Ponderings and Musings

Earl and I are just getting back from a Saturday night out on the town. We hadn’t been to the one gay bar here in a long while so we thought we’d go out and see what it’s all about.

There’s not much to talk about. The place was dead.

Back through much of the 1990s there was a *fabulous* DJ at “That Place” that was known for keeping the bar moving. The place was always packed on the weekend and the dance floor was populated with half-naked, sweaty people moving around like a big swarm of flesh.

Tonight you could have shot a cannon off in the place and not hit anyone with the ball.

I did notice a few people that I haven’t seen in a decade or so. One in particular is a man named “Chuck” (not his real name). He’s an attractive enough in a preppy accounting sort of way. Like many of us, his hair has thinned out considerably in the past ten years. Lots of men in this position opt to buzz their hair or shave their head completely bald. I find this to be quite attractive.

Unfortunately, he went in another direction. He opted to go the Hair Club for Men route.

Oy.

While I believe that everyone has the right to do what they need to do to feel good about themselves, I must say that I don’t understand the hair piece thing. I just don’t get it. Do people nuzzle their nose into their hair and say “Gee, your synthetic fibers smell terrific?”

I don’t know what these hair enhancements are made of, aside from those spray cans of Rust-Oleum like paint, but even if they’re made of real hair they don’t seem to be doing a satisfactory job of looking like the real deal. Perhaps it’s the glorious technicolor used to make it look “real”.

I say when you’re faced with hair loss just buzz it all off and go naked.

Today Earl was so sweet. He had a gift delivered to the house. I love it when he gives me presents.

Especially when it’s our old riding lawn mower!

I have not seen this lawn mower since the summer of 2004. After spending hours on it summer after summer, we decided that we would enlist the aid of a lawn service when we moved into the new house. So we let the guys at Earl’s plant borrow the lawn mower so they could tidy up around their property. With the return of my beloved friend, memories of mowing acres and acres of grass at our old home came flooding back like nobody’s business.

When Earl and I discussed my return to school and worked out the finances, we decided that the lawn service would obviously have to go. This created two issues in our home. First of all, we’d have to get the lawn mower back and actually start using it but more importantly, we’d no longer have a weekly dose of eye candy when hot lawn men came shirtless and did their business around the lawn for a little while. It’s amazing what landscapers can do to perk up landowners.

Normally I’d wait until mid June to start mowing the lawn, because after all, that’s when it’s perfect for making hay but I decided to get wild this year and start mowing the lawn right away. After all, the neighbor to our right (the original owners of our house) started mowing today and I was feeling competitive. I don’t know if this is something that happens when men get older but now I actually care about what the lawn looks like and whether it’s at the same height as the neighbor’s lawn. In the old days I wouldn’t think about cutting lawn until I could no longer see the cat standing in the middle of it.

So now I have a new way to spend an hour or two on Friday afternoons. I’ll be mowing the lawn. Maybe I’ll get wild and do it shirtless, just to perk up the old blood.

This evening Earl and I attended “A Conversation with Diane Rehm”. Diane Rehm, host of the appropriately titled “The Diane Rehm Show” on NPR by way of WAMU in Washington, D.C. was in the area to speak about her experiences as a talk show host for over twenty five years from inside the beltway.

The discussion was absolutely fascinating.

Ms. Rehm opened the conversation talking about the recent Don Imus controversy and the fact that there doesn’t seem to be much listening going on anymore. World leaders are no longer listening, the American public doesn’t seem interested in listening, no one is listening anymore. She pointed out the importance of listening to all sides of an topic, even if it’s difficult to do so because of one’s vehement opposition to the other viewpoint.

That last point is something that I am going to try to better myself at.

Ms. Rehm spoke for about ten minutes before opening the forum to questions from the audience. Many people asked questions from a wide range of topics, including the war, the news sources she uses as prep for her show, her favorite interview (Mr. Rogers, the last interview before he died) and more. I wanted to ask the question but the forum came to close before I had the opportunity.

I was going to ask her for her opinion on the blogosphere.

“The Diane Rehm Show” is broadcast daily from WAMU in Washington, D.C. It is carried on most NPR stations, including WRVO-FM here in Central New York.

Earl is out of town tonight. Normally we’d just TiVo “Heroes” and watch it when he gets home. In fact, we’ll still watch it together later in the week but curiosity got the best of me so I watched it tonight.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to post any spoilers.

I did not enjoy this episode. I didn’t like it at all. In fact, I hated it. But I’m sure the remaining episodes will be excellent episodes, as we’ve come to expect from the series.

It’s obvious that this is a “throw-away” episode, designed to get the final three episodes of the season squarely into May sweeps. This is the first time that I’ve been disappointed with the show since “Heroes” debuted last fall. Maybe I’m getting old.

Oh, and I still can not stand the Nicki/Jessica character.

I hope I don’t lose geek or gay points because of this.

I guess I asked about a “Hot Topic” yesterday and that’s why my question caught Rosie O’Donnell’s eye when she was scanning through her “Ask Ro” section on her blog.

Rosie was unable to come to terms with ABC to extend her contract (she wanted a one year contract, they wanted a three year), so she has decided to leave “The View” at the end of her current contract on June 21 of this year. She has said on her site all along that it was up to a family vote, and her family voted for a one year contract or none at all.

I stand by my statement yesterday in that I believe she can be a more powerful voice without the constraints of ABC, Barbara Walters (et al) and the FCC through her blog and perhaps a satellite radio talk show or pay-per-view show like “Politically Incorrect”.

Best wishes to Rosie and Kelli and their family. I look forward to keeping up with the O’Donnells through her blog. Call me about lunch.

Vidcast

I am sitting at the Acura dealer waiting for the RSX to pass it’s yearly state inspection. It’s rare for me to be sitting at a car dealer actually waiting for my car, as I usually drop the car off the night before and pick it up after hours when the work has been completed. Since I’m a full-time student now, I get to experience this new perspective on auto service.

One of the interesting aspects of this experience is that my mother works at this dealership. She works in the office as the main receptionist for the entire operation here and her voice is often heard throughout all buildings as she makes pages over the intercom. I’m having flashbacks to my teenage years when she used to yell through the house, “Supper’s ready!” and “John, do your homework!” When my sister and I would get her fired up she’d yell at the top of her lungs, “I’m going to scream!” That would usually send us running. For extra effect she might have grabbed a wooden spoon off the kitchen counter, but I don’t remember ever getting swatted with it. You know, it’s funny but we never really thought she meant “no” unless she rattled every dish in the house when she said it.

She doesn’t use that same bullhorn approach here at the car dealership.

Since the dealership is going out of their way to make their customers comfortable, they have some cushy ergonomic type chairs here in the waiting room. They’re currently in use. I’m wondering if it would be rude of me to slip into one of these chairs while the businessman currently using it steps away to talk on his cell phone. I’ve already overheard two of his conversations and both of them had to do with golf. He’s been trying to put together a foursome. No tee-times are available until 3:00 p.m. today. It might be raining then. His buddy is going to try to pull some strings.

The other nicety they have in this waiting room is a 27-inch television, though I would be really impressed if it was plasma or LCD (it’s not). I’m watching “Today”. It’s my first time seeing Meredith Viera on the show. I guess she’s o.k. One thing that’s frightening is that Gene Shalit is reviewing “Hot Fuzz” and I noticed that his mustache and my former mustache were very close to the same style. I don’t find it attractive on him.

I’ve often mentioned that I am a *huge* fan of Rosie O’Donnell. She gives a lot to the world, especially children, she’s concerned about our country, she does positive things with her celebrity status and I believe in much the same way she does on many topics.

I often visit her site and occasionally submit a question. Imagine my surprise today:

While I am quite content in submitting a question to Rosie and getting it answered, I really wish that Earl and I could sit down and with Rosie and Kelli for lunch someday, just for lunch with no gushing, no pictures, no autographs and have a simple conversation.

“What can we do to help further your charitable causes?”

As a full-time college student for nearly a semester, I’ve been noticing something on campus that is relatively disturbing.

Some of the staff here are just downright rude to students.

Now I have not observed any instructors being rude to their students, however, it seems that there are some support staff that are just plain cranky.

When I first registered for classes in January, I had a few questions that needed to be answered. After all, I had not been to college in 20 years and I wanted to make sure that everything was in order so that I would start the semester on the right track.

When I went to the registration desk, the attendant there acted like I had just stepped off of a garbage truck and I had hunks of wilted lettuce hanging from my ears. I consider myself to be a fairly nice person, but this woman wasn’t buying into my pleasantries, she didn’t smile back, she didn’t say “please” or “thank you” and quite frankly it seemed that she just didn’t care to be there.

I chalked it up to a bad day on her behalf.

Unfortunately, I have noticed this trend continuing with various people on campus. For example, today I went to the library to finish up some research for one of my class projects. One would think that the person at the “Information” desk would be a helpful person, full of friendly advice and tips on the Dewey decimal system. No. I was wrong. When I asked a question about one of the research databases she threw a tattered piece of paper in my direction and said in an exasperated, “you’re a moron” voice, “It’s all right here.” Of course I kicked into Sarcasmo mode and said, “You’re absolutely right. Would you like to read it to me?”

She was not amused.

So I politely thanked her and walked away.

It seems that some of the support staff on this campus are bothered by the fact that there are students milling around here in these halls. I find this disheartening. If I’m feeling this much disrespect as a 38 year old student, I can’t imagine to think how the younger students are being treated.

We scream that the younger generation has no class or respect for their elders. It’s a shame that there are many that choose not to lead by example.

Today is April 22 and that means it’s Earth Day. Always trying to do my part to make the world a better place and to humbly respect our Universe, I replaced all of our table and desk lamp incandescent bulbs with the compact fluorescent variety. These types of lightbulbs are more expensive to purchase, however, they last much longer than regular bulbs and they use considerably less electricity. They also generate less heat. I intend on replacing all our lightbulbs with this variety as our budget permits.

I do worry that I’m starting to show my age by doing this lightbulb replacement routine, as I distinctly remember my maternal grandmother replacing all her table lamp lightbulbs with these odd mini-ring type fluorescent bulbs that flickered a little bit and made a barely perceptible high-frequency whine. She did this several years before slipping into dementia and I’m pretty certain the two weren’t related.

She was just ahead of her time when it came to saving the Universe.

Kitty Carlisle Hart, well-known as a panelist on the game show “To Tell The Truth”, passed on last night. She was 96.

Still touring and performing right up until the end of her life, Kitty was an accomplished performer on the stage, both as an opera singer and actor. She also was the only person to appear on *all* incarnations of “To Tell The Truth”, her last appearance on that show was at age 92.

Here’s a link to the best remembered version of the theme song for “To Tell The Truth”.