Author: R.M. Carlson

Freelance writer, blogger, aspiring novelist. Former career as a college prof in finance. Encore career as freelance writer for a number of financial websites.
Posted in #weekendcoffeeshare

#weekendcoffeeshare 3/11/2017

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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Good morning, everyone! Come right in and let’s drink a hot beverage together! In honor of Mardi Gras which is happening right now in New Orleans, I have a special ground pecan praline coffee for you this morning. Also a french roast. The very special people of New Orleans would love both! I also have a couple of specialty teas. I am a tea drinker, of course. There are often Mardi Gras Tea Parties held in New Orleans and a favorite tea there is Mango Sunny Passion. It’s here for you to enjoy this morning! Grab a cup of whatever you want and let’s go to my writing studio and chat!

I’m so glad to see and talk to all of you this morning. It seems we’re having a Mardi Gras coffee and tea party! I hope everyone has been well this week and successful at whatever you have attempted. I ended the week very tired. As you know, we are trying to accomplish a move to Florida for six months a year. We leave for what is called the Florida Creative Coast in just a couple of weeks with a UHaul and it’s a lot of hard work to get everything boxed up.

I also have things to do for my house in Kentucky – to get it ready to leave. I am working on these things way too hard and, last night, I hit the wall and crashed. Got some good sleep and I feel a bit better this morning. I think it inspires me that the part of Florida to which we are moving is called the Creative Coast!

Writers have to read as we all know. I got a book this week on the Southwest Florida Gulf Coast. It is fascinating to read about the flora and fauna – so unfamiliar to me. I hope to write a lot about it. I’m going to have a couple of cameras with me at all times and do a lot of exploring. I’m excited!

The reason that this part of Florida is called the Creative Coast is because our area is partly an artist’s colony which will be to my liking. Many writers and other creative types live where I’m going to live.

How is your writing going this week? I’ve been fairly prolific and the good news is that I’ve gotten several thousand words written on my novel. Some of the chapters weren’t making sense to me and I did some rewrites as well. Moved some stuff around. Now, I think it’s in good shape. I know most say that you shouldn’t edit as you write but I can’t NOT edit. I don’t edit for grammar, but I do edit for content. I’m using two voices in the novel and that tends to be hard for a first-time novelist like me. I am using the voice of both the protagonist and the antagonist. I have to constantly re-read and work on that.

It’s been such a warm winter in Kentucky, but Mother Nature decided to drop some real winter weather on us here in mid-March. It’s 29 degrees here this morning.

On top of everything else, I’ve had a sick puppy to nurse back to health this week. My little dog is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. They tend to be a bit fragile. She rolled off the couch (they are a little silly!) and hurt her back. So, off we went to my very good vet. Several hundred dollars later, Betsy is doing just fine. I think her back is healing as last night, for the first time, she started to play again. Cavaliers are such wonderful, docile companion dogs! I’ve had many breeds of dogs in my life, including pound puppies, and Betsy has the best temperament of any dog I’ve ever had.

I hope the writing muse is with you. Tell me how you’re doing in the comments. I’d love to hear about YOU.

Posted in Challenges

Hazardous Waste

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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He walked when he needed to think. He walked wherever his feet took him. He had to decide what to do about her. He found himself outside the military depot. Inside they kept hazardous waste. Maybe their relationship was just that. Hazardous waste.

 

 

 

Posted in Blog Series

#1: Musings of a Baby Boomer

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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The Stranger in the Mirror

I got up this morning, and after having my requisite two cups of tea, I took a shower and went to my vanity to put on my makeup. I looked into the mirror and my first thought was, “Who the hell is standing behind me looking in my mirror!?”

That was me! That stranger in the mirror! There was no one standing behind me! How could I look like that? That couldn’t possibly be me! I wasn’t OLD! That person in the mirror is OLD! I put down my makeup and walked away, trying to get a grip on the fact that there was an old person in the mirror who MUST be me.

OK, so I put on my makeup and then I had to get dressed. Which means taking off my robe and actually looking at the rest of me in the mirror. Can I do this? I just discovered the older me, at least my face. Can I discover my older body? Why is it I’m just now becoming aware that my 35 year old mind is attached to this older exterior? Sheesh. Well, here goes.

You see, by the time baby boomers get to be my age, we may – just MAY – have lost and gained weight a time or two (or three). Or not. So, we have some….uh….bulges here and there and I’m surely not immune. Not only is my face unfamiliar, but so is my body. This is really ridiculous. I still wear almost the same size in clothes I wore at 35 years old but they fit me a little teeny bit differently. CRAP.

I get dressed, pulling on my jeans over my only slightly larger belly (yeah right). At least I don’t have to lie down on the bed to get them on. One small victory! I recently lost some weight and where did I lose it? Did I lose it in my tummy where I needed to? OF COURSE NOT!!! I lost it in my arms and legs, which were already skinny. And my face, which just makes any wrinkles I have look worse. Let me tell you. After 50, there is no way to win.

Speaking of no way to win, by the time you are my age, you may be fighting or living with some kind of chronic condition. In my case, it’s insulin-dependent diabetes. It makes exercise difficult because exercise causes low blood sugar in my case. Why? Because I can’t eat many carbohydrates and keep my blood sugar under control. What I need is to work out with weights to improve muscle tone in my arms and legs. I also need cardio to protect my heart and reduce my belly. All this, and I am at or below an optimal weight for my height. Life is not fair for the aging baby boomer!

I can possibly manage the weight training without dropping dead from low blood sugar. 🙂 Cardio is a whole other matter. I would have to carb load big time to even consider that and my blood sugar would shoot up to 500 before cardio and down to 60 afterwards. That is not a good thing and my doctor has no solution. Perhaps I can start out slow. Like a turtle. A very slow turtle.

Baby boomers, in 2017, are between 53 and 71 years old. That puts me firmly in the baby boom generation. So, why do I usually feel 35? Why do my baby boomer friends (I’ve only asked my girlfriends) feel the same? We all look in the mirror. But, inside, we feel 35. I don’t feel a bit different than when I was 35, just graduated from graduate school, starting my first job teaching in college.

Maybe I feel a little wiser about some things but not about all things. Maybe I feel a little stiffer in the morning but not all mornings. In fact, many days, I can accomplish more in a day than I could at 35. I may feel more self-confident than I did at 35 even though I see a stranger in the mirror.

Why does our generation feel young? I think one reason is that we’ve had access to the best health care of any generation, certainly better than our parents did.  We may have access to better health care than generations after us as we were generally covered with good health care at our jobs. We grew up with research and development into new anti-aging products. The millennial generation gets to start using these products now. We didn’t until we were 50. Not fair, is it? But, they have still helped us. We have facials, serums, lotions, creams, treatments, masques, and many other products to help our faces. There are just as many lotions and potions to help our bodies.

Then there are the dermatologists that offer dermabrasion, sculpting, peels, lasering, gels, creams, and much more. They went to medical school to treat kids’ acne while the baby boomers had to treat their own. They treat our acne scars.

We’ve learned how to take care of ourselves, something our parents knew little about. We’ve had better health care. We’ve reaped the benefits, as we got older, of research and development. There are other factors that are topics for other blog posts – exercise, nutrition, and many more. The fact remains that, for some reason, one characteristic of baby boomers is that they feel and act younger than their age and the question is WHY?

Is it because we grew up in the sex, drugs, and rock and roll era? We, in fact, invented the sex, drugs, and rock and roll era. So, to those behind us, don’t feel superior. We’ve already been there and done that! 🙂 Is it because we’ve had the benefit of new technology? Maybe it’s because we just have been determined to squeeze all the life out of life and all the fun out of life despite life kicking us down.

I think that the music of the baby boomer’s has helped our attitude toward life and assisted in keeping us young. Everyone will have their own favorite song. We’ve had John Lennon’s “Imagine,” The Rolling Stones “Wild Horses,” and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” to keep us going along with thousands more. A friend of mine and I used to walk in our college classes singing, “The Heart of Rock and Roll,” by Huey Lewis and the News, every single day. I have girlfriends that still love “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” by Cyndi Lauper. The music of the baby boomer’s is another topic that deserves its own blog post, or several blog posts!

In truth, it was the magical time in which our generation grew up. The world was changing and, folks, we changed the world.

Posted in Flash Fiction

Morphed

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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“My God, Nathan, let’s stay out of that old house,” Karen said.

Nathan and Karen were college students doing a field study on water pollution in the Everglades in South Florida. They had spent most of the morning taking water samples from the swamp. South of Everglades City, they had happened on an old, deserted house.

Nathan went into the house, wanting to explore. Karen followed.

Nathan reached to grab the banister and Karen screamed no. On the post, there was an otherworldly green lizard-like creature.

“Polluted water isn’t all there is here,” he thought, jumping away.

 

Photo credit by Shaktiki Sharma

Posted in Challenges, Weight Loss

One-Liner Wednesday

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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Quote:

The man who offers an insult writes it in sand, but for the man who receives it, it’s chiseled in bronze. –Giovanni Guareschi

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Posted in Flash Fiction

The Material Life

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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The doctor didn’t know how he was going to get through the day. The same way he got through the other days, he supposed. He hated these people, these patients, that came in to see him. So needy. So many of them.

It was 8 a.m. and the doctor was already in his office, going over charts for today and filling prescription requests from yesterday. Too much was expected from doctors now. The money just wasn’t worth it.

A knock at his door. The Director of the Practice came in. He was fired! He told him to clear out his office. Patients had been complaining for months, he said. He didn’t examine them. Some were having complications. They got incorrect prescriptions.

He wouldn’t be able to support his life. His wife had left him. His children were grown and gone. He didn’t need the big life, the big house anyway. For the first time in his life, he could do what he wanted on the little bit of savings he had.

He went home, packed a things, and hit the road. He was free and the happiest he’d been in years. He would make it.

Posted in Flash Fiction

The Piano Girl

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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Gracie loved her piano. She started taking piano lessons at four. She could play the classical musicians at seven. At ten, she was an accomplished pianist. She played when she was happy or hurt. She played four hours a day.

Gracie had a wonderful piano teacher when she got to college – Mrs. V. Mrs. V said she could help her get a partial scholarship to a big music school in the east. Only partial. Gracie’s family had no money for the rest. Gracie understood. She kept playing.

Until one day she didn’t. There was no time. She had to go to work and she studied for better jobs when she returned home. She closed her beloved piano for many years.

Years later, when Gracie didn’t have to work anymore, she started playing again. It took some time, but she remembered it all. It still brought her joy. Wasn’t that the point, after all?

 

Posted in Blog Series

Blog Series Announcement: Musings of a Baby Boomer

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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I am, today, announcing a new blog series called “Musings of a Baby Boomer.” It will be a kick for me to write it. I hope it will be a kick for my fellow baby boomers to read it. I further hope that, for other generations, you will enjoy it and learn something about us baby boomers and why we see the world as we do. Most of all, I hope all of us will laugh!

I want to invite guest blog posts for this series. Many of you are baby boomers. Many of my friends are baby boomers and also good writers. If you would like to write a guest post, please drop me a note under the Contact tab on the homepage and let me know. Tell me your topic. In a few days, I will post the guidelines for guest posts. You do NOT have to be a baby boomer to post a guest post.

If there is a topic you would like for me to write about relevant to baby boomers, drop me a note and I will give it serious consideration. After all, I want to write what you want to read!

This will be fun!

Rosemary

Posted in Non-fiction

Health Insurance, Local Business, and Big Corporations

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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Health insurance changes every year. I know that my plan is with one insurer for a few years, then switches over to another insurer for a few years. Different insurers have varying requirements. The same is true if you have a separate prescription plan like I do. My prescription plan works with my insurer but is through another company. It can often be frustrating to figure out the requirements of your insurance plan. A separate prescription plan just adds another layer of confusion.

Until this year, I have been able to use my local pharmacy to fill my prescriptions. My local pharmacy is not one of the big ones. It is not a Walgreen’s or a CVS. It is a small, local pharmacy. The kind that you don’t find much anymore. It’s independently owned by people in the community. It even still has a soda fountain. It is the business you can think of when you hear the slogan, “Support local business.”

I have a special attachment to this pharmacy as most people do to local pharmacies. My parents used this pharmacy. I use this pharmacy. It’s been in our family for a long time. Unfortunately, because of my prescription plan, that will no longer be true.

In their infinite wisdom, my insurance plan,  through my teacher’s retirement pension plan, has determined that we can only get affordable prescriptions if we use their mail order service. I have researched this thoroughly because I don’t want to leave my local pharmacy, but I’m not going to have a choice if I want to stay financially solvent. After extensive conversations with both my health insurance company and the prescription company, it has become obvious that I am stuck with mail order. Let me give you an example.

Drugs are divided up into tiers. I have a prescription for a Tier II drug. My local pharmacy can offer this drug, since I had to change to my new health insurance policy/prescription plan, for $174/month. This is a drug I have to take. Since I am a retiree on a fixed income, that was just a bit beyond my means. So I started talking to the mail order company to find out why this is true. The mail order company told me that I can get the same drug, through them, for a $20 co-pay for three months.

You tell me. Am I being forced by this new health insurance plan to use the mail order company rather than my local pharmacy? Of course I am. If a large mail order company can be subsidized to the point where they can offer this drug in question for a $20 copay, why can’t the local pharmacy be subsidized as well so they would not lose their business? This practice by health insurance companies is not supportive of local business and, instead, forcing local pharmacies out of business. I could even go so far as to say it is creating a monopoly on prescriptions with mail-order pharmacies.

It is similar to the Wal-Mart phenomenon. When Wal-Mart came in to small towns, it drove many small town business out of business.

Large corporations, with government cooperation and their subsidies, are participating in driving small, local business out of business. This is not the America I know.

Posted in #weekendcoffeeshare

#weekendcoffeeshare – 3/4/2017

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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Good morning, everyone. Please come in and share coffee and tea with me. I have a new and wonderful Earl Grey Tea for you to try and my regular coffee from Jamaica, both regular and decaf. Help yourself and let’s go to my writing studio to talk!

If we were having coffee,  I would ask you how you have been this week? How is your writing going? I have written some for my blog, but more on my novel than on the blog. I’ve added about 5,000 words to my novel which pleases me! I have put part of one chapter from my novel on this blog in order to get feedback from other writers. If you’re so inclined, please help me out by providing some feedback. It is not a finished chapter. But it is part of the backstory of the protagonist.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that, yes, the muse has been with me this week. I’m really into writing my novel right now. Unfortunately, we are also getting ready for our move to Florida, so the rest of the weekend, after I finish this blog post, will have to be devoted to that. It is a huge job to divide our stuff up to take enough to Florida and pack it. I’ve never been very good at this kind of thing.

It’s not such a hard job to divide up household stuff. I find that dividing up clothes is the hardest part.

If we were having coffee, I don’t think I could help but mention the political situation in the U.S. I don’t think it matters which side you’re on – Republican or Democrat Everyone seems worried about what is going on with the Executive Branch of government, including me. I find myself watching Cable News way too much. It seems like there is a disaster or two daily. We aren’t a very good example of a functioning democracy these days. Unless things get better, I think some changes are going to have to be made. Can the U.S. continue to be “the shining city on the hill?” Have we already fallen from grace?

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that since I got back to Kentucky from Florida, I am not handling the cold very well. There is a 40F degree difference and it has really bothered me. I’ve been sick twice since I’ve been here. At this point in my life, I crave a warm environment. Last I heard, it was 92F and dry where we live in Florida. It is 41F degrees where I live in Kentucky and wet most of the time. I don’t think this climate is good for me. Since my friends also seem to be sick, I could draw the conclusion it isn’t good for anyone!

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that since I am writing a psychological thriller, I’ve decided I should be reading some psychological thrillers. Of course, I have in the past but I need to be now. One I chose and am reading now is “The Couple Next Door” by Shari Lapena. It’s a New York Times best seller and it is, indeed, a psychological thriller. I’m enjoying it, but I think it drags a little. A thriller has to be fast-moving.

We’ve had little winter, a really cold winter, here in Kentucky. The foliage is starting to bloom and blossom. I so hope everything doesn’t get killed back. It really is such a beautiful state. I just need something different in my life. Does that make sense? Have a wonderful week!