Ahhh-ooo

 

Fears are nothing more than a State of mind ``

 

Nevermore

 

Seeing America through a cracked windshield

 I’m off today to do my Willy Loman thing. I have a long road trip in front of me as I travel east, east into the sun. Columbus, Cleveland (hola Cappy), Akron (hey Jean), Scranton, and Hartford will all be waypoints on the omnipresent GPS as early morning turns to afternoon to night with me behind the wheel. I get to spend all day tomorrow with Corporate bigwigs in interminable meetings along with other important suppliers as we are exhorted to lower costs and give them more, more. 

A short meeting with my main contact follows Thursday morning then I’m back on the road to repeat the long, long hiway back home. 

I have music and audiobooks and podcasts to accompany me. I’ll be fine, but my butt and bad foot will scream for relief hours before the trip is complete in either direction. 

So it goes. It’s a couple of days and such trips are why I get the big bucks (ha!). I look at the bright side. My boss is off to China in a few weeks and I get to skip that trip this year. I went twice in 2024, and I’m fine spending a few days in Connecticut as opposed to China. 

Worth thinking on

 

Palate Cleanser

 

Tell me, how long you gonna stay here, Joe?

 

Old Man River, indeed

 It has been a while since I read either (both this century for sure) , but for me, I prefer Huck over Tom. 

Make sure you bank that fire when you go to bed, Charlotte

 We finally broke down and turned on the heat last night. With outside temps dipping into the thirties it was getting cold inside the old homestead. The thermostat showed a chilly inside temperature of 63 when I said enough. Time to get ready for the season of big gas bills.

Outside I covered the wife’s hibiscus, which continues to bloom, but I’m not sure for much longer. I am skeptical it will survive the winter.

This picture was from last week. 

My mom died on this date in 2018. I miss you Mom. I have on my phone a voice mail she left me a month or so before she died. It is nothing important, a message telling me if I want some tomatoes I could have some. I must have been coming back from a business trip. I cannot remember if I stopped by or not. I hope I did. 

This thing is going to rust if I don’t use it.

 Huh, it seems I’ve not posted. It’s the old cliche - it is not you, it’s me. I still love you. The blog, not so much. 

I have writers block on a monumental scale. I can’t write here. I’ve done nothing on my novel for months. It took me thirty minutes to compose an email to customer yesterday, for goodness sake. 

I’m off to the EquipExpo in Louisville today. I doubt I will find bloggy inspiration among the outdoor power tools and mowers. I might find a new customer and that is a good thing. Say “Hey” if you see me. 

About that

 I thought we settled our position on kings and royalty back in 1775.

More:

Does anyone else find it ironic that tons of people gathered together to protest tyranny, fascism, pseudo-kings, etc., all claiming freedom is abridged? Yet not one single person was thrown in jail for speaking out? 

I guess they protest the very freedom they enjoy?

Can anyone explain it to me? 

Even more:

It appears the protests were successful. We have no king today. 

Of course we have not had a king for 250 years. But let’s not let facts get in the way of Leftist TDS.

Why Not?

 

Choices

A minister was seated next to a hillbilly on a flight across the country. After the plane was airborne, drink orders were taken. The hillbilly asked for a whiskey and soda, which was brought and placed before him.

The flight attendant then asked the minister if he would like a drink. He replied in disgust, "I'd rather be savagely raped by brazen whores than let liquor touch these lips."

The hillbilly then handed his drink back to the flight attendant and said, "Me too! I didn't know we had a choice." 

Is it Friday yet?

Jumping over to the old blog I see I failed to toss up a post yesterday. Mea culpa.

Don't get your hopes up for something interesting, controversial, or entertaining today. 

I will say this, it is starting to look those "nonessential" government jobs really are nonessential. Your experience may vary.

Half-Cannonball Run

 Never one to shy from a road trip the wife and I motored out to the greater Denver area last week to visit my son. We had a great time. Outbound we took I-70 -America’s most boring hi way. On the return trip we cut NE to pick up I-80 across Nebraska and Iowa. While the route was only about 30-40 minutes longer, it sure seemed to take far more than that. It didn’t help that I pulled over to take what I thought would be a short catnap in the wee hours of the night and actually slept in the reclined driver’s seat for three hours. Thus we didn’t hit the driveway until mid-morning Sunday. 

Back when my job took me on the road much of the time 8, 10, or 12 hour drives were the norm. Now, as I get older and out of distance driving shape these long overnight drives are getting harder. 

Why don’t you fly, you ask. It’s not the air fare. It is rental car fees that are so expensive. When renting a car costs as much as a flight, there is a problem. Besides, despite a bit of whining, I like to drive. It may be that in a few years a 1,000 mile trip may necessitate a hotel instead of an all-nighter. Not yet though.

Lettuce Know

The wife and I moseyed down to Chipotle for a cheap supper last night. They were out of lettuce. The wife likes lettuce on her build your own taco, me, I usually forego the stuff on my burrito bowl. The real question was why they had no lettuce. This particular store is literally (and I am literally using the word correctly) is in the parking lot of a grocery store. One could walk less than 100 yards and grab a couple of heads of iceburg.. 

I’m sure it is company sourcing policy or something. More likely, it is easier to tell customers too bad than to try and reconcile the cash register if the manager took cash to buy lettuce. 

Where you been, Joe?

 

Not bad for a cell phone pic 

I gave you a weeks worth of clues

Get out of Denver

 

Yet another

 

Theme music

 

Boulder Skies

 

‘Splain this, Lucy

 I’m baffled by blue cities. How is it they expect Federal funds when they refuse to enforce or allow enforcement of Federal law?

What Joe Said

 

I’ve made a lot of stops all over the world

Wooden bats and leather gloves.

 Suburbia isn’t the right word. After all , the farming community was only about 15,000 hard working souls. But I did live in a large subdivision on the east side of town.  The blocks of pre-fab houses were filled with young families and down-sized retirees. For reference the one block stretch of the street I lived on had more than thirty kids, all born within a five year stretch. Multiply that by hundreds of houses. 

We had a large backyard and over time it became the site of a backyard baseball diamond. It wasn’t full size, but big enough. Sure, it wasn’t the symmetrical diamond you think. First base was a little closer to home than third, but it didn’t matter. 

Home plate was close enough to the house that a foul ball could bust a window, so instead of a baseball we used a tennis ball. In those days tennis balls weren’t bright green. The ones we used were a dusty gray and you could throw and hit it hard enough you needed a proper baseball glove to catch it. Games started in the morning and stretched into the evening. Kids would come and go and who knew the score? It was balls and strikes and innings. A team might be 4 or 6 or even 9 players. Go to lunch join back in where needed. It was all fun and fights and competition.

We played enough the grass was laid bare at the bases and the bare spots of the pitcher’s “mound” snd batter’s boxes lasted for years after we outgrew the confines of the backyard. If I looked closely, I could still see the indentation of the home plate area well into my high school years. 

This kid named Tracy from down the street always wanted to pitch. He was a grade behind me in school. Not only did he smell of baby powder, he couldn’t pitch at all. If he did get it across the plate he threw so slow the ball was invariably smacked far over the outfielder’s heads. 

I was reminded of him watching the first two innings of the Cubs game yesterday. 

Well, There’s a road that I know

 

She helped me with my suitcase

 Pay attention. This will be on the test.

Not even close

 The worst movie ever made was Mr Mike’s Mondo Video from 1979. It is the only time I ever walked out of a theater in the middle of a film.  

1-1

 Cubs fall today to the evil Padres setting up a deciding game tomorrow.

Go Cubs Go

Feeling older

 Today is my kid’s birthday. 

That’s not a mistake, nor a rerun from yesterday. Today marks my oldest son’s  (middle child) birthday. Yes, my son’s birthdays are one day apart. My daughter’s birthday was two weeks ago. 

Yes, the holidays have historically been a good time around here, why do you ask?

Anyway I miss my boy (he lives in Colorado) and wish him the happiest of days.