The Boomer Chronicles

I went to my local gourmet-ish sandwich and juice place and they told me they aren’t making juice anymore. No more carrot/apple/ginger for me. Why did they stop juicing? Because the machine keeps breaking and the cost of the fresh produce is too high. You see, it takes a lot of carrots to produce a few ounces of juice.

I was walking to work and saw a truck with sign on it that read, “New Hampshire Boring.” I thought, “Yeah, but I wouldn’t advertise the fact.” Then I saw a tall contraption on the street that was boring a hole in the ground. Got it.

Just a few celebrities and other public figures who are turning 50 in July 2008:

Jennifer Saunders, creator of TV’s Absolutely Fabulous

Michael Flatley, Lord of the Dance

Mark Cuban, mega-rich guy and former Dancing with the Stars contestant

Kate Bush, musician

And turning 60 are:

John Whitehead, musician (“Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now”)

Julie Nixon Eisenhower, daughter of president

Cat Stevens, former musician and famous Muslim

Richard Simmons, exercise guru

Sally Struthers, actor (Gloria in All in the Family)

Ruben Blades, actor

Garry Trudeau, cartoonist (Doonesbury)

Peggy Fleming, champion skater

Beverly Archer, actor (Iola on Mama’s Family)

Georgia Engel, actor (Georgette on Mary Tyler Moore)

Homeownership in the United States is considered a rite of passage. It is also considered a way to secure your financial life. Yet some people in midlife are not homeowners. They are renters. They may rent by choice or through an unexpected life change or because they’ve just moved somewhere new and want to get a feel for the place before buying or because they’ve been foreclosed on or because they just can’t afford to buy in their area.

I bought my first home at age 36. It was a nice, big house in Boston and I was very happy (and maybe a bit overwhelmed) with it. About four years later I sold it because the value had doubled and I felt I could use the money to help buy some time to launch my screenwriting career. But we all know that money can disappear much faster than one anticipates. By the time I was ready to buy again, the Massachusetts market had soared into the stratosphere. I was boxed out of real estate ownership.

Being a renter in my 40s has been difficult emotionally. It makes me feel frustrated and angry at times. I loved taking care of my house and I can’t stand the lack of control I experience now.  I am ready to buy again, and will do so in the next year or two, and I know that after this renting experience, I have no wish ever to rent again.

What is it about adulthood and renting that makes one feel so…so infantile?

Dear readers, Your Faithful Correspondent is wrapping up a week on the Cape. Here are just a few more things I’ve done in and around Provincetown:

• Heard Bobby Wetherbee sing his vast repertoire of show tunes at the Crown & Anchor. He’s been doing this for decades and I’ve been listening for decades.
• Had an alfresco lobster dinner with my friend Rob. We used to work together at a large, venerable university in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Played bingo for the first time since childhood. I figure it’s good preparation for my old age. The game happens every Wednesday at the Unitarian church. I found out they don’t use those transparent little disks anymore to cover the numbers. They use markers. Everyone one at my table won big, except for me.
• Met up with my friend Chris, who is taking a poetry workshop at the world-renowned Fine Arts Work Center. You can follow his progress on his blog, Outside the Lines
• When I ordered a mojito at a local restaurant/bar, the bartender ran downstairs to the garden to pick a few springs of mint. That would never have happened in Boston.
• Will watch the fireworks today in Boston instead of Provincetown. Why? My Canine Prince has run out of dog care. I will go home, kiss his stinky little dog face and take him for a walk. I missed him.

See you on the other side!

This week I saw a local celebrity, Tony Jackett, along with his wife, toodling down the main drag of Provincetown. He’s hard to miss: he’s a handsome man with deeply tanned skin and a great head of curly black hair. Tony was a central figure in the Christa Worthington murder case. Do you recall the story?

In the late 1990s, Tony Jackett, worked as a local shellfish warden. He was married with six kids. Tony met Truro resident Christa Worthington, an accomplished former New York City fashion writer, and the two had an affair. Christa, 43, became pregnant by Tony, who was 50 at the time. Christa gave birth to Ava in 1999. On January 6, 2002, Christa was found stabbed to death in her kitchen. Her child, 2, sat nearby, unharmed. Several men in Christa’s life, including Jackett, were thrust into the limelight. Ultimately, in 2006, Christopher McCowen was found guilty of the murder. Remarkably, Tony’s marriage of many decades to Susan survived the affair and he sees Ava regularly.

A book, Invisible Eden: A Story of Love and Murder on Cape Cod, by Maria Flook, was written about the case before the crime was solved. Here’s a Who’s Who in the case.

Brad Herzog, a travel and children’s book author, is on a 66-day RV trip with his wife and two young sons. You can follow his travels via a blog sponsored by Go RVing, an organization that promotes RV travel — perhaps a tough sell right now, with the high gas prices. Even though the blog is a marketing tool, it’s highly entertaining and definitely worth a read. By the way, Brad and his family are traveling in style. They’ve got a 2008 Winnebago Adventurer (Class A). This is one of the behemoths that looks like a bus.

On a visit to the tiny town of Harmony, California, Brad finds that the town has seen a lot better days:

Because, you see, Harmony is only a shell of its former self, too. The restaurant is gone; the tavern, too. The church is all but abandoned these days. And this is the way it is all over. I’ve seen it dozens of times. Towns that once needed to be self-sufficient are dwindling into insignificance. The Wal-Mart moves into the county and drains the life from small-town business districts. Or the railroad shuts down, leaving an empty depot. Or the interstate diverts traffic. Or the next generation simply moves away. Communities that used to boast a thousand residents and a dance hall, a blacksmith, a tavern… they’re now down to a few dozen diehards and not much else.

That’s one reason why I treasure these RV trips. Because it’s the best way to reach the nooks and crannies, to really explore America rather than simply passing through it, to experience the heart of the nation. Those tiny dots on the atlas, which make up the masterpiece of pointillism that is America, will soon be all but erased from memory. I’m going to see them while I still can.

Here is where to follow the Herzog family’s RV exploits.

Here are just a few of the things I’ve done on my vacation:

• Sat at Fanizzi’s bar, which overlooks the bay, and had lunch yesterday. To pass the time I interviewed the bartender. I asked him what the most popular drink is. He said anything with vodka, including the flavored vodkas. I asked him what he does when someone asks for a drink he’s never heard of. He went to the cash register and brought out the Bartender’s Black Book, which alphabetically lists every drink known to humankind. I asked him, ‘What’s in a Lobotomy?’ He didn’t know.
• I spent a few days here with a good friend (and fellow Gemini) who I do a lot of traveling with. We had a blast! For one thing, we took a many-miles-long bike ride through the Provincelands (see photo).
• I’ve been reading The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown, as well as On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. From the ridiculous to the sublime, I guess.
• I had a gin & tonic on a deck overlooking the ocean with friends of mine from Western Massachusetts and their corgi.
• I went to a street festival where I heard samba music by an amazing group called the Berkshire Bateria.
• I met the owner of a few gay dating sites. He lives in Palm Springs, California. He makes a living from his online sites. He spent about 40 minutes teaching me how to make a living via my computer.
• Heard a very talented French-Canadian singer/songwriter Franklyne. Here’s a video of Franklyne.
• Had a slice at world-famous Spiritus Pizza.
• Strenuously avoided being seen on the intrusive Provincetown webcam located at Cabot’s Candy and trained on the benches in front of Town Hall, which everyone in Provincetown passes at least twice a day.
• Being middle-aged, I took two naps, one of them 3.5 hours long
• Ate one of my favorite desserts, Indian pudding, at The Mayflower, a venerable old family restaurant that dates from, well, a really long time ago. Indian pudding is rarely seen on restaurant menus, so I grabbed it while I could.
• And much more…

Here in Provincetown, drag queens are a large part of the landscape. Here is Aggy Dune (see my bad photo), who won the Showgirls competition last night at the Crown & Anchor. She took home $500. She (and I use that term loosely) performed a fabulous Shirley Bassey number. She was all sultriness and sequins. Aggy, 45, hails from Rochester, N.Y. Here’s Aggy’s MySpace page. Another of my favorites is Varla Jean Merman.

I am so tired of hearing about Viagra. Anyone with a computer knows that a large portion of the spam out there is Viagra- or erection-related. Enough!

Here’s a natural way to achieve Viagra-like results:

Beneficial ingredients in watermelon and other fruits and vegetables are known as phyto-nutrients, naturally occurring compounds that are bioactive, or able to react with the human body to trigger healthy reactions. In watermelons, these include lycopene, beta carotene and the rising star among its phyto-nutrients – citrulline – whose beneficial functions are now being unraveled. Among them is the ability to relax blood vessels, much like Viagra does.

“Watermelon may not be as organ specific as Viagra,” said Dr. Bhimu Patil, director of Texas A&M’s Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center in College Station, “but it’s a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side-effects.”

The Science Blog has the whole watermelon story.