Fun and Games Dept

I like humor. I like funny people. I enjoy people that laugh and I enjoy making people laugh. I’m kind of good at it, but there’s a whole bunch of people funnier than me.

Growing up, I was a fan of humorist and newspaper columnist Erma Bombeck. I was a teenage young lad living in the Central New York countryside, but there I was laughing at “If Life Is A Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing In The Pits”? I giggled at Erma’s spin on life as a modern housewife and mother. Her take on life was funny, and more importantly, charming and I enjoyed her.

Fast forward twenty years to the 21st century and I discovered humorist and speaker Jeanne Robertson of Graham, North Carolina. I first heard a clip of one of her “speeches”, as she called them, on Sirius/XM radio. It was the channel next to Rawdog. She had a southern twang that was charming, she could tell a story like the best of them, and most importantly, the point of her speeches was to show people how to find the humor in any situation. Life gets better than way. Life is more manageable that way.

I’ve listened to Jeanne’s stories for the past 15 years.Back when they started featuring her on Sirius/XM the headlines read, “Grandma Goes Viral”. She’s a delight. Today I learned she passed (shaking my head in a gesture of respect) this weekend. She was 77 years old.

When work gets crazy, I have a small Post-It note near my computer or up by my webcam that simply says “Baton”. It’s a reminder to keep things light and to find the humor, even in the most stressful situations. It’s what Jeanne spoke about and keeping this in the back of my mind has helped me get through the workday on more than one occasion.

I’ll miss new stories from Jeanne. She had such a delightful way of conveying something to an audience. May she rest in peace.

For your enjoyment, here’s a clip from YouTube. It’s her Baton story.

I am aboard flight UA6321 from RDU (Raleigh-Durham) to IAH (Houston). I’ll have about an hour layover in Houston before heading home to Tucson. I’ll be arriving home at lunch time. I love the time change when headed west. My body didn’t really adjust to Eastern time over the 48 hours I was in North Carolina.

I’m in First Class, as per my spoiled self, aboard this E175 regional jet. This flight is Mesa Airlines as United. The two flight attendants are very nice, Mark with the very deep voice at the gate at RDU was very friendly, and the two pilots up front seem friendly over the Public Address system. They also appear to be know this aircraft well and so far it’s one of the smoothest flights I’ve been on in a long while.

Like the rest of the airlines, United has modified their service and amenities on flights. On Thursday’s flight I opted for the “Take Off” snack box on the flight to Houston, today I’ve opted for the “Tapas Box” snack box. I just ate a pack of olives and they were delicious. During my last visit with my family doctor in Chicago, he suggested I start eating more of a Mediterranean diet. This is a step in the right direction.

The visit to North Carolina was a fun adventure. I did a little work while I was there but it wasn’t too much of a distraction; it was just a couple of calls.

Even though I work in technology and I’m well aware of the advances in this space, I’m still fully amazed with being able to write a blog entry and post it on the Internet while flying in a metal tube 32K feet above the planet. It’s a little slow but fully functional.

Now I’m going to sit back, relax, and enjoy my Tapas Box.

I can’t imagine my parents dancing like this back around the time I was born, but apparently this was the style. At least in the movies. From 1968’s “With Six You Get Eggroll”, I believe this is the Grass Roots and “Feelings”.

I’m on my first commercial flight since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. As usual, I’m flying United and all is well. I’m visiting our friends Jeff and Mark near Durham, N.C. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen them and it’s always an adventure when we visit. I’m on this trip solo with my husband and family’s blessing. They know I like little solo adventures once in a while. Since I had a ticket from pre-COVID days that was going to expire, I thought I might as well use it for this little jaunt. If this trip goes well, we’ll probably travel back East before the end of the year.

I feel a little rusty when it comes to being an airline passenger. Things have changed but things are the same. There’s a few extra announcements, folks are wearing masks like they’re suppose to, and so far there has been nothing worthy of the hype we often see in the media and on social media. We need to stop glorifying the outliers. Things are fine. Let’s hope I didn’t jinx this trip by saying that.

You may have noticed I have not been talking about my private pilot adventures. After a few prospects fell through earlier this summer, I decided to hold off on getting back into the air until after Monsoon Season. I’d rather start when the weather is a little cooler and the skies a little calmer. I’m still assessing my opportunities; there are two airfields relatively close to our home: Tucson Int’l and Ryan Airfield, the latter being the smaller of the two. We’re actually closest to Davis Monthan Air Force Base, but I doubt they’d like me fly a private flight from their busy runways.

I really miss flying, both as a private pilot and on commercial flights. I think this sense of normality in my life has disrupted my psyche a little bit, not to mention the disruption of COVID-19 and the associated idiocy around the behavior of too many people in our “civilized society”. I’ve been pulling back from social media a bit without making drastic moves and the change has helped.

When I was walking through TUS en route to this flight, I realized that Tucson, Arizona is our home and it feels right. In some ways this is the first time I’ve felt settled and this is the first time it’s clicked since moving here at the end of March. I don’t miss Chicago as much as I thought I would; I miss family and friends in Central New York. Thank goodness for FaceTime and the like for communicating with those we miss. While we had a lovely time living in Chicago for three and a half years, and we took advantage of all that we could while we were there, looking back it feels a little more transitory and frenetic than what I probably need in this stage of my life.

The house has been an adventure this Monsoon Season. We’re getting through it but there’s definitely been some challenges with leaky roofs and bad decisions of the previous owners. We’re still quite happy, just a little wetter than we should be when we stand in certain places throughout the house. We’re finally getting the homeowner insurance company under control and understanding of what’s actually going on. They seem overwhelmed with a lot of folks having the same issue in the desert Southwest.

It’s time for our snack box here in First Class, and I’m going to fully enjoy the treat.

Enjoy the friendly skies. Do your part to keep them friendly.

We are remodeling one of the rooms in our upstairs. On the blueprints this room is called “The Observatory”. It was originally designed to house a giant telescope. There’s counter level electrical outlets every two feet, the room is reinforced by concrete, and the room underneath contains a reinforced concrete pad to support a large telescope. The room never came to fruition as an Observatory; the previous owners of the house used it as a kid’s bedroom. It has my flight simulator and gaming computer.

We removed a shop-quality fluorescent light from the ceiling and two shop style LED lights from the walls today. Underneath, a very dark red paint. As we have seen throughout the house, when the previous owners painted a room, they left all fixtures and electrical or other coverings in place and painted around the accessory.

We now have to paint the ceiling and walls in this room.

It’s not a big deal, but it’s one extra step we didn’t plan on. Another fun discovery was the lack of an electrical box underneath the shop fluorescent lamp. We now need to fashion bracing up there so we can install a ceiling fan where the light once was.

It’s a good thing we’re all fairly good at home improvement projects.

It totally slipped my mind that my blog turned 20 years old on the 4th of this month. That’s right, I’ve been babbling in this space since August 4, 2001. Wow. I was 33 years old at the time. Where has the time gone.

I occasionally go back and read old posts, especially when I’m feeling a little lost. Looking back over various entries I realize that I like to think I’ve grown, I haven’t really changed that much. I was bald then and I’m bald now. My facial hair (when I let it grow) is a heck of a lot more grayer. The crows feet are nothing to be ashamed of and I’m still looking for the best way to get through life.

A lot can happen in 20 years. I look forward to writing about my 40th anniversary 20 years from now. Maybe it’ll be in 3D or something.

We went for a ride south of the city and ended up in Madera Canyon in the Coronado National Forest. It was our first time in the area and it was a beautiful ride. I mentioned to Earl that I’m looking forward to hiking in these parts once the weather calms down a bit and is a little cooler come autumn. He’s looking into cabin rentals.

I’m looking forward to our next experience here.

I’m not overly familiar with Thai food. Oddly enough, the first time I had Thai food was not some major city in the United States but rather in Greenville, SC during one of my work trips. My teammates wanted to go out for Thai food and I said “sure, why not” and off we went. It was a good experience and I enjoyed the food.

The family decided to go out for Thai food and we made our second trek to a restaurant that does that sort of thing here in Tucson. The restaurant is appropriately called “Tuk Tuk Thai” and while it can feel a bit crowded in there, we decided that going on a weeknight wouldn’t kill us, even though we are fully vaccinated, so off we went.

It was good experience. The restaurant was not busy at all on this Thursday night. With COVID-19 starting to ramp up in numbers again and a good number of state officials making idiotic decisions, I was curious as to if people are starting to get a little gun shy about going out to dinner again. Or perhaps Thursday nights are just not Thai night.

I enjoyed the meal and of course going out with the rest of the family. We opted to wear masks where appropriate. I wish more people would do that.

My husband and I went for a short ride around sunset. When one works from home and recreates at home it’s sometimes easy to forget that there’s a whole world out there. Once in a while Earl will suggest a ride just to give me a change in scenery. We drove to the smaller town of Corona de Tucson and back. It isn’t a particularly long jaunt, but it was a pleasant ride as we made our way across the desert with the windows down in 95ºF heat.

It was the breath of fresh air I needed.

Last night my husband and I made a trip into San Diego to explore Little Italy on foot. The vibe was energetic, yet a good share of the folks on the street were wearing masks.

We ate dinner on the street at Farmer’s Table Farm to Fork restaurant. It was very good. I even had dessert, as did my husband. Crème Brûlée and Chocolate Bread Pudding. Delicious.

The entire meal was very good.