Hello on Tuesday

Dear Friends,

It is another one of those days where I should be sleeping instead of typing away on our laptop, but I just couldn't get back to sleep after waking up in the middle of the night. I think that an hour nap after working several hours in the garage on Monday interrupted my sleep pattern. My straightening up of the garage is a multiple day affair. I should work on it again today, but when you are retired, you can work every other day or essentially do things at your own pace. Procrastination is another retiree work tactic.

They had an article a few weeks ago about people in Pittsfield not recycling enough. Yesterday I cut up three containers worth of cardboard boxes. I always save a few boxes for sending out little treasures to the grandchildren. I guess that I never realized how many boxes that I have saved over the past few months. One of these days when we both feel ambitious, we should go in the garage, and go through every bucket, and start throwing out things. When I say every bucket, we are talking over 40
18 gallon buckets. One of these days, I won't be able to climb a step ladder, and lift buckets up and down the ladder. The Buckets are stacked on the three levels of shelves. It would be so nice not to have a layer of buckets in front to the three level shelves in the garage too. The plastic buckets are probably worth more than the junk inside them. Each son has buckets that we labeled full of their childhood stuff. Do you think that they will use a sports shirt that is labeled "Pittsfield Boys and Girls Club" that they wore when they were 12 or 13 years old? Linda gets teary eyed just looking at the stuff in these buckets. If we depart this earth, our kids will just pay someone to throw the stuff in an extra large dumpster.

Our UNICO membership meeting at Mazzeo's Ristorante went very well. The food was wonderful, and the socialization was priceless.

After the meeting, I ran into a friend who I haven't seen in a while. He told me that he was bored during the first year or so of retirement. He is back working at Cranwell. He is the omelet guy currently in the main house at Cranwell Resort and Spa. Besides his multiple years of working as an executive at General Electric, his second love was cooking food. He can cook more than omelets. He has worked in Sloane's Tavern next to the club house at the golf course which is located at the resort. He also is a writer and an actor in the local theater group. There is not one play that he hasn't gone to locally, in New York City or Boston. He has produced some of the plays locally too.
We started talking food last night for a little while before I had to take my friend home. I was the designated driver last evening. He said that after a play one night, they had a cast party. He cooked a whole bone in ham for the party. He told me some of his secret ingredients that he put on the outside of the ham. He said that the cast and crew are still talking about how great the ham tasted. The party took place a year ago.

Politics -- Asking the rich to pay their fair share in taxes might be an almost impossible task. 72 % of the people across the nation believe that the wealthiest among us should do so. The wealthiest among us contribute to the Republican Party, and they expect their political representatives to keep it that way.

The Red Sox split a day / night double header. The Yankees won their game, and the relief pitcher, Mariano Rivera, became the record holder for the most saves. I actually listened to the last inning of the Yankee game. The Yankee announcers started to discuss the Red Sox collapse. If the Red Sox get eliminated from the playoffs, it will be the worse one since 1978 when they had a 15 game lead, and squandered it.

Continuing on with the sports' theme, Linda and I might be attending the Patriot Game in Buffalo, New York this weekend. If things do work out as planned, I won't be having a Patriot party alone in my "Man Cave" like I did this past Sunday.

Social Calendar -- Linda has her Tuesday Mah Jongg session at a friend's home today. I was going to do a pot roast in a crock pot for supper, but we received a last minute invitation to attend a birthday this evening at a local Pub. The celebration starts at 6:30 PM.

Primary Day -- Today we will be going to the polls to vote for a 3rd district State Representative. This is a special election since the office is vacant since the State Representative left office to become Clerk Magistrate (a life time job and an increase in pay compared to what a State Rep earns). In October we go to the polls once again for a Primary to whittle down the multiple candidates vying for all kinds of political offices. The final election takes place on November 8, 2011.

Well, I have to do some quiet chores before the Queen wakes up.
Talk to you soon. The Curley Lad