Category: Rev. Joe Dirt’s Ramblings

The unsolicited, unreasoned, uninformed, unapologetic opinions of Rev. Joe Dirt

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #4,845

yeah I know you did not ask!

After much gnashing of teeth, after much scrutinizing of checking  accounts, after accepting that she would not be 21 again, Señora bit the proverbial bullet and bought herself hearing aids.

This purchased has wrought an unexpected change in my life. In the past when we had a cross transaction I was wont to mutter some reply under my mustache, knowing that it was very unlikely that she would hear my utterance, thus avoiding fueling whatever fire was raging.  If she noticed my lips moving, and asked what I said, I would disingenuously reply, “That I love you.”  That is no longer an option. I know this to be true as I was in my man cave upstairs talking back to a balky computer when from the kitchen downstairs I heard her ask, “What did you say dear?”

Hopefully I am not too old a dog to learn a new trick, and can avoid being taken to the pound.

Let me see, how many cliches did I manage to get into three short paragraphs…

Keep well.

 

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Rev. Joe buys a blow-up doll

In any workplace with one or more persons, you are likely to encounter one or more “characters”.  My first job in Information Technology was with a large national manufacturing concern at their Ft. Smith, AR plant, at that time their administrative offices were also there. For reasons unclear, hopefully not dark and mysterious, there dwelt more than the normal allowance of characters at the plant and offices, perhaps a birds-of-a-feather phenomenon.

One such character was Jon, a computer operator who had worked  there for many years.   Jon did not achieve his character-hood for his activities at work, but for his personal life.  He had been married 7 or 8 times, no one was quite sure, Continue reading “Rev. Joe buys a blow-up doll”

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #8,222

yeah I know you did not ask!

For some reason I was wondering if The 3 Stooges had groupies.  And then I was wondering how that worked as you very seldom saw them solo.  For some reason the term sado-masochism comes to mind…  I’ll leave you to draw your own images.

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Senator Josh Hawley, Unacceptable…

For reasons unfathomable to me, the citizens of Missouri turned out a very capable and very moderate Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill in favor of the Republican candidate, wanna-be Proud Boy Josh Hawley.  He spent the first part of tenure fairly quietly in Washington.  With the presidential election he came completely out of the closet.  When he decided to be one of the Senators that would oppose the electors for Biden I wrote him the following letter via his website. Continue reading “Senator Josh Hawley, Unacceptable…”

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Artifact or Angel

Robin was taking some pictures with her phone.  It has a function which can do a motion capture of 6 or 8 images.  This makes your still photograph act like it should be at Hogwarts.

There is an interesting phenomenon happening in the middle of the picture that we cannot explain.  I am pretty sure that this is some sort of artifact of lighting or camera movement, perhaps the light reflecting off a passing vehicle.

Señora, however,  is convinced it is an alien entering our space-time continuum from a rip in the fabric of the universe.  Or possibly an angel…

Anybody have a possible explanation?  You can appreciate it more  if your go to full screen.

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Polio Vaccination

If you are of a certain age…old now, you might remember these cards and the big push to get everyone vaccinated against polio.  I came across this immunization certificate going through a box of papers from my mother’s house.  I also have the cards for Type 2 and Type 3.  I think my mother must have filled in my name as it looks like her handwriting.

The card is from the Orange County Medical Society which is in New Jersey.  As there is a Navy base in the area Continue reading “Polio Vaccination”

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The Lottery by John Steinbeck

Okay, okay… I got the title a little wrong.  Steinbeck’s book is actually titled The Pearl. I started thinking about this book because the current value of the Mega Millions lottery is $850 million.  The current value of the Power Ball lottery is $730 million.

The Pearl is a wonderful, concise novel of about 90 pages.  It is not near as well known as Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, but it should be. The language and the imagery are captivating and the narrative is spellbinding.  If I remember the back story of this novel it is based on an old Spanish legend.

The story is situated somewhere in South America.  The primary protagonists of the story are an exceedingly impoverished indigenous couple, Continue reading “The Lottery by John Steinbeck”

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Thbbft…

As any semi-regular reader of my silly little blog will know, I have been studying Spanish for a while.  As part of that exercise I use a platform called, italki.com.  I use one professional teacher from Guatemala who is valiantly trying to improve my grammar and pronunciation.  As you can imagine, working with me, he does indeed have the patience of a saint.  I am also working with what italki calls tutors. These are generally folks not trained in teaching languages, but will converse with you and gently correct your errors.  Some will try to teach a little. I use them mainly for conversational practice.  I am currently using 4 tutors in 4 different countries to sample different accents.  I also occasionally do a language exchange. There is no cost to these.  You spend 1/2 your time speaking your language and 1/2 your time speaking their language. This last method sort of works and sort of doesn’t, at least for me.

I use Skype to take these lessons. My avatar on Skype is Bill the Cat going, “Thbbft“. Continue reading “Thbbft…”