Blog number 518 ******* 27 May 2011
So this morning I take the van to get washed because it's dirty, you know. At the corner where you turn in to get into line for the car wash, there is a long line of about fifty cars waiting for a right turn at the corner. Street workers doing what they do. You know about that, right?
So I wait in front of a city truck, fully expecting him to NOT pull forward so that I can get into the lot and we both can be on our way. But this doesn't happen. Oh, no. He pulls forward with the cars in front of him so that here is no way I can turn. I had the windows open 'cause I like to drive that way when I'm alone - radio full blast. You know about that too, right?
So I put both my arms and my head out the window in a beseeching manner at the driver of the city truck, He pretends he doesn't see me, but I know he does because he never once looks my way. The guy behind him waits for me to go around the truck and into where I want to go. I wave my appreciation at him. I think bad thoughts at the truck driver.
WTH is the matter with that city truck driver? It would have inconvenienced him in no way to let me through. He would have done a service to a fellow exister. How did he know that my house didn't just burn down due to my careless use of my weedburner, and he treats me like this? Huh? For nothing? What's the matter with people? Karma doesn't bother with him? Is that what he thinks?
Life is a chore for everyone. Why make it harder on them? Doesn't make any sense.
I guess I'll tell you my little secret. I'm not at all upset by what happened. I got to reading this over and I thought it might seem that way to some. In fact, I enjoy little events like this. Especially ones that I deem blogworthy. It's things like this that I most enjoy about people. Makes them seem real, you know.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
ALEX! YOU DOG, YOU!
Blog number 517******* 22 May 2011
So Alex sat down next to me (this is my stringer talking - ed. note.) all satisfied and announced he had asked out the coffee girl who is cute and about 18. I asked him what he had said, exactly. He told me that he had asked her what she was doing after work. He said she told him that she had to do some errands, so he asked her what she was going to be doing after the errands and if she wanted to have dinner with him. He said she told him, "probably."
I found this story incredible and I was so curious about this whole thing that this morning when I walked in to where the girl was working, I asked her, "you went out with Alex last night?"
"No"
"But he asked you out?"
"Yes."
"Why did you say yes? Why didn't you just say you had a boyfriend or something like that?"
"Because that doesn't work. He will still keep asking. So I just say yes so he'll leave me alone."
I left to drink my coffee and pondered on this. I decided I wanted an additional nugget so I came up to her again.
"So you just didn't call him?"
"Right"
"He can't call you, right? He doesn't have your number?"
"Oh hell, no."
"So what did you tell him when he came in and asked why you didn't call?"
"I just told him I was busy"
I was drawing after Alex told me about his "date" and this blond girl walked in and he did the, "Check it out. Check it out," idiocy.
I ignored him, but he persisted, "HEY! Check out the blond."
I replied "I don't ogle women," and kept drawing
He did this in full view of the girl with which he had a "date."
The girl told me later that she doesn't usually work at this store. The first time she did, Alex immediately hit on her. She didn't know better and told him she works at the other location.
For the next week he came in there trying to talk to her without buying anything.
She finally told him, "dude. You can't just lurk around here."
And he still had the balls to ask her out after that!
So Alex sat down next to me (this is my stringer talking - ed. note.) all satisfied and announced he had asked out the coffee girl who is cute and about 18. I asked him what he had said, exactly. He told me that he had asked her what she was doing after work. He said she told him that she had to do some errands, so he asked her what she was going to be doing after the errands and if she wanted to have dinner with him. He said she told him, "probably."
I found this story incredible and I was so curious about this whole thing that this morning when I walked in to where the girl was working, I asked her, "you went out with Alex last night?"
"No"
"But he asked you out?"
"Yes."
"Why did you say yes? Why didn't you just say you had a boyfriend or something like that?"
"Because that doesn't work. He will still keep asking. So I just say yes so he'll leave me alone."
I left to drink my coffee and pondered on this. I decided I wanted an additional nugget so I came up to her again.
"So you just didn't call him?"
"Right"
"He can't call you, right? He doesn't have your number?"
"Oh hell, no."
"So what did you tell him when he came in and asked why you didn't call?"
"I just told him I was busy"
I was drawing after Alex told me about his "date" and this blond girl walked in and he did the, "Check it out. Check it out," idiocy.
I ignored him, but he persisted, "HEY! Check out the blond."
I replied "I don't ogle women," and kept drawing
He did this in full view of the girl with which he had a "date."
The girl told me later that she doesn't usually work at this store. The first time she did, Alex immediately hit on her. She didn't know better and told him she works at the other location.
For the next week he came in there trying to talk to her without buying anything.
She finally told him, "dude. You can't just lurk around here."
And he still had the balls to ask her out after that!
Friday, May 20, 2011
DISAPPOINTED? HELL YEAH.
Blog number 517 ******* 20 Day 2011
We went to see the movie, "Water For Elephants" today. I read the book the movie was based upon, months earlier. I been waiting for that movie because I so loved the book. I loved that book to death. Well, not to death. I'm still here, right? Wherever this is. Or whatever this is. Or whatever.
The movie? Not so good. The book was an adventure story, the movie of the same name, a love story. Way too much of the movie plot was taken up with kissin' and huggin' and deep soulful looks.
In the book, almost half the story was about this old man in a nursing home and the problems he had with the fellow "tenants" and the nursing staff. He's the one telling the story and when he does, it flashes back to when he was with the circus. So we got two plots working here. Both of them fascinating.
In the movie, the old man is there in the beginning and there at the end and nowhere to be found in the middle. In the book we get to know the old man. We get to know his wants and desires, his annoyances, who he has the most trouble with, things like that.
In the movie, we have one plot and it ain't fascinating. We have the obligatory sex scene put there, I am sure, due to committee plagiarizing. It is a scene we have seen in a thousand movies, at least. One director uses something and forever after, all movies must have it. Because it works, see? Not because it is good, but because it works. Kinda like still using a stick to plow a field because we don't trust tractors.
But the worst thing from my point of view was that the book gave you the idea that a certain person was going to kill another certain person and at the end there was a switch that made sense, but that I, for one, never saw coming. In the movie, that was lost in the love story. Phffft!
We went to see the movie, "Water For Elephants" today. I read the book the movie was based upon, months earlier. I been waiting for that movie because I so loved the book. I loved that book to death. Well, not to death. I'm still here, right? Wherever this is. Or whatever this is. Or whatever.
The movie? Not so good. The book was an adventure story, the movie of the same name, a love story. Way too much of the movie plot was taken up with kissin' and huggin' and deep soulful looks.
In the book, almost half the story was about this old man in a nursing home and the problems he had with the fellow "tenants" and the nursing staff. He's the one telling the story and when he does, it flashes back to when he was with the circus. So we got two plots working here. Both of them fascinating.
In the movie, the old man is there in the beginning and there at the end and nowhere to be found in the middle. In the book we get to know the old man. We get to know his wants and desires, his annoyances, who he has the most trouble with, things like that.
In the movie, we have one plot and it ain't fascinating. We have the obligatory sex scene put there, I am sure, due to committee plagiarizing. It is a scene we have seen in a thousand movies, at least. One director uses something and forever after, all movies must have it. Because it works, see? Not because it is good, but because it works. Kinda like still using a stick to plow a field because we don't trust tractors.
But the worst thing from my point of view was that the book gave you the idea that a certain person was going to kill another certain person and at the end there was a switch that made sense, but that I, for one, never saw coming. In the movie, that was lost in the love story. Phffft!
Friday, May 13, 2011
LISTEN UP, MEN!
Blog number 515******* 13 May 2011
This entry was given to me by one of my stringers. (I only have one so far.)
"I was teaching this class and everyone was wanting a drawing. The first student to ask for one - a girl, said she wanted rubber ducks, crowns and her name. I went to get my pen and came back and she said, 'ok I want...'
I said, 'I know what you want. I am an adult. I listen.'
She said, 'ok I want...'
I said, 'I know what you want. I am an adult, not a teenager. I listen.
Then I stared at her.
Teenagers are so funny. They are like babies you can talk to.
This entry was given to me by one of my stringers. (I only have one so far.)
"I was teaching this class and everyone was wanting a drawing. The first student to ask for one - a girl, said she wanted rubber ducks, crowns and her name. I went to get my pen and came back and she said, 'ok I want...'
I said, 'I know what you want. I am an adult. I listen.'
She said, 'ok I want...'
I said, 'I know what you want. I am an adult, not a teenager. I listen.
Then I stared at her.
Teenagers are so funny. They are like babies you can talk to.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
SWIM! SWIM LIKE THE WIND!
Blog number 514******* 05 May 2011
This here ain't no big deal, it's more of a one of those "What the hell?" kinda things I so love.
I'm channel surfing and I come across "Animals on the loose" - a program about animals that are on the loose. I catch the program where these two guys are taking the cover off a swimming pool because some animal is underneath. One of the guys says, "I think it's a bear."
They take the cover off and find an American bison - a "buffalo." The get a rope around the buffalo's horns, play tug of war with it for awhile and finally get the animal out of the pool.
So now what we have is a buffalo in an area with two or three men, with a rope tied around its horns. In case you don't know, buffalos have no compunction at all about trying to gore humans. Two of them once escaped from the San Francisco zoo and proceeded to chase every human they could find, several years ago. Luckily, nobody hurt.
The animal starts trying to get away from the rope, gore the two men and be on its way, but it runs around a tree and is now stuck there. The men tighten the rope until the buffalo's head is tied to the tree and the poor thing can't go anywhere. Here's where it gets interesting. For me, anyhow.
One guy says things like, "Well, I'm glad we got him out of there. I feel really good about that. I'm glad I got to film it." And shortly thereafter, the filming stops. It's all over, see? The buffalo has been saved, everybody can go home. But wait! Instead of being stuck in a swimming pool, the buffalo is now stuck with its head pressed against a tree. Is that really much better?
How are they going to get this animal back into the wild? As far as I can gather, they are done with him. What's next is all up to the animal. What he does with the rest of his life is no concern of theirs.
Or! Is this animal going to be served once again, but in a different way?
This here ain't no big deal, it's more of a one of those "What the hell?" kinda things I so love.
I'm channel surfing and I come across "Animals on the loose" - a program about animals that are on the loose. I catch the program where these two guys are taking the cover off a swimming pool because some animal is underneath. One of the guys says, "I think it's a bear."
They take the cover off and find an American bison - a "buffalo." The get a rope around the buffalo's horns, play tug of war with it for awhile and finally get the animal out of the pool.
So now what we have is a buffalo in an area with two or three men, with a rope tied around its horns. In case you don't know, buffalos have no compunction at all about trying to gore humans. Two of them once escaped from the San Francisco zoo and proceeded to chase every human they could find, several years ago. Luckily, nobody hurt.
The animal starts trying to get away from the rope, gore the two men and be on its way, but it runs around a tree and is now stuck there. The men tighten the rope until the buffalo's head is tied to the tree and the poor thing can't go anywhere. Here's where it gets interesting. For me, anyhow.
One guy says things like, "Well, I'm glad we got him out of there. I feel really good about that. I'm glad I got to film it." And shortly thereafter, the filming stops. It's all over, see? The buffalo has been saved, everybody can go home. But wait! Instead of being stuck in a swimming pool, the buffalo is now stuck with its head pressed against a tree. Is that really much better?
How are they going to get this animal back into the wild? As far as I can gather, they are done with him. What's next is all up to the animal. What he does with the rest of his life is no concern of theirs.
Or! Is this animal going to be served once again, but in a different way?
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
THE LIVING DESERT MYSTERIES
Blog number 513******* 03 May 2011
On the road north to Phoenix this morn, I saw, going south on the other freeway, a flatbed hauling what looked like bicycle wheels. Shiny spokes, black tires, new. The only thing is that these tires were six to eight feet in diameter, standing upright four across and I imagine about six deep. Twenty four "bicycle wheels"? Give or take.
For what they really were to be used, I cannot imagine. They could have been going to Davis Monthan Air Force Base for some air force rigmarole, they could have been going to protect our border from the people whose land we forcibly took away in 1864 in case they were thinking of trying to get it back, or they could have been going to the east coast. I dunno.
So a short time later I saw this police car pull out from the median on our left, right in front of a car, causing the car to veer to the right in order to avoid a collision, then the police car lit up and drove rather slowly in front of us. About a mile down the road, a red car I didn't notice until it pulled out, also came off the left median and drove across both lanes of traffic and went onto an exit road.
The story I imagined for this episode is that the police car got a call to catch the red car, pulled out for the chase, but the red car noticed the lights, knew the game was up - he was caught, so he pulled over to wait.
The cop, not ever expecting such a short chase did not notice what the car had done, so he went right by it. When the driver of the red car noticed the cop going by, he figured his best bet was to get off that road and thankfully, there was another road right there, going a different way.
Makes sense. And that's all that counts.
On the road north to Phoenix this morn, I saw, going south on the other freeway, a flatbed hauling what looked like bicycle wheels. Shiny spokes, black tires, new. The only thing is that these tires were six to eight feet in diameter, standing upright four across and I imagine about six deep. Twenty four "bicycle wheels"? Give or take.
For what they really were to be used, I cannot imagine. They could have been going to Davis Monthan Air Force Base for some air force rigmarole, they could have been going to protect our border from the people whose land we forcibly took away in 1864 in case they were thinking of trying to get it back, or they could have been going to the east coast. I dunno.
So a short time later I saw this police car pull out from the median on our left, right in front of a car, causing the car to veer to the right in order to avoid a collision, then the police car lit up and drove rather slowly in front of us. About a mile down the road, a red car I didn't notice until it pulled out, also came off the left median and drove across both lanes of traffic and went onto an exit road.
The story I imagined for this episode is that the police car got a call to catch the red car, pulled out for the chase, but the red car noticed the lights, knew the game was up - he was caught, so he pulled over to wait.
The cop, not ever expecting such a short chase did not notice what the car had done, so he went right by it. When the driver of the red car noticed the cop going by, he figured his best bet was to get off that road and thankfully, there was another road right there, going a different way.
Makes sense. And that's all that counts.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
EAT BEFORE READING
Blog number 512******* 01 May 2011
This that I am leading up to has to take a little side trip before landing.
Years ago I read a book written by a Dane that lived in Greenland with the Inuits back in the late twenties and early thirties. He told of a special dish an accomplished hunter sometimes brought out for special occasions. The dish consisted of small birds stuffed into a sealskin and buried for no less than a year.
When he described the taste of this treat, the scrumptious way you peeled the fat off the skin by running it through your closed teeth, the taste of the blood clot formed when the bird was killed by pressing on its chest to burst the heart, you got the idea that this was akin to our surf-and-turf ^ or pigs-on-horseback*, put together by a world class chef. Made me want to try it.
So I'm watching a NATGEO program on the telly and this polar bear and its cub are stranded on an island barren of food due to melting ice flows. They eat grass and kelp and finally they find an old rotten whale carcass at the bottom of the ocean just off the shore. The mother dives down and brings back a piece of this carcass. Watching them eat this rotten meat is kind of disgusting because it is slimy, rotten-looking.
Then on the same program I see Eskimos digging up this sealskin treat I mentioned in the first two paragraphs. The voiceover said they always eat this treat outside because of the smell, and the stench has to hurt your eyes and skin or it isn't any good. And they start tearing off hunks, and it looks exactly like the rotten meat the polar bear and her cub were eating. Now comes the part for which all of the above was written.
A piece of this rotten meat is given to this baby - probably under two years old, and he relishes it!
I have had babies and I can tell you that their favorite foods are very bland. So what's going on here? Evolutionary gene pools? How did a baby come to love rotten raw meat?
Wasn't that fun, reading that?
As an aside, the Dane who wrote the book I found out just a few months ago, died from poisoning by eating that special dish.
^ lobster and steak
* Oysters wrapped in bacon, preferably grilled. Unbelievably delicious!
This that I am leading up to has to take a little side trip before landing.
Years ago I read a book written by a Dane that lived in Greenland with the Inuits back in the late twenties and early thirties. He told of a special dish an accomplished hunter sometimes brought out for special occasions. The dish consisted of small birds stuffed into a sealskin and buried for no less than a year.
When he described the taste of this treat, the scrumptious way you peeled the fat off the skin by running it through your closed teeth, the taste of the blood clot formed when the bird was killed by pressing on its chest to burst the heart, you got the idea that this was akin to our surf-and-turf ^ or pigs-on-horseback*, put together by a world class chef. Made me want to try it.
So I'm watching a NATGEO program on the telly and this polar bear and its cub are stranded on an island barren of food due to melting ice flows. They eat grass and kelp and finally they find an old rotten whale carcass at the bottom of the ocean just off the shore. The mother dives down and brings back a piece of this carcass. Watching them eat this rotten meat is kind of disgusting because it is slimy, rotten-looking.
Then on the same program I see Eskimos digging up this sealskin treat I mentioned in the first two paragraphs. The voiceover said they always eat this treat outside because of the smell, and the stench has to hurt your eyes and skin or it isn't any good. And they start tearing off hunks, and it looks exactly like the rotten meat the polar bear and her cub were eating. Now comes the part for which all of the above was written.
A piece of this rotten meat is given to this baby - probably under two years old, and he relishes it!
I have had babies and I can tell you that their favorite foods are very bland. So what's going on here? Evolutionary gene pools? How did a baby come to love rotten raw meat?
Wasn't that fun, reading that?
As an aside, the Dane who wrote the book I found out just a few months ago, died from poisoning by eating that special dish.
^ lobster and steak
* Oysters wrapped in bacon, preferably grilled. Unbelievably delicious!
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