December 20, 2009 - The "incident" at Starbucks

Today dawned bright, clear, and cold! During the hours of darkness, the county once again plowed our street, shoving haphazardly piles of frozen slush in front of my nice clean driveway! So, once again I donned my snow whuppin' uniform and stomped out to do battle with those very same chunks!

Well, it was no contest. I slashed and swung, lifted and dumped, shovel after shovel of that insolent slush, unrepentant at the cries of the victims that wanted nothing more than to last a few more hours before the sun melted them into dirty water.

"NO!" I said. "You're not going to get the chance to refreeze tonight, you nasty crystals!"

Little did I know they would have the last laugh, as after my heroic battle it was all I could do to stand up straight, my back aching from bending over, straightening up, bending over, again, again, and again! Even now, as I sit poised over my laptop writing these words, I know that when I go to stand the room will be filled with the sound of grunts and groans until I find myself upright.

Sunday afternoon, one of the days we retire to Starbucks to sip and read, finally came. We had our friend with us, so the standard order was expanded to three lattes, and three snacks. When the young lady told me how much, I kind of wondered if she had charged us for all of the drinks. She assured me she had, so I let it go, still thinking the bill was a tad too low.

Well, as things turned out, our friend drank his first latte and wanted another. This is an obvious sign of a non-trained latte sipper, one who is able to nurse a single drink for several hours. When I went to the counter to order, the young lady looked at me and said...

"You were right. I didn't charge you for all three drinks. I wasn't going to tell you because I'm supposed to be good with money. At least my money, what with, you know, budgets and things. But, then I thought, well, if I don't say something, the next time you come in you might wonder why your bill was higher than this time, so I decided to tell you."

"No problem," I replied, smug in the knowledge that for one of the few times in my life I was right! I have to keep track of those times, as there are not many of them.

"I should be more careful," she said. "I have enough trouble with my budget, what with paying bills, and what not. When you grow up and mom and dad take care of everything, you're not aware that things cost so much. Why don't parents tell you things are so expensive?"

"Because if they did, you wouldn't leave home," I replied.

"I wonder if people who have a rougher time growing up have a better understanding of how tough it is on your own?"

"They probably do."

"Well, I think schools are letting us down as well. They should teach us that things are not as they seem to be, and that it's not cheap living on your own while going to school."

Fortunately, everything turned out okay. She said she charged me for a Grande instead of the Tall Latte I ordered to make up a bit for the one she missed. That way, she didn't have to charge me for two drinks, but still recouped a bit of the expense.

I found it interesting that she said what she did about wondering why mom and dad don't tell their offspring what life is like, money wise. I thought, well, we tried, and what good did it do us? The only people our sons listened to were people outside of their mom and dad. I guess maybe we should have secretly hired a life tutor to go over all those things as they grew up.

I remember when our oldest son was getting close to wanting his driver's license. I told him he better take Driver's Ed in school. Of course, that took the road less traveled, speeding right through the tunnel between one ear and the other, and out the other side.

Then came summer, and the plea, "Can I take Driver's Ed this summer?"

"It costs $130, and since I told you to take it in school where it was free, I'm not paying for it. You'll just have to wait until next year."

Telling a teenager that they have to wait to get their driver's license is just not what they want to hear, and will go to incredible lengths to prevent it.

"What if I get a job and pay for it myself?"

"That's up to you," I replied.

Next thing I know, he comes home and announces he has secured a position at Burger King. Guess who had to take him to work and pick him up at 3am when he got off? Right. Yours truly!

Well, he works long enough to save up $130, and then quits. Boy, he learned a lot with that attempt to teach him the value of money, and working for what you want, I thought.

Moral of the story is: No matter what you try to teach your children, you will end up paying in some way, no matter what it is. For him? Well, he took the driving class, got his license, and we then faced the next hurdle... what was he going to drive? Stay tuned. If I stop grinding my teeth as I think about it, I'll write more some other day... The good part is, he actually trains police officers how to drive now! Wonder if their parents pay for that course...

December 19, 2009 - Digging out... almost

We ended up with around 13 inches of snow, I'd say, but then there's a chance for a few more inches tonight. When they plowed the road, they plowed the middle and piled it up in front of driveways far enough out that in order to be able to get out of ones drive, they would have to shovel out to where it was clear.

Shoveling went slow. The bottom of the cover was wet, and that makes it difficult to lift, so, I took my time, spending time to dig one area three times, getting closer to the ground each time. I took many breaks along the way. I shoveled off the van as well as around them. (There are two here right now because we have a house guest, our friend from Denmark, who will be here through Christmas.

We had thoughts about going to the bookstore, but by the time we finished shoveling, there wasn't much time left, so we put that off until tomorrow. I'll have to clean the vans a tad again tomorrow, as I saw some more snow headed our way on the radar. But, it won't be as bad as today, that is for sure.

Right now they are forecasting another storm for Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, but it is supposed to be rain. We'll see. If it is, it won't break my heart. If it isn't, and turns out to be frozen precipitation, it might break my heart.

I really feel that this is but the first storm of the winter, and that there will be more for us to deal with over the next few months. So much for global warming. I am tending to believe what that Russian scientist said a few months ago... we should be stocking up on thick winter wear. I saw someplace where they were saying that the last ice age occurred came about in a manner of months, not hundreds of years. Could it happen again? I guess we'll see.

December 18, 2009 - Part II

Home from shopping! Amazing! We finished the shopping for one granddaughter, and did some for the other two. As for the grandson, it's difficult to decide what to get a young man - 2.5 years old - that already has about every toy there is for boys. Maybe we'll buy him his own baseball team...

We are going to the bookstore later today so will check out books for him and some for one other granddaughter. Then, once they clear the parking lots, hopefully by Monday, we'll try to finish up before Christmas. Not buying much this year on request of the parents, which is fine with me. The less, the better! Bah Humbug! Off with ye, ye little wallet drainers! (Joking... I think...).

It is getting darker here which means the cloud cover is thickening up, which means the snow will begin any minute. Can't wait! NOT!

I am on a diet. Why? I'm a tad bit overweight, and I'm hoping that by losing 20 pounds I will be able to lower my blood pressure enough to stop taking the BP medicine. The less I fork out to pharmaceutical companies the better I like it. If I can stop taking the meds, I'll be med free! Plus, I have pants upstairs, hardly ever worn, that I will be able to start wearing once again. If I succeed, I will have more energy, and thus be able to do more for less.

Had dinner with some friends last night. They are headed to Italy. He, on the second of January to take a month long Italian immersion class to learn to speak the language better, his wife to follow in mid-February. He already speaks 6 different languages. Last year he went to Russia for a month long class on Russian. This was all paid for by the company he retired from because they "redeployed" him at the same time as he was going to retire. Part of the redeployment package was a nice sum for learning a new skill. He likes to travel, and so opted to go to two different countries and learn their languages.

He is originally from the Czech Republic, having escaped there back in 1962 at the age of 22. He lived for 25 years in Switzerland before coming to the states with his American wife, and settling in Richmond.

He went back to Europe a few years ago and visited a friend of his in Berlin. I asked him if he went into what used to be East Germany while there. His reply was that not only did he go, but he found the hotel he had stayed at in the early 60s while looking for a way to escape.

When he finally did, he left his family, everything he ever knew, behind. He did not return to Czech until long after the wall was torn down as he was afraid that if they found out who he was he would be arrested for deserting the army back then.

So, readers, whoever you be, be thankful for what we have, and be vigilant. So many men and women have given, and are giving, their lives so we might still be free. Don't make their lives a wasted contribution, here or abroad.

December 18, 2009 - Shopping Day!

Well, the snow, so they say, is on it's way here, due to arrive this afternoon, and stay through sometime Sunday. All told, we are supposed to receive around a foot, but we'll see. They keep raising the possible total for here. They started at 3"-7", then went to 9"-12", and the latest is 8"-13". I think the total will depend on where the storm goes. They are predicting up to 16" just a tad west of where we live, so if the storm wobbles a bit, we could end up with more. We'll see.

To prepare, I will dust off the snow shovel, park our vehicles in the driveway to keep them from being plowed under, and hope the snow is light an fluffy so I can shovel it. At my age it is not wise for one to shovel snow, so I will just attempt to push it out of the way without lifting it.

Since we have not done any Christmas shopping as yet, we will be leaving shortly in order to hopefully remedy much of that before the snow arrives. We have plenty of supplies, so we should be fine food wise, by will stop by Costco and pick up more apples. We believe as the saying goes, an apple a day makes one healthy, wealthy, and tired of chewing, or something like that. But, they have managed to help us be healthy for some time, and we hope the record continues for another 20 - 30 years, even if that is a lot of chewing.

At one time I used to really get excited about snow. At the beginning of fall this year I was getting excited about the possibility of some snow this year. However, the more I thought about it, the less excited I was, remembering all the shoveling, the dirt on the vehicles, the brown snow as it melted... so much for being excited. Oh, well...

Well, tis getting to be time I woke the wife and she made ready to go. I will report on our success later, once we are stuck in the house for a few hours.

December 17, 2009 - Swearing in and other things

Yesterday our friend from Denmark was sworn in as a citizen of the US. It was a bittersweet ceremony. He has MS and has reached the point where he must use a scooter in order to get around, and crutches when the scooter is not feasible. With the crutches, though, he tires quickly if having to go very far. However, his condition does not keep him from doing a lot of things, and he manages to still live alone with occasional assistance. I'm glad he was able to qualify for citizenship, as now he will be able to come and go with the knowledge he can stay as long as he wants.

I went to my writer's group meeting last night and was disappointed that only three other people besides myself, were in attendance. I have joined the Virginia Writers in order to network, that activity that puts one in contact with others with the same interests. I will also join the James River Writers after the first of the year. Adding these two organizations to my bio for when I contact agents and publishers will not hurt. And, who knows, I may actually find a publisher for my book(s) thru the contacts I meet.

On the art front, my wife sold a small painting. It was the first one since July at her gallery. We will be looking to find more places where she can display her work after the first of next year. Buyers are out there, they just don't seem to be coming to ArtWorks anymore. Why, we can't say, as we don't know. The Friday openings where they used to have good crowds have not been sustained, with the last several openings having very few people showing up. It hasn't been the weather, that much we do know. As for her paintings, last year she sold a lot of paintings, and had the quality not been there, she wouldn't have sold those. It's discouraging for her, and understandably so. I keep telling her it isn't her paintings, which it isn't, it's the lack of traffic there. To show that there are still buyers out there, we went into a different gallery in a different part of town, and the main show artist had sold over $50,000 worth in less than a month, and another one, who did basically the same, strange, subject matter over and over, using the same colours, has sold over $20,000. So we know the $ out there. We'll keep plugging away and see what happens. We're in for the long haul.

It's supposed to snow here tomorrow. I'll believe it when I see it. It's almost cold enough during the day, and is at night. I did see where it is snowing in Paris right now. What a beautiful sight that must be. It's about 9pm there right now, a great night to walk to the Eiffel and watch the different lights while enjoying the snow.

Thinking of that reminds me of one night when we were in Vienna. It was late October, and we had read that the temperatures at that time of year were normally in the fifties. Well, not the year we were there. We took clothes for the fifties and ended up having to buy hats and gloves to keep warm.

When we went out for dinner this particular night, we only wanted something light. So, the person working at the hotel told us there was a little place around the corner where we should be able to have some soup, which was about all we wanted. So, in we went. The waiter was very nice, and told us they had one table that was reserved, but we might have time to eat before the other party showed up. I assured him that we would eat quickly.

The place was small, and old. The tables were a mix of anything and everything, along with an assortment of chairs. Seeing all the reserved signs on the tables led me to believe they must have pretty good food there. So, I made reservations for Saturday night, our last night in Vienna, on the off chance they did.

However, for tonight, we dined on a bowl of broth with some pieces of sausage in it, some hard crusted bread, and a nice glass of Riesling. Perfect! We enjoyed it without eating fast, and still finished ahead of the next occupiers of the table.

When we left the restaurant it was starting to snow. It was dark out, and the lights were on. We decided to walk over to Stephansplatz, and enjoy the beautiful scenery and the falling snow. After walking around for a while window shopping in the cold, we realized we were getting hungry. We found a vendor stand selling brats, and so ordered 2 brats with mustard and a hard crust roll. We found a place by the fountain and sat there eating those hot brats with a dab of mustard, and a bite of the roll. Absolutely heavenly! I cannot remember a time when everything came together like that; the snow; the cold; the beauty of our surroundings; the fragrance of warm food in the cold air, the taste of the warm brat mixed with the mustard and roll... makes my mouth water now just thinking about it!

The next morning when we awoke, there was about 4 inches of snow on the ground. The roads, however were clear, as were the sidewalks. The sun was out, and melted most of the snow that day, but not before we were able to take some pictures.

As for Saturday night? We went and had a fantastic dinner of schnitzel and veggies, desert, and of course, a bottle of excellent Riesling.

December 15, 2009 - Why did I retire?

If I were like many other people, I never would have retired. For one thing, if I had a financial advisor, which I do not, and I had mentioned I wanted to retire, they would have fallen out of their seat laughing, and then asked, "Are you serious?" In other words, from a financial standpoint, I would have to work until I was over 100 years old in order to achieve "financial independence" as they say, or enough money to live the way I have been.

Well, the way I had been living may have been nice from a financial standpoint, but the part about having to get up every morning and drive to a job that was nice to have, but that I seldom enjoyed, was a high price for me to pay offsetting any purely financial gain I made.

So, I decided I had enough of the business world, and told myself that even in our financial position, which was okay for me anyway, I was not about to work a minute longer than I absolutely had to, which was when I hit 65 and 10 months. That was the point where I began to collect my SS. The amount would be enough to cover the necessities of living, but little else. We did have some money saved, and if we stayed close to home and lived like pets in a self imposed cage, it probably would last quiet some time.

The day arrived on June 30th. I actually did not leave the company I worked for until July 1st in order to stretch my health care until the end of July, and yet only pay half as much for the full month.

On my last day, as I walked out the door, it never sunk in that I wouldn't be back. Oh, there was a time a few months ago when I gave some serious thought to returning to work in order to get health coverage, but, fortunately, that did not work out. When I knew I was going to have an interview I went to Border's to find a book I could skim through and review some buzz words for the interview.

When I arrived at the IT section of the store, I stood frozen to the floor far enough away that I could not reach the shelf. My mind shut down tight and whispered to me... "There's no way I will ever allow you to fill me up with all that ever again!" I knew then I could not do it. I just did not have the heart, stomach, or desire, to reenter that which I couldn't wait to leave.

I must say, though, that the first 15 months of my retirement literally flew by. It was like, where did I ever find the time to work before? And yet, I never really got used to being retired, or realizing I was retired until I recently went back to the place I retired from to have lunch with a few acquaintances. As I was leaving, I realized how much I enjoyed not working, there, or anywhere. It was only after that that I really started to wake up in the morning knowing I was where I wanted to be right then... still in a nice warm bed next to my wife! And the day was all mine... usually.

The perceived recklessness of my decision has never been an issue with me. Shortly after I retired we left for Europe, spending eight weeks, traveling from Amsterdam, through France, into Spain, and taking a day trip to Tangiers, Morocco. This trip took a big chunk of the money we had saved up, but I didn't care. We had talked of doing this for years, and we did it while we could still move about. I have no regrets.

To prove that, we took a month this year and drove out west. I wanted to see some of the country, the Grand Canyon, and other places as well. So, we planned it out, and we did it!

With the economy as it is, things may become a little tight financially for us over the next few years. But the uncertainty of life has instilled in me that if one wants to do something, one should do it instead of waiting until "the right time", whatever that is. Because of this philosophy, we have travelled to many countries, seen many beautiful sights, paintings, and other things, eaten incredible food, and have many incredible memories.

In the long run, spending freely may come back to haunt me, but the one thing I will have that nothing, or no one, will ever be able to take away from me, are the memories my wife and I have given each other during our travels through life, and that is worth more than anything I have. Not only that, but we are now planning our next trip, or trips! How we will do it, well, we'll just have to wait and see, but we will do it.

December 14, 2009 - Birthday today and what went on yesterday

Today is my beautiful wife's birthday! "Happy Birthday, sweetheart!" (That's me, yelling to tell her that since it's difficult to hear in the utility room where she's doing the washing) "Is breakfast ready yet?" I ask... politely.

Yesterday evening, we had a very special event in our family. Our oldest son, Shawn, was baptized! This is not a small event. He is 43 years old, and it was something he chose to do, and was something we heartily supported him doing as it was something he really wanted.

We received a Sunday paper, probably by mistake since we don't subscribe, or as one person told us, it probably floated down to our driveway from someone else's what with all the rain we had. For the second time in less than a week we had a great deal of standing water in our yard. I fear that all the grass seed I put down in a few weeks ago has probably drowned by now. I guess I'll see come spring. It probably ended up in my driveway which is the only place where it seems to grow very well.

Back to the paper! I'm glad that there still are newspapers around considering that many are having a problem with loosing subscribers, advertisers, etc.. And I know that much of their income is derived from advertisers. In spite of that, I still wonder why do we end up with fourteen pounds of ads, and two ounces of news? I did use parts of the newspaper in spring to put around the roses and shrubs to prevent weeds from growing in there. That didn't work very well, either. They grew in the mulch I put over the newspaper. We do receive the daily paper, Monday through Sunday. That's so my wife can do the crossword puzzles so she can stay mentally sharp. I think it's obvious that I don't do them...

Yesterday it was cold with heavy rain most of the day. Until last evening when, believe it or not, it stopped, and within less than 20 minutes it was clear out! Literally! not a cloud in the sky! Amazing!

Yesterday was Sunday, and what is Sunday but one of the days when we grab our stack of current reading material and head to Starbucks! I told my wife that as nasty as it was out, they should reward us in some way for being such good customers. Once there, there were a few people inside, but not many. That changed during the course of the afternoon, but even so, the noise level did not deter us from our reading. And, Starbucks had those great cookies with the frosting on them! I became addicted to those last year, and then, suddenly, they stopped carrying them. I had to wait an entire year before they returned. And, I don't know if this is just a short time presence, or they will be there for a while. I guess we'll see.

Last night while I was taking my break from sleeping, I watched an ad about a DVD put together on a show called 'The Midnight Special", music from the seventies! Seeing all those bands and musicians from back them was interesting. I especially thought Rod Stewart in this suspenders, bright green shirt, and yellow, silky pants (at least that's what I remember - it was 2:30 am) and long dark hair, was something else. And then, on top of that, CBS Sunday morning had an interview with Paul McCartney (?). He's my age! But, he can still sing. He talked about the Beatles, and I thought back to where I had first heard them and what I was doing...

I was in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was 1962. I was in a place named "The Dixie Bar", dancing with a young Danish lady people referred to as "Monkey". We were dancing to, what else, one of the first Beatles songs I had ever heard. This was a good two years before they landed in America! When I heard them here I thought they were old hat, not realizing this was their first visit in the states, and that their music was not played here very often prior to that.

If you're like me and wonder why they referred to the young lady as "Monkey", well, unfortunately I learned that by asking others. The reply was, "Didn't you see the needle marks in her arms? She's a heroin junky!" I hadn't. A few days after that, she was arrested for prostitution because she did not have a card indicating she had a regular job. Back then, the Danish police felt that if a young lady did not have a job, she must be hooking to make a living, and it was prohibited. Sad to think of all the people who have given away their lives because of drugs or alcohol.

I will take my leave on that sad note, remembering that today is really a very happy day, for my wife and me. My wife, because it's her birthday, and me because I am privileged to be able to spend it with her. I intend on taking the redistributed wealth stimulus money I received from the "gubmint" and take my wife out for dinner... right... Hope she likes Big Macs...