Category Archives: Opinions

Tid Bits

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It’s 8:40 pm. I finished mowing the yards about 20 minutes ago. Took me 2 hours and it was fun because I could go really fast since it hasn’t had time to grow out much. Just enough to make the grass catcher useful. The jarring round hurts my hip and back, but I have meds for that. Tomorrow, before it starts raining, I need to suit up and run around the place with the weed eater. This device wrecks my shoulder which has a terminal problem that may, at some point, require replacement.

Diane has an orthopedic appointment for her knee, after visiting the doc today. If we sell a couple of cars she can get a new one. I’ve decided that I’ll get my new shoulder at the same time so we can convalesce together. Actually, selling cars won’t do it because they cost so much so we’re just going to wait for either a sale at Wal*Mart, or a surprise influx of Chinese knees and shoulders at Costco. You just never know.

Or, we can just gimp along on what we have and call it good.

Jeff came by today to re-borrow the drill he recently returned. While he was here we went over the list of tools he’s still got. It’s not a long list. We mainly went over it so I can quit looking for those items in the house. He told me that the girls, Gilligan and Bailey, want a puppy like Panda who passed away a couple of years ago. They’ve already named the puppy Scraps. I love that name and think I’ll start calling myself Scraps whenever I’m introduced to someone new. That’s really not a problem because the only people I know are old. If I was introduced to a new person, they wouldn’t understand what I was saying anyway. Because they’re too little to communicate properly.

After this morning’s nap Diane and I drove to Scappoose to visit with Wynette for a short time before she had to leave for the Senior Center. For some reason she has to check in with them pretty much every Friday. I think it has something to do with volunteering.

On the way home we stopped at Burgerville, which are only in Oregon & Washington (mostly Oregon) for takeout lunch. I normally have a Tillamook Bacon Cheeseburger with a large chocolate shake, but today I just had a double cheeseburger with extra secret spread. Great stuff. Too bad for all you people who live someplace else.

Actually, it’s just a hamburger. There are tons of hamburger joints all over the world, but Burgerville is a local thing. We also have Burger King, and McDonalds, like normal places, but we prefer local cows vs. foreign ones. Really. Almost everything they use for the burgers are home-grown. Some Burgervilles have pastures out back where the cattle graze until they’re ready, then they are herded into a barn and just never come back out. It’s like magic. At the other end of the barn is the Burgerville. No one would have ever known that had I not brought it to your attention.

That is, of course, a lie. The same number of cows that go in the barn always come back out of the barn. But, are they the same cows? One may wonder.

Now I’ll end with this, for those of you who don’t normally venture on to Facebook, or cruise the internet looking for odd things. I want one of these …

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Vacation – Day 13 Still in Reno

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It’s 0900 and we’ve been up for an hour. I know that’s true because I asked the boss. But, what she doesn’t know is that I was awake long before that. It was still very dark outside the first time I stumbled to the bathroom and I’m guessing it was about 0600. I didn’t look because I didn’t want to add a bright light to an already dangerous situation caused by me bumping into things in the dark. It was a long trip to the bathroom and I’m sure I’ll be able to identify all the pieces of furniture by the location of the bruises. You’ll all be proud to know that I didn’t utter a sound during that round trip.

Turns out is all for nothing because she was already awake, too. I suffered for no reason.

Today we plan to visit as many second hand stores as humanly possible in the 4-5 hours we allow ourselves to be outdoors in areas with a rarefied atmospheres.

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Now I am compelled to make a shameless plug for our friend, Cindy A, who owns Pearl Fiber Arts in the heart of Portland’s blooming Pearl district. I’m going to go there and buy something to make a pretty doily. Yes, I really do that stuff …

 

 

 

 

 

And, here’s something from our friend, Kat B, who still lives in Minnesota. Voluntarily …

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Us? It’s going to be 75 here in Reno today. I think.

Now it’s time for breakfast – Cheerios, toast, and my 4th cup of coffee. Just used the last of my creamer so we’re either going to have to leave for home today, or find a second-hand store that sells it.

It’s OK To Be A Slug

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slug  |sləg|

noun

1 a tough-skinned terrestrial mollusk that typically lacks a shell and secretes a film of mucus for protection. It can be a serious plant pest. See also sea slug.

[Order Stylommatophora, class Gastropoda.]

2 a slow, lazy person; a sluggard.

3 an amount of an alcoholic drink, typically liquor, that is gulped or poured: he took a slug of whiskey.

The title of this brief entry refers to choice 2 above, although, I suspect slugs are happy campers being who they are as choice 1. Unless, of course, they live in the vicinity of a family who has curious young minds who wonder if it’s really true that slugs dissolve when covered with salt, which is just a mean thing to do because it causes the slug to secrete itself to death in self-defense. So I’ve heard. Just saying…

The #2 choice is something I’m really getting good at. So is Diane, but I do not consider her a slug. No siree. Not me. She’s Queen of the Hop, Top of the Heap to me.

I’m the slug, and I think that’s really OK, considering my advanced age. I can still walk, but I move slow. I’m get more wrinkly all the time. And, although I do not secrete a film of mucous for protection, it drips out of my nose all the time. Regarding that, I’ve learned to love my mustache because it keeps the mucous off my lips, and the mucous in my mustache works nicely to keep my whiskers in place when I comb them. Diane is not a fan of this new attraction I have for my face. She’s always telling me, “quit petting your face!”, or “put that comb away!”, in a very stern voice. I don’t see the problem.

Perhaps some of you may see other benefits of being a slug of sorts, and would like to share them with the world. I’m always up for learning new ‘stuff’.

Regrets

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I have a few of those. I normally don’t dwell on them because most involve situations about which I can do nothing. Take yesterday, for example ….

All day Diane and I were driving up and down the California Coast, absorbing the incredible grandeur of the area, blissfully unaware of the horrific events transpiring in Boston. We didn’t know anything about it until late afternoon when we turned on the TV upon our return.

At first we thought it was some horrible accident, maybe a collapsed grandstand, or something like that. As we watched, the pieces came together and we learned of the bombs in Boston and the carnage they caused.

Now for my regrets …

I regret that there are people in the world who feel the need to use violence as a tool to make a point. It’s such a cowardly way of doing things. I know … bullies use violence, but at least they directly participate in the process.

I regret that so many people got hurt in Boston. I also regret that so many people were killed, and hurt, in Viet Nam, Korea, the South Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Japan, China, Africa, South America … the list goes on. It’s not that I typically think about those things, because I don’t. Having something like this happen so close to home, so close to loved ones, just brings all the other atrocities in the world to the surface.

I regret that there is violence all around us, every day. We just don’t see all of it. It’s about power and the willingness to exert that power over someone else. We long for a peaceful world but that isn’t likely to happen as long as someone has something someone else wants and ignores some pretty basic rules to get it. Take football, for example. Both teams want it, but there are rules one must follow to either keep it or get it back. Referees are assigned to enforce the rules because both teams forget them quite often. Actually, part of the game, in my opinion, is for players to break the rules and see if they can get away with it. Yes, it would be nice to live in a world where everyone got along without the need for referees, but we need them to contain the chaos that would erupt without those guys and their whistles and flags. The vast majority of us know the rules, too, and we applaud when our team gets away with breaking one of them … if our team wins, does that make it OK?

I find my head going in circles on this. The sports & war comparison isn’t new. It’s just not something I’ve ever tried to comprehend beyond the obvious. We all know what’s right and wrong at the basic level of existence but those beliefs are further defined by our experiences … this could go on, and on.

This is one of those philosophical exercises that has no end and I apologize for subjecting you to my wonderings. It’s not my normal way of relating events, but having this on my mind kinda takes the humor out of things. At least for a while.

News Reporters & Sports Announcers

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Reporters

Am I the only one who thinks live reporters ask some pretty dumb questions, and report from some pretty dumb places? Actually, I know I’m not because Diane and I agree. Also, I realize that these reporters are given directions from some folks tucked away in a cozy trailer somewhere, but the questions they ask are, sometimes, really, really stupid. For instance, reporters into the wake of hurricane Sandy to ask residents of destroyed towns “what are you feeling right now since you just lost everything you own and probably don’t have insurance to cover your loss…” or words to that effect. That’s pretty brutal. What’s this person going to say … really? And the reporters who interviewed 8-year-olds at the scene of school shooting in Connecticut. Two points on that … what were they thinking? and why did their Moms allow it? Forever imbedded in my brain is the vision of Ginger Z standing in water as hurricane Sandy worked it’s way north along the east coast. She was always in the water, either in the ocean, or in a flooded parking lot. Always! OK, we get it … it rains a lot during a hurricane.

Reporters are always after the emotional impact from victims which I think is wrong. Leave them alone … they have enough problems to deal with instead of taking time to answer dumb questions. And the questions don’t change, just the victims. I think reporters are taught to ask a specific set of questions for selected disasters, and that’s all they need to know to get the job. That, and be attractive. I suspect reporters would disagree with me, but that’s OK. Opinions are allowed.

Enough of that …

Sports Announcers

Sports announcers are kinda like reporters, but they have live action “stuff” going on most of the time. What they do that annoys me is keep up a running commentary on what’s going on right there before my eyes. I can see it going on, but they insist on telling me what I’m seeing, then letting me know why a particular formation didn’t work, or that a basketball team needs to make more shots if it’s going to win. Really? Make more baskets? I think that’s what the team’s coaches are yelling at them, too. Like the players forget what they’re supposed to be doing. You’d think multi-millionaire players would be able to focus and keep that in mind.

Sorry … that’s been bugging me for a while and I just had to unload it.

Jeran and Lydia spent last night with us. Lydia has a virus that’s clogging her lungs and the meds she’s taking caused her to sleep about 18 hours of the visit, but that’s OK. She really needed the rest. The upside is that she only threw up 3-4 times this morning. She’s normally got a weak stomach and I have to watch what I ask her, and how I ask. You’d think I’d learn, huh?

While Lydia slept yesterday afternoon, Jeran and I took his electric powered Air Hog out back and tried to get it airborne. I have the height and distance record for crashes. Once on the roof, and again way over the trees in the front of the house. I had to claw my way through hundreds of strands of black berry vines to get the last one. I was a mess and decided to quit while I was ahead. It’s fun to fly, but it wears me out getting it out of trees and other peoples’ yards. Jeran has a great time with it. He let Lydia fly it this morning which perked her up a lot. Made her forget about puking for a while, anyway. Actually, she does that because her lungs get full of gunk because she refuses to cough it up. Then, when it does come up it’s a mess and makes her sick. Knucklehead. She’s fun to have around.

Gonna quit now. Sorry I wasted your time with this.

Gout & Other Terminal Illnesses

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It’s a sad state of affairs when a serious case of life threatening gout settles in ones’ left big toe making it necessary to limp AND use a cane to remain vertical. Yes, I’ve had it before, and survived, but I’m not sure about this time. I’m on day three now so time is short.

The cause, I’m almost positive, is the 3-4 pounds of shrimp surrounded by as many pounds of Zhen’s special lo mien noodles. Understand, I didn’t ask for that much, but that’s what I got and I know better than to upset a Chinese cook.

It took me two days to devour all of it, but I did it. And, it was really good. I must admit that I inflated the amount of shrimp, but not the noodles. This batch or noodles had beef, chicken, pork, and shrimp, unlike the noodles I had two weeks ago that came with only shrimp, with straight shrimp. That batch didn’t bother me at all so I’m thinking that maybe the problem this time is with the beef. Whichever it was, it’s really doing its job this time. Diane’s getting seriously tired of my moaning all the time and keep trying to get me to take some drugs. But, I refuse because I’d rather writhe in pain, on my death bed, my current state, than to get hooked on ibuprofen. No sir, not me.

Actually, the toe is getting better, but I’m not holding my breath for a total cure. But, this afternoon I was able to walk a little further without my cane than I could previously. Walking with a cane is something that should be taught in school with an eye on the future for students who have the prospect of living to an old age because they will need it. Learning when a person is old, and already teetering when vertical, is extremely difficult for some of us.

I thought I had another terminal ailment today, hence the title, but it turned out to be a false alarm. I just had gas. Lots of it.

Christmas Decorations (and other stuff)

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Deer Pipples,

I yam hear to warm you a bout thu coming a cop a lips. Scuse me … the coming a pock a lips. Once ur lips become a pocked, it’s hard to unpock thim. An, with pocked lips not evun ugli pipples wood con sidur play in hossle tonkey with you. No, tossie honkle … honsle tockey … tonsul hockey. Thas it!

OK … that’s really dumb. Something came over me, compelling me to lower myself to provide a true life narrative and it didn’t come out so well.

The day began nicely at 0715 with the sun coming up behind Mt. Hood …

Then Diane and I installed some festive items in our front yard to celebrate the coming Christmas season. Our Mr. Tree, the birch with a face, got garland …

… the dogwood tree got lots of balls, some garland, and a cat …

… and the middle of the yard got two electric deer and an electric tree with blink lights …

It took all morning to get that done so we spent the remainder of the day eating stuff.

During the process of getting this done, adding photos and whatnot, I came to the conclusion that I’d made a terrible mistake by moving from Comcast Blast to CenturyLink SnailPace internet. It took forever to upload the photos causing me internal pressure. Add to that Diane’s dislike for the depleted speed, I deemed it was time to fix it.

So, yesterday I dropped Diane at Wal*Mart and went to Comcast and ordered their Triple Play with the works and it’s going to be installed next Thursday, the 6th. No more lolligagging around waiting for uploads/downloads after that. No sir! It’s going to be lightening fast from then on.

Today I actually got out of my PJs in time to go to coffee with the guys at the Kozy Korner Kafe. Only two others showed up, but we three had a great visit. After that, I went to Diane’s Mom’s house and put Christmas lights in her Japanese maple tree. That was a surprise for Mom because she Diane took her to the doctor this morning in Portland and didn’t return until about 30 minutes ago.

When she got home, Diane rushed around gathering up all the cans of tomatoes she could find to take to 1st Lutheran Church for Community Meals this evening. Today is Bethany Church’s turn to cook and she is making minestroni soup. I offered to help, but all she wants me to do is show up later and help clean up. I’ll get a meal out of it so that’s OK.

Now I’m going to go spray some grout seal on my shower so I can get busy putting it back together. So far this project has only taken me about 1.5 months. Not bad as projects go for me. During this process, I learned that WD-40 removes soap scum from glass. Go figure.

Myanmar Checks In

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I have evidence that there are at least 75 people, in the world from 22 different countries, who made the mistake of looking at my blog. Most of them show restraint and only looked once but there were 17 who looked from Myanmar. I suspect the 17 looks happened because one person found this by mistake and talked to her friend.  Their conversaion probably went something like this …

“Hey Mya, look at this please and tell me what it is this person is trying to say.”

“I’m sure I do not know, Nu,”  Mya responded. “Maybe Than can figure it out. He is such a whiz at this kind of thing.” For clarification, Than is Nu’s boyfriend. Of course I’m guessing … he may be Mya’s boyfriend. Surely he’s someone’s boyfriend.

As a result of that brief conversation, Than contacted 14 of his friends seeking wizdom about what the “crazy American” is bantering about, but none of them knew. Consequently, they never returned. That makes me sad. Again, I’m guessing that they don’t know because I don’t get a lot of feedback from folks who read this either by mistake, or on purpose. Probably no news is good news in that regard.

I’m honored that they visited once, much less 17 times. And I regret that they couldn’t figure out what I was talking about. Now I’ll probably go to bed tonight wondering how I could word things differently so everyone in the world can make sense of what I’m trying to share. I’ll add a request to anyone that comes up with a reasonable answer to please reply because I’ve been wondering myself. For a long time. Diane has been wondering a lot longer than a long time. As soon as she finds the answer I fear she will leave. Therefore, I must keep her guessing, so please play along …

Additionally, 13 from Great Britain, and 9 from Canada checked in, and I appreciate that. There was also one person from Chile who, I think, replied to one of my entries to explain how confused she was about my entry. I think it was about my comparison of Twighlight & Hunger Games. I can’t remember if that was one of my lucid moments, or not. I’ll never know because I rarely read anything I write. Once it leaves my fingers, I’m generally done with it.

Closer to home, Diane’s computer is still giving her fits. I believe I mentioned that yesterday. Tomorrow we’ll find out if it’s the internet, or not, because I’m getting rid of the DSL and going back to cable. I suspect all of you are just thrilled to know this.

The problem, you see, is that cable totally spoiled us because it got to the point where it was so blazing fast it actually burned my fingers. Shifting to DSL was a $$ consideration, but we’ve decided that it was a bad, bad move. Well, Diane decided it was a bad move beause her really old computer just doesn’t function well on DSL. That, and her Hotmail account was hacked, which she thinks is related to the DSL connection. Maybe she’s right. Anyway, it’s a valid reason to switch back to something a little more speedy that will allow us to view a video without having it pause at critical moments during the streaming process.

Today we enjoyed another quiet day visiting with Diane’s Mom, Jean. We did this after church, and a stop at KFC for some dead chicken. The ulterior motive was to view the last two episodes of NCIS which we missed because our DirecTV service was, for an unexplained reason, off the air for a long period of time. Just for selected channels, like the ones we enjoy watching. So, we sat around Mom’s table eating dead chicken, potatoes, gravy and coleslaw, then retired to the living room to see how good she was with her Comcast remote control. Turns out she’s pretty darn good at it.

Now we’re home, and I’m going to watch the last half of “John Carter of Mars” while Diane’s watching one of the 15 HGTV shows she records. Maybe it’s only 10. Either way, I’ll surely be in trouble when she reads this.

Cheers.