This summer we went to the Railroad Museum in Wisconsin Dells. I took a pile of shots of rusted out trains and old railroad stuff, planning to do some photopaintings from them. Here’s the first. View on black
All posts by Bob Keller
Breast Cancer Screening
If you are looking for a concise and thoughtful take on the new mammogram guidelines, my friend Susan writes about it in her blog. I find the guidelines to be a strange risk-benefit calculation. Although I must admit that I’ve consistently declined prostate cancer screening.
Thanksgiving
What I’m thankful for:
My family. My wonderful creative daughters who have fled the nest and seem to be thriving and the young men they’re in relationships with, who are also creative and decent guys. My wife who is so many great things, beautiful and tolerant to name a couple. I’m thankful that I found someone to put up with me for these thirty some years.
My family’s health. And mine. I’m thankful that I’ve had Crohn’s for almost 40 years and my intestines are still intact. I’m thankful that after a nasty infection and five surgeries on my leg, I’m alive, have two legs that sort of bend and I can walk. And I’m thankful for the meds that my brain chemicals properly balanced and a safe distance from the brink.
I’m thankful for this country and the freedom and prosperity it’s provided. And to the men and women in the military who put everything on the line to defend it.
I’m thankful for the sound that my Strat makes with the switch at four, the tone turned all the way up, the reverb at 7 and the tone knobs at 10 on the Princeton Reverb amp, when I dig into the strings with the pick and just brush them with my thumb as it goes by. I’m thankful for my Carbon Acoustic guitar, which stays in tune and puts up with my neglect and still sounds great.
I’m thankful for Mac OS and Adobe.
I’m thankful for RH Donnely going into Chapter 11 and making my decision to leave so much easier.
I could go on and on.
Dead Flowers
One of the options I’ve been pursuing is to become a rock star. Well you never know until you try, right? Seriously, I’ve been putting in some major wood shedding (hep-cat musician speak for “practice”) and have been seeing some gradual improvement in my playing. I’ve been a closet guitar player for forty years, noodling away in private, rarely playing with anyone else, never really learning any songs, just improvising away on the blues and lately some old time country and rockabilly things. I’m not particularly talented as a musician, but I’m determined. And I have a really bad case of stage fright. I’ve attended open jams and when I get called out to solo, it’s deer in the headlights time. My fingers turn to stone, I can’t remember the key we’re in, or where to start. I’ve sat there, sweating for four measures of an eight measure break. I can practice a piece for hours, play it fairly well in private, but if I have one person watching me I just can’t pull it off.
Lately I’ve been getting together to make music with a young woman who I met at a neighbor’s house last summer. Continue reading Dead Flowers
Call Me Mr. Fitness
It seems October and November decided to switch places in the seasonal order this year. Did the sun ever come out in October? It seemed like it was consistently dreary and rainy for the whole month. It even snowed a bit. And now on November 17th, I’m looking out my window at an azure sky and the cemetery bathed in beautiful thin late afternoon light. I guess as Minnesotans we take what we can get.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m trying to justify my post Dex existence in every possible way. One way is to be a fitness mentor to my spouse. Not that I can give her any tips on staying fit, having me for a personal trainer would be like having Foster Brooks for an AA sponsor. Continue reading Call Me Mr. Fitness
More Ketchup
Sorry, sometimes I just can’t resist a pun.
My last post probably sounded like I was teetering on the edge of despair. But I can assure you that my feeling of well-being is not connected to my success or failure as a barista. There are medications for that. I’m actually feeling pretty well for a guy in the middle of dental work. Speaking of medications, my dentist is either a Bhuddist or is on tranques. No one could be that consistently calm and soothing. I’m sure it’s his work schtick, it is the perfect demeanor for a dentist. I wonder if they have classes for that in dental school. I can see them sitting around in a room concentrating on lowering their blood pressure 20 points, just by meditation. My blood pressure is like a teenager’s, in spite of a family history to the contrary. I hope the same holds true for melanoma, which my brother and sister both have had. I mentioned this fact to a doctor friend and she was pretty adamant that I needed to get checked and maybe even find out if I have the genetic marker.
OK enough about that stuff. Is that what you call “over-sharing?” I’ve been trying to justify my existence in this post-Dex life. It wouldn’t take long for Beck to serve the divorce papers if I were sitting around all day eating Cheetos and watching daytime TV. Continue reading More Ketchup
Catch Up Ball
I haven’t posted for awhile, and I won’t bullshit you by saying I’ve been too busy. Oh, I’ve been busy, but that’s no excuse. I’ve heard that some of my former coworkers have been following the blog to keep track of my post Dex adventures, so I’m going to use today’s post to update the world on this pilgrim’s progress. As if the world gives a rat’s ass.
My plan was to not write about the coffee shop gig here. It’s probably something that could get me fired and I’m a little uncomfortable with going into a situation “under cover” and then writing about it publicly unbeknownst to the subjects. But in this case I’m going to give you a bit of an update on my “barista” career, just for historical background on the rest of my adventure. Continue reading Catch Up Ball
Clean and Sober
Last weekend the Kellers laid low at home and watched two movies about addicts, Clean and Rachel Getting Married. Generally I’m not a fan of addiction and recovery themes, too much like real life, I guess. But I found these films to be engrossing. Both center on addicted women, played by Maggie Cheung and Anne Hathaway, who are very unsympathetic characters. Alienating all around them with their destructive and self possessed behavior, these human train wrecks seem to be destined to lose everything to their addiction, and not have anyone left to care. In Clean, Cheung’s character, Emily, is cleaning up after a stint in prison and is trying to reunite with her son, who is being cared for by the parents of her overdose victim husband. Hathaway’s Kym, is on a furlough from treatment to attend her sister’s wedding, and soon makes it obvious that she thinks everything is about her and about her problem. She turns her toast at the groom’s dinner into a twelve step amends, going on and on about how sorry she is for everything, without ever mentioning the bride and groom. That wouldn’t qualify as making amends at the meetings I went to.
It was the former behavior that bothered me the most. I’m a recovering alcoholic, or as my father who shared the malady called it, a dehorn. That must have been stockyards lingo. I’ve gone 24 Â years without a drink, if you don’t count the time this summer when I grabbed the wrong beer bottle off the counter at a family gathering. It wasn’t O’Doul’s. I’m not counting it. I try to stay pretty low key about it, I get uncomfortable when people call attention to it. I’ll cop to it if the situation calls for it, but I always hope the conversation goes elsewhere quickly. Continue reading Clean and Sober
Haunted
Low Impact
Saturday night we attended a cultural milestone event. The wedding of the youngest and last unmarried daughter of close friends. The cultural significance of this event is that the fun level of weddings is going to drop significantly now. These folks really know how to throw a party. Unlike the Kellers who have been advising their daughters to elope since they were marching their Barbies down  the aisle. There’s no money here for big weddings! But I’m sure our friends will continue to find excuses to party.
During the dinner, we sat at a table of friends and neighbors, the two other men at my table are that kind irritating fitness enthusiast (I diplomatically avoid the term “nut”) that likes to talk about there last marathon or that nice easy three hour ride they went on last week in the rain. The conversation got around to biking and I was encouraged to get out and start riding. It’s the best exercise with the least impact on the rest of your body! It would be great for your knees! There’s those great trails just over on the other side of this golf course that it seems to take me a half hour to drive to.
Don’t get me wrong. I could use a good workout routine. I’m in terrible shape.