Aug
17
2009
Is that so wrong?
I don’t think anyone else can tell. Men’s styles don’t change much.
My wife thinks I should just throw out stuff when it gets old, but if I like a shirt, I will keep it and wear it until the collar frays.
Cuffs can fray and I will just roll up the sleeves, but when the collar threads start to show, I will give it up.
Once I am finished with a shirt, it can’t really go to Goodwill, as you may have guessed. I use them for paint rags. I don’t usually have a lot of old shirts to use as paint rags.
My Mother says she is just like me. She keeps stuff FOREVER! I know it was really (REALLY!) hard for her to downsize from a big house to a little apartment. Frankly, I am surprised she doesn’t still have stuff in a storage rental somewhere. (Maybe she does; I know I would)
I think my oldest shirt is 39 years old. I wore it in college, back in 1970 and ‘71. There is a lot of sentimental attachment to some of my old shirts. I can remember (vaguely) getting extremely drunk in one of my oldest shirts. I’m fairly certain that I made a fool of myself in my oldest shirts; something that I did with fair regularity back in 1970 and ‘71. Those were great years.
Most of my oldest shirts don’t get worn very often. First of all, I have to wear them when my wife isn’t around. Secondly, they won’t last much longer if I have to wash them very often.
Aug
13
2009
Ever hear about the “flash of genius” that inventors and novelists speak of? I’m a wannabe writer, and I’m still awaiting the brilliant flash.
I have a feeling that I could wait “until the cows come home” (which is every night), but never have that “AH HA!” moment that will enable me to find the story and angle to publish a best-seller. I have Writer’s Block and, when I am stuck–I am really stuck.
Posting to a blog is a good excuse NOT to work on my novel or memoirs. I used to put out a new post on this blog every day. I was brimming over with ideas, and once I got going I could write five to seven posts at one sitting, and would frequently stop to write down additional ideas on a note pad. I’ve had “Blogger’s Block” for about three months now.
Note pads can be good or “good and useless.” I just counted 12 separate yellow notepads in my desk drawer that each have three or four pages of notes and ideas. Most of the ideas are not much good. I think it is like the “brilliant” observations a person makes when drunk; they never sound as “profound” when sober.
I notice that I write with a lot of “quotation marks.” That can be annoying. It’s sort of like speaking “tongue-in-cheek.” (There I go again with the quote marks.)
Making lists of stuff “to do” has also become a habit. As I have gotten older I haven’t gotten any wiser, just forgetful. If I think of some chore that needs doing, I have to write it down or it will slip my mind. It’s awfully frustrating. I find myself walking into the kitchen and forgetting what I am there for. As the joke goes: “I believe in the hereafter. Whenever I walk into a room, I ask myself, ‘what am I here after?’”
Perhaps some day I will make a list of all the stuff I have forgotten.
Now doesn’t THAT make a lot of sense?
Jun
11
2009
How much chocolate do you think a person would have to eat at a single sitting in order to have poop smell like chocolate?
A stupid question you think? Perhaps so, but if you are eating so much chocolate that your poop smells “chocolate-ty,” then you will might as well give up on dieting.
I can speak from experience (oh boy, here we go…). After consuming a 16-ounce chocolate product before going to sleep one night, I did discover that olfactory sensation the next morning. My poop smelled like chocolate! How embarrassing! Especially since this occurred not in the privacy of my own home, but rather in the Navy, on board ship, in the most “public” facilities one could imagine. That men would notice and comment…”OKAY, who has chocolate in here?” is particularly noteworthy since they thought I was not “sharing” my treat from home.
They were correct. I had received and quickly consumed my “treat from home” before any other shipmates could demand that I share it with them. My selfishness was somewhat justified because we were out at sea for 103 days and supplies of “pogey bait” were low. The “treat from home” was received courtesy of the ship’s helicopter that made a trip over to the Aircraft Carrier to pick up our mail.
I cared not a whit about my calories or my weight back in those days. I weighed about 145, all six feet of me. We are talking 25 years ago.
Incidentally, today, June 11, is the anniversary of the date that I first joined the Navy in 1965. Wow, that was 44 years ago! I am officially an old fart who still loves chocolate.
May
08
2009
At least once a week we ought to be entitled to blow off steam at some of the things that have “bugged” us during the past few days…don’t you think?
I could easily go on a rampage and list hundreds of types of people and activities that really annoy me, but who else cares?
Let’s see if you recognize and can empathize with some of these:
Animal poop in public places
Open-mouth, tongue-wagging, SLURPY kisses on television. Not a turn-on, it’s not REAL! It’s television!
Parents who don’t control their kids in grocery stores.
People who never have their money ready at check-out. “Oh, I have to pay now? Let me find my checkbook.”
Kids who run up and down escalators, usually in the opposite direction. (ok, I used to do this too, but now I am an adult)
People who fart in elevators. (This might make every list.)
Have a grateful weekend.
Cuffs can fray and I will just roll up the sleeves, but when the collar threads start to show, I will give it up. 
