Mid January Suck and other stuff

I added something today.  It'll happen any moment now.  Wait for it......

I read an article that no matter what, I should hope that I don't win the Powerball because of the financial ruin that has devastated over seventy percent of lottery winners.   No.  I want to win.  In fact if I have to be financially devastated in seven years because of it.  Then OK.  It's a deal.  So for now I'll probably be like every other sucker conned into this snake oil game and continue to buy a ticket, maybe two, or once in a while three....

Picked up a free camper shell a couple of months age.  Not bad from side, even with the scratches on the top. Rumor has it the thing went airborne at some point in it's life.  One of the results being......

No rear door.  Actually purchasing a replacement is somewhere's south of four hundred bucks.

So I gathered up a bunch of raw materials and came up with this for about fifty.

It'll do.

Feeling under the weather.  On reflection I almost can't remember the last time I felt like this.  Which I suspect has a lot to do with avoiding crowds and living near the Coast.  But every dog has his day.  So I'm sipping hot Sake waiting for that warm alcoholic glow to set in.  Every time I purchase the stuff, which is sold in more stores than one might think, it always appears to be a topic of conversation, as if I'm always somebody who looks willing to chat.  To which I always respond.  It's just a phase friend.  Just a phase.

Sitting around these last couple of days has made me unbelievably restless.  So I did a bit of research and holy crap, there are some amazing deals on some exotic vacations.  So, yeah, I think I'll work on that for now.

I picked out these songs well, because I guess my tastes have just become more mature.   Got an important call, gotta go.

Brisket , Sweet Potato pie and David Bowie

  It's been four years since I decided to battle a Brisket.  The last three were cooked on an electric smoker and even then only two of them were even edible.  I so went to great lengths with all three, injection marinades and all.  Two were edible. One even being kind of OK.

  This little seven lb. beauty took ten hours of careful tending while soaking up hickory smoke in a simple barrel type BBQ.  Simple spice rub of Cayenne, Beer, Vinegar, Course Salt and a few other ingredients.  Pretty ugly huh?

 Hah,  turned out pretty amazing.  We subsequently invited some other residents of the park over for dinner.  Scalloped potato's and Coleslaw being the main events. What was going to be just a simple meal turned into several hours of just an excellent time. Somebody brought over a sweet potato pie and some BBQ beans to go along.  And Rolls of course.  Good food and good conversation.

Really it's been awhile since we had a group meal.  The last few occurring with the adult kids.  Those were also highly enjoyable events I might add..  The difference being with this one was it consisted of folks we'd previously had very little contact with.  What a difference a dinner makes.   I suspect much like the Christmas dinner that is alleged to have occurred between the Germans and the Allies in World War I. (And those people were enemies. We were just strangers)  Does make one speculate if more folks in this country, not to mention the world were to sit down to a meal once in a while, maybe then we'd see eye to eye much more often.

So, middle of the afternoon, on a drizzly overcast and cold day, I'm sitting right by the open door in this little castle.  I'm finding it kind'a enjoyable.  Lisa long ago gave up on the day and decided to nap through it.  There is really no other activity around this place.  Secret is, is that most folks only come here on weekends and during the week, the place is more or less deserted.   News everywhere says David Bowie is dead.  Cancer at 69 and just one more reminder of impending mortality.  This one bother's me a little more because I have memories of such clarity of nearly half a century ago.  See I was just fifteen and had just gotten my driver's license. It was supposed to be daytime only but   Dad, working for the UP railroad sometimes needed picked up late at night at the old railroad depot in Twin Falls, Idaho.  The one that long ago was moved twenty miles away and eventually became a pizza joint.  Well, Mom might have been working, or not.  But damn it, a new kid had the ability to drive and maybe she was just tired of so many late nights waiting for his train to come in, that it was more convenient to have the, eager to drive at any time, boy go get him. So I was given the keys to the family bus, which was a solid step above the vehicle I was usually allowed to drive, told to watch out for cops and go get him.

The Bowie connection?  Well, I'd drive around town a bit, cruise Main  trying to look cool as if that car were all mine.  But I'd finally end up waiting in that dark parking lot late at night, sometimes after midnight and, sometimes better than an hour.  And you guessed it.  Always accompanying that memory is the voice of David Bowie singing "Ground Control to Major Tom" over that am radio.  And I'd sit in that car and look up at the night sky (it was always summer of course) like he was really up there somewhere.  Sometimes I snuck a smoke and it, well, added ambiance to the moment.  And today just reminded me once again that like it or not, the world is changing, not always for the best.  And nobody ever gets out of here alive.  But I guess for the most part, when it happens, well, it likely will be with good company.

Old Lang Syne

There have been 196 posts to this blog.  Which I suspect only a few bored Internet bots read from time to time mostly cause they are programmed that way. ( I call them Steve and Barry). But I like to think of it as a bit of a legacy.   No doubt about it, there have been some adventures from time to time that, well wouldn't have happened otherwise. A good number of them weather related, climate change be damned.    Speaking of damned.  40 mph winds out there and a 27 degree temperature drop In about an hour from the same system that just hit Dallas and created a EF4 Tornado..  A horrible tragedy and my heart goes out to the victims.  A bright spot, hot water heater still working when it sometimes gets blown out by a spring breeze.

So a few acquisitions.  Lloyd the camp host gave me a nearly new barrel BBQ.  Smoker style.  I haven’t personally smoked a brisket for quite a while so looks like a project for next week.   Second thing, I joined a gym.  For the better part of my life I have had a means to blowing off steam.  Not the case the past few years until I started looking a my rising blood pressure.  Sure I walk when I can, but it’s all about the location location location.  The gym is a fifteen minute drive from here.  The  best deal came from the most upscale.  And the drive along the bay is quite invigorating.  The workout satisfying. 

But to the point of this post.  Occasionally I'll break out of my shell and have a meaningful conversation with other age appropriate folk. anywheres from ten years younger to twenty years older than oneself.  Any older than that and you're talking to a parent, even if you are 61.  See he'll just profess to know a lot more than you  and begin directing forthwith. And yourself?  Thought we'd broke out of that.  At least by the mid thirties anyways.  OK, some of us are just a little slower than others. 

But one thing I’ve learned during our travels, that can grease the dialogue faster than anything else, muttering these few simple words having the potential to bring nations together,  is the simple phrase:  "What kinda gas mileage you get on that rig?"  Those few  code words align the synaptic brain response in a universally accepted and non aggressive disposition.  Incite the conversational juices for a couple of old guys like no other.  Familiar ground acquired each party then proceeds to comfortably wandering into more personal subjects’s one, well, wouldn’t feel right talking about beforehand. Such as “they just don’t build Fords like they used to”.   Now that’s opening your self up folks.  Party, culture and otherwise.  Soon a wellspring of opinions sprout forth.  Politics, family matters and personal beliefs.  Fifteen, twenty minutes is all it takes. Usually takes place in a neutral area, say in the middle of the road, casually and most assuredly stepping slowly out of the way of oncoming  traffic and never breaking eye contact, so’s to dispel the other’s notion that you might be afraid or something.  It’s also a spot where both geezers feel equally comfortable and in neutral territory.  After a reasonable amount of time, ( after all there’s other things needing attention,)  satisfied each walks away from the other simultaneously.  Has to be that way.  Mutual retreat. Even if it never happens again, it takes such an encounter for older males to be able to live in proximity to one another in peace in these RV places.  If that ritual doesn’t occur timely, it’s been my experience that suspicion,misgiving and ill will usually follow.

Now women adhere to different rules. Women speak tends to be a whole different form of communication.  I notice women tend to be more patient with other women, particularly when they are in a demanding mood.  They seem to get less upset.  A privilege not extended to us men.  

Recently, what with Lisa trying to get the house sold she’s been agitated more and more by circumstances being what they are,  1800 miles away and all.  She’ll talk k  over some of the issues with me, and my responses tend to be more direct.  Emotional, profound, requiring instant decisive action.  Yeah, I’m the decider as is my proper role.  Problem is I can’t make up my mind and tend to fritter back and forth sometimes.  A fact I’ll deny later if anyone asks.  But for some reason unknown to myself, this seems unsatisfactory to her.  So recently during a visit to a local real estate Office of the same chain being used in Idaho,  Lisa connected with  just what the doctor ordered, another woman.  And for the next forty plus minutes they danced around every aspect of every concern she had.  Drove down every street and looked at all the intersections.  Turned left, right and then drove back.   Then go down and explore some other dark street in their minds.  Naturally for the first twenty minutes or so, I tried to keep up, grabbing upon little tidbits of talk and instantly coming to the proper decision.  Cause that’s what I do being the decider and all.  But that folks got to be exhausting.  Even decider’s need naps.   After blurting out my opinion a few times just to be ignored, I was viciously overcome by a nap attack. No sense fighting it. After the mind meld,  I was rather rudely awoke by a more satisfied Lisa.  She seemed more pleased with whatever decision she’d come to.  Me, I had the satisfaction that she’d finally taken my  advice.  I was sure on that point.  

So I'll finish this.  Somewhere South of San Antonio. Middle of the night at the end of a Caliche road and just witnessing the arrival of 2016, with some satisfaction. Rain and cold wind blowing outside and my party, unlike the boozy nights of the past, amounted to popping a bag of popcorn and boiling a cup of water for one of the midnight worker’s unable to get away for a little food.  Sent him away with a couple of energy bars,  bowl of warm soup and a Happy New Year.  The same that I wish for all my friends and family.  And I’ll take a moment to remember  those friends from the past that never made it this far. And that friends will do me just fine

And it's Saturday, Democratic Debates

So I watched em.  Hillary, who has been around the block at time or two and has figured out the rules of the game, vs Bernie.   So who is Hillary?  She's, ambitious and she's learned the rules of the game, played by them.  For my purpose here, I'm sure she has very good intentions.   She's also the one who has withstood the battles.  Under constant scrutiny and answering all questions during unrelenting hearings.  Accused of any number of humiliating actions.  She shows up every time and walks out head held high. She's earned every one of her battle scars.  And that's where my respect lies.  But she's also realistic.  Her goals are restrained, what she thinks she can accomplish. She got beat up trying to put together single payer health care in the 90's. She remembers the early 90's.  I know she has the shadow of a possible devastating email, or gasp, that something in her past can be somehow elevated to the level of well, Benghazi.  The war cry of those who get all excited about her presidency.  Wouldn't make a bump on a gnats ass compared to say,  the absolute crazy batshit spewed by the other side.  Killing families of terrorists, alienating a substantial segment of the population of not only the world, but the country.  So, I guess that's what you get by diverting all of that money from education to prisons.

Then there's Bernie.  Same message every time.  Thinks big and at this point of his life, willing to go all out.  But the reality is Bernie is just going to work.  It;s always been the same. He goes to work each and every day. Same issue.  Somebody on the other side says it's not unusual to not show up for work every day to earn a representative of the people's salary.  Personal stuff and Campaign stuff is more important. Some people are just, well, kind of special and deserve special consideration.   Not Bernie.  Hasn't missed a day since, well?  Anyway,the rich and the poor.  The minorities, the women and the children. Those are Bernie's target demographic and he thinks about them every day.  The coal miner's and the dock workers. Minimum wage and fast food workers.  Twenty years ago, Bernie got up in the morning, woke up by an old alarm clock and  donned one of three or four old suits and went to work, always a half hour early.  Bernie had the vision to see long in advance what was happening to the country. It was just which issue was to be a priority. They changed from day to day, week to week and month to month. He always supported the little guy. Who isn't getting the fair shake.  The message behind the message.  Yeah dangers await outside our borders, but most lie within. Bernie won't admit it I suspect but he's been scared a few times.  Maybe during the civil rights marches.  But he has always been mission specific.  Expose the hidden agendas of the rich and powerful who'd trade their six year old's birthday party for the future of your's.  And now at 74, he hasn't got a damned thing to gain from a president's salary. There's no after glory for him.  The presidency age's guys who are forty for Christs sake let alone a guy who is 74..  He'll be lucky to get through one term let alone two. He knows that everything he's promising will be an uphill battle. He doesn't know how many years he's got left.  But Bernie probably wakes up to the same alarm clock and wears one of the same three suits. Looks forward to going home to his wife's Chicken pot pie. Maybe the nightly martini.  In the old days he'd smoke a pipe, read some work stuff and then go to bed. Talk to his wife about the enormity of the job. She'd tell him this was just who he was and what he did.  And Bernie'd be satisfied with that.  Resolve intact, go to bed and ready himself to do it all again. Just going to the Office doing what he's always done and what he's always been meant to do.

For the sake of my children, I'm really hoping Bernie's got it in him. 

  

Talkin to the Ocean

Have been battling a bit of high blood pressure lately coupled with lazy assedness and gitcherassoffthecouch syndrome.  Decided to take a hike today after a few weeks of inactivity and headed to Port Aransas.. The first few miles were kinda painful, but then I just seemed to find my stride.  Specifically while listening to TED.  The end of the walk almost came to soon as they say.  See the Ocean does positive things to me. Refuels the soul. Talks to me if you will.  The tension ebbed from me as I more or less serenely sauntered over to enjoy a few more minutes of the cool breeze, salt smell and beautiful view.  Suddenly, the whole experience was cataclysmically destroyed when I ran my head into the overhead canopy seen above. Shattered my soul and returned me to that unhappy place I'd painfully left after the first few miles.  Waste of effort.  I'm still waiting for an apology from the damn Ocean.  Could'a warned me or something.

Am I the only one thinking Trump would be in a whole lot of trouble if he were saying the things he's saying today in middle school?  While watching a whole lot of journalists (term used lightly) trying to interpret these crazy things he's saying as anything more that the words spewing forth could mean.  Or trying to make excuses for the people who follow him.

Trippin through the Internet the other day, well, because right now there really isn't much else to do.  Come across a study I've provided a link to below, that I coined "Bullshit".  It states folks who believe in inspirational quotes tend to be religious, believe in the paranormal and are hmmmm...how to put it: Stupid comes to mind. or thats the result the author intends...  First glance at the jumbled word sentences they say are produced by a "New Age Bullshit Generator" fella tends to take a double take.  "The unexplainable is in the midst of boundless chaos" is a little weird.   Now I take this all a bit personal and at first I thought it might be a right wing think take retaliation against abundant studies that tend to lean towards Reds being slightly less intelligent than Blues.  But nope, found it in Huffpo and if anything the article could be viewed as skewing left.

Here's the thing. Though I've never seen one, I personally believe in little green men.  (Well maybe they aren't green)  But I think there is an abundance of evidence to believe something is out their and from time to time finds its way here.  Oops, seems like Stephen Hawking also shares this view or some version of it. Just keepin my eyes on the sky hoping to see one before I die.   I also tend to believe in believable conspiracies as well.  Voter suppression laws for instance are passed on a grand scale represented as preventing fraud. (Bullshit) Something that has been proven to be almost nonexistent.  Supporting Charter schools has twofold benefits. Gutting schools while controlling content with a dark agenda.  There are already disturbing indications coming from studies of voucher schools.

Bullshit

That people "hung out" with dinosaurs. dragons are real and Africa needs religion, all on the public dime blah blah.  More or less crazy stuff. And Climate Change denier's, just a whole lot of stupid people being led around by their nose by the rich few who pay for the propaganda palaces. And finally, Will Rogers, Stephen King, Albert Einstein, Krugman, Mark Twain, etc have all been quoted one time or other.  I tend to find considerable meaning in those words.  I'd add that I'm also not ready to consign honest people with deep seated beliefs to the above category as well.  So nuff said about that.

Lisa and I just finished an amazing Sci Fi channel flick.  Childhoods End, or something like that. Come a long way from Sharknado I and II. The weird thing is there are some disturbing similarities to a story I wrote last summer.  Mine is much more crude, but whoever did this produced the epitome of that tome.  Then it occurred to me that somewhere I'd read that there exist only so many plots that are recycled over and over.  And how Freaking interesting is that.

So, did I talk about Sake'?  I didn't did I?  Well maybe next time.  

"Good Health is entangled in a symphony of force fields"

                                             Mutton P. Head

So it's gonna be 90 tomorrow

Updates 

We made a couple of bucks last week working.  Our 2500 HD pulls our little Castle like it's nothing.  More like driving down the road more than "Hurling" like it felt with the Bronco.  Every corner a fight to stay on the road. 

We ...again scored health insurance after being rudely thrown of their roles last June.  We purchased a pretty good plan so I guess it's best not to put stuff         off any longer.  Dad just hit 85 and Mom's 86.   I envy that.  Course growing old is no picnic, but how do they say it? Oh yeah, the alternative is worse.

Since she rarely reads the blog, maybe I am that boring, but nobody is as much a pleasure to live with as my wife.  I've never met anyone that was so goal oriented.  She keeps us on plan pretty much no matter what.  In the process she also maintains this small space to a degree of such orderliness and cleanliness that crap, when she's gone I go through vertigo.  No kidding.  I have a bed "spritzed" for a nap.  Or maybe I need to shower more often.  Hmmm. While she nudges us with economic effort and unlimited patience, I sit around griping "I'm bored. I got an idea".  She says "No"  stick to the plan.  And while I know it will work. I'm the kind of guy that well, says "I'm bored, wait I got an idea".  Anyways.

We pretty much share the cooking.  Danny who lives across from us comes over for a couple meals a week.  That way we know he's not just eating potato chips and jerky, or protein shakes whatever.  We eat really really good as sometimes meal preparation is the major event of the day.  Yeah my extra two or three extra waist inches aren't an accident. We make some pretty spectacular stuff sometimes.  We have an indoor and outdoor kitchen.  Along with two ovens.  Thanksgiving was a breeze.  Now I'm hankering for seafood other than shrimp.  And Sake.  I have decided I like Sake.

 Leya gets a hold of us occasionally but we haven't heard a peep from her since she started her new job.  It's nice to see her and the grand baby on FB but just not the same as the real thing.  Piffy lived with us just short of a month before we came down here and transferred her back to mom and dad to go to Nevada.  But we heard she asked Santa for sand for Christmas so I suspect we'll be seeing her again.  Kody drives down from Yorktown once in a while.  When we were packing up to come back from our last gig, Kody arrived with the pup. Brutus came to say hello at a dead run, got half way through the Cattle guard and froze.  I didn't even know he was there until he started barking at me.  Awesome dog.  He's going to be a duck fetching sumbitch that dog.

 It's going to get near 90 tomorrow.  Not the 60's and 70's that I like. God it's December 11th.   Just after we invested in some fancy patio furniture that we intend for our place that we hope to get sometime next year.  A fire pit and four chairs.  Good start.  

This current RV park is the best we have found, but not only for the bargain.  There's a dark side to everything.  One might expect there'd just be retiree's in these places but there's a lot of folks who do the full time RV thing and folks who weekend and folks who on the outside seem pretty normal.  But as I found out a few months ago when camping next to someone I thought was pretty average,  he actually was kind of a disturbed kind of guy.  He was a war veteran. It was an interesting, if not intense time which I won't go into here, but glad I moved.  

Now periodically I talk about people we have met on the road and sadly, we hear that one gentleman we parked next to for several weeks a couple of years ago, had a stroke.  I got a pic with him, his wife, dog and a huge African Parrot they traveled with in their fifth wheel, while they were taking an evening walk.  We heard it from his wife.  They had been coming to this area and boon docking for many, I guess man years. Hope the best for him. Though we were "roughing it" in a popup, those are good memories for Lisa and I.  Makes one contemplate the good times don't last forever.  Just don't miss those middle of the night events stepping outside to pee a couple of hundred feet from the sign that said "Caution Alligators"

 While we are thoroughly enjoying it here, (actually this is the best park we have come to) some of these places are pretty dismal.  They look OK from the outside but the manner in which they are managed make a HOA seem like Switzerland.   No kidding, at the last place I was escorted off the property.  Really, by an old duffer in a golf cart who followed me out.  Now I kinda approached him to ask if that was what he was here for.  He said No No.  Just visiting.  But like I said, when I left, the ole duffer followed me out.   Now the leaving was a mutual understanding after three "Camp Hosts" came knocking at my door because I had a leaking check valve.  After that it's a bit like being stalked. I was told my spot had been reserved and there was no place to stay. And honest to god, one of them screeched. Really, it was a screech. Not at me but I heard em yelling at somebody else.  And y'know, that's just really something I don't need at this stage in my life.  Anybody coming down here, give me a buzz and I'll tell you which ones to avoid.

Damn, a cat hauled a small Copperhead home to it's owner from under a trailer about fifty yards from here the other night.  And that lady's and gents is why I never leave this adobe at night without a flashlight.

So it's late and I wanted to throw out this final ditty  Though it's five and a half months until substantially more economic freedom, this ole brain has learned a few things.   One, I truly regret "wishing my life away" when I was approaching retirement from my career occupation" .  I would go into my office late at night sometimes to make up work and think with satisfaction that it was the downward slide. Having a date in mind that I would walk away from it all.  Well I did.  And I discovered, as during most years of my life, there were always an abundance of good times and good memories.  It was always about the journey.    I was stressed getting the kids to school  Stressed getting to work on time.  Stressed getting to all of the family stuff that had to be met.  I feel bad now that I considered some of those things as stressful. As I remember it now,it was the crisp frosty fall mornings when I'd drive them to school.  The Saturday morning wrestling tournaments.  The Friday night football games. The trips to scout camp.  Remembering my pretty wife in her scout leader uniform talking to a crowd of parents who were a bit awed by her imagination all the amazing things their kids had been able to do.   The recitals, the shows, etc etc etc.  They were in fact the good times.  These days every day is the best day.   A million bucks can't replace contentment, family and awesomeness.  So yeah.  We'll have a few more bucks to play with in a few months.  But for now, well, great weather, great location and great company.

A talk with my conservative friend

Well if I gotta be up all night I'd just as soon be paid for it.  Money's a bit scarce these days so we grab it when we can.

Yes I shamelessly plugged the name of our blog on the above pic.  So sue me.  

I swear lately I've been dreaming of long ago arguments with my conservative buddy.  Arguments that got so heated that of course we'd migrate to the outer edges of extreme.  Maybe because I no longer have an outlet.  Guess old guy's need a good argument once in awhile.  Just to keep the juices going.  Funny thing about it, is his voice always got a little gruff, I wanted to say like Archie Bunker, but on reflection, I think it was more like Gruff the "Take a bite out of Crime"dog. Or that's how I remember it anyway.  They kind of went like this.  Especially after a few beers and maybe a good steak.  Sitting in his living room on his turf of course.  A topic or two might come up ripe for spirited conversation.

Me on Air Traffic Controller's after a near disaster from a sleepy controller:  'Yeah I think they should have a guy on reserve considering it's an exhausting job and the price of lives that might be lost in an accident."

Him:  "That guy should be fired.  It's a waste of money.  It's his responsibility."  

Me: " You mean even if you were on that plane, you wouldn't want somebody on reserve case the guy got tired?"

Him:  With kind of a growl here. " No! It's his responsibility and he should be held fully accountable.  That's what you hired him for."

Me: "Even if you were on that plane?"  Him:  "I'd be fine with that."

He'd chortle a little on this thinking there was no comeback.  And y' know there really wasn't one.  Sometimes there just wasn't sense to be made.  Corners picked and no surrender.  So we'd both agree to disagree and conversate onto another topic.

Me on health care:  "Every civilized country in the world has universal health care and view it as a right"

Him: " Everybody always wants something for nothing.  Where'd you get an idea like that."

Me: The US pays the most for healthcare and has the lowest outcomes.

Him:  God don't you get tired of reading those "Liberal Blogs".

Me, because I really didn't know of any liberal blogs at the time and didn't know this term was referenced all the time on FOX news,  " What liberal Blogs?"

Him:  "The one's you read all the time".

Me things getting a little louder now "You're so, so full of shit."

But the funniest thing about my buddy was what I have come to view as a fairly familiar comeback. Tie it to ACORN  as somehow  (ACORN) utterance of that word could explain everything,  You Know ACORN.  Automatic win.  And of course I've learned since what that acronym stands for, for the life of me how he'd been able to reference that in any argument still escapes me. 

 Or he could attack the source ,or "liberal media",which in his mind, were equally powerful end gamer's.  The type my fragile liberal mind couldn't conceive of in "Conservative World".

On comeback he once said "Cuz it's in the Bible" he growled.  Now the reason this is so funny is because I suspect the average prostitute has more confessions under her belt than my buddy who is suddenly quoting the bible here.  Fact is,  the only time he'd ever been in a church was for the occasional have to be there thing, like weddings and funerals. And I knew damned good and well he'd never read a lick of it.  So I reminded him that he could also be executed for eating shrimp.  "Bullshit, where does it say that"?  I said with my jaw tucked in, "Leviticus" which was the only section I could remember a name of, having heard it on television or somewhere's.  And handily, a word I could pronounce.  Like I really knew anything about Leviticus.  But I had heard something about shellfish being bad somewhere's. And damned if he didn't get a thoughtful look on his face and decided I must know what I was talking about. So he'd clam up. Argument won.  For ten minutes anyway.  So we'd sit  sipping beer for a bit, kind of like Hank Hill, while he flipped endlessly through the channels on tv.   Just try to get that remote and you'd be lucky to keep all your fingers. He'd even hijack your remote on the oft chance he'd come to your house. God help you if you were watching Bill Maher or MSNBC.

        So after a bit of silenece,  somebody might maybe pass a little gas, just for added insult. Then he would throw out the first volley,  "If I have to watch somebody sing or dance again, everybody's just singing and dancing all the time".  " I'm just going to stop watching TV".  Like that would've ever happened.  I'd get a grin on my face, a big one, the type you can feel stretch from from one side of your face to the other and the fight was on.  We could usually arrive at a consensus, but it might not be very pretty getting there.  Hell, we could've run the government a helluva lot better than it's being run now. But the reason I'm talking about it here is that I really remember these being the good times.  Conversations with a good friend over forty years.  He died sometime back.  Maybe those conversations evolved sometimes to something that an outsider would have some problems understanding. Especially between sixty year old guys approaching senior citizenship. Of course these words didn't reflect who he was, maybe even the exact opposite of what he was.  But he's gone now and those times are over.  And to tell the truth, I miss the hell out of him and them.