Talking Through

Yesterday was a day spent with excessive elocution.  Talking has never been a strong suit in my configuration.  My wife on the other hand is an acknowledged master of the art.  This led to a fairly happy marriage where she does most of the talking (a lot of it about my failure to talk more). 

The normal Thursday meeting with the politicos was moved to Friday this week so the day started off with a bang as we were called upon again to protect the politicians from themselves.  In a particularly perplexing turn of events they actually listened some yesterday as we talked them back from the edge of imminent failure.

New Operations Center Planned

I had to rush from that meeting to a three hour meeting with the architects for the new operations center.  They’ll start construction this year and finally decided to ask the occupants what was needed inside the building.  The politicos finagled the money out of Washington but it came with the requirement to select an architectural firm with connections to the local congressmen (this is still the People’s Republic of Taxachusetts, lest we forget).  The only problem is the firm has no experience in the transit business which has a number of quirks when it comes to designing buildings, especially in the maintenance area.

Another View

We toured the architects through the current maintenance area which was a real eye opener.  They admitted afterwards they understood why their initial plans had met with such incredulity and comment when we were finally allowed to view them.  To their immense credit as well the politicos (who may be growing on me) we then sat down and went through a complete list of changes needed.  It was semi-comical to see the politicos and architects sitting around a conference table with some begrimed mechanics and actually listening.  The best part was the lunch provided and my frenzied attacks on the dessert platter (keto holiday don’t you know).

Dessert Tray at the End Cupcakes and Cookies!

Since it was Friday (despite all the talking) we did implement Frist Friday reaction measures and were safely behind several adult beverages at Brew City at the appointed hour.  Follow up events at Zorba’s were also to standard and my wife was extremely pleased that the Brew City contribution to my morale induced a severe reduction in my reticence to talk.  We had a really good talk about a certain future wedding, buying/selling of houses, and most importantly the great dress hunt which has officially commenced. 

My wife has been uncharacteristically holding back on her decision on the dress she’ll wear to our son’s wedding.  I clearly remember this as one of the major events for my daughter’s wedding which required months of agonized decision making, so I was mystified by her lack of panic.  Apparently she first had to consult with the mother of the bride and now that has happened the terror has set in.

This is bad news for me.  I was trying to watch the Red Sox and a movie last night and she was firmly implanted right next to me on the couch.  Unfortunately she also had her I-Pad (what was I thinking getting her one of those).  I spent three hours being constantly asked what I thought about what seemed to be thousands of dresses as she perused the internet. 

Asking a guy what he thinks of a dress is a dangerous situation, for the guy.  I never know if I am opening myself for ridicule when she throws in a red herring just to see if I’m paying attention (I was, most of the time) but c’mon the Sox were rallying.  I think I’m taking her shopping today, hopefully there’s a movie theater close by; pray for me.

The Cantankerous One Shortly After I Met Him

It’s somewhat appropriate that one of today’s is theme talking because it is the Cantankerous Friend’s birthday.  He has never experienced any reticence whatsoever when it comes to verbal exposition and I hope he can find someone to argue with today.  I’ve been lucky enough to call him a friend since the third grade.  He has a heart of cold (whoops I mean "gold") under all that bombastic posturing and I wish him the very best of birthdays (although he’ll probably want to argue about it).

A More Recent Picture of the Two of Us