Friday, August 25, 2006
August 25th, 2006.
It’s depressing! I haven’t felt this low since Elvis died. Really.
Baby Boomers have lived long enough now to have experienced numerous losses, but this one is just too hard to take. Pluto has been kicked out of the solar system!
Well, not really. It’s still up there, but it is no longer being called a planet. It seems that a body of learned people (the International Astronomers Union) have declared that Pluto no longer qualifies as a planet. Now it’s being called a dwarf planet.
Jeeze! All our lives good old Pluto has been up there in the number nine spot. No more. What’s next? Will baseball do away with the number nine hitter in the lineup? Will there just be eight hitters followed by a “dwarf hitter?” No. Bill Veeck already tried that. Hey, Pluto has always been there, regardless of when the astronomers discovered it. It’s just been doing its thing for ever. Pluto being Pluto!
Who’s going to tell Mickey?
I just watched one of my favorite movies on TV. It’s entitled “Things Change.” Boy, did they get that one right!
FACT: » The New York Board of Education barred the whipping of children in its schools on March 4, 1908.
It’s depressing! I haven’t felt this low since Elvis died. Really.
Baby Boomers have lived long enough now to have experienced numerous losses, but this one is just too hard to take. Pluto has been kicked out of the solar system!
Well, not really. It’s still up there, but it is no longer being called a planet. It seems that a body of learned people (the International Astronomers Union) have declared that Pluto no longer qualifies as a planet. Now it’s being called a dwarf planet.
Jeeze! All our lives good old Pluto has been up there in the number nine spot. No more. What’s next? Will baseball do away with the number nine hitter in the lineup? Will there just be eight hitters followed by a “dwarf hitter?” No. Bill Veeck already tried that. Hey, Pluto has always been there, regardless of when the astronomers discovered it. It’s just been doing its thing for ever. Pluto being Pluto!
Who’s going to tell Mickey?
I just watched one of my favorite movies on TV. It’s entitled “Things Change.” Boy, did they get that one right!
FACT: » The New York Board of Education barred the whipping of children in its schools on March 4, 1908.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Boomer Moves
This Friday, Louise and I make a major move in our (too) slow transition into the rest of our lives. That's another way of saying "retirement." Although neither of us can retire just yet, we are getting our ducks lined up (don't you just love cliches?). We have purchased a vacation/retiremnet home on Cape Cod and are closing on it this week.
This has special meaning to us. We met on the Cape in 1974, married there at St. Fancis Xavier Church in Hyannis (that's the one the Kennedys use when we're not there)in 1975 and both worked at Cape Cod Community College for a short time. We both love the area and have been taking our vacations there ever since we could afford travel vacations with three kids.
Now we have two grandchildren and plan to live there part time after we really do retire.
I'm especially happy because it means we'll definately have a place to live that I'll enjoy. I've had to live in Columbia, Maryland, for 23 years and must confess to never really feeling at home here. It's been a great place to raise the kids and we've made some great friends (although that took longer than I expected). But it's the I-95 corridor, between Baltimore and Washington, DC, and all the rapid pace, high pressure life that comes with it. I can't wait not to be a part of that. I want life in the slow lane.
So, we'll probably down size into a garden apartment condo in Maryland in a couple of years and will spend the holidays and early winter here near our kids and grandkids. Maybe we'll be able to sneak away to Florida for a month to get warm and then get ready for six months on the Cape. I hope this all happens peacefully. Stay tuned.
