Category: Generic

48 Years to Go

Daily writing prompt
Write a letter to your 100-year-old self.
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This one is dumb. Why would I write a letter to my future self? My future self would know everything I wrote about before I wrote it. Writing to your past self is an interesting exercise because your past self does not know what went down in the intervening time. Writing to the future? I guess you can argue that it is a time capsule. It works on that level. I guess. Oh well.

Hey, 100 year old me, it’s 52 year old me. Remember when you wrote this? We just had the kitchen remodeled. I hope the new cabinets and counters lasted a good long time. I hope you didn’t have to do it again, at least not too soon. How is Jen doing? How are the kids doing? If it is May 8, 2071 then Bellana is about to turn 70 and Harry is 68. I assume one of them is President by now, right? That assumption being on top of the assumption that We the People were able to do something about those pesky fascists who are trying to take over, of course. There is so much I want you to tell me about but you can’t because this silly exercise is not a two way street. I mean my future is a much more interesting topic than your past, right? Are they still making Star Wars movies and shows? Are they still as good as Andor? What about Star Trek? Still as good as Strange New Worlds?

There. I’ll send that off in the post, Back to the Future style.

Shopping Spree

Daily writing prompt
Where would you go on a shopping spree?
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Is this a fantasy type thing? Meaning money is no object, or are we supposed to give a realistic answer.

A realistic answer could have been IKEA, given that we basically just went on an insane shopping spree there in order to remodel our kitchen. It’s a case of blog imitating life… or the other way around, maybe?

For a purely selfish answer, I would go with a music dealer. Guitar Center would be the easiest answer. There was a story the members of Rush used to tell about when they got their first advance from Mercury Records. They all went to the best music store in Toronto and upgraded all of their gear. Neil Peart bought the Chrome drum set, Geddy Lee bought his first Rickenbaker bass, and Alex Lifeson bought his first(?) Les Paul. That’s sort of what I would do. I’d go into the store with nothing and come out with a whole new gig rig. A custom shop Gibson guitar, a high end Fender (or Marshall) amplifier, and maybe a few new pedals.

That’s a fantasy answer, but if I were really going nuts I’d go to a shop like Chicago Music Exchange (is there an equivalent in the Boston area? I’ve been Googling and found a few possibilities) where rather than shopping for new, high end stuff, I could shop for actual vintage gear. Legendary stuff. A Les Paul Standard made between 1958 and 1960 and a tweed Fender amp like a 4×10 Bassman from 1959 or so. The real stuff, not reissues. The stuff that’s worth about as much as a small house. Yeah, that would be my uber-fantasy shopping spree.

Honorable mentions would be someplace that deals in vintage cameras (if such places exist), or books, or records, or cats. Vintage cameras, books, or records, but not vintage cats… that would be weird.

Traffic

The ride home from IKEA tonight should have taken a bit less than an hour. Then I got stuck behind an accident on route 128. After that I got stuck behind an accident on route 128. Oh for crying out loud. It took almost two hours.

Here’s a cat to cheer me up.

My Middle Name

Daily writing prompt
What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?
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We already did a prompt writing about our name, didn’t we? I guess focusing on the middle name is different… different-ish, I guess.

There is no deeper meaning behind my middle name, just as there is no deeper meaning behind my first name. My uncle, my mother’s big brother, had the same name but that’s not exactly where my name came from. I’m a junior. I was named after my father. James is my middle name (you can see it in the URL of this page) as James is my father’s middle name.

I’m named after my dad. I am proud of that, even if it often made answering the phone annoying because once I hit puberty our voices were pretty much identical over the phone and people would think I was him when I answered and just start talking. Nope, you have the wrong Robert. Hold on a second while I get him…

The Last Thing

Daily writing prompt
What is the last thing you learned?
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We all probably learn something new every day, right? That should be the goal, at least. I learned a couple of little things yesterday. Nothing important in the grand scheme of things, but new things none the less.

I learned that a US passport doesn’t include a street address. Who knew?

I learned a couple of small details about filling out travel requests at work.

I learned that our new work in the office policy (two days a week instead of just one) has lead to a lot of people choosing to come in on Wednesdays.

In the last week I learned for sure something I already suspected. Kitchen remodeling projects are stressful.

See? You really do learn new things every day!