- Once I had to leap across a wide open gorge…
…landing hard on the other side against what looked like soft mossy earth but in reality was hard sharp rocky earth just below that moss. It took me a minute to regain my breath and pull myself up, but when I was up I lay on my back and stared up at the sky and be thankful I had made it.
That’s how it felt getting through Winter this year. We’ve had mild winters, bad winters, awful winters and dreadful winters. I think the ice storms last year were worse, but this one would fall into the awful zone. I was happy to hold the door for it and see it go off on its way.
Because it’s May 1st and we officially made it. We had a near 90 degree day in April, and some really beautiful days– we also had some cold ones, but now May comes in and we are virtually assured it will get hot sooner than we’d like it to before we get to enjoy two weeks of Fall and then we’ll be back in Winter.
But for now, Spring is here, Summer is right behind it.
Enjoy it, we made it.
- Fallen Comrades
Today would have been Pop’s 100th birthday- he passed away twelve years ago after living his life the way he wanted to. It just so happens that across the planet there are a group of us who take this day and at 8:30pm we all play a recording we have of AMAZING GRACE while we take a shot to celebrate all of the Comrades, family members, close friends and even fallen enemies we’ve had. The list has 300 names on it and is growing as each member of the group (I think there are about 50 of us on it) adds names each year.
It’s a moment of remembrance for all of them who had an impact on us, and we stand united vowing to reassemble if ever the need should arise– and god help us if it ever comes to that.
- Mailbox Shredder
Thanks to informed delivery from the USPS I know what mail I’m going to get before I get it– now i just wish there was an option for clicking a box so they could save a step and throw away the mail I don’t want rather than tax my poor mailman the trouble of carrying it to my house.
But with my luck they’d probably shred the rare check that I still get from a handful of clients.
Realistically my own paper shredder is only about four feet from my mailbox so it’s really not a big deal to do it myself.
But I’m lazy.
- APPLE WATCH
Someone remarked that they were surprised I wear a dive watch rather than a Smart Watch– I’ve owned many Apple Watches but while I own about a dozen watches– I used to change the watch to match the occasion– now I just stick with this one;
Hawaiian Lifeguards are the Navy Seals of Life Guards. I can’t swim a stroke but I can wear their watch. The reason I love this watch so much is that even without my glasses I can read this watchface everytime I look at it.
The Apple Watch was great in terms of monitoring your heart rate, tracking your steps, giving you the weather, letting you know it’s time to stand up, etc– but it also got text messages which annoyed me endlessly, it also got phone calls on it which was equally annoying. But the absolute deal breaker for me was that I had to charge it at night because when I wake up in the middle of the night I want to know what time it is– and this one actually glows really brightly.
Since it needs no charging I don’t have to worry about being stuck on a four hour flight that actually turned into a twelve hour nightmare and my watch had run out of steam, this one is there for me and I don’t need to bring an additional charger on trips. I already hate having to charge my phone while I’m on the road.
So that’s why I’m on the old fashioned watch bandwagon and I don’t see myself ever getting off. I’ve also never not worn a watch– I know I can check my phone but I don’t like taking out my phone in public and I like the sneaky ability I have to glance at my watch that would make George HW Bush jealous.
- WHY I still shop on Amazon
The other day I was putting on a pair of black leather Oxfords and the lace broke. Frustrated I opened my laptop and pulled up the Amazon website– what would have taken about three minutes I decided should turn into a half a day because for some reason I closed the laptop and said “I should really go out and support real world businesses.”
As I stepped outside I realized I didn’t know where to go to even buy shoelaces. Ace and Jed’s Hardware, two places I shop often where I buy absolutely FRESH Apples and bakery bread didn’t sell shoe laces.
“Try CVS.” one helpful high school kid suggested.
I walked into CVS and realized not only do they sell nearly everything in the world with the exception of FRESH Apples and bakery bread they also don’t sell shoes, but upon asking a clerk who seemed very overloaded emptying a gray plastic container onto the shelf walked me to an endcap with– ta da– shoelaces. Both black and white.
Unfortunately, they were shoelaces for sneakers. The only thing close to a dress shoelace was really plasticy brown weave style that were so stiff I realized this was why Bamboo was not the given choice when man decided what material shoe laces should be.
I went from there to Target, because I hate Wal*Mart slightly more and Target DOES sell shoes– and they sell laces, black and white for sneakers and a brown weavy kind that was just as stiff as the ones at CVS. I did find a pair of socks I liked and I carried them up to the front end and left them on top of a coke machine when I realized the self service checkout was 400 deep and the register that had one cashier at it was just as long.
Deciding to get on with my day I went back home, sat down at my kitchen table and in three clicks of my laptop on Amazon I found exactly the shoe laces I needed, I also threw in the pair of socks I left at target, some toothpaste and a thing of Little Debbie ™ ZEBRA Snack Cakes, all of which arrived the very next day.
So that is why I shop at Amazon. Three minutes, they had everything I wanted and more and I didn’t waste half my day trying to support the real world. If when the retail apocalypse comes I’ll remember the empty shelves and bad service at both Target and Wal*Mart and I’ll miss neither.
Because Amazon works.
Welcome to the new Blog– this whole thing is a work in progress, but you’ll get the latest updates here (just click the links above). It was a longtime coming but a short-time putting it together.
More soon and regularly like the old blog.
Thanks for stopping by.
Andy
It's Andy Fish! 