GULP SWALLOW

...just some more stuff to chew on.

[gulpswallow]

A FOOL AND HIS MONEY!

Okay, here’s a rare consumer advice edition to Marc’s Blog.  Now, right away, I expect tons of you (are you a ton…or just pounds?) to immediately call me a dummy or worse and tell me anyone with half a brain wouldn’t make the mistake I am warning you about.  So, in my pay-it-forward state of mind I will take the insults and offer the advice anyway.  It just saved me $25 a month I’ve been paying…

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KEEPIN' ON

Perhaps one or two of you may have noticed I’ve been away for a few weeks. In fact, I think this is the longest my blog has gone without being updated for its 10+ years.  Maybe it’s the new year getting off to a sluggish start, or maybe just plain old writer’s block, but I’ve been escaping lately–escaping thinking about where I am in life and what lies ahead.  When you reach your 70s your mind…

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TIME OUT!

Rosemarie and I are on holiday chill…hope yours is relaxing too. C-yuh in the new year!

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SUSPENDED!

It’s nobody’s fault, but I now realize I have suffered much because my parents did not live long enough for me to “grow into them.”  By that I mean I have suffered the same fate many people have in that it took me most of my life to realize that much of my emotional makeup mirrors that of my parents.  It has been only in the past twenty years or so that I realize much of the way I process all the…

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A POST-THANKSGIVING POEM

Thanksgiving is over and everyone has gone home. We did the dishes, polished the counters and the chrome. Everything is back to normal; the food explosion has settled. I returned to the gym and 12 miles on the bike I peddled. The fridge is full of leftovers in bowls or wrapped in foil. I refuse to cook a thing today even if it’s water to boil. They say the remaining turkeys on the farm are…

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THANKSGIVING, A POEM

THANKSGIVING, A POEM

Here’s another one of my Thanksgiving tributes from years past. This one appeared on my blog in 2013. Now remember, I never promise great poetry, but I do commit to making good rhymes! Thanksgiving is the one American holiday that has it all. Parades and family gatherings, the big dinner and, of course, football. The clanging of pots and pans signal a busy kitchen with lots going on. Cooks…

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Let The Poems Begin!

Let The Poems Begin!

Well, as some of you may know, I am an excellent poet when I set my mind to it and one thing that always sets my mind to rhyme is Thanksgiving. So what I’ve done is gone back in blog time and retrieved past poems written for the Thanksgiving holiday. I will be featuring them this week and–trust me–you will find that each and every one of them is a real turkey! Happy Holiday!                    …

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LEARNING

Every once in a while I get to thinking about the books I have written.  They have always been a bit of a puzzlement to me, or maybe challenge is a better word.  Each time you learn something, you usually want to put it to use, or at least store it from that point forward.  Let’s say you have finally mastered playing a musical instrument, at least to your satisfaction. Surely it is natural that…

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REFLECTIONS - Family Culture

REFLECTIONS – Family Culture

This is the third in a series of “reflective” postings I hope to be making for some time to come. These are random memories I have of things and people that have left an impression on me, regardless of significance. This time the subject is “family culture.” Because of the “culture” in which I was raised, I was placed in an environment at an early age that encouraged stability and independence. …

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REFLECTIONS...The Grandparents

REFLECTIONS…The Grandparents

This is the second in a series of “reflective” postings I hope to be making for some time to come. These are random memories I have of things and people that have left an impression on me, regardless of significance. This time the subject is “grandparents.” I never met my mother’s parents. They had both died before I came along. My father’s parents, however, were part of my life through some…

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REFLECTIONS…The Bike

first in a series of random memories I do a lot of reflecting, looking back if you will, now that I am in my late seventies.  Looking back is what most folks who reach my age spend a lot of time doing.  It is a natural transition into the so-called golden years.  Your youth, and even most of your adult life are behind you. The future does not hold the kinds of things it used to.  Things like a…

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THE ELUSIVE CRUST

 I’ve never had a formal bucket list.  I suppose if I did, item #1 would be to have a bucket list!  Item #2 would likely be “pie crust.” Okay, not really.  #2 would be that riverboat trip they advertise that goes from Paris to Normandy Beach.  I’ve always wanted to make that trip. But getting back to pie crust, yes, that’s an item that would get some priority.  No, it’s not really weird.  I am,…

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BACK IN THE CHAIR

BACK IN THE CHAIR

In many of my older postings I used to make reference to my “thinking chair.”  It wasn’t really any kind of extraordinary chair and it certainly didn’t have any special or magical thought process (that was me) embedded within its structure.  Truth be told, it was an ordinary lawn chair that sat out on the patio on the back side of my house.  One true note, however, I did spend a lot of time…

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IAN'S LESSON

IAN’S LESSON

It has been an eventful week too say the least.  If you have never lived in a hurricane environment it may be difficult for you to really grasp the torment mother nature can thrust upon you.  I suspect those of you who live in areas susceptible to earthquakes or tornadoes share the experience. I have lived in the southern regions of Florida since 1983 and hurricanes, by now, are simply an…

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WHAT'S IN YOUR DRAWERS?

WHAT’S IN YOUR DRAWERS?

I stopped procrastinating the other day and finally got around to cleaning up my work area.  This includes my desk, its top and its drawers.  Mind you, I am a pretty compulsive neatnick, at least that’s my default setting.  But I am not perfect. I will, at times, ignore my orderly tendencies and leave a pencil out of the pencil cup or maybe go so far as to leave an empty ice cream bowl on top of…

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Married Married

When I am asked if I am married I usually respond by saying, “Yes, I am married married.” I say it twice because it’s my way of stressing how long. “Exactly how long?” you ask. Well it just so happens Rosemarie and I are married 55 years today, September 9th.  Happy anniversary to us and, yes, that’s us in the picture back in 1967. Now, I cannot razzle-dazzle you with expert marriage counseling…

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SKULL!

I don’t drink. I never liked the taste of liquor, beer or wine. The odor of empty beer bottles piled up in the trash makes me nauseous.   Wine, meanwhile, has a medicinal taste that I find has no relationship to the word, “fine.”  And the harder stuff like scotch and bourbon? Forget it.  I hasten to add that I have absolutely no objection to people drinking, assuming they are responsible about…

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