Changed My Mind

Someone told me it would be a good idea to note the positive things that happen to me each day. It seemed silly at the time they said it. Glad I didn't put too much effort into it.

There . . . that's a happy thought.

Spare Change

Things are left lying around but I'm used to that. It's the loose change scattered about that gets to me. A dime here, two quarters there, fifteen cents on the small table in the foyer. I still pick up money in parking lots, for crying out loud. (My best find was a five dollar bill. That was on July 26, 1972. It was a Wednesday.)

If I get down to the last trump and through the haze and mist of my final moments of consciousness I hear some nurse say, "Too bad he didn't have another fifteen cents. We could have left his oxygen on longer."

"Wait! Wait!" I plan to say, "Check the piggy bank. I found fifteen cents years ago on the small table in the foyer."

But that won't happen. There was a day when I would pick up loose change around the house and stash it in my piggy bank. No longer. She wants the change left where she left it. In a concession, she says I can have the pennies. I hope the nurses will take pennies.

Regarding AA

When we stopped in at The Seelbach in Louisville, Kentucky, for the night, I walked across the ornate lobby and it all looked familiar to me. Turns out I had been there before but couldn't remember why or when. The clerk said "Welcome back." Their little computer shows that, of course. So I had been there for some meeting or other back in the day, I suppose.

One of the features I remembered was The Seelbach Bar (It was a meeting! I hate meetings.)Also I remembered the somewhat pretentious brass sign over the door. I snapped this picture and sent it to my cosmopolitan nephew who seemed impressed.

There are many lists of "greatest" and "best" this and that. Anyone who has flown much knows that the in-flight magazines always have a couple of advert lists for the "10 Best Steakhouses" each list being 60% or 70% different from the other.

I looked up the list of The Independent of London and they list The Seelbach along with forty-nine other bars. I've been in a lot of them, it turns out. (Maybe she is right and I should start taking the dog to meetings.)

From The Independent's list, I have been in the following nine bars:

1. Trader Vic’s, Hilton Hotel, London


2. The Blue Bar, Algonquin Hotel, New York


3. Peacock Alley, Waldorf=Astoria, New York


4. Hemingway Bar, 1st arrondissement, Paris


5. Column Bar, Hotel Bristol, Warsaw


6. Writer’s Bar, Raffles Hotel, Singapore


7. Coq D’Or, Drake Hotel, Chicago


8. Hurricane Bar, The Fairmont, San Francisco


9. The Seelbach, Louisville, KY

I am certain that you don't have to go to AA meetings unless you hit 20% of any given list of fifty bars. I'm standing at 18%. Practically a teetotaler.

Singapore, Raffles Hotel, Long Bar

Little King Charlie

We've decided to get a puppy. It will be a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. They're cute little things and fulfill a need that I have: I require something to curl up on my lap while I sit and read.

Little Charlie was born just last week and we will bring him home some time in August. Both of us have been re-studying up on things you need to know when you have a puppy. Since I no longer do anything worthwhile or time consuming, I'll have plenty of time to take the little guy for walks and "romps" in the park. I've never been much of a romper and I'm less of one now than ever before. But his little legs are short so Charlie shouldn't mind too much.

`

We went out to dinner tonight to celebrate the decision. Francesca's Passaggio near our home is great. Tonight as we walked in, their chalk board showed that it was prime rib special night AND they were offering $5 martinis.

`

Sometimes you just know that life can't get any better. After awhile, a great piece of meat had disappeared from my plate and nearly $15 worth of martinis had been consumed.

`

I was saying, "Socialization is very important with a puppy. That was our big problem with Laddie." Laddie was our Scottish Terrier anarchist of some years back."

`

"Yes . . ." She sipped her ice tea.

`

"I read that you should give your puppy at least 100 different social contact situations with all kinds of people of different ages, types, and colors within the first two months they are with you. So I've been planning . . . "

`

"You could take the puppy to AA meetings with you."

`

I think that I will continue developing my plans and keep the details between myself and little Charlie. I've always hated meetings.

Here's Hoping.

We could hear the sounds of the water cascading over the rocks below us and the rustle of the leaves above as the wind gently blew through the trees. It was a beautiful day. The kind of day you remember when you are old or in love. Or both.

"What are we doing? What's the plan?" she asked.

"We're enjoying the day. And getting a little exercise."

"Those two things don't go together." she said. "I'm hot!"

We continued across the bridge and I didn't know what else to say. There was no place to sit. Our only logical choice was to continue to walk. I was enjoying myself. But that's never really enough.

Often times through which we live are better in retrospect than during the actual experience. Here's hoping.

Ugly AND Obnoxious

There's ugly. And then there's obnoxious. Ugly can be mitigated with
a pleasant personality, thoughtful demeanor, and money.

Obnoxious is impossible to deal with no matter how many modifiers are
included. There's not enough money, beauty, power, or sex to make up
for it.

Combine the two and there is no reason to be exposed to that person.
Especially if there are six of them together. Not even if a free
breakfast on the executive floor of your hotel is involved.

Decision Time

There's not too much that I have to do these days, but I have plenty of time to do it. Since I've retired I'm doing nothing, but I'm not getting paid for doing nothing. It makes me feel so un-European.

I do a lot of thinking, though. I'm able to make snap decisions about what I want to eat for breakfast. But now that I have the time to consider the larger imponderables, I can usually get through the thorny problems of our species and be prepared to discuss my solutions with others.

I try to work through one tough worldly issue per day and as a result I have a lot of pent up decisions to discuss with someone. No one seems too interested in discussing these Solutions To The World's Problems with me.

Oh, well. Knowing a lot of stuff is better than not knowing a lot of stuff. If ignorance is bliss, then knowing stuff is . . .

No wonder I'm getting these headaches.

New Interest

Having recently finished a small landscaping project in the backyard, I'm itching to move on to something new.

One thing that has occurred to me is to produce a podcast or create You Tube videos. I brought this up at breakfast this morning and she asked "What would it be about?"

I hadn't really thought of that yet. It seemed as if uploading podcasts (video and audio) would be fun and aggrandizing. Those seem to be pretty much my two top goals these days.

"Sex?"

"Oh, good gravy."

"I thought I should stick to something I know a lot about." She didn't say anything and instead began to clear away the breakfast dishes. I wandered back here to write and ponder.

I'd have to wear a disguise so that no one would recognize me. Although that idea has potential, it might be good for me to start out with an audio podcast. I could tell old guy jokes:

How many retirees does it take to change a light bulb? (Only one, but it takes him two or three days to finish the job.)

Why are retired people who are misers so special? (They make great ancestors.)

When is it a retiree's bedtime? (Two hours after he falls asleep in his chair.)

I'll be sure to keep you informed.

Red Fish Grill

Uncle Eric's Banana Cream Pie. This is what I had for dessert at the Red Fish Grill in New Orleans. It was superb.

Uncle Eric’s Mississippi Banana Cream Pie is bananas layered in a rich vanilla pastry cream with a graham cracker crust, topped with a Sailor Jerry spiced rum whipped cream and caramel sauce. All of this for $7.25. If heaven exists, this would be like a little slice of it.

My Mama, bless her heart, would not approve of me eating this concoction, but I approve. I'm not interested in living long, just living well.

Lunch in NOLA

She remembered a little hole-in-the-wall place she'd liked from
before. Neither of us could remember anything else about it (like
it's name or it's location.) We walked a few blocks and found the
place (The Chartres House Cafe). It still had great food and a down-to-
earth style.

I'm already looking forward to dinner.

New Orleans

The cab we took in from the airport was from God's Power Taxi Co. I
don't think HE was driving, though. Not unless HE is a short little
black guy from Haiti.

Second-hand Plaudite

I read this book more than a year ago since I don't think it's on my list nearby of books read within the last year. Ones that I think she will enjoy get added to her reading pile. She finally got to this one yesterday.

She reads more than I do and most are not books we share. She liked this one so much that she returned it to my desk last night with a Post-It note attached telling me how much she liked the book.

If the author of the book was handy, I'd share the note with him. But as it is, there needs to be a little positive reinforcement in every person's life so I'm taking full credit for getting her a book to read that she really enjoyed.

And I Love to Eat

I have lost twelve pounds over the last several weeks. As pounds that sounds like a lot. Percentage-wise, it's negligible. It's all for the good because we're heading down to New Orleans to celebrate my 60th birthday.

Rack of lamb!!

Commander's Palace: http://www.commanderspalace.com/new_orleans/index.php

Mr. B's Bistro: http://www.mrbsbistro.com/

K-Paul's: http://www.kpauls.com/site297.php

Arnaud's: http://www.arnauds.com/arnauds_jazz_room.html

Antoinne's: http://www.antoines.com/

Lunch at NOLA: http://www.emerils.com/restaurant/2/NOLA-Restaurant/

Eggs Creole!!

I expect to keep the pounds off while in New Orleans, but I know it will be risky. My original plan to celebrate my 60th birthday was to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. But for several reasons, I changed my mind:

1. 1. No one would go with me.


2. They told me I wasn't in good enough shape to climb a mountain.


3. They told me I was nuts.

Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette

In the May 19, 2009, online issue of "Reason" magazine http://www.reason.com/ , it was reported that:

"Officials in China's Hubei province have ordered teachers and other government workers to smoke about 230,000 packs of locally produced cigarettes in order to boost demand. Those who fail to comply, or who are caught smoking rival brands, will be fined.”

I spent some time in Hubei province. Most people smoked. Our meetings were always equipped with pitchers of water, hot tea served by pretty young women, and packs of cigarettes along with the memo pads and pencils at everyone’s place.

The lesson I get out of this is that one should settle near the manufacturer of one’s favorite products. When the government forces you to consume those local products, you can snicker smugly. While waiting for the revolution to come, I am thinking of moving to a spot where they raise beef cattle, distill vodka, and produce good BBQ sauce.

Fifty-Nine

That's how many books I've read in the last year. 59. The list is nearby on the starboard side of this blog. That was one of my long-term projects over the last year. Not to read books, I do that as a matter of course, but rather to see how many I can read.

Several times I have read the blurbs that George W. Bush and Karl Rove would have an annual contest to see who could read the most books during the year. Every year Bush would win. I seem to remember numbers like 87 books and 95 books and 105 books. I've also read that W said he did not like to read "big books" and that he never read newspapers. And then I've read that he actually did read newspapers.

So . . . typical politician: difficult to sort out the truth. Hard to believe those kind of numbers since at the time he did have a job. My guess is that he and Rove lied or they were not reading "big books".

All I know is that I only read 59 books over the last twelve months. Compared to how much I got to read for pleasure before I retired (not so much), 59 books is great and I enjoyed them all.