Danmancle's Blog

It is not good to start the day with the heebie geebies. As I have more time to do things, today was time to get the car serviced. So I could take it in and wait until they complete the work – no problem. Just as soon as I got in line at the service department, panic set in – I left my crackberry at the house!!!! Panic set in. (see – it makes repeat myself). What if someone was trying to call me?  What if Peg was trying to text me an important grocery list?  What if I was  getting a special e-mail?  What if I had a heart attack and had to call 911 – I would die because I have no phone!! And more importantly what if my new best friend Ellen Degeneres was trying to call me to tell me I had just won the grand prize??  So I got the heebie geebies. There is usually no cure – people  die, suffering cruelly.

 It turned out to be not so bad…the service waiting area was amazing – a world that I had never seen before – a secret world. We all had to sign a paper stating we would not disclose it’s location. There were huge leather sofas, big screen tv’s, magazines, newspapers, free bottles of water, free coffee with special flavored little creamers – who knew. Everyone was smiling –It was relaxing, and even settled the heebie geebies – people can wait – I am relaxing. I told them to take their time – go ahead and put the summer air in the tires, check out the wheel wells – whatever  they need to check out  – someone else can go ahead of me – I was just fine. I think I will need to go back for an oil change on Monday – they are having  muffins!!  I won’t even need my phone – Ellen can wait….

Today is tutor Thursday. Every Thursday I visit our elementary school down the street and help with Ms Long’s second grade class. I come in to help them with their reading. It is a good working relationship since I am at about second grade reading level myself. These kids are so wonderful and say whatever comes into their head. The teacher instructed them to call me Mr. Dan

My first visit was 2 days after I had some skin “spots” removed on my face and forehead. I was not in the classroom more than 3 minutes when one of the kids asked “what’s wrong with your face”. I explained briefly and non technically when he said “oh – I thought you had pimples”. My tutoring had begun.

Today I was wearing a Looney Toons tie – I thought the kids would like it. Peg informed me later that “you know, they have no clue who those characters are, in fact the teacher probably doesn’t know who they are – those were from a long time ago”. Well maybe so, but the kids liked it anyway. One of the older kids (5th grader) passed by me and stopped and looked at my tie. He looked up at me and said “nice tie – you rock”.  I have found my peer group – elementary school.

Speaking of “a long time ago”, one of my idols when I was in elementary school – Davy Crockett (Fess Parker) died today. I was a member of the club – I had the Davy Crockett  cap, and play rifle etc. I must have seen every episode. I used to take our sharp kitchen knives to the back yard and throw them at trees trying to make them stick like Davy Crockett did. Mom was not pleased. I won’t share that with my second graders.

Let’s start a blog.

 So I was talking to myself as I often do nowadays, so why not write it down? Me and myself are usually of the same mind, so we can figure it out as we go. I will probably have 6 people reading this, so I’m sure I must be accurate.

I lost my job 4 months ago – actually it’s not lost, I know exactly where it is – but it’s not mine anymore. So after  44 years of working every day, I get to turn the corner of my 6^th decade as unemployed.  But , now I have so many chores to catch up with. I don’t know who was doing all this work when I was gone all day. Today I chose to do some work outside. You would think this would be easy and fun… Since I have a history of sun issues, I have to cover up. So, long pants, long sleeve shirt, boots, sun block, and an ugly wide brimmed hat. I look like a 60 year old toddler going out to play in the snow – only it is 65 degrees outside. I look like one of those goofy old men that lived on your street that you remember  growing up – you always crossed to the other side of the street so you could avoid him (“what are you looking at, you awful little brat”) Oh wait – that was my dad.

Of course I had to have my weekly argument with Bob when I was outside. Bob is the annoying squirrel that eats through my storage containers and ruins the birdfeeders. Bob usually can be seen standing on the backyard fence holding his nuts and calling me names , mocking me.  So I usually stand on the deck holding my nuts and call him names. I had a little pile of rocks to throw at him – but he just laughs – one of those little squirrel laughs like he is calling me a stupid idiot human – that kind of laugh. Of course he knows that I can’t hit him with a rock – I haven’t pitched since I was a kid in little league. I think I won the award for most strikeouts one year – both as a pitcher and batter. I was on the “Angelo’s Pizza” team. We were promised all the pizza we could eat for every victory. I never did find out how their pizzas tasted – we never won a game- and somehow Bob knows….