Ride!

The Pool, Wimbeldon, Tour de France

Another Sunday and once again I took Gert to Adams-Ricci.  Last Sunday they had the festival so we substituted the high school – Adams- Ricci is much better.  We always park near the north tennis courts simply because it’s one of the first lots we come to and usually it’s fairly empty.  Not this morning.  There were already six other cars parked in a little lot which holds twelve.  And there were people playing tennis!   I thought this is so odd; usually there are two men playing and no one else.   And then I remembered Wimbledon.   None of these people would be out here if they hadn’t seen a clip or two on TV.  This was even more obvious watching them play (Gert and I did stand and watch with wry amusement) and by listening to the things they were saying:  all of it faux expertise gleaned from some sportscaster.  Will they stick with it?  Probably not, their rackets will be put away until the next big tennis match and even they might just be thought about rather then used. The Tour de France begins this week and I know, without a doubt, I will see at least one, maybe two fools riding around Harrisburg wearing Yellow Jerseys, once the tour is over they will put the jersey away until next year.  I ride bike and I can honestly say I don’t think I will ever wear a yellow jersey out on the road; I can’t wear something I didn’t earn.

I stopped off at K-mart and yesterday and bought Gert a pool.  It’s little, only 45 inches wide.  She was splashing around in it last evening, but mostly she was using it as big water dish.  This afternoon she was splashing around, chasing the end of the hose.

Top Line, Gert and her purse

Another Sunday afternoon at Top Line though today was different.  Why so?  Firstly, someone actually rented Camou vests for a wedding… which can only make one ponder what it was the bride was wearing.  Secondly, the conservative couple returned with swatches in several shades of green.  Most brides choose the dress colors and then coordinate the vest, not this bride, she’s matching the dresses to the vests… and the swatch that best matches the vest is from the most expensive dress (this is what she said).   This is also the couple who wants their tuxedos to look as close to business suits as possible.

Instead of going to Adams-Ricci this morning, Gert and I went for a walk over at the high school.  The East Pennsboro Carnival begins tomorrow and I figured the park would be full of people setting up rides and booths, and stands – the porto-poties were there last Sunday already.  Next Sunday should be teardown day, and then our schedule will be back to normal.

An ex-pat expedx employee and I got together for lunch last Friday and he got to meet her.  I suspect it was a little nerve wracking from him because she is big for eight and a half months.  Everybody wants to know how much she weighs and I don’t know exactly, between 50 and 60 lbs.  Here’s a snap of her running around with the purse she got for her birthday – it lasted 3 days before it… disappeared one night.  If only she’d learn to be more ladylike.

Working out, High School Dropouts, Spiderwebs

Holy Crap, another entry – it’s Wednesday, my late day to go to work which gives me extra time in the AM.  I have begun initiating myself into a workout routine again, a sore process to say the least.  If you are ever find yourself getting laid off from you job, hope it doesn’t happen in the fall or winter, especially if you’re middle-aged, you know the sluggish years of our lives.

I saw the dropout rate among high school students has risen for the 2^nd year in a row.  This is sad, we all want our kids to graduate but speaking honestly, unless you go on to college your chances of a high paying job are non-existent.  This doesn’t mean today’s graduate isn’t going to succeed; he will most likely succeed less successfully.  As for dropouts, sadder to say but true, this country needs a low skilled labor force and we do not want illegal aliens putting the tires you just bought at Sears on your car, or busing tables at Ruby Tuesday’s or Appleby’s; Americans need to do those jobs to stay off welfare.

I had a large section of the yard fenced in last week so Gert could run around outside.  It’s chain link, not one of those invisible, electric fences which shock your dog when ever they get close to the boundary.  There are a lot of kids in my neighborhood and she would love to play with them.  Chain link is far better.

The morning they installed the fence I went out and discovered hundreds of little spider webs, dazzled with dew, were covering my roses so I took pictures.

Gert, Tuxedos

Oh, my gosh, and entry after all of these months.

This is Gert’s 8 month anniversary.  At 50 lbs plus she is definitely a medium sized dog, now the wait is on to see if her weight is going to make her border line large dog.  Boxers can grow to 100lbs.  Since I’m with her so much, I don’t see her as being big, but all I need to do is look at the faces of those around me to see they think she is BIG.

I spend Sundays working in a tuxedo rental store.  Today I realized something that perhaps should have been obvious, of the three types of collars available on tuxedos; Conservatives overwhelmingly choose the notch collar because it is the one closest to a business suit.  In fact, I dealt with a wedding couple today who specifically told me they wanted a tuxedo that was a close to a business suit as possible absolutely no pleats (or ribs as she called them) on the shirt, a lay-down collar with a Windsor tie.  I didn’t tell them the pants are all pleated, or that they have a satin strip down the side.   Why should I ruin their day?

Here pic of the eight month old Gert lying on my full sized sofa.

 

Gert, Tuxedos

Oh, my gosh, and entry after all of these months.

This is Gert’s 8 month anniversary.  At 50 lbs plus she is definitely a medium sized dog, now the wait is on to see if her weight is going to make her border line large dog.  Boxers can grow to 100lbs.  Since I’m with her so much, I don’t see her as being big, but all I need to do is look at the faces of those around me to see they think she is BIG.

I spend Sundays working in a tuxedo rental store.  Today I realized something that perhaps should have been obvious, of the three types of collars available on tuxedos; Conservatives overwhelmingly choose the notch collar because it is the one closest to a business suit.  In fact, I dealt with a wedding couple today who specifically told me they wanted a tuxedo that was a close to a business suit as possible absolutely no pleats (or ribs as she called them) on the shirt, a lay-down collar with a Windsor tie.  I didn’t tell them the pants are all pleated, or that they have a satin strip down the side.   Why should I ruin their day?

Here pic of the eight month old Gert lying on my full sized sofa.

 

James Van Der Beek (?)

Oh, look a Saturday entry.  I am attempting to get my entries back up to speed.  The new job is going better and better from week to week.  Not that I ever felt overwhelmed, but there were moments when there seem to be so much information crowding into my head I did worry about getting into some logical order.  Those moments have passed.

Here’s an irony of life – I was looking at the Comcast Homepage and saw a note about the actor James Van Der Beek (sp) and how he and his long time girlfriend were soon to become parents.  I found this interesting since I saw a headline not too long ago about his getting a divorce.  I know there have been swirling rumors about his orientation so it seems ironic the pregnancy should be announced so soon after his divorce.  Actually, I don’t know too much about him except he was once on some kiddy soap opera.  I did see him in a movie about a giant squid on the SciFi Channel.  If you’re an unknown actor in one of those movies your career could be considered advancing, if you’re James VDB and you’re in one of those movies I’d say your career is in decline, sounds like the perfect time to father a child.

We’re in the middle of spring here the daffodils are fading and the tulips are blooming.

Gert turned 6 months old this past Thursday.  Here she is on the sofa again.

Gert, The Pope

Well, it seems as though we’ve gone from winter into summer, even though spring just began two weeks ago.  I say this because the forecast is for warm, sunny days with highs in the upper 70’s to low 80’s.

To celebrate Easter, Gert and I took a long walk in Adams-Ricci Park this morning.  I believe this is going to become a Sunday Morning institution.  There were a number of people walking around, but the place wasn’t packed with crowds; this is what you get on Saturday and Sunday afternoons when the weather is nice and T-Ball and Soccer games are in progress.  An interesting thing which happened was we ran into a couple who live up on the hill behind us; they own a combo pit bull / boxer.  The man kept saying “this is the real thing!  This is the real thing!” which is understood was his way of saying Gert is purebred and theirs was not.  For those who don’t know, Gert is the real thing!

One of Gert’s toys will be heading towards the landfill this Tuesday.  She had been given a number of toys by friend, one of which had been Little Nemo who went to the landfill some time ago.  Well, little Nemo’s friend is not going to be taking that journey.  This is what’s left.

There’s been a lot of bad press about the Catholic Church and they don’t like it, well this is life.  Even though they claim the papacy is divinely ordained in actuality politics among the church hierarchy plays a far greater roll.  Rtazinger had the most votes and got the job and what he’s done is saddle them with a Pope who put doctrine above humanity.  There is an old adage which goes “you make your bed, you sleep in it;” looks like they pulled their covers tight up under their chin this time.  I did see he celebrated Easter Mass in front of tens of thousands which is a far cry from the hundreds of thousands Pope John Paul used to draw.

Here’s Gert at five and a half months.

Riding, Boneheads

Since I have to attend and orientation tomorrow I have today off – nice, the weather’s beautiful, blue skies, temperature hovering around 70, perfect weather for riding bike.  I even received an email from a friend imploring me to go out and Ride.  And I would be out on the road if it weren’t for one thing.  Gert was spayed yesterday.  This means for a several days she’s not supposed to race up and down the stairs and the only way I could go riding and keep her from doing this would be to crate her for the time I was out on the road.  Instead of doing this I decided to take her outside while I started ripping the ivy off of the stone wall at the back of my yard.  This turned out to be a very good idea.  She loved it, sitting there watching me break into a sweat, getting a drink of water and laying down to watch as I continued to sweat.  Here’s a picture of her admonishing me to get back to work!

 

I was in Giant and was surprised to hear people talking about Obama’s Health Care Plan; even more surprising they were speaking of it in a positive manner.  I have to laugh at the boneheads who shriek and moan about how this plan will make us socialist.  Without a doubt, since being a bonehead seems to run along family lines, their grandparents and great grandparents shrieked  and moaned about Social Security.  Of course, back then, they didn’t realize how many of their bonehead grandchildren and great grandchildren would be so dependent upon Social Security.  I am also fairly positive this current generation of boneheads were the overwhelming supporters of the Bush plan to divert a portion of their Social Security deduction into the stock market.  Had he been successful their voluminous roar, when the stock market collapsed, would have most likely have deafened the world

Lexmark, Nathan Lyon

I bought myself a new printer, a Lexmark.  There’s and old HP laser upstairs for writing purposes and I need a color printer to I can wallpaper my office with pictures of Gert .  I went wireless meaning I can put the new printer anywhere in the house.  There was only one problem, you need a USB cable during the set-up which means I have another USB cable which I’m never going to use, ever again.    How many USB cables do I have?  A drawer full.  It would be nice if they gave you option when you make an electronic purchase, you know “with or without” and then knock a bit off of the price if you go “without.”

Yesterday I sat through an orientation class, I need to sit through one more before they feel I’m qualified to teach one.  The first one I will be working in front of a live class will be on April 17.  I’m not anticipating any problems.

This past Monday Gert turned 5 months old.  So I figure she’s about half grown by now.  I was talking to my neighbor the other evening and when I told him she was going in for her “surgery” this coming Thursday he was surprised.  He said “but she’s a beautiful dog, you’re not going to breed her?”  Of course the answer is no, a house full of puppies is not what I need; perhaps if I lived in the country with a large yard the answer might be different.

“A Lyon in the Kitchen,” is playing on Fit TV while I write this.  I have always considered this show a bit of a paradox since the food is cooks, even though fresh and organic, is not the healthiest.  For example, on the menu tonight is Pepper Filet Mignon with Blue Cheese, which sounds very high in calories.   He’s also one of those bald guys who don’t understand he would look better with hair, as it is he looks a lot like the late Vincent Price playing Egghead on the Batman TV show of the 70’s.

Here’s Gert on her fifth month.

Oscars, Cycling, Baby Names

Tonight is Oscar night and I’m not watching the whole show; being newly employed, tomorrow is a work day and that day starts too early to stay up until midnight (or later).  My vote is going to The Hurt Locker.   Just have to wait and see, won’t I.

I actually saw an ad on TV for a way to motorize your bicycle… What the hell is up with that?  Where’s the fun?  Needless to say, I was stymied for some time trying to figure out what type cyclist would trash a bike just to be lazy.  In the end I just gave up, it wasn’t worth the brain power.

My friend Levi and his wife Erin just had their first child, a baby girl.  He and I kidded through emails as to what she should be named; I understand he lobbied heavily for Isetta however his wife had the final word.   Naming children is one of the most difficult things a parent has to do and quite often they opt for the simple or the mundane.  The world does not need another Jane, or Mary, nor Samantha, not does it need another Apple Martin.  A number of years ago, when I was working for Interstate Hotels, I helped reorganize the Payroll Department when they took over the O’Hare Embassy Suites.  Part of that task was to run payrolls.   There is no way to even imagine my surprise and amazement at discovering I had paid seven men named Jesus.  Jesus… now that’s original.  Enough digressing, here is Maizza Bryn, a pretty baby girl with a simply wonderful name. 

Now where the heck can I get one of them hats!!!