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Month: June 2019

Happy Birthday Baby

Happy Birthday Baby

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Today is Kim’s birthday and we are 270 miles away from each other.  We have kind of become used to this routine this year as we each run some cover for our aging parents.  Kim’s in western PA and mine on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  Sadly, it has become more efficient to split up on weekends since there never seems to be enough time to cover all our bases.

June is always a wash for us anyway because of our church yard sale which Kim and I are heavily involved in.  That may sound silly in the context of opening up your garage door on a Saturday morning, moving some things out on to the driveway and then parking yourself in a lawn chair while you collect money.

I have written about this event before. Physically it is the most challenging thing that I do every year.  Not even taking into consideration the three weeks we take to prepare, think of it as walking five or six marathons in a 36 to 48 hour time period while carrying someone’s donated sofa.

This year, more than ever, I could really feel it.

This being my birthday month I was also required to renew my driver’s license.  I opted to get one of those real ID’s.  So one rainy morning a couple of weeks ago I got up early went to the DMV which is always a painful experience and this one was no exception

I brought my birth certificate, my W-2, my mortgage statement, my electric bill, my marriage license, and what was left of my social security card.

The guy at the information desk asked what I wanted to do, then asked to see my birth certificate.

My birth certificate is very fragile.  Taped together after all those years of being carried in my wallet from back in the day when you could get served at age 18 and sometimes you needed extra proof of your age.

I smiled and handed it to the guy making small excuses for its condition due to the fact its shares its age with me.

He looked at it and said, “This is not a birth certificate.”

Catching me off guard I said, “Excuse me? This is my birth certificate…it’s been my birth certificate, well (stammering now) …since I was born!”

(Boy that was a really smart thing to say, I thought to myself)

“It is not a birth certificate it is a registration of birth certificate, you need to get the real birth certificate,” he replied.

I continued to debate the authenticity of my birth certificate but to no avail, the guy says, “Would you like to come back with your real birth certificate or just renew your license?”

“I will just renew my license,” I said dejectedly.

And then there was my doctor’s appointment.    I get great anxiety over picking up the phone and making a doctor’s appointment, it takes a lot of self-debating.  However, this time in the week’s leading up the yard sale, the chronic pain in my legs, the mysterious growth on my skin, and the pain and lump in my armpit finally motivated me to make the call.  Truthfully the axillary pain and lump was the decider.  So at 7:30 a.m. on the Monday following the yard sale I scheduled my appointment.

Low and behold as is typically the case when I make a doctor’s appointment, a few days before, the chronic leg pain I had been experiencing for months subsided and the axillary pain and lump disappeared so basically I looked like an idiot going to the doctor. I assured him (he is a new primary for me) I wasn’t a hypochondriac and I really had symptoms…once.  At the end  of the exam he gave me one of those polite, patronizing come back to see me when you have more serious boo-boo’s send offs and I left swearing that the next time I visit a doctor it will be out of the back of an ambulance.

 

While going through my garage earlier this month looking for items to bring up to the church yard sale,  I found a post card from thirty years ago that Alexa had given me on my 33rd birthday.

It read:

Dear Daddy

I love you a lot

It is very fun having you as a dad

I like you very much

Rember (sic)

We have to buy something for Browies (sic) (tomorow) (sic)

I love you being the big 33er

Love

Alexa

 

I think I figured out that Alexa would have been six years old when she wrote this.

I don’t even remember her being in the Browies…I mean Brownies.

 

What is the point of all this?

Not sure.

I guess now being the big 63er causes me to reflect.

The grueling physical weekend I had last week reminded me I am not young anymore and I can’t do what I used to.

My experience renewing my license shows the challenges of change and bureaucracy.  Some problems can’t be fixed no matter how much tape you use.

The pain and swelling in my armpit was a red flag for me on how quickly my situation could change and had me wondering if I was okay with my life up to this point and was I in the right place with God.

A post card from thirty years ago shows me how fast thirty years can go by, and what I don’t remember about my kids growing up.

Now sitting across the table from my parents, I see the preview of what is to come since I am the next generation, and wonder if my kids will do the same.

And being 270 miles away from my wife on her birthday tells me that sometimes there are things in life that that are more of a priority, like our parents.

But also, how much I miss her.

Happy Birthday Baby.

 

The Chase, Twenty Five Years Later

The Chase, Twenty Five Years Later

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Today on the radio I was reminded that on this day twenty five years ago we were all captivated by the low speed police chase of the infamous white Bronco.  The following is an edited version of an essay written in 2014 on the twentieth anniversary:

The Chase

“I’ve had to run, I’ve had to crawl.

Been rich as a king, had nothing at all.

Still raising hell, tearing down walls.

I know where I stand, I’m learning to fall.”

From “Learning to Fall” A Song Written by Eric Lowen

Listening to the radio this week I was reminded of a week in my life twenty years ago.

Friday June 17, 1994 probably started off as a normal day for most Americans, but it wouldn’t end that way. I was in Seattle for some kind of a meeting, something to do with homecare pharmacy I think. The meeting ended on Friday but I had decided to stick around until Sunday and do some sight- seeing. So I rented a car and started looking for things to do. Through a local paper I found out that a band I liked, Lowen and Navarro, was playing at a club called the Backstage. Just a couple of days before I left to go Seattle I saw them play at Wolf Trap in Vienna Virginia. Before the show I found Eric Lowen walking around the Wolf Trap grounds and introduced myself and we talked a bit.

The show at the Backstage started really late and since I didn’t know the area and had nothing better to do, I thought I would scout out the place so I would know how to get there later that night. So in the afternoon, I found the club and went inside.  The band had just finished their sound check and Lowen greeted me as I walked in but then immediately launched into this “man have you been watching the TV?………….OJ Simpson is on the 405 with the police chasing him……its crazy!”

I went back to my hotel and watched along with about 95 million other Americans, the rest of the events that unfolded that evening and countless replays of what had occurred earlier. OJ Simpson and the White Ford Bronco, may be the most famous police chase ever witnessed and recorded.

Later that night I went back to the Backstage, watched the show, had an after show backstage refreshment with the band and another fan from Annapolis who was in Seattle that weekend too.

The OJ Simpson drama would play out over the next sixteen month’s as the trial was televised and America continued to watch. I remember sitting in a board meeting in the glass enclosed conference room of the company I worked for at the time and watching the staff spill into the hallway shouting the news through the glass when OJ Simpson was found not guilty.

I continued to be a big fan of Lowen and Navarro, catching them at the Birchmere in Alexandria, or the Barns at Wolftrap, or wherever they played in the DC area.

In 2004 Eric Lowen began his own chase for life as he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord ultimately leading to death, there is no cure. He continued to tour, as his disease progressed he would do shows in his power wheelchair assisted always by his traveling physical therapist.

In December of 2008 Lowen and Navarro put out their last studio CD called “Learning to Fall.” The last time I saw them was at the Birchmere, and in fact their last live performance together was at the Birchmere on June 6, 2009. Kim and I had tickets but for a reason I now can’t remember, we decided not to go.

On March 23rd 2012 Eric’s run for his life ended and he died of complications from ALS.

If you have about eight minutes here is a link to a somewhat moving video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeaO6TvGX4w

So like the question I heard on the radio this week that made me recall all this, where were you during “the chase” twenty years ago…..do you remember?

…

 

That was from 2014, it’s hard to believe that memory is now twenty-five years old now.  Dan Navarro still tours and makes frequent visits to the DC and Annapolis area. Lowen and Navarro’s biggest claim to fame was probably the fact that Pat Benatar’s “We Belong” was their song.  Their music is well worth a listen.

 

Well, so where were you during “the chase” twenty-five years ago?