[Author's note 2018: this is an early attempt at uploading pictures to the blog. They are scans of regular photos and often had to be posted manually. I did not have a reliable digital camera until later.]
It’s Kitty, one of my former singers. What a voice, but [she] could not stay stable long enough to get a good band going. She kept up with flakey men. She mostly stood in for a set or two. This is far more common out west, where in Florida they want you to play audience. How’s this for a classic blues album cover? A street with a semi and a train. Kitty had a marked ability to make lyrics up on the fly. Great sounding words with any subject you could come up with, but I never taped any of it. You can’t fool me, she had true talent, for I’d pick up any repetition or pattern right away. This photo is probably the late 1980’s.
Today I red-ass. What’s the term for people who rope you into a conversation you’d rather not have because they know you want to get something done? Family? There has to be a term. Well, I tried to go for an anonymous price quote, the only way you can be sure of getting the lowest price. I’m referring to people who won’t quote [their prices] unless they know who you are and have a stab at profiling. (This is because I believe the average person is not qualified to profile anything, much less pass judgment on my usually complicated motives.)When I first got to Miami, I tried to buy a trailer. A simple single-axle covered box. Now I’m considering a pickup truck. After a week, I gave up, nobody would give me a price. They mainly wanted to “take down” what I wanted the trailer for and call me back. In all cases, they defended this by claiming they had to “be sure they were selling me the right trailer”. My position is that unless there is a law saying they have to ask, pigs will fly before I believe they are that compassionate.
Another thing common in Florida is businesses who won’t accept a call from a phone that has caller display activated. This feature is available out west, but businesses that use it don’t last long. I hang up as soon as I get that nonsense. I’ve always figured if you can’t just tell someone your prices, you are in the wrong business
[Author’s note (2007): read this and you’ll see I was light years ahead of the rest of the country concerning spam and identity theft.]
While I admit to having an aversion to being profiled, it is wrong to think that means I’m hiding something. That is plain stupid. Experience tells me if you give anyone your phone number, they will not only sell it to telemarketers, they will call you back for “more information”, which was not part of the deal. It such instances, I normally feed them coded mis-information. I could write another book in itself about what the bastards have done with info given to them for a one-time use.
Later, another thing I remember about Kitty is, like myself, she does not each cream of wheat like cereal. You make it with water, not milk. I put salt, pepper and butter on it, which is also the proper way to eat grits. In the evening, you add paprika or curry. I lose my appetite to see people put cream and sugar on grits.
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