Charest Family on the Web Posts

Published May 25, 2022 by

The Cruelty Is The Point

A Beautiful Mind - Eye with Rainbow
A Beautiful Mind

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

I’ve been struggling for several weeks to write a snarky post on the latest right-wing horror show of attacking schools, teachers, and books. But I can’t. Quite honestly, I cannot find anything snarky or humourous in this latest attack on what should be the foundation of our American culture.

This latest outrage comes upon six continuous years of outrages driven by The Former Guy (TFG). I don’t know if I’ve become worn down by continuous right-wing obscenity, or just numbed. Reading the news about horrific laws being pushed in Republican-controlled state capitols has taken on a surrealistic feeling. And not in a good way.

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Opinions & Commentary

Cruelty Politics

Published April 25, 2022 by

Thoughts On The Humble Olive

a bowl of olives - how did people discover these were edible?
How Did People Discover Olives Were Edible?

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Three of the best years of my life were spent in the Southern Italian city of Naples. I was still in the Navy and was lucky to get a NATO assignment there. During those three years I toured a lot of Italy and Southern Europe, and learned to love Southern Italian culture.

Learning the foods was a huge part of the culture. Among these foods was learning to love olives. I’d never really cared much for olives before moving to Italy. But that changed. I also learned how olives were prepared, a bit of trivia that has stayed with me.

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Quora Re-Posts

Olives quora

Published April 10, 2022 by

Being Set-Up For Failure

Anger, Aggression, Inadequacy, Pain
Anger, Aggression, Inadequacy, Pain

Estimated reading time: 17 minutes

As I’m beginning to wind down my career into retirement, I’m forced into reminiscing about career experiences both good and bad. One recurring theme of bad experiences relates to the many times I’ve been set-up for failures. I’ve never been able to understand why anyone would deliberately put effort into making the people around themselves fail.

I’ve experienced too many people in my professional life who seemingly worked extra hard to get me to fail. Most of the time I succeeded despite the best efforts of other people. But, there was one time I didn’t. As I reminisce about my career I keep coming back to the one time when despite my best efforts, I was successfully set-up to fail.

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Career Management Family Stories

Career Set-up For failure Washington Navy Yard

Published April 1, 2022 by

Navy Budget: Out-of-the-Box Thinking Produces Results

Not The News, Military Edition
Washington, D.C.
April 1, 2022

Navy Spokesperson Captain Crunch Jr. announced today that out-of-the-box thinking has resulted in dramatic cost savings in the Navy’s new budget. “For years, the Navy has struggled to understand why costs kept spiraling up” Crunch said. “It turns out, ships are expensive to fix. There’s so much stuff on them that breaks, and they’re literally sitting in water all the time, just rusting away. So, several years ago we awarded multi-million-dollar consulting contracts to conceptualize ways the Navy could save money moving forward.”

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In the Navy Just For Fun

April Fools Navy

Published March 28, 2022 by

This Old House

This Old House
Our Second House Restoration Project

Estimated reading time: 57 minutes

In 2008 Winnie and I purchased a second house as investment property. We had settled into our new community of Woodbridge, Virginia, and purchased a home to live in the year prior.

Through a friend, Winnie learned of a house for sale “at a good price.” This turned out to be true. The house, a 1954-vintage masonry-construction house was for sale at an amazingly low price – because it was a total fixer-upper.

So we bought it. This is our old house home improvement story.

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Ron Charest

home improvement renovation

Published March 13, 2022 by

Two Years of Living With Covid

Coronavirus As Seen Under An Electron Microscope
Coronavirus As Seen Under An Electron Microscope

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Today marks the second anniversary of the great global shutdown from COVID-19. Two years ago today, businesses and Government organizations across America announced sudden shutdowns of public spaces. Over the next several days effectively all of America and most of the world went into stay-at-home mode.

While everyone’s experience has varied, everyone’s life has changed or been changed. The world seems to be slowly going back to a before-times normal. But things feel different to me. I see the tide receding, revealing the clutter of lives past laid bare for examination.

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Opinions & Commentary

Published February 11, 2022 by

The Banning Of Books

So Many Books To Burn. So Little Time!
So Many Books To Burn. So Little Time!

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

I often think that American “progress” in growing a culture of enlightened social values means taking three steps back for every one step forward.

One recent, and growing, trend seems to be the Republicans’ taste for banning books. Yes, the very people decrying “Cancel Culture” have decided they need to Make America Great Again by – canceling people’s ability to read books not approved by people worshipping former Pres*dent trump.

It’s so hard to keep the latest wingnut outrages straight, I thought I’d help by making a list.

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Opinions & Commentary

Books Republicans

Published February 7, 2022 by

Back In The Trenches – A New LTE

Newspaper Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Back quite a few years ago, when we first moved up to Northern Virginia, I was actively writing Letters to the Editor (LTE) of my local newspaper. Between 2007 to 2008, we still had a local dead tree newspaper, an openly hard-rightwing publication judging by their columnists and general editorial slant.

Regrettably, that all ended when the newspaper collapsed. All we have now are some small online publications, still mostly right-wing oriented. This week I decided it was time to get back into writing LTEs again.

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Opinions & Commentary

LTE Prince William County

Published January 27, 2022 by

Let It Go

Grace Slick – 1967

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

I post music clips at random intervals of songs and musicians I particularly enjoy. But to date I’ve been remiss in not posting any music from my all-time favorite singer-songwriter. A musician who has not only created some of the greatest rock music ever, but is otherwise incredibly vibrant. A musician who was ahead of her time in setting standards for “liberated” women.

A singer-songwriter who I also had a teen-aged crush on, and still deeply admire even after all these years.

I’m referring to Grace Slick of Great Society / Jefferson Airplane / Jefferson Starship / Starship.

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Just For Fun

Grace Slick Music Video YouTube Video

Published January 21, 2022 by

A Tribute to Meatloaf

A Meat Loaf but not the singer
Not This Meat Loaf

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

So this brave new year of 2022 has barely started, and already too much of the news is bad news. Today’s sad news is about a famed Rock Singer with the unlikely name of “Meat Loaf,” passing at the age of 74.

He was/is one of my favorite “Classical Rock” performers. A trailblazer in his art who built a place among the great musicians of our era.

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Just For Fun

Meat Loaf YouTube Video