Posted inHome life

We got a TOTO bidet. Using the toilet is much more pleasant.

Life is stressful these days. Well, actually, life always is stressful to some extent. It just seems that the state of our nation and the world is more distressing now. So I'll take comfort and relaxation wherever I can find it. Including when I sit on the toilet in the bathroom that I use the most, being adjacent to my bedroom. (My wife, Laurel, and I sleep separately.)  A few weeks ago Laurel had the bright idea of getting a bidet. She'd gotten back from visiting relatives in Indiana who had a bidet. Laurel didn't try it, but they praised…
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Posted inWeblogs

Typepad shutting down on September 30. I’m crushed, but not surprised.

It hurts. There's no other way to say it. I've been blogging on Typepad since 2003. So when I sleepily looked at my email inbox early this morning and saw the subject line "Important Notice -- Typepad Shutdown  Announcement," I both woke up and felt distressed instantly.  I have three blogs with about 8,400 posts. My whole life, or at least my life since 2003, is reflected in those posts. Losing all that content would really bother me. This is what I told Typepad support back in March of this year, as reported in "Typepad told me they aren't going…
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Posted inEntertainment

I came to Game of Thrones late. But I loved the series once I got into it.

Don't know how many people there are like me -- someone who heard of Game of Thrones when it first aired in 2011, took a quick look at it, and decided it wasn't for them. Probably quite a few. These are the folks I'm writing this blog post for, because earlier this year I had an urge to give Game of Thrones another chance. After watching the first few episodes of Season 1 on HBO Max,  I became so addicted to the series that was all I watched during my "me" time every day until I'd gotten through all 73…
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Posted inSalem

Englewood Forest Festival was a delightful Salem experience

Today Laurel, my wife, and I headed off to the Englewood Forest Festival at Englewood Park in NE Salem. Amazingly, I don't think we'd ever been to the festival in all the years we've lived here.  Our loss. Because the festival was a delight. The towering trees really do make it seem like the festival is in a forest, albeit an urban one. Once we'd parked, which was kind of an adventure given the narrow streets and number of people attending the one-day event, we browsed the many booths that line the park paths. Pleasingly, it appeared that organizers keep…
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Posted inGrowing older Humor

Hearing “right on” from a young clerk, I thank her for keeping hippie lingo alive

To establish my credentials for writing about hippie lingo of the 1960's, I present into evidence this photo of me that dates from the late 60's during my yoga phase, which followed my psychedelic phase. It was taken (unposed, I should add) by a friend from my childhood home who had sponsored a gathering where I led a group in some yoga postures and meditation.  To add to my hippie credentials, I wish to point out that I went to college from 1966-71 at what I liked to call the "Stanford of the South Bay," San Jose State College, so…
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Posted inSalem

Wow! Bentley Michaels has performed 3,000 times at Enchanted Forest Theatre

The Enchanted Forest theme park, Salem's charming local version of Disneyland, has been a part of my life since I moved to Salem in 1977 with my wife at the time, Sue, and my five year old daughter, Celeste.  We'd go to Enchanted Forest often. After my granddaughter, Evelyn, was born to Celeste and her husband, Patrick, in 2007, it didn't take long before Evelyn was enjoying Enchanted Forest as much as Celeste did when she was young. And Evelyn was living in southern California, close to Disneyland. Didn't matter. Enchanted Forest has a unique quality, born of the love…
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