Category: Family History
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October Reveries
“When you get homesick, it’s not something missing, it’s something present, a visit. People and places from far away arrive and keep you company for a while.” ― Erri De Luca, God’s Mountain Thirty-three Octobers ago, I was on the other side of the Atlantic, 4,362 miles from where I live now and 4,329 miles…
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Musings & Thoughts for Thursday, October 21, 2021, or: Remembering Arbetter’s – Hot Dog Nostalgia Strikes Again!
Hello, Dear Reader. It’s early afternoon on Thursday, October 21, 2021. It’s a warm “autumn” day here in west-central Florida. Currently, the temperature is 84˚F (29˚C) under mostly cloudy skies. With the wind blowing from the east-northeast at 6 MPH (10 KM/H) and humidity at 36%, the heat index is 86˚F (30˚C). Today’s forecast calls…
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Musings & Thoughts for Monday, October 18, 2021, or: Of Moms, Birthdays, and My ‘Maybe Later’ Pile
Hi, there, Dear Reader. It is late morning here in my corner of west-central Florida on Monday, October 18, 2021. It is a nice fall day; the current temperature is 74˚F (23˚C) under sunny skies. With humidity at 38% and the wind blowing from the east-northeast at 11 MPH (18 KM/H), the feels-like temperature is…
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Musings & Thoughts for Tuesday, October 12, 2021, or: Parting Shots of a Protracted Rift Between Siblings
“I blinked my eyes and in an instant, decades had passed.”― John Mark Green, Taste the Wild Wonder: Poems Today it dawned on me that it’s been over half a decade since I last had a polite, if not friendly, exchange of words with my half-sister Victoria after our mother’s death. It wasn’t even a…
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Remembering My ‘Papi’: My Dad Died a Hero, But He Shouldn’t Have…..
Yesterday – Monday, October 4, 2021 – was my father’s 102nd birthday. I never had a chance to say “Happy birthday, Papi” to Jeronimo Diaz-Granados before he died. At least, not at an age in which I could say it uncoached by my mother Beatriz. I was less than seven months old when he celebrated…
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Papi, I Hardly Knew Ye….
Today would have been my father’s 102nd birthday. Had Jeronimo Diaz-Granados not been killed in a plane crash on the morning of February 13, 1965, who knows how many birthdays he would have celebrated with Mom, my older half-sister Vicky, and me. Would Dad – or Papi – have lived to be 102? I doubt…
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Tempus Fugit…Again, or: My ‘Colombian Childhood’ is a Half-Century in the Past
Hey, there, Dear Reader. Welcome to another nostalgia-filled post in my occasional series, Tempus Fugit, in which I look back at certain periods of my so-called life, usually to remark that half-a-century has elapsed between Then and Present Day. Last night, while I was attempting to watch the first disc of Zack Snyder’s Justice League…
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On Family History: Rainy Days & Mondays Bring Back Weird Memories
Hi there, Dear Reader. It’s early afternoon here in my corner of Florida on Monday, September 6, 2021. It is a rainy early fall day here. Currently, the temperature is 85˚F (30˚C) under cloudy skies. With the wind blowing from the west-northwest at 5 MPH (8 KM/H) and humidity at 61%, the heat index is…
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Musings for Friday, August 27, 2021, or: Bad Weather Brings Back Unpleasant Memories of Family Trauma, Drama
Hi there, Dear Reader. It’s early afternoon here in New Hometown, Florida on Friday, August 27, 2021. It’s gray and gloomy outside, as well as hot and humid. Currently, the temperature is 89˚F under mostly cloudy skies. With the wind blowing from the east-southeast at 9 MPH (14 KM/H), the feels-like temperature is 101˚F (38˚C).…
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Movie Watcher Memories: ‘The Star Wars Trilogy’ DVD Box Set…and Why I Won’t Part With It
Hello, there. It is late morning here in New Hometown, Florida on Monday, August 16, 2021. It is a warm, humid day; the current temperature is 82˚F (28˚C) under partly sunny skies. With humidity at 67% and the wind blowing from the south-southeast at 8 MPH (10 KM/H), the heat index is 88˚F (32˚C). Today’s…