AREN'T RULES MADE TO BE BROKEN?

Sigh... a near perfect storm.

My credit card payments have to be in by 11:59 p.m. on the date due, otherwise, I get a late fee. 

I have reminders and due dates on my calendar and usually pay online electronically keeping a good record intact.

One such payment is due on the fourth of each month (only until 11:59 p.m., of course). This month, on the third, I went online to pay, but I ran into an issue - the day before, on the second, I lost phone service. It happens on occasion, rarely at a good time.

I had also cleared computer cookies. When I do that, various sites no longer recognize my device and have to send a verification code to be sure it's me. Some codes are sent via email or phone, but this particular card only offers telephone or text. Since I live in a dead zone, I can't send or receive texts, and my telephone is dead (it's dead, Jim).

So I faced the issue and sent a message to the bank explaining the situation and asking if there was any grace period. My record should be good enough to be granted a small consideration... should be.

The response I got:

"Hello, Dave. We appreciate you for being a valued XXX cardholder, and we can understand you're in a difficult situation. Credit card payments are due by 11:59PM ET on your due date in order to avoid a fee. If you don't have access to a phone, we'd recommend visiting a XXX branch to make the payment. Our branches can be found here (list of branches follows)..."

Love the empathy and how they understand my situation! The nearest branch is over an hour away - 67 miles to be exact. No, I am not going to visit a branch (besides, as of this writing [8:40 p.m.], they are all closed).

Assuming my phone is back tomorrow, I will call and politely ask to have the penalty removed. If they do, great. If not, the card goes in the shredder.

MAYBE I CAN GO HOME AGAIN

I spend way too much time in front of the computer, but one of my favorite quotes is: "Time one enjoys wasting is not wasted time."

When I start a session, I loop through a saved set of sites to catch up on the news and 'news.' My sites cover the gamut of MSNBC to FOX NEWS with many in-between points of view along the way. However, as Frost wrote in "The Road Not Taken," the statement "knowing how way leads on to way" dictates what happens next. Something will catch my mind, and I start off on a search to find out more.

I am not quite sure how it happened, but something triggered my mind this morning, and I ended up looking back over Bradbury's The Illustrated Man, a book I loved to teach (read and discuss [there is such a wealth of topics and ideas to pursue])! While the book of stand-alone short stories was published some 71 years ago, many of the stories are as relevant today as they were when published. 

Of the eighteen stories (held together by the frame of living tattoos on The Illustrated Man), I usually taught about half of them. Among my very favorites were 'The Veldt,' 'Kaleidoscope,' 'The Other Foot,' 'The Last Night of the World,' 'The Rocket Man,' and 'The Rocket.' The stories were predictive and all deal with today's issues. 

The book can be found at https://csuclc.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/illustrated-man-by-ray-bradbury.pdf 

Read The Prologue, and then pick the stories you want to read. Let me know what you think.

TODAY I LEARNED...

A mondegreen is a word or phrase that results from mishearing or misinterpreting a statement or song lyric. The term was inspired by "Lady Mondegreen," a misinterpretation of the line "And laid him on the green" from the Scottish ballad "The Bonny Earl o' Moray." The ballad is hundreds of years old, but in a 1954 essay, the writer confessed to misunderstanding the line. The writer wrote that she misheard the final two lines of the above verse as "they have slain the Earl o' Moray, and Lady Mondegreen." She said that she always imagined the Earl dying beside his faithful lover "Lady Mondegreen", and refused to hear the real words, because they were less romantic than her misheard version. (The real words were: 'They have slain the Earl o' Moray And laid him on the green.'

The term "mondegreen" has since been adopted for any misheard song lyric which changes the meaning of the original (Wikipedia).

When I was in junior high school (and high school), friends and I would make up our own lyrics to songs that were popular at the time. One of the few I remember (and appropriate to put here) was Herman's Hermits' line from their song "She's a must to avoid..." We changed it to "She's a muscular boy...," perhaps foreshadowing some of today's societal issues as The Simpsons seem to do a lot..

Anyhow, tonight I learned something I never knew. One of my go-to groups from the 60s was the Beach Boys. I love their sound. The opening lyrics to 'Surfin' USA are:

"If everybody had an ocean
Across the U. S. A.
Then everybody'd be surfin'
Like Californi-a
You'd see 'em wearing their baggies
Huarache sandals too
A bushy bushy blonde hairdo
Surfin' U. S. A."

All these years, I thought the lyrics were, "'You'd see 'em wearing their baggies and raunchy sandals too...," which made total sense as I knew what raunchy sandals were - I had never heard of Huarache.

Anyhow, I am off to read about Monte Green's distant relative - Mrs. Malaprop.

MORE ON TV (or MORON TV)?

So, it's been just over a month since I got my new TV, which may partially explain where I've been. It's like an entire new world has opened.

I have watched way less news and way more other 'stuff.' I have finished 'Breaking Bad' and 'Better Call Saul.' I have seen 'The Conjuring' and 'The Conjuring 2.' I have also binged on 'COPS.'

The thing with 'COPS' is it's on a 24/7 station (woo-hoo). The other thing is the network (Pluto) is free but at the cost of having the same few commercials again and again... and again. One in particular is a budding romance in a laundry room between Tammy and 'that cute guy in 12C' until Flo shows up to promote insurance (and return Tammy's retainer). I don't mind it, but seeing it several times an hour is pushing it. 

Another thing about 'COPS' is what I see of a world within a world I am glad I don't live in: a few observations: (1) there are many people who lie more easily than I breathe, (2) very few people carry ID with them, (3) no one knows where the drugs found on them (or in their property) came from ('They're not mine'), (4) many, many people are walking around out there with warrants, (5) people's excuse for running is they're scared of the cops, (6) K9s do their job well, and (7) before things changed, there are knees on necks (but not for 9 minutes).

There was a time when I thought about being a policeman because of how I was raised - it was a respected profession. Things have changed.

Anyhow, still looking for recommendations of things to watch.

TV OR NOT TV? THAT IS THE QUESTION!

Until a couple of days ago, my  constant desk mate was an old 13" TV that extended out the back at least as wide as it was. If I was at my desk, the TV was on... mostly for background. There was little I watched watched.

For once I planned well, did my research, and ended up buying a 24" flat-screen TV that still fits on the desk without sticking out beyond the desk's borders or out in the back over the abyss. I think the whole thing is maybe seven pounds. After figuring out how to set it up (those things don't come easy for me), it's now up and running. 

Long story short, all along, I always had to check the online TV guide to see what was on. I am not sure how many channels I had, but there was almost always 'nothing on' (if you know what I mean). I usually watched the same few channels over and over again. The new set came with all kinds of built-in streaming apps, so apparently now I get to pick which which one(s) I want to try - I pick what to watch and when. So far, I have watched several episodes COPS on the what appears to be a dedicated COPS channel and a little bit of Dark Shadows (the original)!

Now, I m really appreciating the difference in sets. The Bruins are on, and what a world of difference! If I believe an online screen area calculator, there is over three times the viewing area, and just wow!

Anyhow, I have not watched much 'newer' TV, and even fewer movies, so I don't even know where to begin! I do want to finish up Breaking Bad, but where I go from there... who knows. Maybe you do - I am open to recommendations. 

SIXTEEN CANDLES

I am sitting at my desk working on a piece of writing for a friend. Usually, the TV is just on without my really watching - background noise with an occasional glance on my part. This time, however, to avoid visual distraction, I have a music channel on featuring Solid Gold Oldies.

A song came on that like a tidal wave swept me back to another time and place. Sixteen Candles was the most danceable slow song! In those days, we craved slow songs because that meant dancing and holding our partners close - three minutes of heaven on earth. We often asked the DJ to play a 'Slow Ladies Choice,' which allowed girls to ask the guys to dance. Sometimes someone would even ask me to dance. When that actually happened, I usually asked my friend to hold her cane and dog while we danced.

Once I found someone that would dance with me, we'd walk slowly to the dance floor, my hand in the small of her back gently guiding her (or clutching her blouse making sure she didn't bolt).

She'd turn and face me. My right hand and arm went around her waist; my left (and her right) arm stuck out to the left looking like we were ready to gently arm wrestle. And then, feeling the music (And other things), we'd begin to move and sway and glide over the floor. (In more advanced cases, I was able to put both arms around her and hold her close. 

At those moments, nothing else existed - true heaven on earth. Any reverie, though, was often cut short be the abrasion of her hair on my cheek and/or chin. Usually so much hair spray was used, her hair could deflect bullets. The most prevalent was called the beehive. Ouch!

I miss those days.

The song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD9krCCh7DY&ab_channel=OldHitsLyrics

GREAT ADVICE (AT LEAST I THINK SO)!

There was a time I didn't want children. 

I looked at the world way back then and didn't feel equipped to help properly prepare a child to not just survive it but flourish. There was also a time when I looked at the world and didn't see it as the kind of place I wanted to bring a child into.

That all changed along the way as did I.

Once our daughter was born, I wanted to do what I could to provide some life lessons and leave some advice I deemed valuable should anything happen to me.

Turns out, she didn't need it. As of this writing, I am still here, and she turned out perfect (much because of her mother), but not all kids are so lucky/blessed, so, taken from a rough draft, here are some random pieces of wisdom that I would have told her (and probably did along the way) and am now sharing with you).

* * *

(1) "Pretend to be completely in control and people will assume that you are" (various attributions).

(2)  Just get through it! If things are great, enjoy them because soon they will suck. If things suck, hang on because soon they do get better. (Repeat as necessary.)

(3) 86 percent of guys are jerks! Find someone in the other 14 percent!) 

(4) Not everyone who's your friend is your friend.

(5) Whatever it is, it will get better. (See #2)

(6) Do what you have to do.

(7) Take care of your teeth and health

(8) Learn basic finances. Watch your credit

(9) "There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see, yet small enough to solve." Mike Leavitt.

(10) Don't create problems

(11) Find and read (and reread) Desiderata (https://allpoetry.com/Desiderata---Words-for-Life)

(12) Find and read (and reread) 10 Rules for Being Human (https://www.theprofessionalhobo.com/10-rules-for-being-human/)

(13) Find and read (and reread)11 Things They Don't Teach You in High School (https://sites.google.com/site/math10westviewsecondary/11-things-we-don-t-teach-you). BTW, these are not from Bill Gates.

(14) Don't ever stop learning and growing as a person.

* * * 

 This list above is but a starting point. There is so much advice out there. All we have to do is Google great advice, try it on for size, and the floodgates open.

I can guarantee someone needs to see the above list. Feel free to share.