Renaissance Granddad's Explorations.....

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!!! Read More

Remembering Barb and Will and continuing the fight against lung cancer!

Will and Barb – We’ll Continue Your Fight!

New readers to this blog may look at the top of the right sidebar and question, why are there two Lung Cancer organizations posted with requests for donations. The reason is that back in January of this year my son’s brother-in-law Will Marris, lost his battle with lung cancer he was 30 years old.(Here is a report that ABC News report Nadya Han did on lung cancer featuring Will and Nicole) He was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer about 3 years earlier, just before my son Peter and Will’s sister Melissa were married. Oh, by the way Will was a non-smoker! Both of the organizations on the right sidebar are organizations that sponsor runs throughout the US to raise money for lung cancer research. Lung Cancer kills more people than all the other major cancers combined, and yet it is the least funded of all the cancers. I have participated in both runs and expect participating again this year! Read More

2013 Jazz – Aaron Diehl’s – The Bespoke Man’s Narrative

So last night I had the television on and there were no games on the Phils played in the afternoon and the NBA playoffs start tonight so a surfed a little, and then switched to the Music Choice jazz channel. I listened for a bit and heard two artists that sounded interesting, so I turned off the TV and went to MOG to find them. The first was jazz pianist Aaron Diehl and the second was drummer Jordon Young. Both of their albums were very, very good. particularly Diehl’s début album The Bespoke Man’s Narrative, which was released by Mack Avenue Records in March of this year. I was just blown away listening to this album! There are not many jazz pianist that I really love the list includes, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly and Bill Evans and now I will add Aaron Diehl to the list. Just how good is Aaron Diehl…..from his website: Read More

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: Read More

Book 19 of 2013 – Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi

As I browsed the library shelves a couple of weeks ago, i couldn’t pass up a book titled Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi, and I’m so glad I didn’t! Brian Leaf’s wonderful book, subtitled My Humble Quest to heal my Colitis, Calm my ADD and Find the Key to Happiness has become Book 19 for 2013. As I read the back cover of the book a quote from Kathryn Buid, author of The Women’s Health Big Book of Yoga pretty much sums it up! Read More

Craft Project complete, yoga mat stapled to the floor!

Earring Holder

Last night my daughter, Elizabeth, was working on a craft project (pictured above) and needed the staple gun. She asked me to find it, so I went down to the basement and found the hidden in plain sight among my tools. I remembered that the last time I picked it up, it really didn’t seem to be working right. So while sitting on my yoga mat, I tested it. Like the last time, it did not appear to be working. I tried it again, only this time, I pressed down a little harder. The first time I tried it I was holding it over the rug, the second time it was over my yoga mat, of course the second time’s harder push worked and now my yoga mat is stapled to the floor!! Read More

My Life shared with Five Cats! Oh My!

So we have five cats, four of them are male and one is female, One cat, Fenwick, the neurotic, stays away from the rest and lives in one room in the rear of the house. He used to be picked on, and was terrified of the other cats, but now he is happy in his little room. Often he is hard to find as he hides places you would never think he would fit, especially when he knows the vacuüm is coming! Of the other four cats one, Liam, is beloved.One James is semi-beloved. James is the brother of the neurotic Fenwick. The other two are Cow and Gabrielle. Cow, is black and white and the size of a small heifer. Think Kliban cat…… Read More

Books that “Rocked Your World”!

This morning is was thinking about reading and books that “Rocked your world”, well maybe not rock your world, but those that opens your eyes, maybe make you see the world in a new light. Books that touch you! One of the first books of mine that came to mind was, Jonathan Kozol’s Death at an Early Age. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve read but I remember at the time, this book revealed conditions that I really didn’t know existed and I remember being so touched by Kozol’s actions! Just recently that’s what Stones into Schools did for me. It smacked me in the face with the conditions that people live under in both Pakistan and Afghanistan and their need for and their thirst for education particularly for their daughters! The Imperial Cruise did it, too, by opening my eyes to US actions both in Hawaii and the Philippines! Read More

Life’s Soundtrack – A tough run – but an Introduction to Pendragon makes it better!

This year has been a bad running year, I just find myself finding other things to do than ponding the pavement. But today I talked myself into getting out there and running for only the second time this month! I don’t know if it’s because my knees don’t feel right or I’m disappointed in how slowly I run. What I really have to do is just remember that Nike slogan and “Just Do It!” Like I’ve done over the last few runs is plot out a new course one where I get to run over the same roads, just in a different order! My time over the 3.6 mile course was about 10 minutes per mile for the first mile or two and then 11 minutes over the last two for an average of 10:30. Again I will repeat my mantra, I just need to build miles and maybe the speed will come around! Read More