Point Made

I only have a few streaming services. I've been a Netflix subscriber since they only mailed out disks. I joined Amazon Prime to get free delivery of things I ordered from them. I dabbled in others. Hulu, HBO, and Showtime were on my list at one time or another. I think I subscribed to Showtime to get 'Ray Donovan". I read Game of Thrones, so I never got into that conversation. Recently I subscribed to Apple + to get access to "The Morning Show." I'm deliberately avoiding signing up for Acorn, MHz, Britbox, Showtime, or HBO. I'm doing that because I have about a year's worth of shows on my wish lists on the services I currently pay for. I have already watched Aeronauts, The Irishmen, Marriage Story, and I'm following along with The Morning Show . Plus, I have a couple of guilty pleasures. Right now I've got two procedurals and two soap operas. The one soap that takes place in America is titled Virgin River . The others take place in Australi...

This has been one hell of a year for me. The physical issues causing a long period of recovery after four surgeries in six months. Then there was the abrupt ending of an almost thirty-year relationship. The ongoing family squabbles that were frustrating and pointless. Then finding out that people I thought were friends were not friends, was surprising. There were highlights. My column for Appleton Monthly Magazine was exciting and fulfilling. I enjoyed the jams with the guys in The Expansion Band. The weekends with Rae Rae and Felix, face-timing with Brogan and Tate, and visiting my other princess warrior, Violet, make me feel like a Poppa. The discovery of a daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson, I didn't even know about was made so meaningful, because they are such kind and understanding people. I am readjusting and recalibrating with the help of my real friends. I've shared this bit of wisdom from Linus, with some of you, but I repeat it here for all of you. H...

Luck of the Draw Or What You Missed At The Moth by Jeff Jordan I sent a draft of my five-minute presentation for The Moth to my friend Niki Robinson. Now just because Niki produces the Milwaukee version of the internationally produced The Moth doesn't mean I get any special treatment. All participants are urged to submit their ideas and presentations to the program for vetting and mentoring. Niki got back to me with a thumbs up and a couple of suggestions. I tweaked and futzed with the piece every day for a week. Contestants have five minutes to present. I timed my presentation as I performed it to my ever-patient computer screen. There is a loosely enforced theme for each slam. That evening, it was Family. Your story must be true, It has to be about something that happened to you or profoundly affected you. As a story, it should have a beginning, middle, and ending. Besides having a five-minute constraint (Remember I'm Irish), you can not use any notes, scripts, o...

Wow! Poppa Jeff slept in on Sunday. It's amazing. I'm a five o'clock in the morning riser. Today, I dozed until 5:45 am. Now I know. Some of you will say that seems like a small amount of time to be concerned about, Let me just say, that the value of time can be a matter of perspective. When you're young, you think you have all the time in the world. When you're my age, the nightly news remarks on people my age that are dying all of the time. I never want to make this blog become a substitute for a journal, but I thought this week I might give you my friends a glance at what my life is like these days. Let me start with a benchmark event. I got my first Holiday Card for this year. A big thank you goes out for Char and Bob Van Astin. My article for Milwaukee County Transit Services newsletter Rider Insider was published this week. If you're a bus rider, you might want to subscribe by going to the MCTS website and selecting Programs and then Rider Insider. For...

Slowly but surely, you can adjust to living alone. At my age and living where I do, I encounter more women who are divorced or widowed than men. The gender might make a difference in how we adjust, but I think there are many similarities. One of the challenges is cooking and eating alone. I've heard people talk about this as a significant problem. For me, it hasn't been a problem for a couple of reasons. I have to plan my meals to a certain extent since I walk a couple of blocks to the grocery store. I have a cart to transport my groceries home. Both of these are reasons why I can only purchase so much in one trip. On the flip side, I don't have to satisfy anyone else's preferences. I probably eat better meals now that I'm alone because not only can I plan better, but I can eat two meals a day instead of shoehorning three meals. The other reason it's easier for me to deal with mealtime is I love to cook. I don't look at it as a chore. Not only do I enj...

I seem to be delving into a lot of reading and film material that is causing me to become "woke." I'm told that is the current word for making oneself aware of one's personal concept of racial issues. WARNING! Do not watch Netflix's American Son alone . It's an hour and a half of nonending tension concerning an interracial couple dealing with law enforcement regarding their missing son. Because my son is married to Rossllyn, a wonderful black woman, I have two grandsons, who in societal terms, are black.  I say in societal terms because I remember a commentator at a writers conference in Madison, who posited a question he termed the Alex Haley dilemma. Haley, the writer of the seventies book that was converted into a television miniseries entitled Roots .  Roots is the story of a young black man who is captured by slave traders and sold as a slave in the colonies. Haley admitted he began writing this tale as a search for his black history. Haley wa...