The Sunday Five: Booze

1: Do you drink alcohol? 

2: Did you participate in "Dry January?" 

3: A martini, Gin or Vodka, Shaken or Stirred? 

4: Is there a place you would consider your local pub or bar? 

5: What is your favorite drink to order? 

My Answers: 

1: Do you drink alcohol? Yes, in moderation. 

2: Did you participate in "Dry January?" No. No reason to. 

3: A martini, Gin or Vodka, Shaken or Stirred? Gin, extra dry, shaken. 

4: Is there a place you would consider your local pub or bar? For most of my life the answer was no, there was never anyplace close by, or within walking distance. Here at the condo, we have a bar in the community center, a two minute walk across the back drive. 

5: What is your favorite drink to order? I am most likely to ask for water, if I order a cocktail away from home, a gin martini, or a Manhattan. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: Love and Creativity

 

Happy Valentines Day, 

May and Yours be surrounded with Love today. 

What to post about creativity on Valentines Day? 

How does creativity relate to love?

Love requires being creative. Thinking about what the other person likes, and how to provide it. Finding the things that bring both persons joy. When love is challenged, and it happens, we need to dig deep into our creative process to find the common ground, to create an atmosphere that allows healing and love. To fill the senses of both parties with pleasure, hope, acceptance, forgiveness. 

    I better be careful or this will start to sound like a Monday post.

Some art is created to illustrate love. Portraits, art of passion, art of beauty, tenderness, and sacrifice are symbols of love we often create. For writers and filmmakers, romance is a best selling creative fiction category. I sold a house to a couple that wrote pornographic fiction for a living, they were passionately in love with one another.

Many of us love creating art, love cooking, love writing, love photography, love filmmaking. This is not romantic love, or is it? We have all know someone who seemed to be married to their work.  And as much fun as creating can be, it is also work. It maybe our life's work, or it may be the work that fills our "free time." 

Find time today, to express your love in creative ways, your love of another person, your love of creating, your love of life. 

The First Step is always to Begin Anyway, thank you Dianne for the post of the week. 

 

Freestyle Friday: What I get, what don't I get

This very large installation that has been in the inner core of the upper level of the Hirshorn for over a year. It was made for the space, there are few other places on the face of the earth that it would fit. When it comes down, it will probably spend years sitting the vault someplace. 

It is complex, textiles, mixed media, glue, paint, dyes, weaving. It has incredible texture, and as much as I like modern art, I just don't get it. I don't understand the message, and the artists contends that there is a message. The meaning is lost on me. I have seen this half a dozen times, and it really does not speak to me. 

So what do I get from it? An understanding of texture.  A strong use of blending of colors. The use of recycled materials. 

I don't get the message, but I do get the way this was created, the work that went into it, the way the materials are worked to create a flowing texture. 

The Thursday Ramble: The Vastness and Diversity of the World

 Last week we flew a little over half way across the country. Looking out the window, I was reminded how vast the country is, three hours in a 737, only covers about half way across the country.  Looking out the window there was fields of snow, small towns, large cities, expressways, railroads, country roads, forests, fields, pastures and waterways. There is an amazing mix of small towns, villages, settlements, small cities and huge cities. I am always surprised by how much open country there is. Miles and miles of fields, grasslands, and forests.  

Day to day, we see the world as it is, where we are. Our little corner of the world. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that everyplace, is like where we are. Flying over the country, I see the vastness and diversity of the land, of the world.  

It has been about six months, since my last airline flight. Long enough, maybe too long. 

This is not my best Ramble, it is a replacement for a political rant that I just can't bring myself to suffer through. 

My World of Wonders: February 11, 2026

 

Where have I been this week? The Hilton on the Riverwalk in San Antonio Texas. 

What have I been up to in the kitchen? I made small pizzas last Wednesday, then we left town for the rest of the week.  I miss cooking when I travel. 

So what have I eaten away from home? A nice crispy chicken sandwich with German potato salad in the airport in Charlotte, A Mexican sampler platter on the River Walk in San Antonio. An omelet, steak and shrimp, sliders. Scrambled eggs, enchiladas, seared scallops. A breakfast buffet the highlight of which was scrambled eggs with cream cheese, Mexican street corn, and enchiladas Verde. Eggs Benedict, and a wild boar pasta. A meatball parm sandwich with fried in the airport. 

What is in the photo above?  A couple of weeks ago Doc Spo mentioned lapel pins in his blog and showed a box he has filled with them. For decades I have collected pins, hat pins, lapel pins, collectible pins when I travel. At one time they were all on a hat, with the pins the hat was too heavy to wear. I have them five drawers filled with them, in a wood tool chest. And I will keep adding to the collection.

What was the weather like? Cold and windy in DC, sunny and 80's in San Antonio. It was nice, really nice, to have a few days away from the cold. 

Who have I talked to this week? About a dozen aging lawyer colleagues,  Lorraine, Jack, Al, Bob, Karen, Robert. I had lunch with Amy, my former boss. My sweet bear, who went with me on this trip. 

What did we see in San Antonio? The Briscoe Museum of Western Art. In a converted stone library building it is a compact and amazing collection, there will be a couple of Travel Tuesday posts when we get home. The highlight was an exhibit of the best high school art by students in Texas. The talent in that show, reassures me that the future of art is in brilliant hands.

 

Travel Tuesday: A brief stop in Iceland May 2025

 

Monday Mood: Be Kind to be Remembered

There I am, looking every minute of my age, bearded because shaving is too much bother, grey because that is what happens if we live long enough, fat, a bit flabby, far from a model, more of a bad example of an aging man, and I think to myself, "who cares" as the short video from the young and beautiful guy, says, nobody cares.  

Few people will notice, those that do will think what they want to think. They may think, does he know he is fat? Yes I do. Does he know he would look better with a better haircut and beard trim? Yes I do.  But for the most part they will not notice or remember me. I am a person they see in passing. 

If I am kind, if I say please and thank you, if I hold the door, and let the other person go first, helping in ways I can, they may remember that, but probably not me, not what I look like, or who I am or who I was. People remember the kindness, more than the person who was kind. 

A good number of years ago (before I had my spine repaired and rebuilt) I fell in a subway station, a very kind person helped me to my feet, not an easy task, and walked with me to my car that was parked in the garage. I remember the kindness, but not the person. (I send out into the cosmos a very heartfelt THANK YOU to him.) I also remember that the station manager, 50 feet away sitting in a glass cubicle, didn't do anything to help. He hardly looked up, didn't ask if I needed help, didn't offer to call for help. 

Don't worry about what you look like, or sound like. Be kind, people will remember your kindness.