November 17, 2018

Yesteryear
One year ago today: November 17, 2017, at the Opry.
Five years ago today: November 17, 2013, over-laughing every joke.
Nine years ago today: November 17, 2009, cat in the box.
Random years ago today: November 17, 2008, strategic bass playing.

           I would point out that this trip had a variety of motives, one of which was to sort out a long-standing mystery. I put in 91 hours of deep thinking before I came up with an answer. Based on new information no available 30 years ago, I made a major mistake and I paid for it. Financially, emotionally, socially, I paid for it. And it is because I was a coward at the one spot in my life when I should not have been. It was not a game-over situation, but you bet I regret that incident. I doubt I could face it again, but I was the coward in the situation and that is what went wrong. It involves the impression I give when first meeting people. It tends toward the inert, but my long-term friends say this is no passing trait that the odd sensitive person picks up on. It is written all over me, they say. I'll tell you a bit, but this has to do with the phone company. I used to work at the phone company.

           They reminded me that I have said it myself, that I don't do well just telling people about myself. They say my style is to be on the inert side and let the other people, especially girl people, be surprised. Yes, you can dress me up and take me out. But, but, but, I know that some people take this wrong. I learned not to pay attention because the ones who said I was doing wrong were the ones who got caught trying to pull a fast one on me. You tell them about that, Theresa. You move into my place and decide you are not going to pay the promised rent, and yeah, you will discover I'm nobody's little buddy. Getting back to the matter at hand, well, I can't say. But trust me, I made one lousy, senseless mistake by just letting the situation go when I should have said something.

           I spent the day in the car, thinking. I had left my driving glasses (I have spares) in the club last night, so I had to return when they opened. Which was not until 10:00AM, and we are talking a pair of $400 Foster-Grants. That wait explains why you got so much blog now. Here's a mystery picture. What have we here? And that is the original banana-for-scale banana. It always was plastic. This is one of the failed attempts to mount the GPS where it would not keep melting off the dash. This concept would have worked, except for the steering ratio. No matter how well it worked in theory, the steering wheel could not stop pulling the power cable the wrong way. And I now know that the Garmin does not have an internal battery. Instead it has a 15 second capacitor. Chintzy as hell.

Picture of the day.
Alaskan tundra.
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           I've driven I-5 a few times and always underestimate that long grueling drive from the northern California border to the central basin. It's mountains all the way and burned up a tank of gas in a wink. I coasted into Redding feeling too wide awake only to find the city has an ordinance against overnighting at Wal*mart. Just my luck, so I recalled a travel center just south of town. I tend to keep in touch by phone whenever I'm on the road alone. Today was a little different, I got incoming from Alaine, Judy, Fred, JZ, Agt. R and LizJohn. This is bloggable because none of them know each other, hence the reason for the calls. If something happened to me, they'd be the last to know. I got into Redding, scouted the Wal*Mart, which had no indication crashing there was a problem. It is when I returned after a night at the Castle Lounge. Hey, it was my birthday celebration because I missed my real [birth]day in a Wyoming motel. The only other occassion I was ever in that state was passing though in 1999. I recall staying at a motel in Laramie. It was Sunday and no place to have a brew.

           Security came over to inform me overnighting was against a city ordinance. That they'd had "some trouble". I ken, because I've met the crowd that drifts from lot to lot. I usually park at the other end from them. The fine for sleeping on private property in Redding, California, is $1,500. Here's a picture of the road nearby where the camper broke down. Back to Redding, I remembered there was an all-night truck stop a few miles south of town. I got in there late and partied out. I shut down a pub, well, they helped by feeding me free drinks, which I'll tell you why in a moment, and where they were slow, the other patrons made sure I never ran short. You see, what happened is I walking in to this strange place, found by GPS, was I figure they had a lousy band and sat with my back toward the stage. How bad was it? I had turned around several times and saw all the band on stage. Or did I?
           Later, it turned out it was just four guys standing on stage during a Karaoke show. So I put my name in, to help out on compassionate grounds. Millennials, I think, have been exposed to a lot of less-than-talented Internet fare and that is what they are copying. You'll have to read on for what happened, but it happened, and I have the video should anyone demand proof. You know, I see there now a video option back with this blog provider. Only took them how many years now. Tell you what, I'll attempt a video post upon return. I produce around four short videos per month anyway.

ADDENDUM
           You want to know about Redding. I followed the first listin and wound up at a millennial club called "Castle" or similar. They may be indoctrinated on most counts, but they still get out and party on a Saturday. I chose an old favorite of mine, "These Boots". Man, did that produce the desired effect. That, and I had by far the profoundest stage presence in that place in years. How do I guage that? Easy. The staff told me. I got up there and sang "These Boots". Oh yeah, they took note, but a lot of good that does me. I was the oldest guy in the club by three times. And when I see my video of the event, I look like an old buy who had been on the highway for 16 hours. He's my stunt double and he's indulging in some off-duty shenannigans.

           Yet I did bring down the roof. I'll get you some stills from the video, actually, the video is the second time I got up and it was near closing. But the mood was there, since the bartender said around half of them stayed when they heard I was up again. Yeah? I was, but as the last show of the night. I did "Spiders & Snakes" and the 25 year old women were chanting, "Take It Off". That's the reason for the outtake you may see here when I get around to it. The jacket I was pretended to peel is the only thing my ex has given me in 30 years. Not wait, she has given me the time of day. We did not part on the best of terms, but nor did we part on bad terms. She's done exceptionally well for herself. The way I like to put it is she conquered her gremlins emotionally, and I tried to best mine financially. Shall we say if it was a race, I came in a distant second.
           I've told you how the problem is not meeting women. I meet them everywhere I go. This night was no exception, but honestly, there comes a time when all but the prettiest ones are not worth the effort. Such was the case for me, and I admit it is encroaching age. How do I know this is due to become an increasingly major factor? Easy. I'm in that group that does not age slowly over time. It's nothing until the first big arm wrestle with Mother Nature and it's time to say bye-bye to most things you used to enjoy. Don't let me sound too gloomy, gang, I've got untold resources to fill any gap. I've stockpiled all manner of interesting pursuits and when I look around, for staying active, I'm the one left standing. Everybody else my own age, if they've got any money, seem to be shiftless drunks.
           I could have two perspectives on that. One is that retirement did not wind down my day-to-day. The other outlook is that in some ways, I've been retired since I was 41 and that amount of time just naturally builds up momentum until you don't notice the changes so much.

Last Laugh

Duckface?
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