Happy Old Year!

The luckiest guy in the Milky Way galaxy! Snickers galaxy too.

April 30th will be Cha Cha and my 30th wedding anniversary. Can you believe somebody would be  able to deal with my shenanigans for 30 years? I guess we dated for about six years before that - college sweethearts. She deserves a Purple Heart. For our thirtieth we talked about going to Key West, Florida - we really liked it down there. We also talked about spending our anniversary helping the people of Puerto Rico by going there and helping in whatever way we could. We had vacationed in Puerto Rico a few years back and we loved it there. The people could not have been more pleasant and friendly and the island could not have been more beautiful. It saddens me deeply when I see where it is now. I worry that there is very little that we could do to help there since many of the people have come to the mainland (Florida and the like) to escape the horrors that still exist there. Jill has also wanted to go to New York City for most of her life so maybe we will do that. I have been there and it is fun and vibrant. I went with some buddies to see a Yankees' game and a Mets' game. We still have a few months to figure it out.

In 23 days our youngest offspring (Fabio) will be 21 years old. Time sure does fly by in life. He's a nice young man and I am very proud of that. I feel the same pride when I think of Splenda and how well she is doing and what she is doing in her life. She lives in Chicago and seems very happy. Happiness is one of the main things that you want for your children when they become adults. Don't we all just want to be happy?

I had recorded (DVR) a movie called The Zookeeper's Wife (2017) a while back and finally got around to watching it this morning. For some reason I am entranced by the Holocaust. I cannot imagine that any people could have been so barbaric as Hitler and the Nazis were. It was a very good movie with, mostly, a happy ending. History has proved to us that, overall, nothing about the holocaust was a happy ending. I am not sure why I am so fascinated by the goings-on during that time in: Poland and Germany and Norway and The Netherlands and Belgium and northern France... In a way it was a fortunate thing for those countries and the world that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii or The United States of America may have not gotten involved in the war and there could have been a very different outcome had they not "awoken a sleeping giant." I am not sure of exactly why I am so entranced by this era. Is it because I was born in Germany? Is it because of my great passion for other people and their rights to practice and be who they want to be as long it doesn't infringe on other peoples' rights to practice and do what they believe are right? Given yesterday's blog and today's I guess I am just reminded that compassion is one of the the sentiments we should have about and for other people. I think, perhaps, another reason for my deep feeling for animals. When I was young I would always tell people that I was going to be a veterinarian when I grew up. If I ever finishing growing up maybe I will still be a veterinarian.   Bottom line, the film was very good and I recommend it.

I am starting to find that I blog better in the mornings. I have always been a morning person. I am a very light sleeper so any light or the slightest sound wakes me up pretty easily. I used to wear one of those masks over my eyes but I am always in protection mode, even when sleeping, and want to be ready to take a bullet for my family and/or friends if need be. The two masks that I have are: one black one that has yellow letters on it that read"out of order" and the other one I have is a picture of Napoleon Dynamite's eyes and glasses. I guess I am sort of a Baby Boomer Minuteman. I should probably sleep in one of those hyperbaric (or hyperbolic) chambers. I think one (hyperbaric) is for treatment of  decompression sickness and radiation issues and the other (hyperbolic) is used for out-of-body experiences and time-travel like in Quantum Leap. I would be open for either so I could sleep well and re-write history as a better place. I have seen in many movies and television series' that changing the past can change the course of history and make the present totally different than it is now. Pearl Harbor needed to be bombed so that we would not be ruled by tyrants and dictators. In a way, we owe much more to our ancestors for taking the fall for us so we can live the lives that we do presently. Perhaps we are taking bullets for the next ten generations after us by putting-up with the garbage that we see today? Maybe that is all of our purposes to be here and we just take that for granted.

Man, it is 09:26 already. I think I hear Cha Cha rumbling around upstairs so I will end for now. Thanks a lot for stopping-in again. I should be able to write tomorrow morning and the next morning because I don't go back to work until Tuesday. Be safe tonight as we usher-in a new year. I will just be here sleeping until all of the illegal fireworks start bursting in air or I may still be awake to see if Dick Clark is still alive. I am too nosy to wait so I looked - Dick Clark died in 2012. I cannot believe we can get a new year with him gone. Thank you, very much, for my New Years Eve blog that had very little to do with New Years Eve. Be safe and make so good resolutions. TTTNextYear...MITM (out) TA.

Empathetic Dawdling!

 

 Does that picture make you think of Harry Carey too? 

Sorry I didn't write yesterday; I was really tired after work. That last sentence was actually written yesterday and it was rewritten from the previous day. I wrote about three paragraphs and the ghost in this machine (I know I have written before how this computer erases things even though I have saved them) and they vanished. I will try to recreate the brilliant prose that I had typed though I am sure it was better so whatever I write now is not as good as it would have been yesterday. Don't read this next part aloud because my computer may hear you - I really need to get a new computer.

Yesterday (which would have been today when I originally wrote it) they handed-out letters to many of the seasonal workers where I work. I am not a seasonal worker so I was not really impacted directly. The letters were whether each of the recipients were to either become full-time employees or would be let go on a week or so. It was very emotional for many of them. I was happy that several of the people that I had trained when they first started received the good letters. Some people who got the rejection letters just left without finishing the shift. Some stayed and will work until they can no longer come in. I am a very empathetic person so I don't like to see disappointment or sadness even though we all see these emotions often. I consider my empathy sometimes a strength and other times a weakness. Having a full-range of emotions makes us compassionate and I certainly am that.

Moving on... I want to bring the words "dawdle" and "bushed" back into our daily vernacular. "Quit your dawdling!" and "Wow, I am really bushed." There are so many great words that we no longer used. Now I thinking of other words that I liked and we no longer widely spout. I immediately think of: henceforth, whatsername, kerfuffle, thingamajig, heretofore, ... I will come-up with plenty more after I post this unequivocal monstrosity. I love words. That is an odd thing to say now that I see it in words.

I do not have to work for three more days. I get New Years Eve off and New Years Day off and January second in 2018 off. It's just the way that my three-day weekend fell. I generally have a three-day weekend unless it is our busiest times of the year - late fall and early winter.heretofore,

Right now Cha Cha and I are watching Black Mirror on Netflix. I guess I would describe it as a new-age Outer Limits or Night Gallery or The Twilight Zone... Each episode is a different story unto itself. Some are better than others but they all make me think; which I often overdue. I am still watching Godless too, of course. We are very

I should have some time on my hands over the rest of 2017 to be able to write so I am guessing I will blog tomorrow. I hope you have a great night and I thank you for stopping by. Even though I did not write as much as I would like to have this year my resolution is to write more in 2018. Please stay warm for the rest of the year. TTTT...MITM (out) TA!

Godless, Seedless Cuties

I just got home from work. I cannot believe how nice it got outside. It was eleven degrees warmer on the way home than it was driving in at 5 AM. That sun sure does it's job even in the winter months. It was not very nice seeing the temperature reading in the JEEP at -11 degrees. I hope to see at least zero degree Fahrenheit tomorrow morning on the way to work.

Last night (3:45 PM) Cha Cha and I went over and saw the new Star Wars movie (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) in 3-D. The movie was pretty good but it seemed longer than it really needed to be, in my opinion. The 3-D was really good though. The movie was good too but it surely did not need to be that long - 152 minutes. That's 2 1/2 hours. I am old and this was on a school work night. That run-time doesn't even include the previews. When we got into the Fiat after the show Jill asked me, "what do you think the temperature is?" I said, without batting a frozen eyelid, "one." She laughed knowing that I would say that because that is one of our favorite lines from Planes,Trains and Automobiles. I turned the key and it was one degree outside. We laughed so hard that the windshield fogged-up even more than it already had from our regular breaths. That makes me wonder "why are witches' breasts cold?"

I like that I only work four days a week. I would rather work four ten hour shifts than five eight hour shifts; the three day weekends are great. We have been having to do an extra twelve hour shift each week on top of our 40 hours for the past couple of months. It was tough but the overtime pay was really nice. Some weeks I would work the extra twelve plus an additional four hours on top of that. I am too old to do that for very long but it sounds like that may be over now for this year - I sure hope that is the case.

I have to figure out what to have for dinner. All I have had to eat today was: a small salad, two Weight Watchers cheese sticks, three bananas, two Cuties, and apple and about 15-20 grapes. I forgot to have a partridge in a pear tree. Uh Oh, I have to go take my medicine before I forget. I will be right back.

I am back.

I have been watching a series on Netflix called Godless. I really like it but I have only found time to watch a few episodes. It's a western and a lot different than most westerns I have seen; it probably depicts how it really was in those times. I really like that her are strong women characters in the show too.I think you would have had to be a tough person to live in those times and situations. There are seven episodes (they call them "parts") so far but I bet they will continue on after these seven.

She is one of my favorite characters

I found some chicken patties in the freezer and I am rustlin'-up me some grub. Now I'm talking all cowboy-like. I think I will wrap this up and eat my dinner. I just wanted to write even a little so I get back in the practice of writing on a regular basis again. I appreciate you being a sounding board for me and letting me ramble-on. I wish my life were a bit more exciting so I could let you live vicariously through me.

Thank you for stopping by and I will try to do something more entertaining tomorrow so I can write about it tomorrow evening. TTTT....MITM (out) TA!

Blog is My Religion!

It has been nearly four months since I wrote my last blog. I have missed writing here and I have especially
missed you a great deal. I have been writing and researching for, what I hope will be, a book one day. I wanted to get started on that because one of my great weaknesses, off-and-on throughout my life, has been procrastination. I am not lazy by most means but I think I am too much of a perfectionist in many ways and, though it does not seem that it should be, that is one of my greatest weaknesses. One of my other great weaknesses is the ability to sleep very many hours in a row which is why I am sitting on the edge of my bed at 11:48 on Christmas night in my brand new pajamas starting this drivel. My sleeping problems have stemmed from several things I believe; me being born in a different country and my never sleeping senses of sound and sight. The slightest sounds or sources of light will cause me to awaken immediately. I may have been reincarnated from a guard dog or something. I have lots of excuses for not writing but I have many more reasons, that I had been ignoring, to write. I think I get a lot of things off of my mind here and can let some of my troubles escape into the ether. I hope the ether never fills-up because I intend to continue to release my bad juju into it. I am already bothered that I finished that last sentence with a preposition revealing another of my great weaknesses - I think too much.

I have been working on, what I hope to be, a novel some day. Work (my actual paying job) has been crazy busy for about the past three or four months so there has been little time to really sit down and write a bunch. I have notebooks and scribblings all together on my desk and I am fairly sure where the main direction my story is headed but I must set the compass properly to reach the destination. Finding true north is the hardest part of beginning that journey for me to arrive in the proper place. I am not looking for fame or fortune in writing a book; I just feel that I have been writing for most of entire life and I feel the need to have something bound that will be here when I am gone. Not for immortality either - just something to prove that I was here so when I am reincarnated and come back I will have a head-start to reach that next plain on my next go-around. Every now and then I have received unsolicited messages from some vulture (me thinking too much again) wanting to have me send money to have my blog hardbound. I cannot imagine what I would do with something like that and I know they are just wanting a new sucker to bleed. I am not that sucker.

I usually picture three people off-and-on in my mind while writing the blog - I picture: my daughter and my great friends of many decades Ma Meyer and Stacee; if I ever do write a book they will probably be three of the first people that I thank in my dedication or foreword; they have always been great supporters of and inspirations for me to continue writing. I know my son and Cha Cha will certainly make that list too. My damn foot is falling asleep right now. Since it is now 12:29 AM perhaps my foot is trying to tell the dumber parts of my anatomy that it/they should be sleeping. Happily, I have today (Tuesday) off of work so I don't need to get up in four-and-a-half hours to shower and whatnot. I think the Michael Franti station that I am listening to on Pandora is helping me get the creative juices flowing too. I have always liked that Jamaican groove in and the irie (yes, that is a word) of that music. Speaking of juices flowing - there has been a lot of Simon and Garfunkel on here too - I think Paul Simon is one of the great talents that has existed in my lifetime; he has irie too. I would not say or believe that, however, if he were not also a seemingly decent person.That is just my belief though I suppose. There have been rumors to the contrary but I believe they were made by people that had something to gain by making unfounded allegation. I am going to try to sleep for a few more hours now (currently 01:18) and see if I can dream about what I should write here when I awake. I never stress about what to write as, for the most part, I just babble like a brook for therapy's sake. I cannot be fired for my poor writing as the person I report directly to is an idiot exactly as dumb as I am.

It's 12:45 PM on  Tuesday now and I am getting around to writing again. I went to Fabio's place this morning because he had a flat tire. I took the tire pump and inflated the tire. He lives on the north side of town and we live more on the south side; it is not very far. On the way back I felt like crying my hands hurt so much from the cold winter air. It may also have been because I started watching It's a Wonderful Life for the 732nd time so maybe that is why I wanted to cry. I know what happens in this film better than I know just about anything else but it still gets me every single time. The movie is two hours and fifteen minutes long but the run-time is three hours on television. That means 45 minutes of commercials. I used to like it better when it ran on PBS so there was no commercials. We also have the DVD if I have that big of an issue with the run time.

For Christmas I got the Gore Vidal book Lincoln. I am very excited to read it. I would have to say that Abraham Lincoln was one of my favorite United States Presidents. I also liked: John Kennedy, Barack Obama, George Washington, both Roosevelts, Thomas Jefferson, Eisenhower, Truman, and Clinton. I have a Theodore Roosevelt that I have still not read too now that I write about this.

Jill and I are going to see the new Star Wars (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) movie this afternoon. I believe I have seen every single one of the Star Wars films in theaters. I think I saw the first one (Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope) in the theater with Mike Hicks in 1977. I was hooked right from the start; I never had a chance. I am really tired and I hope I don't fall asleep during the film. It would not be difficult to sleep with the big comfy recliners that they have in the theaters now. We bought the refillable bowl of popcorn early in the year and we take it with us to the theater and get a huge bucket of corn for less than five bucks. I will probably not eat any popcorn as I am trying to behave myself with the food again. I have lost twenty pounds in the past two months. I am afraid that Christmas did not help in that arena much though. I have just been eating lots of salads and bananas and grapes and apples and oranges. I will probably sneak from fruit into the theater. I think many fruits sound like popcorn when they are being eaten. It has always bothered me that there are no healthy snacks at theaters. I guess that is one great thing about drive-in theaters.

I just found out that the movie starts in 25 minutes so I have get dressed and get ready to go. I may blog again tomorrow even though I will work my ten hours. I hope you have a great day. I thank you for stopping. TTTT(hopefully)....MITM (out) TA!