Happiness, the fairy tale.

  As I approach the later part of it, I realize that life truly is a journey. A journey in which we have one single purpose, to learn. We come to this world with some innate knowledge, things like body functions, breathing and eating, but everything else we must learn. It is sad that most of us realize this a bit too late and some, never at all. We get too wrapped up in our everyday, mundane happenings to even look at “the big picture,” let alone understand it. I hope I have not waited too long in my journey. I’ve had some breakthroughs and made some painful self-discoveries, the trick is to be able to improve, to make the rest of my life a meaningful and satisfying one.   I find myself now , standing mostly alone. I am aware that it is a loneliness of my own making, I have isolated and distanced myself from most of the people that could be considered friends. I have very seldom allowed anyone to get close, other than my wife and son.   Perhaps it all boils down to...

  Times are hard and getting harder. That is a fact! Unless you are in the 1%, you are struggling somewhere. Your bills might be getting paid, your needs met (more or less) but you might be a paycheck or two away from disaster. If these past couple of years have taught us anything is that life is fragile and fleeting. We are all stuck in the crazy carrousel and looking for a way off. If you are one of the lucky few, you are employed doing what you like and you are making enough money to cover your needs, you might be less inclined to look for ways to earn a little extra cash. But many of us are always looking for that little extra something that will allow us to reach a better plateau.   I have tried many things myself: Uber, Lift, and Uber Eats. I have clipped coupons, and I have tried the rebate apps. Rakuten and even Capital One offer rebates or discounts on your online purchases. I have had mild success with all of these, but sometimes the time spent on the search is not w...

  Tone impaired, not quite deaf but impaired enough to make it hard to follow a tune. That has been my curse since very early on. I have always loved music! I dreamt of being a musician as far back as I can remember. Sadly, those dreams were shattered when I entered the 6 th grade at a new school. The school had a very good choir, directed by the 6 th grade science teacher, and my mother insisted I should join the choir.   I remember the day of the audition, still to this day. The teacher took me into the classroom and sat me by the piano. She then proceeded to give me some tests, clap in this way, follow these notes, sing from a music sheet.   After the test she took me back outside and told my mom that, she was sorry, but I was not choir material. My mom was devastated, she was the only person that thought I could sing, I had long before recognized that I had not inherited my father’s ear. I figured if I did not audition, I would not have to face the truth, but my mo...

Today was a beautiful day in Bellingham! Temperatures reached the upper 40’s and it was a nice, sunny day. We decided yesterday to go early to the Squalicum Park. We were there a few weeks ago and found it to be a beautiful park, full of sky-touching trees and wonderful paths. We went on a spur-of-the-moment, so we wanted to go better prepared today. I set up the alarm to get up no later than 8:30, we tend to sleep in on the weekends, otherwise. I got up, prepared breakfast, packed a lunch, with snacks and plenty of water, everything a diabetic would need. We dressed Harry in his “Boss” shirt so he would not be too cold and headed out.   Imagine our surprise when arriving at the park to find many parts closed. They were having a foot and biking race, so most of the park was cordoned, marking the trail.   It was a beautiful day, so we did not want to waste it. We had heard about Blaine, and we decided to explore that area of the state. It was a nice drive up, towards the border...

  A lot has happened since my last post. An incredible opportunity presented itself in the Pacific Northwest and we packed our gypsy wagon (ok, it was a U-Haul truck), hitched the car in a trailer and, 3,300 miles later, found  ourselves  in the beautiful city of Bellingham in the state of Washington. We are about 30 minutes from the Canadian border, as far away from the sunny Florida beaches as we could get, but it is worth it.        The summer was fantastic, with extra-long days, sun setting around 9- 9:30 PM. Lots of parks and things to do and see. Like the Bellingham Bay, visible from the window of our  apartment :    To the monument to the lost fishermen at the Squalicum Harbor:   In the city of Fairhaven, just 15 minutes from our place, Lola was able to sit and “converse” with Mark Twain, outside the Village Books and Paper Dreams:   I was able to tour the Steamboat W. T. Preston, one of the few patrolling the inland w...