Flashback Friday # 169

Technologically Impaired

Welcome one & all to this last FBF of the year.

I've mentioned that one of the clubs that I joined in high school was the Media club. The Media club were, for lack of better words, the geeks of the school. We were all student librarians and helpers in the library. The president was always a senior.

The current president was voted class clown of his graduating class. He was an absolute riot. When a new piece of equipment came in, he showed it even more.

This piece of equipment was a picture viewer (like a slide projector that was hooked up to a TV). You recorded comments about the pictures and played them back during the slide show. Sort of like a powder point presentation of the day.

The president, Arnie, set up the contraption and began flashing pictures across the screen. He gave a hilarious comment for each and every picture for about a half hour. We were holding our sides with laughter at the end of the demonstration.

He then set the viewer to rewind and we were going to watch the whole thing again on TV with all the captions. When the program came on there was one problem. The "record button hadn't been depress, or the pause button released (I can't remember which). None the less, the were no pictures with comments. Since meeting time was rapidly coming to and end, He did about five pictures, with the recording on this time. Even techno geeks can mess things up by times.

Mt. Dew Call of Duty

Here's a shout out to everyone who has entered codes from the Mt. Dew Call of Duty sweepstakes. I need one card to complete the series. It ends Dec. 31. If you can help, I'd appreciate it. I have lots & lots of cards to trade. Click here to check it out.

Flashback Friday # 168

OCD Tree, OCD Tree, How Beautiful Are Your Branches

Greeting to all. Are you ready for Christmas yet? I'm not, and wasn't when I was younger until the task of putting up the Christmas tree was finished.

As I was putting up the tree this year, my wife was running errands. When she got home, I was putting on the finishing touches. She commented that I decorate it really nice. Every thing looked just where it looked like it should be. I told her there was a reason for that. Mom was very OCD about the Christmas tree.

When I was much younger, the task of putting up the tree fell to me & Sir Gattabout. The ornaments were evenly distributed to the tune of making sure we had the exact same everything. A line of demarcation was made, and I had to decorate my side & Gattabout did his. Mom would pipe up "There's to many blue ornaments in that particular area." or "You can't put those ornaments next to each other, they're the same shape. I had to watch where Gattabout put his ornaments so I could judge where mine could go.

When Gattabout joined the Army, the tree task fell solely on my shoulders. I would have to scale the ladder and climb into the attic to drag everything out (including the tree). It had been drilled into me, same colored ornaments can't be near each other. Similar shapes couldn't either. I would take all the similar ornaments and put them on first. One at the bottom, one in the middle, one near the top. One in the front, one in the back. All around the tree I would do this. When I was finished, there were no similar ornaments any nearby. I didn't realize just how ingrained that had become until Lady Nottaguy-TYG mentioned it, since we normally trim the tree together.

Some of the weirdest things stick with us longer than we can imagine. A Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.

The Week Went "Whoosh" As Zoomed By.

I have to look at the calendar to believe that a whole week has gone by. I blinked, and it was gone. Last Friday, Lady Nottaguy-TYG and I had a date night. She had won tickets to the Gaither Homecoming concert in Columbus. We went out to eat, then headed to the concert. An accident had I-71 south at a crawl for several miles just inside Columbus. When we got the the concert venue, there was an unpleasant surprise. The seat were only a span wide (a span is the length from your elbow to the tip of your middle finger. I measured mine, 17") Those who know us know there is a bit more than 17" upon which we sit. After being uncomfortable for 2 1/2 hours, we decided to leave at intermission. Hint Schottenstein center: don't purchase your seats from elementary schools that are closing.

My work decided that since we have the 23rd off, we needed to make up for it. We had to be at work at 5 AM until 3PM from Monday-Wednesday. This coming week, since we have the 26th off, same thing only Tuesday-Friday. I'm wooped.

The boy had us laughing recently. We were discussing the sanctions handed down to OSU (don't even go there) and I mentioned that it wouldn't hurt recruiting since the oncoming Freshmen could become redshirts and still have four years eligibility. "The Boy" then said, "I didn't think it was good to be a redshirt. They always get killed off (reference to ""Star Trek") LOL.

I hope to be more active , but at least I'll make sure the "Flashback Friday" post keep coming.

Flashback Friday # 167

The Christmas Cookie

Greetings one & all. Welcome to another post about stuff that happened to me many moons ago.

As my title suggests, this post is about the wonderful tradition of giving cookies to someone at Christmas. However, this post isn't about the cookies we made. It is about a cookie that Dad got from one of our relatives.

Frequent readers of my blog know Aunt Shelly. She was as pious as one could get. There are times that she would make a Quaker feel worldly next to her. There were other times when her piety went right out the window. There a word for that, but we weren't allowed to say it in our house (at least in hearing distance of Mom). This story is about one of the "Bad Shelly" moments.

Mom always gave Aunt Shelly's family several dozen cookies (with 14 kids, a dozen just wouldn't do). Aunt Shelly decided to do a little baking of her own. She made a special cookie, just for Dad.

When they came over, she handed Dad a wrapped box and told him to unwrap it. It was a check box with one cookie in it. But this was no ordinary cookie. This was a Santa cookie. An anatomically correct Santa.

Dad thought it was hilarious. He kept that cookie for years, tucked inside the little box he came in. He would bring it out to show his friends who hadn't seen it before. It was a prized possession to him.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Since we lived in the country, we always had problems with mice. Our house was nearly 100 years old, so it wasn't the snuggest. One winter a mouse decided to chew through the box to eat the contents. The mouse didn't eat all of it. Santa's head was gone. In more ways than one.

That's My Boy

Sunday night, One of the ladies at our church was telling everyone about a dessert social that will be held immediately after our Christmas cantata the following Sunday. She said that the desserts need to be something that can be held in your hand while folks mingle & greet. My grandson "The Boy" turned to Lady Nottaguy-TYG (aka Nana)and said "That settles it. Jell-o it is."

It's not nice to snort during the announcements at church, so I did my level best to stifle it. Lady Nottaguy-TYG said to me "I don't know who to smack, him or you". He's a chip off the ol' block.

Flashback Friday # 166

Addition By Subtraction

Greetings one & all. Welcome back to another post about the other world that I used to live in (the past). My recent run-in with the dentist brought this story to my remembrance. I am beginning to wonder if i have repeated myself on any of these stories, but I've not had anyone tell me that I have.

I have discussed the many health problems that Dad had. He had several mild heart attacks and quitting smoking had helped, but he still wasn't in real good health. Part of the reason for this was that he had terrible dental hygiene. No dental hygiene would be a better phrasing. Due to this, his teeth were poisoning his system. There was only one alternative.

Dad went in to have all of his teeth pulled. The doctor assured him that by removing his teeth, his health would dramatically get better. When he came home (Mom went with him to drive him home) he looked really wiped out. He didn't go to work for about a week (he had some vacation time saved up). His diet consisted on all soft foods. He lost a lot of weight until his gums toughened up enough to begin to eat semi-solid foods.

Once his gums toughened up, Mom approached him about getting dentures. He said he wasn't ready for them yet. Give him some more time for his gums to toughen a little more. He knew several people with dentures that had problems with them.

Months passed. A full year passed. He was eating almost everything that he had eaten before he had his teeth out. Mom asked again if he was ready to get dentures. Dad couldn't see why, since the only things he wasn't eating was nuts. He decided to forgo dentures. As the doctor had said, his health increased by leaps & bounds.

I didn't realize just how tough his gums had become. I was laying on the couch, with my feet on his lap. I was lazily wiggling my big toe. He reached out & grabbed it,playfully. I looked at him and asked "What are you going to do, bite me?" With that he opened his mouth wide and chomped down on my toe. YEOW!!! I jumped off the couch and hopped around the living room while he laughed his head off.

Funny Little Films

I spotted a couple of short films that were really funny and I thought I would share them with the few people who still stop by.

The Sock Monster

Everyone knows that a sock monster lurks in every washing machine and dryer. How else can you explain all the mismatched socks in your drawer. Thanks to a courageous young man (my grandson), the world can finally see what this monster looks like. He snapped a quick shot off with his camera phone before it had a chance to flee.

I don't have a clue why his little sister has his socks. I wouldn't go near a 10 year old boy's socks. He sent this picture to me and wanted me to send it to one of the Cheezburger sites as "The Sock Monster". I wonder where he comes up with ideas like that?

Flashback Friday # 165

Mom's Surgery

Hello again. It's good to see you again. Thanks for stopping by.

I've written by times about the tile factory that Mom worked at, and I worked at on the weekends. Mom had been there for many years. She had done every job there (in fact she was the 1st female forklift driver there). All the years in the dusty condition that was the tile factory took a toll on her.

She hadn't been feeling quite right for a while. She finally went to the doctor (nobody in my family likes to go to the doctor, we are generally forced).When he looked down her achy throat, he was puzzled at what he saw. Concerned too. He told Mom that he didn't like what he had seen and was referring her to a throat specialist. Going to a regular doctor was bad enough, she really didn't like the though of going to a specialist.

When the specialist examined her, he said that the many years of dust from the clay used to make the tile had irritated her throat, and she was currently at a pre-cancerous state. He said that if she didn't have surgery to remove part of her larynx, she could very easily go into full blown cancer. He wanted to schedule the surgery as soon as possible.

Mom felt she didn't have any other option, so she scheduled the surgery. After her surgery, she couldn't talk at all. She kept a notebook beside her as she lounged on the couch. Since this was work related, I assume she was off on Workman's Comp. Any time she wanted to ask or tell us something, she would wave her hands and then write down what she wanted.

While she was off, it was decided that we would take a road trip to go see Sir Gattabout down at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.Mom had gotten some of her voice back, but not much. While we were down there, we took Gattabout out to dinner at Sambo's. Mom decided to sing the Sambo's theme song while we were there. Out squeaked and squawked "It's just what the family ooordered, Sambo's". It sounded like a gangly young boy going through puberty.

Mom recovered, and went back to work. The company found her a job working in the office so she wouldn't be subject to the dust.