Dancing in the Streets

"Summers here and the time is right...."

My kids ended school on Friday and now Summer has come in like a fireball.  Hitting the mid-90's regularly on the temperature dial with that 9 on the UV scale.  Doing wonders for my leaking car radiator, but that's neither here nor there.  My youngest has Lacrosse Camp this week.  Hoping my time and money are well spent with an athletic scholarship in 7 yrs.  Should be a nice ROI.  Anyone VC want to back me?

The oldest is signing up for Driver's Ed.  Spending 32 hours in classroom training learning about the road rules.  I remember back in the stone age when we had to sit in simulator training and then getting behind the wheel with the teacher's foot firmly on his brake.  We had a girl in our car who instead of starting the ignition, hit the wipers, every time. 

Need to hit the bricks and raise some serious cabbage so I can pass along the leaking radiator on to the new driver and get myself the 1974 Camaro that Jim Rockford drove all over LA.  Now that had some serious muscle.  Although the new KIA ain't so bad either.
 

Thank you for letting me have a few seconds of your day.

I've Seen All Good People

A buddy of mine texted me today as he was filling up his gas tank.  Him and his wife were on their way to take their daughter to freshman orientation.  They were freaking out as that was the day the two of them met 28 yrs ago.  I remember that day.  My buddy and I both graduated from the same high school and heading off to the same university.  Since this university tended to have an early admission schedule, we spend most of our senior year of high school going to the beach, playing Strat-O-Matic baseball, shooting hoops and of course going to the plethora of high school parties with all of our buddies.  We weren't goof balls, but lived just on the edge without going too far.  Homecoming that year was spent at his house as we fondly remember our in depth discussion with local law enforcement, his younger sibling's anxiety, as well as the barrage of known and unknown guests who came and went all weekend. 

That summer he had an early orientation and mine was a few weeks later.  His future wife also lived near us so things were in motion for them to get together before we headed off to school.  The rest, as we say, is history.  They married two years after graduation and then soon started a family.  All of us went overboard with the bachelor party and then at the wedding reception as one does as the first from their group graduates to the next level of adulthood.

We stay in touch mainly through social media as life happens to all of us, but the events and memories from nearly 30 years ago still feel as new and exciting as they were then.  I guess that is the miracle of the human mind is that it can refute Einstein.  Add time and distance to a certain event it tends to get stronger, not weaker, no matter how fast your life is projecting through the universe.

Overture of 2013

RUSH was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Watching the festivities on HBO last night, a few things went through my mind.  Geddy Lee in his simple analysis described his partners and himself as a working band.  After 39 years and 40 million records, I have to say they are the most successful working band of all time.  To realize that much success and still have the same passion you did when first starting out is truly amazing.  Those three individuals came together and the audience found them.  They did not adapt to current themes or flashy trends.  Just play what they thought was good, to the best of your ability, and the art will be appreciated.

Watching them belt out Spirit of the Radio in front of a mostly Hollywood packed house, was typical of the boys from Up North.  Their music wasn't for the Top 40 DJ's/TV hosts who play the latest hot number by a so-called musician who's lyrics speak about cool area codes and self promotion and who's instrument is an MP3 player pushed in front of them from the industry. As RUSH says: "For the words of the prophets were written on the studio wall and Concert hall."

Born Under a Bad Sign

The title song has one of the greatest lines. "If it weren't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all."

“It's not whether you got knocked down; it's whether you get back up.”
― Vince Lombardi Jr.

These days I need about 2 hours to clear the cobwebs from my 20 years of knocking myself down.  It never surprises me that being your own worst enemy is absolutely true.  The mind is a dangerous thing, but if controlled, can do wonders.

Looking forward to getting back up again.

Thank you for letting me have a few seconds of your day.

Heart of Darkness

After 3 games, the Mets have two wins and a bucket load of extra base hits.  Passover has ended and my colon is relieved.  The world has started to resemble past years when a few small events puts the machine in motion. 

What I'm talking about is a crazy dictator shouting about nuclear missiles, a small country closing its banks to depositors and then giving them a haircut, a massive liquidation in commodities, and a few central banks putting the printing press in overdrive.  Markets have responded with a first quarter jump to new highs as money flows chase performance.

Besides that, everything is groovy.  Not.

Thank you for letting me take a few seconds of your day. 

Opening Day

Once the winter ends it seems the world becomes a nicer friendlier place.  Is football the evil spirit that leaves and gives us a chance of renewal?  I doubt it, but maybe more than a coincidence. As the great George Carlin remarked, "Baseball has extra innings, Football has sudden death."

To name baseball a pastime seems like a perfect description.  Most of us my age, look back on Little League as probably your first team sport.  You got the uniform, tried to wear the hat to school everyday, and didn't really care too much about winning.  My specialty was hit by pitch.  Seems my on base percentage was way out of whack to my batting average if you know what I mean.

Back on the East Coast, every night of the week you can grab a few innings of a game either on the radio or TV.  My AP Biology teacher would determine the difficulty of the weekly quiz depending on how the Yankees were playing.

Maybe because I am older and living in Texas, it seems that attachment to baseball has really disappeared in our society.  The biggest sports news is spring football.  Kids definitely relate more to Football and Basketball as their players have a lot more marketing dollars behind them.  But life is a lot different now then 25 years ago.  The pace of a baseball game lingers for hours, and the announcers are trained to spin yarns about games long ago.  It ain't Xbox for sure.

But the weather is great.  March Madness is a week away. Then, Opening Day.  It's uncanny how the calendar rhymes.  As I will be telling the story of Exodus at my Seder, I will also tell the story of Game 6 (1986 for you non-Mets fans), if there are any listeners.

Thank you for letting me take a few seconds of your day.

FWIW, Its not a tumor.

No, I did not get a call from my doctor this week about test results, and I did not watch Kindergarten Cop.  I did get a call from my brother who has accepted a tenure track position at a large research University.  His specialty is microbiology and his research will focus on breast cancer.  This followed up a discussion I had this week with a colleague about possible triggers in our bodies to certain behaviors.  Whether food, alcohol, smoking, etc...  The present day belief that we all will get some kind of cancer if we live long enough.

This got me thinking to other similar plans the human body has in store for us.  I know that at age 40 my ears became the sole grower of hair as the head proceeded to end that process.  Now why would Neanderthal man need to grow hair out of his ears?  Was there some kind of insect that would try to harvest itself inside the human brain?  Was the atmosphere full of radioactivity that hair follicles protected our vital organs?  Or is it a combination of synapses that determined our heads are not as important as our ears as we age?

As our research finds more answers and we develop better treatments, the demographics of our population will not resemble the ones of our grandparents.  Both of my parents died before the age of 72, however it will not be a surprise if my grandchildren surpass that by at least 30 years.  A lot of the work I have been doing with retirees, has been planning for the long haul. 

With so much of today's world tied up in technology such as smart phones, digital TV, and social networks, how does that translate to our elders?  Are we bifurcating society into the Tweets and the Tweet-Nots? Will we see a day when the senior citizens rise up and refuse to text?

Thank you for letting me have a few seconds or your day.