The Year in Review

I feel compelled to review my year. After seeing all of the other sad "This Year in Review" commentary, I feel that they all fall short in many ways. The most specific failure in these reviews is that there is no mention of me, hence my need to bring my narcissistic viewpoint into focus for all the world to see.

The first event that comes to mind is the misguided trip to that great golf nirvana that is Hilton Head with my brother. It all started out with a sixteen hour trip in an SUV on a sunny morning, and ended with an eighteen hour trip in an SUV through a blizzard. In between these two events, there were fifteen rounds of golf on chilly golf courses, alligators galore, a nearly burned down condo when we fell asleep with pizzas in the oven, fried oysters, evenings in the hot tub time machine, and an occasional cocktail on the veranda. We did stop to see my sister in Cape Hatteras on the way down, so all in all, we did grow closer as a family, so maybe the trip was not so misguided after all.

Last year, we lost my beloved father-in-law to cancer. He was a cheap Scottish farmer that grew up during the depression.  So you can imagine what it was like to be in a family wherein everything was held together with bailing wire and duct tape. He never owned a new car, nor did he ever build anything with new wood. This Christmas, his wife of 60 years entered hospice, so we are nearing the end of a chapter in my family's life. My kids, who are now in their 20's, grew up in a very close relationship with their grandparents, so we are thankful that they were able to experience that.

My business has expanded with new clients in Miami and Las Angeles, so more travel, but to nicer places. My wife has expanded her massage therapy business with a new office in Saratoga, so perhaps a faster transition to just being a lazy golfing gigolo for me.

On the music front, this was a year of transition for me. The transition was from leading and playing amplified swing and jump blues with the Jump Daddies, to playing acoustic blues and folk. I have met many great musicians, and am transitioning to a different musician community. The point at which this transition really hit me between the eyes is when I sold my beloved Gretsch 6120 to one of my musician buddies. I am sure that I still have visiting rights. I did acquire a nice Martin HD-28 and am looking for another small body Martin, so if you got one for sale - you know who to call.

I kicked my yoga up a notch and had a regular daily Ashtanga practice going. Ashtanga is a vigorous form of yoga, in which you move rapidly through a set of asanas with synchronized breathing. Great for cleansing your body of toxins with a purifying sweat. This was all recently curtailed by low back and sciatic pain. More on that later.

I started an organic garden this year, with the help of Inch by Inch Organic Gardens. I learned a lot, but based on the output and multitudinous errors that I made, have a lot more to learn. The great thing about gardening is that we get to start fresh in the Spring, as Winter wipes the slate clean. Zucchini was the clear winner in the battle for garden space, as it pretty much took over everything. Tomatoes were the clear losers - as I had lots of them, but they mostly stayed green up until the frost. Any and all guidance would be appreciated!

Golf was a high point this year, as I saw steady improvement in my game. Many new friends and golf buddies were had, as well as a few new courses. Pretty sure I am due for some new clubs this coming year, so that may be my next big investment once the snow clears.

A low point this year has been some lower back issues that have popped up and given me a wicked case of sciatica. I am trying to stay away from drugs and surgery, and instead am working through it all with physical therapy, chiropractics, and light aerobic exercise. I am seeing some success there and hope to be back in full swing soon. If it doesn't resolve, I guess I'll just be driving the golf cart next year.

I suppose we grow through pain. I've often heard it said that pain is just weakness leaving your body. So considering how crappy I feel today, I am reasonably certain that I'll be a regular Hercules on January 1, 2015.  Happy new year to all!!

2014 - A Resolution

Often I find my brain chewing on a single thought - "What's next?". Deep thinking or meditating is something I occasionally engage in, but in all truth, I am more of a "doer" than a person that "think's about doing". In the past this has often resulted in disaster, as the mouth speaks before the brain has a chance to say "hold on there big guy". In the age of email and internet, this can be catastrophic, as not only can you think something moronic, you can also broadcast it to the whole world and there really are no take backs.

As I age, I have found that this tendency is slowly diminishing. I tend to reread emails multiple times to ensure that what I am saying will not be misinterpreted. Misconstrued emails still occur with alarming frequency nonetheless,  as many people (and I am not pointing any fingers!) will read only the first sentence and then jump to some silly conclusion, or not get the point of the email at all.

I have also drawn some conclusions about verbal interactions. The person that speaks the least, is generally the person that will have the highest probability of making their point. Also, that same "short talker" will get the most attention. The perception is that such a person MUST have something important to say, since they listened so thoughtfully to everyone else before speaking.

So for 2014, I have decided to keep my communications brief, interrupt people less, and to listen for at least twice as long as I speak. This may not last the night, because after all, it is New Year's Eve.

All content copyright of Christopher Hammond

A New Path

Today I want to start down a new path. Rather than ramblings from my distant past, my intent is to be a bit more introspective. I started reading a book today called Writing Down the Bones. First couple of chapters were truly inspirational and seem to have arrived at a time in my life when I am getting a little more thoughtful about where I am, where I have been, and where I am going.

The author is Natalie Goldberg. Her approach to writing is very personal and hits you in the head and in the gut. Let it flow without thought for punctuation, misspelling, and the like. Make writing a daily practice, as if one were training for a 5K run or a golf outing. I shall endeavor to make writing something in this blog a daily practice and see where it goes. My initial focus will be on writing based on "first thought", that is the first thought that comes to mind is what I will try to expand upon. Let the crap flow until that thought has been driven to some sort of resolution.

And they're off.....

All content copyright of Christopher Hammond

Free At Last!

Whilst I have always loved blogging about my youth, or yoot in the New York City vernacular, I have decided to change my format a bit and intersperse other thoughts into the stream. This week, my thoughts and actions are all about freeing myself from the binds that tie, i.e. Facebook.

It all started so innocently. Having heard about Facebook and the wonders of connecting with your friends, I thought to myself - what the heck, I'll join and connect with all of my old high school chums, drinkin' buddies, and former co-workers. So about three years ago, I join and immediately start connecting with friends.

A firehose of information greeted my greedy eyes, as I saw all of the things that had happened, were happening, and would eventually happen in everyone's life.  Pictures of kids, dogs, cats, babies, houses, kitchens, toilets, bicycles, motorcycles, and virtually everything that each person came into contact with streamed across my screen.  I could comment and chat with each person and see the bright side of their lives. What a great and wondrous thing this Mark Zuckerberg feller had created!

Then it happened. Idle hands are the devil's playthings, indeed. About a year ago I started noticing more noise than signal in the flow. People must have run out of dog pictures and original thoughts. Political bickering, religious zealotry, right wing/left wing bashing, and just plain old animosity between people that had formerly been friends. It seems to me that Facebook had largely become a platform to rail against whatever needed railing against.

Now it may be that the "railers" as we will call them, just have more to say. They appear to have no throttle, because, these folks just blast out stuff to Facebook in a continuous stream and sort of dominate the conversation. It would not be bad if they had something nice to say or were leading an intelligent discussion. Unfortunately that is generally not the case.

The other source of noise that seems to be exponentially on the increase is the posting of other internet content. It's on the internet, so it must be true! Funny you tube videos are all fine, but when you start posting stuff that is hateful towards others and just factually inaccurate, well that just violates my inner sense of right and wrong. I know, I know, I should just skip over it and realize that "Stupid is as stupid does", but sometimes I can't stops myself.

There was an "incident". There was a fellow that I knew in high school that posted some "facts" about our current president. Let us just say that they were less than truthful. So I commented on these facts and pointed this person to the US government statistics web site on said facts. The response? "Your arguments are laughable". I responded and said they are not my arguments, they are the data from  a reputable source. The response back was to be removed that person's friend list. This disturbed me as I had thought that this guy was an old high school chum, whom I could have an intelligent discussion with. I understand that people do not like to be proven wrong. Most reasonable people can have their minds changed when presented with the facts.

The final realization that led me to deactivating my Facebook account today, was that I was spending way too much time reading through this stream of crap. I was also getting riled or offended by some of the trolling that would go on in the streams. It is difficult for me to not glance at these posts and at least give them some microsecond of consideration before discarding.

When I finally deactivated the account, a great sense of "release from bondage" came over me. I no longer need to inject my thoughts into a sea of noise, and can instead inject my thoughts into my own private cesspool, this blog.

Thanks for listening. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

All content copyright of Christopher Hammond

Finding a Rare Gem

Wow, just found my old blog whilst puttering around the internet. Isn't technology just marvy. Rereading these old posts now, I realize the the world really needs my guidance more than ever. Why this very morning, I thinks to myself, I should write a book. So immediately, I Google for how to write a book. The first items that pop up are "Why you should not write a book". After reading a couple of those articles, and carefully pondering the implications of each treatise, I conclude that they know not their ass from a hole upon the ground. So as a starter, I think I will just blog for a while and see what comes of it all. Perhaps from amongst a long set of blog posts I can assemble soem cohesive pattern of thought and action. So, for a while, I shall recount some childhood adventures, and see where that leads. It may be that it leads to a deeper understanding of my odd brain, why I do what I do, and why I ams what I am, ack ack ack ack ack.

All content copyright of Christopher Hammond

Thoughts from the Creator

Well, here I am, entering my first thoughts from my warped world. The basement walls look a little dismal, but the sound is still the same. I hear the hum of the rounding motor as it fills the space with various forms of spiculating atomic frquencies. Now you might be sitting there in a similar style. Think of it this way, you could be the creator of your reality. Let's just say for a moment that you are. In that case, you are actually writing these words to yourself. Of course, let's just say that you are not and that I am. In that case I am writing these words to myself. At the same time, I am implanting in your imaginary head the thoughts that you are reading. Wait a minute, you couldn't even be reading, unless, hmmmmmm.... I guess I would be reading what you think you are reading actually. I need to think some more about this and will get back to you/me/us as soon as I straighten the whole mess out.

All content copyright of Christopher Hammond