Author: Curmudgeon

After sixty some years you start to notice patterns. You get to see whats permanent and whats temporary. What's important now and what will be important later. If you want to read what I think go ahead. If you don't like what I'm saying, there are a lot of other blogs out there and I'm sure you can find some you like. In addition to what you find here you might want to check out my online stores. There's lots of curmudgeonly stuff there too.

Caffeine in the Morning

Curmudgeon

You know how you always remember where you were when a life-changing event happens? I vividly remember the circumstances of my first taste of coffee. It was awful. I was about ten. It was a cold Saturday morning in March and my parents and I were waiting in line outside the junior high to sign me up for swimming lessons the next summer. They must have been less worried about stunting my growth than my freezing to death when they handed me a steaming cup freshly poured out of the Thermos. The bitter taste on my blistered tongue made me wonder if “a mother’s love” was an oxymoron.

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The Them vs Us Dilemma

Curmudgeon

I’ve wanted to write on the recent events in Paris and about terrorism in general. I wrote several articles I knew were only knee-jerk reactions which I didn’t publish. The first version I wrote was akin to rounding up anyone who had ever walked into a mosque and chasing them down with torches and pitchforks. However colorful the imagery of that article it did go a little over the top. In another I preached universal brotherhood along the lines of why can’t we all just get along. But I’ve done that already so I didn’t want to repeat myself. Then I decided that I needed to look at the patterns causing this latest blight on the human condition. It’s all boiling down to one of  the most basic of ‘them vs us’ reasons, religion. […]

Pulling Back The Curtain

Curmudgeon

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” Those were the words shouted by the wizard when Toto pulled back the curtain near the end of The Wizard of Oz. The wizard did not want anyone to know that all the smoke and noise was only a trick. Now I’m gonna pull back the curtain and show you a few tricks that if you’d been paying attention you would have noticed anyway. […]

My End of the Year List

Curmudgeon

Every one does lists this time of year and I’m not gonna be any different. It’s a way to celebrate the ending of the previous year and beginning of the new. Except that my list really has nothing to do with last year and very little to do with next year. My list is just “What’s pissing me off right now.”

  1. My wife. You show me someone whose spouse doesn’t piss them off and I’ll show you someone living alone. Don’t get me wrong. I love my wife to death. I wouldn’t be able to find my socks without her. But my wife is always dragging me into the middle of some hair-brained scheme. It’s like living with Lucy Ricardo only with skills and I’m Ricky Ricardo only without the accent. But just like those two, we always hug it out at the end of the episode.

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A Christmas Wish

Curmudgeon

You’re gonna die. (No, that’s not the wish so get over yourself and just keep reading.) You’re probably not gonna die today or tomorrow but sometime probably in the next 50 or 60 years you’re gonna die. Maybe it’ll be quick or maybe it’ll be after a long, protracted, painful illness. Now look at the family member next to you. They’re gonna die too. And it will be within the same probable time span.Christmas_Wreath_-_geograph.org.uk_-_639554

What if you knew that you would not be spending the Holiday Season with that family member next year because sometime in the coming year they are gonna die? Think about how would you spend this holiday time with them differently? […]