Author Archives: Ronald D. Drobeck

About Ronald D. Drobeck

I've read, learned, been discriminated against, patronized, lied to, laughed at, laughed with, and ignored. I'm not a minority, not tall, not good looking, not skinny, not hairy, and can see 10 miles, but not two feet. I've been a paperboy, college student, licensed nursing home administrator, professional musician (country swing drummer), duck and goose hunter, fisherman, conservationist, Eagle scout, camp counselor, canoeing instructor, lifeguard, comedian, restaurant owner, licensed exterminator, insurance agent, warehouse manager, carpenter, conservative, father of 4, baseball coach, husband, worrier, writer, embryo gardener, photographer, and nice guy. now, old.
Apr2

Wobbling

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     Finishing my (grow up) years of 11 to boarding the bus for the Navy, Milbank offerred a quiet place for quiet people. 
Not for me! 
     Those years for me were filled with trial and error, learning from my mistakes, and wonderment. 
     I wondered as I wandered there, seen by everyone, remembered by most. 
You could wake up in the morning there and walk downtown where everyone remembered everything from the day before! 
When you screwed up ... you owned it forever! 
Well, at least, until the rememberers died, and you managed to blend a bit better.
     I find it curious that living in Tucson, you could make a decision wobble, get in your vehicle and drive away from it, and it would be forgotten amongst the thousands of personality, learning, and mental wobbles going on at the same time! 
     Now, as I look back, I can see the 'wobbles' going on all around me in the village of wobbles. They had their own prairie village brand, absolutely!!!! 
     Even I remember personality wobbles that didn't seem too important, so immersed in my own day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute self. 
Even here in Tucson, I had a few learning wobbles, corrected, adjusted, and witnessed by few. Admonishing myself or not, I walked away never to let that situation happen again. 
     Forgotten in moments, minutes, hours or days, soooooo much people noise was going on that little Ron goes on smarter, a little more worldly and full of experiences that we get caught up in and that we had nothing to do with. 
     I am one that is happier this way. 
I don't carry so much baggage anymore because no one really cares. I only matter because I stay under the radar of the ambient noise of all of those other baggage carriers. 
     And it's true ... I 'wobble' much less.      
     This month, I turn 72. 
     I simply do not have the energy or time to 'wobble' much anymore and if I do, I might not even notice!!!! LOLOLOLOL
Jan31

Isn’t It Amazing? “Wandering Souls”

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The moon in a hand of stardust.
My own photo … rdd

Isn’t It Amazing?

How a wandering soul
Attracts the stardust,
Allowing a conscious to be!
No soul left behind,
Soul and conscious combine,
… For a time …
And part again to be free?

Ronald D. Drobeck

(another verse to be!)

(It’s so obvious, why am I still trying to untangle life?

It’s not that complicated! rdd

(this is newly published 5 minutes ago)

I wrote the first couple of lines last summer!)

Sep2

Ron’s World Famous Hockey Puck Brownies

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Ron’s World Famous Hockey Puck Brownies

 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (depending on your oven strength)

One pouch of Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate mix.

1/3 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

Mix with a strong whip or spoon.

Spoon evenly in 12 cup silicone muffin pan on cookie cooling rack for support. That way when you take them out of the oven, they are already on a cooling rack

Mine are the shallow ones. With the full cups, fill 2/3 full.

The recipe calls for 35 to 40 minutes and with the silicone pan

does use that much time. Begin to test with a toothpick at around 30 minutes until you establish the baking time in your oven.

When done, slide the silicone pan on to a cookie rack to cool completely.

Remove each puck when you feel that the chocolate chunks inside have set up a bit.

Enjoy! Each puck will be as chewy as the corner piece from a cake pan if it’s baked just right. rdd

Of course you can use your favorite chewy brownie mix. If you do, adjustments may have to be made in bake time. Sneak up on the finish! rdd

 

Jul19

Solace

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……………………………… SOLACE ……………………………….

Wow.
No insult intended to anybody else, but I did not realize I was on my last nerve. They were just being themselves and I tried to get some time in my ‘man sanctuary’, but with the heat and everything here ….
Anyway, I just took the most peaceful nap in my chair, golf with my earbuds in, dogs not startling me awake.
I think I’m healing from many directions at this moment.
Lots to do, but I’m not putting any pressure on myself today, except for a little headache in my eyes from allergy stuff.
I can fix that.
In my dozing, I can hear the water noises on the golf course. Good earbuds pick up those noises.
No planes droning overhead today.
Just quiet golf shots, no cheering except from across the fence, commentators speaking in normal voice. Rahm a nice lead, quietly working.
I dreamt I put one line in the water at a friends cabin, then found an inner tube and slowly drifted around a small island.
I realized I was getting a little far out, even on a glass lake, and slowly worked my way back passed the tip of the island to shore.
I couldn’t find the cabin or my rod, but did discover a rickety garage holding the bones of a Rambler (two tone blue).
I realized I had turned the wrong way on the beach and headed back.
Watched myself walking away.
At this moment, I have no stretched nerve and remark to myself, “I’ll bet the others noticed that I was wound pretty tight.
I also realize that way out there, as quiet as the stream noises, was the world, noisily destroying itself.
A column of smoke marks the distance … ….
Solace knowing that they won’t come here.
Too much quiet for them, and nothing to gain. rdd
hmmmmm

Jun26

06/26/2020

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Good Morning.
Well, the I.C.U.’s in the area are 80% full as this pandemic numbers continue to climb.
So, don’t wear your mask anymore …. the cost of all this care and the deaths are going to happen anyway since we can’t get the ‘No Mask Asses’ off the street and out of our stores.
I’m seeing more now, but our stores, mayor and governor are demanding it.
Still, some just stare as if you can’t see them.
Texas is having the same problem.
You can’t fix stupid, and I’ll bet the ‘no mask assess got other success problems and troubles because there is a whole parts of their thinking process not working.
So like the surprise birthday party that infected 8 people who then infected 10 more and now the grandfather is barely hanging on in the hospital …. go ahead, let’s lessen our medical costs by getting our Covid 19 sensitive people dead more sooner than later.
To the ‘no mask asses’, I’m being facetious (oops, I mean I’m kidding about the no mask)
We here might be negative or have anti-bodies already, but we still wear the masks in public to protect you, ourselves from other things you are sneezing out, and protecting your children and elderly.
I wear a different mask in my yard when I’m raking because the dust here is full of nasties. I wear another kind of mask in my shop where I finish wood, sand, and when I spray insecticide around the yard.
I worked for a spray pilot as his spotter, and have been an exterminator, and I’m still standing!
I wash my hands after my dogs rolled in the dirt and poop, and this morning all of my keyboards and stuff got the ultra violet treatment.
I had a yearly exam of my vascular system at the VA this week, and Jaime goes in for her first colon exam because of her age and she’s trying to take care of herself, so we have to be careful that she doesn’t carry anything into our out of that building this morning.
We happen to love life and want to be around longer.
And Kathy is a nurse exposed to everything in a nursing home.
We are NOT in the ICU so far.
Enough for this morning.
I do not intend to insult or talk over anybody’s head.
Jan8

Last of the Peppermint Stick

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Last of the Peppermint Stick

 

Good Morning,

I can’t remember if there was an occasion that brought out this childhood joy, but I think more often than not, it happened on Lawrence Welk night!
You could see the Admiral from the small dining room table when it had the leaf on the room side flipped up and you put the back down on the first lazy boy in the small living room on 1st St.
Grandma Anna would come out of the kitchen with a cold box, presented on a tray. I don’t know why!
I think, for a grin and the drama.
I’d lean so close to watch that I had to be told to “get off the table!”
It was Neapolitan Ice Cream in a box.
A crazy time for me. These people never adventured!!!!
She’d lay that box open to the pink/chocolate/white (what my mind at that age saw)
Then, so we could bear witness, she slice it so we all get some of each color, down the middle and begin to divide it in perfectly equal portions for all of us, with always the slightly larger mistake end to the grandpa.
Didn’t care!
Seems a little strange that I should ask you if you remember Lawrence Welk night, as I sit here this morning satisfying my craving for Peppermint Stick ice cream this January 8th morning.
All of this is to remind you that Peppermint Stick ice cream is quickly disappearing with the season!
We’re on our last box, so get out there and check the shelves at your grocery!
A smart grocer would use it as a loss leader and advertise, “Last load of Peppermint Stick ice cream folks!”
And then add as a postscript.
First load of Chocolate Mint is arriving, January 14th!”
Make room! rdd