A Sense of Doubt blog post #3591 - Reprint of Hey Mom #890 - Back to Michigan

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3591 - Reprint of Hey Mom #890 - Back to Michigan

I am back in Michigan for my son's wedding and some holiday family time.

Arrived yesterday and feel exhausted.

Kalamazoo.

It feels like home but not like it used to since I have fallen in love with my current home.

Still in reprint mode.

The above photo is of Kalamazoo's Bronson Park's Candy Cane Lane circa 1970. 

Thanks for tuning in.

LOW POWER MODE: I sometimes put the blog in what I call LOW POWER MODE. If you see this note, the blog is operating like a sleeping computer, maintaining static memory, but making no new computations. If I am in low power mode, it's because I do not have time to do much that's inventive, original, or even substantive on the blog. This means I am posting straight shares, limited content posts, reprints, often something qualifying for the THAT ONE THING category and other easy to make posts to keep me daily. That's the deal. Thanks for reading.

Link to the original post reprinted below

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #890 - Back to Michigan

Kalamazoo College in winter

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #890 - Back to Michigan

Hi Mom,

So, hi there, I am writing a blog in the sky. Though this one is dated Tuesday December 12th, I am posting it, back dated, on Wednesday December 13th as I ride in an airplane from my new home in the Pacific Northwest back to my old home, my long-time home of Michigan. This will be my first time back in Michigan since I rode the ferry outbound from its shores on August 21st, 2017.

That would be this ferry:

the SS Badger 1708.21

I hesitate to say that I am "going home." My home is not in Michigan anymore. My home is in Woodland, Washington, just north of Vancouver and of Portland, Oregon. I lived in Michigan a long time.

Surely, it will be familiar. But I don't have that feeling of "going home." I am visiting family and friends. I am re-connecting with people, places, and things somewhere I lived a very long time. But I don't have that feeling of "relief," that feeling of comfort, security, and home. Maybe I will feel all those things when I get there. And maybe I won't. Maybe the thing that is missing from the equation is you, Mom. I don't know.

I will be staying with the Big Guy, Dad, in the condo where you died, Mom, a condo where I never lived, though there are many familiar things there, many of my things are there, and so there will be familiarity and love, but will there be home?

The home that you created is gone, Mom. The home that Dad and I created with you after your days of creating space were largely behind you is also gone. The home that Liesel and I created together is gone, too. By "gone," I mean that the home concept is gone. The physical places remain, of course. But the idea of "home" is gone; it has passed into memory and into feeling, emotion, love.

On the drive to the airport tomorrow morning (tomorrow as I post, this morning as I write), my wife thought I was sad. She was singing along to her music, and I was quiet. Partly, I was quiet because I don't much like "Safety Dance," but then "Under Pressure" played, and I didn't sing to that either. She read my emotions as sad, but my emotions are more complex than simple sadness. I am not sure exactly what I am feeling in a way that I can adequately describe. I think I will know when I get there.

I am bracing myself for the realization that one "cannot go home again" as Thomas Wolfe wrote so long ago.

Maybe I am also seeking closure. I was in such a rush to get out of Kalamazoo on a time schedule. I tried to enjoy the goodbyes and the love from friends and family, but there was also madcap packing and frenzy. This visit will be more reflective and slower paced.

So, we'll see.

Mom, I will soon be where you last were, physically, again.

Friends, for those who see this posting, shoot me a message. I am trying to find time to see as many people as possible, but I have not contacted everyone yet, partly because some plans are still up in the air, and partly because I know I cannot see everyone. I know everyone will understand.

Michigan, Kalamazoo, loved ones, I will see you soon.

PS: I didn't know what photo to choose for the top of this post. The K-College photo feels right as surely I will visit the campus, but it's only one of many places I love. I wish I had a better photo of myself surrounded by Kalamazoo people, loved ones...

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Reflect and connect.
Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.
Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.
- Days ago = 892 days ago
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1712.12 - 10:10
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2412.17 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3455 days ago & DAD = 111 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2903 - This Day in T-Shirts - January 29, 2014 - TC Blue Earth and On Writing

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2903 - This Day in T-Shirts - January 29, 2014 - TC Blue Earth and On Writing

Here's today's t-shirt reprint.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

T-shirt #214 - Traverse City - Blue Earth

T-shirt #214 - Traverse City - Blue Earth

I have written about Traverse City before, though I have not made a Traverse City category. There's a "Places" category but none of the Traverse City posts were in it when I started this entry. It's an oversight I fixed. I thought I had written about Traverse City more, but I only have two entries, seen below.

T-shirt #85 - Up North

T-shirt #171 - The Neahtawanta Inn - Goodbye Bob Russell

I have at least three more Traverse City shirts, so I m not going to deliver more content on the most glorious city on the planet in this entry. Stay Tuned.

I will share one thing. For me, Traverse City evokes many wonderful memories. Much of the best times of me childhood were spent there both living for three years and visiting for summer vacations. I resumed the vacation ritual in my adult years and made Traverse City a place I retreated each summer for up to two weeks to write. Now, these memories are inextricably linked. Traverse City is a place of childhood nostalgia and happy memories of family and love. But it is also a place of retreat, renewal, and writing. I spent weeks and weeks there over a 15 year period, mostly alone, reflecting, exploring self, and working on various novel projects.



Right now, as I have mentioned before, I am reading both Stephen King's On Writing (the delightful audio version that he narrates) and Robert McKee's Story (which I wish was on audio...okay, I just checked, and it's an abridged edition, so I wish it was available as an unabridged audio), and I have been thinking a great deal about a novel I was writing in large part during my Traverse City retreats from about 2001 through 2009. I had abandoned the project because it had grown too complex and was turning into a different book than the one I had wanted to write. I am going to return to it and simplify it. King's thoughts on story especially are driving my determination to tackle this project again. I just have to find the time, now, to dump what's in my head into a file, re-read what I had done before, and start banging out a new draft of this book, which just happens to be set in the region up north, near Traverse City. Also, and this is probably more interesting to me than to you, I decided to set the book in 1985, which has helped me to do away with complications caused by modern technology. This and a couple of other projects are the work (both writing work and blog work) that I am planning to shift to when my blog year sends on March 22nd (less than two months from now).

I have many bits and insights on writing to share from what I am reading and thinking, but in the interest of keeping this short (and since it's late), I will save those for now and present them another time.

WHY T-SHIRTS EXPLANATORY BLURB
I am doing a series of snippets that will add up to a larger whole answering the "Why T-shirts?" or "What's with all the T-shirts?" question. I have also decided to include the previous items in an ever growing list, hence the "previous items" section next.

PREVIOUS ITEMS

#1: T-SHIRTS ARE COOL

#2: I BE BRANDED - CHOOSING TO ADVERTISE

#3: It's my tattoo

#4 PRIDE AND STATUS - "It's my thing."

#5 -  "LET ME GEEK FLAG FLY!!"

#6 - UNIFORM SHIRTS ARE COOL

TODAY'S ITEM - WHY T-SHIRTS #7. PROOF THAT I DID IT - SHIRTS FOR EVENTS



Today's featured shirt on Traverse City makes the point as well as a shirt featuring a concert or a play. I have featured all of these types of shirts in abundance: shirts featuring places; concerts T-shirts; other types of shows, like theatrical plays; and even shirts from businesses or special events all qualify under this motivation for why I am so inclined to wear T-shirts. Colleges factor here also. I have several shirts from my undergraduate alma mater, and I have not even featured them all yet, I also have several shirts from my graduate alma mater, and I have featured none of those.

Obviously, this reason connects strongly with the pride idea. If I feel pride and feel I have achieved a certain dubious status with a shirt featuring the logo of a superhero team, then surely a shirt with the name of my college, a place I labored for years to earn a degree, carries with it great pride and powerful status. It's funny. I was very out spoken in my criticisms of Kalamazoo College while a student there, but after I graduated, the love and affection I have for the place drove all those criticisms away. I wear the shirts now with unabashed pride.

Also, I have been accused of being a hipster. I don't think I qualify. But one of my failings is pride for the many concerts I have seen and how I am likely to tell stories in a tale swap of "one-upsmanship" that drives my wife crazy. But again, like with the schools, I am proud of the concerts I have seen and feel that there's some status conveyed here. Sadly, I purged many of my most vintage concert shirts in the packing up and clearing out of my parents home just before I decided to start work on this blog. What was I thinking? Clearly, I had dismissed the idea of doing a blog like this, and I was quite convinced that there was no way I could maintain a daily pace, especially with my tendency to be long-winded. How wrong I was.

And so, I add another post to The Blog Journey category, which is about writing, which is the topic I started with before today's Why T-shirts blurb. I needed proof. I needed confirmation that I had the chops to write EVERY DAY, even on Christmas and my birthday and the Fourth of July. Though there have been some skip days, though I have fallen behind quite often (this entry being a case in point as I originally published it last night, Wednesday, and I am finishing it this morning, Thursday), and though I still have one unfinished entry that's going on day eleven of not being done (I am working on it, if you keep checking it -- T-shirt #304 -- you can watch it grow, I am doing it. One day at a time. One word at a time. I am building a huge body of work that lays bare my own journey of self discovery as a geek, as a reader, as a writer, as a husband, as a father, as a man.

And I am not done yet. Stay tuned.

HIATUS TEXT: I am taking a short hiatus. A "hiatus" for the 365 T-shirts Blog does not mean that there will not be shirts or that I will skip posting on any forthcoming day. There will be shirts. But the shirts will not be exciting or the featured shirts will not require me to write a small novel to properly generate the content I feel is sufficient. I created a category for my hiatus so as to group together those "easy" shirts that I consider to be "hiatus shirts." The goal of the hiatus is to fill in many blog days with easy shirts in order to complete longer love letters to beloved popular culture icons on more special shirts and to write more complex entries AHEAD OF TIME. The daily grind is becoming too much and causing me to fall behind and to be forced to post incomplete entries. I am hoping that a series of hiatus shirts will allow me to catch up, get ahead, and stay ahead. Ideally, I would like to be writing the bulk of each entry three days ahead while always working on at least one other. I have a lot of great shirts to share before the end of my blog year (after all I was just given SIXTEEN shirts for my birthday). Stay tuned. I promise to post the more interesting and longer T-shirt entries as I finish them. Thanks for reading. BTW, this is the standard HIATUS TEXT that I will include in every "hiatus shirt" entry.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 51 shirts remaining

- chris tower -  first published - 1401.29 - 19:11
final publication - 1401.30 - 8:05

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2301.29 - 10:10

- Days ago = 2767 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2099 - "PLAY THE CLASH!!" - Musical Monday for 2011.16

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2099 - "PLAY THE CLASH!!" - Musical Monday for 2011.16

INAUGURATION COUNTDOWN

65 DAYS to inauguration

This quote below is from yesterday's blog, but it is too good not to repeat.

 

"It's just math. And math doesn't care about your feelings."

~ Liz Dye, Wonkette

https://www.wonkette.com/trumps-bs-pennsylvania-claims-dropkicked-by-demon-math

https://theartsdesk.com/new-music-tv/rise-and-fall-clash-now-tv-review-london-falling

I love the Clash. I am playing them tomorrow in class and wearing my CLASH t-shirt. I am reprinting here the t-shirt blog post I made of the Clash back in 2013, almost seven years ago to the DAY, which was a total coincidence (or is it?) as that post published November 14th, 2013.

I won't repeat the content in that post because one of my favorite Clash stories is detailed there.

Though the Clash come from punk roots, they were more than punk, which often (though not always) was limited in scope.

What amazes me is how relevant their music is still today, in fact even more so this year with songs like "I Fought the Law" and "White Riot" taking on new meaning in the dumpster fire events of 2020.

And, since 2013 when I wrote that Clash post for the 365 T-shirts blog, new books and documentaries have come out about the Clash.

The Clash started in 1976 and existed in some form until 1986.

John Richards, KEXP radio personality, created International Clash Day on 7 February 2013

I just ordered Cut The Crap, the Clash's last album, missing two of its founding members (Mick Jones and Topper Headon). By Christmas, I will have the last Clash studio album I never owned.

IMPORTANT BIT

 Before M.I.A. had an international hit in 2008 with "Paper Planes", which is built around a sample from "Straight to Hell", she referenced "London Calling" on 2003's "Galang".^[129]

I will play the Clash in class tomorrow.

The Clash are more relevant in 2020 than ever before. Just check out "Know Your Rights" and "Police On My Back."

Here's the mix. And yes,  I made a Clash mix without any fucking versions of "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"

Fuck that song.

"PLAY THE CLASH!!!" - the mix and track list

[1] London Calling (Official Video)

[2] Lost in the supermarket

[3] Magnificent Seven - Tom Synder Show 1981

[4] Death Or Glory (Video)

[5] Clampdown 1980

[6] Straight To Hell, live on a certain tv show! Remixed with awesome interview clips.

[7] White Riot (Remastered)

[8] Clash City Rockers [Single]

[9] This is Radio Clash (Official Video)

[10] English Civil War (live 1979)

[11] POLICE ON MY BACK (HD)

[12] Train in Vain (Live at the Lewisham Odeon)

[13] "Hitsville UK" (1980)

[14] Know Your Rights (with lyrics) police protests, 2015, 2020

[15] The Clash (1985)

[16] Rudie Can't Fail

[17] Ivan Meets G.I. Joe (Remastered)

[18] Rebel Waltz

[19] If Music Could Talk 

[20] Rock the Casbah (Official Video)

http://www.citypages.com/music/the-band-is-gone-and-we-are-the-only-clash-that-remains-writer-mark-andersen-on-the-lasting-legacy-of-the-clash/489529101

Discography[edit]

Main articles: The Clash discography and List of songs recorded by the Clash

• The Clash (1977)
• Give 'Em Enough Rope (1978)
• London Calling (1979)
• Sandinista! (1980)
• Combat Rock (1982)
• Cut the Crap (1985)

The Clash - Interview with Tom Snyder 1981

The Clash interviewed on the Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. June 1981.

The Clash - bbc4 documentary 2014

685,075 views•Jan 2, 2015

A long time ago there were Pirates...

THIS IS THE ONLY CLASH ALBUM I DO NOT OWN.

T-shirt #238 - The Clash

T-shirt #238 - The Clash

After pushing the warp engines to 139% capacity and shedding excess molecular waste which will shorten the longevity of the unit, Grading Robot has powered down to half power.

It has been a rough week for Grading Robot. Other classes queue up now, but time opens like a flower blooming.

How do you spell relief?

It has been a while since I featured some music on the blog. It has been exactly ...

a week.

A week ago today, I showcased T-shirt #231: my CBGB shirt dedicated my post to Lou Reed.

Okay, true enough, a week is not a very long time.

Before that, although I snuck in some music content in T-shirt #209 after my wife discovered Lucius, a great band, the last blog entry with a shirt that featured a musical artist on the actual shirt front was T-shirt #190 for Stereolab. Forty-one days is a long time between music-themed T-shirts. Partially, the reason for the gap is my fear of running out of music shirts. I have fewer music shirts than ultimate-themed or comic- book-themed shirts. Also, I have been holding back some of my music T-shirts because the love letter I want to write will take time and research. Though I have been thinking, perhaps I need to dispense with writing lengthy love letters for EVERYTHING. Right now, I am trying to create an extended posting once a week. With that in mind, this post will not be too elaborate or long. Though how I define "not too long" may be different than how others define it.

Today's shirt, quite obviously, features ONE OF THE GREATEST BANDS EVER: The Clash.

I could write a HUGE entry about the Clash, my experiences with their music, basics on their history. But I will restrict myself to a couple anecdotes and connections.

Every time I think of the Clash, I think about how when I was in college, I met a guy named George Constas, better known as "γιώργος" or "yiorgos" in Greek (which are both Greek for George). He was from Greece (obviously). He could drink like a fish, and he only liked The Clash and the Psychedelic Furs, of which he would remind us frequently when drunk by yelling "Play the Clash!" or "Play the Furs!" George's English was all right but not fantastic. I never spoke down to him or tried to simplify things so that he might understand them (or talk louder or slower, which is what some people stupidly do with people who do not know English well). I just spoke normally, at my normal speed, with my normal vocabulary, which in my early years of college was extra-pretentious. George always responded with the same one liner: "you stupid fucking Americans; you don't know shit." George was a classic. And he loved the Clash.

These pictures are a bit of a cheat, but I like props. I don't really play the guitar, but my wife and step-son do, and so we have a lot of guitars around the house.

THE CLASH ON WIKI

The Clash was one of the greatest bands ever and certainly one of the greatest punk bands of all time. I would argue that the Clash is the single greatest punk band ever and one of the top five greatest bands of all time (Beatles, Stones, Who, Led Zep, the Jam... I know that's six then and leaves out Radiohead, Talking Heads, Pink Floyd, and so many others... I may need to work on this list.)

After starting in 1976, the Clash disbanded in 1986. The band's lead vocalist and spiritual center, Joe Strummer, died in 2002, dashing forever the hope of a Clash reunion and robbing the world of a musical giant.

The Clash are best known for their third album London Calling, which by unanimous agreement sits at eighth place on Rolling Stone's Top 100 Albums of all time list. It's great. Though I love dozens of Clash songs, in picking some videos to share (I was going to just share three and it grew to five before I cut myself off), four of the five are from London Calling.

I saw The Clash in 1984 in Chicago after Mick Jones had left the group.

The music speaks for itself.

The Clash are amazing. I am sure that most of my readers already know their music well.

Last comment on today's shirt: Like my memory of George, which is an instructive anecdote, I always remember Rule of Chris Number Two when talking about the Clash, as I did each semester when I made them one of the featured artists in my women's studies course. I have only written about the Rules of Chris twice before: T-shirt #64: Embrace Uncertainty and T-shirt #103: Aloha. Rule of Chris #1 is the Golden Rule because it's the abiding principle of life and living. But Rule of Chris #2 is "always have a book." Before the modern age when I gained the ability to carry around a computer that fits in the palm of my hand with five times more computing power than my first two computers combined (at least), I needed a book more desperately. Now, I carry a Kindle, which is a computer containing many books, though I often have an old-fashioned, paper book anyway.

I was reading Gravity's Rainbow for a class when I saw the Clash in concert, and I toted a huge, trade paperback sized tome in the pocket of my Army fatigue cargo pants and read many pages while standing in line to get in to the concert. I wanted to get a picture of the book, but I can't find it. If I ever do, I may update here. On a side note, I read Moby Dick between Santana and the Rolling Stones at the Pontiac Silverdome. There was a two hour wait in the three act concert (Iggy Pop, Santana, and the Rolling Stones). This was in 1981. I spent a lot of time reading that damn Moby Dick book.

Hence...

RULE OF CHRIS #2: Always have a book to read; one never knows when one has to wait a long time for someone or something.

Here are my five favorite Clash songs (though  it was a close call with "Straight to Hell" and "Clash City Rockers" and several others... basically the entire London Calling album).

The Clash - London Calling

THE CLASH - "LOST IN THE SUPERMARKET"

The Clash - Magnificent Seven - Tom Synder Show 1981

The Clash - Death Or Glory

The Clash - Clampdown 1980

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE YEAR: 127 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1311.14 - 18:46

PHOTO GALLERY

https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/music/the-clash-stage-punk-rock-pop-up-in-soho-8777931.html

https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/04/how-the-clash-can-lead-to-a-great-record-collection/

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/28/799345169/london-calling-at-40-greil-marcus-revisits-his-original-review

http://www.ianhurd.com/blog/2018/2/9/everything-i-know-about-human-rights-i-learned-from-the-clash

https://spectrumculture.com/2020/03/31/hot-takes-for-the-apocalypse-is-the-clash-overrated/

https://classicalbumsundays.com/album-of-the-month-the-clash-london-calling/

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/clash-fire-mick-jones/

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/clash-playlist-punk-rock-london-calling-album-a9241971.html

https://www.nme.com/news/music/london-calling-inside-clashs-new-brilliant-exhibition-2574622

https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/clash

https://observer.com/2017/04/the-clash-first-album-anniversary-review/

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/may/23/the-clash-mick-jones-paul-simonon

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/clash-london-calling-rare-demos-vanilla-tapes/

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2011.16 - 10:10

- Days ago = 1963 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #775 - Goodbye Kalamazoo - My Old School

me in Stetson Chapel - K-College - 1708.16

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #775 - Goodbye Kalamazoo - My Old School

Hi Mom,

Today is my last day as a Kalamazoo resident.

I am overwhelmed with tasks to do and packing.

I am writing this Saturday night at my bed time. Not quite past bed time yet but it will be before I go to bed and then get up early in what will be this, Sunday morning to pack and leave my home in Kalamazoo for my new home in Woodland, Washington.

I am sad.

I am also excited.

And it feels a little like I am graduating.

Goodbye for now.



A PHOTO DUMP of K-college STUFF

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 777 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1708.20 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #695 - I hate the phone - Throwback Thursday 1706.01 - photo series one #23

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #695 - I hate the phone - Throwback Thursday 1706.01  - photo series one #23

Hi Mom,

As you can see form an early age, I started hating the phone. Clearly, in the photo above, I have already beaten down the blue phone and discarded it roughly, and I am in the process of  upending the red phone and treating it's hand piece roughly and upside-down.

This distaste continued to my current lifestyle. I am protective of my phone number, and there are times when I am just not interested in talking on the phone. I especially dislike talking on my smart phone as I think that overall the reception is not as good as a land line. I still prefer wired to unwired. Yeah, yeah, say what you will. I get the convenience of smart phones. And it's not like I don't have one and don't use. And sure, I prefer to jack in the ear buds and microphone for hands free ease. I tend to hear better that way, too. But who has that crap hooked up to their phone all the time? Okay, I know some of you do. I see you walking around with the ear buds looped on the back of your ear, ready for calls, or others of you feel you're so important you need to ear piece, Bluetooth gadget, so you don't miss any of your drug deals or whatever.

Do I sound bitter and hateful?

This mood strikes only because Liesel and I are buying a home and selling another home and feeling a bit overwhelmed. We had a call on Memorial Day. I though that was unnecessary. I must establish boundaries.

But friends and loved ones take note. I enjoy conversations with you. And we all seem to respect each other's privacy and need to squirrel up in the cave from time to time, huddled in the quiet dark, listening to our own breathing.

That's about all the original content I can muster for today, and it's a day late.

Things are crazy around here right now.

As a bonus, here's a photo from my college days. It's from either May or June 1985, so approximately 32 years ago! My mind boggles to contemplate that much passage of time. I know 1985 no longer feels like yesterday, but it surely does not feel like 32 years.

This photo features my then girlfriend Tracy Rideout and myself. This is how I dressed back then.

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 697 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1706.01 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #110 - K-College Reunion

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #110 - K-College Reunion

Hi Mom,

This is a short one today as I am at the Kalamazoo College reunion. (gulp... 30 years!)

More years have passed since I graduated than I was years old when I graduated,

Just for that numbers perspective.

This is our photo from the 2010 (25th) reunion. See me there in the back row? Sixth from the left.

Ed Menta said at the theatre reunion that we should think of Kalamazoo College as our artistic home. I liked that.

Thanks for all that you did, Mom, to ensure that I got to go there, that I stayed there, and that I finished. I hope I made you proud. Until I married Liesel, it was the greatest thing I had ever done.

I am sure I will have more from the reunion tomorrow.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 112 days ago


- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1510.24 - 15:54