I’ve got a lot of moving parts in my life right now. My wife has been gearing up for our annual
neighborhood Christmas party all week so I’ve had to be on my best behavior –
not an easy task at any time. Buddy and
I know we have to pick our spots and to not be caught looking
underemployed. Buddy is much better at
this than I am.
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| First Friday Farewell to the IT Guy (on right) |
First Friday was completely paid for by my excellent boss as
we bid farewell to our I.T. genius who’s heading for greener pastures. He was brought on a couple years ago to help
our middle aged minds grasp the new technology we were deploying to our bus
fleet. He was very successful at that
but he did run afoul of the political boss so he was little down. My excellent boss and I plied him with products
of the brewer’s art and told him what a complete success he was. If he could get us to understand and operate
the technology (and the sheer breadth of that accomplishment is beyond
description) then he shouldn’t be down about what a political hack thought of
him.
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| Zorba's Last Night with the Compromised Pizza |
Shortly after I returned home we were joined by the Maine
Musquetera and her husband to complete the link up with their daughter who
spent the night at our house while returning from college. We were almost immediately on our way to
Zorba’s where my favorite waitress took exceptionally good care of us. I was forced to concede a full 1/3 of the
pizza to vegetable topping instead of the standard pepperoni. This was more difficult than it sounds as
there was significant green seepage onto the pepperoni side in the frontier
regions. I bore up under this weighty
burden to thoroughly enjoy the company.
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| My Wife's Christmas Mantra is Now Posted on Our Kitchen Wall |
One thing is certain when two of the musqueteras get together
– there will be shopping involved. Last night
I and the Maine Musquetera’s husband were ruthlessly abandoned at Zorba’s while
the ladies absconded with the car to do some – you guessed it – shopping. We assuaged our hurt feelings (combined with
joy at not being dragged along) at the Zorba’s bar. My alma mater was playing in the college
football playoffs which was showing on several of the televisions (they won!!!). We spent the time comparing notes of
surviving marriage to a Latina. The ladies eventually returned to find us in a
completely empty Zorba’s having for the nonce appeased their shopping blood
lust.
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| My Son Last Night Channeling his Inner 007 - Picture by ABFA |
As to more of the moving parts yesterday also marked the
last day of work for my son in the company he’s worked for since graduation
from college. He’s moving on to a better
job and company after the turn of the year.
He and the ABFA were out celebrating this major milestone last night – I
could not be prouder of him. He and the ABFA will be coming down for the party
tonight to continue celebrating.
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| My Daughter Yesterday Taking a Picture of Her Office as She Leaves for the Last Time |
Yesterday also saw my daughter’s last full day in New York
City. She and Pee Wee the Fearful fly
out to Los Angeles today to reunite with the Wing Man. She left her Madison Avenue office for the
last time yesterday and will start work in Los Angeles on Monday doing the same
job but in much nicer weather. I’m so
happy they’re following their dream – again we’re taking serious parental pride
here. I am worried about the proximity of
my daughter to Hollywood though – she’s almost as big a movie geek as I
am. I’m also going to have pay closer
attention to whatever cataclysm California is facing each week, be it drought,
flood, fire, mudslide or earthquake.
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| There are Now 17 Different Christmas Trees in the House |
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| I Counted |
Yesterday also saw another Travis McGee tale fall under my
relentless consumption of John D. MacDonald’s beloved series with The Empty
Copper Sea. An old friend shows up
on the Busted Flush and asks Travis to restore his lost reputation. He was victimized by a Florida developer who
may have faked his own death. McGee and Meyer head to a fictional Floridian
west coast town and are soon wreaking havoc.
Trav is doing some soul searching and in the course of his investigation
stumbles upon a lady who may be “the one” he can finally settle down with. In other novels the next scene usually has McGee
visiting the morgue to identify the lady’s body (MacDonald was not very nice to
his hero). Here however the lady survives
and our hero just may sail off into the sunset with his lady love (there’s only
a few left in the series).
As always I leave you with some of MacDonald’s incomparable
words. Here McGee is spouting off about
rude, self-important service people:
“If I were King of the World I would roam my kingdom in
rags, incognito, dropping fortunes onto the people who are nice with no special
reason to be nice, and having my troops lop off the heads of the mean, small
embittered little bastards who try to inflate their self-esteem by stomping on
yours. I would start the lopping among
post office employees, bank tellers, bus drivers, and pharmacists. I would go on to checkout clerks, bell boys,
prowl car cops, telephone operators, and U.S. Embassy clerks. By God there would be so many heads rolling
here and there, the world would look like a berserk bowling alley. Meyer says this shows a tad of hostility.”
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