Focused at Fifty

These are mostly everyday occurrences which I come across and either roll my eyes at, sigh loudly, or exclaim “UGH!” in disgust. Now before, my friendly reader, you tell me to get over it, I do recognize that these are pretty minor. Just chalk it up that I’m on my way to becoming a crotchety old man. Some of these are car related as my commute really sucks. I was commuting last week on busy Route 78  and next to me was an older man drinking coffee out of a white ceramic kitchen mug. Ugh! It’s 2013, drive immediately to Dunkin Donuts and buy yourself a metal or plastic travel mug. I hate it when the first clam in a heaping steaming bowl is the filled with grit! I get annoyed by having to line up with others at the Southwest airline gates in the A, B, and C lines like we are cattle. I am usually in line C so that means I am a member of the lower class cattle. I had brunch with John this morning at a diner in downtown State College, PA. They put out glass k...

The video link for the AOL video " The 'Mole Hole': Price of Living Alone? The Worst Apartment Ever": http://realestate.aol.com/ blog/on/cheap-rental-became- worst-apartment-ever/ A couple months ago, I was fortunate enough to receive an email out of the blue from an AOL producer concerning one of my blog articles that I posted, “The Mole Hole”. Annie Carroll was interested in filming a video interview of it for an AOL series on bad real estate experiences called "My Next Move." It would document the horrible experience and what you learned from it. How excited was I! After “checking out” the producer (of course from the advice of my big sister Sheryl), I determined she was legit and I emailed Annie back saying I was very much interested in it. For those that don’t remember or haven't read my blog post, “The Mole Hole,” it is about my worst apartment experience. It was such an odd little trashy studio that my sister Sheryl openly sobbed about it ...

For some reason, I have had a case of writer's block the last couple weeks. I have started 4 separate blog articles but haven't seemed to take them to completion. They will remain as drafts for now, until I get the urge to finish them up. In the meantime, I passed one of my clients in the hallway at work and something green caught my eye. He was a big burly dude and had these two tattoos on his calves: The first, New Jersey, is not that bad. I hail from South Jersey and love the Garden State. I am very proud to be from Jersey although I would never have thought to get a tattoo of my state across my calf. The second tattoo is a little more disturbing. It is the logo from Monster Energy drinks. Are ya kidding me? You would really mark yourself permanently (let me repeat PERMANENTLY) with a corporate logo?!  There was no mistaking it is the Monster Energy logo and get this, even crazier … it is upside down so that when he looks behind at his calf, it would appear right side ...

My faithful readers, I wanted to introduce you to two blogs that I highly recommend.  The first is a blog by a well established blogger who has been blogging for many years, since 2005.  The second, by a young travel blogger who also happens to be a good friend and family member.  Her excitement and thirst for travel writing leaves me inspired for my own blog. The first is written by a friend and former classmate Thomas Lobascio. Tom's blog is "The Last Reel,"   http://thelastreel.blogspot.com/  .   Tom blogs, as he puts it perfectly "about movies so that you don't have to. I will post industry news and opinion."  Tom writes reviews and posts trailers for the hottest up coming movies that you have heard about and a lot that you have not heard about but will be happy you now know.  Tom is an incredible blogger. I wish I posted as many articles as he does!  The information, posters, and trailers show an impressive up to date knowledge of...

I was up way before the crack of dawn this morning at 3:30 AM.  John and I were on our way to a favorite flea market where we buy and sell at called Jake's  in Barto, PA. Both our vehicles were laden down with our antiques, flea market items, and bottom of the barrel crap not to mention bags, labels, tags and tables! Jake's Flea Market is a huge flea market with several hundred vendors on Route 100 just north of Boyertown, PA. As with any large flea market, if you are looking for something, chances are it can be found at Jake's We arrived at Jake's at around 5:15 AM and were relieved that we were able to get a couple of pretty good spaces. The threat of rain held everyone at bay so it wasn't as crowded as it normally is on a summer Sunday. After walking around shopping for treasures for 45 minutes, we set up our stuff in the couple of spaces we rented and started selling our wares. We always bring a mixture of ...

Sunday was a pretty productive day. I ended up at Lowe's and bought a smattering of impatiens, other assorted flowers, creeping plants like sweet pea and English ivy, hanging pots, and soil to begin finally finishing off this deck for the summer. I always plot what to do each week so that by end of June I will have everything completed. The list gets chucked by mid June with a muttered "Eff it" under my breath. I then play catch up until the Fall. By that time, all the plants that were planted in May have either died or become overgrown and it is time to start thinking about mums, pumpkins, and dried corn stalks.   I had a bunch of dirt left over and needed to repot some house plants so I figured I would complete that task as I already had the blackened fingernails of a seasoned day-gardener. I grabbed four houseplants and carried them out to my staging area in the driveway. By staging area, I mean cracked open cans of beer, a cassette player playing Fleetwood Mac...

As I navigated the dead crunchy corpses of the male cicadas, I came to the realization, I am over them big time. The 17 year cicadas arrived about 3 or 4 weeks ago. They struggled through the soil where they lay buried and hidden for the last decade and a half patiently waiting until that internal alarm commanded them to dig upwards! I was so excited at the sight of their thousands of holes across the yard and just amazed that there they lay buried without us having any knowledge of them.  Cicada on leaf John was not so excited. We first thought it was an insect invasion of another sort, maybe some mass invasion of mud wasps or bees which had suddenly come forth to reek havoc on the end of Spring! I had thought it might by cicadas but had not heard anything in the news about a new brood. After the news began reporting that Brood II, the 17 year cicadas, were coming forth, I remembered back to when the 13 year cicadas came forth several years ago....