Scared

I got nothing - as I won't really discuss BLOTUS saying he could wipe Afghanistan off the face of the earth and that he told a high school crowd that the Constitution give him - and I quote - "the right to do whatever I want".  Unquote.

Ok. Maybe I'll say a little.....

I know my audience here so you already get it, so this might be for historical purposes or for the fascist fucks who stumble upon this blog:

If these two above things don't scare the fucking shit out of you - take another look.

BLOTUS is expertly and systematically continuing to chip away at everything. He's "joked" about three terms. He's "joked" about not leaving office.

Folks. This is not a joke.



Song by; the Tragically Hip

Dead

How much more can I milk my mother's death for a blog post.

I'm gonna see how far I can stretch this sucker.

Last night, my cousin Billy texts a seemingly simple message:

"How's life?"

....and we'll let the below image take it from there.  Before you you read, Billy lives in the Pacific North West, so no longer local.

One might find Billy's .gif comment crass.  Blobby is not one of these people. I literally laughed out loud. Not figuratively.

Billy can be perfectly inappropriate, which is category in which I'd like to place myself.

And to be fair, Billy is correct. I then searched for a good - or any - dead mother .gifs, and all I found was the one you see as the title image. There's an untapped market there that probably cannot be monetized.

I certainly didn't mean to exclude Billy or some of the cousins. Half are west coasters and while I'm sure they'd share their condolences, I just felt odd about keeping having to repeat the story. I kept feeling like Jackie in that one episode of Roseanne.



I know I'll miss my mother, but I also know that laughing isn't a bad thing.  Lots of people made me laugh last Friday and I them. Billy made me laugh last night, and he will for years to come. I hope it's not all about my mother.  .....but one can never be sure.


Song by: Pixies

My Music Monday

I'm white enough and old enough and male enough to not know there is / was a difference between Khalid and DJ Khaled.

And if I'm being 100% honest, I only know the latter from the shiteous Pitch Perfect 3.

That's a lot of information that none of you wanted to know. Ever. Nor did I ever want to truly have to admit to any of this.  In my defense, we saw that on cable. It's not like we went to the theater to take in a viewing.

Anyhooo......I was somewhere or other and I heard a fairly decent R&B song and Soundhounded it.  Khalid's "Talk".

As an overall artist, he's probably not my cup of tea, but I can appreciate a good song when I hear it.

Sowing the Seeds of Love

Friday's celebration for my mother went well..........if I say so myself.  But I did hear nice words about it from others, so I don't think it was just me.

Miraculously, I nailed the headcount. I'm guessing we had between 100-110. We had room for 120. 

There were former neighbors (well to me) who showed, including one half of a couple, whom was told me to years ago, had died. Clearly I was given #fakenews. I considered telling them that story, but opted to just not. More than a few folks from the law school where my mother worked attended.  Most of them pulling me aside to tell me nice stories of their working relationship. 

There was family from both my father's and mother's side in attendance. Lots of cousins. And family friends. On average, I probably got to visit with each person for about 32 seconds each. 

The food and flowers could not have turned out any better. Mind you, I kept trying to eat, but understandably was interrupted by well-meaning folks who wanted to talk about my mother. Part of my job was to do just that. I did, however, always have a drink in my hand. So.....win!  And I kept checking to make sure that club operations was doing ok. 

The tributes turned out fairly well. There were four speakers in all - myself included. While I got compliments, I know mine started a little rough, but I finally found my stride and think it went well. 

710 had a scathingly brilliant idea a few days prior to the event, and it was flower seeds. 

My mother was an avid gardener. He thought it would be nice to order enough seeds for people to take and plant in her memory. Ironically, she was more of plants person than flowers, but the sentiment was there.  We had 100 flower packs in a basket and not one was left at the end of the event, which was very heart warming. 

It is a great wrap-up to all that has gone on in the last few weeks. It's nice to know my mother made an impact on lives outside of her kids and husband. All of that is a nice feeling with which to be left. 

Song by: Tears for Fears

Pets

Sorry for no real intro.  But you get it.  Doggies.  Kitties.  Kitty. Singular, I guess.

Shep up at Lake Erie.

Sleepy Sleepy Soph.

I love when Shep is a cuddle monster. 

Lucy - the bring your dog to work at the cemetery. She was such a love!

Ariel pet shot. 

Up in the park not that long after I fell down and go 'boom' last Sunday. 

Song by: Porno for Pyros

Celebration

Today is the day.  Closure.

Well, in a way.

Later this morning, we will be having a 'celebration' for my mother.  It's not a funeral, it's not a memorial, per se.

What it will be is like 97 degrees.

What it will have is a more casual dress code due to the heat, food and most importantly, an open bar.

It's mid-day, so I'm not expecting a lot of drinkers, but you never know. I'm not saying I'm going to tie one on, but let's put it this way, I'm not planning on being the one to drive home.

I honestly don't know how many people will be coming. I planned food for 100. I invited her three remaining nieces and nephews and had them disseminate the 4-1-1 down to their kids. I told her favourite person at her job of 28 years, and she told the staff and former staff from there. I never asked for RSVPs, but I'm sure it's all good.

I know about 50 who will be coming. So that leaves another 50 randoms who read the obits and will become funeral crashers.

Unlike my dad's funeral, where I pretty much knew what I was going to say, all I know for tomorrow is how I'll open and close. The in between part? Improvise.

For the most part, it's a completely known audience, so I don't think it will be horrible, but stay tuned.......I'm sure I'll let you know either way.  Should it really suck, I'm guessing someone will upload YouTube footage.


That image is my mother back in 1929, at around 6 mos old. It will be part of a "slide show" that will be playing at the venue. 




Song by: Madonna

Color In Your Life

I have tried to stay away from political posts in the last month or so, but this administration is making it SO hard (and yes.............that's what she said).

The media had one job to do - and they failed.  Again.

The story on race and tweets and responses should have been the ONLY story of at least the first day.....if not multiple. But it's a 27 second clip on the big 3 networks. 

Not one of them asking the questions of the GOP - to their face, with cameras in it - about why they don't speak up.  And regardless of the four who did, there are like 240+ who haven't - - - save the one asshole who said he was "a person of colour"........white.

The whole, America: Love it or Leave it didn't work so well in the '60s and doing worse now. Of course, it's the GOP "argument" now. Mind you, these racist didn't flee the country when Obama was at 1600 - so StFU.   And if we're not great again, why don't THEY leave, their "leader" included.

Eons ago, or so it seemed, I wrote (paraphrasing, bc I might be drunk),  while you might not be a racist, you have to be ok with racist behavior to tolerate whom you elected. 

We are now past that. If you tolerate current behaviour,  you ARE racist.  Plain. And. Simple.

BLOTUS is no longer (nor has been for a while) anything other than a blatant racist. His failing, wannabe Aryan children aside, who aren't seemingly mortified by his behaviour at all, there are no barriers to his hatred anymore. It's not even cloaked in conjecture.

BLOTUS' comments aren't surprising in the slightest. The litmus test is and was - the response from his people, his party, his family.   So far it's been support, silence and silence, other than that twat Eric who says 94% of American people support his father.  I want to see the data behind his.  BTW, Georgetown University - your teaching methods are shoddy if he's coming up with data like this.

We had dinner last night with neighbors who are also friends. Piet is in his 90s.....and he is just devastated at where we are right now. It's true for all of as this table, though they chuckled when we all ordered 'white' wine.

#allwinesmatter.

Ok. Still drunk. But now I'm going to bed. Ironically, I have a 07:30 meeting on opioids safety. Thank g-d it's not on alcohol.



Song by: Missing Persons

Falling

Hello. I'm Blobby......and it's been 10 months since my last fall.

Now I'm 3 days since my last fall.

So there I was, about to start a hike, but I stopped to pee first. As it was hot, 710 and Shep were a few hundred feet away from the potty room taking cover in some shade.

I step out and try to make sure 710 doesn't let go of the leash to let Shep run to me. A. we are too close to a road for that.  B. I saw some hikers coming up behind me.  C. it was a new park and I didn't know the lay of the land.

Clearly.

So I take all of three steps towards them, and down I go.  Hard.  And in mud.

From all I can tell - I stepped in mud and as it turns out, it's slick. I honestly don't know how I landed, exactly.  I remember being on my back - as my ass was covered in mud. But so were the sides and front of my legs. I remember me putting my head back on the ground, yet not dirt ended up on my baseball cap.  Oh, and right below my palms were read and scraped. And I cut my knee.

So I don't know WHAT the fuck I did.

The couple of hikers I saw coming, were nice and asked if I was ok. Mind you, they never broke stride or anything. I probably was dismissive because in my head, what I heard them say was: "did you see that old man fall?"

It's true. In my mind, I'm not as old as I am chronologically. My body might be even older than my years in terms of wear and tear. But this makes three times in less than three years of me taking a fall. All spaced about 10 months apart. All not exactly minor - though this one should be the first to not put me in physical therapy.  WIN!

I, am a falls risk.

Clearly.

710 wanted to know if I wanted to clean up.  We are in a park without running water. What could I possibly do?  I shrugged it. We walked a few miles. The mud dried. The blood and the mud. Though I was careful on each and everyone of my steps.  We opted not to go down into the reservoir as it was steep. Getting down might have been ok, oddly, but climbing back out was unknown.

As I have found out with at least one of my tumbles, the aches come the day or two after. Right now, my right calf feels like a day after a really bad cramp. We will see.  I don't think I feel anything debilitating, other than my mind.




Song by: the Civil Wars

Lift Off

If you've been reading me, you know I'm a space nerd. Flight and astronomy.

It wasn't always that way.

I mean, in 1977 (?), I saw the first, though non-functional shuttle, Enterprise, on the runway at Kennedy Space Center.

My dad woke me up early one day, while we were on the west coast of Florida and drove just the two of us to Cape Canaveral. The day changed me.  Oddly enough, four years later we were back in Florida, still on the west coast and could see the launch trail of the first shuttle flight, Columbia.

However, just eight years before Enterprise, I could have cared less about space or rockets. I wasn't even fully 6 years old when Apollo 11 took off and went to the moon (or a studio in Burbank, if you're a conspiracy theorist).

I. Was. Bored. with it all.

Everything was in black and white. It wasn't cartoons. And clearly, I didn't understand the importance of it all........being 5.

I did nothing but change the channel.......all three of them. Oddly, my parents didn't care, mostly because the exact same thing was on every single station. I'd flip, they missed nothing.  I'm sure I was annoying (yes! past tense!!!), but if they yelled at me, I don't remember.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the lift-off of Apollo 11.

Oh to be in DC.  They have 'converted' the Washington Monument into Apollo 11 (see image above) by projecting onto the monument itself.  I would kill to see this.

....and I'm not 100% sure I mean that figuratively.

Had I known about it, I might have scheduled our vacation a little differently and taken a longer route and detoured to Grabpussyville USA just to see this.

Alas, I didn't know about it and vacation plans are set and still a little ways off.  I'll have to settle for YouTube videos or something, but it won't be the same.



Song by: Mike Shinoda

My Music Monday

Well, today's selection, Dermot Kennedy's "Power Over Me" isn't new new, it's new enough and brand new to me.  Allegedly it came out in October of 2018.

I know nothing about the song, nor the artist, so I have no background.  It was on some XM station, and it seemed ok. I don't think it's purchase worthy (but I can be tight on the wallet), but I probably wouldn't turn the radio station when it came on.

.....and really, isn't that kind of semi-high praise?

Darkness

Times Square gone dark is like a dream for me.

It is the one place in Manhattan I try to avoid at all costs, which can be difficult.

Mind you, most trips there include a Broadway show, so 'avoiding' can be tricky, if not impossible. That said, I would go blocks out of my way to miss Broadway or 7th Avenue.

There were more friendly and sparser crowds at a Who concert in Cincinnati.

A friend who is visiting the Big Snapple was pissed, as he was missing the Cher Show, as it was delayed then cancelled.  So much for 'the show must go on'.  I'm guessing there is an asterisk with some disclaimers embedded somewhere down below that phrase.

He was not happy when I said a power outage to miss Cher would be considered "a win' in my book. I totally get the expense of the trip to miss that. I'm sure he'll be reimbursed for the tix, but not the rest of the trip, which he claims was the reason for going.

That in itself was disturbing to me.  There is no accounting for taste.

I will say, the streets being dark I could stand. The subway?  Ehhhhhhh.....not so much.  You can barely see all the rats in the light.

Oh, I just realized, Bob will have to walk up dark stairways to his hotel room, assuming they let them back in the building at all. And ugh - wifi is probably down. 

No. Way.



Song by: Leonard Cohen

12 of 12

So I'm doing my 112th 12 of 12.

Normally it is 12 pictures taken on the 12th of the month. Since I only post once per day, you get my images the following day. All pictures taken with my iPhone. Click images to enlarge, if you choose.

Created by Chad Darnell and picked up from, what I can tell, any number of random bloggers who then link back to him and vice versa. Chad is no longer doing this, nor is successor coordinating the linking of other 12 of 12'ers anymore. Now it's just myself - that I know of.....as it's the only blog post he's still doing......for now.  

I still continue to do this, because of all my consistent post topics, I actually like this one the most.

05:50.  Dishes have to be done before the cleaning lady comes. 

Crazy, right?

06:10.  Brushing before showing and shaving. 

07:30.  B'fast. Bagel and tea.  I'm a champion. 

09:05.  At a random workstation at another building taking a conference call about controlled substances.

10:15.  Heading back to my office building. 

10:25.  Bruised Fruit. 

It still tasted good. 

15:50.  Florist. 

Picking flowers for my mother's celebration of life, which is next week. 

16:10.  It made me chuckle.  Inside. Where it counts. 

16:35.  Picking up the pooch.  

He's very excited.  Very very excited. 

17:25.  Sophie in "my spot".  The nerve. 

19:30.  Starting dinner.  Stir Fry. 

20:45.   Meh. 

Retirement cake from 710's job.  Not worth the calories. 

There you have it folks.  #112 on the books.

Suffer Little Children

While I would hate to ever agree with BLOTUS, sometimes you just have to - though even with that admission, this won't go his way.

While it's not completely #fakenews, the media is doing an incredibly shitty job of covering the Jeff Epstein CHILD RAPE story.

You can say 'underage women' all you want. You can cloak it in 'sex trafficking' if that make is more palatable to your viewing and reading audience. But you're complicit in not telling the truth. Underage women ARE children.

While yes, the girls were 'trafficked', it was for the purpose of fucking them.  At best it's statutory.

You can put the word "alleged" before CHILD RAPE, as Epstein hasn't yet been convicted, but tell the actual story already. The courts let him off the hook one time already, don't let the media do it again. But you can do it with facts - it doesn't have to be a hack job.

Actually, if you have 11 minutes, you should listen to NPR's Here & Now.

The entire time is with the female investigative journalist who originally broke the story years ago. She paints a bad picture - for Epstein, for the police, of the prosecutors, and for the women. BLOTUS and both Clintons do not come off well either.

You can't expect BLOTUS to do anything about Acosta. I believe the Rapist Code is to cover each other. Maybe Rapist Brock Turner (oh yes, I'm linking that dirtbag so he gets more Goooooogle hits telling everyone he's a rapist!) can get a job in this administration.  His judge who let him off the hook should be up for a Federal or Supreme Court appointment any day now.



Song by: the Smiths

the Heart of the Matter

I know I pose this question a lot, but is there anyone dumber than BLOTUS?

Again - totally rhetorical.

Yes, you hate his voice. I hate his voice. But yesterday he signed yet another Executive Order - this one to allegedly make kidney transplants easier.......which clearly makes me think that Eric needs one, and BLOTUS is just paving the way for someone to give his third favourite son one of theirs.

I think it's a 33 second clip.  Still.........play it.

I liken it when Krusty the Clown was shilling for the Canyonaro, calling it the Cadillac of automobiles.



Song by: Don Henley 

Afterlife

First off, I want to say, I am a riot!    .....and a delight.

These things are not mutually exclusive, because well......I mean, here I am. I'm doubleplusgood.

As things would happen, after my mother went to the funeral home, all her possessions she had at the hospital went with her - including her iPhone and my charger. I could get neither back until I recovered her remains. Apparently, eye glasses, dentures, iPhone and ashes are all considered the same thing in the eyes of the mortuary.

But because I'm an asshole riot, I decided to have some "fun" once I got the phone back.  I had to carefully select my "victims" as some would not only find it funny at all, at least one person probably would have burst into tears.   See?  Asshole Riot.

I might have used my mother's phone / account and SMS'd the above ghost emoji.

That said, I talked myself out of doing it in the middle of the night. I talked myself out of adding the word 'Boo'.

My mother's niece (my cousin) got one.  My nephew too.  And his mother (my sister).   Only my sister responded.

To be fair, my nephew only uses his phone when he has too - or so he claims. He also claims to rather have a flip phone, but I think it is all talk. He's really just lazy.

I have no excuse for my cousin.

BTDub, my idea was much much much milder than my friend Sal's.  When I ran this past him, he said I should text them saying, "you were always such a disappointment when I was alive....."  and then give specifics only my mother would know.

It was tempting, I won't lie.  But bridges burned and all........


On another front, perennial friend, Morty, called me to see how I was doing, but really to softly break the news he couldn't be at my mother's celebration. Of course I understood and stressed that I never wanted him to feel obligated, though I may have dropped that there would be an open bar.

I was just testing the waters to see where those loyalties were - to his other obligations or to his liver. Oddly enough, to the former. We call this "personal growth".

During said conversation, he did say, "....if there's anything I can do......", to which I might have mentioned, "I could use twenty bucks!"  Immediately he said: "done!".  I immediately replied, "fuck, I should have asked for sixty.

Cut to two (three?) days later......

Honest to Yahweh, I figuratively busted a gut.  Unfortunately, I was kind of hunched over when I opened it and laughed so hard, I hit my head on a hard cardboard box also sitting on the counter.  Motherfucker.

For my stunt, I wanted to say, "I love me!", but I really fucking love my friends.


.....and I really should have asked for $60.

Song by: Arcade Fire

Site of the Month

As with many of my Sites O' the Month, this one is nonsense. And as you'll see by the hyperink, it spells out exactly what it is.

Guitar Solo Faces Make A Lot More Sense When Guitars Are Replaced With Giant Slugs


What kills me is, they don't have more examples.  ....and this is why it's probably a good thing Blobby doesn't have Photoshop.

My Music Mondays

I'm keeping on the new music train (choo-choo) and landed on Lil Peep (there sure are a fuck of a lot of artists with Lil or 'lil in their name and ILOVEMAONNEN featuring Fall Out Boy. 

That is a lot of folks on one four minute song.  But it works on some levels.  And save for Fall Out Boy, I've heard of none of the other artists - big or lil.

Still, "I've Been Waiting" is interesting enough.  Not enough to get me to purchase it yet, but not bad enough to make me change the station either.

All Star

There are about three people who read my blog who know what baseball is - so I guess, this is for them.

The 2019 MLB All Star Game is being held here in the 216.  I'm hoping it is more successful than the 2016 GOP convention.

I honestly haven't looked at how often the hosting city rotates, but we had gotten a turn in 1997 and this year.   ....so twice in 22 years.  There are 30 MLB teams, so someone's not getting theirs.

I have no tickets to the game, nor the pre-festivities, though I always like the Home Run Derby. I did make it down to the team shoppe and get two new Indians / All Star t-shirts.  The ones I've been hauling around for 2+ decades have seen their better days. I hate to part with them, but it is time. And yes, one of them does have the official logo you see above.

So, should the weather hold, or even if not, a game like this is boon to the city. And I'm for anything that gives the CLE more / better exposure...........unless it's another GOP convention.



Song by: Smash Mouth

Wipe Out

Long weekend for Shep and his dads. Though to be fair, most of these were taken before the holiday weekend.

Our first 2019 trip to Bow Wow Beach.  Shep had SO much fun. 

If dogs went too far out - since he refuses to swim - he'd bark at them. 

Total buzzkill. 

Wiped Out. 

Sophie, Mr. Fox and Sebastian supervises. 

Hyper-excited to see me at daycare pick-up. 

Sheps first visit with Boomer in maybe a year. 

Everything went well. 

But for the real week's news: 

Dith and Norman have a new family member!!!!

Pickles (well, it is a working name).

He is just slightly smaller than Rollo. 

Classic Pickles. 

Slut for attention, already. 

I cannot wait to meet him.




Song by: the Safaris

Here for the Party

Yesterday was our 14th (!) neighborhood 4th parade and pic-a-nic.

This time though, newer neighbors took over the festivities. And these neighbors, well..........wow on the house.

The house is one of the oldest in the hood, and where they filmed part of Captain America: Winter Solider.

The house had been on the market for over eight years before the current couple purchased it. Three years, and I'm guessing millions of dollars later (no lie!), they finally finished the renovation. It looks nice.

They added this pool. And a pool house. Let's just say, their pool house is nicer than our actual house. Their outdoor kitchen is way more up to date than our indoor one. I have no idea what it would be like to drop that kind of dough on a renovation.

I love for this party the owner went to Costco......................and purchased 100 chairs.  100 hundred fucking chairs.  Decent ones too. And they have a place to store them.

The kids went in the pool.  Not our kids........since we have none. Adults were allowed too, but I like my neighbors, but never enough for them to see me shirtless.

As it was wicked hot, the best side I could do was caprese skewers: tomato.mozzarella.basil.tomato. Oh, and balsamic to drizzle over it.  They probably would have been better had the skies not opened up and poured.  It was so incredibly hot, I didn't care.........I stood out in the rain and just let it happen. I'm sure the hosts didn't want dozens of soaked neighbors traipsing through their house......or even pool house. Or tea house. Yes, they have one of those too.

Then it was home for a quick nap and then a hike with the Shepster.

I hope you had a nice day off as well.  Assuming you had the day off.



Song by: Gretchen Wilson

Back in the U.S.S.R.

One of these things is just like the other.......

Happy 4th.   Welcome to the new normal. 

Song by: the Beatles