My initial reaction was, “Ummm, I don’t recall the appraisal guy doing this yesterday.” Upon a closer look, there were a couple smiley faces drawn on the door too.
After a little investigating, my friend/neighbor Niko told me it was some girls his daughter hangs out with who were behind this. It was nice of them to colorize my garage door. Despite my confusion, it brought a smile to my face and was a thoughtful gesture in their own ‘tweener way.
The post-it notes has since been removed because the HOA people would have a conniption over something festive or cute.
Yeah yeah yeah. I know what you’re all saying, “That was kind of fast!” and maybe you’re right. It wasn’t like we were getting married, moving in or whatever. We had agreed on exclusivity or as I call it “dibs.” In short, we wouldn’t see other people in a dating/romantic capacity since we also believed in what others call emotional cheating. Cheating on someone doesn’t have to involve physical contact, it’s intent, it’s people who maintain an “open” profile to line up a Plan B, C and even D.
Then will come the lectures of, well, she was your rebound after the divorce. I don’t feel that way nor is it fair to Shea to label her so insultingly. There was a genuine spark and chemistry initially. It died quickly under very slight pressure, aka, I won’t be lectured. I’ve resurrected the good part of me when I was 19 and forced to dump Maureen by my parents. It’s best expressed through a song performed by Tom Jones & Jools Holland…
…we’re back to my one strike rule. Given online sites, a good credit score and I am a genuinely good person living in an ocean of pricks, I don’t have to settle. One parting shot I hit Shea with as I willingly took the bait, “I’m awesome and I can do better.” Thus, women with visible tats need not apply.
To me, life, dating, etc will continue to move at its own pace along with letting things happen, no forcing it…unless I need to extricate myself from a horrible situation.
Don’t worry nor cry for me. I will follow the advice of Yogi Berra…
Last weekend while I had my friend Kathy’s assistance on another home-improvement project we captured Sean Connery again so I could put him into this larger cage my house has stored for years. It came into play with capturing Isis and her children and then was a temporary habitat for Isis and Miguel while they were healing from their surgeries. The plan with keeping SC in there is to help him socialize or whatever better. Every day I clean out his litter box, change out the water and add more doped-up food. Plus I take him out for cuddles. This part probably isn’t working because he purrs but it’s a very nervous, anxious purring as his muscles are tensed up, ready to spring out and flee to his trusty hiding spot under my bed.
The cage doesn’t help my image neither. It makes me look like a mini Kirstjen Nielsen, especially when he cries.
Fear not, the next step is to clean out the bedroom with no closet so he can’t hide, but I’ll give him a special cave-like bed to address his fears.
Meanwhile, I think he’s ready for a new name, it’s a new year, I have a new approach and he is getting accustomed to seeing Isis and me around.
The poll closes on Valentine’s Day and I will announce the winning name in about a week after it.
Well at least it gives me pause and a quick chuckle before saying, “Yeah, yeah, you have a frickin’ yard ape, thus it’s your excuse for being a shitty driver.”
Today was the sixth milestone via in-door bike! It went much, much faster given this leg being incredibly short. A mere 504 miles to Amsterdam. Arrival was delayed thanks to me taking the bulk of December off.
What you’re seeing above is not a joke. This is the official flag of Amsterdam. If you’re a Gen X’er like me, it resembles the moonshine jug/bottle label from old-timey cartoons. Nope, the white X’s are crosses as the flag is derived from the Persijn Family’s coat of arms; the Persijns are the traditional founders of the area. I’m sure Jeremy can fill in the gaps and/or I need to read a book on Dutch history.
Next stop, Genoa! Where my Italian ancestors and Christopher Columbus came from. And to all the Columbus bashers…mangia merda! you hypocritical dickweeds who got poor grades in History and conveniently use white-out on your secular saints’ huge shortcomings: Martin Luther was an anti-semite, MLK couldn’t keep his pecker in his pants and the list goes on. Remember, all people have feet of clay. Their human failings don’t negate the ones with noble goals, let’s just stop making them into demigods and/or in Columbus’ case, saddle him with all the blame for 15th Century European mindsets.
This was a bigger pain in the ass to install than the directions made it seem. I was lucky to have my friend Kathy pitch in because it took four hands to juggle the part on the inside of the house! The other element which is incredibly disappointing is that the software to communicate with my iPhone is crap. Allegedly, the two locks on are the network; my AirPort software detected two MAC addresses I couldn’t identify. How they did it would be impressive given a password being required. They should’ve set up a BlueTooth option, then I could make sure the locks are passing on the credentials.
Despite the iPhone element being a bust (multiple codes is a “no”), meaning I will probably upgrade to more expensive systems, I did succeed in coming up with a hard-to-guess eight-digit passcode. Remember everybody, don’t go with things thieves can figure out if they’ve pulled off social engineering on you. For example, your birthday, close relatives’ birthdays or in my case, certain numbers I favor through TV shows, Science/Math or jokes.
The other part pissing me off is the locks’ origin, China. Just great, like a scene from Red Dawn 2: General Mulan, the PLA paratroopers land outside the Austin suburbs, a Tech Soldier whips out his tablet, aims at the houses and POW! They’re all unlocked. Thanks American Kapitalsim, profit before security as always. Seems WiFi wasn’t the only industry asleep at the wheel on 5G.
Neil will be greatly missed and I didn’t know that he retired or was sick. Although Rush isn’t a band I’m crazy about, namely due to radio only playing a very small sample of their larger work and much of the fan base that’s still emotionally and/or musically stunted. However, I respected Neil’s drumming skill. He inspired numerous drummers in bands I follow, love and admire. I would put him up there with other greats: Stewart Copeland, Buddy Rich and Ginger Baker.
Recently a co-worker brought in these drum sticks he caught from Neil when he saw Rush play in Austin around 1977-78. Neither were big nor famous yet (you know, Austin was a small place, only known for a Public TV show).
Well thanks Neil for what you did to expand Rock n’ Roll. You upped the skill level and helped make drummers more vital to a band’s sound beyond keeping time.
The menu tricked me! The way it was presented this option, I thought I would be getting a plate of a dozen pieces. Instead they delivered the WWII battleship Yamato to my spot. I think it was around 30 pieces. I had trouble getting it down or sharing because sushi is light compared to the heavy things we Americans are accustomed to eating on a daily basis. I should’ve brought some of my D&D minis to present perspective. Definitely going back to this place Ayako likes on Parmer & MoPac.
Today I made it to the 5000-mile mark for my cumulative mileage on an exercycle. Great way to kick off the new year too. Here’s another fun piece of trivia, this is about 20% of the Earth’s diameter.
I pulled this off over another three months (4000 was mid-to-late September 2019) because I decided to go on “vacation” for the last several weeks of December.
Closing in on Amsterdam. By the end next week I guarantee it!
A tremendous loss to the world of Comedy, especially in how much Buck influenced what followed, namely the great sketch shows I grew to love: The Kids in the Hall, Strangers with Candy and SCTV. Sadly, most obits will go on about he did the screenplay to The Graduate an amusing movie with dark humor but it’s still Boomer navel gazing for a generation which had it pretty good.
When I was growing up though, I always remembered him as the co-creator of Get Smart with the legendary Mel Brooks. It was in syndication during my childhood so it wasn’t until I was older I learned how the SitCom was getting in on the Spy Fi craze in the Sixties initiated by the James Bond movies. I also recall him being SNL‘s last guest host of the first few seasons, a tradition the mediocre show didn’t keep when Lorne left the first time. Obviously, SNL prefers to have mostly celebrities/flavor-of-the-month douchenozzles who want to give being funny a try.
As for Buck, he was a pretty funny actor appearing in Heaven Can Wait, The New Show, Quark, Defending Your Life and Grumpy Old Men. He could also do Drama: The Man Who Fell to Earth, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Law & Order. Hell, he could split the difference by being the absurd: Catch-22 and Breakfast of Champions.
One thing he did to impress me personally was write an article in Playboy…I actually had a subscription for a year, and I shit you not…I DID read the articles/stories/investigative reporting as well viewing the obvious features. Buck wrote a heartfelt piece about Betty Page around 1992 and she was still alive then. Until his story, I thought she was a fictional creation designed by pin-up artists. Looking back, it’s also funny Playboy published this as Buck was recalling and pointing out a type of real beauty the magazine had ditched by the Eighties, preferring fake blondes with fake bodies.
Farewell Buck! Thank you for everything you wrote, performed and did. You helped make the world a better place through laughter and pointing out how the absurd was funny.
Woo hoo! I feel that 2020 is off to a fantastic start, not only have I cemented things with Shea to have her be my girlfriend, I have completed my first 100 miles of biking in nine days, seven were active. Last year, it took me 29 days and I didn’t get started until the 10th; thanks to be sick, I started on the 3rd this time.
I managed this at a faster rate courtesy of being able to continue the same mileage I was killing off 2019 with.
I thought I would be digging out, getting everything all caught up once the dust settled with the divorce, a new year, so on. Ha!
The problem has been how much I’ve let things slide since Summer. I won’t complain about the time a new relationship takes and I will metaphorically punch anyone who says I’m whipped. We’re not teenagers because our individual households and jobs remain under control.
However, January rolling around always means a new, fresh start to double down on tackling the crap I didn’t get done last year…again: read over 10 books, lose 20 pounds, etc. When it comes to refinancing the house, I have little choice there. It certainly needs work and I am dreading the weekend days I will be spending destroying the jungle called the backyard someone neglected despite it being their passion.
Here is the one change I will announce here. Due to the RSS Feed element and the backlog, the overdue/old stories will have a contemporary date to keep my front page from being overwhelming (no more than 20 entries). When it rolls over to page two, then it’s moved back to its proper place in time. For example, November 4, 2019 was the centennial of Einstein proving that gravity can bend light. It may have a “now” date but after it is pushed down to the top of page two, I will change its posting date to correlate to what it should be. This will continue until I am caught up. Given life these days, probably never.
Elizabeth’s career was riddled with problems which made her a questionable source of truth as a reporter. It may have plagued the validity of her most famous book Prozac Nation. Initially, I dismissed her as a whiney Gen X’er from a privileged family, oh poor little rich kid who gets to review music in NYC. Boo hoo.
I did give her other work Bitch a try, even bought it (must be lost in a box somewhere in storage). At times it came off as a collection of screeds without a focused point. Then again, I could give her benefit of the doubt. When a middle-aged man complains, no one calls him a pushy bitch. I would call him a pushy asshole but Elizabeth and other women are correct that the reaction from either gender isn’t exactly objective. I for one am not a fan of pushy anybody.
I never became a big fan yet I grew to respect Elizabeth by remembering, how many books have I published versus her? Yeah, still at zero. Plus she had been battling cancer, a disease she never deserved. If I had a magic wand, I would’ve taken it away from Elizabeth and transferred it to Faux News commentator and all around asshole, former MTV VJ Kennedy.
Near the end of her life Elizabeth some happiness in her marriage which I did read about several years earlier.
Farewell Elizabeth. I’m glad I had the opportunity to change my viewpoint by reading your other work. I hope you live on as a voice for Gen X as History marches on. Not the most coherent but you did bring up a few, strong valid points. If JD Salinger gets more credit than he deserves, you’re easily a shoe-in.
