Rumination

Ethan and I are splitting a can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup. Comfort food for young and old on a cold, dreary Rust Belt day. I have a favorite saying from Larry McMurtry, "Old age don't fit me". In so many ways it's true. You wake up one morning and realize you aren't going to die young(yes I borrowed that line too) and pretty women view you no differently than a piece of furniture in the room. The list of what you used to do you can't do any more is too long to worry over. If you let yourself you begin the road down to grumpy old manhood. So like most of life you're going to pick the horse you ride. I've gotten used to my ride. All in all it ain't bad. Women always did view me that way. The girl at the check out asked me if I was wearing Old Spice. As I waited for the Dad connection she said" My Granddad wore it, the scent makes me happy." I wasn't offended, I was happy too. The Little Rat Pack help. Watching them try to do things like I do makes my heart swell. Gabe told his Mom not to try to fix it only Granddad can fix things. That will make you smile every time. So no self pity allowed. Maybe I can't do everything I used to, but what I can, I do better(no wink-wink, nudge-nudge intended!).On this cold ,dreary , Rust Belt day I feel nice and warm inside and it isn't all soup. Crap, gotta go Ethan is chasing the cat with a spoonful of noodles telling him"Try it you'll like it".

The Key to It All

I had never in my "all together put together" seen this photo before last week. I have read about their feud over the blacklisted director, but other than that I didn't know about their relationship.Still don't come to that. They seemed to have had a lot more differences than common ground.They were legends and yet just men. I would have liked to have spent a little time with either man, but not a lot of time.What stands out to me from what I've read about them is they both tried to be a man of his word. If they promised you something you knew it was going to happen. I admire that more than anything else in a man. If you say you'll be here at eight and work hard until five, don't come late and leave early.If you promised your kid that you'll be there, be there. And when you took a vow to share one life until death do you part,live up to your end of the bargain (something these two had some trouble with). My mother used to say if you lead a good life and there turns out to be no heaven, at least they'll talk nice about you at the funeral. I think the greatest thing that anyone can say about you when you're gone is "he always keep his word". Or in my case "Like he knew anything".

Scunnered

To be honest I had heard of Flashman, but never read any of the novels. After it was mentioned on Admiral Cod, I decided to look into it. I may start reading the series, or maybe not.I was looking into it when I came across this article here. . Interesting to see how many things that are happening in our country are also occurring in Great Britain. I also came away with a new word to describe how I feel at times: scunnered. I even like the sound of it. After this weekend I feel very scunnered. The terrible tragedy followed by the media reporting pure speculation about motive, injuries, even recovery just minutes after the shooting. I had to turn it off, what a way to report one of this country's saddest days. It's to be expected I suppose .I wonder if Sir Sean is ever scunnered?

Oh yeah, one more thing. It's Auburn War Eagles, not Tigers( I lived outside of Opelika, I know) Beat the Ducks.