When I was in the 9th grade, I wrote an essay in which I intended to use the word “wince.” However, I mistakenly employed the word “wench.” I can still see the bemused smile on the face of my teacher, Mrs. Singleton, when she gently corrected me. And this concludes the boat-dream sequence. I hope you have an enjoyable weekend.
42 responses to “Dream Boat III”
Ric Ocasek, 75, lead singer of 80’s band The Cars, found dead today in his NYC apartment, apparently from natural causes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuZA6qiJVfU
Dang. Many of the rockers I listened to in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s are dying out. Soon, they will all be gone…besides Keith Richards, of course.
The Cars were one of my favorite bands in my college days. You get used to the older musicians dying, but it starts to really hit home when the groups that rose to prominence in one’s youth start dying by natural causes.
I went to the local pizza place to pick up my order and someone else had picked it up. I asked the clerk if she knew if they had paid for mine. They were sincerely embarrassed and gave me a nice discount on my order because i had a nice attitude about it. I sat next to a guy with whom we shared a bunch a jokes together and made the best of a bad situation. After he picked up his order, and I started to scroll Facebook.
I found out that one of my friends, Chuck Bavis, had passed away. This friend was 7 foot tall and led his HS team pretty far in the tournament. He then went to star at Purdue. In his first game, in the opening of Purdue’s current arena, he held then Lew Alcindor to 17 points and Purdue only lost by one to UCLA. In 1969 he and Rick Mount led Purdue to the Final game, but Chuck had gotten hurt and was unable to play and Purdue got killed by UCLA. The next year Chuck got in an accident and lost part of his foot and had to give up the game.
Via Facebook, I realized that Chuck was a gentle giant. I felt embarrassed to tell him that he was one of my heroes growing up, but after getting to know him, I was glad that he was. As we get older, many of our friends die and it is not just the person, but the era that dies. There are not a lot of athletes like Chuck anymore, but I am sure glad that I got to know him.
Mark
I know about dull needles.
When I was in Induction Center getting shots – medic hit my arm with needle
and it did not go in. Second whack was harder. He threw that needle away. Back when
needles were sterilized and reused. (Or maybe just reused)
I’ve had a couple of cases where the vacuum seal was broken in the syringe they used for blood draws. It won’t pull anything out, so they have to dispose of it and try again. I hate when that happens. As for the insulin needles, I’m not Superman so when I press the syringe firmly and the needle won’t penetrate the skin I know where the problem is.
When I go in for my annual bloodwork every year (yes, I realize that is redundant), I’m always mildly interested to see how many vacuum tubes the phlebotomist lines up on the chair arm. No, they don’t stick me that many times, they just keep changing out the tube while the needle is still in my vein. But as an eight-gallon blood donor, I’ve had worse done to me.
Well, someone *did* recently suggest we should do away with red meat. I don’t think this what they had in mind, though.
https://www.route66news.com/2019/09/11/arizona-woman-eats-two-72-ounce-steaks-in-an-hour-at-big-texan-in-amarillo/
My days of “all-you-can-eat” buffets are long past… but I wish I’d know about the Big Texan Steak Ranch when I was driving. It’s within easy walking distance of two great truck stops there in Amarillo!
The food at Big Texan Steak House is actually pretty lousey and not worth what you pay for it. More of a bad tourist trap.
I spent too much time in Amarillo.
Hey, I’m a bad tourist!