Michael Harling's Blog, page 21
March 3, 2018
The Perfect Storm
I freely admit to being a Weather Winnie. I proudly tell people I haven’t had to clear the snow from my roof in 16 years, and I respond to complaints about Britain’s famously dreary weather with the boring but true observation of, “I don’t have to shovel drizzle.” The idea of spending another winter in conditions similar to Upstate New York is not something that inspires warm nostalgia, and I have been grateful for the past five or six years of agreeably mild winters.
Still, I wouldn’t have mi...
Still, I wouldn’t have mi...
January 15, 2018
Sixty-Three Years Young
Yes, it’s my birthday today and, unlike previous years, I am unabashedly owning my advanced age, because the World Health Organization has given me a reprieve.
Three years ago, I crossed the line from Middle-Age to Old, and I wasn’t very happy about that, but the WHO recently had a re-think and came up with a new Young/Middle-Aged/Old labeling paradigm, which turns me into a young man again.
As it stands now, if you subscribe to the WHO’s new guidelines—and you’d be daft not to—you are consider...
Three years ago, I crossed the line from Middle-Age to Old, and I wasn’t very happy about that, but the WHO recently had a re-think and came up with a new Young/Middle-Aged/Old labeling paradigm, which turns me into a young man again.
As it stands now, if you subscribe to the WHO’s new guidelines—and you’d be daft not to—you are consider...
January 10, 2018
Ringing In the New Year
My, oh my, isn’t 2018 clocking along! It’s the 10th of January; half the year’s gone already!
With the shitstorm that was 2017 behind us, we have to hope that 2018 gets better, and not fall into the trap of thinking, “Well, it can’t get any worse.” I fear it can, what with Britain tripping over its own feet in the race to become a Third World nation, and the US careening headlong toward their goal of becoming a Banana Republic. Given that, the only thing left for us (you know, the people who a...
With the shitstorm that was 2017 behind us, we have to hope that 2018 gets better, and not fall into the trap of thinking, “Well, it can’t get any worse.” I fear it can, what with Britain tripping over its own feet in the race to become a Third World nation, and the US careening headlong toward their goal of becoming a Banana Republic. Given that, the only thing left for us (you know, the people who a...
December 26, 2017
Laying Bricks
As we quietly stitch the fresh beginning of 2018 to the tired end of 2017, we are presented with an opportunity to reflect, not just on the year gone by, but on the arc of a life lived so far.
I think of my own life, as it currently is, so far removed from anything I could have envisioned when I started out. And my son and his wife, juggling mortgages, jobs, three wonderful children and all the activities they are entwined in. Their life is hectic to the point that they must struggle just to g...
December 16, 2017
Christmases Past
(Another blast from my past. Sorry to keep posting my Patriarch Diaries essays, but there really isn't much else going on.)
In my memory, like in most peoples, it always snows on Christmas. I know this is not true, however, for I do recall several Christmases where the ground was soggy with mud and mist hung in the night air.
Other times, it did snow, like the year I had to pour transmission fluid into my car, which came out like molasses because it was twenty-below zero, and lying in the snow...
In my memory, like in most peoples, it always snows on Christmas. I know this is not true, however, for I do recall several Christmases where the ground was soggy with mud and mist hung in the night air.
Other times, it did snow, like the year I had to pour transmission fluid into my car, which came out like molasses because it was twenty-below zero, and lying in the snow...
November 3, 2017
Television
(Note to readers: this is my first attempt at a Patriarch Diaries post. It goes on a little long. I hope future posts don’t, but I can’t promise anything—reminiscing is like that. Once you pull at one thread, a whole bunch of them unravel. On the up side, at least I’m not sitting at your kitchen table, beer in hand, rambling on about “the old days” to you. It’s a lot easier to stop reading than it is to shut me up once I’m on a roll. Just ask my wife.)
Even as I write this,...
Even as I write this,...
October 26, 2017
The Patriarch Diaries
Some years ago, I found myself unexpectedly promoted to Patriarch of my small, but growing, clan. Soon after, it occurred to me that the entire reservoir of stories and legends about my family’s history resided, almost entirely, in my head. This wouldn’t have been a problem if we lived closer together but, being scattered as we are, late night chats around the kitchen table over a couple of beers are few and far between.
I, therefore, proposed to record the stories and legends (face it, most o...
I, therefore, proposed to record the stories and legends (face it, most o...
October 19, 2017
Expat Taxes
I’ve complained about taxes on this blog before. Most notably here, but I’m sure I’ve mentioned it at other times. It’s hard not to; taxes for American Expats are stunningly complex, unfair and onerous, so it’s almost impossible to let tax time slip by without me whining about it in public.
Every year, I suffer the strain of trying to decipher an undecipherable tax code, the pain of having to pay taxes on money I earned in the UK to a country that, logically, has no right to them, and the indi...
Every year, I suffer the strain of trying to decipher an undecipherable tax code, the pain of having to pay taxes on money I earned in the UK to a country that, logically, has no right to them, and the indi...
October 14, 2017
Insanity
They say one of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If that is the case, then I am officially insane.
Yeah, I bought another bike.
In case you don’t know why this is insane, I refer you to here, and here.
In case you want the tldr; version: I bought a bike some time ago and it was stolen, so I got another one, and it was stolen, so I got another one, and that was stolen, too.
And so, I resigned myself to a life without a bike.
But now...
Yeah, I bought another bike.
In case you don’t know why this is insane, I refer you to here, and here.
In case you want the tldr; version: I bought a bike some time ago and it was stolen, so I got another one, and it was stolen, so I got another one, and that was stolen, too.
And so, I resigned myself to a life without a bike.
But now...
September 9, 2017
The Force Slinger
I don’t usually review things on this blog, but I’m making an exception for The Gunslinger.
I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Stephen King fan. Or, I was until he stopped writing decent books, though I have to admit, I haven’t read any of his recent work so perhaps I am missing out on some good stuff. But I digress. His early books were great. And the Gunslinger epic was, well, epic, so I was looking forward to the movie.
The Gunslinger would not, I surmised, be hugely disappointing to either my wife or m...
I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Stephen King fan. Or, I was until he stopped writing decent books, though I have to admit, I haven’t read any of his recent work so perhaps I am missing out on some good stuff. But I digress. His early books were great. And the Gunslinger epic was, well, epic, so I was looking forward to the movie.
The Gunslinger would not, I surmised, be hugely disappointing to either my wife or m...
