Monthly Archives: February 2012

Snowy Leap Day!

Posted on by

All winter it has been brown, not to mention basically above freezing where I live.  As I get older the idea of no shoveling does become more… intriguing, if you will, but for someone raised in Minnesota, on the Canadian border, snow is part of winter.  In fact, we lived so far north that I curled as a HS sport and did this three days a week, in Canada, twenty minutes away.  Also, when my older sister went to Kindergarten she started singing “Oh Canada” when the class sang the national anthem in the morning for the first time.  We got one TV station and it was from Winnipeg; she was sure that was our national anthem.

That said, here it is, March 1st on three years out of four, February 29th this leap year, and we’re getting one of our biggest snowstorms of the season.

The last couple of weeks have been in the forties with the sun shining and I even went and bought a couple of spring bulb flats just to see the narcissus, hyacinths and crocuses bloom in the office (okay, actually at Paul’s insistence).  My spring fever started two weeks ago and I’m essentially done wishing for snow.  Now all I can say is “well, we do need the moisture…”  How about a gentle 45 degree rain?  I guess Mother Nature has no desire to be predicable or boring.  I also think she’s a bit of a control freak.

Whatever, we’ll all slog though this mess and do our best to stay warm and dry cause Mother knows best.  I’m just glad we aren’t an agrarian economy anymore, I just can’t see myself selling blocks of ice to California and Texas all winter waiting for our three month growing season.

Nephews

Posted on by

Today our 11 year old nephew is with us.  He’s a great kid and we both love and enjoy him immensely, but he’s a little quirky.  Like, he gets up at four a.m. most days.  Four a.m.  When I see that number I smile to myself and roll over for at least  two more hours of sleep.  And quality sleep, right?  Isn’t it a fact that the deepest sleep happens between snooze alarms?

Anyway, yeah, nephew.  He’s a voracious reader (we got him a kindle for Christmas), but prefers our company and attention when he’s over.  If there’s a radio or TV on when he comes, his first question is always…”can we turn that off?” “Why, what would you like to do?” “We can just talk, right?” He’s going to make some lucky person a great boyfriend or husband some day.

And food, his two favorite things to eat are bacon and smoked salmon.  I get that I guess because, I mean, who doesn’t like bacon?  It’s just that these are way above candy, chips, pop (he hates pop) and, basically, all junk food.  He’s going to be / is a healthy dude :)

I’m looking forward to hours of video games today (he is still an 11 year old boy, you know) and his company.

Soul Mates

Posted on by

Soul mates do not simply come and go.

*If* they *ever* come, they do it with stealth.  Their feet quieted in sneakers or wrapped in the softest deer hide moccasins.  Their breath stilled to a whisper and their heartbeat at one with yours.

If they leave, they are accompanied by blood and gore.  Red arteries, white nerves and raw muscle tissue pulled from bone.

There will be noise as well.  The beating of your heart as it readies for explosion and the wailing of your mind as it thinks it is about to die.

Motives – Albert Einstein

Posted on by

“…one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one’s own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.”

— Albert Einstein

New (additional?) blog site

Posted on by

I am upgrading my blog to a WordPress site for a number of reasons.  The site itself is still somewhat in the works, but I can’t wait any longer so I’m going to start adding junk to it :)  I will be going back and picking out all my stuff from my old Tumblr site and reposting it here just to keep it all in one place.  In the mean time I will be adding new thoughts, poems, and bits of my up coming (first to be published if it kills me (well not if it kills me, but you get the point)) story about Alexander, Brice and Nico.

I will, at least for a while, continue my Tumblr blog, but I am going to abandon the posts primarily to the male model River Viiperi because that seems to be all anyone is interested in on that  site.  While that’s great, it isn’t what I originally meant my blog to be all about, so here is a fresh start.

Here’s hoping that some of my fans will stay with  me on this site, more dedicated to my own writing, photos, family, thoughts, etc.

Bob (aka R. Scott Tyler)

Aging

Posted on by

On Sunday, October 30, 2011 I went to an ecumenical church service at the assisted living facility my parents live in. When I initially sat down it seemed rather sad because the congregants were all so old (duh!). Unfortunately, more often than not these days, I am no longer the youngest person in the room, but I was, by far, here.

I visit my parents a lot, and bring my dogs with me often, so many of the residents recognize me because of the dogs (dogs are basically people magnets, they don’t only work for hot dudes and chicks…). As they got a bit more into the service I began thinking about our countries culture of youth. Most of the folks in the room have been on this earth for longer than 75 years and some have been here close to 100 years. How one looks plays an important role in our perceptions, and for many, looks are also associated with youth.  So, as we all age, we pass over that 20 year old mark and one of the big challenges becomes how to continue to be able to communicate, stay relevant, interesting, and up to date.

Many kids today don’t realize that even though they are 16, 20 or 25 years old right now, probably the luckiest thing that can happen to them is that they live to have a 75th, 85th, or even a 95th birthday.  On the same token, many people my age and older seem to forget that they were once young and not necessarily focused on careers, families, long term goals, etc.

Since the pay for people that work in assisted living and nursing home facilities is rather low, one of the typical outcomes is that there are a lot of young people that work in these facilities.  One of the gifts my parents have always had is that they get along well with people younger than themselves and I know that having folks in their 20s around actually brightens their day.  Also, the attendants that get along the best with residents are the ones that can develop some connection and where, to them, age isn’t a hinderance or sign of failure, but rather a sign of success and earned respect.

As usual, my visit made me think.  Period.

An Introduction to my Blog

Posted on by

While I have written all my life (diaries, short stories, poetry, trash, technical specifications and operations manuals for a few examples) I have never done anything with my personal writings other than reread them and constantly edit them.

A dozen or so months before I hit the half century mark in life I made a decision, along with my boyfriend, to repot myself.  Together we did that and since then it has been “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead”!  I did wonderful things in my first 50 years.  I met people that have made and continue to make significant impressions on my life, traveled the United States and the World in the name of business, stopped along the way (sometimes) to smell the roses and, more importantly to me, get to know the people.

After 27 years in Corporate America it wasn’t a totally simple process to change myself overnight and, together, my partner and I had some difficult times ahead of us due to what life seemed to lay at our feet.  Now, after three years in this on-going change process, the good things, as well as the difficult ones, seem to be falling into place.  That is why I decided that now could be the time for me to put my creativity to work and see if I can entertain you while entertaining myself.

Thanks to you all for being a part of my continuing repotting process!