The Bridge of Yu Gi-Oh

The moral of the story is that you should enjoy every moment you can with your children because they won't always be interested or impressed by you.

Our son absolutely loves playing Yu Gi-Oh cards. It's a pretty complicated card game that pits monsters against each other - all with different attack and defense levels - while pairing these with spell and trap cards. All cards have an assigned point value that gets tallied when the cards are played against each other. All to say that I would never play such a complicated game in my youth and would probably not take on such a stressful card game as an adult except as I mentioned at the start, our son loves the game and I'm interested in having brief moments when we're not the old and uncool ATM in the bedroom next door. Now, it turns out that my playing the game with him has again reminded me to think out of the box to keep a connection with our teen for as long as we can.

Keep passin' the open windows...

If We Could Fix Our Mistakes

The moral of the story is that we fix our past mistakes by not repeating them.

As I look back I recognize that I've had a very full life. I think I always did what I really wanted to do and quite honestly, it wasn't all good. As I look back at some of my bigger mistakes, I always wondered where would I be and what would be different if I hadn't done things a certain way or if I had made different choices. The great thing about getting older is that hopefully we can see things more clearly and make better choices. The epiphany I've had about my life and my mistakes is that the only real-world fix to our mistakes (big or small) is to not repeat them. In a way it says you recognize the error of your ways. So, I've stopped wishing I'd done things differently and accepted that making it all better is all about making the right choices now and not repeating everything that can bring waves of angst and regret.

Keep passin' the open windows...

Taking the Good With the Bad

The moral of the story is that if you don't stick around and persevere you'll never enjoy the great times. Now here's the story...
When we moved into our house a little over two years ago, we were told that upstate NY can have pretty treacherous weather, but the first year we had a total of 6" of snowfall the entire winter. We really thought that the folks around us exaggerated the winters north of NYC until this year. We've had more than 30" of snowfall since the start of winter. The back-breaking work it takes to get the property cleared is quite the undertaking. Then there is the everyday wonderful that is Orange County NY. The beautiful rich colors of fall, the bargain basement square footage pricing and - for us - a comfy and convenient location. So I carefully measure the pros and cons and recognize that, like life, upstate NY has really easygoing years where the weather is a breeze and life is easy and then there are the tear-inducing years that bring several feet of snowfall. Through it all you have to stick around through some crappy times to enjoy the great times. Life isn't all a bed of roses and those who -sadly - don't wait around for another good spell falter, fail and give up right before the great hits.

Keep passin' the open windows...

Valentine's Reality

It's Valentine's Day and I'm consistently amazed at how folks run around trying to make it extra special for their significant other. I'm just perplexed at why folks wait for this one day to do what they should be doing every day. I've been with my partner for many years and I refuse to buy into the made-up holiday that is Valentine's Day. Now if it makes you feel good or improves your relationship then go for it. My thinking says that if you're working to make your partner happy  every day you'll have less pressure to get it right the one day of the year.

Keep passin' the open windows...

MUSIC REVIEW: Luck Fové, Khary Mallea; iTunes/Googleplay: 2/11/14

My Masterpiece Called Luck Fové by Khary Mallea is a new guitar infused rap release that is raw, gritty and in your face. Explicit and true; you get a sense that the artist is allowing us to be voyeurs to his experiences. On the cut 'Alone' the words meld with the lyrics to give an old school feel and an edgy vibe that begs for a drink in hand. With 'Bitta #1664' - my favorite cut - Mallea brings in a beat that is contagious with a storyline that will make every underdog feel the vindication of making it without the support of his former ride-or-die. Mallea reminds me of a Lupe Fiasco had Lupe not been Disney-fide for the masses. Luck Fové is available on iTunes and GooglePlay this Tuesday, Feb 11.


- Keep passin' the open windows.

Location:New York, NY