basketball anyone?

March Madness is upon us and I keep hearing the question "Have you filled out your brackets yet?" The short answer is "No." In all the years that I worked for a fairly large company and was enticed every year into putting in my $5 and filling out my brackets I only ever won once, the grand amount of (you guessed it) $5. So I have decide that another perk of being retired (there are many) is that I do not have to fill out my brackets. Truth be told, I don't even have to watch any basketball games. I know, I know, that sounds almost un-America and certainly un=Hoosier. In order not to seem too 'out of it' in social situations where the conversation turns to basketball, I will simply smile, nod and let those who care talk on.

I'm not sure how this is going to work

Fort Wayne has passed a new noise ordinance. Anyone who makes loud noises within 50 feet of someone's residence can be fined $150 to $500. This sounds like a fine idea to me except for a couple of tiny little details. First, my apartment is more than 50 feet up so any road noise or concert music is too far away to worry about. Any near neighbors are generally very quiet so no problem there. Actually the only noisy "neighbors" I have are the geese that fly by my apartment every night about midnight, honking all the way. Sadly, none of them seem to be carrying little purses, so I think the odds of fining them are pretty slim.

I'm back....

in case you were thinking that I haven't blogged for the last few days because I was off on some fabulous, or at least mildly interesting, vacation, that was not the case.  While it's true that I usually am gone when I don't write that wasn't it this time.  Actually, it's my laptop that has been away. It took a little R&R, sort of a spa treatment, at A+ Computers and now it's all better again.  At least it seems able to stay connected to the internet now which is all I really wanted. In addition, it has been defragmented, uninfected, had a virus removed and a flash player update (what ever that is). Sounds like a spa treatment to me.

If they can do it, why can't I?

I've long suspected that drug companies are constantly inventing new diseases and conditions so they can provide high-price cures. I know that probably sounds paranoid but that's what I suspect.  I don't remember half the diseases for which cures are advertised but I'm sure those ads never appeared on TV when I was a youth. Of course back then they had ads for cigarettes and liquor. Anyway, my point is, I have decided to follow the trend and invent a condition of my own. I call it PMA Syndrome (not to be confused with PMS. PMA stands for Post Middle Age. I figure I'm definitely post middle age, unless I hope to live to be 144 and I don't, I think that telling people, when I forget something or make a mistake, that I'm suffering with PMA Syndrome sounds more impressive that simply admitting I had a senior moment. Now that I've written this it should be only months 'til we see a PMA cure promoted on TV. I suggest dark chocolate.

I'm sure this will nake you cry...

I've been having internet connection problems for a few days but right now it seems to be working so wanted to share this sad news while I can. As heard on TV news this morning, the IRS will not be able to audit as many returns as usual this year because of a lack of funding. Am I hearing a big "Aww, too bad, how sad." out there? I know my immediate impulse was not to lobby for more funding for them.

Do you remember when......

I don't generally spend much time lingering longingly over memories of the past but today I did have a flash back to a kinder, warmer time. As I stood outside my car in the biting wind trying to get a malfunctioning gas pump to accept my credit card and ultimately getting assistance from a young attendant (she couldn't make it work either), I found myself remembering a time when I could drive into a gas station, tell the attendant to "fill it with regular" and sit comfortably in my car while he did so and kept himself busy while the tank was filling by washing the windshield and checking the oil level and tire pressure. Now I admit I don't have too many memories like that. I think it was only a few years after I started to drive that people began to have the option of pumping their own gas which was a novelty at the time. I seem to recall that gas was cheaper when you pumped it yourself but that may be only wishful thinking. One summer before I was married, a girlfriend and I took a driving trip out west and I remember we were appalled that the price of gas near Yellowstone was 47 cents a gallon. Back home in Indiana at that time it was only 33 cents a gallon. Ah yes, those were the good old days.

It always works...

except when it doesn't. Almost every evening I write something in this blog, then touch the little rectangle that says publish and, hey, presto, what I've written soars out into cyber space to be read by anyone who cares to. But not last night. Last night I wrote a short piece, pressed the little 'button' and waited. Pressed again and waited again, and again and again and again. But nothing happened. I don't know if my computer is starting to judge the quality of my work or what happened, but here I am willing to try again. let's see what happens.