Social Commentary

Back when I was about ten, I saw a mailbox at a nearby house with the last name of one of my classmates on it, so I went up and knocked on the door to ask if Mike was home.  The lady patiently explained to me that his family did not live there.  I know that in the ensuing decade, I pulled into the wrong driveway, probably opened the wrong car door, and my basketball rolled where it shouldn’t have been.  Fortunately, in all those instances, nobody took a shot at me.  So, what the hell is wrong with people in 21st century America? Every single day brings us ghastly news of new shootings. We repealed the 18th amendment, now let’s do the 2nd.

OK, back to my generally lighter musings. There’s been a big change in my financial life as I have just kicked the kids off the telecom gravy train by making them pay for their own mobile phone bills.  I thought at 33 and 30 they might be able to handle it. Those kids will be coming home this week, as we all head up to Tahoe on Thursday for the wedding of TCG’s SB1 and his beautiful fiancée. My SB1 gets in tomorrow so I’ll fill his gaping maw with linguine carbonara. On Monday I’ll let him tag along with me for my birthday lunch with my big bro at John’s Grill. The rest of the crew gets in on Wednesday.  My trainer gave me a monster pot roast a while back so that will be coming out of the freezer this weekend.

As I mentioned previously, the email feature of this blog does not seem to be working, so I’d appreciate it if those of you lucky enough to be on the list would drop me a note if it shows up in your inbox. Of course, #2 can’t do that since I dropped him from the list in favor of The Wig’s brother.  C’mon, I need new readership.

My wife has been busy as usual.  She has been putting in a lot of hours with the San Carlos school district but has also been working on the wedding shower for the daughter of Unc and Mashie.  She is good at coordinating flowers, food, and fun and games.  I’ve tried to make some suggestions and have asked if there was any way that I could somehow participate, but that has fallen on deaf ears.

We made a fun trip up to Cloverdale this week to see The Exec and his partner.  They treated us to some free wine tasting via their memberships at Mazzocco and another joint I forgot the name of.  The Mazzocco Zins were killer, and we took advantage of their 20% discount to pick up a couple bottles. We had dinner at Catelli’s in Geyserville. Our waiter is in the running for the “Most Arm Tats Possible” award. We spent the night at their lovely home in a 55+ community.  I was almost denied entry due to my youthful mien. They provided a tasty French toast and bacon breakfast before sending us on our way Thursday morning.  We made a stop in Santa Rosa on the way home to get some shower flowers.

I’ve saved a few recent headlines to share with you along with my reaction to each.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/24/spain-exhumes-the-body-of-fascist-leader-primo-de-rivera

And in other news, Francisco Franco is still dead.

https://www.nme.com/features/music-interviews/suga-bts-d-day-interview-agust-d-3434549

Wiser words were never spoken.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanschocket2/patti-lupone-kim-k-american-horror-story

I’m on team Patti.

I’ll close with a little celeb news.  Sofia Richie recently got married. I’m happy for her, but I’m a little pissed about the $2,500 Lalique panther statue she received as a gift.  I had planned on getting that for the couple at this coming weekend’s nuptials.  Now they’ll have to settle for something my wife picks out.

Call Me Up in Dreamland

While flopping around in bed in the middle of the night last night, I decided I wanted to have Armadillo Willys for dinner tonight.  So that’s what we’ll be doing.  When the kids were home, it was a staple Saturday night takeout option, but since the wife and I have pretty much forsworn red meat, we’ve not been there for quite some time. Tonight, I’ll be getting the Texas style ribs to temporarily crank up my cholesterol numbers.

I’ve just gotten back from the posh club and my solid 15 minutes of swimming has me invigorated.  I was there a few days ago and there was a twenty something kid in a wetsuit whereas the aged yet muy macho DJ was bare-chested as usual. Perhaps the kid was getting acclimated to the suit for an upcoming scuba trip.  Or maybe he was just a Gen Z wuss.  We’ll never know.

I was a little pissed earlier this week.  It looks like my blog’s automatic email feature did not work on my Wednesday post, thus denying ten good people access to my ample wit. For this I apologize.  I hope this one goes out.

In domestic news, I have my wife all lined up for Medicare. I just paid her last exorbitant premium and we now will both be feeding at the gubmint trough.  I spent part of yesterday morning getting autopay set up for her drug plan.  I conferenced her on at work with the agent to get her permission.  She made clear to me that she had three minutes for me.  We got her permission and the call with the agent promptly dropped.  I called back and the new dude wanted me to get my wife on the horn again, which was not going to happen under any circumstances.  Fortunately, he let me slide and I got the matter addressed.  

The numbers and the Belgian came by for dinner Thursday night.  I fired up a couple beer can chickens.  Those savages picked that first bird clean, but we had half of the second for dinner last night and another half for Sunday or Monday.  #1 brought a few barrel-aged Manhattans and #2 a fine Zin. The Belgian brought his bike, and I must say he looked quite fetching in his cycling outfit.  The Exec was not there as he’s up in Sonoma, but since I made his day with consecutive mentions on my last two posts, I’m continuing the trend.

Looking over my blog notes, I see that there’s been a couple recent disappointing announcements.  First, Ozzy Osbourne is retiring from touring due to declining health.  And Dr. Phil’s show is going off the air after 21 seasons.  That’s a double whammy if ever I saw one. And this just in.  Russell Wilson is helping Ciara accept her body.  What a guy! On a side note, I’m trying to accept my protruding gut.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/ciara-husband-russell-wilson-loves-her-curves-214413132.html

Speaking of acceptance, I have polenta on the menu this week. My daughter will not go near the stuff since she had it so many times during the dark days of the 90’s and early aughts.  I’m mentioning it here so my wife can get used to the idea that it’s coming.  She’s not crazy about it either, but I’m thinking of tossing in some turkey sausage to liven things up. At least she can look forward to my asparagus shrimp stir fry.

April Showers

My wife had a wedding shower on Saturday.  I set my laptop up on the kitchen counter so I could live blog it, but she kicked me out of the house before anyone arrived.  I had to console myself with a walk, a few crossword puzzles, and a tasty tempura lunch. I came back about three and half hours later and they were still milling around so I got roped into carrying some gifts to the car.

I dropped my car off at Big O tires today.  I was going to hang around the waiting room to live blog the action going on there, but the guy told me it would be about an hour and a half, which I knew would translate to at least two and a half, so I decided to Uber home to craft this gem.

In sports news, my wife’s alma mater lost the NCAA championship game.  This has been tough on her, and I’ve tried to be supportive.  Also, the Giants are 2-2 but the big news, which I’ve posted on Facebook, is that the concession stands at the Royals and Tigers stadiums have upped their game.  “Can I get you a $15 beer with that ahi taco?”

We were going to bail on the boy’s call last night as dear leader #1 was on a flight back from Iceland and #2 was going to the Warriors game.  But the Exec decided to be present, and I wanted him to feel seen, so I hopped on for a while.  The Belgian joined us as well before his one hour bike ride home.  I expect we’ll have a full retinue next week.

I saw this article this morning and was a bit puzzled.  I’m not sure if France is expecting an invasion, but a bereted grandpa with a Gauloises isn’t going to strike fear into the enemy.

https://www.dw.com/en/france-hikes-military-reservist-age-to-70/a-65228103

In political news…