Sunday, February 13, 2011

SUNDAY THE THIRTHEENTH

This is the 35th birthday of my youngest child. He is the only one of my six children not born in November. It was a Friday. So I always look for good things to happen for me on the 13th of the month, particularly when the day falls on a Friday. Happy Birthday, James!

I am now going to try to call him in Hawaii where he is working now. Getting through would be good luck if he is not working on the ship today.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

FEBRUARY

I don't care what the calendar says, this has to be the longest month of the year. The temperature got down to 22F last night. I realize that my Canadian friends would not consider -5C to be really cold for a Feb night. It's just the odd day's tease like last week's one day of 70F but rainy. At least today will be clear, calm and warm(er). Spring will come.

This is Feb 12 which we once celebrated as Lincoln's Birthday until it morphed into the politically correct Presidents Day, except in the South. When I first came to the SOUTH over 50 years ago, I was told "We don't want no stinking Yankee holidays". Instead we had Lee-Jackson day in January, which has now become Lee-Jackson-King day as the Virginia Legislature could not bring itself to add a holiday for Martin Luther King. Oh well!

Friday, February 11, 2011

SUPER BOWL COMMERCIALS

Everyone is asking me about the commercials and the half time show during the Super Bowl show. I am even getting e-mails from companies I shop with on line asking if I saw their commercials or to rate their effectiveness. I haven't a clue.

I am probably one of only a dozen people in the USA who do not have a working TV in their house. So when I watch TV it is in the bar next door, where the noise level is so high that the sound on the game is turned off. I have no idea what the voice track is or even what the product is. The marketers are so clever and subtle that the product is not displayed or in the case of a service like banking or insurance can't be.

So I have no idea what the giant rodents driving a car or sitting on a park bench are trying to sell me. So I wish the ad peeps would stop wasting my time and delaying the games and save their money to pay dividends to their already filthy rich stockholders, like me.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

MORE SNOW

When I first moved to Norfolk in December of 1967, I was told that it never snowed here. We were promptly buried under about 15 inches. It turned out that Norfolk didn't own a single snow plow. Now, after almost 45 years Norfolk and Virginia Beach still don't. There are some trucks that can fit plow blades on them and various road repair equipment that have plows, but they still get caught off guard every time.

There have been winters when there was no snow. Other winters we got just a dusting or two. This winter we have had several heavy snow falls. Last night it snowed again and today the side streets are all covered with ice as the temperature still has not risen above freezing. Welcome to the sunbelt.

Monday, February 07, 2011

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY

The Super Bowl is over. The Chargers are now Champions of the world of a game that is only played in the 50 United States. Oh well! This week finished up OK. I am healthy, in one piece, well fed, sober and home and well rested and looking forward to my next adventure.

Last Super Bowl Sunday, 2010, I started out in Annapolis buried under 2 feet of snow. It took all morning for the parking valets to dig my car out of the parking lot and then I had a long difficult drive home over snow covered roads. After the game I fell and cut my head open and spent the night in the emergency room and laid up for several days.

In 2009, I came home from the Caribbean with Pneumonia and spent several days laid up. I barely avoided a hospital stay.

This year is better.

Friday, February 04, 2011

NEW BEGINNINGS

The Dark Ages are about half over but the days are getting longer and somewhat warmer.

This week I got a call from the Military Sealift Command that I had been hired and I should report for work on Feb 28, the last official day of the Dark Ages. They told me I should arrive for work that first week with my luggage, packed as if I would be gone for six months.

First I will have to attend a Mariners boot camp in New Jersey for about six weeks and then I will be assigned to a ship. I may travel right from that school or there may be a period of waiting. I don't know where I will be or how long the first assignment will last.

The adventure continues and I got tired of being retired. I realized that I was paying to do what I have been doing, crewing on ships and boats. Now I will try it as full time employment. I will give it my best effort and hope it works out. More in the future.