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.