Goodfellows52: Cleaning house!

Goodfellows52: Cleaning house!: "If you can't use it, lose it." — Tony Blasi AUBURN — I have always led a Spartan life and have li...

Cleaning house!

"If you can't use it, lose it."

— Tony Blasi

AUBURN — I have always led a Spartan life and have lived by my own motto: "If you can't use it, lose it."

And I tend to lose it every spring when I go on a tear and clean out closets full of crap that ends up in a recycling bin or handed off to Goodwill, hoping my trash becomes somebody's treasure. 

If there is any way I can avoid sending my spring-cleaning relics to the dump, I will give it away or leave it on Goodwill's doorstep. Right now, we are down to one bag of trash a week, and the rest our waste ends up in a recycling bins or in my vegetable garden. I used to hold a yard sale, but it was too labor intensive and a damn hassle.

Becoming a pack rat and cluttering my home with stuff that eventually becomes an obstacle course has never entered my mind. Getting rid of useless things that usually occupy valuable living space in my modest, three-bedroom home gives me a sense of accomplishment and offers me some breathing room.

If I suddenly found myself joining the richest four percent even though I have no such aspirations, I would live the same frugal life. I would travel more, but owning a large home or an expensive vehicle seems absurd to me. Who would I want to impress and why would I give a damn about impressing anyone with my sudden wealth.

If a fat wallet impresses people, then the cost is too high to maintain a relationship with human beings who practice Gordon Gekko's creed: "Greed is good."

I can do without people who eventually become another kind of clutter in my life.

Sometimes, spring cleaning is a journey of self-discovery. Going through a closest packed with junk will sometimes yield a treasure trove of fond memories.

Last week, we emptied out a closest full of stuffed animals. Being sentimental, we kept a handful of toy creatures that meant so much to us, but the rest we shipped off to Goodwill. It was impossible to part with the stuffed animals that I won at carnivals for my son.

Going through the closest also gave me a chance to rediscover some of my mother's prized possessions — old Life magazines and a Revere Journal supplement celebrating Revere Beach's 100-year anniversary. It was published in 1996.  The beach was her second home and I can see why she saved a copy of Revere Beach's anniversary.

I read the entire supplement and couldn't help think about my mother (she died four years ago) who valued the written word and always found newspapers enlightening and worth the 50 cents to read them.

I started reading old Christmas and birthday cards that have piled up in a cloth bag. I refused to put them in a recycling bin. They are from people who passed on, but my memories of them remain strong, and I'll am not eager to cut my ties with the past, so the cards will stay in the closet.

I will throw anything away that no longer serves a purpose in my brief life, but letters, articles and books from my past will forever occupy space in my home.

That's the law at 53 Valley Street.

The letters are like a recorded history of my childhood, the marriage to my wife, Terri, the miraculous birth of my son, Anthony and the death of countless people who I loved. The old magazines are also like another timeline of my life.

So the letters, articles and cards stay, and everything else goes. After all, in the end when I become old and frail, all I will have are wonderful memories, and that new TV won't mean a damn thing to me as my life comes to a close.

Goodfellows52: Stargazing and giving a terrorism a run for its mo...

Goodfellows52: Stargazing and giving a terrorism a run for its mo...: "The Earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in."                               ...

Stargazing and giving a terrorism a run for its money

"The Earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in."

                                                                                                                                — Robert Heinlein

"Terrorism is the tactic of demanding the impossible, and demanding it at gunpoint."

                                                                                                                           — Christopher Hitchens

AUBURN — Call us a couple of nerdy stargazers who enjoy scanning the universe for things that go bump in the dark skies above the Pine Tree State.

Actually, don't use the word nerdy when addressing me or you and I will have a big problem! It could get ugly.

For the past two nights, Anthony and I bundled up and stood outside our home, patiently waiting and watching for the International Space Station to pass over New England.

We learned online that it would streak across Maine at the usual 17,500 miles per hour to remain in orbit or plummet to earth. 

We kept a vigil despite the chill in the air, waiting for that fast-moving dot in the sky to race across the darkness and thrill a father and son who never miss an opportunity to check out a man-made object traversing the heavens.

Some people say studying the stars is a straight waste of mankind's time. I say bully for NASA, which put a bunch of brave guys on the moon and brought humanity closer to understanding the universe's randomness.

We as a species have always been adventurous and have taken bold risks to see what is over the next ridge during our evolution as human beings.

Space, like the ocean, is a new frontier that must be explored or man's quest for knowledge will become stagnant. There is enlightenment in the stars and all of us should keep looking up at the vast darkness known as the universe.

My son and I stood outside with our cameras and watched in awe as the space station passed above us from a height of approximately 255 miles.

I was hoping for a shout-out from the astronauts as they raced through the night. Sure enough, the station passed over us at 7:54 Eastern Standard Time and didn't disappoint two fans on two chilly, April evenings on a quiet street in central Maine.

Giving terrorism a run for its money

No matter how hard terrorists try, they can't repress a nation that raised the bar for all of humanity when our founding fathers wrote this one sentence in the Declaration of Independence: "All men are created equal."

That one phrase is why the Boston Marathon will be held on another Patriots' Day under the watchful eyes of 3,500 law enforcement officers.

All those pathetic and misguided brothers did was make a nation stronger. What I will never understand is how two young men could target an athletic event that defines peace. Runners from every walk of life and religion come to the Bay State to compete in an event that brings people together. 

There is no question America also has a past littered with dark moments in its history, but it is a nation that tries hard and still stands as the cradle of liberty.

When the starter's gun goes off in Hopkinton on Monday morning, we will be cheering for the runners as well as for a nation and a city that hasn't missed a step in spite of an ugly act of terrorism.

Goodfellows52: When a nation's ship comes in

Goodfellows52: When a nation's ship comes in: We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now. Martin Luther King, Jr. BATH — My ...

When a nation's ship comes in

We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

In a way, the Zumwalt looks like the old ironclad C.S. Virginia.

My son taking in the ceremonies as the the Zumwalt's crew is about to parade before the audience.

The Zumwalt's guns mean business.

BATH — My son learned about the christening of one of the newest U.S. naval warships from a dedicated English teacher at Edward Little High School.

We thought it would be a great experience to witness a small piece of history transpire at Bath Iron Works, which is located 25 miles from our home in Auburn.

After all, we both share a fascination and appreciation for military hardware and its history. Anthony has never lost his fascination with ships. When a tug boat was heading for open water down the Kennebec River during the christening, my son nudged my shoulder and directed my attention to the tug.

My son got clearance from his track coach, who is also a history teacher, to attend the christening. History teachers will do that for athletes who appreciate the past and have a genuine interest in the maritimes.

When we got a good look at the destroyer, we couldn't stop thinking about ironclads. This ship was indeed a throwback from era when wooden warships would quickly disappear in the fog of time.

The colossal destroyer U.S.S. Zumwalt looks like a damn ironclad left over from the American Civil War.

It's angular shapes, austere appearance and the protruding bow reminds me of crude iron warships that policed the seven seas for nearly 30 years before dreadnoughts appeared and traded powerful rounds with each other during World War I.

Open any history book about naval warfare during the Civil War and you will find a picture of the Confederate ironclad C.S.S. Virginia, which slugged it out with the U.S. Monitor for two days in March, 1862 at Hampton Roads, Virginia. The warships were the products of novel designs in naval architecture and engineering, and explained why wooden warships became obsolete in a matter of a few years.

Wood was no match for cold iron.

You can see the startling resemblance between the Zumwalt and Virginia, but of course ironclads would be no match for the $3 billion, 610-foot destroyer which was christened at Bath Iron Works on a warm Saturday morning before a crowd of nearly 6,000 people.

When this big bastard comes your way, find cover in a cave or better yet — leave town. This ship has stealth written all over it and is loaded with technology and firepower that makes this an intimidating and formidable weapon.

I am grateful this leviathan is on our side. Other warships just might go the other way or give the Zumwalt a wide berth when this behemoth appears on the horizon.

The destroyer features a 155mm gun that fires GPS-guided shells at targets more than 60 miles away. The skin of ship makes it harder to be detected by radar and is equipped with long-range missiles. Thanks to the ship's technology, only 158 sailors are required to man a destroyer with a displacement of 15,000 tons and travels at 30 knots. The bow is designed to cut through the water to make this warship sleek and fast. This is a ship with a low profile and perhaps a harder target to attack.

We walked around the huge shipyard before the Zumwalt came into view. Its size and shape is awesome. I snapped away with my Nikon, which also takes high-definition movies. I commend and marvel at the men and women who toil at BIW building these state-of-the-art warships. I had the privilege of viewing the Zumwalt's sister ship — the Michael Monsoor. It is amazing how skilled shipbuilders can put these giant steel puzzles together and create a warship.

But before we witnessed the christening, a slew of dignitaries and politicians began a long procession to the podium to make speeches that were sometimes too long and short on substance. Some of the speakers could have used a good editor with a sturdy red pen.

We crossed paths with a handful of brave sailors who will someday pilot this ship as it travels into harm's way. It takes brave men and women to go to sea for long periods of time. Sure, it's their duty, but this isn't just about taking orders or racing to their posts when battle stations is sounded throughout the ship. It is often a passion and dedication that many civilians can't comprehend.

Anthony and I kept hearing the name Captain James Kirk keeping popping up in some of the speeches. Was William Shatner also present to honor the crew of the Zumwalt? I wondered why Spock, Bones, Scotty and Chekov were not on board, and by the way, where the heck was the Enterprise?

It didn't take us long to figure out Captain James Kirk is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who will be the first skipper of the Zumwalt, which is named after Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr., who shook up the U.S. Navy by getting this particular branch of the service to embrace equal rights.

After two hours of speeches, Anthony and I stood in the crowd as Zumwalt's daughters broke a couple of bottles of the good stuff against the modern ship thick skin.

Was it worth the two-hour wait to witness history at BIW?

This small moment in history brought a father and son closer together and triggered a long and deep conversation during the ride home between two men who truly understand why the past is forever linked to the present and future.