Category: People
This week on the ‘Retro’ I’m taking us back 38 years ago to 1972. Many of you reading this weren’t even alive back then, but I was an active 5-year-old kid roaming around my new Bowie Maryland house and yard off Peach Walker Drive. I can actually see our old family house and neighbourhood today on Google Street View. It looks like a 40-year-old neighbourhood. I could fly to Washington D.C., drive to my old ‘hood in Bowie, walk up to my old house, knock on my old front door, and introduce myself as the guy that lived in that house as a little boy 35 to 38 years ago – and it would be the eeriest thing that I’ve ever done. You always hear of older people doing that – returning back to a home that they grew up in some 40 or 50 or 60 years ago – but a 43-year-old ? 38 years ago seems like such an eternity for me. I can’t believe that I’m now two generations old. I don’t feel old, but numbers don’t lie.
All we’ve got is the uncertainties of the future and the memories of the past. No matter how far we’ve come. No matter how much time has passed. We should never forget where we came from. We should never forget what we once were.
In 1972 I liked to play with my German Shepherd ‘Brandy’ out in the backyard. He loved to run. I loved to chase him. I just wished that he would stop digging holes underneath the fence and escaping into the outside world around him !
On WWDC AM-1260 (before FM radio hit it big) Raspberries were near the top of the pop charts with back-to-back hits. You may not remember the name of the band, but how about its lead singer – the legendary Eric Carmen – who enjoyed a late-1980s comeback courtesy of the “Dirty Dancing Soundtrack”. Here he is leading his band back then with two rockin’ hits – “Go All The Way” and “I Wanna Be With You”. Let’s Rock the ‘Retro’ !
This week on the ‘Retro’ I’m remembering the Summer of 2005. It’s a Summer in which I was generally not a happy person. I was miserable at my workplace at the time, and I dreaded each new work day. I didn’t like my job, and I didn’t like the people that I worked with. I was full of hatred. Life away from work wasn’t much happier either. I had very few friends, and little to no social life. I had a cat that was showing significant signs of dying. My life was dying. It was a forgettable summer. I wondered why I even existed at the time.
I can think of two reasons why I managed to stay stable enough to not do anything dreadful – my cat Boots at home and my brother Danny over a thousand miles away. Boots totally depended on me. He carried my personality in a feline body. If I had gone away forever he would have died as well. My brother Danny is my best friend in the entire world. He’s known me longer than anyone else (aside from other family members), and he knows more about me than anyone else. He is the funniest person that I know, and he knows what makes us laugh out loud. If I had done something regrettable during that lost summer then he would have been devastated for the rest of his life. Luckily that summer was not the end for me. The following summer (of 2006) was the end for me – and the start of something brand new and miraculous – a rebirthing.
Back during that Summer of 2005 this song captured my mood, my feelings, and my life at the time. It’s in the lyrics – but it was not a ‘Fantastic Journey’.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
– It’s 1:40 on this Thursday afternoon, and yet I’m already at home.
– That’s because I took a half a day off from work this afternoon.
– I left work and I immediately proceeded to Red Lobster.
– I’ve now eaten at a Red Lobster twice in less than 5 days.
– That’s twice as much as I had eaten there over the past decade !
– Memo To Self – Add Red Lobster to my weekly Lunch rotation.
– Today I enjoyed the ‘Chef’s Signature Lobster & Shrimp Pasta’.
– I got the Lunch portion of the most delicious dish.
– I should have gotten the full portion of it because it was ‘whole nutha level’.
– I also enjoyed a couple of their oh-so-tasty ‘Cheddar Bay Biscuits’.
– I could eat a dozen of those in a single sitting.
– After Lunch I went to Kohl’s and Bed Bath & Beyond, but I bought nothing.
– I went to Publix after that to do some grocery shopping.
– And here I am at my computer on my blog writing all about it.
– This past weekend was a weekend of firsts.
– I visited the Lion Country Safari for the first time in over 20 years.
– I visited Lake Okeechobee for the first time ever.
– I visited Ft. Pierce, Stuart, Jupiter, and West Palm Beach for the first time ever.
– I ate at Red Lobster for the first time in over a decade.
– I ate at Hooters for the first time in about 16 years.
– Their chicken wings were big and meaty and juicy.
– I saw comedian Jim Gaffigan LIVE in concert this past Sunday night.
– He performed his material for about 80 minutes, and it was crack-up city.
– Very few comedians make me giggle and chuckle as hard as he does.
– Much of his routine is about food – one of the funniest categories there is.
– I was hyperventilating in my seat laughing so hard at the dude.
– If you want to make me laugh then tell me some Jim Gaffigan jokes.
– I really enjoyed my 420-mile weekend road trip.
– I’ll be sure to return to the Treasure Coast area to visit other locales.
– My next three monthly vacations are already planned out.
– Two weeks from this afternoon I fly to Dallas Texas to visit my family.
– My niece – Taylor Lesley Day – is 9 days old today.
– I get to meet her for the first time when she’s 23 days old.
– In June I travel to the Springfield Massachusetts area for 5 days.
– It’s work-related, but I’ll still consider it to be a vacation.
– I’ve never been there before.
– In fact I’ve never set foot before in that entire New England region.
– For the 4TH Of July weekend I’ll continue an annual tradition.
– That tradition is to spend it with my family in sizzling hot Dallas Texas.
– I’ll have my next Carnival cruise vacation during Labor Day Week in Sept.
– That leaves August with no vacation planned thus far.
– Perhaps I’ll do another weekend road trip then.
– There’s still more animals to see and zoos to visit !
– This weekend I’ll be blogging my regular series.
– On Saturday it’s the ‘Retro’, and I’ll be remembering the Summer of 2005.
– ‘My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics’ returns this Sunday May 02ND.
– Can you believe that the month of May is less than 33 hours away ?
– 2010 is flying by, so we must be having fun.
– Have fun my friends, and we’ll meet again this weekend.
CountUp 