Were you sitting here?

I don't take the bus often but I remember on this day it was my only way to work in Providence. I missed the early bus so I was forced to take a later one. I took my seat near the driver and since this was pre Ipad I had nothing to do but watch the people as they came aboard at the various stops. After a few stops I noticed that we weren't going on to the highway but instead proceeding to Providence via direct but red light filled route. We were also stopping quite a bit and as each person boarded the bus I began to notice that I was getting some unusual stares. Well we made our next stop less than half way into our journey yet we had been on the road more than twice the time that it would take me to drive the same distance. We pulled into an assisted living facility and began our wait for the passengers to board. Was this a chartered bus trip that I had stumbled upon or some kind of private tour? .The passengers slowly boarded the bus and I began to hear rumblings as each person passed me then suddenly there she was. "That is MY seat" she shouted. I moved to a seat at the back of the bus unwilling to confront the situation that contained and angry mob of senior citizens.
I thought of this incident recently when Joann and I were walking thru town and decided to sit on one of the benches at the town dock. I noticed the look of a couple of ladies near us knitting and talking. It was the same look that I had gotten in the bus a few years ago. I quickly suggested that we move to another nearby bench and with in minutes several ladies, knitting in hand settled into our vacant bench. It was "their bench " public as it is but non the less a place that I would bet they use regularly to meet and discuss knitting and events of the day with friends.
I guess it is one of those unspoken rules that you don't violate. Like going into a local VFW post and taking "Norms" seat at the end of the bar even if the World War II vet had not been in for a beer in years. It was still his stool.
There are certain rules of life that make things go more smoothly. They arent written down, nor should they be but if we would listen to them once in a while life would be a bit easier for all of us. 

Awake

I'm walking thru Dave's Market trying to find the wife who left me in the yogurt aisle searching for something Greek,strawberry and something else. I stare at hundreds of selections. As I move down the aisle I notice a carriage blocking not only my way. Now I could go around it but I would either have to have heavy duty drone ( I want one...not to spy on anybody but I have seen some of the best video shot with those things) , or I could make a Connie Hawkins leap ( old school basketball....and I mean oldddd schoool) over the woman who is completely oblivious to to fact that I need to get by and get my yogurt.
Now I'm not talking about people who drift from lane to lane while driving and using their phones...no that is another blog for another day. I'm speaking about people who seem to be semi-awake as they drift thru life not knowing or caring about others around them. Young and old ...this isn't something that effects a particular group of people.
I'm walking with my wife next to me on the sidewalk in town. Approaching me is another couple and it becomes a game of chicken as to who will give in and go single file, step aside and let the others pass or as i see so many times they will just keep walking as if we are invisible and force us into the gutter.
Some people are only affected temporarily and say excuse me when the wake up...that is fine and understandable but others think the rules of public behavior don't pertain to them. Ok I'm rambling...besides if i don't get to my yogurt soon I;m gonna scream...now where is it??....oh sorry...I didn't see you behind me trying to get your skim milk....I guess it can happen to everyone...  

Sweat

I'm sweating. I'm sweating out a summer cold that I have had for almost two weeks, but that is another story....ok I wont tell that story. I'm doing yard work and its hot. Summer, humid, sweat dripping in my eyes, sweat down my back...its July, that day you wished for during that winter morning sitting in your car shaking as you turn the key to start your car and it groans telling you that you should have gotten that battery when it was on sale at Walmart and now the only thing warm that you have that is warm is your breath circling around the inside of your car before it freezes on the inside of your windshield.
I like sweat because it means I'm warm which to me is better than being cold....(sometimes life is simple if you just ...let it be).
I'm painting now. I cant see because the sweat is dripping down my forehead onto my old man glasses, which I need otherwise the paint would be all over the windows instead of on the house where it belongs.
I remember when I would video tape weddings...(by the way I was one of if not the first to do that way back in the early 80's....and yes it was video tape.) ....and it was a hot summer day in an nonairconditioned church. I would usually worry about things like my battery dieing just when the bride says.."I do"..but on this day it was Africa hot and my viewfinder was fogging up so I couldn't even tell if the bride was in focus let alone whether I was recording at all because the battery I had rented had given out twenty minutes ago. Oh well I could always yell out..."take two" in my best Martin Scorsese voice. That is not a good day or place to sweat...everything has its place...including today's word ....Sweat.

Random Ramblings

Just a few thoughts cause I got nothing particular to write about.

I love our town beach on a summer night

I hate wasting a sunny summer day inside....even for a minute.

Summer colds suck

"Summer breeze make me feel fine...blowing thru the jasmine in my mind".....{that one is for you Jo}

That is the last time in today's blog that I will use the word summer

It has been years...and I mean years since I bought a wallet

Or new underwear

Give me scissors, tweezers and a dentist pick and I can fix a lawnmower.

Who drives thirty miles to buy my $15 ten year old computer monitor?

I was arrested once....long story...those who know me have heard it a million times

There should be a law that says if you have a convertible you have to have it down on a sunny {the word that I just promised not to use again} day.

My memory isn't gone it has just being help by a pile of paper notes.

I love stationary

I miss having a dog around the house but we do need some time.

I'm afraid that I'm using up all of my future blog ideas in one day.

Laugh

I laughed so hard the my eyes were watering and there was stuff coming out of my nose.. The woman in a nearby chair looked at my like I was insane. Joann asked if I was alright. It was a perfect early summer afternoon and Joann had decided to take few hours for ourselves. We headed to the town beach, which is free now that steveisover60. Jo suggested that I take a book instead of my trusty iPad. ...why not.. I took a book written by Billy Crystal given to me by my sister for my birthday. Well the first few paragraphs sent me into this laughing fit. My sides ached as I read on, laughing uncontrollably.

Laughing is good. I have to laugh more. Watch more Stooges, Groucho, Rodney, Rickles and the unedited version of Blazing Saddles....other wise if it is edited for tv.. forget it. I like laughing with and at my friends. I like laughing at myself especially when I do something really dumb.  It is time to make some time to be silly. It is good for the soul.

Now a few random jokes to get you on your way :

Chicken # 1 to Chicken # 2.... How did I get to the other side?

Chicken # 2......Your on the other side ,stupid.

If I told you once I've told you a million times ...dont exaggerate.

Escalators don't break down...they just turn into stairs

What did the police officer say to the midget complaining that someone picked his pocket?

I cant believe that someone would stoop so low.

Why do men get married? So that they don't have to hold in their stomachs any more.

What did the fish say when he swam into a wall? ....Dam!

 I told my my dentist my teeth are getting yellow. He told me to wear a brown necktie. (Rodney D.)

If I didn't make you laugh then find something that does...see you next week.

Toby

He had been only with us for about a week when I decided since I was the last one up before going to bed that I would let him out one more time. He would usually wander around in the back yard off the leash and pee then head back to the porch where I would give him a treat. Well tonight he seemed to wander longer in the dark night getting farther and farther away from the house as he sniffed around. Suddenly he was over the back wall into a new territory, another neighbors yard. Well it isn't so much a yard as it is a wooded area of several acres next to the local middle school, in other words, plenty of places for a puppy to explore.  

 And explore he did. With everybody else in the house asleep and me on the porch in my bare feet I panicked. I went to the house for a flashlight and proceeded to check the woods behind the house. I had lost the new dog!!!  My daughter had just started had just started elementary school and Toby was her new best friend. I spent the next two hours circling the neighborhood calling his name. Well I returned to see him wagging his tale sitting alone on the porch. We would have many more adventures during his 17 years. Hiking the woods of Exeter in middle of  the winter with him occasionally chasing deer while I enjoyed the solitude. The backyard baths after his regular wrestling match with local skunk.
Like a lot of things in life we remember the good times as being to short but time has no mercy it just keeps moving not worrying about good times or bad.

 Rest In Peace....Toby

Graduation Day

This weeks blog isn't a story about me but instead it's about somebody I love. My daughter Kayla
Nothing clever or witty just a proud parent celebrating his daughters accomplishment. She just graduated from college. A beautiful day in May , blue skies , smiling faces and proud parents.
As I sat there in the crowd waiting for her to take the stage I thought of another day in May some ten years earlier. We were in the backyard it was the beginning new season. The game was whiffel  ball home run derby and it was me and Kayla. She wanted to bat first. The first pitch of the season and it was gonnnneee...a home run. She has a natural swing. It wasn't something that I could take credit for because I never had to teach her how to swing a bat. She just did it. Hit after hit. We kept score, standings with wins and losses and all the stats. It was a great way to spend the summer nights.
Now she was all grown up and smiling on stage with diploma in hand ,off to another chapter in her life. My home hitter.

Sick

Im not feeling well. Not bad enough to go to the doctors. ( I'm laughing now becasue those of you who know me are laughing to becasue I rarely go to the doctor. The yearly physical sure but not for every hang nail or ache or pain. Stiches yes but that is only if the bleeding is causing people who see to become ill themselves or there is so much blood that it's getting tough to walk because my feet are sloshing around in what are becoming very red shoes..but I'm getting off track here...)
I am sick enough so that I feel like laying down in the middle of the day. Now in the commercials and sitcoms being sick is like a day off at some spa. People come by give you comfort make jokes and you take anap as th world passes by.  Well I have never had s a sick day like that. Even when I was a kid if I was sick it was so bad that I couldn't move or when i felt better the guilty would take over me . I'm a lazy bumm living on orange juice and crackers while the rest off the world supports me  or I'm so   sick that I feel that I'm near death and  I can't enjoy a decent soap opera.  When I'm sick I can't relax.  Come to think of it I have a hard time relaxing when I'm not sick.....mmmmmm

A website ....steventymon.com

I'm trying to start a website. I will use it to post my blog and other things. I'm new at this so be kind.
Let me know what you think. I'm gonna try and link this blog to it or start a new one there. I don't want to lose of my old blog stuff so I will see what I can do about linking the old with the new.

steventymon.com

I'm aggrivated

I am aggravated and normally I don't whine especially on my blog but I was sitting here writing and thinking and I started writing what I was thinking. I'm aggravated. Maybe I should go chop some wood, clean the bathrooms or make a pizza for dinner but nnnnooooo I'm to aggravated.

It isn't about something important. Its silly. But non the less I'm.....(you know).

It started this morning with and old bill that I have been disputing for a while. It looks like I wont be getting much satisfaction and by satisfaction I mean MONEY!! Yes that is it I'm aggravated today about money and it is not something that I ever get to excited about. I don't gamble much, the reason being I would never gamble enough so that if I won it would change my life. I know people hope that they will win the lottery and it change there life. It will but maybe not necessarily for the better. I don't think that I could trust anybody that I met after I won because I  would always bee thinking that they might be after the money. Managing fame and fortune isn't as easy as people think. I like my life and I'm not kidding when I say money is not even close to the most important thing. Today in the the United States anybody reasonable intelligent healthy and just a lit bit lucky can make a lot of money. But nobody wants to pay the price in time, effort, health , etc.

So now I have gone from being aggravated to preaching which I promised myself that I wouldn't do here on the blog. Great...now I'm even more aggravated...oh well...lets go with that and be aggravated for the day and only today and just hope that I don't .. please don't win the lottery today....(maybe tomorrow but not today...heh heh heh...I may be crazy but I'm not stupid)

You have a loving family, a nice job, some money in your pocket and your health is relatively stable. As far as most of the world goes you have it relatively good. But there is something missing. Something that you could use more of. You chase it daily and as you get older you find it more and more elusive. When you were young it wasn't important, in fact at times it slowed you down and seemed like a waste of time. After all you could always catch up with it later when it was absolutely necessary to keep going. But all of that has changed. Now is has become a precious commodity that you chase, desire and beg for. Sleep..  

A certain point in life everyone craves sleep. But some of us beg for it more often than not. We past out from exhaustion or just because our bodies have given up. But it isn't sleep, not the real relaxing. Sleep like we did till noon when we were twenty kind of sleep. Its the kind of sleep that lasts a few hours but stops when the rain is to loud and you wonder if the basement is flooding again. Or the sleep that every parent has with you keeping one eye open until your teenager is home safe from that "party" at a friends house. Counting sheep,drugs, reading, music, ball games on the radio, reliving a the childhood memory of you playing basketball with the older guys and hitting the winning shot...zzzzzzzzzzzz....ohh where was I????

I guess its time to start chasing the fours of sleep that I will probably

get tonight....maybe tonight some of them will be in a row.    

My head hurts. My back hurts. I'm hungry,tired and worn out. Another long day at work?  A trip to the dentist , a colonoscopy? Fighting with your accountant about a medical deduction involving experimental drug that will guarantee your more than two consecutive hours of sleep a night. No!!! This is one of those days that should be one of the best of the year or at least the last few years because it doesn't happen that often. Your about to buy a new car!!! 

Well I'm not the one plunking down his hard earned cash on the latest hunk of plastic and computers from Japan. It's my father in law...an 80 something Veteran who looks like a man having the blood sucked from by some vampire instead of enjoying the purchase of what might be the last new car that he will ever drive. He is sweating now as he signs his name for (and I'm not kidding because I counted) 14th time on a series of documents that are longer than those signed on the battleship USS  Missouri ending World War II. I try to help by making jokes about how things used to be simpler way back when but it doesn't seem to be helping. He is ready to put his fist thru the wall and pull the plug on this transaction if the bean counter with the $3000 printer whirring in the background puts one more document in front of the old man. Finally we are done. Ready to enjoy the open road in the new wheels but ...No! We are back with the salesman now who explaining how the car drives it self and that it will follow us home if we push the right button. My father in law explains that all he cares about is if gets 30 miles to the gallon on the highway and if it gets his country music station on the radio...he has his priority. As the salesman leaves still muttering something about a satellite finding a gas station and how you open the trunk from your bathroom, I see a small smile on my father in laws face. Its done. The car is his. I tell him that I will meet him at home and to take the long way and enjoy the ride. He says he may just go back to our driveway and take a nap in the front seat with a little Johnny Cash playing and enjoy that new car smell.    

I'm sorry ... I'm late

I'm sorry ...I apologize to those of you who are regular readers of my blog. I'm late ...worse than that I have nothing to say. I tried but I got nothing this week..NOTHING!!  I'm dried up..no imagination....nothing to say...nothing to talk about...nothing clever, witty or thought provoking. If your still reading this ...STOP...you have better things to do and I don't want to waste your time. I did I try ...really. I have tons of little notes that I write all week when I think of something that I could use in the blog. I looked at all of them and left uninspired. This maybe the end. What if I can never think of anything interesting ever again? Well we will all have wait and see....tune in next week..who knows?

I will miss the winter

I will miss the winter. Alright before you think that I have lost what little I have left of my mind let me explain.
I'll  miss the quiet. The winter is quiet. Nature is sleeping so walks in the woods on a cold afternoon are good for thinking and listening to the world around you. I will miss sitting with my father in law each of us with our morining coffee by the wood stove as we shoot the crap, warm our old bones and plan our day. I will miss getting up for work with the sunrise...some days it seemed to come up
just as I was leaving the driveway. The warm weather is coming at that means painting the house, a new roof, leaf raking, etc all things that can be put off in the winter. Also in the winter you get these random days that everything shuts down and there is nothing that we can do about it...snow and more snow...It gives you and unexpected day off sometimes. But the seasons change and soon the the air will be filled with bugs instead of snow flakes.
Heh wait a minute....the sun is out..it feels warm...ahhhh...mmm... maybe the summer is pretty good too.

PS...My NCAA Bracket:

I care...

As promised I have dedicated this weeks blog to things that I do care about .


I care.....about my family and friends...without them I would be nothing

I care....about what my wife is making for dinner. She has made herself a great cook...from her turkey meatballs to lasagna and other dishes with roasted potatoes, beans and chicken that she refuses to name. I can't go out to dinner with out comparing it to something that she has made. The restaurant always loses. She a self taught cook who can look in a fridge and minutes later come up with a  complete meal. (dammm now I'm hungry)

I care ....about my ability to still climb on my bike after a long winter and feel some strength in my body that I thought had long since dissipated over the winter. It is like stepping on the gas in your car and the engine responds and gets up past the car in front of you. I hit the first hill after a few miles of warm up and I'm not sure how the aching back and tired legs will respond. What the hell...up I go ...its not like running where if it ain't there you have to crawl home. On a bike I can coast with some dignity back down the hill and somehow make it home even if I have the strength in just one leg. ( I've done it...lol) But I make it somehow to the top...young again...lol...

I care....about the military veterans that I work with and have known and the sacrifices that they have made.

I care...less about some things than I use to....... but more intensely about the things that I do find important now....   

I don't care

I don't care .......how old I look. I'm old...social security...bad back...grey hair...the whole package. It is what it is. The thing is I don't have to be young any more. I'm not a professional athlete hanging on to the end of my career. I'm not an actor sitting in the front row of the Oscars wishing I had one more shot of botox as the damm Hi Def camera zooms in on my tired face while I struggle to fake happiness as some twitt kid wins my Oscar.

I dont' care....that people think I'm nuts becasue I wear shorts in the winter...heh they are comfortable.

I don't care...... that I drive to slow. My job is to get my passengers where they have to go safely and comfortably. If I have to slow down to avoid a pot hole that might throw some World War II vet in the back of the bus from his seat ...then I slow down.

I don't care....that my daughter hates my "old music". I will listen to Roy Orbison and Sam Cooke till the day I die.

I don't care.....that some people don't like my blog...my solution?...DON'T READ IT...there is no law that says you have to....( all though I think there should be one)

I don't care...if people think that I'm crazy for buying my wife flowers for no reason. She deserves more than flowers for putting up with me and I don't need a calender to tell when I should celebrate Valentines Day.

There are things that I do care about but you will have to tune in next week to see what they are.

Steveisover60: I wonder...

Steveisover60: I wonder...: I wonder.....why do people worry so much what other people think. About what we look like...our hair,what we wear, what we think about any ...

I wonder...

I wonder.....why do people worry so much what other people think. About what we look like...our hair,what we wear, what we think about any particular subject. We spend a lot to time and energy thinking about how others perceive us. We want to fit in...at work..with friends...etc. Some of it can be constructive if we look at how other people see us a constructive perspective to help us evaluate ourselves occasionally. It can help a person grow to get another opinion or see something thru somebody else's eyes.

But we should forge our own path..be true to who you are...good and bad.

I wonder.....why do people think that driving is a right not a privilege? Why do so many think that they are the only people with a place to go allowed on the road?

I wonder....wonder....ooouu ...who wrote the book of  love??....(its a song kids)

I wonder........ how much we realize how dangerous it is to drive with in feet of another piece of metal and plastic going 60 miles and hour without thinking whether the person next to us has any degree of competence in handling their piece of metal and plastic and flammable fuel?

I wonder.....why are people so surprised when somebody dies.?...especially somebody over a certain age.....it is gonna happen to all of us....

Maybe its that we don't think about time moving forward everyday because most days are the same as the one before unless some thing drastic happens to wake us up.

I wonder...why I don't look at the sky more?

I wonder.....how long my dog ,who is almost 18, will live for?

I wonder...if I will ever learn to play the guitar or bagpipes or any instrument?

I wonder...if the people who lived in my house 200 years ago thought about who might live here in the future? ( I really don't think they did...they had more important things to do)

I wonder....I wonder why I waste so much time wondering?

I wonder....what is for lunch?

I can remember looking out the window of the plane. We were coming back from a Florida vacation. I could see snow on the ground and off in the distance was a glow of some kind. It was a fire. It looked rather large, perhaps a mill fire. We got to the ground and dug out the car for the cold ride home. It was nearing midnight when we hit the highway. I noticed some rescue vehicles heading north as we headed south. It might be a big one I thought at the time. Once we got close to our house there were more than several fire and rescue apparatus passing us going back to the highway. That is bad I thought as I reached for the tv remote while my wife and daughter struggled with luggage in the other room.
It was I night that changed a lot of lives. Almost everyone in Rhode Island knew somebody who was affected. It was 11 years ago today at The Station nightclub.
I think of it now whenever I'm in a crowded public place. I think of all of the nights that I spent in crowded clubs like The Station and what could have happened.
Sometimes time doesn't heal all wounds

Today I'm searching for something to write about. I put a lot of my random thoughts at random times on scraps of paper that I compile throughout the day. Occasionally I get "inspired" and the writing is easy. It flows like a river down a mountain. Other days its the Hoover Dam. Some body once said creativity is more perspiration than inspiration. Well today is the former. So I search thru old scraps of paper for ideas. Lets see write about...being patient, bad drivers, all the jobs that I have had, being color blind...I  gotta stop......you get the idea...besides I might want to use one of these bad ideas for a future blog.
Today is about the process. The work that it takes to be "creative".  I have always had 9 to 5 jobs. Thinking that a writer, painter, artist was some lazy hippie type who slept till 11, smoked pot all day, ate granola and got inspired sometime around 3pm and created something then went to a Grateful Dead concert. (ok I never really thought that but it does sound like the stereotype of a 70's artist)
But the music we love ,the books that we read and films we enjoy all come from some place. I am trying to allow myself to be creative. Some days it doesn't flow. So I have approached it like a lot of things that I do. Full speed ahead...dam the torpedoes and see what happens. I cant wait for inspiration ...that takes to long. It ain't pretty but its mine what ever it is. Lately my creativity has come in form of a sledge hammer, chainsaw, bloody fingers and an aching back, but heh who is to say what being creative is ?  I created a new apartment and a pile of wood. I think that I will be a painter tomorrow. Working in water based stain covering white....hmmm the kitchen walls will be my canvas.