Men Blogs (29,411)

One of the founding members of the Allman Brothers band passed away at the age of 80. He was a singer and guitarist, born in West Palm Beach, Florida and retired in Osprey, Florida.
Betts had some health issues dating back to a stroke in 2018 and died from cancer and COPD at his home today.

Ramblin' Man - The Allman Brothers Band

News first came across on the forums where galrads/sdarlagg was a regular. I know he was hospitalized more than a year ago and recovered. On April 7th robplum announced he was again in the hospital with pneumonia and pulmonary fibrosis and the update came through today that he passed away on the 10th.

I was in Dayton, Ohio last year on vacation, about one hour from Columbus where he lived. It came as a surprise my brother drove me to Columbus to see a famous museum and German restaurant, so I had no advance plan to contact gal. Always in my thoughts would be to get in touch if I get the chance to go back to Dayton this summer.
It just wasn't in the cards.

There's a void in the CS family as his absence is noticed...

Currently they are having jury selection for Trump's hush money trial. 7 jurors were selected and I passed a TV showing one was removed. They need 6 more and 6 alternates.
I haven't been selected for jury duty in more than 40 years and yesterday I was thinking "What are the possibilities to get into the selection pool?"
That would be awesome to fly to New York City today and first thing tomorrow morning catch someone who looks like me... offer him cash to borrow his identification and get into the room for jury selection.
That's less than 5% probability to get that far... Okay, less than 3%

Japan's fertility rate is on the decline due to a number of factors:-
Less people getting married, and having children outside of wedlock is frowned upon.
The high cost of childcare, and lack of support facilities.
High living costs.
Bleak job prospects. Difficulty with dual working parents due to business cultures.
Limited space
1.30 births per woman in 2021
Population decreased by 600,000 in 2021.

The messages I usually get reflect they didn't read my profile prior to sending. It's okay, I'm used to being a scam magnet and my mail filter settings are open... intentionally.
This week, I received two messages that included their email address expecting me to contact them. I'm tempted to reply by sending the address from one scammer to the other scammer so they can play it out. Maybe make some new friends!

This evening, I received a message from a lonely 36 year old who claims to be living with her daughter and seeking unconditional love. Aren't they all? She includes a phone number and email.
The message starts with Good morning. First mistake.
Scanning her profile, I see she's unmarried with no children. Second mistake.
Her profile lists her hair color as dark blonde but the photos are of two different women, one with black hair and the other dark brown. That counts as two mistakes with one being fatal.

Sorry lady, you're pegging the BS meter!

Yesterday a gallon of gas shot up from $3.33 to $3.75. I remember fours years ago back in the spring of 2020 a gallon of gas was under $2.00.

What's the price of a gallon a gas where you're living?

This is about a former first lady. Her name was mentioned in a current blog and why she's still in a marriage with Donald. I can think of a few reasons and from tabloid comments I read, there's a mountain of gossip about the woman. What's true and what's false may be difficult to prove either way.

She was a fashion model, did some risky nudes and few F-F photos. Photos on the internet. Undisputed.
Mentioned in a few places, she was an escort. Mentioned in other places, she was a callgirl. T/F not confirmed.

She met Donald at a party where he was to meet someone else and focused on her. At the time, he was married to Marla Maples. Undisputed.
It's believed she's had plastic surgery. T/F not confirmed.

Several times I read comments her visa was in jeopardy and her marriage to Donald fixed that including her citizenship. I also read he arranged her parents travel to the United States and 'fast-tracked' their citizenship. T/F not confirmed.

So... what's in it for her?
Lavish lifestyle, gave him a handsome son. True.
There's talk about a prenup agreement and recent renegotiation. Ohh.. tough one.
Has that been confirmed?

Either way... what ever happens to their marriage, she walks away standing tall as it's my opinion, she is doing a great job to ride the tide in something she didn't expect to be so connected in.

Sunak the UK prime minister is trying to make a new law banning anyone born after 1st Jan 2009 from ever being able to purchase cigarettes. It's been initially approved by parliament, though many of the government voted against it.
This is a stupid law that will stop certain adults ever smoking, even though they would be in the presence of other adults who can purchase cigs and smoke. Freedom of the individual is again being attacked by a meddling government.

I wore construction boots when I was a project manager, as a good part of my day was on jobsites. It's a requirement by OSHA to wear thick sole, steel toe shoes when in a construction environment.
Job change and the boots were put aside.
Yesterday, I had an appointment to measure a new project that is in the 'framing stage' where all the partitions are going up, prior to electrical and plumbing. Lots of sheet metal, pipes, air conditioning grills on the floor as tradesmen went about their business.

This is the right time to spot errors in layout and make corrections to the shop drawings that the factory builds from. We need all the time to fabricate so the product is ready when the contractor is requesting delivery.

The screws used to hold the metal studs have sharp points needed to pierce sheet metal and the framing crew don't pick up any that fall to the floor. I was on the job for a few hours and had to pull screws from the bottom of my boots a few times.

That was the easy part as I had the boots on for 5 hours and couldn't wait to get home to remove them. They were killing my feet yesterday afternoon and I felt pain this morning when I got up!
I'm back in soft shoes today and getting into my normal routine... maybe with some aspirin for breakfast.

The big talking point at work today was the fire in Copenhagen this morning, where the old stock exchange, simply known as Børsen, or The Stock, burned for several hours.

If you are not familiar with what I am talking about, it's this


It's one of the oldest buildings in Copenhagen, dating back to 1623, and it's been used as a stock exchange until 1974, where it was converted into an office building. It's also a tourist magnet. The part of the building on fire in the picture is the Dragon Spire, which dates back to 1625. It was shaped as the tails of four dragons intertwined, symbolizing the protection of the gold that trade would generate for Denmark.
The spire also had three crowns at the top, symbolizing the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Legend has it, that the spire would protect us from enemies and from fires.

To us Danes, this is a piece of our history being destroyed. Some say it's our Notre Dame, which is pretty accurate. A lot of people were shocked - some even cried, because it's a pretty big landmark going up in flames.

The building was under renovation, and it's highly likely that someone on the renovation crew started the fire, by accident. It's unknown at the moment what started the inferno, but the police are beginning their technical work. It'll take time, but it will be worth it.

Once the technical work is done, the parts of the building that has burned, will be demolished, and new construction will begin. How much will this cost? It's unknown, but a minimum of 200 million kroner. The CEO of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, has said that no matter what, the building WILL be rebuilt.

Fortunately, no lives were lost in this tragic disaster, which is the most important thing. Most of the furniture and artwork from the building was saved, which was a huge relief. If they were lost in the fire, it would have been a loss that you couldn't put an amount on.

To put even more salt in the wound - it happened on Queen Margrethe II's 84th birthday.

Of all days..

Now begins the job of building back better than before, but one thing about us Danes is: We're a determined bunch. If we see a task ahead of us, we complete it - no matter the price or duration.

A building might be gone - but our spirit isn't!