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jimsjournal |
The other twenty -- 09/24/11 |
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Recently (Sept. 12th) I picked up on a meme that Bev had done -- twenty questions (well, except there were really only 19 because question 14 was missing... as far back as I could trace the questions, question 14 was not there). Bev had picked it up from Sunday Stealing which had picked it up from a blogger (who had snagged if from someone else, etc.). The original was a set of forty questions (minus, of course, number 14). Sunday Stealing had split it into two chunks. I figured that Bev would grab the second set and then I would get them from her... except she still hasn't done them. (Maybe becoming a grandmother again has her preoccupied.) So... here are my answers to questions 21 thru 40 from that batch: 21) Have you ever flown a kite? Sure, when I was a kid and again when my kids were kids. I think Jill was more into kite flying than Adam and Jeremy were. We mostly used to fly them at Rec Park (our neighborhood park on Binghamton's West Side). 22) Do you wish on your fallen lashes? Huh? I've never heard of that. 23) Do you consider yourself successful? Yes. (Okay, so I have not yet won even a single Nobel Prize, but on the other hand I'm only 68 and I expect to be around for a while longer, so I'm not out of the running yet.) 24) When was the last time that you made an obscene phone call? I can recall making some joke phone calls as a teenager, but no obscene ones. 25) Have you ever asked for a pony? No. (However, two of my three offspring were very much into horses, taking riding lessons, etc. when they were around 10-12.) 26) Plans for tomorrow? Go for a run, do some yard work, split some firewood (looking ahead... after all, Winter is coming!), do some grocery shopping (and, eventually, some cooking), do some writing (for the novel-writing workshop Nancy & I are in), and watch the first episode of season two of Boardwalk Empire (on HBO at 9 pm). 27) Can you juggle? No. Not at all. (If you want juggling, you need to contact Mary.) 28) Missing someone now? Missing Jill, because she is in Canada (see #35). Missing Adam & Leah and grandsons Sam & Milo because they are in New York City. Missing my brother 'cause we have good times together but he is in the Hudson Valley (probably riding his bike (see yesterday's entry). Missing my cousins 'cause they are all over the place 29) When was the last time you told someone "I love you"? A little while ago. (Nancy) 30) And truly meant it? Yes. 31) How often do you drink alcohol? Whenever I can? LOL.... No, not every single day, but most days... wine with dinner and if we are going to relax in the evening reading or watching television for a while, might have another glass. If dining out, I am more likely to have a beer (assuming the restaurant had good beer... and why eat at any so-called restaurant whose beer menu consists of Bud, Bud Lite, Coors and Coors Lite?) In fact, I have a glass of pino grigiot right now. 32) How are you feeling today? Not bad. 33) Have you every tried to write a meme? I've thought about it a few times, but haven't actually done it in the sense of writing one and posting it somewhere for other people to try. 34) Have you ever been fired from a job? Yes. Mohican Market (a small local supermarket in Kingston, NY) -- my summer job in 1963. I usually worked as a cashier and bagger but on Saturdays I often was detailed to clean the meat department (which included cleaning a huge walking cooler with slabs of beef, etc. hanging from hooks -- think of that meat warehouse in Rocky except maybe only 20 x 30 feet) and making several trips from the cold meat locker to the blazing hot parking lot to the trash bins and back again. That particular Saturday I had a lot of head congestion and figured I was either coming down with a cold or it was just hayfever. I explained that to the manager and asked if I could swap off with somebody else. He told me "I assign jobs here, not you. So either get to work or punch out and tell the office to pay you off because you're finished." So I punched the time clock and asked the woman in the office to pay me off for the week. (This was not a financial hardship for me because fall semester would start in another week or so and I would have wanted to cut back to part time anyway. So instead I enjoyed a few weeks off and then looked for another job (and found one very easily). 35) What are you looking forward to? I'm flying up to Ottawa in a couple of weeks to visit Jill & Chris. 36) Have you ever crawled through a window? Yes. 37) What's the most recent bad meal that you had to endure? Actually, I really can't remember. I mean I have had some meals (including ones I've cooked) that didn't come out as well as they might have, but nothing bad. Nancy and I like to eat out before going to plays at TrinityRep in Providence and that hasn't always worked out well when -- as has happened a couple of times over the years -- all of the restaurants in the area seem to be packed with estimated wait times that would make us miss the play -- and so we have had to grab something at the food court at the Providence Place Mall. Or, one time (out of thirty or forty times) we tried a restaurant and just didn't like it. It wasn't "bad" but it wasn't good, just kind of mediocre. (See, I do remember them, but I can't remember just exactly when they occurred.) 38) Can you handle the truth? Yeah, probably. 39) Who is to blame for what's going on? Many upper level corporate executives (especially banks and financial companies), bureaucratic drones, those influential people in journalism, education, government, etc. who like to think of themselves as superior and more knowledgeable than the rest of us (the "Best & the Brightest" syndrome), and -- most of all -- a majority of the professional politicians -- especially Democrats and Republicans -- these clowns who -- because they managed to get through law school, raised campaign money, and got elected to office -- that they then have such swollen egos as to think that based on their limited experience that they understand economics and business and science and how everything works. (And some of them may actually even believe some of the stuff they tell us. Notice that I said "some" -- Question: How can you tell if a politician is lying? Answer: If his lips are moving.) 40) What will it take to fix it all up? Throw the bums out. In yesterday's entry I mentioned that my brother and his son and his daughter are in training for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation fund-raising ride across Death Valley -- but I don't think I was very clear in indicating their donation pages (for anyone who might want to kick in a donation). They are attempting to gather a minimum of four thousand dollars in donations each (for a total of at least $12K). Melissa -- for whom this is her first attempt -- is ahead of both Dad and Chad, having already reached 102% of her goal. (You go girl!)
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