spend a rainy, blustery evening. The Royal Room itself is a comfortable, welcoming venue with good food and a relaxed atmosphere,…
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A Shout Out to Deadbeat Dads
My parents got divorced when I was three months old. I never met my father. I did not receive a single Christmas or birthday card, photograph or visit, in my entire life. He paid not one penny of child support. People used to ask me if I missed my father. My stock response was, “How…
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Saving the Animals of Fukushima
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake struck off the coast of Japan near Honshu Island. This quake set off a tsunami of 45 foot high waves crashing into the Japanese coast, at the very site of a very badly built and poorly situated nuclear power plant in Fukushima. As you can well imagine, things went…
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Asking for Help
In mid-July I’m having outpatient surgery on my wrist. It’s fairly routine, but I’ll be home recovering for a week. This has me rattled. It’s my dominant hand, and I have no idea how truly incapacitated I will be. Will I be able to open jars? Medicine bottles? I’ll open them in advance. Will I…
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Pain
I just scheduled outpatient surgery on my wrist, so pain is in the forefront of my mind at the moment. I really, really, really don’t like pain. No big surprise there. But as pain thresholds go, mine is rather high. I popped my dislocated thumb back into place by myself, which is what got me…
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Under my Umbrella… ella… ella…
One thing you can’t get away from in Seattle is beggars at stop lights. It breaks my heart because I want to help them, but I can barely help myself. And even if I could afford to help, there are just so many of them, so who do I choose? And which ones would spend…
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Oh, I Get It. You Don’t Care.
I have a friend that I enjoy talking to, but I’ve long since discovered that she is not someone to seek out if I want to vent or feel the need for compassion or commiseration. She just doesn’t want to hear it. She’s a classic See-No-Evil type of person. Oh, she’ll be quite happy to…
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The Fine Art of Begging
Recently I racked up $9,000.00 in debt by moving 3100 miles across country to start my life over after a series of setbacks that, frankly, are becoming too boring to even discuss. Everybody has problems, right? But a friend suggested I do a crowdfunding campaign through the Indiegogo website to help me get my head…
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Taking on Extra Passengers
Yes, I’m traveling across country. No, I’m not picking up hitchhikers. I’d never do that. I want to live. But as the miles of asphalt roll beneath my wheels, I’m ever mindful of all the people I have pulling for me on this trip. There are the many people who have contributed to my Indiegogo…