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  1. tonyb

    You know you are getting old when:

    ^^^^^ I pity kids whose parents live vicariously through them.
  2. tonyb

    You know you are getting old when:

    An old community college history teacher of my acquaintance, long since deceased, opined that we push young people into the workforce too early and retire old people waaay too early. The nature of work has changed, for most of us, since we determined that 65 was an appropriate retirement age...
  3. tonyb

    You know you are getting old when:

    ^^^^^^ My typical response to young people who make a point of their being young is “Don’t get used to it.”
  4. tonyb

    You know you are getting old when:

    ^^^^ None of my swag is of great monetary value, but it is of *some* monetary value, and I don’t wish to think that it will go for a dime on the dollar after I have no say in the matter. An acquaintance had but one sibling, a sister, to consider when it came time to liquidate their parents’...
  5. tonyb

    You know you are getting old when:

    ^^^^^^ Another benefit of accepting one’s own lack of lasting significance is knowing that it’s true of almost everybody else. Some people seem to be living for the largest monument in the graveyard. At least the dogs find it worth pondering.
  7. tonyb

    You know you are getting old when:

    Let us not disregard the role consumer culture and appeals to it play in this, nor how our culture is more than a tad on the youth-centric side. That’s not a law of nature, though; it’s the world we made. People form habits and biases early in life, generally. So of course the influencers —...
  8. tonyb

    Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

    Most of the bakery clearance stores I’ve ever visited (as I have on innumerable occasions during this life of many lean periods) are situated near the large commercial bakeries where the product is made. Districts with that sort of industry are where you find the less-pricy housing, usually...
  9. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    ^^^^^ My dear old ma’s oldest great-grandkid is now 12, or 13, maybe. He lives in the same small town she does, and mows her lawn and tends to other chores around her house. And he can’t get enough of his great-grandma’s stories of her early years. I suspect he’ll find other fascinations once...
  10. tonyb

    Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

    My “regular” supermarkets have rolling racks on which clearance bakery items are found. Prices are generally half that of the fresher stuff. Large bakeries have small stores (maybe half the size of a typical 7-Eleven) to clear out surplus product while it’s still fit for human consumption. Lotsa...
  11. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    The youngest people with firsthand recollections of that time would be 80 now, or close to it. People born during the Depression are now well into their 80s, and some in their early 90s. Very few who were adults then, even during the latter years of “the Era,” are still alive. I don’t think I’m...
  13. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    It’s been more than 40 years ago that I attended a fireworks show in Roslyn, Washington, which, as I recall, occurred one day removed from the Fourth, so either the Third of July, or the Fifth. It was my first visit to Roslyn, a late 19th century time capsule of a town on the eastern side of...
  14. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    The Fourth of July was parades and picnics and civic fireworks shows. I was a member of a Boy Scout drum and bugle corps way back when. We did at least two parades every Fourth of July (hard to beat a small town parade on a summer day) and ate ice cream and hotdogs and kept our antennae up for...
  15. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    I thought moss wouldn’t just come up on its own here, but I recently noticed on the north side of the house, hard against the concrete foundation, a little spot of green. The concrete Virgin Mary statue I brought here with me (it had lived several years outdoors in the cool and damp Maritime...
  16. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    It’s about an hour and a half to Wyoming from here, if you drive the speed limit, which means that in practice it’s more like an hour and ten minutes. Within spittin’ distance of the border, on the Wyoming side, are fireworks stores — not stands, stores, catering to all those greater...
  17. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    My lawn is partly grass (a couple-three or four varieties) and partly other things I can’t identify. Let’s just call ’em “weeds.” At least they’re green. And it all looks okay when it’s mowed. When I lived out Seattle my lawn was largely moss. It was sorta like a critter’s underfur — mostly...
  19. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    ^^^^^ Safe bet that your friend is happy to see him go. We made it as far as June 15 (tonight) this year before the amateur pyrotechnicians commenced their annual assault on the nerves of the neighborhood dogs. My little Otis is already trembling. If recent history is a guide, this will go in...
  20. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    The guy living kinda kitty corner from us, in a house I can plainly see from our front stoop, has had a piece of siding missing from a gable end for years now. He has a fence surrounding his backyard, but you can’t see it for the overgrown whatever the hell it is completely covering the thing. I...
  21. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    In this climate a green lawn involves lotsa supplemental water. I find the practice ecologically insensitive at best. Which is not to say I don’t water my own lawn, in no small part because I don’t wish to by *that* neighbor. And I agree that a “lawn” that’s mostly hard-parked dirt and...
  22. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    Speaking of pants pockets … Way back in my misspent youth, not too many years after taking up cigarettes, I acquired a Zippo lighter. When fully fueled, the thing left a mild(ish) rash on my upper thigh, where the pocket made contact.
  23. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    ^^^^^ We have a paint job scheduled for later this month — the entire exterior of the house (minus the new garage door, finished in genuine faux walnut) and two sheds. Painting is among the few tasks I’m confident I can do myself, with satisfactory results. I’ve painted houses before, I have...

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