Augie

An unexpected duck hook took out the beer cart lady. Charges may be pending. I smell Go Fund Me for bail.

We were in NYC a few weeks ago and it was impossible NOT to notice all the buses and digital billboards pushing Barbie. It was EVERYWHERE! This is the first I’ve heard of Oppenheimer. I’d be much more likely to see that.

Many years ago I was golfing with a guy from work. On the first hole, a short but tricky par four, he pulls out a 3 iron. He is decidedly NOT athletic in ANY way. He tees it up, hits it fat enough that I think the divot knocked the ball off the tee. Snaps the head off and on it flies into the lagoon we have to cross. Wow! So he pulls out another 3 iron. Who carries two 3 irons??? He swings and……the grip unravels and turns to dust and the rest of the club does that helicopter thing into the same lagoon. Well, I’ve never seen anything like THAT! I haven’t even hit a ball yet! So now Keith turns to me and asks “can I borrow your 3 iron?” 😂

This thread made me think of another dinosaur. We were in NYC recently and went to my wife’s office, a huge commercial enterprise. A MASSIVE floor with hundreds of people. We went by a large room that seemed to be a storage area. Nope! It was the “Copy Room.” Remember those? Everybody needed a copy room in the office, especially something that big. Now? Everything is digital. They still had copiers, but they were not really there to be used. We went to the museum later that day, but didn’t see any copiers. Yet. I had a couple friends decades ago in the copier sale/office supply business. I wonder what they are doing now? And when it had to change.

YIKES! When we lived in Florida I hated jet skis! Slamming along making you a little shorter with every ride. Shortly before we moved away a “professional jet skier”, whatever that is, was jumping a wake from a large boat and landed on another jet ski, killing someone. Shortly after we left, a bunch of my son’s friends were in a terrible boating accident resulting in countless surgeries, but no deaths. It all sounds so fun until you realize how dangerous and alcohol fueled much of this behavior is.

No news is the best news this time of year.

This is the time of the year when no news is good news. Nothing great happens right now.

Malls near where we have lived are having to transition from traditional retail shopping to more “entertainment centered” with games, arcades and restaurants. I can’t tell you how many times a day I check the front door for packages.

Just get some matching Knickers? 🤷‍♂️

I remember sitting at a bar after Monday night tennis and telling a buddy something like “Did you know Drew Bledsoe had 568 yards yesterday?” The guy to my left almost fell out of his chair. That was the first time I realized how serious some people take their fantasy stuff. That guy’s deal was he had won $2Mil in some lottery, so I assume his gambling interests didn’t disappear. I was having a beer after tennis. He was freaking out. That would kill me.

If it ceased to exist, how would it affect your life? Differently answers for different people, I’m sure.

Yes. Something. I do not know or want to try to name “the thing.” 😋

Did you get a bathing suit? Or was it more “Casey Middle School Style”? People tube down the Chattahoochee River here for hours. Usually with a cooler of beer and mysteriously nobody ever has to stop to pee. It’s the fecal count that would keep me from letting my dog swim in there, much less see me join her. I dog died after her owner let her swim at the “Dog Beach” on a lake near us. We took our last dog there!

CONGRATS! Your team wins a free year of AARP membership! 😋

There is a splash pad at that pool too, and they are adding one to our little downtown area. They are quite popular. My brother-in-law the pediatrician pointed out something I had not thought of: what is inside all the diapers running around out there? He says it’s a real “thing”.

I don’t think they want to pay Knox all that money to sit him. This will be interesting, for sure.

The public pool at my regular park has diving boards, including a high board! Maybe 12-14 feet? I’m shocked that a public facility is willing to accept the potential liability. My sister had someone land on her off the high board when we were young, which led to a trip to the hospital for a concussion. One night, despite the boards clearly being closed and blocked off, some guy (presumably drunk) dove off the high board and broke his neck. Diving boards are rare at private pools, so having them at public pools was a shocker.

I like to see if I can make the water turn blue in public pools. Seems that’s just for movies, but I keep trying. 😋 After about 20 years in Florida I got spoiled by having our own pool. Almost everybody has a pool, regardless of the price-point of the neighborhood. We bought a house that did NOT have a pool and immediately built one. Of the last 50 sales in that neighborhood, 48 had pools. I had to point that out to the seller who wanted a certain price per SF. “Um, you are missing something here. Add the pool or adjust your price.” They did. I enjoyed a public pool as a kid somewhere in Hamburg. I go almost daily to a park that has a pool similar to that and it’s packed! But being spoiled as I am, I try to avoid them in most cases. Sometimes on vacation if the pool feels clean I’ll take a dip. I don’t love the busy pools with kids just due to cleanliness. I don’t like icky things like used bandaids floating up to me, and I have ZERO idea what might be in a pond!

My car knows the way to the UPS store next to my grocery store. I’m at the grocery store almost daily anyway. Very convenient with ample parking and short lines. The same cannot be said about the USPS locations near us. Like anything, it will vary some by location I suppose. I don’t dislike the USPS in any way. The lady who does our neighborhood is very nice. What she brings us is generally junk mail (I looked up cruises on my iPad and the deluge of slick marketing brochures commenced!) and the occasional birthday or Christmas card from friends or family. All the stuff my wife has sent to the house gets returned via UPS with the exception of a rare FedEx package.

I haven’t been in a post office in years, and I don’t miss it. Like libraries, they no longer serve a purpose in daily life. The world has changed. Instead of having mail delivered 6 times a week, we have stuff delivered throughout the day, all day, every day. My wife ordered an immersion blender recently about lunchtime on a Sunday. It arrived before dinner that day. The post office can’t compete with that.

Such a terrible shame. So sad, what a senseless loss. Brilliant performer.

Sorry for the tangent, but I was on cruise control doing about 78 today (it jumps) on a major and very busy 4 lane highway (each direction) in Atlanta today. The far right lane ends with every exit, then continues again as an on ramp and lane until the next exit. I’m getting off soon, so I’m in the lane next to that. Three cars get on at the same time and the middle one quickly swerves into MY lane. I had to slam on the brakes, steal a foot or two from the occupied lane to my left and then worry the red car behind me was going to rear end us. The tires screeching I thought covered to sound of the collision, but I wasn’t sure which car we made contact with. Turns out, it was neither, but all the stuff I had in the back came shooting forward. It was like a miracle! Thank your lucky stars, today was a much better day than it might have been. The car was quiet for a bit, then my wife asked “are you okay?” I was better then than I am now. This could have been one effed up day but for a few inches. It took hours to sink in. She just came home and I asked if it was that bad, and she said hell yes, hard to believe we all just drove away. Thanks, that was cheaper than therapy! 😋

I have a very vivid memory of laying on the floor in the living room with the fire going on a cold winter day. My father was in the chair in the corner, and we listened to this over and over. And even as a kid I really appreciated it.

We want you to be happy, but nobody really wants to hear all about your reasons.

You slept thru the vote. Must be present to win. I know, it’s rigged!