Category: Life’s Stories
Updating a Busy Week, few posts….
but lots going on….
So this week has been a busy week, but one of the things that has been missing is running! My last run was on last Sunday!! Since then, I’ve missed one run due to the weather, two because I was pleasantly babysitting my grandson Oliver and the other days I didn’t have running shoes.My old ones got tossed and I haven’t made it to Sports Authority to buy new ones yet. Oh and then there was the day that one of our two nineteen year-old cats was hit by a car and we sadly had to put him to sleep. Anyway the bottom line is that I haven’t been running but I’ve been busy!. Hopefully, I will be able to run tomorrow!!
World Series Memories – the tales of three game ending home runs 1960, 1964, 1993!!
So as I sat thinking about tonight’s World Series Game 7, my thoughts went to famous World Series home runs. The first thing that popped into my mind was one of my favorite trivia questions of all-time! Who was playing left field for the New York Yankees when Bill Mazeroski hit his game winning home run to give the Pittsburgh Pirates a 10-9 win over the New York Yankees. The win gave the Pirates a 4-3 Series victory and the 1960 World Championship! The answer is Yogi Berra!! I had just turned 9 years old and even then I hated the Yankees and very much enjoyed that afternoon! It’s the first World Series that I can remember, though really don’t remember many of the other games in the series!
It wasn’t Record Store Day – But Edward had fun at the Princeton Record Exchange! (Video)
My wife went to the State Archives in Trenton yesterday to “look for dead people”, which is just my way to say that she was doing genealogy investigating. Actually, she was mostly looking up things to help people, who have contacted her on the Internet. Typically, I will drop her off in the morning (we live about 45 minutes south of Trenton) and then pick her up after work. Yesterday, she said she didn’t think she could last the whole day, so she suggested that she could only go for a few hours and that I could travel on up the road to Princeton and visit The Princeton Record Exchange! Since I still have a $25.00 gift card left from a couple of year ago, she didn’t have to ask twice!! She did sweeten the pot though by saying that it would be ok to spend a little more than what was left on the gift card if I wanted to. I said I doubted that I would need more at The Record Exchange but that I do like Labyrinth Books that’s around the corner up on Nassau Street! Here’s a list of the bargains that I found….. .
Adrian Legg – wine, women & waltz – this 1993 release is a collection of tunes mostly waltzes, that appear on a few of Legg’s other albums. The ones that appear here are alternate versions. I look forward to hearing these tunes from this great guitarist. Punch Brothers – Antifogmatic – I have listened to these great musicians in the past both as the Brothers and as solo artists. Each musician is a master of his instrument. The only thing missing from the band is dobro – just kidding! Ottmar Liebert + Luna negra – Euphoria – another favorite acoustic guitarist – this is a 1996 release the label on the CD cover says that the album is a special limited edition that contains rare remixes previously unavailable in the US! The Legendary Oscar Peterson Trio …Last Call at the Blue Note – a 1992 release on the Telarc Jazz label The album is a recording of a reunion of the original Oscar Peterson Trio featuring Herb Ellis on guitar and Ray Brown on bass made about 30 years after their origin recordings together!! Miles Davis – The Best of the Miles Davis Quintet 1965 – 1968 – the quintet included Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. This CD contains highlights taken from the deluxe box set and included some rare alternate takes!! Ben Webster – Jazz ‘Round Midnight – This album is a collection of Webster’s recording for Verve in the 1950s and features Coleman Hawkins , Oscar Peterson and others. I have never listened to a lot of Ben Webster, so I look forward to listening to this album. Lee Morgan: The Very Best – A collection of seven of Lee Morgan’s best songs from Blue Note. Rudy Van Gelder served as the recording engineer on all the tracks and the musicians who played with him include some greats. I listened to this album yesterday and really like it! John Ellis – one foot in the swamp – took a leap of faith on this album based on the folks playing with him. The list includes Nicholas Payton, Jason Marsalis, and John Scofield! We’ll see! Coyote Oldman – Tear of the Moon – It wasn’t too long ago that I listened to these guys, so it was an easy decision to pick up this album. The album includes not only Native American flute but also Incan pan pipes! I can’t wait!! Mark Whitfield – true blue – this 1994 release on Verve includes compositions from guitarist Whitfield as well as blues songs from Monk, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane! Now if you haven’t been keeping track that’s 10 albums containing a lot of good jazz and some New Age – I used my $25.00 gift card that now still has money left on it!! Here’s a video showing a rather young Mark Whitfield – the man can play guitar!!!
Rambling thoughts of how I try to look at life…..
A Busy Weekend and thoughts on the Generation Gap!
The reason that I haven’t posted much this weekend, is that it has been a busy one. First, I worked at Target on Friday night, then we had a picnic to celebrate my son Peter and daughter Elizabeth’s graduations. So Saturday we were running around in the morning and early afternoon getting ready for the party and then had the picnic in the late afternoon through the night. Sunday morning was recovery and shopping and then work from 3 to 10:30 at Target and now I’m back to work at my regular job this morning!! So I sat down this morning and looked at the birthdays and there are none from 1946 to 1961, that does not bode well for a boomer who usually writes about the people who were born during those years!!!
Mommy said buy lots of Candy! Ya’ Think!
While I was at work the other night at Target, I overheard a conversation between a father and daughter. The father said something I don’t think I’ve ever heard before, “Remember, Mommy said, buy lot’s of candy!” After they left, that phrase kept spinning around in my head like Lewis Black overhearing , “If it wasn’t for that horse, I wouldn’t have spent that year in college!” So I kept trying to figure it out, and some possible explanations came to me:
Rambling thoughts about my life’s future path! Where do I go from here?
So I guess it’s that time in my life where questioning where I’m going in the future is of utmost importance to me! I’ve spent the last 34 years plus working at the same job, married to a wonderful woman and together we’ve raised four amazing children! But over the last month, as I watched two of my children graduate from college and listened to the commencement speakers, I start to wonder, am I all that I could have been, have I done all I should have! I think the majority of people when asked this question would probably answer no! Last year, I read Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project and in that book she challenged herself to be more happy. It wasn’t that she wasn’t happy, she just wanted more happiness, that’s kinda where I’m at. The question remains, where do I go from here!!
Some Great finds at Goodwill last Saturday!
So last Saturday, while my wife was at an Antiques appraisal in Beverly, I dropped off the last few boxes of clothes and Christmas decorations of my mother’s at Goodwill. Now I can’t go to Goodwill without check out the used books. I took a quick look through the books and picked up The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry, an early Cotton Mather book, a couple of others look ok. Then I looked up at the sign that said Books 4 for $ 1.00 ok I have to look a little more closely now. After the second look I found three more hardback books. Monster by Frank Peretti, an interesting horror book that I think I’ve looked at in the past in the Bargain Books at Barnes and Noble, Jacksdaws by Ken Follett because I know my wife likes Ken Follett. Of course, I bring it home and the first thing my wife says is “Is there Sex in it? No one writes sex scenes better than Ken Follett” Soon she’s reading away. Me: “You found one?” K: “yes, page 242!” 
The last book that I picked up was Stones into Schools:Promoting Peace with books, not bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea. Now I have seen Three Cups of Tea but never took the time to see what it was about – mistake. The book is about Mortenson’s quest to build a school in Korphe, Pakistan. Three cups of tea refers to a Balti saying “The first cup of tea you share with us, you are a stranger. The second cup of tea, you are a friend. But with the third cup of tea, you become family – and for our family we are willing to do anything, even die” I love it! Stones into Schools picks up where the earlier book ends in 2003 and traces Mortenson and his non-profit Central Asia Institutes’ efforts to work in a whole new country, the northeast corner of Pakistan.
