C.R.S. ? or something more benign?

Is it really your favorite quote of all time....if you can't remember it when needed?

Comments Anyone?

An online friend pointed out to me that the comments are apparently not working....or at least "were" not working.
I tried it out, ran into an odd problem...and confirmed my difficulty with my friend.

Since then, I've played with the settings (again) and I think it works now. You still have to decode an image of
letters, and type them into the box. But it shouldn't hold the comments until I moderate them. They should get posted.

Still, I refuse to complain about a service that I don'te even pay for.

Verbal Amusement

While sipping a tall cold beer and waiting on my order of hot-naked wings with ranch to go, I overhear this conversation between the hottie female bartender, and a balding customer to my right.

It started with the gentleman complaining about having a bad hair day (har, har) though it was raining cats and dogs outside. This comment led, somehow, to did the bartender have a problem with bald guys?

Which led to the bartender's confessing that she had dated a bald guy for a year but they broke up because she never "gave up the goods". After many male groans of disappointment ( I had to join in on that) it turns out that the former boyfriend had lots of hair all over the rest of his body. Which led to the comment from the female bartender that she "just wasn't turned on by some big hairy 'Saskatchewan' guy" and as a matter of fact, it was gross!.

Thank goodness my wings came up so I could leave or I'd have laughed beer all over the bar. And one thing I've learned from years of drinking beer: You don't piss off the bartender.

I'm pretty sure our bartender wasn't a Canadian.

She seemed like a very intelligent young lady. But I think she meant "Sasquatch". Seeing as how I work with some Canadians, I'm wondering how, if at all, they would be offended by her comment. Or was she a Canadian and knew from experience that most Saskatchewan men are, in fact, quite hairy?

Of course, I'm easily amused. Just one of those life-moments that make me giggle. If I ever do get around to that "Great American Novel", I hope I can remember to include little scenes like that.

Reminiscing

Not a whole lot of entries, but some history - that's how I'd describe this log so far.
And now it's nearly half-way through December so there's the obligatory "year in review" entry. Well, maybe not obligatory. I just noticed that this part of my online life is a little over a year old. Came as a complete surprise to me. So I read some of the older entries to figure out just what the hell happened.

2005 was to be a year of change.

2005 was the 'year of the lathered yak' - I have no idea what I was thinking at the time.

But, "change" - what has changed? Apparently of primary importance was a change in work circumstance. Still work for the same damn company, so I've failed for the most part. But I've been in 3 different cubicles and worked on 4 different projects. In every frickin case, the projec starts out interesting and then quickly degerates into the same ole crap this company is known for. At least in my mind.

I did change one major habit. I quit smoking. I wish I could explain, or at least sell as a quaranteed product, how I did it. The best I can do is describe it as "becoming bored" with smoking. That's funny, I smoked most when I was bored. 4 or 5 cigarettes a day during the 8 hours at work. 2 or 3 each way on the drive back and forth. And finished the pack and started another in the 4 or so hours I was home before bed. I remember getting irritated at pursuing activities where having a cigarette was inconvenient - smoke in the eyes, needing both hands, etc. And just quitting because it was, uh, boring.

I still live in the same apartment. I almost made the leap into home-ownership. But that house involves living less than 5 miles from where I work. And I don't plan on working here much longer (I fervently hope). I drive 29 miles to get here, mostly in the opposite direction of "rush-hour". I know damn well if I bought a house out here (lots of house for little money) I'd end up finding my fantasy job somewhere 35 miles away on the other side of town where everybody else is driving to at the same time. Which would just make matters worse.

I got a raise and started a savings/credit union account. It's not the first time I've gotten a raise, but having a faithful savings account is a first in a long time. Last time, I had the account until I got to $100 and then I bought a ten-speed to ride to high school, and never saved another dime. This year, said account has come in mighty handy for Christmas shopping, and there's still money in there. And more going in every pay period.

The original reason for starting the credit union account was to finance the purchase of a vehicle. Or rather to establish a relationship with a credit union so they would finance my car. So there's another change, I bought a car, a truck actually.
For the first time in my life so far, I bought a new vehicle, too. And since my credit score was so frickin high, the dealer financed my car purchase at a better rate than the credit union, and was happy to do so!

One of the negative changes is my feelings towards the season ticket/football/tailgating activities. I made it through another year. Our team will be going to a bowl game. But I'm not so sure I'll be interested in all the bally hoo next year. It's kind of a bother. It's fun, too, but the balances are starting to tip. Kinda like smoking.

Another thing that's changed is my waistline. Quitting smoking is usually followed by an increased appetite. At least I was ready for it this time, so the gain wasn't so huge. But I don't need to carry any more weight. I can feel it in my knees. It's getting difficult to look at myself in the mirror. Target weight loss: At least 50 lbs. That would get me down to 210 or so...a good weight for six-foot, two inches, I think.

I really should break these things up into smaller blogs for each day. But I have to type while the thought strikes.

Signs Along the Way and other Roadside Attractions

Went exploring along my links the other day here at work and discovered some surprises:

A blog person I've linked to has linked back to me. An unusual sensation that was. And an honor. She is able to express herself more openly than I ever could.

And following links from other people's pages, I ended up on a (apparently) gay man's page. This person hasn't "come out of the closet" yet, but apparently the office Christmas party will have at least one big surprise for his co-workers unless they've already guessed at his orientation since:

"if you're male, over 40, never married and no kids, why, it's obvious!"

Apparently, if you meet these simple criteria, you're Gay.

Ahem, that's a rather broad statement in my humble opinion. I have no doubt about my
sexual orientation. And I try not to be homophobic.

1. I am male


2. I am over 40 (getting a little farther past 40 every year)


3. I have never been married


4. I have no children (nor any desire to procreate - I would be happy to adopt, however)

Let's explore these minor details (since I have little else to do at the moment).
I am male. I like being male. Simply by being male, I have an easier life than most females(that I know). I like women. In most cases, I prefer the company of women. However, there are times where it's better to "hang with the guys". I like looking at women. I like what looking at women does to me. Women just look better naked than men, in my opinion. All gradual curves and the shadows they can produce.

I'm over 40. Yup, and no mid-life crisis I can think of. I amuse myself by thinking that since I'll be 44 this year, I qualify for two 22-year olds for my birthday. In reality, they'd probably kill me, but what a way to go, eh? The closest thing to a mid-life crisis I can think of is the fact that I bought a new vehicle, rather than a "used". Duh! It was a good deal with the perks I had available to me.

I've never been married. Mostly because I'm lousy at dating and I'm shy. I've been mightily attracted to some women. I've dated one of two of them. Unfortunately, I often get stuck on the dreaded "friend" shelf.

I haven't bothered to take good care of myself physically, I admit. I'm not hugely out of shape, but I'm no fashion statement, either. Well, "Don't look like this" is a statement, I suppose.

And I've mis-handled my finances in the past, which I am finally beginning to recover from. So I don't have a lot of cash to be spending on dates.

On the positive side of all this, I am a born listener. That is a quality most women prefer - in their friends. All my female friends tend to blab on and on when I'm around. It's difficult to even get a word in edge-wise. Sometimes it is good conversation and sometimes there are lots of meaningless detours and details I could care less about. In some cases, there are questions or observations that I'd like to make, but by the time the diatribes wind down, we are so far away from the subject,I've forgotten the point, or the observation no longer makes any sense.
I am picky about the women I find myself attracted to. Being tall myself, I prefer tall women. I prefer tall proportionate women. I've found recently that large-breasts can be a major distraction in that they interfere with my ability to establish any relationship (I'm sure I'll have to explain that further). I find big breasts intimidating because I lose all muscular control over my eyes? I don't know. In one situation I found myself staring more than is polite.

Ah, there's another one: "polite". My few male friends tell me I'm "too nice". This trait leads to the "friend" bin more often than not. I've lost track of the number of times I've hear the women complain that they wish their significant other treated them the way I do. And yet, when it was time for this or that woman to move on to another significant other...I'm out of the picture because they "don't want to ruin/lose the friendship".

I am lousy at dating. I'm a gutless wonder (shy) at asking someone out. Oh dear lord, what will we do if she says yes?

Or maybe I'm just confused. It seems most often to me, that two people get together, have sex, and then figure out if they like each other or not. Sorry, I'd prefer to sleep with a friend than a stranger. For one thing, the sex can be a whole lot better. Though that is not always true come to think of it. But, for the most part, in my limited experience, it is true. But I would like to know the person I'm sleeping with to some extent.

Wow, I've had an epiphany which is too long to cover here. Hopefully I can hold onto that thought, and continue with it, and maybe put it into practice. Back to our regularly scheduled advertising:

Regarding dating: If I ask you out, it means that I would eventually like to get you into bed. I'm just not in a hurry. I'd like to find out what you like, and what you don't like. Is that just too logical?

I don't have children, nor do I wish to pro-create. There are two very simple reasons:
One, I don't trust myself around new-borns or the very young. I am the oldest of three and there are 7 and 13 years between us. I've had all the experience with that age group that I care to.
Two, genetics. My sister suffers from a birth defect. I had a cousin, on the same side of the family, born with almost the exact same birth defect. Unfortunately, that cousin did not survive. My sister, however, is 37 and living life. But I've seen the pressures and pain both situations caused, and I have no wish to inflict that on anyone just so I can have kids. Willing to adopt? Well, at my age, most women have children of their own and they are part and parcel of the woman and any relationship. And they are mostly grown to the point you can communicate with them and clearly illustrate what is right and what is wrong.

So, there we go. I've managed to get some crap expunged from my head, defended my sexuality for no reason in particular, and I've made it past lunch time here at work.

Oh gross! next up, year-end retro-spection. Everybody does it, why don't I? Why do I feel the need?

Killing time and brain cells

Oh where to start? I've spent the better part of the day surfing blogs here at work. Not blogs from people I work with. I mean killing time at work surfing the "blogosphere". Ye Gods! I've used the word "blogosphere". Another first for this year. Anyway, work is slow. I mean slow. I was plenty busy right up to, oh, mid-November. The week before the week of Thanksgiving was spent sitting in my cube trying to stay awake. I took three days of vacation to spend the entire week of Thanksgiving with my family (parents and siblings - I have no family of my own). That was an incredible week. I made a bunch of saw dust. I finished some projects and started others. I saw relatives I haven't seen in nearly 40 years. As a matter of fact, it's been 20 years since these four people have been in the same room at the same time.

And Mom's home cooking for Thanksgiving cannot be beat.

And then it's back to "real" life. Saturday was a football game. Nothing bad about hanging with friends in the parking lot and drinking beer all day. With time out to go actually sit in my season-ticket seats and watch the game. And it was an early game, so there was time left in the evening for domestic chores and accomplishment. I watched TV instead. And surfed some porn while catching up on e-mail. No small trick on dial-up.

Sunday was video catch-up day. I figured I had 11 hours of video-taped excrement excitement from the previous week's line-ups. That and laundry. It was a perfect day for such activities with it being both cold and raining outside. But the depression did eventually set in. I live alone. My sawdust "hobby" tools are down at the folks' house. It was quiet. And I had to go back to work in the morning.

This past week at work has consisted largely of finding some reason to drive 29 miles through idiots to get here and then stay awake for some undetermined amount of time, and finally, trying to figure out why I can't leave immediately after lunch...so I stay until at least 3:30 when the people who may have need of my knowledge all go home.

I haven't always managed to stay awake the whole time at work.

I left a little early yesterday so I could catch the matinee price on the new Harry Potter movie. Worth every penny, imho.

Today, after the lengthy blog-surfing session, I spent roughly an hour and a half doing some complex banking procedures to prepare for the upcoming Christmas shopping frenzy. The banking itself was not complicated, it was navigating through the dangerous maze of idiots and roadwork between the two banks that made it complicated.

And there's still another day left in this week. And there are still three work weeks until Chrismas vacation. And nothing on the horizon for next year. I've got to make some changes in my work-life. Fortunately, there may be a ray of hope in that direction.