Potpourri
On a recent day shopping trip to Cleveland my wife and I came across one of those humongous electric generating windmills. It is located in Bainbridge and is clearly visible on the high school property as one drives along Route 422…the back way to Cleveland!! We decided to investigate. Of course it would be located on school grounds. Windmills are politically correct and make a statement saying the school board is being green with somebody else’s money. We have seen them from a distance many times, but now we could get up close and personal. These things are huge and somewhat scary. This one is located almost on top of the school parking lot and it looks like the blades could swoop down and lift you up…and they are VERY, VERY, VERY noisy. There is some creaking and groaning, but mostly there is a deep roaring sound that almost sounds like an airplane engine. I feel sorry for the folks that live around there. To make matters worse, although they look lovely and graceful from a distance, they are butt ugly. It’s no different than having a smoke stack in your backyard. They certainly don’t belong in residential neighborhoods, and really ought to be out in the middle of nowhere where the birds can fly into them in peace while the rest of us enjoy the quiet. The visual and noise pollution will grow old real quick. For those among you who are “green” and concerned….I suggest you watch Man of La Mancha, quit chasing windmills, and leave the rest of us alone!!!
MID-CENTURY
My wife and I recently redecorated our family room. I wanted to emulate a style that I observed in many of my friends’ homes when I was young growing up in a Jewish neighborhood. I call it “1950’s Jewish Modern” because my friends were mostly Jewish and their homes were decorated in this particular style…which stood out in deep contrast to my mother’s then traditional and French provincial taste. When we started the project we talked to the modern furniture dude who knew exactly what I meant when I used the descriptive term, and pointed us in the right direction. We have some close friends who happen to be Jewish and were tad chagrined at my decorating description, pointing out to me when they visited our home that what we really have is a modernized form of Art Deco. Well…we were both wrong. A television program on TLC called Flea Market Flip says what we have in our family room is “MID-CENTURY.” Ex-cuuuuuuuuse me! This babe who is one of the hosts on Good Morning America is also a decorator on the side. She scours flea markets and second hand stores for salvageable furniture and objets d’arts to sell to her victims, I mean clients, at exorbitant prices. She particularly specializes in pieces from the 1950’s and 60’s which she calls “MID-CENTURY.” I watched it the other day, and although some of the stuff was over the top with the burnt orange and the lime green, that’s what we got!!!! Now I feel old because what I remember as seeming just yesterday is now viewed as ancient history and used as cult interior decorating from the “MID-CENTURY.” Oh well, as they say, everything old is new again. I wonder if we still have that olive green crock pot in the basement?
ON TURNING 63
This week is my birthday. I turn 63. I am not happy about it. My office associate tells me to buck up because at least I am looking at the right side of the grass. That’s a comforting thought. I talked about it with my friends who I meet for breakfast before we go walking at the mall on Saturday mornings. I hear you when you say it is only a state of mind, be grateful you are healthy, and you don’t look like you are 63 (I don’t think I do either!). Tell it to my head when I need a nap in the afternoon and I am up at five in the morning to be the first one to doctor’s office at 7:30!! Yes, my health is generally good (knock on wood), but my eyes are giving me some difficulty and I am having some problems with my hearing. Prep time in the morning is taking longer and longer and when I look in the mirror I wonder how did a hair grow there!!! We used to go out for dinner at 7:30 now we go at 5:00. I know where the senior discounts are…Tuesday at Perkins is at the top of the list. I would like to retire, but it doesn’t seem to be in the cards in this era of economic austerity. We set our travel schedule by how much daylight there is.
On the other hand, I don’t really have the desire to do what I used to. I have done it already and the thrill is gone. I enjoy my home more now. I really enjoy my friends more. I sit on a lot of Boards and it is fun to watch those younger me pontificate on things the same way I used to pontificate on the very same things. I was wrong most of the time then. It is their turn to be wrong now. I just smile. One of the side benefits of serving in these types of organizations is meeting folks much younger than me. We aren’t close friends, but are good acquaintances and they give me an interesting perspective.
This year I am a tad more introspective than before. But like my Dad said…always look forward. Never look back. I think that is a good rule whether one is 23 or 63. Here’s another rule I learned from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: “Tears in a bucket! Mother _____ it!” Also a good rule to follow! So…Happy Birthday to me…and to you when it’s your birthday too!
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