I don't think I knew Fred Schneider was actually kind of hot at one
time a LONG time ago.
I had my oil changed in the Escape today. I've been putting it off
because I like to take my cars to the garage down the street where they
always treat me right. But I haven't been able to squeeze it into my
schedule because I usually leave it for the day. I went to Jiffy Lube
simply because it was empty as I drove home from work. I don't hate
Jiffy Lube, but I don't like Jiffy Lube. They try to sell you everything
in the book. You have to say, "No no no". They say things
like, "For $52, we can change all the air in the passenger
compartment", or "For $32, we can take off all the tires and
juggle them around like bowling pins".
The thing I did like about going there today was the fact that the
guy was only a couple of years older than me and kept referring to me as
"young man". There was a time when I hated that but I'll take
it any time now.
I happen to see my friend Joe in a parking garage in New Orleans. We
hung out and started looking at houses on the river front. Three story
houses with the third floor at street level in the front and the first
floor at river level in the back. We went in the front door and checked
out empty apartments on the 3rd and 2nd floors. The steps were much like
the basement steps of an old 1700's castle. We climbed down to the 1st
floor that had no separate door and low and behold, we were in someone's
luxurious apartment. The lady told us nobody uses the steep steps. They
use the entrance on the river. Joe brings me to his apartment. We are
then riding in his wife's convertible with her driving. I see an old
nasty couch on fire hanging from some power lines. Before you know it,
one of the flaming pillows lands in the back seat and scares me. Later,
we are walking in an open field in late evening. We noticed smoke
billowing from the moon but we saw no flames. All the sudden, with
fantastic speed, the smoke started racing around the moon, soon covering
the whole moon. With a jolt, the moon started racing toward the earth
with supersonic speed. We hit the ground. By the time I told everybody I
loved them, it was there. It only grazed the earth while passing. We
estimated it tore through the Midwest. It was silent in passing. It was
silent now...I woke up with my heart pounding.
Beautiful
trip through the Vermont mountains yesterday but the leaves were a
little past peak. We came back through New York and hit the village of Whitehall.
If we do decide to retire here in the rustbelt, (ain't happening)
Whitehall, NY may just be the place. It's right on top of the Champlain
Canal at lock 12 with old beautiful downtown buildings right on the
water. It's home to The Sasquatch Festival every year because of numerous
sightings of Bigfoot. Although gas is about $3.09 around here, we saw it
for as much as $3.29. Of course, it hadn't even past three dollars in
Vermont.
Sasquatch
and myself; beautiful winding road through the Vermont mountains; Me and
Duncan in Whitehall; Bowling in Rutland; The house we will retire in in
Whitehall if we do retire there; downtown Whitehall; downtown Whitehall.
I just got home
from voting in our new precinct. Just like at the old one, it seems
nobody really knew what they were doing. They sent me to the wrong table
twice before they could find my name in the right set of books. I
actually did get to vote this time though on our 1950's voting machines.
New York has still failed to replace the voting machines they were
ordered to replace by 2003 and 2005. Today they set a new deadline of
2008. Now I'm cooking brownies.
Just walking down the street this morning and it dawned on me that
this may be one of the best advertising gigs ever. You pay a store for
the privilege of placing their names and logo hundreds of times down the
street. I also saw bags for Hannaford, Wal-Mart, and Aubuchon Hardware
in addition to bags I've seen for K-Mart, BJ's, and Sears. Maybe fall
political candidates should give out free leaf bags with their name on
them. Vote for... Hey, even if you don't like the person, it's a free
bag. Would I put out a 'Vote For Pat Robertson' bag? Hey, it's a free
bag. Saves me 45 cents...Pat Robertson endorsed Rudy Giuliani last week.
That scares me. I actually think it's a trick of some sort, but again, I
digress.
My GIANT HUGE 80's glasses. There comes a time when you can't close
your drawers so you gotta go through them and clean them out. I found
about 10 pairs here and there. These are my biggest I think and I don't
know why I've kept all of them but I didn't throw them away today
either. I think I even have safety glasses that aren't this big.
There is a large vacant lot down the street that was formerly home to
a dilapidated vacant shopping center, (Big N Department Store, anyone
know anything about it?) a huge eyesore for the neighborhood. Before
that, it was a small part of the headquarters for American
Locomotive Company, or ALCO in the first part of the century. The
site was a brownfield
but was cleaned up two years ago. I'm so excited, it was announced today
that Price
Chopper will build a new six story headquarters there which will
join a new YMCA, and a new graduate school for Union
College. This is in addition to the huge river front redevelopment
of the rest of the ALCO property across the street from this.
After a very stressful week at work, we had a very nice Thanksgiving
at a friend's house. We had kind of hoped to squeeze in some sort of
road trip but the weather was just 40 degrees, dreary and rainy.
We
also watched most of the Macy's Parade on the tele this morning and they
commented it was a nice balmy day. It was in the 60's. I, as well ad
Duncan had always understood balmy meant it was warm and muggy so I
didn't quite understand the use of the word. I looked it up and it means
mild. Maybe it's a regional thing.
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