Hanging with Rich

Aging..... Recently I was watching TV and a commercial came on. It showed some fellow who was supposed to be my age, although just a little older. It was a white haired gentleman laying in bed reading a book. He was wearing blue pajamas and looking worried. Good God, I thought. Am I supposed to be like this guy? I don't even wear pajamas. Not a bad looking guy in 2011. Aging is something that everybody shares. You can't avoid it. You can put it off for a while when you are younger, but it will find you eventually. You can eat right and  work out, but it still will catch you. Google bears some responsibility in my concern. Occasionally Google photos will send me pictures of my past. Remember this date back in , whatever year. Recently they sent me a picture of myself on November of 2011. I thought I looked great. I had brown hair and plenty of it. Recent pictures won't show much of those. The AARP magazine tries to make you feel good about aging. Of course, you ...

Friendsgiving Is Here..... Well folks, we've made it through the summer. We've also made it through the enjoyable part of fall. It's November and the weather you forgot about all summer is back. One of the few things I look forward to this time of year are the holidays. The stores have had Christmas decorations up for some time now. Radio stations will soon be playing Christmas songs all day and all night. Some gifts have already been purchased. Black Friday is this week. But intelligent shoppers, like me, will do their shopping online. This week the holidays kick off with Thanksgiving. But my family gets an extra day of celebration - Friendsgiving. Friendsgiving is just like Thanksgiving, but with some special friends. Thursday we will still be going over relatives houses for turkey with all the trimmings. It will be a great time. But this Wednesday, I will be celebrating at my house with my family and some special friends. Therefore - Friendsgiving! The menu for ...

Why You Don't Give a Rip About Mass Shootings..... Here is a future headline news item: Today, a normal day in (insert any city or town) was changed when shots rang out at a (insert a church, concert, movie theater, school).  An unknown gunman opened fire in the area for an unknown reason. Authorities say that as of now this massacre includes (pick a number between 4 and 40) known dead. The victims include members of the (pick anybody's name) family. So here is what will happen afterwards. Every news agency will send their reporters to cover the story for two days. People will hashtag "prayforthatcity" on social media. People and politicians will cry out that finally something must be done! But that's about it. Nothing really changes. No new laws are passed. Nothing changes in mental health processes. We move on. We bury the dead and move on. The horror of Las Vegas. People say that's the price for living in a free society. But that's bullshi...

My Adventure to Meteor Crater..... Last September, the wife and I took a vacation to Arizona. It was a replacement for an anniversary cruise that was cancelled due to Hurricane Irma. There were definitely no tropical breezes in Arizona. Phoenix was fun to visit, although it was truly hot as hell. The red rock of Sedona was spectacular. The Grand Canyon was, well, the Grand Canyon. To me it's so hard to comprehend what you're looking at, it almost looks fake. But there was one other place we visited that was very memorable. Meteor Crater - in the middle of nowhere. I knew that if we got a chance, I would want to visit Meteor Crater. Maybe you have never heard of Meteor Crater, but I bet you've seen a picture of it somewhere. It is a huge crater, just like you see pictures of on the moon. It was formed 50,000 years ago by a meteor impact. The result was an explosion that was equivalent to 20 million tons  of TNT. That's not a typo. What you get is a huge hole. ...