All posts by djones

differences, odd, sexes

The Difference …

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The differences between men and women can sometimes be so glaring and yet so un-obvious that one simply goes “Huh?” and proceeds on the down the road. Today I served as a perfect example on the male side of the huh.

I got up this morning, threw on a polo shirt and shorts, and then proceeded to do the normal morning things like let Molly out and in, make coffee, etc. Since I was working from my home office today, I moseyed down the hall to the office and went to work. At noon I grabbed an apple and played with Molly for a bit, then went back to work. Late in the afternoon, I decided it was time for Molly and I to go for our walk. It was at that point that I thought to button the vee on my polo shirt and discovered that I had been wearing the shirt inside out all day.

The point here is that I had not looked at myself in the mirror all day or the error would have been obvious. The inside is very different than the outside of the polo shirt in question. I would regard my behavior as somewhat typical for the male of the species.

Now, for those of you of the female persuasion, just how likely is it that you could or would go for 8 hours or more without looking in a mirror? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Amusing difference, isn’t it?

delurk day

National Delurker Day

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It has come to my attention that today (what remains of it) is National Delurker Day. Time for the ole blog to get gussied up with Joe, the open minded delurker:


to make sure *you* de-lurk. I know that you are out there. Yes you! It is time for you to leave a comment as you drive by, time for you to introduce yourself.

Besides, I have a more personal reason to see you de-lurk: I want to know which of you was dumped on this blog by Google when searching for [googlesex] (4% of the traffic one recent wintry day) and the ever popular [“google voice” -nexus delay] (5% of the traffic on yet another day).

So please de-lurk and leave a comment. Inquiring minds really want to meet you.

acquaintances, age, friends

Friends and Acquaintances

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One of the interesting things about getting older is that the range of friends and acquaintances keeps expanding. It gives one a wider perspective on the world as the range grows, probably making it possible to be a better friend as time marches on.

When I was in my twenties, so were most of my friends. There were some exceptions, mostly professors and business colleagues. But when it came time to have people over for dinner or otherwise socialize, the group was mostly of a similar age.

As the decade of my thirties passed, the range widened. I now had friends in their twenties and some as old as {*gasp*} their forties. People in their fifties were part of a strange and outre world that just barely intersected my social life. (Or who threw the really good business parties!)

Needless to say the range of friends continued to blossom through the decades. Now that I am in my fifties, I have friends that range from their twenties to their nineties. And I find I like the breadth of view points that brings to my life. It also makes me wonder what kind of an idiot I was in my younger years not to intentionally seek out friendships with those of dissimilar ages at that time.

How about you? Have you found your circle of friendship ranging further afield as you have matured (Sounds so much better than aged, doesn’t it?)?

I’ll leave you with this picture of a few friends sharing a good laugh a few years ago.  I am the only non-octogenarian in the picture. From left to right: myself, a well-know rancher and conservationist, and the person least constrained by social convention I know (and also the most likely to make any party memorable).

art work, water, weather

The Odd of the Moment

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L headed back to the mountains today so I was left to do real work and enjoy a beautiful day. It did indeed reach 45F – so I walked to the Post Office and then to the office of the new mayor (who also happens to be the treasurer of my campaign committee) and then to one of the local computer stores to look at some proposed equipment for the Humane Society. All in all a pleasant walk with just a light weight hoodie over my office wear.

Now that you have clicked away due to my boring meanderings, we can get to the interesting things. As I neared home, I saw a couple of city trucks and workers along with an old high school friend standing on the lawn of a house down the street from ours. Turns out Joe’s (uncle of the high school friend) water lines to the house froze last night. It is one of those oddities that sometimes the subsurface frost shield can move as the surface warms and cause freezing in unexpected locations. They were all standing around after giving up on using the flame-thrower in the meter pit and were about to roll in the hot water jet machine to try thawing it out. Pretty incongruous to see workers in shirt-sleeves using the flame-thrower and the hot water jet to thaw out water lines under the street. I was just happy it wasn’t my water line.

The whole episode brought to my mind the question of whether bad things happen in multiples or not. Just yesterday I remarked to L that Joe must have gotten a new pickup; then I realized that the new truck in his driveway was his friends and Joe’s was nowhere to be spotted. That is unusual because Joe’s truck is always out front. Turns out that Joe’s truck had been destroyed in an accident Saturday. Now his water lines froze shut last night. Sure seems like Joe is off to a bad week. So do you think Joe should plan for yet more bad news?

Speaking of being a bit off, can you spot what is wrong with this piece of art work?

I just hope it isn’t what we have on the side of our animal control trucks. After all, we are supposed to handle animals of the non-human variety, not party animals and others of the human variety. Someone dropped a rather critical e off Humane. I guess I’m going to have to take a look when I meet with the animal control officers later in the week. If you hear a large AARGH echoing through the land, you’ll know what I found.