Charest Family on the Web Posts

Published August 27, 2020 by

What’s Going On?

Music Inside with a YouTube Video
Music Inside

So let’s see. The world is in the grip of a one-hundred year pandemic that’s raging out of control in the world’s nominally most advanced nation. (That would be us). Forest fires are burning up California while a category four hurricane wipes out Louisiana and Texas. We have more wild protests in our cities due to yet another black man shot by police on-camera. Meanwhile, the Doom-and-Gloom Republican National Convention enters it’s fourth and hopefully final day, bearing a message that electing the other guy means a dystopian American future of plague, pestilence and violence in our cities.

Time for some music.

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Family Stories

4 Non Blondes Music Video YouTube

Published August 25, 2020 by

Pandemic Shopping Through the Internet

Onlne Shopping
Online Shopping

Our grocery shopping patterns have dramatically changed in the age of the pandemic. In the before times Winnie would go grocery shopping every several days, using a variety of mostly Asian food stores. Since we’ve started staying-safer-at-home, we shop every several weeks using either Costco or Walmart curbside pickup. The ripple effects of this change includes not having enough space in our freezer for meat, and other stuff needing freezing to stay edible for long periods of time. So a few weeks ago, we (Winnie) decided we needed to buy a small chest freezer to store our stuff.

This should have been an easy purchase. But in this pandemic age, even internet shopping has proven to be adventurous.

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Family Stories

coronavirus freezer shopping

Published August 15, 2020 by

A Fine-Dining Restaurant Experience

Fine Dining Experience
Fine-Dining Experience

I’ve become a regular contributor to the ever-amazing Quora social media site. I enjoy following the various answers to off-beat questions, and can keep engaged for hours if I let myself. I routinely provide my own answers and commentary.

Most recently, I answered the Quora question: Have you ever been to a restaurant that made you say “You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me!” when they brought out the food?” My answer related a fine-dining restaurant experience from years back.

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Family Stories Quora Re-Posts

fine dining quora Restaurants

The Secret of Showing Up
Published August 3, 2020 by

The Secret of Showing Up

Finding Success In Your Chosen Career
Finding Success In Your Chosen Career

During difficult economic times the “Success Gurus” seem to crawl out of the woodwork. These gurus are happy to share the secret of how they made millions of dollars with little-to-no-effort/overnight/the easy way. For just a few dollars they will happily share some of their secrets. For a few dollars more they’ll share all of their secrets.

The secret they don’t share is the secret of showing up.

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Career Management

Career success

Published July 31, 2020 by

A Great Man Praising A Great man

Congressman John Lewis
Congressman John Lewis

Yesterday we had the extraordinary privilege of one great man praising another great man. The man doing the praising was former President Barrack Obama. The man being praised was the late Congressman John Lewis, who sadly passed July 17, 2020.

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Opinions & Commentary

Barack Obama Eulogy Great Men John Lewis

Published July 21, 2020 by

Careful What You Wish For

Senator Hillary Clinton during her 2016 Presidential Campaign
Hillary Clinton During Her 2016 Campaign

One adage I use often is “Careful What You Wish For.” It has a lot of significance for me, a reminder that too often the one thing a person thinks they really want, really need, and work hard to obtain turns out to be the curse that keeps on giving.

In this case, I think the adage applies to the Republican Party as a whole. It applies to the 2016 election as they collectively worked hard to get trump “elected” to office. It applies to the years since, as one after another key republican officials have sworn undying loyalty to trump as the far better 2016 presidential candidate over the She-Devil BENGAZI! email-abusing tyrant-in-waiting Hillary Clinton. It just seems to me; the Republican party would be far better off right now if Clinton had become president.

Not to mention, the entire country.

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Opinions & Commentary

Hillary Clinton President Donald Trump

Published July 5, 2020 by

Post July Fourth Pandemic Blues

Fourth of July Ribbon!
Fourth of July!

So another July Fourth celebration has come and gone. This year, the year of the pandemic, was a rather muted celebration. We had the obligatory fireworks in my neighborhood, but there were no concerts I know of anywhere around. No big celebrations south of Washington, D.C.

But of course, in Washington, the Mango Mussolini had to have his party, just because. I wish those party-goers well.

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Just For Fun

fourth july Music Video woody guthrie YouTube

Published July 3, 2020 by

This and That Pandemic Day One Hundred Eleven

This And That - Catching Up On Family News
This And That

So today is day one hundred-eleven (111) for staying safer-at-home against the novel coronavirus that’s taking over the world. Or more properly, the novel coronavirus that has taken over the world. I can’t help noticing that 111 plus 888 equals 999, which is supposed to be the symbol of the beast. There might be something numerologist about this, but I really don’t want to spend too much thinking about it.

I really just want this zombie apocalypse pandemic to end.

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Family Stories

pandemic Staying at Home This and That

Published June 22, 2020 by

The Approaching Storm

A Violin is a thing of beauty even before it's played.
A Violin in the Hands of a true artist approaches musical perfection

I’ve written before about the violin-playing Goddess that is Vanessa Mae. In this post, I’m writing about her again, and about one of her many violin pieces that is also a good match for these times and the approaching storm.

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Just For Fun

Music Video storm Vanessa Mae

Published June 9, 2020 by

Something There Is That Doesn’t Love A Wall

Tearing Down the Walls of Athens
No One Loves Walls

“Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”

Mending Wall – by Robert Frost

Something I’ve been thinking about these past few days is how walls don’t necessarily work out all that well. At least, people always seem to find ways of making walls do things that weren’t planned for.

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Opinions & Commentary

Donald Trump protest art walls