T-shirt Friday, 31Jul09

Joining in on Nursemyra’s end-o’-month Friday fun!

a gift from someone who had my needs in mind...

Inappropriate?  Maybe.  Fun?  Absolutely.

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Poor Job Titles

Got an advertisement in the mail for a new Kroger* store.  Being a bachelor now, with a hefty alimony to grind my teeth over… look forward to happily …hell, tell it like it is… grind my teeth over paying each month, I checked out what deals could be found.

The flyer introduced the new store’s management team, with pictures and their management titles.

Now, many all of you know I’m a bit of a perv, so my eye immediately went to one job title in particular**…

Yeah, Baby!!

Ooo!!  I’m now wondering how I can get one of those on my team…

But, yeah…Poor Denise***…

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*…or, as my Girl Child says, “Kay-Rogers”…must make it sound more exotic or something.

**…and guessing many all of you have perv tendencies so don’t need me pointing out or explaining which specific one I’m talking about…right?

***She is pretty damn cute.  But I think it’d be creepy to go stalk track her down based on a K-Roger’s ad.

Observant Child

Girl Child is moving stuff from the soon-to-be-sold ex-homestead to my condo* in preparation for her leaving for the Peace Corps.  Moving stuff over the past few days, Daughter Person (DP) brought over a van full of stuff yesterday evening.  I’d just returned from a bike ride and was still in my bike shorts.  DP stepped out of the van, saw me, and did a double take…

DP:  Hey!  You’re bowlegged!

GnuKid:  Yeah…just a bit…

DP:  How long have you been bowlegged?

GK:  All my life…how long have you known me?

DP:  I just never noticed before now… does it hurt?

GK:  Why would it hurt?  I’m just a little bit bowlegged and never had an issue.

DP:  Wow…I just never observed that before!

No, not a picture of me...and i'm not quite this bowlegged...

Sheesh…she lives with me 22 years–including trips to the beach and summer shorts weather–and just now noticed?

Glad she didn’t try and go into detective work…

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*It may alter my decor of “Bachelor Eclectic”, but I can live with that.  And I’ll find room in the garage for her boxes of stuff.

Not My People

With the Daughter Person going off on her Peace Corps adventure soon (see last post), the shopping spree has begun.  The Peace Corps sent her a list of things they suggest she bring along with her (seemingly in contradiction to the space limitations they also levied on her).  She’s also been pinging internet support sites from current and past volunteers (“Yeah, the Corps says to bring thus-and-so, but don’t bother…DO bring this-and-that…”).

Daughter Person wanted to go to a new, outdoorsman store on the north side of town – Gander Mountain.  She figured she could get a few of the more arcane things on her list there.  For example, water purification tablets.  Well, that and she just likes shopping at new places.

I think that shopping gene skips generations… or gender…  I am not a ‘shop for the sake of shopping’ kind of guy.  Okay, I did enjoy seeing some of the stuff in there (thinking about short combination camping and biking trips, for example).  But, generally, I was waiting on her to finish up.

As I wandered from the fishing department to the camping department to the hunting department, I was struck by an odd feeling.

These are not ‘my’ people.

invite 'em in for lunch!

They are all nice enough folks, from the looks of them.  Nothing untoward or evil about them.  They appeared to have all their teeth and mullet haircuts were not to be seen.  Yeah, there was the occasional John Deere baseball cap and Budweiser t-shirt.  And I like those things (though wouldn’t wear the hat or t-shirt for liking them).

It was just a feeling.

Now, I’m not a namby-pamby, city-fied snob.

stick the nose higher...

I do enjoy the outdoors.  Have camped and fished.  Actually, I do pretty well at fitting in with just about any group of people I encounter.  A friend once called me a ‘chameleon’ when it comes to blending into multi-social crowds.  Doesn’t mean I always feel comfortable doing so.  Think this was one of those times.

Nice people.

Just not ‘my’ people.

Proud Pop Moment

Yep, a ‘Proud Pop Moment’.

My recently graduated Girl Child was accepted into the Peace Corps.  I always knew she wanted to help the world.

An honestly good thing...

I admit to being a bit hesitant to her quest for this.  She has, in the past, had a naïve moment or three.  She wants to see the entire world, not giving a care to the realities of where she wants to go.

An example –

Her university partners every year with a foreign government to do a study project  — economic or political.  The selected students do tons of research, seeking solutions to the issue presented by that foreign government, and culminating in the students going there for a week to present their findings.  A couple years ago, Girl Child came home saying she desperately wanted to do that.  She said the students the year prior went to Thailand.  Knowing her penchant for acting emotionally on travel issues, I asked where this year’s project would be.  “I don’t know!”, she replied, “…I think it’s in Syria*.”  Whoa… stop the train, dear girl.

So, when she talked about going to the Peace Corps, I was picturing her requesting Somalia (“…to help those poor pirates…”) or some such.  Still, I supported her self-nomination process**.

But, here she is.  Accepted.  Off to help others.  In South Africa.

I’m so damn proud of her.

And, damn right, I’m going to go visit her when she gets settled in.

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*Noted for not only being aggressively anti-American, but for being rather severely sexist towards women.  Not a good place for a young, American girl to go.

**Peace Corps selection is a notoriously long and painful process.  Plan on at least a year and be prepared for getting no feedback in the interim.  Frustrating.

Fireworks

Missed them.

Didn’t feel like fighting the traffic, especially since it was raining off and on during the evening leading up to the local show.  Heard them off in the distance.

But, it reminded me of another fireworks show last year.  No, not during the 4th of July celebrations.  It was the middle of May (or so…).

As part of being a pilot, I have to maintain currency for day and night flights with passengers by making 3 landings within the prior 90 days.  Being at about 80 days for night flights, I wanted to beat the deadline.  So, invited my best friend to come along for company.

There’s something quiet (yeah, ironic considering there’s a noisy engine just a few feet away) and spiritual about night flights.  It just feels like you own the sky (yeah, I still keep an eye out for other folks).

After I completed my mandatory 3 landings, we decided to just putter about the sky a little bit on my way back to the ‘home’ airport.  Enjoying the stars in the skies…the random airplane lights in the distance…the lights on the ground…

My friend noticed them first.  Fireworks in the distance.  She pointed them out to me and we decided to go take a look.  As I said, we weren’t expecting them since it was before the 4th of July.

This wasn’t just some yahoo in the backyard with leftover, cheapo stuff.  These were really big fireworks.

Finding a safe, yet still close, distance away, I started circling.  Fully expecting the ‘show’ to stop at any time, we were both thrilled to see the red, gold, green, and other colored fireworks blossom again and again.  We circled for about 20 minutes watching this wonderful display.

It was a unique viewpoint.  While we couldn’t hear a thing (one of the best parts of fireworks shows is being close enough for the reports to reverberate through your body), we did get to see the bursts from the air.

Finally, they stopped.

The beauty of the night flight got an extra bonus that night.  I was very glad to have someone to share it with.  And it obviously made an impression, since I still recall it.

It provided a needed reminder that the random and unexpected things in life provide the icing to life’s cake of adventures.