Cliffs Riffs - Stuph n Nonsense

Once upon a time I was a freshman in High School - moving to a new school two thirds of the way through the year. Anybody who has ever been subjected to that will know exactly how I felt. Husky High (aka Forest Hills Northern outside Grand Rapids, MI) was as clique ridden as they come. It was not a very welcoming environment for a hippie wannabee coming from sunny Tucson. Big aviator glasses n lotsa hair - taken in Tucson a few months before my transfer. My parents divorced when I was a wee one and after the death of my older brother Doug, (the middle of three sons), my mom decided she needed to be in Arizona. We landed in Tucson after my mom finished her Masters Degree at ASU. I have some good memories of coming of age in Tucson - home of the U of A. I got to attend college football games with the other kids in my YMCA group - we had to get by all the protesters at the game against BYU (they did not allow black kids in their school then!). Speaking of protests - I actually ma...

After undergoing an intense but  successful treatment regimen of radiation and chemotherapy for throat cancer in 2013, I found myself happily alive but with some baggage (i.e. side effects) from the treatment. FWIW, I was not a smoker nor do I drink enough for it to have been a cause. Your can read more about my time at Cancer Camp by clicking this HERE  link. One of the bothersome side effects was Neuropathy - especially in my legs/feet. It has not made its way to my arms or hands at this point. You can read about Neuropathy symptoms and learn more at this site . As a partner in a retail store with my wife I am on and off my feet all day long - I also enjoy walking the dog for a mile or so every day so the weird sensation in my feet and lower legs really bugged me. One of the results of my search of the subject informed me that some people experience relief from or lessening of the symptoms by taking the amino acid combination DL-Phenylalanine or DLPA for short. ...

Julie and I were invited to a Barn Party last night courtesy of Kirk and Ceil Wieland - they have several horses and a beautiful barn that makes a great location for an end of summer get together. We had only been there a few minutes when a car that looked like the one above pulled by and parked. I am NOT the worlds biggest car geek, but I am fairly accurate at identifying at least the BRAND of car most times even if I do not know the specific model. But I was clueless as to the identity of the cool looking red car. I could see the marque, but was not close enough to read it. A little while later the rain quit and Nick gave us a quick tour of the grounds which meant we walked right by the mystery car. DANG! It is a Tesla. After our tour and introduction to the horses, I grabbed Ceil and asked who owned the red Tesla. I trotted up to the owner, Ed, and introduced myself. Good thing for me that Ed has a lot of experience with people asking he and his wife Susan all abo...

  Great subject, huh? Well I just wanted you to know that this product works. The toilet we use the most of the two in our home accumulated some serious looking grunge on the bottom. Normal scrubbing with a brush and cleaner did not do the job. Being the type of person that I am I looked for some kind of DIY cleaner. Tried a couple of them that involved vinegar and even tried pouring Pepsi or Coke (one of those brown, fizzy fluids I do not drink) to no avail.   We even asked around and no one seemed to have an answer. Julie remembered a cleaner she had used years ago - she could not remember the name, but one day she found it at Bernard's Ace Hardware near our shop. BINGO - there it was. I cannot find Santeen on the Ace Hardware website, so you might want to check with your local store or hit the where to buy link on Santeen's site. (see below)        When all the others tried and failed - Santeen did the job and did it just as a...

  I am sure you have all seen the news. Walgreens is poised to "move" their corporate address overseas. The reason: Tax savings. To simplify it - this large Corporation wants to increase their bottom line at the expense of the Nation that CREATES their bottom line in the first place.   Walgreens started in 1901 with a single store, now they have 8,678 stores scattered across the country in every one of the fifty states. In 2013, their sales were a reported 72.28 BILLION dollars.   Now they want to "move" to save paying taxes to the nation from which they made their fortune.   Why do I care? Why am I taking it so personally?   Well, I can remember as a kid when my mom would take me to a Walgreens - back when they had a soda fountain and served food. It was a real treat for us to go there and get a sandwich and maybe a chocolate milkshake.     Fast forward to last year when I battled throat cancer - all of my medication was...

%^&$ing Comcast keeps billing me for equipment I returned months ago, so I decided to have a little fun with Albert with whom I chatted about the problem. Here is the transcript: Session connected! Font Size Transcript Sound user CLIFF has entered room analyst Albert has entered room Albert:  Hello CLIFF_, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Albert. Please give me one moment to review your information. Albert:  My pleasure to have you on this chat! I always remain committed and focused to provide you quality customer service at my fullest effort. Please allow me to assist you with your concern for today. I hope you are doing well today. CLIFF_:  My Issue: You are billing me $9.95 for an additional outlet AGAIN. I do not have an additional cable box - I returned it t...

This story originally ran in the Lowell Ledger and Buyers Guide . As part of our annual Pink Arrow effort, the local paper(s) publish stories of Lowell folks who have been affected by cancer. (They also have stories of other people who are dealing with grief at Gilda's Club.) Anyway - they were nice enough to let me tell my story - here it is: The Pink Arrow Project was the brain child of one Noel Dean, the varsity football coach at Lowell High School. He noticed how many families in the community were being hit with cancer and he decided his team, the Red Arrows, could turn their uniforms and name to pink for one game in the season and use the money raised to help local people in the fight. If you want to appreciate what "Pink Arrow" has done, spend a few minutes doing an internet search on the subject. Be prepared, get a box of tissues. The results in Lowell are fantastic and the concept has been copied and modified all around the country. Our week...