On either side of our driveway are two large trees. On the right is a sycamore tree that towers above our two story house. On the left is a sweet gum tree, tall for its species, with an impressive canopy. One thing I have always liked about this arrangement is the shade they give our principle vehicles. With the garage being filled with kayaks and my baby – Li’ Blue – aka a certain Mazda MX-5 Miata, the other cars cannot find a home inside. Of course if you are going to have tree limbs over cars, you will have the occasional avian calling card on your vehicle. This has been an infrequent and bearable problem… Continue reading “Revengeful Robin…”
Rallllllffffff….
More often than I would like to own up to, I revert to being a 13 year old boy. One of my less than adult behaviors is enunciating the name Ralph while I eructate (burp). Yes, I know, boys will be boys…
I did so this morning and Señora asked me, “who is Ralph?”
“I don’t know, it is just something I say,” I answered.
She next asked, “Have you ever known any Ralphs?”
“Well”, I said, “Not that I recall, have you?”
“Nope, me neither,” she added.
“It is not a very common name now days,” was my brilliant response.
Señora then proceeded to say Ralph several ways, adding that it was a harsh name when spoken.
Thinking of Ralph Kramden of The Honeymooners I said, “An easy name for your wife to yell at you meanly.”
Not missing a beat Señora replied, “David works pretty good too.”
Related??? – At one point my brother Mark could recite the alphabet while burping… I don’t know if he is still in practice.
It is official: I am old
By whatever methodology of measure you elect to utilize, I am not a young man. I have not been so for a while now. The other day I celebrated my 69th birthday by mowing and fertilizing the lawn. Brothers being brothers, one of mine reminded me that as of my birthday this year I was beginning my 70th circuit around the sun. Thanks Mike, now pass me the foam encounter bat, you fellow old curmudgeon. My wife, for my birthday this year, bought me a coffee mug with my name on it. I deduced that she was afraid that with my advancing decrepitude I might not remember who I was… let it alone my name.
However, the real kicker Continue reading “It is official: I am old”
Mars and Venus — Whatever Country
I was Skyping with my young Mexican tutor who lives in Honduras this morning. He told me the following joke:
¿En qué se parecen las mujeres y las canciones en inglés?
Yo tampoco lo entiendo, pero me gustan los dos.
Or in English:
How are women and songs in English alike?
I don’t understand either, but I like them both.
Seems like male / female relationships are the same in whatever culture the two genders exist.
Sarah’s Smiles
“It has been said, ‘time heals all wounds.’ I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.” ~~ Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
There are many different words that I could and do use to describe my wife, Robin. One such word would be charismatic; people are just attracted to her. She genuinely loves people, and people love her back. She is kind and patient, qualities that served her well during her 30 plus years as a special education teacher. She is also a bit ADHD, but she uses it to good stead, getting a lot done with her need to keep moving and to be doing something.
She has also experienced great strife and loss in her life. She and her mother had a very “complicated” relationship. Continue reading “Sarah’s Smiles”
Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #6,629
yeah I know you did not ask!
I want to add a new phrase to the lexicon, that being the “Amazon peek“.
We have not had problems, that I have heard of, with porch pirates in this neighborhood. And I know that from some delivery entities I receive emails when a package is out for delivery and another when it has been delivered. And I have a built in loud and insistent announcer of strange happenings in our yard in the form of a fierce 15 pound heap of fur named Lily. Brave is the delivery/postal personnel that comes to our front porch .
But I still find myself peeking out the front door to see if Amazon/Walmart/USPS/FedEx/UPS has delivered whatever urgent item I have recently decided I could not do without… and 2 dang days is too freaking long to wait for any package anyway.
Definition of Panic
You are backpacking in the Ozark National Forest in north central Arkansas. Since it is 0230 you are in your tent. Because the ambient temperature is plus or minus 2 degrees of the freezing point of water, Fahrenheit, you have your down mummy sleeping bag zipped all the way up. In fact you have the cord on the hood portion cinched up so that all that is visible is your very manly proboscis. Because you are 68 going on 79 you have just woken up with an extraordinary Continue reading “Definition of Panic”
My Mossy Address Book
“A rolling stone gathers no moss”
If you were to sum up my life in one phrase the above aphorism might just be it. I spent the first 18 years of my life more or less as a military brat. I literally had 13 changes of schools before I graduated high school. This includes one school that I was in for a single day. I have described the last 30 years of my working life as that of a computer gypsy, moving around to take different jobs in Information Technology. I did have a stable period in between (at least as far as physical location) when I lived in Arkansas and we were getting kids through school.
In such a life people come and go. It is just a fact of life that you get used to. I do not know how many times I have said to someone, “have a good life”, knowing I would never be seeing them again. I have on occasions tried to maintain relationships over time and distance, but this must be two sided and has very seldom worked out.
I have now reached the age where many of my relatives, friends and acquaintances are passing away. This is sincerely a sadness just in itself. If a person truly touches you, they take up residence in some part of your psyche. I have sometimes described this as feeling like I have ghosts running around my soul. At times it has felt a little crowded in there.
And now add an additional sadness due to this technical age. After the fact of someone’s death, sometimes much later, I will come across their information in one of my address books or contact lists. I have such a hard time deleting the information, it feels like deleting the memory of that person. Sometimes the address\contact card will remain in there for years. I just cannot delete it.
On the positive side, it does make you stop for a minute and remember the person when you stumble across it.
Sigh. We march on.
Keep well.
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As someone who has been studying Spanish for a while, I occasionally get frustrated with my language learning journey. As one of my instructors said to me, “you will always speak Spanish with a Gringo accent, but if your pronunciation and grammar are correct, don’t worry about it. The idea is to communicate.” That I can do as long as we are not chatting about the theory of relativity, the philosophy of Descartes or other such esoteric subjects.
In my case that Gringo accent has a strong southern component to it…picture Gomer Pyle speaking Spanish, instead of “Golly, Sargent”, it is, “¡Caramba! Sargento.” I came across this quote that I can really relate to.
“Do you know what a foreign accent is? It’s a sign of bravery.” — Amy Chua
Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #6,094
yeah I know you did not ask!
People have been telling me for years that I look like Sam Elliot. I even had a complete stranger at a Quick Trip in Tulsa, OK walk up to me to tell me I looked like him. I absolutely do not get it, but I take it as a compliment as I know he is considered ruggedly handsome.
Another trait that Sam and I share in common is a low, deep voice. However, his is a million dollar fine instrument, mine is more in line with a cheap kazoo from an arcade claw machine game. Thinking of the voice similarity, the low, deep part, I begin to wonder about something. The enchanting Señora Weinhaus frequently “tells” me to speak up as she cannot hear my low, deep kazoo of a voice. I wonder if Sam Elliot’s wife tells him same thing???