More and more it seems, these days, my life is chronicled by what I’ve ordered online as much as anything else. I mean, the second leg of summer basically started with orders for a 20V circular saw, a set of sawhorses, a speed square, a tool belt, and a big ass pile of wood:
The fencing is coming along quite well, thank you very much. Of the 150 feet of replacement pickets I’ve been tasking I’m about 1/3 of the way done. I figured about 3 months – considering my volume of spare time – and that seems to be on track. Of course, then I have to stain/paint/finish it if I’m gonna. “If I’m gonna” depends 100% on will and weather, and I have no control over either. Funny that. Is it a recent revelation that I can only control my own will in the present and not in the future or the past? Very liberating. Must come with age.
Speaking of age, I turned 54 this year, which feels like 53 only older. I still feel younger than 55, which is good. I still feel young enough to not drive 55, which is sometimes good. I couldn’t drive 55 on my way to Monterey a couple of weeks ago because the flow of traffic was about 80. My wife and I decided to cruise down there for the weekend to celebrate our 25th. Possibly her favorite place on Earth. We had a room at a hotel that was seconds from Old Fisherman’s Wharf. We spent the weekend trying new foods, staring at the ocean, drinking in bars, walking, talking and looking at fish. Fish are bad.
Online purchases to commemorate that weekend were (a) hotel bookings, (b) some new tops for my wife to wear, (c) several plaques and blankets concerning silver anniversary quotes and idioms, and (d) two brand new wallets to replace my old one because I didn’t like the first new one I bought. However, because the second one was only slightly better than the first one, I took my old wallet instead. Anyone need an unused wallet or two?
My wife did ask me what I wanted for my birthday. I said “a new fence” much quicker than I anticipated. The heart wants what the heart wants. Luckily, the pricing of materials and tools and the pricing for a weekend in Monterey was about the same, so we both feel really special.
Of course, since the weekend was a lark – a last-minute decision – we didn’t get a chance to see anybody we know in the area, and I didn’t get to take “time off.” I switched a Saturday and a Monday for two Thursdays with the boss and that put me behind on three days worth of chores. Now, my life is playing catch up. Part of catching up is making sure everything else in life runs smoothly so I grabbed some extra RAM to speed up my computer. Computering takes a lot of my time (reading, writing, surfing, emails, banking, Madden, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera) so I figured I’d maximize my clocking speed. I have no idea whether I used “clocking speed” in context there. Mole will tell me. And, yes, I bought the RAM online. That’s the last thing I bought online, actually, and it will arrive tomorrow. The second-to-the-last thing I bought online, which arrived yesterday, was a 16-month Marvel Superheroes wall calendar that starts this September. That was an impulse buy. I’m still a kid.
My intention this morning on TomBeingTom.Com was to spell out to anyone still listening how Joe Biden has proven to be, so far, the 4th or 5th best president of my lifetime. There’s been 10 or 11 since I was born – the 11th being Lyndon B who was technically president for about 6 months while I was learning to laugh, cry, roll over, move objects, and respond to the sound of my name.
Who are we kidding. I was probably responding to my name in the first hour. 😎
But because Lyndon B was riding out the last few months of a term he did not wish to repeat, he probably doesn’t count. Nixon counts. We know way too much about Nixon not to count him.
However, because I spent so much time talking about Tom I never quite got to Joe. I’ll recount the “Presidents of My Lifetime” in the next installment (or not) and make the case for Joey B, who is still slightly better than average. Spoiler alert: Richard Nixon was second worst.
That’s all I got for you today. I have to get some banking done, hit the shower, do a 7-hour work day, run the Saturday night game for the wife, and wake up and go to church.
Church, by the way, is closing. No more Shameless. More on that later.
Folks, have a great weekend and great days to follow. Buy what you need, buy what you like. Take a short, practically unplanned trip. Build something. Love, live, try to go the speed limit, and never, ever, ever act your age.
The years will come no matter what.
Enjoy the days. ❤️
Tom Being Tom 
Let me wish you a happy belated birthday and a very happy anniversary!! You, Mrs. C and the Doggos are a magnificent team for sure. That fence, that fence….I wish slowly dismantling badly poured concrete was as easy as replacing that fence. Which by the way looks pretty darn good there Brother Tom.
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Thank you Tom being Tom.
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Thank you, sister! We had a great, and whirlwind-ish, month. I’m up early on a Sunday after being up late on a Saturday, because there are only 2 churches left! I mean, we’ll find another sanctuary, I’m sure, but this one – this Irish bar – will be sorely missed. I’m still in shock from the revelations!
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Thank you Gil being Gil!
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When one can describe life as whirlwind-ish, then you are living your best life! I’m jealous, lol.
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LOL! Hey, I’m more of a routine-guy in my mid-50s so whirlwinds have to come in spurts. It’s nice to have the luxury of picking ’em, tho! 😂
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What do you do with the ‘boys’ when you travel? I somehow doubt they were invited on your romantic get-away.
Fences are akin to painting, they come together quickly and really dress up the scenery. I’ve built a few in my time. The worst/best were some in Colorado where you’d have to post-hole 6 inches then fill them with water. Get about 10 going, rotate so you could dig through the hardpack.
Ya gotta give ol’ Nixon some credit though: EPA, Clean Air, Clean Water, NOAA, Endangered Species act.
You prolly remember the fighting term ‘getting clocked’. “Over-clocking” is for the gear-heads and their mineral-oil cooled see-thru, blu-light gaming PCs.
Today’s apps pretty much expect the fastest processors. It seems like the faster computers go, the more crap apps throw at them to slow them down. More memory will certainly help. You will always be bound by something, CPU(cores) speed, memory, IO, network… Something. Unless you’re compiling 1/2 million lines of code, or rasterizing video frames, you’re prolly good with your box for a few more years. It does pay, time-wise, to upgrade.
(FYI: I’m running an i7 (8 cores) 32gig w/2T ssd HD Thinkpad, which is 2 years old. I figure I’m good for another 2, at least.)
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I’d have to dig out the receipts but I believe this particular computer is about 3 years old. Is is 4? More? I’d have to dig out the receipts. If it’s 5 I’ll start lobbying Mrs C for the rights to a new one. You know how that goes:
Me: I need a new computer.
Her: So buy one.
Me: Um, maybe this one will last a little longer.
Her: You’re an idiot. You spend more time on the computer than anything. Buy one.
Me: I guess I can hold out; maybe next year.
Her: Dummy.
She spends money so much easier than me. 😉
I don’t know if I mentioned before but her mother lives with us. She’s a spun one, for sure, but she loves the boys and the boys love her, so we can (technically) get out of town at will. Neither of us want to do that a lot because we love our home, love our boys, and l’d rather spend money on computers, fences, decks, Marvel Superhero paraphernalia, and bar bills than travel, but the option is always there!
There is an argument to be made that anyone on my Top Ten Presidents of My Lifetime could be moved up and down the list at will except the last one. The last one is obvious, entrenched, and probably deserves to be moved lower than 10 even though there are only 10 in play. I won’t reveal his name but it rhymes with synonym for “ass.”
My computer says it is an i7-8700 CPU @ 3.2GHz, 3192 MHz, 6 Core(s) with 1.27 free of a 1.8T hard drive, apparently. Is that still good(ish)?
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And with more mem… All the better.
Is it that the world keeps moving the computing goal post further down the field? When is enough enough? If this laptop keeps working, will I ever need another? All I do is write fiction on it and search Wikipedia.
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Well, I think that’s the key! I’m not a hardcore gamer; I usually run a version of Madden that’s a few years old. I can make it last and spend that money left over to take Mrs C on another vacation or buy up all the back issues of the original run of the Fantastic Four or something. 😉
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Happy all the events! Glad you had a chance to get away—now finish that lovely fence! As for presidents, I’m pretty sure I can guess who has your pick for worst😊
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If you can’t guess by now, you haven’t been paying attention! 😂
Honestly, the only easy ones to slot were #1 and #10, it’s the jumble in-between that is difficult to sort. Luckily, I don’t have to be 100% accurate. That’s the beauty of “opinion.” 🙂
Thank you!
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Happy milestones (birthday, anniversary)! If it’s any consolation regarding the progress of your fence, join my reality briefly: July 2021, moved to Vermont, into a house without a fenced yard. Starting searching for someone to install one. First bid was OUTRAGEOUS. Ordered metal posts/wire fencing myself – managed to snag some just before supply chains clogged totally. Found someone to install it, but… “I’ll get to it next week…” was a common response to my inquiries through August and September. Finally, after a bad dog-porcupine incident in the yard in late October that said installer heard about, feeling bad, he showed up with his father one afternoon in November and they installed enough fencing to enclose the front yard. Hallelujah, just in time before the snow arrived. I could now let the dogs out to do their business without going with them, keeping them on leash, through the winter. As for the back yard, the bigger yard where Mr. Porcupine visited? Still waiting. Maybe this November….
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Oboy. I’ve heard about, even experienced through work, the delay times from local contractors. Everyone says the same thing: lack of quality help. Well, I’ve experienced that through the business, too. I think part of it, however, is some folks take on more work than they can handle and end up having to jump from job to job keeping each one “active” for as long as possible.
I don’t know.
I did put some feelers out on what it would take to have someone else do the job but, yes, OUTRAGEOUS. It’ll take me 3 months to do the entire 150 feet – and I’m just replacing pickets and reinforcing the existing framework – but I’m in no rush. I keep saying “Tom, you should have started two years ago, when you first said you’d get to it, and it’d long since have been done by now.” 🙂
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Happy birthday, Tom! That fence looks pretty damned good. Feel like heading to Texas to repair ours? Hey, are your Rams going to do well this year? Mona
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Thank you, Mona! I think we’re still a playoff team, could make a run at another Super Bowl appearance. Repeat? No way. I mean, we barely squeezed by each of our playoff and Super Bowl opponents by THREE POINTS a game. That funny ball bounces badly on ANY play and we’re talking “next year” in January. Hard enough to win one. We’re as good a team as we were last year, on paper, which means (to me) we’re a playoff team. But Super Bowl? I’m going to predict “no.” 🙂
I’m guessing this is the Bills year. Maybe against the Cowboys?
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I’d love to take a trip to Monterey just to visit the aquarium. (Aquarium? I hardly knew ’em!) I’ve used wallpapers from the MBA website as Zoom backgrounds, although some people have been strangely unsettled by seeing a giant Pacific octopus behind my head. And it seems to be an area that’s changed quite a bit since Steinbeck immortalized so many of its characters in Cannery Row.
This is all to say that the world keeps on changing, some things get better, some things get worse, and, as someone once said,
Take heart in the bedeepening gloom
That your dog is finally getting enough cheese.
And reflect that whatever fortune may be your lot,
It could only be worse in Milwaukee.
But you, sir, like a fine wine, seem to improve with age. And, like a fine wine, you still have a future ahead of you full of vim and vinegar.
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Thank you, my brother, your thoughts are always appreciated! And spot on. And although it is commonly known that two wrongs don’t make a right, you and I know full well that three most certainly do. And the MBA? World class!
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