ABSILVER's World

So, How do you feel this morning Mr. Silverman? It is about 7 AM on Sunday the 8th, 48 degrees and chilly, so I watch the sunrise from our living room.  Palm trees swaying in the breeze and thinking about the past week and especially Friday. To spend Friday afternoon, of the first week of the new year, watching a tragedy unfold 15 minutes from my home is surreal.  To watch the scene of a gun man shooting arriving passengers, many I am sure here for a holiday or a cruise, just because they were there.  Not sure how he chose Fort Lauderdale, or if they will ever find a motive beyond mental illness and some voices in his head, but this baggage claim area and the Delta Terminal is somewhere I have been I am sure 100's of times if not more in the almost 25 years I have been living in and coming to Fort Lauderdale. I was truly touched by all the people texting me, and reaching out on Facebook to make sure I, Frank and Miss Belle were OK.  Was just a few weeks ago they came to t

So, the holidays are past, and I was asked last night at Christmas Dinner at Dan's have "I Missed" your blog entries lately?  Thank you, George! It is interesting, it comes and goes in general as to what to write, but I always try to come up with something interesting and entertaining for the end of the year.  But, I must confess, this year the idea of cheerfulness and joyous times as 2016 ends sometimes escapes me.  To say that I am disappointed in the election results would be comparable to prize fighter's feelings after getting knocked out.  I so thought I understood what was important, and that a majority of Americans would agree with me (which they did) but as we look at the Electoral College it is about that which chooses our president and so we have Donald Trump as the soon to be next president. First, I am not against the Electoral College, the idea of empowering each state to participate in our government regardless of their population is on

I am sitting here early at the Fort Lauderdale airport as I have done a fair amount lately.  As Frank, Daisybelle and I drive up to the airport there is a billboard for the Gulfstream Park Stores... and it is for a wedding registry and the couple on the billboard as we approach the airport is two men looking to get married.  I smile and remind myself how lucky I am to live in Fort Lauderdale at a moment of uncertainty. I fear, as I read on Facebook, that a gay male walking through Fort Lauderdale was taunted for being gay in a way that may have been shocking a week ago. That others are threatened, cars painted and some attacked and that could be me. A homeless person was holding up a sign looking for money, and someone shouts out the N word while telling them to get a job.  These hidden prejudices, are not new I am afraid, but what is new is that people feel emboldened to share them so freely.  Even though I hear from friends who vote for Trump, not to worry as they will protect m

Ok, I have tried, as someone commented here to be quiet politically.  People that know me well know what I stand for and who I will be voting for as soon as early voting starts. I am tired of hearing about the liberal press, when all major newspapers have endorsed Hillary Clinton. I am tired of hearing bias issues of the press, when the press has always been biased by their editorial staff.  I am reading Teddy Roosevelt's autobiography and he speaks of the different papers in New York in his era that all had a bias and voice. What I am voting for is simple: 1) I care about women's rights and women's rights to make decisions about their own health.  In short, I am pro choice.  I have heard discussions of the senior generation about the risk to women when their rights to their own health care choices was not a guaranteed right and I trust women to know what is best for their own body and health. 2) I care that many people I know have gotten married, and are co

Spoiler Alert: This blog is about the movie Florence Foster Jenkins with Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant among others. Short Review, overall I thought the movie was very good great.  What you expect from Meryl Streep as she inhabits Florence's bad singing and mannerisms.  You start laughing at the beginning of the movie at her, and continue throughout.  I also think Hugh Grant was quite good, even surprisingly so, as he plays her husband and does so in a soft and amusing way. For those that don't know, Florence Foster Jenkins really existed.  She was a patron of the music scene in New York, and believed that she could sing very well.  Apparently, she couldn't, but in the days of a printed press that took time to get out in the world her husband and the community around her kept her believing she could sing.  This continues for quite a while until she performs at Carnegie Hall, and the crowd laughed, and finally a reviewer from the NY Post refuses to support ruse and

Instead of waiting for miracle from the universe, I am Looking inside for my own miracles. This is my 200th blog posts with over 15000 reads.  (yes I know my sister is probably 5000 of them.. )  Amazing that almost 8 years ago I started with this adventure from a point of change.   I was changing jobs, recently single and trying to figure the next phase of my life. Describing me to the world and along the way discussed weddings, deaths, politics and a myriad of thoughts ranging from gay rights, religion, and politics with hopefully some humor along the way. I sat down a few times in the last week or two, to write the “200 th ” blog post.  I wanted some humor and fun most of all but with the events of the last few weeks I just couldn’t smile and laugh my way through.  I needed to look inside and thing a little bit more and this morning I decided to break this up this post into some key areas and ideas. What makes me mad? How can we ever find true equality with

  Happiness, dancing, smiles on a Saturday night can turn into carnage and terror. I want to learn to not be agitated by things out of my control or any such as: Delayed flights like this past morning.  The flight waiting to take off missing paperwork that seems quite straightforward to get it right. People who choose not to like me or decide all of a sudden not to...life and I are always changing. Traffic and drivers who don't move the moment the light changes. Drivers who turn and leave so much space between them and the car ahead that I miss the light. The person in front of me at Starbucks that is surprised by the choices or that there is more lemon cake than what is in the display case. The person in front of me who doesn't remember to take off their shoes, jacket or take out their laptop going through security at the airport. People who get up during takeoff or landing ... The in line skater at the beach who has bells on so we all get out of his way.