Post  #2556.   Sunday noise.     Sunday noise seems to bother me more than the other days. I've written about the daily noise in this, the noisiest spot on earth. I'm okay with most of it. On Sunday however, dear neighbor goes to Mass early and lets Yappy Dog out. As soon as she hits the back yard, Horny Little Wiener Dog from the next house goes crazy. He isn't fixed, and he has the perpetually unrequited hots for Miss Yappy. They both bark for about two hours, the time it takes for dear neighbor to go to church, do whatever else she does and come home. I can live with all that.

However, The two yappies tend to set off Big Dog, the extremely huge and loud woof-woof type monster who lives behind us, and everydog else within miles. He just barks, and barks, and barks, never pausing. Long after whatever it was that startled him awake has passed, he keeps barking. Now, Horny Dog and Big Dog are just two of about thirty that don't belong to people who go to regular church. No, these owners all go to the Mega Church where they Hallelujah and Praise the Lord all day and night. When they finally get home, their dogs are starving and nearly wild. By the time everydog gets calmed down and fed, late Sunday nights are eerily quiet around here. Well, until ... since I like the house cool at night ... I turn the thermostat way down and kick the air conditioner on. Varooooom. Hallelujah Everybody. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

posted by Rick at 1:53 PM

Post  #2555.   Notifications.      Did I tell the blog that my youngest brother died? Can't remember. Well, he did, about eleven months ago. Due to circumstances at the time, it passed differently than the way those things usually go. I didn't really do any of the proper things. No excuse, I just didn't. So, today I get an email from our closest cousin, Cousin Janice, "Sooo, how are you guys doing? Been Awhile." She's the closest because it has been only 26 years since I've seen her, as compared with 55 years for the others. Also, we've emailed. I brought her up to date, told her about Brother and also mentioned I have cancer. Figured I might as well get it all over with and only cause the agony of one reply instead of several. I just hope she doesn't want to come see me. She does have a habit of jumping on planes.

One of the few people I did notify was family friend Dave. In his sympathy letter back, he went on quite a bit about things they had done together. I had no idea. They were the same age, and I was away at college over those years. Along with his remembrances, he mentioned how much fun the three of them had together, Dave, my brother and Russ. Russ? Other friend of the family, Russ? Oh jeez, he doesn't know. Russ is dead too. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

posted by Rick at 1:43 PM

Post  #2554.   Really?      Even in greenie-weenie Seattle, I wouldn't be surprised to see thousands and thousands of these tiny strips of paper flying around in the breeze, caught on barbed wire, stopping up storm drains, choking pigeons and who knows what else.



just because people know when enough is too much. As for me, this is where I live,



and I have to tell you, I do not save water and I do not save electricity.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

posted by Rick at 10:04 PM

Post  #2553.   Everything is okay.     I've a confession to make, however: been posting in another place. A complete waste of time but addicting in a annoying mild narcotic sort of way. I hope to kick it before too long. Basically, this is just for the googlebot because, bless its soulless self, it doesn't care what you type so long as you provide output. (I always picture the googlebot as appearing much like Number Five, but with zero personality, sadly.)

There was an advertisement for K-Mart layaway. I didn't know this plan still existed, and I doubt if many people under forty or so have even heard of it. Still, buying something at K-Mart and then having to put it on layaway, wow, that's really getting down to basics. Sign of the times.

At the utter opposite of the say-whut spectrum, American Express wants to be more relevant to the Facebook experience. Say whut? That's what they said. If I had the time, I would join American Express on Facebook and claim to be a Black Card Holder and lord it over the lesser cardholders. Interesting phrasing, black card holder versus black cardholder. What am I saying? Of course I have the time.

Some songs for your pod, if you have one. I don't.

Land of 1000 Dances - Cannibal and the Headhunters
Cupid - Sam Cooke
Good Lovin'- The Rascals

These three tunes are guaranteed to perk up your day, no matter what.
Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

posted by Rick at 11:50 AM

Post  #2552.   Conversation with the sister-in-law.     These days, they go something like this:

Her: Hello? Anyone there?

Me: Armmpff.

Her: So, what's up?

Me: Not much. Just trying out some chores.

Her: Trying out?

Me: Yes. What you might call multi-tasking if it wasn't the aimless, unrelated starts and stops of a person with creeping dementia.

Her: I know what you mean. Except mine is galloping. Just today, I and from there about twelve minutes elapse while she tells me about her day so ... what's up?

Me: I was going to call you, just in case I said I would.

Her: You did.

Me: What?

Her: Say you would.

We do eventually get down to some actual conversation and, more often than not, remember large portions of it. For now anyway.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
posted by Rick at 12:29 PM

Post  #2551.   Classics.     Occasionally, I'll post on opinion sites. More often than not someone will call me a f****** moron, or gramps. The young these days. I don't care. If they get too mouthy, I tell them to make sure their W-2's are up to date. Huh? Just keep that 7.65% coming, sonny, and you can call me whatever clever thing you want. Man, are they going to be pissed when the rate goes back up after this year. Most of them are so dumb they think they got a raise.

Anyway, I do feel sorry for them, having no future and all. If they drop out, they face a life of receiving, storing, shipping, stocking and ringing up stuff that stinks cause it's made in China. Either that or the worse fate of typing into a television set for the next forty years. If they do get an "education," or what passes for one anymore, they can look forward to a miserable existence of underemployment and bitterness, saddled for life with a crushing debt of college loans.

You've mentioned that before, the stink. Yeah, and I'm going to keep on mentioning it. We may have been a little pushy and made a few mistakes when we ran the world, but at least it didn't stink.

Pretty grim when you consider the only thing that's going to save our butts is about ten years of rampant inflation. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

posted by Rick at 1:51 AM