day......weird.....358

 Sometimes I just don't understand people

    Remember the man who blew himself up in his RV in Nashville a month or two ago?

    He played "Downtown" by Petula Clark amid broadcasted warnings that the RV was going to eplode.

    The Tribune had an article about him today.  He bought into conspiracy theories, including one that alien lizards were living in tunnels under the Earth's surface and were coming out in human form to run the world.

    As funny as that sounds, it is indeed tragic that someone believed that.  And decided to take his own life instead of giving into the lizards.

    If I, or anyone you knows,  ever start talking like that get them mental health help immediately.

    I have no idea why that story is sticking in my head.  

    Had another great cup of tea today.  This is from the Advent tea calendar collection and it was a blend of lemon grass, mint, raspberry leaves, cardamon, licorice, mallow blossoms and rose petals.

    Which brings to mind another question about people.  How does someone decide to put all of those ingredients together, and in what proportion, to make a delicious beverage?

    The foibles of man eh.....one mind that leads to self destruction and another mind that creates tea.

    I much prefer the tea creative mind.

    Stay healthy.   Stay sane.   Stay safe.

    Watch out for alien lizard people.

Peace and Love

day....happy birthday......357

We celebrated a special birthday today 

    Vince Carney Community Theater celebrated its 40th birthday today. 

    I was not part of the original group that formed VCCT, but I have been around a long time.  Long time.   Really long time.

    I think there are 5 of us who are still active and have been involved with the group since the early 80s.

    The group made a video featuring shots from all the shows....and I was surprised at the number of shows I had forgotten being in either on stage or as part of the support group with directing, set construction, publicity or whatever.

    True story.  No reason to say that because all my stories are true.  Mostly.

    I was a first year teacher.  There was an institute for Lee an Ogle County teachers at Dixon Hgh School.  An improv group from Chicago came out to entertain after the morning meetings.

    At some point they asked for a volunteer rom the audience and I raised my hand.  They called me on stage.  I had never been on stage in my life.....but I don't remember being scared, just invigorated.

    The bit they were doing featured questions from the audience.  Each member of the group then gave one word responses to form a sentence to answer the question.  It is a bit we do in our Exit 99 shows, and many improv groups do it.

    The group was answering questions and I filled in a word when it came to me.  It seems after a question, the group rotated so that 5 became 4 and so on.

    Someone in the audience asked: "Why does Nancy Reagan always wear red?"

    You have to remember....Dixon.....Ronald Regan's boyhood home.

    I was the fifth person in the line.  The answer went                     Because.....She....Is....A.....Communist (Me).

    The audience broke up.

    A couple of more questions went on and then we were asked:  "What advice do you have for  a new teacher?"

    The answer went: Always.....Check......Your Zipper (Me)

    Even the improv group members cracked up and I did apolgize for using 2 words and breaking the rules.

    I had never felt what I felt tnen ever in my life.  It was great!

    I love being on stage.  I love performing with our improv group.  This Covid is killing me because we can't do anything.  

    I look forward to the day Exit 99 gets in front of an audience and we get to make people laugh again.

    Or we stage a play that makes people laugh, or cry, or think, or get away from the problems of the world.

    Theater is so important in our lives.......and I am so glad to have been a part of VCCT for all these years.

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.  Keep laughing.

    Peace and Love

And now...some virtual party photos!!!!

hats

noisemakers

cake!

day....uhh.......356

 I'd like a thing a ma jig

    Peter Tork, Mickey Dolenz,  Davy Jones, Michael Nesbet.

    Sometimes I just sound like an idiot.

    Stopping in a coffee store today, I knew exactly what I wanted.

    I just did not know how to say it.

    When the Pretty Young Thing asked me what I would like, I said......one of those white chocolate drinks with crushed ice but I can't remember what it is called.

    I don't know what I ordered.  It was supposed to be a white mocha frappachino, but I could not smell any coffee, or taste any, in my drink.  It was like vanilla milk over crushed ice.

    Which may have been what I ordered.  Or what she heard me order.  Or what she repeated back to me an I said yes to.

    And no, I did not have my hearing aids in.  And yes, we were both talking through masks, so understanding is difficult to start with.

    Now, why I am concerned is the same thing happened at the arches place.  Jackie wanted a pineapple mango smoothie, and I asked for the "drink with pineapple in it."

    And at the Mexican drive through place when I could not remember the name of the cinnamon thingeys. 

    Or the fact I forgot yogurt and orange juice, despite that being my main motive to go to the store and writing it down on the list I carried throughout the store.

    When ever that happens, I think I am showing early onset Ahlzimers, or however you spell it because I forgot!  Then again, I am almost 73 so maybe it is not early after all!

    I know I have complained about this in the past because it is scary.  Funny, but scary.  Kind of like a clown in It, although I have never read the book or seen the movie.  So maybe it is not anything like that.

    I have talked to people with Alzheimers....my dad for one.....and recent memory is terrible, but the past is forever in their mind.

    So when I remember the names of The Monkees 50 years after they were popular, I wonder if that is a good thing.

    Especially when I can't remember white mocha frappachino.  Or yogurt.

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.  Happy memories.

Peace and Love

day....tea time.....355

 You know I love tea

    I generally have a cup at breakfast, a cup in the afternoon, and usually one at  night.

    It is not all Lipton either.  My pantry looks like a tea shop gone amok.  A disorganized tea shop at that.

    So today I had a tea.  This is one from a gift Emily gave me, an Advent tea calendar.

    I did not know what to expect.  The package game me pause.

    I honestly expected cucumber tea.  The ingrdients were coriander, licorice, anise, cinnamon, ginger and mallow blossoms.   No mention of cucumber.

    It had a greenish aura to it, and I actually liked it.

    So much for first impressions! 

    Huh.......strange.  Notice above the picture when I hit return to start a new paragraph the copy is double spaced  Well, now it does not.  I do not understand.

    I talked to a Tesla owner yesterday.  He is on his second Tesla and loves it.  He had the first one for 5 years and the only maintenance done was adding to the windshield wiper reservoir.  

    He said Musk added a tweak to this generation....when backing up the car makes a  noise like a spaceship in the movies.  When he first heard it, he thought something was wrong with the car.

    Maybe our next car is a Tesla....who knows!

    That's my life.

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.  

Peace and Love

day.......men's wear.........354

 I took Jackie to the MS specialist today

    His office is in the suburbs, in a 10 story building.  Gooooollley!  10 stories!!They sure do build e'm big in the city!

    Years ago Jackie,  Julia and Emily and I went to see "Rent" in downtown Cbhicago.  At some point, Jackie had her purse pick pocketed.  In hindsight, I remember her looking at a menu in a restaurant and a man stood on her right and a woman on her left, also looking at the menu.

    Before the show, we went into a restaurant and ate.  When the bill came, I jokingly said to her, "Your turn to pay...I always do."  She opened her purse and..... no wallet.

    I went back to the car to see if if fell out, but it was nowhere to be seen.  So we called the credit card companies and cancelled the cards,  The Visa folks asked if we had a daughter or son using the card at that moment in Fields (it was preMacy....so you know it was years ago)  because they had a charge coming  through as we were on the phone.  We said no, they cancelled the charge.  The gas card had something like $76 in charges at a south loop gas station....we figured somebody was selling gas bought on our card for gas.

    After the play, we went  to a police station to make a written report.

    The officer behind the desk was taking the report and asked our address, I told him, and he said, "Oh, in to the big city for the day, huh?"

    I looked at him and said in my best idiot voice, "Yes.....and they were right!  When you stand at the bottom of a big building and look up it DOES look like it's  falling right on top of you!"

    I thought it was funny.  

    Anyway, we get the office building today and I hit the up button and the elevator door opens, so I push Jackie into the car.  (She is in a wheelchair, relax!)  I hit 7.  Jackie asks if that was the floor listed on the directory, and I said I did not look at the directory because the elevator was there but I was sure it was 7.

    We get off the elevator, turn right and look at a law office.  Hmm.

    Jackie said she thought it was 9, not 7. 

    Wait for an elevator, get on, hit 9.  Get off and step into an oncologist's office.

    Young man at the check in table thinks our doctor is on 8.

    Back in the elevator, hit 8 and Bingo!  Right floor.

    I guess we would have just worked our way down if that was the wrong floor.  We both knew it was not the top floor.

    Anyway, just goes to show you life has its ups and downs.

    Stay happy.  Stay healthy.  Stay safe.

Peace and Love

    And  now for something special.

day......wow!!!.........253

 What a great day today was

    Temperatures in the 40s, sun out, calm winds....it was really a taste of spring. 

    Finally.

    I still have 10 fingers and 14 toes, despite some people having concerns about me usig  the snowblower to  clear the deck.

    Honestly, it was not easy.  The snowblower is heavier than I thought and pulling it  through melting snow was more difficult than I thought.  But I got it to the patio, blew most of the snow off, and now feel much more comfortable with the melt.  I was just afraid it would cause problems either with the patio or in the basement, which is why I cleared it.

    In the middle of doing this I had a phone call.  So I took off my crappy shoes and went into the house, took care of a little business, (when I was younger that had a much different meaning than returning a couple of phone calls) and went out the back door to fill the bird feeders.

    My one crappy shoe was not on all the way, but I figured as I walked the foot would eventually slide into place.  

    Wrong-O, Bigfoot!

    I ended up limping through the snow, with the stuff getting in my shoe.  I got to the garage, put the shoe on correctly. got the bird seed from the garage and headed back out into the yard.

    And in the middle of the snow, holding four containers of different types of bird seed, I lost the shoe.  I wriggled my foot back into it, then limped to the feeders and then back to the garage.  

    Most people, the average sort, would have at some point actually retied the laces so the shoe stayed on.....but noooooooooo.  I just keep slipping the shoe on and having it fall off.

    Some people never learn.

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.  Stay shoeless, Joe

Peace and Love

Before

After

day.....oh oh........352

 Last night's blog got me into a bit of trouble

    Let's just say there was a discussion of my, how do I say it, wardrobe cleanliness.  Someone suggested that 2 days for jeans is acceptable,  3 days of the jeans is long enough, 4 is pushing it and 5 or more is.....well, less than desired.

    So I am ordering more jeans.

    So goes life.

    I managed to get in a little over a mile on the indoor track at the rec center today.  I found that much more than a mile puts my right hip on fire, especially when I go to bed.  Some nights I use Icy Hot and a heating pad, with a couple of ibuprofin, and the pain is tolerable.

    That scares me, because I am not wanting to go to an artho guy for advice but the pain sometimes wakes me up.  

    Here I go again, talking about my medical problems.   Geez.

    I have met a former coworker a couple of times on the track.  It's great to walk with someone and talk about the joys of not teaching during these challenging times.

    Tomorrow I am going to do something either very stupid or very smart.  

    My patio has a lot of snow.  I plan to start the snowblower, drag it up onto the patio and then blow the snow off.  

    This could result in several actions.

    I could aim it thw wrong way and put out a window.

    Ice could ricochet off the railing and put my eye out, just like a Red Ryder.

    I could scare away all the birds who rest in the bush by the patio and provide Jackie and I some entertainment when they hit the feeders.

    I could slip on the icy steps and get my head caught in the blower.

    I could clear the patio without any problem.

    I am betting on the last one to be the true one.

    But just in case, if you see the hospital helicopter hovering (notice the alliteration?) over my house, you will know it did not go well.

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.  Enjoy the weather.

Peace and Love