Raoul’s Two Cents: January 24, 2025 An Exercise in Excercise It’s almost midnight. Almost time to send this email out and I’m not feelin’ that well. Earlier I decided to fulfill one of my New Year’s Resolution — to get back in shape — so I went to the gym. Did some brisk walking … upper body exercises and squats. …

Raoul’s Two Cents: January 17, 2025 The Gift of Music Woke up in the middle of the night. This isn’t the first time. I guess I’m gettin’ old. It’s becoming to be a regular occurrence. And, as usual, music is playing in my head. Sometimes it’s a popular song and other times it’s a song that’s waiting to be composed. …

Raoul’s Two Cents: January 10, 2025 The Mission Field WARNING: Religious topic. Move on to the jokes if this isn’t your thing. Everybody’s talking about the Los Angeles fires. Who? How? Why? It’s not complicated. This state is shaped by shared ideologies, a shared vision and one political party. Enough said. But let’s not talk about the obvious. Let’s talk …

Raoul’s Two Cents: January 3, 2025 Out of the Spotlight How was your holiday time? Spent it with family? For almost 2 weeks, my family was complete — all the kids and grandkids … but somehow, things did not turn out the way I planned. In my head, I was planning where to go, what to do, what to eat …

Raoul’s Two Cents: December 27, 2024 New Year Resolutions That Will Never Happen Here we go again. It’s the end of the year when our ambitions jar with reality. I’m pretty sure this coming year will be extremely interesting. To prepare for the onslaught, I’ve prepared my list of ten resolutions: I will start jogging at 5 AM every day.Because …

Raoul’s Two Cents: December 20, 2024 Careful the Things You Say Tis the season for children. Even seniors return to being children when they hear, when they see, when they smell hints of their childhood Christmas. One of my earliest Christmas memories was staring at colored lights. I was fascinated at the glass light bulbs shaped like the Seven Dwarves …

Raoul’s Two Cents: December 13, 2024 Plan B for Bobby I had it all planned. I was going to work on this TGIF issue early. I even recorded a song for it. The whole concept started to unravel when disaster hit. My movie-making program messed up. It was like decorating a Christmas tree with all the ornaments but failing the …

Raoul’s Two Cents: December 6, 2024 Brood of Vipers WARNING: Political topic. Move on to the jokes if you aren’t interested. There are some very angry people out there. I can’t prove it but I suspect someone sabotaged my tires. The parking spot was hidden and was beside a hangout for younger kids. Someone placed a huge thick screw under …

My husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas.

Raoul’s Two Cents: November 22, 2024 The Aftermath The rippling effects of the elections early this month is still expanding. I feel sorry for the losing side. I really do. Many of them can’t seem to handle the defeat with dignity. Strangely, some even made selfies of themselves losing it. It must be hard for them to realize they were …