"He Was Malled!"

Apologies to the late, great Johnny Most for that
title pun.

Last weekend I was exposed to a mall. No, that sounds
wrong. . . I exposed myself to a mall. . . no. . . I was
forced by my employer to expose myself to a mall.
Yeah, that's it.

My part-time job required me to drive some guys to a
mall so they could shop. I tend to stay away from malls
if I can. But this time, I got the full tour.

This particular mall was one I lived near in my, um,
'formative' years. The first thing I noticed is that the
place has grown to about three times the size it was
when it was built. Inside, the thing I noticed is that
it's about 90% clothing/shoe stores. And it's mobbed!

Now, I know I'm "just a man", but HOW can a place
like that be so busy? Can people really shop for clothes
all day, every day? I find it hard to believe these places
do the amount of business that they do.
Well, it was the weekend - but still. Come on!
It just doesn't make sense to the male brain.
"Hey, Bob, let's go buy some clothes!". . . just doesn't
work.

An observation from one of the guys I brought there
(he's 63), as he scanned the mall activity: "Today's
generation sucks. The way they dress sucks. Their
music sucks. I just don't know."

On the ride home, I saw a sign outside a pet store that
read: "Puppy socialization - 1 pm - $10"

Is that really for the puppies? Or is it a dog-owner
pick-up joint with a ten dollar cover??

I think they should unleash the dogs in the mall.

F'n A, Wtf, etc.

Master L's school has been fighting us tooth and nail
about EVERYTHING. It all started when we suggested
that perhaps they should give him more challenging
work. All of a sudden, he went from being fine to
having all kinds of "problems". Basically, the teacher
decided that if we were going to say anything about
HER classroom, she was going to make our, and our
son's life a living hell.

The school gave us a real "Catch-22" situation: They
couldn't verify that he is "gifted" without formal
testing. BUT - they refused to test him, because his
teacher said, "I don't see it". This same teacher said
the same thing about our friends' daughter, who has
since moved to another state and tested in the 99th
percentile on the evaluation. So much for this
teacher's "vision".

My opinion is, it's all about money. These "educators"
are so concerned about actually spending any money
on students that they are willing to sit in endless
meetings ABOUT doing it rather than just doing it.

So, now we're having him tested independently. So far,
so good. I can't wait for my next meeting with
Mrs. I-Don't-See-It, when we'll be armed with our
test results.

AND, we're thinking about homeschooling next year.
It's got to be better than what we're getting from the
school system. And probably less headache-inducing.

Speaking of which, we got 10 or 12 inches of snow here
yesterday. Heavy, wet snow. "Heart-attack snow",
as they sometimes call it here. My back is killing me.
Thanks for asking.

I still remember the day the big, tall guy across the
street (think linebacker) bought his snowblower.
I went outside and started shoveling my driveway
and he opened up his garage door and wheeled out
his new machine. He then proceeded to fart around
with it, play with the gas can, fiddle with controls,
etc., while I continued shoveling. Then he finally
got it started. By then I was mostly done shoveling
and started to put my shovel away. He stopped
the snowblower and gave me a dirty look.

And now, instead of using the snowblower, he
makes his wife and kids shovel the driveway
while he, um, supervises. Of course, three
people can shovel a driveway faster than one
person, so they finish before I do. And the
guy looks really proud of it, too!

We got a new oven this week. To get the old
one out and the new one in, we had to move
the refrigerator. Underneath, I discovered
one of my son's long-lost "Yu-Gi-Oh" cards.
The name of the card? "Premature Burial" !!

I played at a benefit for the displaced people of
Danversport. There was an explosion at a
chemical plant and a huge fire that destroyed
a lot of the surrounding area. These things can
be weird - there were 15 bands on the bill, but
the way the load-in/load-out/parking works,
if you're playing you end up seeing the act before
you and the act after, and that's it. In my case,
that was Erinn Brown, who I'd heard of but never
seen before, and Sal Baglio, who I hadn't seen in
about 20 years. They both played pretty good
sets. . . but I think I spent more time with them
in the "green room" than any of our individual
sets lasted! The whole thing was put together
by Julie Dougherty - and other than a one-song
duet sit-in she did during Sal's set, I still have
never seen her perform. Still, benefits like these
at least give you the chance to hear some bands
you never can see because you're out working
yourself. I knew a couple of the guys who were
scheduled near the end, but by then I was home.

Oh, it turned out that one of the bands that played
before I ever got there included one of my wife's
old bosses. I called her and told her, and she asked
me to get his contact info, which I did. No doubt
that made an impression on his new wife, who was
with him. Heh.

What else can I share today. . . hmm. . . well,
we're having meatloaf for dinner. Master L
hates meatloaf. Aren't you glad I shared?
And aren't you glad you don't have to listen
to his complaining??

Righting an Old "Wrong"

I was once accused by a blog reader of only posting photos of my "younger self", with the
implication that I was being intentionally deceiving. All I will say is, can you post a picture of anything BUT your "younger" self?!?

Well, OK, fine. These are from last month. That's the best I can do!!!

This one apparently shows me playing a
really amusing Bb . . .