All posts by djones

engagement, photo

A Photo of Yore

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I spent much of the day in internet and phone withdrawal as the new fiber optics running to the house were connected and hooked up. When everything is moving like that, you can expect to be down for a while, especially with special network demands. Since I couldn’t leave while the guys were working away and in and out of the house, I had to find something to do that require no Google or other internet fodder. Thus you get to enjoy this little pictorial study. {*grin*}

Consider this well worn photo:

This photo has been in my pocket and wallet for more than 34 years. (Which you might spot by all the dings and water spots and the peeling layers on the edge.)  This is L and my engagement photo from long ago. I have carried it with me in my wallet, through multiple wallets, through all the ups and downs. When I close my eyes and think of L, this is the smiling young beauty I think of.
But enough about L and beauty, let’s get down to brass tacks. You notice the pocket of the shirt on my chest? Did you spot the multiple writing utensils therein that were required even for an engagement photo by my scientist/engineer mindset? I have finally after all these years been able to occasionally forgo the multiple writing implements in the pocket in favor of a notebook, but I still suffer pangs of withdrawal when I pat my pocket and find it empty.
What ingrained habit have you tried to forgo? Have you succeeded?
Do you think that all those pristine digital pictures you are collecting now will age with the character of this lowly paper artifact of the mid 70’s?
(No comments about all that black, curly hair that is now missing in places, gray colored, and rather limp! For the curious, all is now back up and running really nicely in the phone and internet world.)
oddity

A Conversation

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As some of the clean up crew and I were killing time until we could take down the tables and chairs from the church bazaar yesterday, I was a participant in the following odd conversation between three other gentlemen and myself.

M1: Every since I turned 80, I’ve had to go to the 40 pound salt bags for my water softener. I just can’t lift the 50 pound ones anymore.

M2: Thats too bad. Every since I turned 85 I haven’t been able to carry even the 30 pound bags down the steps to the cellar for the softener. I’ve started keeping the bag on the porch and using a bucket to carry it down a few pounds at a time.

M3: Heck, I gave up even trying to carry them years ago. My problem is that not only can’t I carry them, I can’t remember why I find myself standing by the trunk of the car staring at the bag of salt. By the time I go in the house and ask my wife and get back out there, I can’t remember again. It works out well – my wife has been putting the salt in for at least the last five years. The last time I remember carrying in the salt was back around my 86th birthday and I’m 91 now.

Me: I’m young enough that I can still carry salt, I can still carry two bags of salt at a time pretty easily. The bad part is that it seems like a new joint aches every morning at this age.

M2: Give it time. In another 30 years you’ll be my age and then no one will even think of asking you to carry salt unless you are married to them. 

M3: Son, you’ve just begun to discover one of the things we all know.

Me: What’s that?

M1: Getting old is not for the faint of heart or weak of constitution.

Me: Well, it likes like we can get to work.

Likewise, it is time for me to get on with real work.

staturday, weather

Saturday Meanderings

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Today was the third straight day when it reached the 70s for a few hours in the afternoon after dipping below freezing each night. A bit warmer than normal seasonal weather, but a lot closer than the blizzard a week plus ago. Of course this niceness cannot last. The weather forecast has the highs dropping starting tomorrow and possible snow on Monday. We’ll probably mosey on into the drear days of November with highs in the 40s and a lot of dull colorless gray as all the color finally dies away and the landscape takes on the sepia tones of winter. At least something close to normal in the weather this year.

My first question of the day: Is there a sudden rash of blogs shuttering the doors for good or deciding to shut down the current incarnation and maybe open a new one? I know that it is happening to a number of the blogs I follow/read. On the other hand, at least three blogs I follow are slowly returning to regularity after six or more months of drought. Are all these effects simply an artifact of my selection procedure? Do you see anything similar?

Next question of the day: Has “mommy blogging” started to lose lustre in the current economy? I ask because I seem to see fewer classic mommy blogs and more humor or diarist blogs in my network traversal. This is another one that could be related to my reading and following choices rather that any real trend. It could also be because the classic mommy blog is time consuming and labor intensive. So when there is a chance of either product or $$$ renumeration to compensate for the time and labor, it may be worth it. However, as the economy continues in the doldrums, it forces harder choices on where to allocate resources.

Time to head off to dinner. Don’t eat anything I wouldn’t. {*grin*}

friday high five

Five Lines Overheard Tonight

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Time once more for

Five Lines Overheard Tonight
  • Are you sure she isn’t dead?
  • More brains?
  • The cream puffs and worms are really good!
  • More swamp water?
  • Can you pull that spear of fruit out of his head for me?
As you might have discerned, I was at the rescheduled chamber of commerce Halloween meet and greet that was prevented by last weeks blizzard. The local business hosting the event went to all the work of recreating the entire layout of Halloween food for us tonight. A great time was had my all.