Focused at Fifty

Katahdin Woods and Water National Monument During this last trip to Maine in October, I learned a lot. I have every trip to Maine but this time, I  decided to share it with you rather than keep this incredible wealth of knowledge trapped up in my mind. I mean FASCINATING! OK, just grab yourself a beer, hopefully an IPA and pull up a chair. There are lots of weird different bugs in Maine. I can't identify them. I see them and am like, OK that's new! Something purple with fangs.... now SHOOO!!!!  There are lots of spiders. Different colors and shapes and sizes. Luckily nothing which screams "Kingdom of the Spiders". Maine potatoes are just as good if not better than Idaho potatoes. And the fields of white potato flower are just beautiful!  Goats, chickens, sheep, horses and donkeys make great field buddies together. Add cows into the mix and it's a different story. (Awwwwwkwaaarrrd) Apparently cows have attitude?  Lobster is better in pairs and definitely steamed...

I apologize for the delay on this piece. It was tough watching the videos and reliving the memories.  This 9/11 was the 20th Anniversary of the most horrific terrorist attack ever wagered against our great country. Let that sink in. It is still that horrific. Nothing before or ever after has equaled it. And with God's blessing, may nothing ever ever again.  Four close friends experienced that harrowing day first hand. All are still traumatized in their own way. I won't go into too much detail to preserve their anonymity. One is a business man who was in one of the World Trade Center buildings (not the Towers) that fateful morning and luckily was able to get out. One is a doctor who immediately helped out at the scene. One is a first responder who immediately raced to the complex to help out regardless of the danger he was putting himself in. My final friend is a former NYC business man who ran from his Wall Street office and was enveloped by the cloud of concrete dus...

"Dad Enjoying himself Reading" As streaks of rain beat across my office window, I watched the storm clouds roll by this morning. Then I noticed something interesting, the clouds were moving East to West, in the opposite direction. That's odd, I thought. They were moving rather quickly as well. Then I remembered the remnants of Hurricane Ida were moving through the area. This must be one of the bands of rains and winds passing through Allentown. I thought about my father and wished I could turn back time just as quickly as those clouds were moving East to West. How wonderful would that be, to have him younger and spry, once again ready to fight off the never ending gophers in his yard, to producing art in his studio as he once did, to be attending art events to his heart's content.   Now my Dad sits contently in his living room, listening to opera, sipping wine, stealing sips of my beer, reading articles and short stories or looking at art books. When we wen...

As a child, I remember my mother was cooking in the kitchen on the stove, slowly stirring a small saucepan of Prego tomato sauce. I stood there right next to her, watching her intently. She moved the sauce onto a green avocado hot plate and turned off the electric burner, specifically warning me not to touch it as it was still hot. Being ever so precocious, I touched it immediately and howled in pain. For a good two weeks, I had first and second degree burns on my palm in the shape of the electric stove coils. You live and learn, right? Maybe not.  A waiter delivers my food in a restaurant and warns me that the plate is very hot as she puts it down in front of me. As soon as she leaves the table, I have this overwhelming urge to test her warning and touch it! I usually do and with my calloused fingers tips from decades of waiting tables, I laugh and scoff at her warning!  The other week I was baking these incredible triple chocolate brownies. For a split second, I forgot that ...

A bit ago, I was discussing a mutual acquaintance with someone and we talked about the very real issue of addiction among people we know. This acquaintance starts a job and then cannot follow through without whatever pain killer he takes. It eventually affects his ability to work and he just quits, unable to handle it. It was a sobering conversation. It was frank and uncomfortable.  The following blog is just my thoughts on the subject of addiction. At this juncture in my life, I am not looking for advice. Comments are always welcome.  I have complicated issues with alcohol. I've recently been pretty open about them. I don't look for sympathy from people. It is my own cross to bear. I will always have to watch what I drink. Something switches in me and I eventually become angry. I don't drink in the morning. I don't drink every day or night. I don't pass out from it at night. My issues stem from binge drinking so I have stopped doing the "shot" thing. No m...

"Unabashedly Marc" The other afternoon, I passed the mirror in the hallway and glanced ever so slightly and quickly to my left. I stopped short with a fright, thinking I had seen my father or mother, but no, in that instant it was me staring back. My father's eyes. My mothers nose, her face. My real father's gray beard. Wow... it was me!  I asked myself,  When did this happen? Well it happened, I sighed. I stopped into the bathroom for a closer look and I see myself looking back at me in the mirror. And I also see my mother looking back at me. My biological father Joseph's eyes. The beard I vowed I would never grow, as I felt like I would look like the man I most despised. And yet here I was, unable to escape looking like the man I hated and happily looking like the woman I most loved (well, besides my dear Sis Sher LOL.) 😊 It was a conundrum of sorts. Left me a bit shaken and confused as to my feelings. I eventually realized that there is no out running my looks...

I have had much to ponder about this past month, my 51st birthday month. This was a month which I was dreading all year long. It had nothing to do with the crazy Covid year. I quite simply was not looking forward to turning "51".  In retrospect, I was OK turning 30, 40, or 50. It was the year after which I had issues with. I think it's because it hit me that I was now in a new decade. I was 31, 41, or this year as the case may be, 51. It hits you and you realize, whelp ... there's no turning back now!  Another decade has sprung upon me! I was up in the new home in Maine this weekend, the Gardiner House as we call it. Built by Mr. Gardiner way back when in the late 1800s, it stands proudly with the test of time as well as a throwback to a far simpler time. it is not an overtly Victorian gingerbread but just a solid large farmhouse with an attached barn just a block from the town square. There is just a little gingerbread on the main side porch, suggesting a lace doily ...