I received a text message yesterday from a school friend I've known more than 50 years. Her husband and I communicate a few times a year and it's usually about other friends good and bad situations. The message was about another friend who passed away a few months ago. He was a retired attorney living in California and only a few years younger than me. Another one gone.
I dropped off the website for class reunions and she gives me updates.
As long as I've known her, she's been a vegetarian. She returned to Miami 12 years ago for a reunion and it must be working as she's about 125 pounds and most of her girlfriends who attended the event were no less than 180 pounds.
I'm expecting family holiday photos of her 2 kids and their families, then I could send them to my friends and say "Hey... do you remember ______?"
I checked online weather at the local TV station and their top story was the demand for COVID testing exceeds the supply for tests.
There is a testing site less than a mile from me at a county park. I've noticed all week a single file line backed up about 2-1/2 miles. That's got to be a wait of 4 or 5 hours to get to the front. Many of the county sites have run out of test kits and forced to turn (angry) people away.
After that news clip played, they switched to a story about distress on the open seas as several cruise ships have reported multiple cases of COVID and being denied access to ports they were scheduled to visit.
Obviously, people are thinking the pandemic is nearly over and it's okay to return to a normal life.
I dislike having to work around 'word filtering' in a public forum. At best they are inconsistently consistent. The three letter word that got us on the earth 'sex' often gets blocked.
If your name is Richard, chances are people will call you d*ck. Blocked, even if it's spelled with a capital D. That would mean the word filter is programmed to block the street name for p*nis. Oh yeah... that gets blocked too!
Do you read the bible? The rooster is mentioned as a c*ck. However, that's also a street name for p*nis.
Checking back... it appears the spelling of ALL those words get blocked.
On one Irish music board 'WTF' is blocked and replaced by 'Oh my goodness' Are you kidding me? Oh my goodness ?? WTF.
Another site I frequent dislikes numbers. Thinking someone is giving out contact information they usually delete any sequence of 2 or more digits. I have to resort to spelling a number. For example if it's 88 degrees, I'll type eighty-eight degrees so the filter doesn't block me.
PIMA... Yes, pain in my a** where a** gets blocked. Should I say pain in my donkey?
It's safe to say a** also gets used in the bible. Or, as the Europeans do, it's spelled arse and passes through the filter. Maybe I should use buttocks instead. It's a pain in my buttocks has a ring to it.
Certainly Instagram and Facebook users say all kinds of offensive things and get away with it. We're all adults (although some here act like children) so it's my opinion the word filtering shouldn't be so tight.
I know they were too hard on the late British singer Joe Cocker. I think it's okay to use his family name without being blocked. Sheesh...
Having received a c*m laude graduate degree of a State University. Yep... it gets blocked too. The Latin version: cume laude gets through.
C'mon CS, light up on the word filtering.
As far back as I can recall, I always wore clothing suited for the performance I did as a musician.
The very first band we played poolside on hotels along Miami Beach. All dressed alike, our costumes were bell bottom pants and striped pullover shirts. If we had to a night gig at a hotel it's was clam digger pants and puffy sleeve shirts... something Tom Jones would perform in.
These were clothes we didn't wear on the street.
As music changed so did our clothing. Nehru jackets wide belt low-rise pants.
When psychedelic music came along it was knitted pullover and tie-dyed shirts.
Music changed to rock and I had some slacks made from a shimmering material that reflected stage lighting along with some striped pants.
My dad managed one of the early bands and would help us move equipment and wardrobe.
He bought one of the puffy sleeved shirts for me that had lots of bright colors. He called it "The multi-shirt" and it was okay for a short time, but as the music grew harder and louder, I refused to wear the multi-shirt despite his pleas that it would show off better from a stage.
"No dad, that's not the style anymore" No more multi-shirt.
I remember he would place it on a hanger in front of all the other garments we wore for the night. I avoided that shirt like the plague. Somewhere along the way, I think one of the other band member made that shirt disappear. My dad was pissed on that subject.
Around the time of Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes, I had a few custom made jump suits.
Probably started by The Rolling Stones, all 'band clothes' became street clothes, with the exception of leather pants and silk shirts the the unbuttoned front. It became impossible to differentiate a musician/entertainer from someone looking to bum a cigarette from you.
I retired from music to attend college, but I was lured back after passing an audition for a touring band. We played the nightclub circuit and had two tuxedo jackets and 4 shirts so it was necessary to hand wash clothes in the hotel room ready for then next gig.
Now, band clothes are shredded T-shirts with silkscreen images of other famous musicians.
I still have nightmares about the multi-shirt!
2021 was a terrible year for many. While I pretended to be semi-retired making less money than previous years, I didn't 'fall into a hole' financially. With a dental issue that popped up and is being resolved, my overall health has been okay.
I skirted COVID at least 6 times as people around me (coworkers and friends) were directly affected.
So what's to complain about?
Nothing really.
Retailers are still pushing with extended black Friday sales and sale-a-thons up the ying-yang.
(that's the first time I used ying-yang in a blog)
Anyway, 2 days after Christmas, I was in Walmart and the normal New Years party items are in the front of the store. To my surprise, they had Valentines displays out too!
Ya can't wait... can ya!
A box of chocolates for a buck. That's got to be an amazing price.
A friend of mine didn't make it out to the flying field last weekend as he said he usually does. His reason was virus. He believes it was a trip to the dentist where he had no mask in an environment with lots of people getting medical attention.
The county COVID testing sites are overwhelmed, but he was able to get a home test from the pharmacy to confirm his thoughts.
Cold-like symptoms, sinus pain and congestion, body aches that lasted about 4 days.
He and his family have been vaccinated and boosted. As soon as he felt sick the masks went on through his household and so far, he's past the contagious stage and no one in his family caught his virus.
Good news.
I rarely answer calls from numbers I don't recognize, however I did put out a few bids and customers have called to discuss prices. I'm also working on a large renovation and the contractor has me in touch with some of the trades as I need specific placement of walls, plumbing and electrical.
A call came through and I answered without saying anything. The guy on the other end spoke first and knew my name. He started into a sales pitch for some computer service. I stopped him cold and told him to remove my number from his list.
Hanging up, I placed his number on my blocked number list.
I've been using the same phone for a few years and plan to upgrade sometime next year. Normally, I clone all my contacts and data from the old phone to the replacement phone. Having repeated the same procedure for at least 5 phones. I'm curious now if the new phone will receive the blocked list in the transfer. I've never seen a blocked caller list to verify who's on it.
Last night, I received a text message from an unknown number stating my Citibank account has been put on hold due to recent activity and to restore the account, visit the link provided to verify.
Thanks but no thanks. That's a 100% phishing scam in an attempt to get my banking information. The beauty is I don't have a Citibank account.
If I did, I would call my bank to verify and not click the link in the text message.
I reverse Googled the number but it turned up nothing. There's a good chance it was spoofed and not really assigned by a phone carrier.
Be safe, tis the season as scammers are in high-gear.
The top of my list is a granddaughter, 10 years old and more toys and gadgets than any child could need. Mentioning the perplexity of the situation to a lunch friend, some woman (in a group with others) who overheard me said "Get her a gift card. That solves all your problems"
I thought, it's a twist to someone (me) formally known as 'Uncle Cash'
My daughter suggests food and to get her a BurgerFi gift card.
I usually pass one of their restaurants on weekend travels and they have a bonus program for a limited time of a $5 kickback for every $25 in gift card purchases.
One less gift to think about.
I'm amazed at the lazy people in this world who go through life doing a job that's less than acceptable. In some cases dangerous. Lots of websites hosting proof of these people doing stupid things.
The oldest one that I know of this the dead animal in the roadway painted over when they striped the lanes. Judging by the cars in the photo it happened a generation ago.
Another example is the restroom partition door that belongs on the side with the toilet and not the urinal. Someone bought materials and supplied labor, probably using engineered drawings to construct this thing.
(from this site)
It gives me great pleasure (not) to read some profiles of women and what they seek in a relationship. Having seen a few like this I'm thinking thinking it must be something they teach in school... but not in math class.
A young widow under the age of 30 is asking for a man who will be with her for the rest of her life. But... a big but at that, is her age requirements are 50-99.
She's already lost one and to find another that's 20+ her senior literally guarantees she'll be a widow again.
That said, the only way he could be with her for the rest of her life is to park that casket alongside the bed. The only question then would be: The left side or the right side?
As much as I didn't want to have a molar extracted the discomfort of bone deterioration was growing. The antibiotic from 2 weeks ago was wearing away and the pressure was growing.
The Periodontist that works for the dentist I had been using only visits the office once a week and is booked out a month at that center. He's twice a week at another center that's about the same distance from me, but cannot see me until the 2nd week in January. It's a corporate environment as all the dentists are hired hands and they don't stand out as experts in their field. I didn't want to wait.
I had a referral to another periodontist who has his own practice and after checking the reviews, booked an appointment with him. Today was the appointment day. He reviewed the x-rays and told me the best thing was to extract the tooth, remove all the damaged bone and surrounding tissue, build-up a bone graft. After, 8 weeks when all is healed would be the right time to return for an implant.
He assured me the Novocaine injections would be sufficient that I wouldn't feel anything. He was right. I lost sensation on half of my face for a few hours!
I stopped at my office just to make sure there weren't any problems, then headed to the pharmacy where I picked up some gauze pads, prescriptions for rinse and antibiotic. Stopping at home for a few minutes and went to the grocery store for soft food as I expect it will be rough going for a few days.
After lunch I napped with pillows propped up as I had some bleeding. 10 hours later the pain is minimal and I was able to have dinner without discomfort. As instructed, I'm applying an ice pack to my jawbone to minimize swelling.
Traumatized over this? Yeah, but knowing the area had been troublesome for months and not getting better, I was running out of options. All the people in his office were professional and made the experience go smoothly.
So far, my quote from many years ago still holds true:
"The only pain you should feel from a dentist is when you receive the bill"
The new trend for aging musicians appears to be selling their music catalogs. I first heard about this when Bob Dylan sold his entire record catalog for an estimated $300 million. Many others have followed and today, I see Bruce Springsteen clocks in at an estimated $500 million.
Amazing...
online today!chatillion Blog (1,897)
