May. 01, 2003 - 21:33 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Outta Here

Spent a good part of the day doing the usual first of the month things that a resident here does plus treating ourselves to a little luxury luncheon at Village Inn, me a Cobb Salad, coffee, French Silk pie, Heather, Southwest chicken crepes, iced tea, Lemon Supreme pie. I like it there, good service, delicious food and decent portions. Much better than the place where we often stop which shall remain nameless for fear of retribution. It is near by, fast and that is about all I can say for it.

Errands finished, I tried to catch up on e-mail a bit -- still behind and so on to the newspaper. Read about all my stomach could stand, thence to the antidote, the comics. First thing that jabbed my funny bone was Ziggy, he is on the phone and has apparently dialed into one of those hated "If You's" things. The voice coming to his ear says, "If you have a touch-tone phone . . . well WHOOP-TE-DOO !" Yeah right. One little ploy of mine, if I get lucky, when the robotic voice says words to the effect, "If you have a touch tone phone press 1 (Or whatever) or if you have a rotary phone, stay on the line and the first available associate (Or whatever) will assist you. Jeepers, what do I have to lose ? If the first available live body will get to me if I wait as if I have a rotary phone, why the heck should I punch buttons ? Especially when I want to speak to a live body anyway rather than fiddle around punching buttons and getting more dim choices which result in utter frustration in the end !

Then I saw "The Fusco Brothers" comic strip wherein one of the brothers is trying to romance a lady over the table at a restaurant and he says, "I want to put my best foot forward tonight." The lady says, "That still leaves three to worry about, you animal." Explains to me why I have so much trouble, here I have been worrying about putting my best foot forward and never once thought about my other three muddy paws. It has, in the past, been a bit of a problem anyway, trying to figure which foot is my best one anyhow, they all look the same to me.

Its Spring, trees are in leaf, flowers are in bloom and by golly I think it is time for my mind and soul to take a Spring Break. There are friends of mine who have or are suffering from many different things such as deaths, recovery from surgery, ill parents, loss of job by one of our grandsons, many things we know about right now and can do no more than what we already have done. Sympathize, be there for them, pray for them and theirs. What more can old retired folks do ? In the case of our grandson we would be happy to feed he and his wife, give them gas money and so forth, but I expect his Mom and Dad will shoulder what ever load that comes up.

There is a place I go to get away, wild and empty of humans compared to city life, in the Southwest. A place I once worked and found that I loved the whole thing. A place of almost unlimited vistas, no pollution, about the only noise being the wind and occasionally a startled animal or bird fleeing from this gangly stranger. I have two, no now three friends that I can cyber meet now and then at my hideout or theirs, one on the northeast coast and one on the Gulf shore. Their places being retreats from the blows of every day life and open to me when I come around. I can be there in less than an instant and return when called -- but the call better be important ! The Magic Carpet of Cyberland, what a wonderful vehicle to have. I can fly my carpet there carrying my good memories and scenes of the place I am going to in a micro-second and relax, meditate and commune with nature at will, staying as long as I wish. And the magic thing is I can zip back to the key board and/or telephone in a micro split second.

Don't think my griping is deathly important, only vents my boiler and calms me down, but tonight my boiler is overpressured and I'm . . . . . . Outta Here . . . . . . . . . . .

Blog