New View Askew

The perfect song for the 12 th Annual Solstice Story. Pablo Cruise Find Your Place in the Sun Winter Solstice  2017, Dec 21st, 10:27AM Sunrise:  7:48am  Sunset  4:34pm Yuck, 8 cold, freaking hours and 46 stinking minutes! Compared to: Summer solstice sunrise : 5:26am Sunset:  9:03pm Hot damn, 15 hrs and 37 min’s of glorious sunshine! You know what? I’m tired of fighting this battle every year. I’m sick of rejoicing in the long, languid days of summer and then plunging into a pit of despair during the interminable, numbing short days of December. You might say that I’m sort of like a dull male dog (is “dull male” an oxymoron?) heading to the veterinarian of seasons: life is great; see the nice doctor lady, wagging tail, get a doggy treat . . . and then, well, you know, suddenly you’re wearing the head cone of winter shame. Ugh.  So, just move to FL full time, you might say, and quit complaining about winter, you whiner!  Ah, but grasshopper, you mi

Jun 20 th , 4:44PM This cannot possibly be true! Damn it, don’t tell me that it’s already the freaking summer solstice again. I don’t want to hear that we are already beginning that downward spiral to the depths of winter. Wasn’t it just a few short weeks ago that we were peering into the gloom at 4PM on a winter evening? That we were high stepping through snow and slush cursing both the darkness and the cold? And now after a few short weeks of sunshine, shorts, flip flops (and yoga pants), after this brief respite we are already heading back to that cold dystopia? We are? I asked you not to tell me that! I know I should be a man and just embrace the so-called theater of seasons but I can’t. Call me a liberal but I just can’t stand the injustice of it all – I’m a victim, I tell you! Life is hard enough just dealing with the aches and pains of getting old – and trying to get a good senior rate at golf courses – but the inequity of also being teased by a few days or week

Memorial Day 2017 – The Last Full Measure . . . It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.  Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address Memorial Day, is at hand, that special day in May when many of us journey to the community cemetery for services. We gather to hear speeches and prayers commemorating our loved ones and friends who had served their country so faithfully.  Winston Churchill once famously said, “ Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few ” when talking about the Royal Air Force fighting the German Luftwaffe in WWII. Thi

Is Minnesota Ready to Become a Cold Florida? So as you know, we winter – well, most of the winter and apparently not enough of it – in FL. FL is a red state; governor, and both houses of the legislature and pretty much every other government body in the state down to and including dog catchers. Oddly, it is still pretty similar to MN in that it has a LOT of relatively "blue" areas (Like here, areas where most of the people actually live – go figure.) Any hoo, the people there are kind of conflicted just as we are here. For example, the Tampa St Pete area where we stay is desperate for some sort of transit (they are well on their way to becoming a FL version of the nightmare that is Atlanta - ugh.) Everyone knows they need to do SOMETHING . . . yet apparently their aversion to “ big gubmint” solving any problems precludes them from actually proposing or voting for it – so, hey, build some more lanes! (And traffic, of course, just gets worse.

Uh oh, kind of crappy weather here so time to ponder big thoughts. Crappy but big ones. My bride recently made a marvelous post about the wonderful Muslim lady from French Guinea who tended her dad while he was in great decline from Alzheimer’s; that’s my inspiration today. We’re only 10 days into the reign of our man/child king and it is not too soon to draw some conclusions. But first a disclaimer: I have followed Trump for over 10 yrs due to my interest in business and financial stuff (interest in, not skill.) I have disliked him intensely pretty much from the get go. I don’t like his mannerisms, his over-the-top speech and gestures, his preposterous boastfulness (that seems to hide some Freudian issues). Most of all I hate his hair. You don’t have to be a Trump disliker though (hate is such a strong word) to be getting a little nervous about the dude who is proving to be the same petty, lying sociopath as president as he was as a candidate. Quibbling about crowd size?