Warren Bluhm's Blog, page 6

The coming of the snow dog

They’re saying our neck of the woods will be getting 4-8 more inches of snow today. It was fun watching Summer — born July 19 — experience her first snowfall, jumping to catch the cool white flakes in the air and rolling in the white stuff. Now that at least an inch or two has coated the ground for a couple of  weeks, it’s not such a novelty for us, but the little girl is pleased.

We live in the land of four seasons, although we have been having winter weather for two or three weeks now, ...

Going beyond the blurb

Unless something goes weird in the last 23 days of 2021 before I can read four more books, I’ll have read 100 books this year for the first time ever. (Thank you audiobooks and two-hour round-trip commutes.)

We own hundreds of books, perhaps thousands, and I probably won’t get to read them all, but that’s OK. The world is so full and so vast — literally billions of souls wandering the place — that I could never experience all of it — and oh, what a ride it is. And so my acquiring books is my ...

The Power of the Dog

Christmas 2020

I’ve just finished the audiobook Olive, Mabel and Me by Andrew Cotter, the Scottish sportscaster whose labradors became international stars last year when he — well, just go to YouTube and search “Olive Mabel.” Yes, that Olive and Mabel.

I’ve been spending the commute laughing and crying. Cotter delivers the audiobook with the wry humor that makes their videos so precious, and he reminds us of the sad truth every dog lover knows: All good dogs come to an end.

He introduce...

Meme

This panel from a 1960s-era Doctor Strange comic book story was posted on social media yesterday, and I found myself thinking it works as a meme.

What better way to describe social media and, perhaps, those who would our country these days?

Looking forward to “West Side Story”

The first theater production I ever saw outside of school was a community theater production of “West Side Story” in my second-half-of-childhood hometown of Chester, New Jersey.

I remember the first time I heard the song “Somewhere” sung from the stage’s balcony and echoing all through the old church. I thought it was the most beautiful song I’d ever heard and tears filled my eyes, not for the last time that night.

I’m anticipatory that no less than Steven Spielberg is bringing the sto...

My amazing discovery about where rabbit holes come from

I’ve recently noticed a new (to me) kind of annoying clickbait that seems to be designed to see how long you are willing to read about nothing before you find the bit of information you clicked to get — or give up in frustration.

The headline might be, say, “What Paul McCartney really said when George Harrison wanted to leave the Beatles.” You click and find, not an anecdote about Harrison being dissatisfied and how McCartney responded, but a chronicle of how the Beatles were the most sig...

How is this happening?

Here is a photo I took of our four and a half month old puppy, Summer, on Friday afternoon.

Here is a photo I posted two months ago:

Here is the first photo I took of her after we decided she was our pick of the litter:

I thought my heart melted when we met her, but somehow more of it melts with each passing day.

Something about dogs — and other creatures we welcome into our homes — makes us better. 

Maybe it’s the reminder that life is too short to do anything with th...

Old stuff is new again again

I just found out typewriters are cool again. There’s even a documentary called California Typewriter about preserving and using typewriters in contemporary life.

So: Vinyl records, printed books, typewriters. Was I ahead of the curve when I purchased a couple of reel-to-reel tape recorders at the last picker sale? Are people escaping the digital, interwebbed world in favor of mechanical reproduction and analog? Clock faces, not readouts? Does it turn out after all that time makes more sen...

Theme song

“On with the show, this is it.” The opening theme of the old Bugs Bunny TV show ends with those seven words, a whole philosophy of life in themselves.

Best get to acting on your life, because this is it, it’s unfolding even as I write this, even as we speak, even as we watch it go by.

On with the show: This is it! Everyone is in their places, and the show started long ago. 

And oh, what heights we’ll hit!

Another NaNoWriMo come and gone

© Les Palenik | Dreamstime.com

I seem to be the antithesis of NaNoWriMo. During the month of November this year I contributed fewer than 500 words to the future of Jeep Thompson, heroine of my next (unless some bizarre inspiration strikes and I write something completely different from my in-progress) novel, working title Jeep Thompson and the Lost Prince of Venus.

Meanwhile, with an hour left before the clock strikes December, NaNoWriMo.org — official chronicler of National Novel Writing ...