He's Back

I know I’m always making excuses for not Blogging more frequently, but this morning I realized that it’s presumptuous on my part to think that you are all waiting with baited breath for my next literary gem.  Now that’s funny.  Seriously though, I recently lost a very dear friend, who for some strange reason thought my writing was great.  Can you believe that?  He constantly spurred me on to make an entry and even enlisted more readers for me and made sure I let them know when I made one.  I must admit that his death saddened me greatly and took a little edge off these entries.  But the more I thought about it, at least I had one real fan so I’ll keep on “Blogging”.  I think he’d want that.

During the holiday season a great deal of time is spent in the kitchen preparing all those meals.  Chopping and mixing and all the other culinary functions create many opportunities to get clumsy and drop things.  Did you ever notice that no matter what you drop, even inanimate objects suddenly develop a life and some how crawl, jump, hop or fly into inaccessible locations, under cabinets, tables, refrigerators, any place where you need to get on your hands and knees to retrieve.  Maybe it only happens to me.

Here’s something else that always happens to me.  I continue to regularly choose the wrong checkout line in stores.

·        Person in front of me will slide a credit card that won’t work.

·        They think the item is on sale.  Flyer comes out for verification, item is refused, and employee has to go five isles down to get the correct one.

·        Questions something that requires a manager decision.  She has to be hailed, but there’s a major delay finding her, smoke break outside.

·        There’s more, I think I’ve run into every delay possible. Computer even crashed when I was checking out, had to reboot.

Here’s something good.  I got a real bargain today. Most of you know that I’ve been reading like crazy since I got my Kindle, around 265 books. But I’ve been hesitating downloading a Stephen King novel, Under the Dome, because that damn author wants too much money for it, even for the Kindle edition.  I was thinking that I’d have get the courage (cheap bastard that I am) and pull the trigger since I wanted to take a real long book on our next trip and his is over 1000 pages.  Well low and behold, Amazon had a today only special of $1.99.  Can you imagine?  I’m flabbergasted, I never get bargains.

This is a perfect time to wish you all a very Happy and especially Healthy New Year.  Write you soon………………Bill

A not so beautiful morning

I spent the last thirty minutes or so trying to make up mind if I should crawl out of this nice warm bed and face the world.  Having watched all the local news channels I had already suffered through what seemed to b fifteen weather forecasts and at least the same number of useless traffic reports showing me tiny green blobs running up and down a representative highway route.  Isn’t it a shame cars don’t have a nice flat screen TV's in them so commuters could use it to find out how fast those little green things are traveling and where they would be running into problems. They’d be able to check this all out while they text their friends and adjust their makeup.  Never could figure out how this crap could help be out under my warm covers. Oh well, I guess it’s time.  Now for the morning routine, sit on the edge of the bed, get my bearings, stand up and dare not move until I’m sure these legs are balanced.  There’s no longer a jump off the mattress system even though the desire to relieve myself is strong as ever.  Ok, I think I’m stable enough to make the trip.

With this chore completed I now have to face the hard work, off to the sink.

Now in our house and I’m sure yours, there’s a mirror right above the sink. Out of habit I tend to avoid looking into it especially with my eyes half shut and squinty against the bright morning sun shining in the window.  This morning for some strange reason I looked directly at the mirror before starting to wash.  Who the hell was looking back at me?  That face cannot be mine; this must be some kind of twilight zone type event.  This thing looking back at me was some pretty wrinkled old guy who needed a shave, had hair standing up like Jack Nicholson’s in the “Shining”.  His head sat on a neck attached to an overweight body in need of some major repairs and maybe even a “bra”.  Brown age spots all over that tempted me to get a marking pen and start connecting to see the picture it would create. A closer look made me realize that the face belonged to me.  When the hell did I get that old?

Now I have a big problem.  How am I going to shave and wash each morning without seeing this horrible image? Maybe I can do it without a mirror or maybe I can manage in the dark. I’m sure there are a few things I can do to improve this image, but I guess to be realistic I have to accept the fact that I was looking at a soon to be 78 year old.  So accept I did, then brushed my teeth, washed my face, combed my hair, and covered the body with a shirt.  After a tentative peak at that mirror I decided that guy really wasn’t that bad especially after 78 years of abuse.

Bill's bitching again

Have any of you heard of the phrase "Jump the Shark"?  Just in case you haven't, here's what it means.  
Jumping the shark is an idiom created by Jon Hein that is used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery. The phrase is also used to refer to a particular scene, episode, or aspect of a show in which the writers use some type of "gimmick" in a desperate attempt to keep viewers' interest.
In its initial usage, it referred to the point in a television program's history when the program had outlived its freshness and viewers had begun to feel that the show's writers were out of new ideas, often after great effort was made to revive interest in the show by the writers, producers, or network.


Well, I watched all of the CBS sit comb presentations and feel strongly that they all jumped the shark.  Terrible, terrible.  I can't imagine that none around the table discussing the episode did not find a way to convince the higher ups not to air these atrocities.  I very nearly decided that I was going to sell my TV set and read even more than I currently do.  What trash.  I held off the decision only because we do have such a thing as Public Television.  I used to enjoy the history channel, but what's on now?  Swamp wars, guys picking thru trash in barns, people trying to get rich selling their crap in pawn shops, even Cajun ones.  Let's face it, when you create hundreds of channels operating 24/7, how much quality do we expect to get.  In my opinion we get very little.  And talk about sports.  Don't get me wrong I've played many of them and enjoy watching at times, but just try to watch something besides a football game on Saturday...talk about overkill.

Don't start me on the commercials again.  How much are they charging these days, can't be much because every break gives you at least ten of them.  All of poor quality I might add.  A couple of nights ago as I was surfing channels trying desperately to find something, I stumbled on an absolutely atrocious program. I was was astounded to see that even this miserable program was still able to attract the usual ten commercials.  Something is wrong here.  So long as I'm in a bitching mood, there's one more thing.  Background noise behind everything, music, just plain unidentifiable noise in back of commercials, announcements, everything.  Most of the time you can't even hear the person speaking.  And canned laughter.  Pay attention to it just once and you'll be unable to not hear this annoying addition to the program.

Not going to give up on TV altogether, but I'll continue to make sure my Kindle is fully charged and keep reading. 

Morning Adventure

I can’t tell you how happy I am to see that ugly, hot humid weather disappear. I might be wrong, but I really can’t remember many decent days this past spring and summer. These past few days have been glorious. Unfortunately with the change come signs that fall and then that “bad” season, winter, is right around the corner. When I finally decided that I should rise from this chair and venture into the great outdoors I discovered other signs of the changing season. My tomatoes are not turning red, the butternut vines are shriveling and the hanging plants are hanging on for dear life. Decide that it was time to clear out some of that dying summer growth. I filled up a large barrel and headed for my disposal area which is up a slight hill then over a small stone wall and into an abandoned orchard. It seems like yesterday when I would be able run up the hill, jump the wall and quickly finish the task. Today was so, so different. Dragged (slowly) the barrel up the hill. Didn’t dare try to carry it over the wall for fear of falling on my you know what. Reached over and deposited the barrel while I gingerly went over the shortest group of stones I was able to avoid most of the tree branches on the journey and made it a little way into the woods. Dumped most of the debris, but lost hold of the barrel which now slid down a little slope. Made my way down, almost losing my balance, but was kept from falling by a bush of thorns which proceeded to make some blood flow and add to my many senior citizen scars. Finally retrieved the barrel and made my way huffing and puffing down the hill. Small job like this and I had to go back to my chair in front of this machine and get my breath back. When dear friends, did I get so damn old and out of shape? There are a lot of other things on the “get the area in shape for winter” list, but I decided that since I escaped this morning’s escapade virtually unscathed I would take the rest of the day off. Visualizing the rest of the chores and weighing it against a vision of a glass of nice Italian Red wine, a piece of Kerry Gold cheese, my Kindle and a recliner, the latter vision one out. And you know what? I don’t feel guilty at all. After seventy seven years of hard work, trials and tribulations I decided that I’ve earned these precious moments of relaxation, especially the wonderful glow achieved after a glass of 16% alcohol “Vino Rustico” (my absolute favorite jug wine). You’ve got to try it. By the way, speaking of old, Marge and I had the pleasure of attending our 60th class of 1952 New Britain Senior High School reunion. Eighty were able to attend which is a pretty good number after all these years.

A LITTLE ACTIVITY UPDATE

We are experiencing a downturn in the economy of our country, possibly enough to consider it a recession. This is what the media has been throwing at me for the past few years. They can’t possibly be wrong, yet everywhere I go I seem to be unable to find any real evidence of its existence. While traveling to Rock Hall, Maryland recently for a fishing excursion, my prostate challenged system required frequent rest stops to ensure my comfort. Squirming in my seat was not my idea of a pleasant trip. I could not believe how crowded the parking lots were at every stop. $4.00 per gallon didn’t seem to keep many people home even with the terrible mileage those big SUVs in the lot manage. And the lines inside for food…..unbelievable. Of course the lines might also be a result of the “fabulous” service at these places. I firmly believe you need an IQ below 100 to even apply for a job at these places. Needless to say the traffic on the highways reflected the crowds at the stops. I ask the same question every time I venture out on the road………where the hell is everyone going? I don’t care what road, what day of the week, or what time of the day, there are cars everywhere. Certainly not a sign of a big recession. Other situations also seem to put a damper on the media’s claim. This past winter we went on a Caribbean cruise to get away from the New England snow storms, which by the way, never materialized. We traveled with another couple and although we had booked fairly early we were unable to get two rooms together on a ship that held nearly 3,000 passengers. Can you believe it? A ship holding 3,000 totally sold out in this disastrous economy. Oh well, off the soup box. Our fishing trip was a success as evidenced by these pictures. Capt. Bob was skunked most of the morning, but finally found us enough fish to keep our party of six happy. Everyone was able to take home a few nice meals of Chesapeake Rockfish (striped bass).

The only damper to the trip was a letter which arrived a week after our return home. In that letter there were pictures of my nice looking Buick Enclave leaving Rock Hall. I was real pleased until the letter also told me that my car was going 42 miles per hour in an area with a slower posted speed. I don’t remember if it was 30 or 35. Anyway they requested that I lighten my wallet by $40.00. Wasn’t it nice to have Maryland say good by, come again, in such a unique way?

Back from the Oregon trip

When learning that Marge and I were going on another trip, the obvious question from our friends was, where are you going? When we answered that our trip was to Oregon and parts of Washington they said, oh, do you have relatives there? None seemed very excited about our destination, neither was I until we began to learn a little about the state, which by the way is beautiful. Without question the state experiences a great deal of rain, but on the plus side contributes to its lush green beauty. Fir and pine trees were everywhere making it the Christmas tree capital of the world and insuring that we’ll not run out of lumber. In between delightful sunshiny weather it did rain nearly every day, but luckily for us it was always when we were on the bus. I was happy to hear that the trip included a visit to Mount St. Helens. I was anxious to see the recovery Nature had provided after the destruction 32 years ago. We all watched it on television, but in no way can you imagine the power of that blast and what it did to miles and miles of the surrounding landscape. Huge trees snapped off like matchsticks and entire valleys covered with mud and rubble. Miles away we saw an a-frame buried nearly up to its roof as a result. Plants and trees are once again flourishing and forests have been replanted by the Weyerhaeuser lumber company. St. Helens was spectacular, but was not the only visited mountain since a stop at Mt. Hood was also on the calendar. Here we visited Timberline Lodge at the foot of the mountain. It was quite strange to seen people climbing the mountain, trudging thru the snow and even watched people snowboarding and this in late June. This was not the last of snow sighting. We had a chance to see some rather substantial drifts at Crater Lake National Park where the get forty feet of snow a year. It even hailed a bit before we got back on the bus. Never thought, by any stretch of the imagination, would we do some of the things we did on this trip. Dune buggy ride in the Oregon Dunes (forty miles of sand dunes)….spectacular, a jet boat ride on the Rogue River, and even a dinner cruise down the Willamette River (fabulous beef tenderloin by the way). This trip turned out to be much, much more than expected, and to my misfortune left me almost nothing to bitch about, I would be remiss if I did not tell you about my one bad experience. On one of our days we traveled along the Oregon coast and made a lunch stop at a famous creamery where we could sample special sweet cheeses, ice cream and all the other goodies provided by this type of enterprise. Busy, busy place, but we decided to make an attempt at lunch, hopefully a quick one since we have a boarding time to meet for our bus departure. Well we decided to order one of my favorite, Mac and Cheese accompanied by a small salad. Thought this would be a quick one. Wrong, wrong, wrong. We waited and waited. Thirty minutes go went by and still no meal. Panic starting to set in as the time to get on the bus draws closer and closer. Marge goes over and convinces them of our plight and they manage to pack the meal up to go so we could take it on the bus. Let me tell you that I was treated to the absolute worst Mac and Cheese on the planet earth. Macaroni had just been boiled and what appeared to be a slightly cheese flavored warm milk poured over it. This was topped with a sprinkling (small) of disgusting shredded cheddar. Salad also sucked, wilted iceberg along with bitter old cucumber slices. Those of you who know me are well aware of this guy’s mood for the rest of that days ride. There is always a plus to the negatives. I at least now know that I can never get a worst meal for the rest of my life because I already experienced the ultimate disaster.

Progress Report

Well, the new filter’s been installed and the pool’s been opened. It didn’t take long before the chipmunks began their suicidal plunges into a chlorinated hell. I have no idea why they take the plunge. It’s bad enough ridding the pool of the usual accumulation of dead leaves, worms and other exciting goodies, but handling their funerals is even worse. Do I sound negative, you bet, I hate this part of the process, but I will admit that once the pool is rid of the debris and crystal clear, it’s nice and relaxing to sit by it with a cold one (along with my ever present salt shaker) and watch the hummingbirds enjoying their sugared water. Have to get this pool work completed this week since we’re going on a week long tour of Oregon’s highlights. Anyone that’s been there reports that except for frequent rain it’s a beautiful state. The trip does sound interesting and hopefully fun. I don’t use the word exciting because the trip organizers are intent on bringing us old timers home alive and kicking. Excitement is of a limited variety but the jet boat trip down the Rogue River might produce some required medical attention. Of course a new Mount St. Helens eruption would certainly create excitement. All kidding aside it will be interesting to see how Mother Nature has rebuilt the area after the eruption. Will give you a trip rundown in a future blog. By the way, squash and tomatoes doing nicely in my little gentleman’s garden……might even have to build a stand in front of the house to sell some off. Can only consume so much butternut squash soup.

Death of a golf game

I’ve been trying to come up with the proper words that will accurately describe my last two rounds of golf and came up with the following: atrocious, abominable, awful, dreadful, painful, terrible, unspeakable. After giving it a little more thought I decided that these words didn’t quite cover it. Replaying those rounds in my head provided me with the inspiration to come up with a few more: irritating, dreadful, indescribable, indefinable, awful, sore, odious, unnamable, execrable, horrifying, frightful, amazing, horrendous, severe, dreaded, dire, afflictive, flagitious, grievous, monstrous, ineffable, painful, detestable, awing, awed, wicked, dread(a), awe-inspiring, unspeakable, horrific, nasty, terrible, horrible, frightening, unutterable, awesome, fearsome, fearful, direful, untellable, and just plain ugly. Are you now sufficiently aware of the quality of my golf game? I’m not blind to the fact that with my advancing age and a body that needs a lot of help my game is bound to deteriorate. My real problem is that my memory has not gone as far downhill as my golf and I do remember when I actually played the game fairly well. Is it any wonder that golf has come way, way down on my list of things to do on a Saturday morning? Problem now is to find a decent substitute to keep me happy. Watching cartoons or working on the household to-do list are not viable options, going to need some help in this area. Oh well, I guess everything has something on the plus side. All the Saturday money I’ll be saving will help pay for the $1,000 cost of the four nineteen inch monster tires I put on the Enclave. I guess I will work on the to-do list. I’ve been ignoring things because we’ve had an on going question, should we or shouldn’t we sell the house and go into a one level condo, should we open the pool or fill it in and plant tomatoes (just kidding on the tomatoes). Too late now to fill the pool in so guess what, found out we needed a new filter. Only another $1,000. Well the tires answered the question on trading the car. No way now with the new tires. Now, close the pool, no way with the new filter. Questions all answered without even trying. And Marge surprised me by having someone stop and quote us on putting in central air in the house. Believe me, if the quote is as much as I think it will be and we do it, another question will be answered. Won’t be looking at anymore condos. I’ve accepted my fate and started to clean up the pool area, planted my little gentleman’s garden and resurrected the to-do list. Besides, that my daughter who is an extreme Hummingbird enthusiast, bought me a Hummingbird feeding ensemble for my birthday and now polices me like a Nazi storm trooper to make sure my unit is kept clean and filled with fresh sugar water. I really had little faith that those little guys would actually come and feed since weeks went by with absolutely no activity. But, lo and behold they’re at it all day long now. Interesting little creatures. These guys only drink cheap sugar water. The rest of the birds around the house will eat your wallet dry…..unbelievable little pigs. Can’t keep the feeders and suet cage full. One cake of suet per day. Will let you know about all the exciting things, yah right, that I come up with in place of golf.

Long Time No Blog

I realize that it is hard for you to believe that I really enjoy doing these entries to my Blog site, but I do. I still have a problem wondering why I can’t seem to do them on a regular basis. I think it goes back to my high school and college days when a term paper was due on Monday and I was on the couch watching 60 minutes on Sunday. Thank heaven for my mother who would get on my behind and get me going. Otherwise I’d be up at six on Monday rushing to get it done. I always have something on my mind to write about, but for some strange reason I just can’t seem to get going. Although my mother has been gone for quite some time and can no longer crack the whip I’m fortunate to have a very good Canadian friend who seems able to spur me on to the keyboard. Have absolutely no idea why he likes to read my stuff, but without him giving me an occasional push, my Blog site would go the way of like a Texas ghost town with cyber tumbleweed blowing thru my computer. Wow, pretty poetic, say what? Any way, here I am again. I probably do have a few good reasons for not doing any entries this past month………it’s been a busy one, starting with cataract surgery on my left eye along with the required doctor visits. Happy to report that it went well and I can see like an eagle now. I’ll even be able see where the ball lands after some of my huge drives (all of 150 yards now). My involvement in Church activities has also kept me busy. 60th Class reunion meetings (Guess whose running that), Men’s Club meetings which include Scholarship application reviews. Work on a “Hot Dog Night” at church, AARP meetings. I better stop now because I know I’m boring the hell out of you by now. It hasn’t been all work type stuff. Marge and I had the great pleasure of attending our grandson Robert’s college graduation at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. This was two day affair for us since the day before graduation he was honored along with only 37 others for achievement in an Honors program. The following day graduation for 1012 students was held out on the lawn of this spectacular campus on the shore of the Hudson River. The night before we took Robert out to dinner at a unique, out of the way restaurant that specializes in utilizing mostly all locally grown products. Even after all my eating experience we were exposed to stuff I had never heard of. One of the vegetables used in the menu was “Ramps”. Ever hear of it……look it up. The name of this restaurant was named “Red Devon”. Had to look that one up too. Found out it was a breed of cattle with a ruby red coat originally from Devon, England. It’s never too late to learn. Weekend didn’t even slow down on Sunday. Went to church twice, once in the morning at our church and then to a wonderful Mass at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Hartford celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the cathedral’s consecration in 1962. The ceremony was spectacular beginning with an organ, horn and choir concert. 210 Diocesan Parishes were represented along with many other active and retired bishops and a large contingent from the Knights of Columbus. After all this activity Marge and I went to a local restaurant for nourishment and relaxation. It was at this quiet dinner that I learned that my weekend and day was not over. Lo and behold I still had a Birthday Party for my 14 year old granddaughter to attend. Pretty busy stuff for an old guy like me. Oops, almost forgot, we have a concert to go to tonight. Two of our grandchildren will be tooting horns for us at a middle school jazz concert. Thank heaven I had the energy this afternoon to make a nice meat loaf for supper. Sorry these past few days gave me nothing to bitch or roar about. I’ll try to make up for it on the next one.

My Seventy Seventh

February 28, 1935. A young woman anxiously awaits the birth of her first child at the New Britain General Hospital in New Britain, Connecticut. It’s around 8:30 on a Thursday evening. No big bang on the TV tonight only the upcoming big occasion of the baby’s birth. The unborn is enjoying this winter evening, nice and warm in its liquid paradise. Little did I know then that 30 minutes later I’ll be pushed out into a strange new world, and it’s been a strange one ever since. Even the seventy seventh time this date came around it proves to be strange.

How do you spend your 77th birthday? Let’s see, first we wait for the car dealer to come and start your dead car in the garage. Fifth time he’s had to come. Some strange night time creature in my cursed vehicle has once again drained my battery. Googled the problem as suggested by my smart brother and found, lo and behold that I am not the only one suffering this pain-in-the-ass problem. Keying in 2008 Buick battery failures filled the screen with many others who, along with their dealers, have no idea why the phantom creature in their Buick is stealing the juice form their battery overnight. Thank God the car’s death occurred in the safety of my garage every time

Well enough of that, let’s go to the exciting part of my birthday celebration. I got a phone from a nice fellow member of the local AARP. I’m a member why? Well Marge knows a great number of women and enjoys going to functions where she can see many of them. So what does that have to do with me? I’ll tell you, I’m a real nice guy and am her driver, escort and sandwich maker when it’s our turn to contribute to the food table laid out after each monthly meeting. So anyway, at most meetings of a hundred or so ancient people only about five or six are men, who look in far worse shape than me. There’s work to be done prior to meetings, tables and chairs to be moved to set up the hall. Anyway this nice old gentleman, 89 to be exact calls me on my birthday and asks if I would help him set up. How the hell do I say no to an 89 year old man stuck with the job? So the birthday celebration began huffing and puffing away hauling heavy metal tables out fro under the stage and setting them up for a stimulating meeting followed by an exciting “Tea Cup Auction”. I did, however get there in style. My dealer, who is actually great, must have felt guilty this time because they left me with a brand new Buick with only 24 miles on it.

In spite of everything the day still ended up nicely. Had a nice dinner with Brother Peter, his girl friend Kathy and two very good friends. I nice bottle Malbec didn’t hurt the cause either.

Where's the Snow?

Nearly every winter Marge and I talk about joining the so called "Snow Birds" to head South for while to get away from our New England winter weather. Of course it's all talk for us and we never end up going, but last year's miserable record snows took us from all talk into action. We booked a twelve day cruise out of Bayonne, New Jersey to the sunny Carribean islands. We're not new to cruising having been on four others, but this was our first winter one. Arriving in Port Liberty I was surprised to see the size of this ship, Celebrity's Silhouette. Seven hundred fifty million dollars worth of luxury. Over 1,000 feet long. 122,000 tons and carrying 2,886 passengers and 1,500 crew.......how does it float? And this is still far from the biggest.

These things have everything, bars, Casino, pools, hot tubs, huge main dining room,restaurans,theater (marvelous shows every night), wine cellars, a library and even lawns on the top deck with real grass. I could go on and on, mind boggling. Five nights coming and going at sea and six ports, Haiti, Puerto Rico, St. Croix, Antigua, St. Thomas, St. Maarten. Not a lot for me to do on the Islands, mostly shopping and beaches. Long ago I had decided that there was no way I was putting this marvelous body on public display. We let the wives shop, while John and I sat on benches and drank cheap Island beer (only $.99 a can). Forgot to mention we were traveling with a great couple from Enfield that we met on our trip last September. Temperatures around eighty every day.
We checked the New England weather every day in the hope for verification of our travel decision. I was actually praying you would have at least a little snow, but what happens, it waits for us to come home. Can't believe it's February and still nothing on the ground, flowers popping up and guys still out there playing golf.

Good trip, ate too much, afraid to get on a scale. Oh well, I guess that's what cruises are all about.

By the way, we've booked our next cruise. Here's the ship we're going on.

Giving up and more

Today I learned a lesson I should have learned a long time ago. This morning I went on the computer to compose a blog about quitting. Several years ago I had taken an interest in killing time by playing Freecell, the game that comes with the computer software. It was a good break from other things like work and it at least tested your brain a little. I began playing the program’s random game choices but eventually decided to begin at game one and proceed in order as far as it took me. Well, I probably went a little overboard because over the years as of yesterday I was playing game #20,725. Some games along the way were pretty tough and took quite a few attempts before winning, but 20,725 was a brute for me. Day after day I would make several attempts to no avail. Time after time and taking all the routes I could find, I was still winless.

Today was the day I decided I would admit defeat and go on to some new challenge. As I sat here contemplating my prose and also thinking about what might be next on my agenda I decided to play it one last time. You know what I’m going to tell you next. I have no idea how I started or what route I took, but damned if I didn’t finally win the damn game. Now I’m really stuck with having to continue……20,726 here I come. If you play the game, why not give that number a shot and see how you do.

I obviously learned that lesson I should have learned long ago, never give up. I never gave up on things before and am a little ashamed that I was planning to do so now. So don’t give up, keep plugging away and you’ll come out a winner.

The other day, I was thinking about television programs in what I consider the “old days”. We were able to see our favorites nearly every week. Not so these days. We wait for the “new season” and are treated to a lousy 13 episodes. Think about it, we have 39 other weeks to fill with repeats that begin two or three weeks after the new season. Then there is the Frosty the Snowman period, political stuff, special sports programs, and tryouts for new shows. I guess performers get paid so much that 13 are enough to carry them the whole year. I don’t know about you, but I worked all year. I know I’m probably barking up the wrong tree with this, but I'm disgusted with television in general.

How is it that some of the favorite shows on cable are shows like Storage Wars, Pawn Stars, Cooking shows and even shows about people gorging themselves on massive quantities of food. As much as I love food, I almost can’t watch. Now we’re even treated to people chasing wild pigs, hunting alligators and chopping down trees in swamps. I don’t know about you, but something is wrong here and I won’t even go into commercials again. By the way, did you ever notice how many drugs and diseases there are that you never heard of. I really believe they invent a drug and then look for a disease they can claim to cure. I think if the drug and auto manufacturers ever stopped advertising we’d be looking at Test Patterns again. Speaking of which there are millions out there that wouldn’t know what the hell I was even talking about.

Am helping run a “Soup Night” at the church, want to come?

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND

SAINT DOMINIC MEN’S CLUB FAMOUS SOUP NIGHT

Mark your calendars so you can join us for a taste of these three heart warming soups on Saturday, March 3rd following the 5:00 pm Mass. Admission is free, but a donation to our Scholarship fund is appreciated.

Pasta Fazool Neapolitan Bean Soup ~ Pasta Fazool (Minestrone) is synonymous with the Southern region of Italy. "Fazool" is from the Italian word "Fagioli", which means "bean". The Neapolitans perfected this thick, three bean, multi-vegetable pasta soup. This entitled them to rename the dish in their own dialect, and it thus became known as"Pasta Fazool."

Spaccarelli Sicilian Split Pea Soup ~ In Sicilian, the word "spaccarelli" is a combination of the word "spaccare" (to break) and "piselli" (green peas). This authentic rendition of this heart-warming split pea soup includes carrots, peas, garlic and ditali pasta. Simply delicious.

Brodo di Pollo Chicken Flavored Noodle Soup ~ "Brodo di Pollo" literally means "Chicken Broth" in Italian. This translation accurately reflects the wholesome goodness and intense flavor of this satisfying cuisine that is very common throughout the world. The Italian version of Chicken Noodle Soup is an uncomplicated marvel. Bits of carrot, celery, onion, chicken, and of course egg pasta, are added to a hearty chicken broth to create a light, yet filling meal.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Now I’m really ticked off. I’m down here in my cellar office (32 degrees when I walked in) finally writing a blog entry. Well, after spending a half hour creating I reached over for something and hit some damn key and deleted the whole freaking thing. Probably serves me right for not saving the document every so often. The bad thing is that because of my frozen brain I’ve pretty much forgotten what I had written. Why the hell did my grandparents ever settle up here, didn’t they know that there was a place called Savannah and boats actually went there. I know it was the late eighteen hundreds, but didn’t Grandpa Joe know you could play golf there all year, or wasn’t golf even created yet. New England can be beautiful, but you have to admit that from a weather stand point it’s pretty weird. Zero out there now but a week or so ago 32 friends of mine were playing golf at a local course in 61 degree weather. Oh well, to old to move, have to be satisfied with my one week of Myrtle Beach golf in March.

I went up stairs to warm up my fingers for awhile. Temperature down here now is now a balmy 43 degrees. Wow, that heater’s really cranking now…not! Well since the name of my blog site is Rhino Roars, I guess I should at least include a little growl. Last October we had freak snow storm that left most of Connecticut out of power for quite a few days. At our house it was five. Well of course we gave thought as to why we should pay for all our cable services, internet, phone, cable. What should we do about it? Somewhere we heard you needed to call the Cox Cable and report your outage. My very efficient wife did just that after our services were renewed. Well here it is January 16, 2012 and no credit has appeared on our past three statements. What are they waiting for? I guess until I forget the whole thing. I do know that if I buy a movie on demand the charge appears immediately on the next statement. I guess I have to call (I really hate these kind of calls) to find out what is going on. Well guess what, we now have a credit balance on our account in the amount of $38.36. Good for at least a dinner out for the two of us. How many people out there have not received a credit? I can only imagine.

What else is new with Bill? Not very much. Still too much time on my hands, have read nearly 150 books on my Kindle. Granted they are not super long ones, but I have knocked off a few 1000 page Stephen King books. I’ve generally stuck to Mysteries or Thrillers. No serious educational stuff for me, read only for pleasure, too old to learn any more stuff…lol. That hard drive in my brain is already full of too much stuff, really should do a condense before I put any more things on it.

I do wish I could come up with some new things to bitch about. I hate repeating myself by moaning about the length of commercials on television, the lousy service in restaurants, the developing aches and pains in my aging body, the deterioration of my golf game, and traffic on the highways. Wow, I’m sounding like a broken record…..have to get a life besides, reading, cooking, and playing Freecell (completed 20,710 consecutive games). Think I’ll start including some of my recipes in these blogs again.