Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Tag Sales - Autumn Archive of Retort








It's time for Tag Sales....but then again...when isn't it time for Tag Sales.
.

So if you have any recycled junk you want to throw out, just put a price tag on it, roll it out to your lawn, and you're in business...

You might even sell some of it back to the guy you bought it from the week before.....

Speaking of recycled....

From 10/3/11

"Tag Sales"





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Friday, September 26, 2014

Where have all the Grownups gone?





 
 
 
I’m tired of just about everyone being younger than me.

Where have all the grown-ups gone?

Who’s in charge here?

Certainly not me.

Nowadays, all I see are baby faces staring back at me.

I stop a police officer—or he stops me—to ask a question, and I’m looking into the face of someone who still uses a razor with a plastic blade.

I greet the mail lady walking up my walk and I confuse her with the Girl Scout cookie girl.

“I’ll take 2 boxes of thin mints…and thanks for dropping off the mail.”

I see my doctor and just before he gives me my blood work results, he gets distracted by a fire engine racing down the street and shouts…

”Nang nang!”

Where have all the grown-ups gone?

Who’s taking care of us?

Even the President and probably most of congress is younger than me…which I guess explains a lot.

“Hey, that was my idea!”

“No it wasn’t!”

“Yes it was!”

“No it wasn’t”

“No fair!”

“Fair!”

I mean, I can recall being concerned when I was old enough to run for president.

“I can’t be president…not unless I can still write my daily “Twin Peaks analysis!”

Now, most of my friend’s kids are old enough to run for president and just might.

You know, once they move out of the house or at least get their own phone plans.

Need to hire someone to keep your back porch from falling down?


Don’t be surprised if he or she shows up with a tool box that says Fisher Price on the side.

On Halloween, make sure you only give candy to the kids…I mean the ones under 5 ft.

Have a question about the new Super HD-3D,  Internet TV you want to buy…feel free ask the in the in house tech expert, but make sure his mom says it’s okay.
 

Truth is, I really don’t have any sort of problem with any of these “young” people being in positions of authority. I mean, I can respect anyone who is knowledgeable and approaches their job in a serious, professional, conscientious manner…and can sing the theme song from Gilligan’s Island by heart…both versions…without Goggling it on their smart phones…or watches…or glasses….

Is that too much to ask?

The world has always revolved around the young, and the young are the ones who open our eyes to everything that’s been staring us in the face forever, but we’ve been too set in our ways to see.

Except when they're binge watching “Orange is the New Black” on Netflix.

Then you have to wait.

But after that, they’ll approach the world with fresh perspectives and attitudes that allows us all to evolve as a people…the same as we did when we were the “young ones” and all the old farts ahead of us were constantly knocking our new ideas and questioning our readiness for authority.

And I still say everyone would be wearing portable beverage dispensers on their back by now if only that misanthropic stone aged, Luddite had listened to me 35 years ago!

Okay…I’m digressing a bit so I better just leave well enough alone.  Let all the young folks sort it out.  After all, they’re the ones with the time…at least until happy hour starts.

I’m going to go practice taking more selfies…I almost have it down.

My 12 year old selfie master tells me I only look like half a nerd, now…..



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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Headache…What a Pain







 
When it comes to pain, I have a pretty high threshold.

I mean, you could be in terrible, blood curdling pain and I’d be okay with it.

Would barely get squeamish.

In fact I could probably disregard your pain altogether, once I offered my perfunctory concern and condolences.

Unless you were making a lot of whiny noises, or worse, screaming a whole lot, in which case I might get a little annoyed.

But don’t worry…at that point I would pretty much just leave the room and try to find someone who could actually carry on an intelligent conversation…you know, without all the grunting.

I’m just lucky that way.

However, when it comes to my own pain, I’m not quite the pillar of strength and stoicism you would imagine.

I know…weird, huh?

Which is why I’m laid up at the moment with this nasty headache.

Yeah…I know…it was kind of touch and go for a while.

I could barely drag myself to the keyboard…but I did it for you.

That’s just how I am.

And who would have guessed that there are so many possible causes of headaches…although brain boring beetles are not one of them….I checked.

That was my first guess and fear, so you can imagine I was a little relieved once they were excluded…at least for now.

And when I say relieved, I mean as relieved as you can be while curled up in a fetal position, shuddering in what I can only describe as a real headache.

Especially for Z, who had to drag me out from under the bed.

Okay, sure…maybe she did tweak her back a little in the process and might have a little difficulty standing up for a few days…but that I can deal with.

Besides, Z rarely complains about her own aches and pains…just mine.

She’ll say things like, “If you don’t stop whimpering about that little bitty pain in your head, I’ll fix it so you can’t feel anything up there at all!”

And since she’s a nurse and has seen more than her share of life threatening situations, I always take her at her word concerning things like that.

Besides, I couldn’t really ask her to give up a whole day of work, saving lives and advancing the state of mankind, just to fix my headache...again.

So I only asked if she would adjust my IV before she left, and check to make sure there was enough oxygen in the tank to get me through the day.

Not that she heard me…not over all the doors slamming that followed her on the way out to the car.

But since I’m not one to complain…too much…I figured I could man up…at least until 10.

But, man up or not, this headache of mine is really doing a number on me.

And if I hadn’t passed out I might not have made it even until 9.

But I did, and once I came to I was relieved to find out that all the moisture I was laying in was only the ice bag, leaking again. 

So there was that.

And I know what you must be thinking.
What a big baby…you’d think he never had a headache before.

Well, for your information, I rarely do get headaches, so when I am afflicted, it’s pretty much of a big deal for me.

So to help get through the ordeal, I’m trying to take my impaired mind off of it by searching for possible reasons why it reared its ugly throbbing head in the first place.

And since the brain boring beetles were already excluded, I started by looking at the most likely tension causing, stress producing reasons currently going on in my life.

Obviously, the first thing I thought of was this whole situation with Alex Trebek growing his mustache back. I mean why now, after all this time, when it took some of us years to get used to him without it?

So that’s something to consider.

Then there’s the Derek Jeter retirement scenario, which is everywhere. Has he really planned for the future and put enough away in his 401K to just stop working at the age of 40?  Is he going to be okay, or are we going to find him wandering the streets in ten years, asking if we want our windshield cleaned?


I’m worried…you know?

And what about the new Fall TV season that’s just kicking off?  I mean do we really need another NCIS show?

Or a Batman show without Batman?

And what’s Steve Buscemi going to do once Boardwalk Empire wraps up?

And can Scandal really get any more Scandalous?

Will The Black List’s Liz and Red ever resolve their difference and finally have a normal Thanksgiving?

I mean who can tell?

Certainly not me…not with this constant thumping in my brain.

Oh, man…I gotta go. My headache’s getting worse instead of better.

I hope the EMS guys are a little more understanding this time than they were a few hours ago.





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Sunday, September 21, 2014

View from the Top - Sunday Archive of Retort - 9/21/12










Here's another adventure from the "past", which always seems sunnier than the "present".

I guess it's just another matter of perspective.




From 9/21/12

View from the Top




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Friday, September 19, 2014

Starry-Eyed in Starbucks






 
 
I’m a pretty adventurous guy.

I mean, I drove to Brooklyn last week and everything.

Even walked around Coney Island for a while…you know…until I got scared.

Not that there was anything to be scared of…it’s just a boardwalk and a beach.

But that funny face guy is kind of scary.

Kind of looks like my old chemistry teacher.

Yeah….


Anyway, I consider myself an adventurous sort…within reason.

Like you won’t catch me going into a Starbucks or anything.

Nope…not me…not since the 90s.

One, because I don’t really like it…unless I’m in the mood for a beverage that tastes like it’s been sitting on the burner since last weekend.

And two…I don’t need to be laughed at by a bunch of scraggly faced teenagers in aprons…nope, not me…not again.

But sometimes you don’t have any choice, especially if the only other alternative is the Gas N Sip across the street.

All I wanted was a small coffee…milk, two sugars…some sort of utensil, a spoon or a stick to stir it with, and a top so I can pretend I’m not going to spill it on my shirt or all over my car.

How hard could that be?

But that’s where all the anxiety sets in.

Because you apparently can’t order just a small coffee at Starbucks.

If you order a small coffee at Starbucks you get a response along the lines of… “Short or tall?

To which I reply…”Not that’s it’s any of your business, but I’d say I’m more along the lines of average, amongst the general population.”

“Room or no room?”

“Uh…no thanks…I’ll just take the coffee.”

To which the scraggly faced fellow sneers, shakes his head and shouts out…. “One tall Americano, regular.”

To which I say nothing, yet am at once annoyed that my nationality is of any significance but pleased that he considers me “tall”, and befuddled by the fact that he can tell I’m regular…which I am...at least that day.

As I pay, standing there, waiting to receive my coffee, I’m a bit distracted by the grunts and sighs of the people standing behind me. I’m not really sure what their problem is, but then the scraggly face guy, who I happen to hear called, Barista—I guess it’s a European name— by someone in the back, shouting, “Hey, Barista, tell that guy to step up.”

To which, Barista replies, “Please step up, sir.”

Which annoys me, because again, another reference to my height, which is uncalled for….

Finally I realize that Barista is not going to bring me my coffee, because apparently that’s someone else’s job.



So I wander down the counter where I see another half dozen or so equally confused, starry-eyed but brave, coffee souls, same as myself, hoping to retrieve something that resembles their morning beverage of choice.

First one up is “Half-caf grande mocha cap, wet!”

Nobody moves….

Then the rest start coming fast and furious, sounding something like this…maybe.

“Venti café Misto…”

“Tall Caramel macchiato, upside-down…”

“Grande triple shot de-caf Espresso Macchiato, dry…”

“Tall double shot vanilla latte skinny…”

“Grande decaf Mocha Frappuccino light…”

“Short cap, half-caf double shot wet with room….”

“Venti Triple shot white mocha, extra hot, no room…”

None of which anyone dares move toward, let alone claim. They all just stand there in place, silent, perplexed and befuddled...either forgetting or just not knowing what is was they ordered on that particular day.

Until….

“Regular coffee, milk two sugars…”

For which a multitude of hands reach to grab….

“I think that’s mine…”

“No mine….”

“I ordered that a half hour ago…I think…I’m pretty sure….”

And at that point, I turn and walk away.

My caffeine headache has started to kick in and the Gas N Sip across the street is looking pretty good.

“One tall Americano, regular.”

And again I wonder…regular…how do they know?

How does anybody know???

 


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Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The Tao of LOL


 
 
 
 
 
I get LOL’d a lot.

Which, if you’re trying to write funny, is a good thing.

If I were getting tears and sobs…that would be bad.

The thing is…I really don’t like the LOL.

LOL!

Not because I have anything against the people that use it, or that I think it’s particularly silly….
 
It’s just been somewhat abused and overused…if you know what I mean.


LOL!

People will LOL even when they have no reason to LOL.


They’ll say, “The cat just threw up in my hat…LOL!”


“Just saw my Podiatrist. Things have been better, but they could be worse. Think of all the money I’ll be saving on shoes…LOL!”

“Grandma’s gone missing, again…hope she turns up before Thanksgiving cuz who’s gonna cook the turkey…LOL!”

And of course you can always turn that up a notch, when things get really funny.

When things get really funny you can ROFL…or even ROFLOL…which usually leads to hip displacements, especially if you’re over 40.

If you’re under 40, you just look odd…or worse, sound odd…because, let’s face it…can anyone really verify that you actually are ROFL…or even ROFLOL…or even worse… ROFLOLBAG…and worst still…ROFPML…which nobody wants to see…and I can’t even believe I just wrote that, right here, in a family setting…that is if your family is anything like mine.

And of course, now, for people like me that have a problem with LOL…(LOL!)…there’s hahhahahaha….

Or just ha, if you’re only mildly amused.

If you’re very amused you can go with HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!

You can also go with the more subdued heheheheheheheheheeh…which is kind of the equivalent of the small little chuckle you give your weird Uncle Al, with the mole that resembles Winston Churchill, whenever he tells his Dunkin Donuts story at Sunday dinner.

And now people are just making stuff up…like this sinister laugh of some sort, mwahhahhahhahwahaahh…or something like that.

Like I said, they’re making stuff up.

Or WOO WOO and its derivative WOOT WOOT…which means something…not sure what.

Maybe that they just sat on a chess piece….most likely the rook.

LOL!

Then they might respond WTF…which I believe means “where’s the football”…which is what I would say too, if I sat on a rook.

Unless they’re Canadian, in which case they would most likely say WTP or “where’s the puck”…you know, because Canadians like hockey.

LOL!

And of course these things are also a time and type saver…like when you can say K…instead of the more difficult, time consuming OK.

K?

So basically you can make an acronym out of anything….

Or should I say YCMAAOOA?

There are actually pages and pages of them on-line, most of which, again, you would never say in a public forum such as this.

I mean, I didn’t even get out of the A’s before I nearly blushed myself to death.

LOL!

BTW…or should I say “Bring the Wipes”—which has never made sense to me but people seem to use it in this context—the real purpose of the LOL..I mean other than to say I’m overwhelmingly hilarious…when you get right down to it, is for people to let you know, they’re really just kidding…or JK…which is shorter, but not used as much as the ubiquitous LOL.

LOL!

“I think you dress like a tramp steamer...LOL!”

“Who cuts your hair…Edward Scissorhands…LOL?”
 
“This bean dip is just what I needed to get regular again…LOL!”

Then if you do happen to get tired of acronyms…you can slip right into the emoticons, which I happen to use frequently to express my state of mind.  

I actually carry a bunch of them around with me to use whenever I’m talking to people face to face. You have no idea how many awkward situations that's saved me.


And you can say practically anything to anybody as long as you use a winky emoticon to accentutate your meaning.

Well, I mean as long as they’re not wearing a badge, or a robe, or a hat or a jacket, or gloves…shoes, socks, glasses….

LOL!

See…that means—

Oh, never mind…if you don’t know by now you’re probably weren’t asked to bring the potato salad to the Mensa meeting this weekend.

I know I wasn't.....

LOL!
 

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Sunday, September 14, 2014

Still Summer?






It’s still summer, at least for a little while, but the telltale signs of autumn are making themselves known.

The earth has begun its annual tilt-a-whirl away from the sun, up here in the northern part of the globe.

I mean, I think that’s what it does…who knows.

 
All I know is, the morning dew has become a little bit thicker, the air a little bit cooler, the afternoon shadows a little bit longer, the fallen leaves beneath my feet a little bit crunchier…and the porch lights come on quite a bit earlier than they did just a month ago.

That, plus the hair on my neighbor’s back is starting to bush up again.

All signs that change is coming…and coming fast.

Despite the 90 degree heat and humidity that creeps back in, every once and while.  But why should I let reality stand in the way of a storyline?

Really…why?

Not that I have a story line. I rarely do. Should I really start changing things now?

Because the truth is, I don’t really know what I mean to say here.

I just know I had to throw on a pair of sweat pants this morning, to cover up my badly goose bumped legs.

First time my legs have been covered up since sometime in June, despite the constant haranguing of certain friends and neighbors.

Hey…it’s not my fault my knobby knees and patches of unchecked leg hair form images that may or may not be appropriate for all ages…especially middle aged women.  

I don’t know what that means either, and to be honest, it’s not really true, which means I lied, so why would you even believe that I’m being honest now, anyway.

Because I said so?

Okay…suit yourself.

I told you I had no idea of a story line here.

So I guess that’s pretty easy to believe.

But if I did have a point, it would be that the world turns…time passes…seasons change…and if we have any hope of maintaining some sort of equilibrium we need to change right along with it.

Attitude, outlook, perception…even long pants.

Adapt and move on.

Summer is tired, quietly slipping into the south.

Fall is fresh, standing in the wings…pumpkins at the ready…crisp days waiting for unwrapping.

Long nights unfolding…warm fires kindling.

Hot chocolates brewing…chestnuts roasting.

 
Leaf suckers sucking.

 
All on the way.

Everything in its time….in its place…including all of us.

Knobby knees and all.

 I guess I’m ready.

I have my long pants on….but only sweat pants

Not sure if my jeans will fit…not yet.

It was a pretty long summer….

It sill is.

At least for a little while....

 

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