Tag: Funny

Walking. With Ellie.

Live & Learn83 Comments

Good morning from Connecticut. Today, makes it 1,467 consecutive (almost) days on this daybreak morning walk at Cove Island Park. Like in a Row.

We were primed for another rant following last week’s diatribe: “Ladies Give Me Your Best Shot.” All the targeted Ladies (aka Sawsan) went scurrying back to her Den (with her Broom). Her replacement, while not an total embarrassment, is on her way to earning that merit badge shortly.

So, there’s one Lady left standing. I asked Susan if I can share more specifics about her OCD, that being her neuroses with light switches at the top and bottom of the stairs. Wally and I got a hostile reaction, and decided that this was a red line not to be tested.

I walk, wandering, ruminating. What shall we blog about today? Is it…

  • How I gained 10 lbs in 10 days? (Cake!)
  • How my insomnia has progressively deteriorated during the same period? (Cake?)
  • Why my Doctored-ordered Glucose test (a pre-diabetic alert) reported an alarming upward trend? (Cake?)

I walk.

I noodle these issues (and others), feeling the weight of their drag.

Continue reading “Walking. With Ellie.” →

Ladies: Give me your best shot.

Live & Learn96 Comments

The question is why go here? It’s a Sunday, God’s Day (for all you believers. And then me, only in case I need Him / Her at the End). It’s a quiet peaceful morning, and I sit pondering, WTH is possessing me to go here?

95% of my Blog followers are female, and they stick together like a wolf pack.

I’m white, old, and male, nearly extinct, at least that’s what I keep hearing — and that’s exactly what I feel each time I get up and my bones groan.

BUT, at some point, one has to stand on principle. Enough getting pushed around by all these Women.

Case 1: It all started at Home. You don’t stay married for 40 (?) years without having a life changing dispute or two over household responsibilities. I would say I own about half-ish or so of the HH stuff (with a handful of exclusions incl. lawn cutting, edging and weeding, washing/vacuuming both cars, making the bed, doing the laundry and folding, dishwasher unloading, ironing, vacuuming & dusting the entire house, bathroom cleaning, grocery shopping, paying the bills, and anything and everything involving household repairs.) Yes, Susan owns all of these exclusions, and I unfortunately carry the overwhelming burden of the rest. So a dispute of how to correctly load the dishwasher started years ago, and the war of wills continues. (Apparently this is an American issue, so we’re not alone.)

Continue reading “Ladies: Give me your best shot.” →

T.G.I.F.: Most nights, staring at the ceiling for hours, my mind is a tangle of bits of string

Live & Learn22 Comments

In a recent Washington Post newsletter, he (Ron Charles) marveled at the actress Judi Dench’s astonishing ability to recite most of the lines from her long-ago parts in Shakespeare plays. He wrote:

“Such memorization is a lost art, and much substance was lost with it. In high school and college, I used to memorize hours of stage dialogue and long passages from the Bible, which were a great comfort to me in times of stress. These days, only the stress remains. Most nights, staring at the ceiling for hours, my mind is a tangle of bits of string, and all I can come up with is something like: ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Won’t you lay me down in the tall grass and let me do my stuff?’”

For those of you not fluent in Fleetwood Mac, that last sentence is a lyric from the song “Second Hand News.”

— Frank Bruni, from “The Love of Sentences” (NY Times, May 2, 2024)

(Old) Man Down….

Live & Learn83 Comments

Yes, a Rant. It’s been a while. And in my current condition, it seems to be rolling from Mind to fingers to keys to page. If you are highly sensitive, skip this post, whack me with a comment, or toughen up. While I lean Liberal, I do believe that those that borrow, should pay it back, like the rest of us who passed on vacations, lived within our means, and don’t expect the Government to clean up our bad decisions.

But I digress..

This all started a few days back. The event was a harbinger of things to come, a dark cloud hanging low and tracking. Ouspensky says: “The strangest and most fantastic fact about negative emotions is that people actually worship them.” And in the Negative, lies this Agnostic’s God.

I digress. Back to the story.

I shared a comment on a photo series on Instagram. Oh, Sorry, it’s “Insta” as the younger generations call it. More evidence of doing anything to cut corners, do less work, get Govt handouts and make my Generation look like Pterodactyls. And I don’t want to hear this crap (kernels of truth that may exist), that our Generation ran up the debt, polluted the Oceans, dumped forever chemicals in our drinking water, and cut with abandon the carbon producing forests. Always some stupid shortcut — it’s Instagram you lazy scoundrels.

And again, my apologies, I digress.

After sharing some constructive feedback in an INSTA comment, the reply was, “WTH do you know you old Coot.”

I mean really, that escalated quickly.

I had to look up Coot, figuring for sure this was some form of discrimination that I can litigate on. Old-white-Man-Coot. Sounds offensive to me. “Coot” – simple and harmless.

Continue reading “(Old) Man Down….” →

Walking. Like a Pissant.

Live & Learn46 Comments

3:30 am.

Wally skooches (sp?) up from under the covers and gives me kisses. How does one not smile at this wonderful creature, even this hour. Wally needs to go wee-wee. He races out to the end of the yard, does his business, and comes bolting back, doing a full body shake in flight to shake the cold off — Wally wants no part of what’s outside at this hour. And I can’t blame him.

I shiver, look up, and there’s Moon, in her full glory. I grab the camera and take the shot— best to have something to show for this unexpected Call-of-Wally-Duty at this hour. (Shot here.)

5:30 am.

1,416 consecutive (almost) days on this daybreak walk at Cove Island Park. Like in a Row.

Susan reminded me last night that it’s the first day of Spring. I wondered if I forgot to push the clock back a month with the time change. The thermometer reads 29 F°, but there is no way in Hell it’s remotely close to that. Wind gusts up to 25 mph are blowing (I mean BLOWING) off Long Island Sound, and miraculously finding every exposed piece of flesh, which is a miracle in itself given that I’m 4-layered up. Shiver, again.

There are only 4 of us out in the Park this morning, the Regulars, with King Lunatic out front. “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Well, mostly true here, except the gloom or sheets of rain can present temporary obstacles.

Continue reading “Walking. Like a Pissant.” →