I’ve been unusually tired this past week. I realize that I’m not going to have the same zip I had back in the day, but this whole low energy deal is not acceptable. It’s cramping my style. My wife says I’m tired because I never sit still and I’m always juggling several projects at the same time. I don’t believe that’s the case but, then again; what man ever thought his wife had a valid opinion about anything? I thought a regular exercise routine would help with my energy deficiency so I joined Gold’s Gym a few months ago. I’ve just cancelled my membership, though. I don’t see spending the …
Politics: ‘Poli’ a Latin word meaning ‘many’; and ‘tics’ meaning ‘bloodsucking creatures’. ~ Robin Williams As I do most days, I got up at 5:45 this morning pushed the ‘start’ button on my coffee maker and turned on the TV to catch the daily weather report. Those of you who are familiar with my rampant caffeine addiction are probably wondering why I don’t have an automatic coffee maker; one that can be set for a pre-determined time so that coffee is ready and waiting as soon as I come downstairs in the morning. I actually do have an automatic coffee maker, but I have two reasons for not …
If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is, "God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is, "Probably because of something you did.” – Jack Handey I have a dilemma. It’s rainy, cloudy and dreary outside, but that isn’t actually my real dilemma; it’s merely a contributing factor. My real dilemma is that it’s also rainy, cloudy and dreary inside – in my head. I’m not quite with it today. My thoughts are disjointed; like I’m in a fog clinging tenaciously to the jagged precipice between confusion and insanity. My brain seems to …
“Magnetism is one of the Six Fundamental Forces of the Universe, with the other five being Gravity, Duct Tape, Whining, Remote Control, and The Force That Pulls Dogs Toward the Groins of Strangers.” - Dave Barry Okay! First of all, I’m not at all happy to have this wannabe hurricane grabbing all the media attention and more importantly, all my readers! Stories about the approaching storm (whose name I refuse to mention); stories about how the storm affected each area; tips from Patch on how to weather the storm; accounts of the damage that was done, and article upon article upon ever-…
Great! Now what am I going to do? One of my favorite haunts has closed its doors for good and I’m left holding the proverbial bag. Yup, I’m sorry to say that Borders is going out of business. Gone! Finished! Kaput! History! How could they do this to me? They’re ruining my vacation! You’re probably thinking I’m being self-centered; that this isn’t really about me or my feelings; that this is about the sad, ill-fated demise of a high quality retail bookseller that has been in business for forty years and how it will affect their employees, their vendors and the communities which they once …
I went fishing last night. All I caught was mosquitos. I was the bait. Every summer thousands of vacationers flock to the boundless beauty of the great state of Maine like Shriner’s gathering at a convention. But after many years of making the pilgrimage north, I’ve come to the conclusion that the only convention going on up here is the village idiot’s convention - and we’re the idiots. I’m now thoroughly convinced that this whole ‘Maine Vacationland’ sham is nothing more than a clever guise to draw in the tourists, aka a fresh food supply for the summer feeding frenzy of Maine’s infamous …
It’s twelve-thirty three on Thursday afternoon and I’m just sitting down at my laptop to write my column. My deadline is ten o’clock tonight, but I generally like to have everything wrapped up no later than Thursday morning. Often, I’m a day or two early. But not this week. This week is different. We’re leaving for a two week vacation on Saturday morning; our yearly respite from the day-to-day grind. I desperately need some quiet time away from all the craziness that is life as we know it; away from the streetlights, the traffic, the noise that deafens us to that inner prompting; that still…
I just picked a zucchini the size of a Tomahawk Missile; Tomahawk being a moniker stolen from the Native Americans. But no big deal I guess. We’ve taken everything else they once owned, which would include the majority of the United States, not including the part we stole from Mexico, but I digress. This humongous zucchini was hidden from view beneath the huge green leaves of its mother plant so I just plain missed it, which seems to be becoming a common occurrence with me. As hard as I look and as many leaves as I push aside searching for the perfect-sized squash; I inevitably miss one …
Is it really June 3rd already? I’m amazed at how quickly the time passes. It seems to me that time is an extremely ambiguous commodity. It’s a difficult concept to get a handle on. Male or female, rich or poor; time passes just the same. Yet there can be times in our lives when it may appear to pass more quickly or more slowly. That, however, is merely our own perception. We are each allotted a specific quantity of time. How much, no one knows. What we do know is that each of us on this earth has a beginning and an end. Time waits for no one. As I’ve grown older; I’ve become considerably …
I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done. ~ Steven Wright I’m frequently asked how I come up with the topics for my columns. I write two columns weekly for Patch.com and work on several other writing projects during the week including a book I’ve been working on for a long time – a very long time! Believe it or not, I start every column by typing, ‘by Bob Havey’, at the top of the page and then putting, ‘Bob Havey is an Easton-based freelance writer. His column, "The View From Here", appears each Tuesday at http://easton-ma.patch.com and his other column "Take Me Back" runs every …
We may run, walk, stumble, drive, or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way. - Gloria Gaither The fog is finally breaking and I can now see more than a few feet in front of me, but enough about my sinuses. The weather has been amazing the past couple of days and the week ahead looks like it’s going to be a great one also. Visions of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, eggplant and a bevy of other goodies from the garden are dancing through my head. I plan on getting outside today and getting my onion sets planted, a …
It’s Thursday morning and this is the first time I’ve been out of bed for any length of time since Sunday night. In a word – I’m sick. Okay that’s two words, or I guess it’s technically three words since ‘I’m’ is a contraction, but give me a break – I’m sick. I’ve had a fever, chills, a sore throat, a pounding headache, a non-stop cough that has my rib cage feeling like I just went ten rounds with Mike Tyson, and I’ve gone through enough Kleenex that, if recycled, would probably be sufficient to produce enough paper to do a reprint of War and Peace – providing all the mucus could be washed …
Saturday morning was always one of the high points of the week when I was a kid. Why? There were two reasons; the first and most obvious being that there was no school, and the second being that there were non-stop cartoons on television. My brother, Bruce and I would jump out of bed extra-early every Saturday morning, at times well before our parents were up. We’d run out to the living room, flip on the TV and go out to the kitchen to get a glass of orange juice, a bowl of cereal and maybe even sneak in a few cookies if my mother wasn’t watching. The fact that we got up on our own was a …
This column is going to be a little different from my usual weekly offerings to Take Me Back, in that it has absolutely nothing to do with taking anyone back anywhere. I won’t be discussing any of my former teachers or reminiscing about frolicking in the snow as a 10-year old. There will be no stories about old TV shows from the fifties or self-deprecating discussions about purchasing my first jock strap. And there will definitely be no painted frogs. There will be nothing like that. I’m going to veer off the beaten path today – change it up a little. Those of you who read either my Mansfield…
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Excerpt from - Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m not happy about getting old. Don’t get me wrong. I accept the fact that I’ve long since passed middle age and I’m now a……ah…..well…..one of those senior cit….…… See, I can’t even say it! It’s too painful. In the past, there were many stages of life I looked forward to with gusto. There were milestones I awaited with enthusiasm. The first big one was entering the first grade…
Mr. Deslauriers, my French teacher at MHS, would be exceedingly proud. After four years of studying French and 45-years of waiting patiently for just the right moment; I finally got to use a couple of words I learned in his class, not to mention I get the gratification that comes from sending a bunch of you scrambling to Google and; let’s face it, that’s what life is all about, self-gratification. Had I known that Spanish would become such a widely spoken language, I would have foregone the four years I spent sitting in French class and studied Spanish instead, but that would have meant …
I have many fond memories from my days at old MHS, but none more so than Feb. 20, 1962 when Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. became the first American launched into orbit. I was in my freshman year and finding the world of high school academia to be quite unlike what I had experienced in my previous eight years of school. I was fairly bright and had never found it necessary to study much in grammar school or junior high. Things came easy to me and I was content to get by with a few A’s, a smattering of B’s, and a C on occasion. Life was good and school was my personal playground. Then along came …
Well I'm not the kind to live in the past The years run too short and the days too fast The things you lean on are the things that don't last Well it's just now and then my line gets cast into these Time passages There's something back here that you left behind…
Where Have You Gone Trebor Nedyap?* The grass is always greener in the other fellow's yard. The little row we have to hoe, Oh boy that's hard. But if we all could wear green glasses now, it wouldn't be so hard to see how green the grass is in our own back yard. -Theme song to the Big Brother Show I’m extremely tired today. I painted all day yesterday and when I got up at 5:30-this morning, I felt the way I used to feel the day after double-sessions. For those not familiar with double-sessions, let me paint a quick picture for you. Not a portrait necessarily, just a quick little black and …
Have you ever felt that most everything around you has been turned around, warped, twisted; that the world is backwards, upside down? I’m asking because I don’t portend to speak for you and, trust me; you wouldn’t want me to. I’ve been particularly exasperated by a myriad of things over the past week. We all have those times I guess, but over the past few days I seem to have run into an innumerable number of issues; challenges ranging from personal to professional and darn near everything in between. It seems that there’s something, I’ll call it a dark force, that’s determined to knock me …
