Hmmm...

A co-worker once told me that fortunes in Chinese Fortune Cookies are more interesting if you add the words "in bed" at the end. Well, I got one today that I had second thoughts about.

"YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR WILL GET YOU THROUGH DIFFICULT TIMES".....in bed.

Hmmm....

Appalling

It is appalling and the Republicans responsible for "Barrack, the magic Negro" should be banished from politics for life and they should lose the next election by default. How low can you go? Just when you think that it is not possible, some jerks come along and prove us wrong. What is wrong with people in this country anyway? Sometimes I think that we need lese majeste laws.

MSNBC Noise

I wonder if anyone else out there finds Jim Cramer of MSNBC to be a loud obnoxious wind bag. As I write this my roommate has that channel on and this fool so infuriated me that I felt like throwing MY shoe at HIM (or at least the TV set). LOL

Well, more memories of my early life today but none so strong as I had yesterday. One weird dream though. My hair is not particularly long but in a dream last night a bat appeared out of nowhere and hit my head (something they would never do with their built in sonar) and then got entangled in my hair. The result was that I had to go to the ER to get him disentangled and to get a tetnus show because he bit me while I was trying to remove him. Honestly folks, I am not on drugs (of any type).

Memories

As a member of the Boston Street Railway Association I receive a bi-monthly magazine called Rollsign. It features articles and photos of transit in Boston and the surrounding areas. I always enjoy receiving this magazine however the July/August issue blew me away with a photo on the front cover of the Usher Building in West Medford, Massachesetts where I grew up. Looking at that photo and some others in this issue during the past few days has awakened many memories of my early childhood. Memories of my grammar school (Brooks Elementary), the church my parents took me too (First Congregational Church of West Medford), some of my pals of the time and some not (John, Leonard, Stephen, Eddie, Howard) and my favorite Bob Kelley who lived with his parents in Pennsylvania but spent the summer at his grandmother's house near our house on Monument Street. Speaking of time machines, wow, those photos have made me feel like I was in one. The re-awakened memories have been so strong that they caused me to have many dreams of that period last night.

I had been doing some on-line research during the past year regarding the area and now I want to return to Boston and walk those streets and photograph the area once again. I have not been there in at least ten years and now I am very curious to see what things look like now.

Cold day in ...

In this case it is San Francisco as winter (as we know it) has arrived with very chilly temperatures, rain, and some hail and even a dusting of light snow on the highest Bay Area peaks.

2009 for me however could be even colder as my retirement funds continue to hemorrhage in their value value and at the current rate will be worthless by the end of the year. While my Social Security will cover my rent (for now) and food, there would be virtually no money left over to pay my other bills. What to do? Declare bankruptcy? Actually, I don't know if that would even be possible. It is not that my bills are too high (at the moment) but it would become of case of my income dropping too low due to the financial meltdown on Wall Street. I would not really want to do that but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. Even paying off credit card(s) would probably not help. I think I would have to terminate my Verizon cell phone account and my Comcast account in order to make ends meet. This new year could be a terrible year indeed.

Oh well, the year will get off to a good warm beginning as I will once again travel to Thailand for my winter vacation. The 80 degree weather there is something I look forward to very much.

Shoes

What was that shoe size Mr. President? And was that American size or European size?

22 days and counting...

...until my vacation trip to Thailand. I hope nothing happens and that things stay peaceful, at least for the next six weeks. There are still many political uncertainties in this country that seems to be coming apart at the seams.

Only 29 days...

...until vacation. I almost canceled this trip to Thailand due to protests and the main airport being closed but that has now been resolved and hopefully there will not be a repeat of that during the next couple of months.

I addressed my shrinking list of Christmas cards today (whoopee) and will post those tomorrow. Not sure what to do about Happy Hour tomorrow as my favorite neighborhood bar has had its liquor license suspended for x-number of days. I have no idea when that will end and it could not come at a worse time with the holidays coming up especially New Years Eve.

GO / NO GO

During the next few days I will be contacting Expedia regarding my flights to and from Thailand scheduled for January 2009. I purchased flight insurance this time around and a preliminary check with them a few months ago indicated that I could cancel and get a refund. I hope so. Altough the airport at Suvarnabhumi is now open, the political problems in the country are not over and I think it would be a waste of my time to travel there at this time. I have been there several times already so why go again when the political situation is so shaky.

My friend in Sakon Nakhon will be very disappointed but there is little I can do. Perhaps he should rally his countrymen to obey the law and abide by the outcome of elections, something some people have had a very difficult time doing during the past few years.

Oh well, looking on the bright side of things, if I do get a refund I can now buy an HD TV to go with my new Comcast DVR. Yippee...