Twenty

 Today marks twenty years I have been doing this stupid hobby. I thought I’d be at it a few months and be done. Instead I have formed many friends and had a lot of great conversations. Some of you have been here since almost the beginning: Jean, Freddie. Cappy, Ed, Fuzzy, Ralph, B. I’m sure I forgot many of you and I apologize. I bet there are even more that read and don’t comment. I read a lot of blogs who never know I lurk. Even those of you who might not agree with me brought me a great joy. I love a good argument. In recent years some of you have been great readers and friends too — Sluggy, Glasslass, MC, Linda -far too many to mention and I am very sorry. 

I have been here for 8,387 posts. More than 20,000 comments and over three million visitors. I remember when I had six hits in a day and three were me checking to see if anyone read my garbage. And yes, a lot of my commentary here has been garbage. Occasionally I have put up something worth reading — the herd of monkeys in a room of typewriters theory. 

    You see kids, a typewriter is this old mechanical device…

Twenty years is a long time.

Thank you all for great fun and great memories.

One

 It is yet another chilly Saturday here in Mudsock. We are off today to watch the grandgirls do their thing in a dance competition. After we are all going out to celebrate my XX birthday this past Thursday. 

Last evening the wife had some shopping to do so I wandered around the mall, earbuds in listening to music. Old in body, I was digging the tunes like I was still 25. After a bit I found some chairs and grooved to classic rock and watched the people go by. 

One of the songs that played was an old favorite of mine by the Doors:

2

 Friday at last. It will be chock full of…well “ fun” isn’t the right word to use here. The opposite of that is what I’m searching for. I have my monthly industrial sales meeting which will suck up 2-3 hours. Then another firm meeting this afternoon and another conference call squeezed in the schedule somewhere. 

On the bright side, a box of cigars showed up in the mail yesterday. They have already been safely stored in my humidor. Of course the shipment wasn’t random. No matter how awesome it would be, you don’t need to run out to the mailbox every day hoping against hope a box of La Auroras is going to be waiting for you. No I ordered them last week at the direction of my lovely wife in honor of my birthday. 

She hates cigars but knows I enjoy them, so she indulges me as long as I smoke them outside. Or, she secretly hopes they will kill me, ridding her of my general unpleasantness in her life. Either is probably true depending on my behavior on any given day. 

Because I can

 My favorite song, hands down.

4

 Let’s see, you would think that after…2025 minus…mumble mumble…carry the one….all of these years I would be ready for spring — the weather changes, the emerging plants, the damn headaches. Spring remains my least favorite of all the seasons because it brings on the allergy migraines. They used to be far worse: keep me in the dark I think I’m gonna puke severe. Now they are a mere pounding in my skull. I want to sleep in the day and can’t sleep at night headaches. 

So it goes, there are a lot of really sick people out there and I ain’t one of them. My ailments are small and simply one thing more for me to complain about. 

5

Not taken this morning 

No time for blogging. It’s opening day for the Cubs and they are on early this morning since they are playing in Tokyo. I can “talk” to you or listen to baseball before work. 

You lose, or win, depending on your particular point of view.

6

It was spitting snow as I unloaded groceries yesterday afternoon. I glanced over and noticed the daffodils along the side of my neighbor’s house were up and a hint of yellow was peeping through the buds. I looked over and saw the tulips at the base of the maple in my front yard had poked up green shoots over the weekend. Despite the crummy weather, spring is upon us both via the calendar and nature. 

Like every human living outside of the equatorial zone for generations dating back to the last ice age, spring brings a sense of hope, of renewal. 

Oh, and it is that silly pseudo holiday. No, I won’t wear green. And by the way, St. Patrick was British and he didn’t chase away the snakes from Ireland- there never were any.

You didn’t think I was going to be upbeat and positive for an entire post did you? Is it your first time visiting?