1-2 Punch

Yesterday, March 30, we got snow. I had no clue it was snowing until about 2 PM when I saw it through the dock door at work. The calendar says it's Spring. The Groundhog didn't see his shadow. Where is the 60 degree weather that was here just a few weeks ago? March certainly is going out like a lamb. White & fluffy. Then, coming home from work, I passed by a gas station and my eyes bugged out. $3.65 a gallon!!! It was $3.43 when I went to work. Go ahead, make my day.

A Milestone On Cheezburger

Last night, after I went to bed, I reach a cool milestone on the Cheezburger network. The pictures that I have captioned have now been placed in the favorites of 1000 different users. You can check out my stuff by clicking here.

Techno-Tot

We were in Toledo (home of the Mud Hens) Saturday for a Bible Quizzing tournament. At the end of said tournament, people always take pictures of the kids holding their awards. While the photography was going on, I spied a rather young member of the photo gallery. I am closer to 50 than I am to 10. This boy is closer to 5 than he is to 10 (he's six). This is him taking pictures with his Dad's Blackberry. I have never used a Blackberry. I don't ever remember even holding a Blackberry. There are some things on my phone that I still don't know about. I was amazed to see this six-year old working with complete ease. I found out from his dad that dad is the head of the AV Department in their church. He says kids are picking up on the electronic stuff faster and at an earlier age than ever before. I'll second that.

Flashback Friday #129

Bad Things Happen At The Skating Rink

Welcome one and all to another edition of Flashback Friday. In this post, you will see that I wasn't the brightest crayon in the box. A place that had nothing but bad memories for me created another that lasted a long time.

In Flashback Friday #31, I told you of hurting my ankle at the skating rink in the 5th grade. Near the end of my 8th grade year, I ventured again to the rink. I didn't skate any better than I did in the 5th grade. Luckily, I didn't fall down. However I did meet someone who cause many a mixed emotion for several years.

On this particular trip, I ran into Pauline Pershing (she of Flashback Friday #65, 97, 103, 109, 111, 116 & 127) She had come with several of her friends. One of her friends that she introduced me to was Kelly Stump. I think she did this to keep me occupied & away from her. Kelly was a year older than me, and was boy crazy to the max.

Kelly stuck to me like moss on a tree. She wasn't unattractive, but if she was any more forward she would have fallen on her face. And, of course, she wanted my phone number. And of course, I gave it to her.

Mistake. Mistake. Mistake. In those days before caller ID & answering machines, you were at the mercy of the caller if you answered. I was afraid that it was Mom & Dad, so I usually answered. I used the excuse that I had to keep things short since my parents worked out of town and may need to reach me.

She bugged me for some time to go with her. I held out for some time. Alas, all good things come to an end. I finally relented (but that is another post altogether). I never went back to that skating rink.

Papa's Amazing Electronics

I had been telling "The Boy" about comical band leader Spike Jones for some time. In doing so research for a school project about WWII, I found Spike's song "Der Fuhrers Face" on YouTube. He was totally tickled with it.



I told him that I a had a record album of Spike Jones. We listened to it the other day. After side 1 finished, he was amazed when the record player "magically" returned the needle arm to the side. He then said "That was great, I'm going upstairs to play". I asked, "Don't you want to finish it?" and flipped the album over to side 2. "That's cool!" he said, "It plays on BOTH sides?"



If I'm not wrong, that was his first experience with a record player. He was amazed with the total experience. Let's see you do that with an mp3 player.


Spike Jones' album "Dinner Music for people who aren't very hungry".

Parking For Dummies

I made a stop at Largest-Retailer-In-The World-Mart to pick up an item for my MIL. As I was driving through the parking lot, a car caught my eye. I had to circle around for a better look. This car was parked in 4 parking places.

Being the nice guy that I am, I not only had to get a few pictures, but I just had to park right next to him. That's the shadow of my truck at the bottom right of the picture.

Here is a shot from the other side. You can see the close proximity of my truck to this car. I was in my yellow lines. I had no fear as I went inside. What would they do, scratch my truck? It's a real work truck, I wouldn't have noticed. When I finished shopping, the car was still there, so the owner had no clue that some redneck had parked their junky truck next to their baby. I took another shot, that my wonky phone has lost somewhere, that shows the front of the car. Maybe I can get an address from the plates, and send these pics to them?

Flashback Friday # 128

Comic Books

Welcome back one and all. In this edition of Flashback Friday we take a look into the majority of my literary conquests. Comic books. They were my companion throughout my life as a youngster. Today's "Graphic Novels" are nothing more than comic books with chapters.

I had three main places where I got said comics. If I bought them, it was normally from the general store a mile or so away or the grocery store in Marengo. Both of them sold comics in a three pack with no cover, or the top half of the cover missing for 50 cents a pack. I found out much later in life that books like that are reported returned and destroyed. Someone must have had a pipeline that funneled these to our area. My other source was my Uncle, who also liked to read comic books, but did not like to re-read them. When he stopped by, he would have a paper bag full of comics for me.

At that period in my life, It really didn't matter what the genre was. The only exception was "Mushy Love" comics. (They were like the romance novels, but with pictures) I really liked the war comics (Sgt. Rock, Sgt. Fury & the Howling Commandos). Super hero comics were big with me too. The Flash was my favorite super hero. I also had western comics (Jonah Hex, Rawhide Kid), and of course, comic comics (Archie, Richie Rich, Baby Huey). I even read the "scary comics" like "The Witching Hour" & "Grimm's Ghost Stories"(I don't think I could read stuff like that now). The "Illustrated Classic" comics was probably the peak of my literary reading. I read Huckleberry Finn, Ben Hur & The Time Machine that way. The teacher doesn't look too highly on a book report written on a comic book.

I never tired of reading them again. At one point, I had somewhere around 400-450. Needless to say, my reading of "real books" suffered. At one point, Mom signed up for a kids book club that sent a book a month. I got "Mouse & the Motorcycle, The Mysterious Bender Bones, Mrs. Pepperpot's Outing and many others. I don't think I read all of them. Many of the titles I read when my kids were little and brought them home from school.

I had comics at my house, and I also had a stack at my grandma's house in Westerville. She was so frustrated with me always reading comics, that she gave me a book and told me that she wanted me to read it. It was Living Free, the sequel to Born Free. I had the book in my possession for many years. I never read it.

Since I've been married, my wife has stretched the bounds of my literary realm.She got me hooked on Louis L'amour and I've read everything that he has written. The last comic book I remember reading was "The Death of Superman". My oldest daughter's boyfriend had the series (it lasted 5 comic books long). If I read comics now, it's from the newspaper.