Monthly Archives: July 2008

Long Road Out of Eden

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One of my birthday presents was the new Eagles album, “Long Road Out of Eden.” I’ve heard one of the cuts on the radio, “Just Too Busy Being Fabulous,” which is a good song and an interesting commentary to people of my generation. So I cuoldn’t wait to hear the other songs on the double CD.

First time all the way through, my first impression was that the whole album sounded very typically Eagles. There were a couple songs that were easy on the ears and a couple that sounded a little edgey, and an instrumental that was absolutely haunting.

I had to listen to it a second time before I could say that I really like it. Now I am really starting to like a couple of the songs, especially “Waiting in the Weeds.” Now, I don’t really know what the song is totally about, but the tune is very catchy and I find myself humming along to it. I just need to listen for the words a little harder and figure it out. But overall, I like this album a lot.

Peace of Mind

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Yesterday was really nice. My birthday was fun and well celebrated by everyone at work and at home. It’s cool being the center of attraction for at least one day each year, isn’t it?

So today it’s back to reality and actually I’m shifting the focus away from me and onto my family. Trying to be very practical here, who knows how many more birthdays I’ll be able to celebrate? I mean, I’ve already lived more years than my father lived. Cancer took him from us and that threat is always on my mind. My father passed away too young, but he had written a will and made good arrangements to take care of his family with term life insurance and other solid estate plans.

Probably one of the most important types of insurance that he had was mortgage life insurance . With that big expensive house, there’s no way my mom could have kept up the house payments and maintenance on just her own income. By having the mortgage protection he made sure that mom and us kids had a roof over our heads because the mortgage was paid off in full when he passed away. I know he had peace of mind and my mom needed that help.

The other important insurance was the term life because there was enough money to pay the funeral expenses plus all the household expenses for more than a year after he passed. That gave mom enough time to take care of everything and then find a good job to go back to work full time when she was ready rather than desperately taking something at the worst possible time just to pay the bills.

Having seen this first hand has made me keenly aware of my own responsibilities to my family and I have done the same type of estate planning. Let’s hope it’s not needed for a long time yet, but if something does happen I know that my family has been provided for.

Bye Bye Jay Leno

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Wow – the news has been all abuzz about people leaving their TV shows in the dust. The latest casualty is Jay Leno leaving NBC, with his official last day now planned for May 29, 2009 as announced yesterday by NBC officials. Of course, we’ve known for a while that this year is Jay’s last per his original contract when he replaced Johnny Carson.

In their announcement, NBC says that Conan O’Brien will take the helm of the Tonight Show immediately following Jay Leno’s last show. And with the dominoes falling for late night hosts, the vacancy left by Conan O’Brien will be filled by Jimmy Fallon.

Even with all this movement at NBC, I have to say that I’m staying loyal to David Letterman and Craig Ferguson on CBS.

Bye Bye Ebert

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So there won’t be any more “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down” for TV reviews on the now changing “At the Movies With Ebert and Roeper.”

Evidently, both Ebert and Roeper have not come to agreement with Disney on their new contract terms and they have both decided to leave the show. Since Ebert and the wife of his former partner, Siskel, own the rights to the “Thumbs Up” and “Thumbs Down” trademarked catchphrase, that won’t be on whatever show Disney tries to salvage from the wreckage.

Ebert has hinted at developing a new show at a different network. “Stay tuned” for further developments!

Green Moth

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There is a commercial on TV for Lunesta, which is a sleep aid. The commercial shows a woman who is a teacher who has a good night’s sleep, thanks to Lunesta, and wakes up so energetic that he gathers a bunch of junk and odds and ends and takes a big box of the junk to her class, where they all make musical instruments from it.

So throughout this commercial, there’s a magical little green moth that flies around and lands on her shoulder while she’s peacefully sleeping. I don’t really know what the green moth has to do with getting a good night’s sleep.

Honestly, I don’t know the technical difference between a moth and a butterfly. I suppose I used to know the difference – perhaps from biology class in high school. But I can’t recall much of the biology class – I hated it.

So when I found this on the door jamb, I was reminded of the commercial and all these biology questions have come flooding back. It stayed there all day, but sometime during the night it flew away. I suppose it landed on some blonde girl’s shoulder . . .