Chris took this photo during lunch this past week. While Truman may strike a cute pose from time to time, there can be an occasionally menacing look in his eyes.
He’s so cute.
April 2022
Random Fact.
Random fact of the day: Alice and Tommy are driving from the east to west coast when they break down in the opening credits to “Alice”. However, lookup up at the sign that says “Phoenix”, the other sign says “El Paso”, which means they’re in Tucson, and coming up from Nogales.
Here’s a link to my favorite version of Linda Lavin singing “There’s A New Girl In Town”.
Cincinnati Chili.
Tonight was the first night I’ve made supper for the family since we’ve moved to Tucson. Everyone survived the experience and agreed on the enjoyment factor of my effort.
I made Cincinnati Chili. This is a rough representation of the deliciousness I’ve experienced at Skyline Chili in Cincinnati. Granted I didn’t go crazy with the cheese and I didn’t use yellow cheddar cheese, but I had to put my own spin on it. After all, we’re a long way from Cincinnati.
Epic?
When I talk to my mom we use FaceTime. On a recent call she noticed I had grown a mustache. The current mustache has actually been around for six weeks, but I’ve been letting it get a little longer than I’ve kept it for the past decade or so.
It’s been 10 years since I had what some called the “Epic ‘Stache”, which was that big thing I had on my face for a number of years. The mustache was inspired by a similar style on two different men I had crossed paths with. The first was the daily delivery guy who would drop off Airborne Express packages at the radio station and I’d spy his smile under his big mustache. His name was Chris. The last time I saw him was probably in the year 2000; we were at one of the buffet places and he was with his family. He came over to hug me and he was very nice. I wonder if he’s still alive and kicking and if so, I also wonder if he still has the big mustache.
The second man was Dan, who was new to the gay campground we used to go to back in the day. We had met shortly after he’d come out of the closet, was still processing the subsequent divorce, and we had a nice chat amongst all the rowdiness around the campfire. I know he eventually worked at the campground but we didn’t go down there as much so I haven’t seen in him about 12 years. I hope he’s still alive and kicking and doing well.
Anyways, I’ve felt the need to grow the bigger mustache again and it’s coming along much more grey than I remember it being the last time I had a mustache. I’m OK with. I’ll officially be in my mid-50s this year so the grey is not unexpected. I’ve earned it, and since I can’t show it off on top, the least I can do is show it on my face.
Biographical?
We’ve been watching the series “Julia” on HBOMax. As a solid member of Gen-X, I’m well aware of who Julia Child is and her inspiring culinary ways. We are enjoying the experience.
I’m always curious as to whether what we’re seeing in a biographical TV outing such as this is actually biographical. Taking a look at this article in The Washington Post, it turns out the show runners tried to keep the series somewhat biographical. There are invented characters and situations made for television, but as they said, they’re trying to stick to what’s written about Julia’s life in Wikipedia. (The fact they’re sourcing Wikipedia for this is a completely different topic). The thing is, they’re “filling in between the lines” to account for some of the circumstances that drives what we see on-screen Julia do with her career.
Apparently, Julia Child was a reasonably private person, separating her public persona from her home life. Admirable. There’s a wide swatch of certain celebrities that I wish would do the same thing (though, what would I gripe about once in a while on this blog?). I don’t know if it’s due to my wiring or an inability to separate fact from fiction or what, but I find it a bit confusing when a known person in being portrayed on television differently, or even with a bigger dose of embellishment than expected, than what actually happened.
Perhaps my expectations are just different or I need to be reminded that series such as “Julia” are for entertainment purposes only.
Well, in that regard, I am certainly being entertained and I look forward to finishing out the series.
Nature.
Matt and I went hiking up on Mount Lemmon yesterday. It was our third hike together and I’m happy to have a hiking buddy here in the desert. It’s getting to the time of year where the desert is getting a little too warm for hiking, so we trekked up to Summerhaven near the top of Mount Lemmon and went on a seven mile hike on the Mint Springs Trail.
The fire on Mount Lemmon a few years has left many trees blackened, and there’s been some rearranging of trail markers and such, so we got off the trail for a few moments but found our way back to where we were suppose to be. Other than that it was a beautiful day for a hike and we had a great time. When all was said and done we hiked 7 1/2 miles and climbed about 2000′ across the entire hike.
My legs are holding up well this evening. I’m starting to get used to this. We’re going to give it another whirl in a couple of weeks.
Driving.
I enjoy driving. I enjoy exploring. Tonight I did some driving and exploring, going through neighborhoods in Tucson I had not been in before. There are many beautiful parts of this city. I like discovering them.
After sitting in traffic around a festival going on downtown, I jumped on I-10 and headed back toward our southeast corner of the city. Traffic is not bad on a Saturday night. And I enjoy that as well.
Caturday.
Truman has become quite persistent in making sure puppies Lucky and Jinx stay out of my office. He’s fairly friendly to them until they start sniffing around my door. Then the growls and occasional hisses start and the puppies are confused.
Supreme.
There was a line in a recent episode of “Star Trek: Picard” that really struck me. This season’s story arc takes place primarily in the year 2024; the cast has gone back in time to “fix the timeline” again and they’re in 2024 Los Angeles trying to figure out what’s wrong and make it right. They meet up with a young Guinan, who is ready to leave the planet because of the turmoil of 2024.
The line that struck me was in regard to the rampant racism, obviously a commentary of what we’re seeing today: “They took off hoods and put on suits”. A simple, in your face statement of what’s happening, especially since Trump’s run in office.
I don’t follow the news as much as I used to, namely for the sake of my own mental health. However, I was quite happy to see sense prevail when the Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson as our newest Supreme Court Justice.
Perhaps things won’t be quite as bleak as portrayed in Picard’s version 2024 when we get there just two years from now.
