Tag Archives: Life in South Florida

Musings & Thoughts for Monday, May 22, 2023, or: Up and About Before Sunrise – Again…


Oh, no. Not again. Not another early morning wakeup! Unfortunately, Dear Reader, as I start to write this at 8:37 in the morning of Monday, May 22, 2023, it’s been five hours since I woke up to use the facilities – and then failed to go back to sleep. I tried. I really tried toContinue reading “Musings & Thoughts for Monday, May 22, 2023, or: Up and About Before Sunrise – Again…”

‘The Cheerleader’s Kiss’ (A Scene from ‘Reunion’ Reimagined by Bing AI in the Style of Erica Jong)


Fifth in a Series of Reimagined Versions of a Scene from Reunion: A Story I wrote Reunion: A Story myself. I put it on Amazon in the summer of 2018, when the world was burning and I was feeling old. A paperback from CreateSpace, an e-book from Kindle. A story about love and loss, youth andContinue reading “‘The Cheerleader’s Kiss’ (A Scene from ‘Reunion’ Reimagined by Bing AI in the Style of Erica Jong)”

Tempus Fugit – 1973 Remembered Edition: Wacky Packages Turned 50!


I can’t believe that it’s been 50 years – half a century, folks! – since I bought my first pack of Topps’ Wacky Packages. I was reminded of that earlier this morning when I was browsing through my hardcover copy of Wacky Packages (2008, Abrams ComicsArt) and saw that the first series of those subversiveContinue reading “Tempus Fugit – 1973 Remembered Edition: Wacky Packages Turned 50!”

Tempus Fugit: Thinking About the Tyranny of Forced ‘Joint’ Birthday ‘Celebrations’


Hi, there, Dear Reader. It’s Tuesday, March 7, 2023 – two days after my 60th birthday and three days before my older half-sister Vicky’s 73rd. In the last decade of my mother’s life (2005-2015), this would have been the “compromise” date on which we’d celebrate both occasions. I say “compromise” because Vicky, for reasons thatContinue reading “Tempus Fugit: Thinking About the Tyranny of Forced ‘Joint’ Birthday ‘Celebrations’”

Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Where Did the Time Go?


The Relentless Flight of Time Oh, my. Where did the time go? I swear. It seems like it was only yesterday that we were ushering in 2023, and…poof! Suddenly it’s February 28, the last day of the second month. And, on Sunday, March 5, I will go from being 59 years old to 60 yearsContinue reading “Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Where Did the Time Go?”

Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Late Winter 1973 – Waiting, with Bated Breath, for the Big One-Oh


Things I Remember: February 1973 With just a bit over two weeks till my 60th birthday – date-wise it’s 15 days, but today is half-over – and with no clue as to what will happen on that day (I nixed a trip to a Disney park due to concerns about exposure to COVID-19), my thoughtsContinue reading “Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Late Winter 1973 – Waiting, with Bated Breath, for the Big One-Oh”

Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): A (School) Day in the Life, February 1973


Well, Dear Reader, with less than 17 days until my 60th birthday, it’s time for (yet) another Tempus Fugit piece related to this landmark birthday. On this day in 1973, which fell on a Friday, I was at Tropical Elementary – more likely than not – in Mrs. Chambers’ Special Education class in Room 29.Continue reading “Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): A (School) Day in the Life, February 1973”

Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Songs, Schedules, & Off-Campus Lunches…My High School Experience in February 1983


“I blinked my eyes and in an instant, decades had passed.” ― John Mark Green, Taste the Wild Wonder: Poems With less than 18 days before my 60th birthday – the first such recurrence of a “landmark” birthday since my mother’s death nearly eight years ago (and the ensuing physical as well as the emotionalContinue reading “Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Songs, Schedules, & Off-Campus Lunches…My High School Experience in February 1983”

Tempus Fugit: For The Love of Movies (1973 Edition)


50 years ago, in February of 1973, I was nine going on 10 and lived in a house in Westchester – an unincorporated suburb of Miami, Florida – with my widowed mother and my older half-sister Victoria, aka Vicky. I attended Tropical Elementary, a public school that even though it was in the same zoneContinue reading “Tempus Fugit: For The Love of Movies (1973 Edition)”