Category Archives: Ronnie

November 2, 2015 · 20:30

Rainbow At Sunset

The Long-Suffering Wife, who knows me well and loves me and wants me to be happy, called on her way home from the office about a huge, bright rainbow.

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Not only was it bright, but the secondary rainbow could be clearly seen outside of the primary arc.

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There was a low layer of clouds that had moved in over the area and it was just starting to rain. The sun was setting in the west on the far side of this band of showers, allowing a few rays to peek through from beyond the rain clouds, creating the rainbow.

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As the clouds were moving about and we got various paths and intensities of sunshine under the cloud deck, the rainbows would fade, brighten, fill in more of the arc, and then shrink back down again.

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This close-up shows one of the coolest things to note about double rainbows – on the brighter, primary arc the blue and green are on the inside with red on the outside. On the lighter, secondary arc, this is reversed with red on the inside and blue on the outside.

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I happened to glance back and saw the sunset behind me in the west was almost as spectacular as the rainbows in front of me in the east.

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The only depressing part of the experience was noticing there’s a house up at the end of the block with its Christmas lights up and turned on already!! My Christmas light credentials are well established – every year we have more lights than the rest of the block combined. But at least I have the decency to wait until the Friday after Thanksgiving to start putting them up!

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One last gasp with about 90° of arc and a dim secondary…

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…while you can see the band of sunlight that found a way through the rain clouds to produce it…

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…only to have it all fade to darkness as the planet kept on rotating, our location on it slipping past the terminator into night.

Thanks for the heads up, wife!!

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Filed under Photography, Ronnie, Weather

September 7, 2015 · 14:23

Single-A Baseball

For those of you not familiar with the American baseball system, under the “major leagues” (New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, etc) are the “minor leagues.” These leagues have teams that are generally affiliated with one of the thirty major league teams. They’re usually (but not always) in smaller cities and towns and they serve as developmental leagues for their “parent” teams.

Within the minor leagues, the Triple-A teams are for the players just below the major league level – many players in Triple-A have been up in the majors for at least a short period here or there, perhaps to fill in for a week or two when one of the major league players got hurt. The Double-A players are in need of a bit more seasoning before they’re ready to move up, and the Single-A clubs are filled with rookies and “prospects” who are learning what being a professional baseball player involves.

Being in Fort Wayne, Indiana, we had an opportunity today to go to the final regular season game for the Fort Wayne Tin Caps. The Tin Caps are the Single-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. They have a beautiful stadium right in the heart of Downtown Fort Wayne, just two blocks from our hotel.

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We had bought our tickets online a couple months ago, so we got what turned out to be the best seats I’ve ever had for a ballgame, except for when my kids were a playing at the neighborhood ball park. Better yet, we got them for $10 each. For reference, at a major league game, $10 might barely get you nosebleed seats. Seats like this at a major league game are typically $100 or more. Someplace like Yankee Stadium it might be much, MUCH more.

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Of course we got souveniers. I got a normal baseball cap, while The Long-Suffering Wife went a different route.

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The “Tin Cap” nickname and the “apple wearing a pot” logo apparently come from the legend of Johnny Appleseed. Who knew?

While it was quite warm at our seats-with-the-best-view-in-the-universe (92°F with 50% humidity) there was no beating our view of the action.

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Minor league baseball is a LOT of fun, with gimmicks and entertainment in between every half inning. Our favorite was Jake the Diamond Dog, a very well trained Golden Retriever. Jake carried baskets of bottled water out to the umpires, ran out onto the field to fetch foul balls, and was acting Bat Boy two or three innings, playing “fetch” with the biggest sticks around.

It was a great day for the home nine (not so much for the visiting Bowling Green Hot Rods) with the Tin Caps winning 17-0. (And it wasn’t as close as it sounds.) But for a fun day in the sun, watching kids that might be major league stars in a few years, it was a great, fun experience!

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Filed under Photography, Ronnie, Sports, Travel

July 7, 2015 · 23:32

Panorama: Seattle Aquarium

Seattle is a most wonderful place to visit. Among its many other charms (Space Needle, Pike Place Market, Museum of Flight, Pacific Science Center, EMP Museum, and Safeco Field, to name but a few) are the Seattle Aquarium. Otters, otters, otters!

2005_08_16 Panorama (Seattle Aquarium)

This panorama comes from six images of 2592 x 1944 pixels (5 megapixels each) combined into an image of 10031 x 1644 pixels (16.4 megapixels).

Yes, it was grey and gloomy the majority of the time we were there. The tourist board can talk all they want about how it’s not really like that, but you couldn’t tell by us. It’s okay, we liked it just fine. Can’t wait to go back.

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Filed under Panorama, Photography, Ronnie, Travel

April 12, 2015 · 20:51

Non-Smoking

One absolute about me is that I am a passionate non-smoker. I’ve always hated the smell of cigarette smoke of any sort and there aren’t many more miserable experiences for me than being trapped in a situation where others are smoking.

My first visits to Las Vegas (passing through on the way to Bryce and Zion National Parks in southern Utah) were memorable for the way even the tiniest hotels on the interstate, well off The Strip, were still a miasma of grey toxins from all of the chain smokers. I swore that I would never go back to Las Vegas – and I didn’t until much later when they had changed and there were lots of places were smoking was banned.

I’ve refused to take rental cars that stank of cigarette smoke, and I’ve demanded a different hotel room on occasion for the same reason. Back in my dating days, I ended a blind, first date almost immediately when the woman who had claimed to be a non-smoker asked if I would mind if she lit up in my car.

I mind.

Now we’re in the heart of the tobacco industry for a few days. We’re also seeing a lot of the downtown revitalization that’s going on and we’re quite impressed. Many of the old tobacco warehouses and headquarters for various cigarette companies have been completely gutted, cleaned up, and rebuilt as condos, offices, restaurants, and other repurposed spaces. It’s quite a job!

But, as The Long-Suffering Wife pointed out today, there’s a heavy dollop of irony in the way it’s being done.

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One of those really nice, renovated spaces where we went for dinner today.

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This is what it used to be, and a lot of the signage and identifying features were kept as part of the historical ambiance.

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But what is it that The Long-Suffering Wife has discovered at the entrance?

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Irony, thy name is The Surgeon General’s Warning!

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Filed under Health, Photography, Ronnie, Travel

September 28, 2014 · 22:07

Juicy Chunks O’ Wisdom For Sunday, September 28th

‘Cause the baseball postseason is here and my beloved Angels have the best record in baseball, that’s why.

  • In addition to the moon in the evening sky, there are a couple of bright planets. Look for them all! Last night (Saturday, 09/27) the Moon was very close to a very bright Saturn. Tonight, the Moon was getting close to a somewhat bright but very reddish Mars. The Moon will keep heading up higher into the sky each night and getting brighter, but if you’ve got binoculars, it’s a great time to be looking. Before it starts getting cold. Like GRRM said…
  • The Long-Suffering Wife cut her finger yesterday in the kitchen. I put a bandage on it, and the one immediately at hand in the kitchen cupboard was an old SpongeBob SquarePants bandage. Not a big issue, until much later, when the lights got turned off in the bedroom and she realized that it glowed in the dark. Her reaction was quite interesting, to say the least.
  • Is it unreasonable to think that our air traffic system should be robust enough so that a single disgruntled employee can cause massive disruptions of thousands of flights, leaving hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded, a mess than continues to be a mess three days later and will continue to be a mess for days more? Did no one anywhere in the FAA or Transportation Department think that there should be some sort of backup plan if a single TRACON had to go offline?
  • Jessie went out on Wednesday morning and was stunned to find her prized squirrel carcass gone from the patio sidewalk. For two days, every time she went out in back she went straight to that spot and started sniffing around and looking for it. Then she would look at me with sad, accusing, old dog eyes. I swear, I didn’t touch it, I left it there. I’m figuring there’s a coyote or raccoon or owl or hawk or crow that found an easy, more or less freshly dead meal and took off with it.
  • Pumpkin spice Oreos? Really? I will make a bold statement here — I have never had “pumpkin spice” anything. Not lattes, not beer, not cookies, not cheesecake, not ice cream, not pickles — nothing! As such, I feel fully qualified to feel like I’m the last guy who can tell humanity about the pods in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” or Charlton Heston at the end of “Soylent Green.” “It’s pumpkin spice, humans! Stop eating it! It’s sent by aliens to take over your brains! Don’t eat the pumpkin spice!”
  • At least the glow in the dark SpongeBob SquarePants bandage is on her “driving” finger. At least, that’s what we call it here in Los Angeles.
  • It’s hockey preseason and I’m learning that I need to get my gimpy shoulder into mid-season form quickly. My usual reaction to a Kings goal is to instinctively and immediately throw my arms in the air. If my arm hurts when I do that, we’ve got a problem. (The Vuvuzela of Victory only sings its sweet, sweet song during the playoffs. We have to save the juju for when it’s really needed.)
  • How much does a wagon cost these days? You know — small, red, kid sized, used for hauling toys, dirt, and little sisters. I’m asking for a canine friend.
  • The reports I’ve seen said that the contract employee who sabotaged the FAA air traffic control center in Chicago was upset because they had just been informed they were being transferred to Hawaii. Further developments and information are most certainly coming, but for the moment, let’s examine that allegation. Now, mind you, I absolutely love the city of Chicago. I spent a couple of years there as a kid (junior high school years) in the suburbs, still love going back to visit. I’ve never had a bad time there. But is it so good that when “threatened” with a transfer to freakin’ HAWAII I would go berserk? Are we talking about a different Hawaii than the one I see on TV with the beaches, the jungles, the weather, the surfing, blah, blah, blah?
  • Or the squirrel RE-ANIMATED and its rotting, evil, zombie squirrel body is stalking the trees, waiting for its chance to catch Jessie unawares so that it can WREAK ITS VENGEANCE!!
  • That comma is really important in the “It’s pumpkin spice, humans!” line.
  • Los Angeles about ten days ago, lunch time, near Beverly Hills. South of Sunset, by the Pacific Design Center, between San Vicente and La Cienega. One of the million little, itty-bitty strip malls that cover LA like scabs. As usual for the breed, this one might have had 12 to 15 parking spaces, all full. I’m sitting there eating outside when a brand new, white, shiny, Maserati Quattorporte pulls into the lot. He’s in luck! There’s a full size SUV, an Urban Assault Vehicle, just pulling out of a space. The SUV departs and the person driving (the windows were blacked out, couldn’t see them) whips it around and tries to pull into the just-vacated parking spot. “Tries” is the key word here. They back up and try again, unsuccessfully. And again. And again. All of this despite the fact that a vehicle twice as big just pulled out of that spot. Just about the time I’m ready to start laughing and go offer to park it for them, they give up. They ROAR out of the parking lot, tires screaming — because they have a Maserati Quattroporte and they have to show the world how insanely cool they are. As they leave, another SUV, just as large as the previous one, pulls in and swings into that parking spot in one try. The conclusion is obvious — despite that $140K price tag, the Maserati Quattroporte has the turning radius of a battleship and is a pig to handle in tight spaces! Well, that or someone was seriously overcompensating for something, and it wasn’t the fact that they can’t drive for beans.

Remember, “Some days you win, some days you lose. Some days it rains.” That’s deep. Really. Not even being snarky. From Bull Durham, one of the finest baseball movies ever made. (It happens to be about baseball. A bit. And other things.) ((I’ll shut up now.))

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Filed under Astronomy, Dogs, Freakin' Idiots!, Health, Juicy Chunks, LA Angels, Los Angeles, Ronnie, Sports

July 21, 2014 · 17:19

A More Personal Anniversary

Following all of the 45ths and 20ths and 3rds that get me all fired up about our space program, today’s the 13th anniversary of a more personal event. Thirteen years ago today, the Long-Suffering Fiance decided to take the leap and became the Long-Suffering Wife.

Last year I mentioned some of the festivities of the day and posted a few pictures. What’s struck me this year is some of the tiny, almost trivial things that stick with you from a day like that and become family lore, familiar touchstones for a couple to refer to. Things like going out with my son, shopping for black socks. The way the heels of her shoes were sinking into the grass as she walked down the aisle.

One of our ongoing jokes (at least, I think it’s a joke, we seem to all be laughing, right, dear?) is how our wedding anniversary is the day after the moon landing anniversary and it’s a good thing, otherwise I would never remember our wedding anniversary. I don’t know if it’s quite that bad, but there may be some basis in truth to the theory.

Things have changed quite a bit in thirteen years, as it will for anything, any group, any family, or any couple. But we’re still hanging in there, still a “cute couple,” still in love.

We’ll stick together, kid, we’re going places together!

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And we’ll have the collection of silly, grinning selfies to prove it!

 

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Filed under Family, Paul, Ronnie

June 28, 2014 · 21:48

No Phil Vassar Photography?

Last night The Long-Suffering Wife and I (and our niece) went to a concert. With one odd exception (which of course, will be the one I rant about at length) it was a wonderful evening.

The venue was the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. It’s truly an exceptional place to go to a concert. Aside from its iconic architectural status (designed by Frank Gehry), it is acoustically nearly perfect. The primary concert program tenant there is the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It’s a relatively small room, only 2,265 seats, so there literally is not a bad seat in the house. There are even tiers of seats behind the stage as well as in front and on the sides. We’ll have to get tickets for those seats sometime.

I’ve been there before with my daughter to hear classical organ music. (There’s a monstrously huge pipe organ built in with a pipe structure that’s as much fine art as it is functional.) It was The Long-Suffering Wife’s first trip there. The headlining artist was her absolute favorite, Phil Vassar.

While the Disney Concert Hall has hosted a wide variety of artists, it seemed that this was the first time that a country-western artist had performed there. It was fun to see the staff in their black and white semi-formal wear interacting with the country fans in cowboy hats, boots, T-shirts, and so on. It was an interesting intersection of diverse segments of society.

We’ve seen Phil Vassar several times before, including in some fairly small venues. We both love his music, and his shows are even better. He puts on an extremely fun, energetic, sing-along show, not only with his hits, but also mixing in some unconventional (but no less fun) tunes. Last night this included “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” from The Proclaimers, “Stay” by Maurice Williams and made a #1 hit by the Four Seasons, and “Summer Nights” from “Grease.”

The short version — we would both highly recommend you go see a Phil Vassar concert when he comes to your area.

The one oddity that stuck out like a sore thumb to me was the concert hall policy regarding photography, and the aggressive and inconsistent enforcement of it by the ushers and staff. To be blunt, what planet and what decade are these people living in? (I’m betting the ushers just have a job to do and get fired if they’re not hopping, so it’s some set of senior managers that I think are totally out of touch.)

We were told when we entered that no photography would be allowed in the theater. Right. Standard disclaimer. Blah, blah, blah.

Then they actually started jumping all over folks for taking pictures with their cell phones. We were there early and in our seats twenty minutes or more before the first opening act started. We saw dozens of people (taking selfies and pictures of the empty stage) get politely told that they really meant it, NO PHOTOGRAPHY! The couple sitting next to us said that he had been told that if they didn’t obey they would be kicked out of the concert.

REALLY??

I understand that they want to protect their music and images, so they don’t want videos and recordings on the internet. I’m sure that it’s much less a problem with the tuxedo and evening gown crowd that are there to see the LA Phil. But to a mainstream concert crowd at a country, rock, pop, or other concert? Surely you can’t be serious.

Thirty years ago, it was a big deal. More importantly, it was orders of magnitude easier to enforce. Cameras used film, recordings used cassettes, and you bought your music on “record albums.” If you were cutting edge, you might be buying those new-fangled “compact discs.” Because the photography and recording bans were easy to enforce, the only things that survive today (aside from all of the “official” stuff) are a few really bad Instamatic photos and some really crappy bootleg recordings. (Except for the Grateful Dead concerts. They were pioneers.)

That’s changed. 100%. 360 degrees. It’s a whole new universe out there and it’s been that way for going on ten years. Now it’s a sure bet that 99.999% of the folks in the room have a smart phone that can take pictures, record sound, and probably record HD video. It’s totally unrealistic to try to enforce a “no photography” policy.

Even worse, the people we saw getting warned were not recording any music. They were taking pictures of the really neat concert hall and the empty stage. Most were taking selfies of themselves and their friends in the really neat concert hall. I would love to hear the justification for trying to ban those kinds of pictures. Really, I’m serious, if you work for the Disney Concert Hall or LA Philharmonic, let me know.

Because the artists on stage had nothing to do with that policy. Phil Vassar actually opened his show by walking out on stage with a cell phone, taking pictures of the audience. He repeatedly throughout his concert, while singing, was down at the front of the stage, posing with fans who were taking pictures and video of the concert. Ditto (to a slightly lesser extent) with the two opening acts.

I haven’t been to a concert in years where a total ban on photos was in effect. If I try to bring in a professional camera and a huge telephoto lens, I’ll get turned away. No problem. Ditto if I have a tripod. Ditto if I whipped out a high-end HD video camera, even though they’re quite small enough to smuggle in these days. I get that the artists (or at least their management companies) don’t want unauthorized professional recordings and photos taken. That’s how they make their money. I get it, I agree, no problem.

But amateur, jumpy, lousy audio cellphone video? Selfies to put up on FaceBook or Instagram to say, “Hey, I’m at the concert!”? Grainy and blurry cellphone pictures taken at maximum digital zoom in extreme lighting conditions?

Aside from the simple and obvious fact that it’s flat out impossible to enforce such a ban, there’s no reasonable or logical reason to do so. None of those images or recordings are reducing your income or revenue. Not a dime. But harassing and pissing off your fans? THAT will reduce your revenue.

Do those up and coming opening acts (or even the well-established headliners) want their music “stolen” by people who are going to reduce their sales? No, obviously not. But that’s not what’s happening. The amount of revenue lost because someone got a copy of a cellphone video from a concert and didn’t spend 99¢ to download the song from Amazon has got to be infinitesimal.

Do those up and coming opening acts (or even the well-established headliners) want hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands of fans posting concert pictures on social media and going off on how great the concerts were? Do they want “buzz” as new fans stumble on them? You bet your ass they do. That’s better than gold these days. (Check out social media or official web pages for almost any artist – most encourage fans to take pictures.)

So why would anyone in their right minds ever have a “no photos” policy, let alone try to enforce one?

Which leads to the final point that made the policy unreasonable. The folks who got there early and were taking pictures were warned by the staff. The folks who got there fifteen minutes later, just before the opening act, never got a word said to them. Throughout all three acts, particularly the Phil Vassar concert, I would estimate that easily 30% to 40% of the audience were taking pictures and video. Not a word was said to any of them, nor should there have been. Obviously.

So why jump all over folks who happened to be the first ones in? I get it, they were easy to spot and the ushers weren’t busy. If you’re the manager who really has a bug up your ass about this policy, that’s when you’re going to have your staff doing token enforcement. But to totally, 100% abandon that token enforcement as soon as the place started to fill up? That’s just random harassment. It’s totally unjustified.

Did I record video on my cellphone last night? No, I didn’t. I’ve done it at dozens of other concerts over the years, including previous Phil Vassar concerts. Last night was about enjoying the concert and making sure that Ronnie enjoyed it, not about me getting so-so recordings of it.

Did I take pictures on my cellphone last night? Not really. There was no need, I’ve got pictures of the concert hall from when I’ve been there before (and been a “scofflaw”).

photoBut I did take this picture near the end of the concert, just to thumb my nose a bit at this stupid policy. See that reddish blob in the center? That’s Phil Vassar!

Trust me.

(I actually like this picture as an abstract image. It contains everything and nothing, simultaneously.)

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Filed under Music, Photography, Ronnie

May 10, 2014 · 20:47

This Spring’s Epic Cardio & Strength Workout

Now that WLTSTF is in its second year, we’re starting to “swing through the lineup a second time.” As it were.

The Long Suffering Wife, as we recall, is on the Board of Directors for the local Habitat For Humanity chapter. Last year I wrote about how the physical challenges of the “Women’s Empowerment (WE) Build” pretty much kicked my ass. Today was this year’s WE Build event,which allowed many strong & powerful women (the best kind!) to get out there and hammer, saw, assemble, build, and paint. And this year there was a new torture to remind me how old and out of shape I might be. (“Might be” = “am.”)

photo 01The Long-Suffering Wife, resplendent in her pink hard hat!

photo 02Me, just looking goofy in mine.

The build is set up with about 95%+ women there, each assigned to a different area or task. The men are “Handy Hals” with the task of being go-fers, heavy lifters, and brute labor.

Last year we were at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, working on pieces (planters, fence sections, painting doors, etc) for the twelve homes in Sylmar which were being finished then.

This year we were on the actual construction site for the latest project, 87 homes in Santa Clarita. That’s a lot of homes!

The most special part of the work being done by the Santa Clarita – San Fernando Valley chapter of Habitat is that all of the homes are being built and sold to military veterans in need. That’s a great cause to support!

photo 03On the ridge overlooking the main street leading to the site, there will be a wall and memorial honoring our country’s fallen soldiers. I spent a good chunk of my day helping to plant eighteen or so trees on either side of the monument.

photo 04One site was laying cinder block for a retaining wall between different levels of the site. As you can see, each site has professional contractors there to give instructions, guidance, and keep everything safe — but the women volunteers are doing the work.

photo 05Another station was assembling, painting, and installing walls along the boundary between the site and a neighboring high school.

photo 06Another station was painting interior doors to be used when the houses get erected in a couple of months.

photo 07Another station was sealing and applying stucco to a retaining wall along the street. (There’s our memorial wall up on the ridge behind them!)

photo 08One station was painting the trim sections to go along with the interior doors.

photo 09Here’s the memorial wall being erected, with a great view.

photo 10And here’s what kicked my butt this year.  I’m sure every little kid has looked at jackhammers and thought that they would be really cool to play with. (I’m talking both male and female kids – the women we were working with were all lining up to take their turn to at least say that they did it.) But “playing” with a jackhammer is a lot different than working with one is. Those things are freakin’ heavy (approx 100 lbs) and it’s backbreaking, exhausting work. (Don’t let the smile fool you!)

If there’s a Habitat For Humanity group in your area, get in touch with them and see when they’ve got a build that you can help with. It can be hard work, but it’s well worth it.

Again, as it happened last year, I’m going to see if I can stay awake thorough the Kings’ hockey game tonight. (Or if they can get their act together after a pretty lousy first period.) GO KINGS!

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Filed under Habitat For Humanity, LA Kings, Paul, Photography, Ronnie

February 19, 2014 · 21:55

It’s GOOD To Drive The Nice Car!

In today’s bulletin from the Department of Irrelevancy:

I’ve been doing a LOT more driving in the last couple of months, despite the unemployment thing. Out to Camarillo to the CAF Museum and hanger three days a week or more, down to Orange County most weeks for a writer’s group — it’s starting to add up.

Normally I drive my stupid and well-worn old “Momdude-mobile”, an 2001 Chrysler Town & Country minivan. It was very practical and functional when I got it, since at the time we had three kids in school and tons of schlepping to do on a daily basis. I got one with lots of upgrades, including the bigger engine, a towing package (bigger radiator & heavier shocks), the good leather interior, and so on. I wouldn’t ever buy another Chrysler, but this one has hung in there reasonably well for the most part.

But — at this point it’s got over 166,000 miles on it and a lot of things are starting to go. There’s a funky grinding sound from somewhere in the front suspension every time a bump is found, and those “speed humps” make it sound like the whole front end is going to fall off. The radio works sometimes, but mostly not. Of course, the car was manufactured a decade before things like built-in navigation systems or satellite radio were around. Hell, it doesn’t even have a simple jack for plugging in an iPhone or iPad. (Neither existed in 2001.)

These days, with the kids scattered around the planet, it’s primarily used to haul my butt around. It’s also the vehicle we use whenever the dog needs to go somewhere since she sheds like a fiend and I don’t want to ruin the “good” car. And it’s still big enough (barely!) to carry a 4×8 sheet of plywood or drywall. But it’s not terribly fuel efficient for me to use as a single-person commuter-mobile, and it’s a bit of a “battleship” to drive. It’s got plenty of power for a minivan, but that’s sort of like being the best leper in the colony.

A couple years ago, when The Long Suffering-Wife needed a new vehicle, we splurged and got our “lust-mobile”, a Volvo C70 convertible. Not very good for carrying anything other than two people and a tiny little bit of luggage, but damn if it isn’t a joy to drive, especially with the top down. Most noticeable, especially compared to the minivan, is that when you stomp on the gas, it GOES! There’s nothing I love more than getting onto the freeway and merging into traffic driving it. In the minivan you creep into the slow lane hoping someone cuts you some slack and leaves a hole big enough for you to wallow into — in the Volvo you pick your spot, punch it, pick your spot in the next lane, keep doing it, and in seconds you are in the fast lane doing “maximum freeway speed”.

It might not be terribly fuel efficient either, but who cares?

While The Long-Suffering Wife is back to driving after her surgery, she’s still taking it easy most days, so I’m getting the option to take the Volvo instead of the Chrysler some days. Would you rather drive the car described as “practical” and “functional” or the one described as “WOW!” and “cool?” Yeah, me too.

It’s good to drive the nice car!

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Filed under Castle Willett, Paul, Ronnie

February 14, 2014 · 21:23

Not Celebrating Valentine’s Day

First, a side rant — why are there ads for the last two or three weeks that start with, “Valentine’s Day is February 14th!!!”

Valentine’s Day is not a “floating” holiday like Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving, and so on. It’s fixed on the calendar, like Christmas, Groundhog Day, or New Year’s Day. So why do these advertising morons feel it is so freakin’ necessary to remind us over and over and over what day the “holiday” falls on?

Of course, they also have ads that say “Christmas Day is December 25th!!!” and “New Year’s Day is January 1st!!!” God help us, they probably have ads that say “The Fourth of July is July 4th!!!” So, in the end it boils down to:

  1. Are we really that stupid?
  2. Are we just fine and the ad agencies only think we’re that stupid?
  3. Are we just fine and the ad agencies are that stupid?
  4. Are we all freakin’ idiots? (Sorry, this last option might be a trick question.)

As for the “holiday” itself, The Long-Suffering Wife and I are not today and never have celebrated Valentine’s Day. I consider this to be a good thing, and not just because I don’t have to “perform” by buying an appropriate amount of candy or flowers or jewelry or whatever.  Our lack of fervor over this supposed holiday is actually due to The Long-Suffering Wife’s views on the day, and I happen to agree with her reasons.

Others dislike the holiday for their own (highly valid) reasons. For example, The Bloggess refers to it as “a ridiculous non-holiday made to make everyone feel insecure about their relationship” among other things. Then there are some wonderful cartoons from Ursula Vernon at her Red Wombat Studios blog, especially this one that’s been passed around the internet circles that I lurk in. There are many more “Valentine Day deniers” that are left as an exercise for the student to find.

But that’s not why The Long-Suffering Wife has always instructed me to ignore Valentine’s Day and forbidden me to get her anything for the day. (Well, when she first told me she was The Should-Have-Known-Better Fiancé instead of The Long-Suffering Wife, but that’s a different story.) Her reasoning is that because of the social pressure and marketing and sales tsunami that Valentine’s Day involves, too many couples, and guys in particular, are forced to perform and buy things and demonstrate their love on that one arbitrary day. It’s all marketing and peer pressure and fear of punishment, having little to do with actual love.

Her view is that, if you really love someone and care for them and want them to be happy, you should show that every day, not on this one day picked out by Hallmark and Madison Avenue.

This is a wise point of view. We celebrate other holidays and events, such as Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, and so on. But we also both make a point to try to make each other happy every day, as well as find reasons to give each other something special now and then. When I send her flowers at work a couple of times a year, it’s not because “IT’S VALENTINE’S DAY AND HALLMARK HAS BEATEN ME INTO SUBMISSION AND I GOT SOME $2 FLOWERS FOR $20 FROM A GUY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FREEWAY OFFRAMP”, it’s because I want her to be happy and surprised and reminded that I lover her.

This is neither a subtle or a small difference. The Long-Suffering Wife is wise.

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