COFFEE!

   Is it even possible I haven't covered coffee yet? Where do I start?
Breakfast? Nine a.m. break time? After dinner with dessert? Road trip essentials, fill up with gas & grab some Java/Joe/COFFEE! The Commute by car, train, ferry or air: gotta have coffee! That was a great sermon, Pastor, let's head back for coffee & cake! Homework, crammin' for finals, any arts & crafts project, you need two things: music and coffee.  And can you imagine going on a camping trip and not bringing along the coffee? Remind me to never go camping with you!

Latte love

  Now we all know coffee grows on trees, right, so it's not actually a bean is it? More like a nut, really. But "coffee nuts" just doesn't have the right ring to it. So, coffee beans.  Whole bean. Ground. Instant? Espresso, anyone? Praise God for K-Cups! Speaking of praising God, I recall back in the day how my brothers & I would help set up the Fellowship hall at church and fill up this humongous coffee maker- I mean bigger than a fire hydrant! Years ago I went to this Vineyard church in Waterbury that was actually upstairs from a Dunkin' Donuts! How convenient!

    Anyway, now that we've breeched  (or is it broached?)the subject: Orange & Pink, or Green? The misspelled pastry, or the twin-tailed Reubenesque mermaid? Yes, the greatest coffee rivalry ever: DUNKIN' or STARBUCKS? Well my friends, I actually patronize both mega-corporations weekly. I don't have a favorite, I like both. To be honest, I miss Borders, but that's a whole "Nother" subject.

  Anyone remember percolators?  Drip coffee-makers are way better, but single cup brewers are better still. Of course low-tech is best, and we often enjoy our Cafe' Bustello brewed up fresh in our little stove-top espresso maker.

  A couple years ago, my wife and I stayed at her mother's old home in the Dominican Republic. We would sit out mornings with her neighbor, chatting about whatever while sipping coffee and munching on galletas (crackers).  Back home, when the weather's nice we'll sit out Saturday mornings having our coffee out on the patio swing. Good times.  

   And iced coffee? A summertime staple around here!

Jamaican me crazy

   You all know how I'm a smell guy, and the smell of fresh-brewed coffee in the morning is certainly one of my  favorite aromas! And like, ya ever get in the car with someone and notice they got themselves a cup of coffee, but didn't buy you one?  I think that's a signal they want gas money.

   But, yeah, good times. Good times is what coffee's all about. Whether you're getting together with family, friends, or co-workers, coffee just makes it all better! 

A little bit of Paris in Brooklyn

   By the way, gift cards to the coffee shop make great little thank-yous and presents, jus' sayin'!

Yes, there are other things to drink: hot chocolate, tea, mulled cider, and such....but this is America, dammit, and we drink coffee! 

It's one of the things we LOVE about life!

Have some today!

   

   

In Praise of Paper!

   Welcome, Friends! After a lengthy absence, we have returned!
And today we'll reflect on that simple, yet vital aspect of our lives, culture, and civilization: paper! Though we live in a digital age- indeed I'm writing this in the virtual world- I'm Old School, and love real stuff printed on real pages I can hold in my hands and still read even if the power goes out.
   Calendars, maps, the Sunday funnies, cash, menus---are all just better in hard copy. And what home gardener doesn't love receiving in his or her mailbox the latest seed catalogs in the Dead of Winter? Flipping through those glossy, colorful pages of photos of carrots, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, squash, and corn melts away the February chill. And each December: how we love sending and receiving Christmas cards with hand-written notes!

   Speaking of notes, how would we ever have made it through high school without taking tons of notes in our 3-ring binders? Truth be told, my first communication with my lovely wife was a little hand-written note with a hastily scrawled smiley face: much more personal than any digital emoji.  Or how could you make a decent Scrap Book without actual scraps of paper concert tickets, movie ticket stubs, post cards (remember those?), church bulletins, and the like?
   And what would you do with all your refrigerator magnets if your kids didn't do their school assignments on actual, real paper? Or how could their teachers honor their efforts without a paper to stick stickers on? Imagine what your home might look like without those construction paper art projects all over the place. Picture your kids' rooms without their favorite posters adorning the walls!
   And tell me your kitchen Junk Drawer isn't crammed with important phone numbers jotted down on paper plates, Post-It notes, or junk mail envelopes! Not to mention random business cards and Chinese food menus with your favorite take-out orders circled. Orders that came with curious little cookies containing great pearls of wisdom just for you on little slips of paper printed in blue or red ink. (Some of those may have made their way into your scrap book if they haven't escaped the junk drawer.)
   And how could your beloved classmates forever express their appreciation for you if you didn't have a Year Book to sign?  To say nothing of your diploma! I could go on and on- and I will.
 How many people today are millionaires because they bothered to check the numbers on a tiny slip of paper they were about to toss out? Go through your automobile's glove box sometime and see how many wonderful treasures you can discover. You may even locate your Registration or insurance cards among the packets of artificial sweeteners, napkins of brown recycled paper, receipts from car repair shops, expired coupons, and my favorite, those itty-bitty salt & pepper packs that come with your fast food sporks. Maybe under that road map you never could figure out how to fold right.
   Yes, paper is a huge part of our lives, and may even figure in our Eternity.  Back in the day, we would pass out simple leaflets of Gospel Tracts along the way. Who knows who may be in Heaven right now because one day some stranger, friend, or co-worker handed them a bit of paper that informed them, for the first time possibly,

For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not  perish, but have everlasting life.

   It's true! 

      For all these things and more, paper is something we love about life.

Random Stuff We Love!

   Hello again, life-lovers! It's been awhile since my last post, but we're back! And today, I'm just running over sundry various aspects of life, no overall theme or topic. Just singing out  the sights, sounds, scents, tastes, touches, feelings and experiences that make life beautiful! So if you'll pardon my lack of sentence structure, here are "a few of my favorite things" and hopefully, a few of yours:
   An afternoon thunderstorm. The rainbow after an afternoon thunderstorm. The concert of crickets and katydids with the lightshow of fireflies on a late summer's  night.  A greeting card hand-made by a little kid with crayon on construction paper. Or better yet, on a page torn from a spiral notebook. Better still, rendered in marker on a paper plate!

A toast: to life!

   A warm breakfast on a cold morning. Cold pizza on a warm morning. Seeing an uncommon bird in your garden. Sending Christmas cards; receiving Christmas cards. Blowing up a balloon for a kid at a birthday party. Popping balloons with kids at a birthday party.  Ever scan the radio stations in your car, and an old song comes on that was playing in your head the day or two before? Deja cool!
   I'm not sure whether there's a word for it, but I love words and names that are fun to say (and maybe mispronounce): like guacamole, Cucamonga, Kalamazoo, schistosomaisis, gesundheit! Titicaca, Zanzibar, pachyderm, and so forth. I love words, period! The nice thing about being a wordsmith is, you don't need a hot glue gun! I love birds in general, and chickens in General Tso's. I love puns, and like punsters. I love malapropisms, which is fortunate as my wife can out-malaprop Bugs Bunny!
   Roadtrips. Roadtrip playlists. Getting out on the road before dawn on an all-day road trip. I love landmarks. And passing landmarks on roadtrips. Or making a roadtrip to see a landmark. Or stopping for coffee on a roadtrip and realizing you can see a landmark from there. All the same thing? Yet another thing we love about life is looking at things from multiple angles. Haven't you ever looked at something with one eye closed, then covered to other eye to see the shift in perception?

   How about learning a new fact? Or learning a new skill?
   A trend that grieves me is that today, people spend so much time with TV shows, movies, and video games that they never notice the real world all around them. Don't get me wrong; myths and folk tales have their place in culture and are themselves stuff we love about life: only people get so immersed in them and that fantasy world, they miss all the glories and wonders right outside their windows.
   Or inside. Like a baby's laugh. Or the way an infant instinctively grasps your little finger in her tiny hand.  The way your dog or cat knows you aren't feeling well. You got brothers or sisters, cousins, maybe? Are your parents or grandparents still alive? Aunts, uncles, in-laws: if you've got family you've got a gold mine.  And perhaps it isn't gold, but I love finding money on the sidewalk. And, yes, I still bother to pick up pennies!

A rooster on the streets of Santiago, DR

   Know what else is cool? When you and a friend say the same thing at the same time! We used to say, "You owe me a beer!" when that happened, though we never actually tried to collect. Sea glass. Especially when you find a bit of blue, or (flourish of trumpets) red.  I love slang and colloquialisms, though I struggle with Ebonics. In the words of Weird Al Yankovic, "I'm a bit too white and nerdy".
   And in the words of another poet from another era, the great Robert Louis Stevenson : "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings"  I read that verse a hundred years ago (it seems) in elementary school, and it's stayed with me since. My point is, with all the beautiful, the positive things in life, why focus on the negative? Why look for the bad, why replay ugly hurtful memories in our minds when we can just as easily replay the good and the fond memories? Or better still, get together with friends and loved ones and make new good memories.
    And so I'm going to continue publishing this blog reminding us of the jewels and treasures all around us. There is so much to celebrate, so much to love. And that itself is one of the things we love about life.
 

Summer's End

   "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof" wrote Solomon of old. Now comes that bittersweet time of year when Summer starts packing up all her precious gifts and loading them into the car: down come the volley ball nets, the beach umbrellas, and -please!- not the grill!
   Maybe it's that I was born in this changing of the seasons that I find it so hauntingly beautiful. "Bittersweet" I called it because this is a time of new beginnings as the kids go back to school as well as a time of all too abruptly ending outdoor family fun.  Earlier this year I composed a piece I called "Signs o' Spring". I might well have titled this commentary "Omens of Autumn", but we like to keep things positive!

   As Hillary Clinton once said, "SIGH!". Look around, and behold, are these shrubs showing a touch of blush in their leaves? The nights are dropping in earlier, staying later, and feeling cooler. The apples are ripening, the schoolbuses are back on the roads, and Halloween costumes fill the department stores. Soon we'll see the gravid preying mantises, some green, some brown, scouting out the perfect reed or stalk to deposit their egg cases. 

   Isn't it strange how we always watch for that first robin of Spring, yet never seem to notice that final robin of Summer take wing to sunnier climes? Whatever hopes and dreams and plans we had for the summer; a beach day, a road trip, a camp-out, a cook-out, that tag sale---if we haven't got 'em done, we ain't gonna....not until next year!

   Now comes the season of State Fairs with all their fun, food, and fervor! Yeah, that's the sweet part! Get the native corn and tomatoes while you can, for soon the only local produce will be apples, pumpkins, squash, and ....kale? Did I mention the Oyster Festival?

   Soon golden and bronze chrysanthemums will be adorning doorways and walkways; sunflowers as big as your head and taller than you will be sharing their fruit with the squirrels and blue jays.  Say good-bye to watermelons, s'mores, and hot dogs! Good-bye to tank tops, shorts, and flip-flops! Summer is ending!

   Yes, Labor Day weekend is upon us, the "unofficial" end of summer. (Astronomically we have until September 21st.) And speaking of the ending of things, one of the rites of the passing of the seasons from my childhood is now gone forever. I remember as a kid this weekend always meant the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon , which my Dad would put on Sunday night and watch straight through to the final total on the board. I can almost see ol' Jerry getting choked up as he tries to sing "As You Walk Through the Storm".  Well my Dad is gone and now Jerry Lewis is, too.

   But that's what life is: change. Nothing here is permanent. Like an Etch-a-Sketch drawing it all vanishes away into a whole new picture. The blues and greens of Summer shall give way to the gold, russett, and orange of Fall. One season moves on to another. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.

   Life is beautiful, and oddly enough, Summer's end is one of those things we love about life.

Oh, My Papa !

   Today, it's all about the Dads! Few people in your life can have a greater influence in your life, for good or for bad, than Father. With all due respect to the single Moms, (and, as DJT would say, "Nobody has more respect for single Moms than I do-nobody!") Dad fills a role in his children's formation no one else can. Dad can do things Mom can't do, and will do things Mom won't do! I mean, how many Moms do you see play-fighting with their kids?
   The bond between a father and son is different from that between a mother and son; and likewise Dad's relationship with his daughter is a whole other level from the connection she shares with Mom. Oftentimes the Father is the one to dispense correction and discipline; he provides leadership and support. He is the role model and Advisor; and good or bad, his kids are going to copy him. He leaves an imprint no one else can!
   My father, Arthur Henry Anderson II, was an imposing man: at one point in his life nearly 500 pounds! Strong, headstrong, funny and fun-loving, opinionated and passionate about the things in life he loved, he left his mark on each of us his twelve children. Dad loved fishing, gambling, card-playing, spectator sports, TV, his Big Band Era music, family, and of course, eating! He loved his dogs, too, especially his Boston Terrier Trixie.
 Not to take anything away from mothers, who are dear and special in their own way, I think Dads really give us a sense of identity, helping (in some cases hurting) our perceptions of who we are.  The very fact that our surnames come down from our fathers' families is an example of this. Ever wonder why the Bible introduces a character as "Joe, the son of Thisguy, the son of Thatguy"?  Dad is part of who we are: not merely half of our DNA, but so much of our personality, behavior, culture, traits and idiosyncracies are modeled after his!
   As surely as we wouldn't be here without him, we wouldn't be us without him.
   I am so blessed and so grateful to be a Dad to my two awesome stepchildren, Tracy & Aljeny Santana.

   Likewise, one of my regrets in life is that I wasn't there for my own daughter, Genny Thompson. 
   So here's to the Dads: not everyone has one, but everyone should! It ain't easy being a Dad, and yeah, we make lots of mistakes. For us there is no greater reward in this life than to see our children, who God has delivered into our care, grow up to be good, wise, strong, and happy.
   Life is beautiful, and having a Dad, and being a Dad, are two of the most wonderful things in life. I miss you, Dad. 

Nostalgia

   Remember the good old days? Who doesn't love to reminisce over one's past joys, triumphs, friendships, accomplishments, yes, even tragedies and sorrows?
   But were the good olde days really all that good? Didn't we have struggles, disappointments, heartbreaks, fears and failures? Or as Solomon wrote, "Say not thou, 'What is the cause that the former days were better than these?' For thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this."  As the song asks, "Could it be things were all so simple then, or has time re-written every line?"
   Maybe we were just more hopeful, less cynical back in the day? Maybe we just forget the ugly times, or simply ignore them....and focus on the good (which is the stated purpose of this blog!). Perhaps in many ways we are indeed better off now than then, but still somehow the "happy golden days of yore" always feel better to us.
   Maybe it's an illusion, a glitch in the human mind, but how often we look back longing for those days we once couldn't wait to pass! But what made the good olde days good? We were younger, stronger, full of hope for the future, doing what we could with what we had, and not even knowing what we didn't have.
    It seems to me that for any generation, "the good olde days" were whatever decade they spent their teens and twenties in. I remember how my Dad always used to boast about and idealize The Big Band Era.  So, the Great Depression and World War II were the good old days? And Mom always talked about her and her brother growing up on the farm with only their Grandpa to raise them. Must have been a rough life....but still GOOD!
   The product I build at work is given a serial number to each unit.....as I'm working I come across a serial number ending in 1979, and suddenly I'm back in High School! I wish I had a dollar for every time I've wished I had a TARDIS to take me back to the '70's!!! True, that decade had all kinds of ugly stuff going on historically and personally, but damn if I wouldn't jump at the chance to go back there!
 Seeing the movie Super 8 with the old Fotomat booth and other props form that bygone era takes me back to my childhood and youth! Weird! I love looking at old photo albums and yearbooks, hearing "our" music from back in the day, and, of course lamenting with others from my generation about how cheap everything was back then!
   In some ways, the old things were better. When I was a kid, there was no Internet, we had no cell phones;  Chuck E. Cheese was a big, fat rat, not a skinny little mouse; women looked like women and men looked like men; the boss handed you a check on payday; you brought that check to the bank and a human teller cashed it for you.

19 or 20?

   We all love to think about the old days, and tell the younger folk how much better it was then......It seems that 
the older I get, the further back in my life I look. It's like that warning/disclaimer on your sideview mirror telling you things are closer than they appear.  When we look back, we see things differently than we did when they were ahead of us.
It's human nature.
   Yes, it's an illusion, a warped view of reality.  And one day, years from now, these will be  "the good olde days".  I know that. We all do. Whatever. Nostalgia still is, and always will be, one of the things we love about life!

Seafood!

    What's the best thing about living on the coast? Fresh seafood! Now I'm no connoisseur, but how could one visit an island, bay, or harbor and not go for the local catch o' the day? It's criminal! Ya gotta have seafood! 
   Let's get through the semantics: I know trout, catfish, crawdads and the like aren't literally  food from the sea, but if it's aquatic and it's edible, I'm calling it seafood. This is my blog and I'm the king here, so as king I hereby decree a decree that henceforth and hereafter shall   hushpuppies be deemed and classified as seafood!  Glad we cleared that up!
    Secondly, I realize there be religious taboos against consuming crustaceans and mollusks and bivalves and stuff, so if you abstain from these in your devotion, you may wanna skip ahead a few paragraphs. I wouldn't want to tempt you to violate your conscience! (Bacon-wrapped scallops must be doubly sinful!)
   Some words about clam chowder:  You've got New England clam chowder,  and then there's Manhattan clam chowder.  One is white and creamy, the other brown and soupy. It's like the Yankees and the Red Sox:  either ya love the one and hate the other or else you hate the one and love the other; don't trust anyone who says they like 'em both.  What the hell is Rhode Island clam chowder? I dunno! Third base!  For me, on a cold, raw, yucky day, give me the New England Clam Chowder!  With those tiny crackers!

Working on the second of twin lobsters!

   My wife loves lobster. Wendy could chow down a whole lobster faster than Madison  from Splash!  We celebrated our first Valentine's Day at Westbrook Lobster in Wallingford, CT, and have been going there for great seafood ever since. Me, I'm a baked, stuffed lobster fan. Westbrook makes a wicked lobster quesadilla too! (Sometimes we visit Red Lobster just for those cheddar bay biscuits.)
   Years back when we stayed with my mother-in-law ("Mama'") Onieda, she took us on a trip across D.R. to the region of Samana. It was an all-day journey on the road over treacherous terrain, and by the time we got there, we were hungry! Wendy and I each ordered the fried fish. The waiter supposed the plate was too big for the little lady, and invited us back to the kitchen to behold just how big those fish were (about a forearm's length). He don't know my Wendy! Needless to say we both ordered- and completely devoured- those deep fried fish!
(My wife dared me to eat the eyes....have you ever tried them?)

Fish at Playa Ensenada,

   I recall years ago my sister Jodie and her husband Dave took me to their fav Italian restaurant. I ordered the Catch o' the Day, and the waitress was like, uh, there is no catch today. I have never returned to that establishment, which shall remain nameless!
   For our summer vacations, we occasionally rent a friend's beach house in Clinton, CT.  And Wendy is the queen of the grill! Jumbo shrimp, salmon: forget about it! I'm in heaven!
  Now I admit some seafood is kinda gross. Like fried soft-shell crab sandwiches, and raw oysters, which are all slimey and squiggly.  I remember my Dad used to eat shrimp cocktail, and sardines right out of the can. He and his dad and uncles used to go out into Long Island Sound for some flatfishin'.  (Flatfish are gross because they have both eyes on the same side of their face---creepy!)

Dinner on the beach in Jamaica

   A cool thing about seafood is the regional variety and specialties. If you head down Maryland way, you've gotta have them crabcakes; you journey Down East  to Maine and the lobstah is a must-have. You go down South and you can't miss the catfish!  Some stuff you can only get- or get done right- in just one place!
   I could talk about the health benefits of seafood, nutritious and delicious Omega-3 fatty acids, whatever! This blog is all about the emotional health benefits to your heart and soul! My wife loves seafood and I love to see her lovin' what she loves.  
   Life is beautiful and seafood, in all of its amazing forms, is definitely one of the things we love about life!