A Better Life

Well as the world has gone absolutely nuts over the Corona Virus (COVID-19), I have watched and waited until it entered my sphere of influence.  It has now affected a person I admire and whose work I have enjoyed for many decades and my employer has now jumped into the fray.   Tom Hanks has been an influence for me since high school and for these 40 odd years he has rarely disappointed.  I was saddened to hear he and his wife had tested positive for the virus.  Since he was working on his next opus, I get that risks must be taken to advance his career.  However, I am a little disheartened to think someone would have exposed him and his lovely wife to this illness.  Anyway, word is that they are both doing just fine and are quarentined for their and everyone elses safety. My employer which is a multinational corporation has now joined in the preparation to protect and serve their employees and clients.  For today, we are all (at least in the US...

In all of the English language, no two words personify hope and the unexpected as What If.  These 2 words form the basis for most if not almost all stories we hold near and dear to our hearts.  It is a very prolific technique for exploring a new idea for a novel, screenplay, poem, prose and any other form where words dominate.  Personally, I like to ask the What If? question for any point in my life where I had to make a decision that formed the iconic fork in the road.  What if I had not married her?  What if I hadn't left this college?  What if I had not finished college, what might I have done?  Given the way life went, what if I had pursued my true dream instead of the safe path I actually followed? What if can also be applied to purely fictional enterprises like What if our legal system was more of a lottery than a process.  In other words, you are accused, they roll the dice which determines guilt, innocents and the length of your prison t...

While I am very happy with my current position, sometimes it would be nice to have a bit more money to work with.  When things get particularly tight, there always seems to be someone who wants a bit more than I feel I can afford.  Lease renewal, there is an additional $150 per month, health insurance open enrollment, now there is an additional $75 per pay check, the list goes on and on.  Seems everyone seizes the opportunity for the money grab.  Money Grab is a generic term that means someone or some entity is taking what they can while they can.  Leasing companies are the worst, especially when the property is taken over by a new management company.  They invested a considerable sum to acquire your property and are going to do everything they can to recoup that investment.  All of a sudden, I have a charge for natural gas.  My unit does not have natural gas, just electric but the community swimming pool and spa uses gas so everyone now has t...

In my daily discourses, I notice how pitifully poor my cohorts working vocabulary.  Seemingly lost in a myriad of colloquialisms and profanity interspersed for variety.  Must we always offend with each opening of our lips.  Surely, some attention must have been paid in grammar school when the vocabulary building exercises were laid upon us.  Fore I know most have college degrees from one sort of institution of higher learning or another.  My esteemed colleagues from the Ivy League variety do exercise a more refined discourse for mostly vane pursuits but for the others, please buy a dictionary and read it!  I do not raise myself to any higher, loftier position just awareness that there are quite a number of words that can be interjected for the banal comments that I witness on a daily (hourly sometimes) basis.  For those times when I try to elevate the conversation to a more refined level while discussing simple concepts like what does one wish to eat...

Today marks 10 years since I put my ex-wife on a plane to Las Vegas.  A trip that was presented to me as going with friends (married couples) but in actuality and most deceptively was a ruse to spend time with her boy toy who I believe she ultimately married.  Adding pain to agony, I also paid for approximately $600 in Harley-Davidson t-shirts according to a reliable source.  This was but a step toward my life separated from my possessions but that ultimately freed my soul to join with the love of my life.  When reviewing the events of that faithful year (2009) I see that a decision was made for me that I would have never chosen for myself.  The divorce agonizing not just for me but for all those around me as is the case in these experiences.  No man is an island, Jack indeed.  It started with the discovery of an email that my wife had received from a divorce attorney, culminating in an agreement that haunts me to this day.  The key word for t...

Last night as my wife is wont to do, she suggested watching a movie together.  Now as a dutiful husband, I complied happily, at first.  So we are watching "Sleepless in Seattle" with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.  Lovely movie, a little unrealistic but lovely just the same.  So, okay so this is nice and enjoyable but then comes "League of Their Own" with Tom Hanks again.  Now, this being a sports movie, it should be fine but then on finer inspection it comes across as a bonafide movie that mainly females would enjoy (colloquially known as a "Chick Flick" - no offense intended). Sleepless in Seattle also qualifies but I have to say the Sappiness index (my own creation) goes skyward with "A League of Their Own" because first, it is about a problem that the baseball owners faced during World War II when their best players were tapped to serve in the armed services.  What is a baseball owner to do?  Create a league of women players, of course!  They were...

As I prepare to attend the comic styling's of one Gary Owen this weekend at the Addison Improv outside of Dallas, TX, I am drawn to the ever present question, what is so entertaining about stand up comedy? Gary Owen has a take that I can so relate to since we are both from humble beginnings and married to women of a more favorable complexion.  His routine about going to a child's baptism at an African-American church is so on point.  My wife's cousin's little boy was being baptized and I kid you not we were there for 3 full hours and yes there was a step team to boot. On the regular, I will binge watch some of my favorite stand ups from the days of yore on YouTube.  Among my favorites are Steven Wright (deadpan at it's best)  Sam Kinison (snort a line and you too can wail like a banshee)  Robin Williams (tragic but oh so funny)  Richard Pryor (remembering sneaking a listen to him back in the 70's as a kid)  Chris Rock (just a funny dude with ...