An anniversary and a milestone

Today's post marks the 8th anniversary of this blog. May 14, 2007.  And coincidentally, this is also my 1,000th post.

I never set out to write 1,000 blog posts. I got the idea of being a blogger from my kids, who both blogged actively at the time. It was something that I thought might keep me occupied upon the occasion of my retirement, and I set some guidelines from the very beginning:

1. This blog is solely for my enjoyment. If anyone else finds it amusing or interesting that is serendipitous.
2. This blog is an opportunity to share some of my more interesting life events with my grandchildren.
3. If this blog doesn't occasionally embarrass my kids, I am not trying hard enough.

Of the 1,000 posts, more than 300 have been Monday Meanderings and some 60 have been directed toward my grandchildren. The rest are a hodge-podge of whatever amused me at the moment. Google says that over the years, some 45,000 people have taken a peek at what I have written. The majority of views were from people in the USA, of course, but there also have been page views from Germany, France, Russia (more than 1,400!) the UK, China, Ukraine, Canada, Poland, Australia and 21 other countries.

The most-viewed post by far is "Traveling in Comfort" March 16, 2012 with 5,135 views (though I have reason to believe there may have been some funny business going on there - it was viewed more than 400 times in a single day from the same person. It wasn't that good, believe me). The 2nd most-viewed post (more than 1,500) is "The Mystery Album" on November 24, 2010, followed by 726 views of "Never Underestimate the Power of a Sweet Potato Pie" December 14, 2012. Hmmm. Looks like I peaked in 2012. My favorite post? Hands down "Deep Thoughts while watching a soccer game. Really" on 7/13/2011 (and again on 8/8/2012). Most fun to write? The "Bob the Dog" series.

Most non-commercial bloggers wear out. If you have followed favorite bloggers for any length of time you have seen many dwindle to nothingness. Sometimes a blogger will just hang it up and say, "That's it. I'm done." When I saw the 1,000th post coming up, I gave some thought to doing the same. And I may, in the not-too distant future, do just that. But for now, though I post much less frequently than I did, I'm still enjoying it, and occasionally I find something new to pass along.

So if you weren't around on day 1, here's how I started it all.

Last August, Neill, the guy who takes care of our 401K and 403B and WD40 and I don’t know what all else, said, “You can retire in March, 2007.” Excuse me while I kiss this guy! Barbara was already receiving more income in retirement than she was when teaching school, and my Social Security benefits would begin in March, and suddenly all those years of payroll deductions had accumulated to the magic number and we left Neill’s office pretty giddy.

 

In January, I told my boss that I was retiring. He asked if I was interested in doing contract work, and I said that I was, but on a significantly reduced schedule – like half time. I had already decided that I wasn’t ready to come home and wonder what I was going to do for the rest of my life, and since I didn’t have a lake cabin to occupy my time, nor do I golf or fish, I thought I could ease into this venture by working part time. 

The need for what I do professionally is entering the twilight years as well; we’ll go out of style together. I figure that there’s a need for my skills about another nine to twelve months, at least from the standpoint of my present semi-employer. Of course, I said I was going to be out of the computer business before the year 2000. I’ve been wrong before.

Of course, the real reason for wanting to work part-time is that I’m not sure Barbara and I can stand that much togetherness. You know, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I know of early un-retirements under those circumstances. Homicide is not unheard of. She has her office in one end of the house and I have mine in the other, and she has long suggested that a sound proof room where she could go off and shut the door would be a good idea. Remember, this is the woman who used to call my boss and say, “Can’t you send Bob somewhere? I really need some time alone.” 

Well, her schedule at Austin Grad had her away from the house all day on Mondays, and she volunteered at her old school Friday mornings, so I arranged to work Tuesday through Thursday and it was almost like the before retirement schedule. We meet up Friday noon to do our shopping, have Saturday to do whatever, Church all Day Sunday and singing on the ground, and then… then gloriously, for me Monday is a free day. Better than free, it’s a sit on the patio, drink coffee and watch the tomatoes grow day. You can do that in Austin for another week or two this time of year.

 

People ask what I do with all my time now that I’m retired. My standard answer is “First, there’s coffee on the patio and then there’s Oprah, and Ellen and Dr. Phil and those three women – and oh, there’s Jerry Springer!” The truth is I have never seen any one of those programs. What I really do (so far) is fodder for later blogs. Then there’s work. When my boss agreed to the 3-day work week, he didn’t mention that he still expected me to work 40 hours a week. The company is trying to meet a significant deadline, so I’m logging extra hours – and getting paid a righteous sum to do so.

A friend kept telling me that I should become a contractor. Now that I are one and am making twice as much money as I was as an employee and working half as many hours (in theory, at least), I wonder why I didn’t do this twenty years ago! Of course, there are the little things like taxes to be paid, and both portions of my Social Security deductions (I sometimes wonder if my deductions and benefits wave to each other as they pass in the night) and insurance payments (now there’s a blog subject for sure). But I’m having fun being semi-retired in Austin.

Monday Meanderings - 5.11.2015

We could see the handwriting on the wall, along with the graffiti. Fran's is no more. We stopped patronizing the place several weeks ago and the other day I noticed in passing that the signs were removed and the windows covered. We first wandered into Fran's in June of 2007, inspired by seeing the South Austin location (which closed a couple of years ago) featured on "Friday Night Lights." Well, there's still Dan's, the cafes started by Fran's ex husband.

The clasp on my watch broke the other day, so, as is my custom, I turned to Google to see what could be found for repair or replacement. When I located the watch and band, like so many things in my life now, they were listed as "Vintage" or "Discontinued." And no, being "Vintage" did not make my watch valuable, just hard to repair.

There's a grocery that caters to people from India (or people who like Indian food) next door to the place where I go for therapy on my shoulder. The other day, I'm standing there, staring out the window while I do endless reps of some painful exercise, when I notice a man get out of a car with a huge, green Macaw on his shoulder and go into the grocery. After a period, the pair emerged - the Macaw still on his shoulder and the man with a bag of groceries. I don't know if the man was shopping for himself or for the bird.

Received notification from Seton Medical that Barb's personal and medical information was among the 39,000 records recently stolen from that institution. The letter was very apologetic, guaranteed that it would not happen again, and included the phone numbers for the big 3 credit bureaus. Oh, and they also said in essence: "Good luck. You are on your own if anything bad comes from our carelessness."

Plans are afoot to honor the late Leslie Cochran. The life-size figure will be sculpted sitting on a bus-stop bench and placed at the corner of 6th and Congress, Leslie's locale the later part of his life as the bearded, bikini and tiara-wearing Ambassador of Austin Weirdness. I love this town.

Best sign on a pickup window this week: "United States Infantry - hooking up martyrs & virgins"

Best Facebook post this week: "Stop shaming people on the internet for grammar mistakes. It's not there fault."

Monday Meanderings - 5.4.15

I stopped at one of those automated car washes the other day. I'm a firm believer of washing my car as often as annually, and it was time.

As it turned out, there was an attendant at this wash, as is sometimes the case, and he signaled me to stop short of the payment kiosk so he could "spot wash" some of the more troublesome spots, like the wheels and tires, and the odd bug splatter. This meant I needed to dig out a couple of bucks to tip the guy, so I took out my wallet.

First he gave the car an overall rinse, then he started in on the wheels and spots, then he switched to a long-handled brush and started going over the side and hood panels. At this point, I added another dollar bill to the tip.

Then he rinsed again and resumed washing other areas and the windshield, mirrors and rear window. Another buck. More rinsing, and then concentrated attention to the really baked on bug spatters. By this time he had spent more time on the car than it would get in the wash bay, and I was up to $5 in tip money and running out of small bills. Thankfully he sent me on through before I had to run over to the Taco stand next door and get change for a $20! But the car sure looks nice.

Drove by a flea market being conducted in an empty lot where a number of hand tools and small power tools were being offered for sale. I commented, "Want to buy some tools?"  Maybe it was the neighborhood, or the fact that these tools were by and large being sold out of the backs of pickup trucks and car trunks that caused Barb to respond, "Do you want to buy some of your tools?"

We went through our Spring Ritual - moving the plants back outdoors and hooking up the drip irrigation hoses. Then, of course, we went to Home Despot and bought the obligatory sacrificial  tomato plants- the fruit of which we annually offer up to the birds and squirrels and things that go bump in the night.

Best Chinese fortune cookie message ever: "Ignore the previous cookie."

Testing new eating places for breakfast. Fran's, long our favorite hole-in-the-wall cafe, continues to disappoint in numerous ways.  There's an eatery over on North Lamar named Ross' Old Austin Cafe and we've been there a few times. What we've tried thus far has been satisfying, but it is hard to mess up breakfast tacos. Best of all, service is prompt and spot on.

One of the things that interests me about Ross' is the "community table." Folks who evidently eat there often and know each other sit down at a large double table. It does not appear to be the same people every day - just folks who come often and want to chat with others who come often. It occurs to me that that's what we all want at every level. A place where we can be in community and fellowship. Cheers for the breakfast crowd. Works for me.

Monday Meanderings - 4.27.2015

I posted a while back about visiting the Guatemalan embassy in Mexico City to get an official, stamped document for our travels. That prompted Barb to remind me of the story about the red rubber stamp.

Years ago while living in Abilene, Barb and I and were in a small Bible study group that included a couple who had lived in various interesting places, including Vietnam during the early years of the US "military action" there.

Ron, the husband, described how he and and his wife and others had set out to start an orphanage in that country to help deal with the overwhelming problem of children left parent-less by the on-going war and military conflict. He described how frustrated they were initially because they could not overcome the problems of bureaucracy and seeming indifference by those whose official blessing was needed in order to set up and run the orphanage.

He told of venting his frustration one day to a fellow American who was in that country on behalf of some other non-government organization, and that person inquired as to whether Ron had a red rubber stamp? "What red rubber stamp?" Ron asked. "Any red rubber stamp," the fellow responded. "It doesn't matter what the stamp says, but it must be liberally applied to all of your official documents, and you must use red ink with the stamp."

So Ron obtained an ornate, official-looking rubber stamp inscribed with the orphanage name and his name, and some other verbiage on it - along with a red ink pad - and began stamping all his correspondence, business cards and any other flat surface that he encountered with the gaudy stamp.

And doors opened like magic!

Officials who previously didn't have the time of day for Ron and his group welcomed them with open arms. Business got conducted, approvals were made, and the orphanage was in business! All because of a red rubber stamp.

Another follow-up. The AT&T Uverse service truck was back at the neighbor's house the other day. She had previously posted on a neighborhood bulletin board that the service call count was 6 (now 7), and the problem was still not fixed. That knowledge came in very handy when a sales person came to my door the other day wanting to sign me up for AT&T Uverse. Interestingly, the service truck was parked on our block - at yet another neighbor's house - when she knocked.

And apparently columnists and bloggers are running out of city ranking ideas. The most recent list is called "The 16 U.S. Cities that Top Every Internet List for Being Awesome." You know, “Best Places to Visit,” “Best Cities to Eat Your Way Through,” “15 Best Places to Be A Hipster,” etc. And yes, Austin ranks high on that list, though I don't give much credibility to a list that ranks Houston and Dallas above Austin in any category except traffic congestion.

Monday Meanderings - 4.20.2105

We were watching a "friendly" soccer match between the US National Women's Team and the New Zealand Women's National team the other evening, and during the course of the game the commentators mentioned that the New Zealand team might be a tad weary. It took them 53 hours to travel from Auckland to St Louis! There was a multitude of travel problems; probably the most enervating of which was a 25-hour delay in the Sydney airport! If I spend more than 4 hours in an airport you might as well just shoot me.

From IH-35 you can see a gaudy circus tent, erected in the parking lot of Highland Mall ( now the Highland Campus of ACC). It brings to mind that the days of the circus "Big Top" are mostly history. Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey has not pitched a tent since 1957, electing to set up only in sports arenas. The gaudy tent belongs to Circo Hermanos Vazquez, a Mexican circus that ventures into the US from time to time.

When I was just a young lad, my father took me to see the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey circus under the canvas big top. At the time, it was set up in the Montgomery Ward parking lot in Fort Worth. Mind you, the Montgomery Ward building itself was an impressive sight for a small-town boy; the circus was almost overload.

Probably my most vivid recollection was seeing Gargantua,  billed as "The Largest and Fiercest Gorilla Ever Brought Before the Eyes of Civilised Man!" Gargantua had a glassed-in, air-conditioned cage, and the story goes that he was given a fresh blanket each evening, only to tear it into tiny shreds the next morning.

Amazon introduced 1 hour delivery in Austin recently. With the PrimeNow App, if you are a Prime member member and you are in need of, oh, say toilet paper, punch up the order on your phone and an Amazon delivery person will show up at your door within the hour, merchandise in hand.

The cost for 1-hour delivery adds about 8$, (plus a tip) to your order. If you can wait for two hours, delivery is free. Amazon says they offer "tens of thousands of daily essentials, gifts and more" with the service.

And there are various social media reports that In-N-Out has added bacon to the menu, but that appears to be wishful thinking. I can't find any official confirmation of that.