Riffs Redux

By Doug Hile

This book is a compilation of essays, poetry and short stories that has been a part of the author's life experiences and discoveries.

As an individual and aspiring author, one has to convey his inner thoughts, ideas, and ways of how we see the world not only using our eyes but also using all our senses and the mysteries that makes us feel that we actually lived with a purpose.

This is a book the author wanted to share to everyone to explore, learn and appreciate the beauty of everything around us.

Life is at our doorstep; we don't need to look after what is not around but to embrace what is right in front of us and that is to enjoy what the world has to offer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669822790

Doug Hile

One of the few natives of the area, Doug Hile was born in Washington D.C. and remained in Maryland most of his life. He has led a rich and varied existence; has been to Europe with the US Navy, and now resides on his ranch in Southern Maryland. He is a movie and music buff, enjoys live Rock 'n Roll , Guinness, and the local craft breweries. This is his second book. He hopes you enjoy reading as much as he enjoyed writing it.

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RIFFS

REDUX

Doug Hile

Copyright © 2022 by Doug Hile.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 06/22/2022

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

840730

for Elisavietta

Third and final collection of thoughts, observations,

verse, and stories, set down over six years.

A true Labor Of Love that has mostly written itself.

The pleasure has been mine, and I hope, yours,

as well. Presented for your enjoyment.

Bon Appetit~1

Contents

Preface

Thoughts and Observations

Points To Ponder

Ahhh... Yeah.

A Day In The Life

Rise and Carpe’ some Diem~!!

Rituals

Thoughts

Snow

Memorial Day Revisited

Arm Chair Warriors

Veterans Day

Part Time Patriots

Rules Of Society

Crazier

Mary Mary quite contrary

Calc

Blackie

PBJ

Master of the One Liners

Happy New Year

Another Rooney Moment

Danged Cat

Grumpy Old Men

Cliche’s

What’s On My Mind

Daylight Saving Time

Manheim and the TSO

The Goddess of Google

Gene, a memoir

Camera

Dear God,

Dragon Flies

The Ant and The Grasshopper

Stink Bugs

To Danny, on his grandchild

A few important rules to teach your daughters

Courtneys

Memories

Barely The Day Has Started —

Porn

Happy Birthday, Dude~!

Happenings V

Happenings VI

Happenings VII        18 January, 2021        2145 hrs

Happenings VIII        2-25-2021

Happenings

Happenings 8-22-2021

Happening, Final ...

Oh Boy

Let Us Make Man, in Our Own image. - Genesis 1:26 KJV ...

Courvoisier

Spirits of the Woods

Verse

Lim

Down By The Station,

Internet Savior

All

Unknown

Struggle

Hombre

Cat

Zipah

Letters

Magick

Welcome

Day

Vay Cay

Perspective

Owls

0400

A Glimpse

Obligations

Morning Has Broken

Aftermath

Questions on the ambiguous duality of they

Mornings

Alaire Mons Paicheen Naschaal

The Magick Moments

Oh My

Float

Observer Redux ... fromBits&Bytes

Have a little Faith

Stories

Cirillian

Anna

Halloween

Dinner

After...

Best Laid Plans

Writers

Larry

All Things Happen For A Reason

‘Twas the night before Christmas

Gary

Gonna set me up

Angela

Jiffy Mart

Irv

A Story

Old Guy

Comfortable

Reggie

She

Columns

NASA

Coffee

Menu

Jimmy

Al

Russell

The Promised Land

Beez

Yummy Tumps

Rest Room

Maria

Piotr

B.K.

Too Long Ago

I love Paris ...

In Dreams

Freddy

Autumn

The Black Telephone

The Doctor is IN

The Collection

Stragglers

Remakes and Reboots

The International House Of Buffalo Wings

Another New Day

Publishers Clearing House

Dentons

Danged Cats

About The Author

Preface

I used to absolutely Love Readers Digest. It was a digestion of thoughts from various writers, interspersed with those wonderful Points To Ponder, and Humor In Uniform bits.

None of it tied a reader down for more than the length of a cuppa coffee, lunch, or short waits at the airport.

I would have conversations with people in cafe’s and diners, at train stations, in check out lines, and they would be one-on-one, enjoyable exchanges.

I always had the feeling that those writers who contributed to the Digest, were having conversations directly with me, in the same vein.

One of my favorite quotes, remaining down through the years, was one I initially associated with Ogden Nash, but it is actually a Walt Whitman thought.

Leaves Of Grass..... Stranger passing......

I did my first two books at Xlibris, not as a legacy, not to preserve any personal history, but simply to have a conversation with anyone who might pick up the book. In fact, I did not set out to write a book at all, only to record some thoughts, the first one being, Messages, in Riffs & Rhymes. I’m rather proud of that one.

Fools rush in, they say, and I had no idea what the nuts and bolts of the Publishing Industry might be. I had a collection of short pieces - inspired to write and encouraged by Lisa Ritchie, one of my favorite authors and a mentor.

Other first timers in her workshop at the Calvert Library, self-published when Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin were reluctant to even consider the newbies. Understandable, some of the smaller houses invite new authors, but require reading fees before making a decision. That’s an LOL.

Self Publishing has no difference in Quality between themselves, and the output from the lofty, uncaring giants The Difference being that it costs a couple hundred bucks for a first run, and they give no extravagant advances against sales.

The unifying thought for those who self publish, is that they do it because they want to; not for the fame or fortune, but simply to say they have a book with their name on it.

You are perhaps familiar with Sean Connery’s film, Finding Forrester.

I make no comparisons. That Ain’t Mee.

And so, Dear Reader, I hope you enjoy what you find here.

It is my gift to You.

drh

?Qué es la vida? Un frenesí.

?Qué es la vida? Una ilusión,

una sombra; una ficción,

y el mayor bien es pequeño;

que toda la vida es sueño,

y los sueños, sueños son.

PEDRO CALDERÓN DE LA BARCA, La vida es sueño

Que Es La Vida

A gem left along the Path Of Life

by a seventeenth century poet

for those who might discover it,

pause to pick it up,

savor the melody of it’s language,

and allow the simple Wisdom

to enrich their lives.

Some people wait all day

for 5pm, all week for Friday,

all year for the holidays,

all their lives for happiness.

Don’t be one of them.

Don’t wait until your life is

almost over to realize how

good it has been.

The good life begins right now,

when you stop waiting for

a better one. One day you’ll

wake up and there won’t be

any time to do the things

you’ve always wanted.

Do it now.

Thoughts and Observations

Points To Ponder

P to P was a stimulating small part of Readers Digest I always enjoyed.

It was a Readers Digest that no longer exists.

Everything Changes.

I don’t think it was in the Digest, where I first heard the following thought. May have been an Andy Rooney piece.

Don’t know, but in light of current disastrous events, it echos from memory.

Didja ever wonder what a chair would look like, if your knees bent the other way?

Does anyone wonder what America would look like, if a once legitimate political party, with ideals, honesty, and integrity; now devolved into a terrorist organization run by amateurs with limited abilities, supported by a constituency of blind subservency with even more limited abilities; tried to take over the Country with candidates who never held a job outside of the organization that backs them?

Does anyone wonder why a Country with a population of three hundred and twenty some million people, most of which are qualified Americans with the privelege of The Vote, would only exercise this privelege sporadically, and by only half of that population?

Does anyone wonder why half the number of qualified voters would elect the candidates of this terrorist organization --- candidates who have no qualifications, whose agenda goes against everything previously cherished by Americans?

Does anyone wonder how this might have been allowed to occur?

Ahhh... Yeah.

Crashed early at 11:15 pm, had a really great dream, with a Beatles intro She was just seventeen, You know what I mean

Was taking Heather to her music lesson at the Community College - Calvert campus, not St Marys.

Early afternoon, pulled into the parking lot as the Beatles were fading from the radio.

We walked into the Music Building, went to the second floor.

I stayed for a recital of the student orchestra, while she was having her lesson in another music room.

The auditorium was at the end of the hall.

Attendance was sparse; mostly other parents, a couple of scouts from the big recording companies, off duty teachers.

The program was a demonstration of different musical guitar styles, alternating between finger picking and shredding.

Two excellent student musicians were trading songs of Roy Clark, Danny Gatton and Brad Paisley, with songs from Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Yngwie Malmsteen. Last song was a Sousa march with the full orchestra -

Stars And Stripes Forever.

The bridge of the March contained a little musical joke, inserted by the conductor who had recently transferred from the St Marys College music department. (more on him, later)

He exaggerated the trombones, where it goes -

--- Dut, da dut, da dut dahh dahh Dahh, BOOM, radda radda rump BOOM radda radda rump ---

to give them the raspy, rolling trill usually heard behind clownish prat falls. Chuckles from the audience. hahaha.

Big rousing finish and rounds of applause with a large American flag dropping behind the orchestra. Conductor was a showman~!

Lights came up and everyone filed out.

I stayed to listen to a short set of exit music played by another girl about Heathers’ age, on the piano.

Could have been a teenaged Diana Krall. She finished and we had a brief conversation.

I told her she was good, and that she should have had a drummer and a stand-up bass with her.

She said, Maybe next time.

They were turning the lights out, and I went to the nearest exit, walked around the outside hallway to the auditorium entrance, retrieved my briefcase, and went to find Heather.

All the hallways were dark, and the building was empty.

I was in the twilight zone between sleep and waking, when the phone rang at 06:45. No, you didn’t get me up. I was done.

Stayed in the zone until 0700, transitioned with a nice, long stretch, and rolled out.

Had to get this one down, because it would be gone later on, leaving only the memory of a good dream, with no details at all.

Made coffee and let the cat out.

Musical director at St Marys College, is Jeffery Silberschlag.

He is the Doc Severensen of Southern Maryland, and continues at St Marys College. We went to one of his summer programs when he brought in a young and upcoming Jane Monheit.

She was a tiny cherub with a big voice, and she signed her first CD for mee.

Heather had her high school graduation ceremonies at St Marys College and that was the expected direction for her following year.

We had many discussions, but looking back, she was never enthusiastic, hardly luke warm about continuing her education.

I was the same way, so I shouldn’t have been surprised.

When it came time to register, pick her curriculum etc, she announced that she wasn’t going to college. Period.

Anyway --- Silberschlag - great guy, great trumpet player, great writer and arranger. He had many summer concerts at St Marys in the big band shell at the end of the Quad by the dorms.

Enough.

End of Story.

A Day In The Life

Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head

Some things needed attention today, so, I got my ass in gear, and attended to them.

On the way back to the ranch, I stopped at my favorite place, for a bite and a beer.

Happy Hour, and it was almost full.

I took a corner table, back to the wall, and was enjoying one of their exceptional craft brews, when a Very Fine Lady entered, easily a commanding presence.

She was wearing a black mini-dress, suitable for her statuesque Amazon physique, with just the faintest hint of cheek above her gorgeous legs.

Her friends were already there, and she greeting them, while ordering a tall mug for herself. After the openers, she selected a table in direct line of sight from Yours Truly, and seated herself with her back, facing.

I of course, made no overtures, but casually watched the show.

Presently she was joined by another friend, a bit higher up on the Friends List, and she changed position when he took a seat, to another, now perpendicular to me, with a glance in my direction.

I had another sip or two from my glass, and she changed her body language from Left over Right, to Right over Left, and looked directly at me.