If you are 36, or older, you might think this is hilarious!
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning…. Uphill… Barefoot… BOTH ways…yadda, yadda, yadda
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they’ve got it!
But now that I’m over the ripe old age of forty, I can’t help but look around and notice the youth of today. You’ve got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don’t know how good you’ve got it!
1) I mean, when I was a kid we didn’t have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!
2) There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter – with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!
3) Child Protective Services didn’t care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!
4) There were no MP3′s or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!
5) Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We’d play our favorite tape and “eject” it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that’s how we rolled, Baby! Dig?
6) We didn’t have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that’s it!
7) There weren’t any freakin’ cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn’t make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your “friends”. OH MY GOSH !!! Think of the horror… not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there’s TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.
8) And we didn’t have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent… you just didn’t know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
9) We didn’t have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘Asteroids’. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen.. Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!
10) You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what’s the world coming to?!?!
11) There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I’m saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!
12) And we didn’t have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!
13) And our parents told us to stay outside and play… all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside… you were doing chores!
And car seats – oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the “safety arm” across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling “shot gun” in the first place!
See! That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You’re spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn’t have lasted five minutes back in 1970 or any time before!
Regards,
The Over 40 Crowd
Well, we both spaced our anniversary.
No, not our wedding anniversary, but the date we bought this place. We arrived here in mid-June and took possession July 1st. 19 years here. Today would have been the 19th anniversary of the day I set the field next to the store on fire. Extra fireworks that didn’t sell, so I decided to play after hours. Oops!
Will we complete our 20th year here? Not sure. Probably. We’ve owned this place longer than any of the previous owners.
Our years here have been a mixed bag of feelings. Good friends made, good friends lost. Money made, money lost. Employees came, employees went. . . except for Jeannie. I expect that we will sell her with the store.
We’ve lost a few employees and friends due to death. All are missed and thought of around this time of year by Nina and I.
We’ve had new people arrive and good friends move. This is still happening today. Last month I met a new couple from Connecticut and I think they’ll be a great addition to the valley. Two marriages are ending and we’re not sure of where the spouses will fall after the split, friends or not?
Our children were raised here. They don’t identify as city folk and rightly so. So much of their lives are western country. Both show their country upbringing. I’ve been told that we made a mistake moving them out west, but since leaving them behind would most likely be considered illegal, here they are.
One special new friend that came during our tenure here was Erin. She is my little buddy and I hope she never leaves our lives. I will never like the circumstances of her arrival, but her addition to our lives is a blessing that parallels no other. The intelligence that child shows leaves me in awe. At 2 if an iPhone was placed in her hands, she would zip through it like an expert. Now she has her own iPad and loves the brain games loaded on it. My little buddy.
Armand and Shirley moved out here. Armand died, Shirley is still existing. Richard’s death destroyed her. We now have her sister Marylou with us. No real choice, but we’ll see. Shirley is not happy that ML is here at this point in time. She won’t talk to ML and that bothers ML. She won’t talk to me either and I appreciate it.
I have a love/hate relationship with this place. I love the area and hate the business. Of course the business brought us here and keeps us here. Nina is inclined to leave this area if we sell, but sometimes she leans the other way. I prefer to stay out here because of the friendships and the area itself. I love exploring out here. I’ve found ghost towns, abandoned homesteads dating to the 1800’s, rail beds that have never seen tracks or a train, undiscovered indian ruins, and old mines. Old cemeteries fascinate me and I love wandering among the dead and reading the head stones.
Next July 1st will mark our 20th year. I can see a party or b-b-q here if we still own the store. You’re all invited.
Keeping it real here people!
Happy 4th of July.
No really.
I’m serious here!
Everyone should have FUN
today!
For tomorrow we all must return the the daily grind.
Go and see a
fireworks display, and
have a few beers.
Peace
Rain & Hail
Pictures of dis, dat, and udder stuff
Well, I can now show you all that we have indeed had some rain!
A day in the Valley with Erin.
Just some pictures from a Sunday drive before picking up Erin.
Round 2 Day 2
Everything with ML has been fairly easy to date. She’s polite, she eats, she answers questions, and she talks. Easier to deal with than Shirley actually. Shirley you have to ask questions in multiple ways and she still may not answer or acknowledge your presence. Shirley seldom eats or drinks.
Rain
We’ve had at least 2 inches of rain since it started a few days ago. On the way into Vegas last night we came across the remains of a hail storm. They had to bring out the snow plows to remove the hail from the roadways and Joe told me that there was over 6 inches on the ground.
July 4th
Tomorrow is the 4th and we hope the start of a very good weekend. With the rain all things become safe again. Fireworks, B-B-Q’s, campfires and general outdoor life this weekend can resume in a normal fashion.
Be happy.
Round 2, Day 1
Marylou arrived yesterday around 1 p.m. She was pleasant and polite and grateful even. Compliments all around. Loves Erin, but who doesn’t, right? Tori’s a nice and beautiful girl. (Sucking up to Tori never hurts.) Nina’s a wonderful cook.
Rain!
Wow, did we have rain yesterday! Over an hour of rain left 1 inch of rain behind. It was greatly needed and appreciated! It also gave me a chance to grade my parking lot without inhaling 3 pounds of dust.
Nothing else to report.
Growing old sucks. I won’t live like ML or Shirley, I own guns.
Rain
We had a bit of rain last night. Not enough to leave behind puddles, but still rain.
Today is the day. ML returns. I’m calling this “round 2”. She has been telling people at Vida that she wants to return to Chicago. If she acts up here again, she’ll be Chicago bound as soon as we can find her housing in an acceptable home.
We had a domestic in the parking lot this morning around 5 a.m. I called the cops, but the idiots were gone before the cops arrived. She was the aggressor. I gave the cops the plate number.
We get a lot of strange here at night.
Soy based products are never a substitute for real meat!
Truth? From a Senator? Is it even possible?
httpv://youtu.be/n_YQ8560E1w
This man is a freaking genius!
So there I was . . .
- Had lunch with Mark Levin and his g/f yesterday.
- She’s a gun and Jeep fan.
- Mark thinks I’m not as crazy as he used to think.
- After lunch I went up to Arrow’s Ridge to comfort Joe during these troubling times. It was fun.
- Earlier, during the cooler hours, I worked a bit on the pumps. General maintenance and stuff.
- Took a bunch of pictures and measurements too. Since we can’t afford to replace the pumps in September, I’m going to clean them, replace a few damaged items and doll them up.
- Today we pick up Erin in Dilia. I will tell them my vacation plans for August and have Will sign a paper giving me permission to provide medical care to Erin during that trip.
- I leave August 4th for Michigan, with Erin, on a Pake/Erin trip. Just her and I on vacation without Nina or Tori. I can’t wait!
- We hope to camp on the way out there and back.
- Be gone a week.
- Normal blog posting starts again tomorrow. Sometimes it’s hard to think of anything to post here.
Okra is not a real food item. I don’t care what you say!