Please contact me here if you can identify this species. The picture is the best I have. It is also misleading because a glance might make you think this is a sparrow. This bird is at least three times larger and bulkier than a sparrow, and is at least a foot long beak to tail.There we were, fasting a little ourselves in anticipation of the big dinner at Peggy’s. And it was worth it. Peggy had a buffet style layout and it didn’t take any prodding to get me back for seconds. Her son, grandson and son-in-law were present, along with Bill, my former student and I confess to forgetting most other names. However, I won’t soon forget the turkey, potatoes, shrimp, spinach, salad bar, and the other five courses.
Naturally, conversation included the cookbook. My contribution was Lumberjack Hash Browns and a profile for myself emphasizing the fact that I am looking to start a family. My perspective is that most men my age have divorced their first wife and married twenty years younger. I could go for that minus the first wife. Due also was the story behind the recipe but I found I had no easy way to relate such a complicated tale. The fact that I can cook such a good dish with so few ingredients embodies too much of my nature to explain in one day.
I’ll write the article and would rather just tell everyone to read between the lines of this blog. I was never taught to cook, or sew, or shop, or save. The fact is, I had to learn all these things the hard way. Another factor is my predilection for choosing only the prettiest women to date—very few of them could do any of those things either. So I had to do it for the both of us. When I ran away from home, I hated peeling potatoes. Now, I love to sit down and peel twenty pounds at a time.
After dinner, let’s just say everybody else seemed to move around more easily than I. Boy, am I full to the gills. No room for pumpkin pie. Peggy’s Internet was out for a week. It was the power supply to the Westel (DSL modem) kicked out of the wall. They were out of electric for a couple days last week when the transformer blew up. If you saw how the electric company runs in Florida, this would not seem out of place. This is the same outfit that left me without power for three months after Wilma. They are so shifty, around a ninth of all power bills in the state are in fake names due to marketing of private consumer information by Florida Power and Light.
Wallace entertained with card tricks. Once he was out on the balcony for a smoke break, he entertained even more with raw footage of the movie, “Spyz”. The scene with the split screen was so effective I finally told everyone how it was done. The only matter holding up this movie now is finding the right edit software. Later, I dropped in a Holiday Bowling Lanes. Remember that place?
This is the joint that could have had me playing there instead of at Jimbo’s. But they took too long to make decisions. The atmosphere is also less congenial and the waitresses a bit on the pushy side at times. Hey, I don’t rag on my customers when the tips are bad. I know how to tell when they’re broke and I don’t put myself in the position of relying on the tips to pay my rent, follow? There is a birthday party going on tomorrow and Wallace indicated the bride (a waitress at Holiday) had seen me play at Boston’s. Her picture was on the bulletin board and you know, I recognize her husband to be. He looks like Willie Nelson in his younger days.
I did notice they are featuring regular weekend entertainers there, so I’ll be sure to check in. I’ve never heard of any of the band names but the music community around here is pretty tightly knit. There is another tidbit on the grapevine about Karaoke starting up again at Jimbo’s. I’m glad I side-stepped that one for my own reasons. However, if it fails again, ahem, then I’d good to go with approaching Kim and asking if I can have a stab at it. Boston’s was closed tonight so no jam with Arnel.
A spot of good news. After pricing out the new alternator ($210), I went to remove the old one for a $55 credit. What’s this then? As I unplugged the various connections, one of them showed a broken electrical coupling. I replaced the part with a 38 cent primary wire spade. It seems to work fine. The car still needs a tuneup something fierce, but I drove it 15 miles without any trouble. If it works, ha, good for me.
One last item. I’m a major step closer to, for the first time in my life, getting a steady unearned income. I repeat to you my commitment to document the changes this is certain to cause in the way I think. I was raised a poor kid in the company of rich kids and was early to notice the difference in the mindsets of those who got free money and the kids like me who had to earn it. The plan is to record whether I change. For example, right now I read only for the information contained on the paper. I’ve noticed people who have unearned money through allowances or inheritance don’t care about the information, only the grade of paper and quality of the bookbinding. We shall see.
