Telepathy?

Living intimately long-term with someone can be a wonderful experience, and at times it can be a bit strange.

Señora and I were stripping the sheets from the bed in preparation of laundering them. We had completed the task of removing the bed sheets, and I was standing next to the bed momentarily still.  The mental gears were actually churning, and I was forming a question in my mind, “When was the last time we washed the mattress pad?” Before I could utter the inquiry she said to me, “Do you think we need to wash the mattress pad?”

Now, Señora is very intuitive when it comes to people. The mattress pad was not particularly dirty; it had just been a while.  Perhaps I was staring a bit at the pad, and she picked up on that.  At the time it very much felt like she had read my mind.

This is not an uncommon occurrence for us, but it does seem that most of the time it is her picking up on what I was about to say or do.

Whatever it was and is, it is still spooky!

John Carter had the capability of preventing the Martians from reading his mind.  Perhaps I should have a conversation with him about his method.

And so it goes.

Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #5,123

yeah I know you did not ask!

Flipping through Twitter I came across yet another selfie from a self-described “patriot”. This gentleman was overweight, shirtless but wearing a military style flak vest, and thrusting his assault rifle to the forefront of the picture so it would look bigger. The coup de gras for me was his tattoo.  From all appearances, a homemade job from a very drunk comrade displaying “Liberty” above an indecipherable line drawing  with “Or Death” underneath that. I’ve seen prison tattoos more artfully executed.

I am convinced that some organization or government is slipping a substance into the national beer supply. It is giving these “patriots” a deluded vision of manhood as a result of pernicious impotence. Given the imbibing propensities of Americans, spiking only 2 or 3 national brands – usually light – would do the trick.

Another good reason to drink imported beer.

Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #563

yeah I know you did not ask!

The other day I was at home, dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt.  Needing to go to the store, I tucked in my shirt as it was cold enough to need a light jacket.  While I do it a times, I think it looks a bit sloppy to have your shirt tail hanging out beneath your jacket.

Upon seeing me with my shirt tucked in, admittedly rare for me, Señora said, “My, my, how fancifed you are. Where are you going?” Well not her exact words, but the sentiment is the same.

I’m thinking this retirement gig has lowered our standards a bit.

 

We Bonded

The beginning of last week Señora became very ill.  We thought she was having an attack of sinusitis or possibly the flu.  A few days into it, she lost her sense of taste.  Despite having had both doses of the Moderna vaccine, she tested positive for COVID.  After a miserable weekend she had the infusion treatment Monday, and she is improving.  She remains very fatigued  and is still missing the flavor of food.

Out of an abundance of caution, Señora suggested Continue reading “We Bonded”

National Curmudgeon Day

Since I am always  trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent and occasionally prepared, I did not bring up this proposal on October 15, that being National Grouch Day.  I did not want to rain on their parade.

Just as an aside my daughter’s birthday is the 15th of October, and while I am sure, like all of us, she can be grouchy at times, that is not how I think of her.  She can be, however, very opinionated and does not hesitate to mount a soapbox if the need is there.  She truly cannot Continue reading “National Curmudgeon Day”

WikiHow Article – How to Become a Curmudgeon

Looking for an image, I stumbled across an article on WikiHow titled, How to Become a Curmudgeon. Today, October 15,  being National Grouch Day, it is a good day to share the article link is at the bottom of this posting – and a good day to release my blog post into the wild.

To begin with, I did not realize that there are souls among us  aspiring to be curmudgeons.  I thought it was something you simply grew into as you became older and wiser. Or alternatively, by the proclamation Continue reading “WikiHow Article – How to Become a Curmudgeon”

Cuz he can…

Señora and I decided to have a wild couple’s night out, something we had not done for quite some time due to COVID.  We have gone out to dinner a few times, always attempting to dine outside, but we went absolutely crazy Saturday evening.  First we went to one of our favorite restaurants in the metro area, a Vietnamese restaurant, Pho Grand. As always, they came through, and we both had a very enjoyable meal.

St. Louis has an iconic folk music venue, The Focal Point. The term folk music seems to be morphing into the category of roots music, but a rose is a rose.   We are both big aficionados of this style of music and Continue reading “Cuz he can…”

Rev. Joe Uncovers an International Conspiracy

Señora and I are friends with a couple, Harry and Susan, who live a little north of Chicago.  A few weeks ago they drove down to visit their son in Springfield, IL, and afterwards they passed a couple days in the St. Louis area to visit with us and Susan’s sister.  We had dinner with them one night on our patio and dinner the next night at her sister’s house.  After dinner each night we passed many agreeable hours on our patio gabbing and partaking of water and sunlight that nature had graciously turned into the pleasant and pleasing beverage called wine.

On the night we ate dinner at our house we were having a bit of a problem with flies.  I started talking about wanting to get one of those guns that shoots salt in order to hunt down flies.  A week or so after their visit, there arrived an unexpected package Continue reading “Rev. Joe Uncovers an International Conspiracy”

Soy un comediante

There are a couple skills that a person needs when they start a language learning journey, but that are not mentioned in the syllabus.  One is that you need to accept making lots of mistakes and the other is that you need to be able to laugh at yourself.  It took me a while to realize this. Self-deprecating humor is my forte, but it  is difficult accepting the making of errors, partly because I am a bit of a perfectionist, ask anyone who has programmed behind me, partly because I could not laugh at myself about those mistakes, partly because I hate feeling stupid in front of someone else, it is bad enough in front of yourself.  It is the last that has flattened my Spanish learning curve, but I am somewhat more accepting of my foibles now.

I read an article on language learning sometime ago, and one of their theories was that it took 10,000 Continue reading “Soy un comediante”