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END PRODUCT IS WHAT PEOPLE CARE ABOUT, NOT PRACTICE

June 7, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

‘End Product’ is another way of saying, “What have you done lately?” We pay to go to concerts, games, and races. We don’t pay to go to practice rooms, weight rooms, or interval track training, the stuff done before the end product. Buy a ticket for an event and you expect a competent performance? Sounds […]

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MAKING THE CANCER CALL 2026

June 5, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

Ten years ago I got the cancer call. Me: Hello. Doc: Are you sitting down? Me: Yes. (I was in the bathroom.) Doc: The tests came back. You have cancer. Me: That’s not good.

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STARTING OVER ONE MORE TIME

May 27, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

Calling it a day and starting over after forty five years? Not me, my wife’s business. After five moves beginning in NW Portland and ending in Lake Oswego, delivering hundreds of babies, treating thousands of patients, the timing couldn’t be better. We met at the start, teamed up for her business, and now it will […]

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GOOD PARKS FOR A BETTER LIFE

May 21, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

I didn’t move to the suburbs for good parks, but I would have if I knew how important they are for living a better life. The first time I took my tiny kids they weren’t impressed. I was. It was Cook Park in Tigard, Oregon and it was beautiful with paths and forests alongside the […]

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DRINKING ACTIVITIES LIST FROM FIRST TO LAST

May 16, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

Drinking activities differ based on where you are in the world and what’s available. Wine seems like a worldwide drink, so let’s go with wine instead of craft beer, or curated cocktails. Alcohol can open doors to different cultures and different times in history. Take the Monkey Gland for example:

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MY BEATLES MARATHON

May 14, 2026 by David Gillaspie 2 Comments

First off, it didn’t start as a planned Beatles marathon. I hadn’t even thought of it when my wife came home and said, “This is the same music I heard when I left this morning.” Me: Hey Siri, play The Beatles for two days. No, I didn’t say that. Nobody says that, but here we […]

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LET THEM, LET YOU, OR LET ME?

May 7, 2026 by David Gillaspie

The Let Them Theory book has a lot of lets in the letters. My favorites are the parts that address my problems, which come with a writing habit from what I can tell. Will I discover why I’m not a better writer? Learn what I should have done by now, or find a lingering message […]

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RECLAIMING MY TIME ON SOUTHERN OREGON COLLEGE SIXTY-FIVE YEARS LATER

April 30, 2026 by David Gillaspie

Southern Oregon College Graduating Class of 1960: My dad. He transferred after two years at Central Oregon Community College in Bend. It was a well used path to the first college degree in his family. He was thirty years old, an old 30. Back then thirty was older, fifty was a grandparent. Hit sixty and […]

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MUSIC MUSCLE: USE IT OR LOSE IT

April 26, 2026 by David Gillaspie

Where is the music muscle? In your fingertips? In your ear? In your voice? No wrong answer here. It’s all three, but there’s still something missing. Whether it’s ambient noise, sounds, notes, or whether it’s so important you buy tickets and make travel plans, there’s something about music I still don’t get. On one hand […]

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BUSY LIFE IN THE FAST LANE, PASSING LANE, OR . . .

March 28, 2026 by David Gillaspie

A busy life means making a difference to someone, to something, to somewhere. Take your pick. Pick more than one. What you can’t pick is anyone else’s priorities for their busy life. You can try, but why?

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