Idle Ramblings of a Slightly Mad Man

I was thinking, since this silly little blog is now 1 year old, doing a little reposting of some favorites from the past year. 

Has anyone ever done a “Best of…” on their blog?  How did it go?

Did you ask for readers to request their favorites?  Or did you just post what you felt was your better posts?

Or do you just think that a Best of is a stupid idea?

I was thinking about the one time I traveled and got stranded in the Atlanta airport.  It was a great time if you can believe it.  We made the best of a terrible situation.

I had a flight from Miami to a connection to Atlanta.  I had made the connection in plenty of time but due to thunderstorms rolling up the East Coast, we were delayed.  The gate lady for the airline kept announcing that the flight was delayed and finally after 2 hours sitting at the gate waiting for boarding to begin I met a few people that were also from Philly and getting pissed at all the delays. 

Finally, the pilot came off the plane and I overheard him talking to the gate lady that according to radar, the storms are moving slowly and we are stuck for at least another hour. 

The gate keeper then announced that it was going to be at least an hour before the plane would board and that if we wanted to get something to eat we could but don’t stray far.  So this girl I was talking to and I went to the Wendy’s just 3 gates down and ate some lunch.  When we returned - 45 minutes later - the plane had boarded and taken off.  Without us. 

Needless to say, the girl and I were pissed.  We were not the only ones either.  There were about 5 others that did the same thing as us and went to get a meal.  Then the gate lady stated that we should not have left the gate area.  The group of us of course went nuts.  After much protest, the airline was able to get us all on the next flight - 8 hours later. 

So what was one to do?

The seven of us decided that since we had until 10PM until our next flight, we would make the best of it and we decided to play a game and have at least one drink in every bar in every terminal in the Atlanta airport. 

By the time it was boarding time the seven of us were blasted.  Looking back I am surprised that they even let any of us on.  By this point we were drunk, obnoxious and boisterous. 

The two hour flight home was uneventful but when we arrived in Philly we decided that we should go out some more and hit a few bars around town.  I met a few great people, unfortunately, after that night we never kept in contact with each other.   

This weekend the family and I went down to Chincoteague Virginia and searched out possible places to rent during the week of Pony Penning.

For those of you that don’t know what Pony Penning is, it is when the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department round up the wild ponies on Assateague Island, which is right across the water, and swim them across to Chincoteague where they will auction them off. This is for thinning the herd and for the fire department to raise money.

I have been going to Chincoteague for about 30 years now and I really have not been back for Pony Penning in nearly 10 years. I have been avoiding all the tourists. But now that my own family is coming of age, I want them to experience the event.  It really is something that everyone should experience at least once.

I have to say that I am looking forward to it. Like I said, I have not been there during a swim in years and I want to pass this down to my kids. My parents took us down there almost every year. My aunt and uncle have a place down there and we would all crash there. Then as more and more of us went, their house filled up and we had to find other places to rent.

The island is filled with history and character and there are little quaint shops and there is always something to do.  It is nice going down when there are no events happening on the island.  I know that their main source of income is tourism but there is something spectacular about going down when it is the off season.

One day, I am going to buy a house down there.

I love it. It is my second home.

I can’t wait for July.

Driving home last night from Manhattan, I had the time to think about death and dying.  I was thinking about if I died today who would show up to my funeral and viewing.  I thought about if I lived a life that was memorable to other people and if they would remember me years after I had passed.

 You see, I am not a world leader, Hollywood superstar or a role model.  I have made no huge impact on this planet Earth in anyway, shape, or form.  I am just an average Joe.  Many of us are. 

Some of us don’t like knowing that they will live and die anonymous so they go out and do something about it.  Unfortunately we know the real names of the people who shoot up schools, that blow up federal buildings and assassinates presidents.  Those we can remember easily.

Jim Morrison wrote in his composition The End “… Did you live a good world when you died?  Enough to base a movie on?” 

For me, the answer to that would be a no.

I don’t fear death.  I don’t fear what comes after death, if anything.  I don’t fear that I will be vaguely remembered by those around me after I am gone.  For me, I am ok that I am not going to leave a legacy.  I am ok that I am who I am.  I don’t seek fame or notoriety.

Have you ever caught a scent that triggered memories? 

I just had one.  Let me take a moment and back up and set up the scene. 

I am on the road again, traveling for work.  I am out on the West Coast and staying at a very popular brand name hotel.  As part of my routine when I first enter my room I take all the complimentary bath supplies that I use and put them in the shower.  So this morning I enter the shower and I open the hotel supplied shampoo and conditioner and wash my hair with them.  I then moved to the soap.  When I opened up the soap I catch a smell that flashed me back to elementary school. 

The soap smelled like paste.  Elmer’s white paste.  The kind we used to use on art projects.  The kind we used to eat.  The kind we used to try to permanently glue our fingers together.  I have not smelled a jar of Elmer’s Paste in decades.  Art projects I made in grade school all flooded back.  Past elementary school teachers flashed back in my mind.  A huge chunk of my childhood recalled in a quick instant.

But then I was turned off to the smell, who wouldn’t?  There I am, in the shower, in all of my naked glory (good luck getting that image out of your heads today) with no choice but to use this paste smelling soap.  I am now hoping that my clothes do not stick to my body because I used this paste soap. 

I think I will see if there is a CVS around here to buy one of those sample/travel bars of soap.  There are worse things to smell like but I don’t need to have a trail of grade school kids following me like I’m the Pied Piper of Paste trying to get their fix from the past man.

It is interesting how past memories can be triggered just by a scent.

One thing I look forward to every year is Christmas Cookies.  My wife makes a great chocolate chip and molasses cookie but I have been really wishing for some other cookies I had growing up.  Cookies like oatmeal, peanut butter and the ones that come in shapes and colors like green Christmas trees, red stars and yellow stars and they all have colored sugar on them.

I once again commented to her that I would like to have them and for her to bake them for me and she gave me the tired lame excuse that she does not know how to bake them, she never baked them before and that she is not good at those kind of cookies.  I pointed out that if she never made them before then how does she know that she is bad at making them?

She hates when I make a good point. 

So the next day I went to the store and bought oatmeal, flour, sugar, food coloring, colored sugar sprinkle things, peanut butter and a bunch of other stuff.  I put it up on the kitchen counter and told her MAKE ME SOME COOKIES BITCH!

OK, so I didn’t say that last part.  I know better than to say that to my wife.  I’ll get my ass kicked by her.  I did do a lot of sweet talking and groveling to get her to make me cookies. 

She made them for me.  Five different kinds of cookies in one day.  The house smelled great and now we have a ton of cookies laying around. 

They say Christmas is a magical time of year and I believe it.  I have cookies. 

Thanksgiving is traditionally the busiest travel holiday in the nation.  Everyone heads home for Thanksgiving. 

For my family and I we used to just go one town over to my grandparents.  Even though they less than 5 miles away we would have to drive over a small creek, along the woods to get there.  We used to sing the “Over the river and Through the woods to Grandmothers house we go” song because when you are 6 a creek seems like a river.

Now that I am older and with a family it is not as magical as when I was a kid.  We now go to my in-laws and instead of just playing as a child, as an adult I help get dinner ready, help clean up after eating and then get back home to get kids showered and ready for bed.   It is not the fun lazy holiday that I remember.

We never traveled great distances for the holidays as a family, now or when I was growing up.  All my family was local.  I’m not complaining.  I like that they are close.  To be able to have a short drive to get home and crash is nice.  I think I would dread a long car ride home after filling myself past capacity.   

My favorite part of Thanksgiving is the day or 4 after.  When I get to eat turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, and anything else that can be made from turkey left overs.  It is the left overs that I really enjoy.

I spent another day wandering around Seattle.  This morning I took in the Pike Place Market.  It truly is a unique place.  I have been to many Markets but none compared to this place.  I spent the better part of the morning taking it all in.  The variety of merchants is overwhelming.  Also mixed throughout is the musicians.  They are scattered throughout the market playing piano, guitar, violin, and clarinet to name a few.  Of course the experience is not complete until you witness the fish throwing.  While you are so focused on the guys tossing yard long fish they somehow slyly slip and overthrow into the unsuspecting crowd causing people to scream and/or leap out of the way of what turns out to be just a stuffed hammerhead shark.  I do have to admit that I was on the receiving end of this fish throw prank.  It did surprise me and no I did not scream.  I did catch it and as it was coming at me the thought that cats would be following me all the rest of the day did enter my mind. 

After the Market I traveled across town to Pioneer Square to take the Underground Tour.  This was a very interesting tour of the city below the city.  Long story short, they built the city, had a fire and rebuilt the city over the ruins.    Underground you can find the original entryways into the city buildings.  It was very educational and entertaining.  The tour guides give the history of Seattle and how it grew into the city it is today. 

Some of the other things I have taken in today is the Umbrella Statue and the first Starbucks.  Unfortunately, I will not have much time the rest of the week to play since I have to work so I am fortunate that I had the opportunity today to cram in as much as I can.  

I am tired and I am worn out but I am much better for taking in as much of this beautiful city as I can. 

I took some time today to visit Seattle and my first stop was to the Space Needle.  While the weather was not the greatest to where I could see Mt Raineir, I did have wonderful views from the top.  I was able to look out over the Puget Sound and the city of Seattle at a height of 605 feet.  The one thing that amazed me was the stability of the Needle.  I have been to the top of several tall buildings like the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Empire State Building in NYC and in almost all of them you could feel the building sway.  Today was a pretty windy day and I did not feel any sway whatsoever. 

There is something amazing about being able to see a city from up high.  There is a certain peace that seems to befall the cities when viewing from above.  A person can almost feel godlike as they witness the activities of the people below who go about their daily routines not knowing or realizing that they are being watched over from above. 

After I came down from the Space Needle I took a walk around the area and as I was walking along the water I was directed by a local that the houseboat out on the water was the same one that was in the movie Sleepless in Seattle.  I tried to act interested and appreciative of his pointing out this local fact but in reality I have never watched this chick flick to know if he was telling the truth or pulling my leg.  I guess now I will have to watch the movie to find out the truth. 

Speaking of Sleepless, I woke up at 4:30 am local time since I am not yet used to the time change.  My body thought it was 7:30 am Eastern still.  Even in Seattle, there is not much going on at 4:30 am. 

Someone left the bathroom faucet partially on again.  It was dripping a quick drip.  For some reason this annoys me. 

I believe that this is the fault of my father.  He was very crazy about people in our house letting water run or leaving lights on in a room when no one is there.  My father was not a conservationist except when it came to money.  He could really not care less about how the running water effected the environment.  He did care about how much the electric bill or the water bill was going to be at then end of the month. 

If you left the room, even for just a moment, you would get yelled at.  If you left the water running while brushing your teeth, you got yelled at.  He could be in another room, no, another floor in the house and hear the water running or see a light on. 

I learned quickly how not to get yelled at by my father.  I learned quickly not to let the water run or leave lights on.  As a result, I am left with this compulsion when it comes to lighting and running water that has carried over to today to where I yell at my kids for the same things I was yelled at over.  I will even yell at my wife over this issue. 

Where I work, the sink is constantly dripping because someone does not turn the water completely off when they are done washing their hands.  Even though I am not paying for it, I feel the need to turn the water completely off to stop the water from running.  Or if I am walking by an empty room I need to turn off the lights.  One coworker noticed me doing this and made the comment that I must be some sort of tree hugger.  The truth is that I don’t do it because it is the eco-friendly, conservation, Al Gore approved way of life.  I do it because this is something the old man drilled into my head.    

 My dad - reducing his carbon footprint before it became a fad.