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There was a Time
I’m old enough to recall using a rotary dial telephone, recording songs from a transistor radio onto a tape recorder – using cassette tapes, playing records on a mono three-speed portable record player, watching black and white television on a cathode ray tube TV and only three channels with aluminum foil on the rabbit ears…
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The Census Taker
Paved in area’s while covered in gravel in others, the road made for a less than smooth drive as Tad crossed Death Valley towards U.S. 395. It was a trip he’d made on several occasions while visiting friends in Victorville and Barstow. A full, bright moon lit the edges of the mountains and high desert…
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Potty Mouth
It’s hard to take when the men simply walk away after completing their business. Sure, they did all they could for themselves, but what about me? It’s like I don’t even exist in their mind; always in a hurry somewhere. When they leave, there’s often a dribble here or a dribble there, perhaps a piece…
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The Price of Vanity
Vanity being what it is, I spent $400 on a cellphone for my 1988 Hyundai, only to learn I couldn’t afford the service, so I spent my time driving around talking into a ‘dead’ cellphone. For $19.95, plus shipping and handling, I could have ordered a ‘dummy cellphone,’ and done the same thing. Lesson: Anything…
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Finding Joy
As a youngster, I used to want, want, want and as an old man, I still want, want, want. The difference is in not only what it is that I want now versus then – but how what I want brings me joy. It has taken a life-time of frivolous consumption to figure out that…
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Lost: One Can of Beer
You know the New Year’s Eve party next door must have been a good one when you find that random can of unopened beer in the gutter of your driveway. That’s what happened to me this morning. I can’t make up my mind if I should return it to them, or play ‘finder’s keepers, loser’s…
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Simply, Happy New Year
Awoke this morning to the dog’s barking alarm. We had a hot air balloon operating in the area and both Yaeger and Buddy are suspicious of such objects floating over our neighborhood. Made for a beautiful photo-op, though. Once I snapped all the pictures I wanted, I came in a downloaded them to my computer.…
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Fortune Cookies
Mary brought home Chinese order-out, using a gift card she received for Christmas. After finishing our meal, I cracked open a fortune cookie and read my ‘fortune,’ while crunching on the broken cookie-shell. It reads: “Your ability for accomplishment will follow with success.” Not satisfied in either my appetite or for a better ‘fortune,’ I…
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Another Facebook Banning
It’s another Friday, and it’s another Facebook (FB) ban for me. This time I’m in social media detention for three-days, which means it’ll be a new year before I can login and post anything. The last time I found myself banned from FB was last week and that came because of having been hacked. This time…
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Nuts
It’s really hard to watch our eldest dog coming to the end of her life. She has dementia and – even though she dances around for her food at dinnertime – she needs hand-feeding as she’s has for the most part forgotten how to eat out of her supper bowl. I know that someday, sooner…