Blither

I don't know why I'm even going to write this post. It's going to be, like, totally just like, ya know, a typical blog. My boring day, etc., etc. I really haven't talked to anybody for a couple of days. Well maybe three. Or four. And I suppose fingers working a keyboard kinda sorta feels like talking to somebody. So, on with the blither.

When my daughter and her spring break posse blew threw last week on their way back north, my house-mate got them into a fine cultural event: the b-rate pro wrestling show he runs a jib on over at Universal. And once in there, one can just mosey on over into the park since you're already inside. I tagged along and we all went on the “Back to the Future” ride. It opened when we lived here before and was the primo showpiece of the park for some time. Well, I just read that it's last day is next Friday, the 30th. So when we experienced the future last week, we were actually experiencing history in the making. I did notice that it was getting a little long of tooth. Some of the kids on it had probably never heard of the movie(s).

That reminds me. When daughter and crew stopped off on their way south for a bit of fun, I rendezvoused with them at the beach. We made the obligatory pilgrimage to the Ron Jon surf shop. Since one of my all time favorite t-shirts happens to be a Ron Jon item and it was getting pretty ratty with some holes in it, I thought it a fine opportunity to seek a replacement. I spent an embarrassingly long time searching for just the right one. But, hey, they have hundreds of different ones now. Well, at least one hundred, I'm pretty sure. I went back and forth, traditional? Modern retro? Bright colors or muted? Car theme? Board theme? Parrot theme? I really wanted one with cool tree frogs on it but they didn't have the right color in my size. In the end I got a pretty traditional one. So I get home and low and behold, it's exactly the same shirt as my old one, only in green. I probably would have gotten it in tan if they'd had that color and then they'd really be the same. Except that the new one looks like it was done with a silkscreen that had the screen partially clogged up so the logo and all looks like it's kinda old and worn. Believe me, it's cool. So the new one actually looks older than the old one, except that it doesn't have any holes, which is nice. The moral of the story? I am so totally predictable. But I don't know it. I wish I did. Life would be so much easier, I think.

Walking out of the gym after swimming my laps and making a modest effort at pumping a little iron, I looked at a few people. It's an interesting thing to do at that gym. It's a truly international experience there. I'm one of the very few anglos that ever seems to walk through the door. The primary language is Spanish, but I've heard a smattering of other languages, some of which I couldn't place. That's a pretty rare thing for me after all my traveling. I can usually at least get the region. Anyway, I made an observation:

People with soft bodies and soft faces are often pleasant.
People with hard bodies and soft faces are often pleasant and interesting.
People with hard bodies and hard faces are often neither.
People with soft bodies and hard faces are often (I'm sorry) just ugly.

I saw something today I've never seen before: a Disney bus broken down by the side of the road. That's something that I'm pretty sure is a violation of the perfection clause in the Disney operations manual.

I saw the bus while driving around doing some errands. I made the necessary periodic supply run to Wal Mart. I put it off as long as possible. Like everyone else I like the prices, don't mind the store so much, but hate the horror of the checkout lines made worse by standing there looking at 20 of them sitting unmanned except for the week before Christmas. I have a hard time understanding how the most successful retailer in the history of the planet got that way when they make it so terribly difficult and maddening to give them money! Okay, I got that out of my system and I don't ever have to write about Wal Mart again. Please forgive me pulling all those nasty images up into your mind's eye.

So, body well exercised and feeling good, errands run, I drove past the cheap theater and noticed a movie I've been wanting to see was playing. I took advantage of one of the few benefits of my lonely new lifestyle and went to the movies on a moment's notice. Now I'm not going to tell you what the movie was 'cause I don't want to ruin anything for you. My family and friends often get very annoyed with me while watching movies together because, unlike in my own life, I always seem to know what is about to happen. I try to hold it in but sometimes I just can't help myself and it blurts out. It's just so hard when you finally have a rare chance to be the person in the know for a change. I've been told that there are only about 70 or so possible plots and I guess I just have most of them filed away in the back of my brain somewhere. I do so enjoy when something truly novel comes along that I can't figure out in advance. Believe me, I'm not so smart, this is just a quirk. Anyway, I walk into this movie and see in the opening credits that a well known and well loved actor is in it. He's done some really endearing roles and you can't help but love the guy on the screen. But I thought, “I bet he's going to be a bad guy this time,” and doggone it he was! Freaked me right out!

Okay, that's all I got. And you?