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Man calls in sick. Sees his boss from 250 miles away.

This morning I called in sick for work, telling my supervisor that I didn’t sleep well because of my knee pain. Then, I later took in a Jason’s Deli “build your own” half-portion ham and cheddar on Telera with stone-ground mustard, lettuce, red onions and pickles. Well, I actually ordered Italian peppers but I got pickles instead. While I ate, who is the one person in all of Beaumont, Texas, in the Original Jason’s Deli in the Gateway shopping center, whom I would not expect to see? Ex squeeze? Like mistakes, I’ve made a few. Well, that one person was my supervisor who works in Dallas.

“You gotta eat,” said Brian. Yeah. That’s the thing about my job, part-time as it is, you never know where your supervisor will turn up. One week in Costa Rica, the next Dallas, the next … Brian was showing the new guy around on one of our collection tasks — not collection of taxes or monies owed. It’s all top secret, you see? Hush, hush. On the QT. WTF?

I joked when meeting that the new guy that I called in sick this morning and here I go running into the boss, except, I failed to make my point. I wasn’t running either. Bad knee. I stopped and pulled up a spare chair for a few minutes. It really doesn’t matter whether I am sick or not. That’s the beauty of having a CBA (collective bargaining agreement.) I usually tell Brian what’s wrong with me. I’m not the type to say “Nunya,” as in “Nunya f***ing business.” That would be rude and Brian is a genuinely nice guy. I might feel differently at some point in time. In fact, I have felt differently at points in time. I was definitely glad to see TNG (The New Guy.) I will also be happy to see TNG-ette (The New Guy-ette.)

The work situation here has been dismal at best for quite some times. Talk about revolving doors! People above my pay grade have been “down here” doing work of three people, formerly done most often by one.

Oh for those interested, or not, I finally yelled and screamed enough to the worker’s comp people who finally gave in and finally approved my knee arthroscopy. Leave it up to the surgical clinic to find a glitch to delay the surgery once more. Perhaps, the surgeon’s person said, Wednesday. She meant a week from tomorrow. Only, this all took place yesterday so, technically, my surgery to repair a medial and lateral meniscus tear in my right knee would come the earliest a week from Wednesday. Which is actually tomorrow.  Yes, I am purposely fragging sentences. Boom went the basketball filled with dynamite! Rim shot. What the hell ever.

Are you unhappy with How I Met Your Mother  ended? Ted’s wife died and his kids were all hot for their Dad to go out with Aunt Robin. Like we didn’t see that coming, Aunt Robin or no Aunt Robin. !Spoiler Alert! ¿Como se dice Spoiler Alert? I suppose this is an awkward place to place “Spoiler Alert.”

Did you know The Zombies hit “She’s Not There” was released in 1964? Actually, it was released in July 1964 so it is not quite 50 years old. Can you believe that? Colin Blunstone, cool as a dry martini on vocals. Rod Argent, who wrote the song, was barely visible on electronic keyboards. Electronic keyboards? 1964? Baroque rock or pop.

Colin Blunstone is one of my favorite singers of all time. Cool as a dry martini, like I said. He was the notable voice of The Zombies hits including “Time of the Season.” He has had a solo career and contributed to a number of popular works including several Alan Parsons Project records. What a great voice, that Blunstone bloke!

It’s kind of like rap, you see. You just throw down the words and they go rap, rap, rap. I’m talking about this post, not Colin Blunstone.

–30 —

 

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A conservative world? I don’t care. I don’t care.

Now if 6 turned out to be 9,
I don’t mind, I don’t mind,
Alright, if all the hippies cut off all their hair,
I don’t care, I don’t care.
Dig, ‘cos I got my own world to live through
And I ain’t gonna copy you.

Pvt. James Marshall Hendrix, 82nd Airborne Division, 1961
Pvt. James Marshall Hendrix, 82nd Airborne Division, 1961

White collared conservative flashing down the street,

Pointing their plastic finger at me.
They’re hoping soon my kind will drop and die,
But I’m gonna wave my freak flag high, high.
Wave on, wave on
Fall mountains, just don’t fall on me
Go ahead on Mr. Business man, you can’t dress like me.
Sing on Brother, play on drummer.  — “If 6 Was 9.” — Jimi Hendrix

The old First Sgt. must have really loved him,

this young misfit who became known as “Jimi” Hendrix.

Still, he was discharged unsuitably, Honorably.

He may have even given some of the younger bros

something to look forward to once they got “out of

country.” All of them didn’t make it. Mr. Hendrix didn’t make it for very long in the world either.

Still, “it don’t mean nothing,” as some said way back when. Back when 6 may have tunred out

to be 9.

 

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Will the NFL save Johnny Football from the dogs?

Hidy hi! I’m doing better after my fall and thanks for asking.

Let us talk sports and sports-related matters, if you will, briefly.

First of all, it is no surprise that the guy known as “JFF,” for “Johnny F**king Football,” has announced his intention to enter the 2014 NFL Draft. Texas A & M quarterback Johnny Manziel says he is moving on from College Station after winning the Heisman Trophy as a freshman and guiding his team to a 52-48 comeback victory over Duke in the Chick-fil-A Bowl? The What-fil-what Bowl?

Well, it turns out that this bowl played in the Georgia Dome was known as the Peach Bowl until 1997 and is the ninth-oldest bowl game in history. As the late, great Johnny Carson would say: “I did not know that.”

I happened to watch the last quarter or so of that Chick-fil-A Bowl. I had seen Manziel play a few times before on televised games, but I didn’t notice until this game just how wired that little fellow (all 6-feet 1-inch) can be when the chips are down. He seemed to take over every team function, from coach to cheerleader, practically willing his team to win.

Whether he can overcome what many sports talking heads see as too short for today’s NFL QB, we will see. Of course, the big question is quickly surfacing — it’s been surfacing since Manziel won the Heisman — where will JFF go?

Since Mr. Football is from Texas, the Houston Texans are automatically thought of, mainly because they will get the first pick in the draft due to the sheer awfulness shown by the team during the previous season. There is the school of thought that Manziel would fit better in Jacksonville than in Houston, with the Texans receiving Louisville QB, Teddy Bridgewater. Maybe so. I don’t even know who that is. Nor do I know Charlie Strong, the former Louisville coach who has taken Mack Brown’s job with the Texas Longhorns. Is that some kind of conspiracy? Who can say.

The best that can be said about speculation is the waiting and the aftermath for those who prove to be wrong and the feeling of little reward in the case of those who are right. Is that the best there is? Holy crap!

Speaking of crap. All over the media can one see former NBA star Dennis Rodman doing his worst Marilyn Monroe imitation singing “Happy Birthday” to his friend “Kim” Jong-Un, the North Korean dictator. This came after another video in which Rodman was shown going bat-shit crazy in an interview with CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.

What these two stories have to do with one another is as big a puzzle as why Rodman became friends with Kim in the first place. If anything the Rodman doings serve as a wonderful object lesson for Manziel with whatever he chooses to do after what he has chosen to do. Money can’t buy you love, but it can buy you a butt-load of material goods. I suppose in Rodman’s case, it has bought him a sociopathic friend.

No matter what you heard or what you believe, Dennis, I would suggest you decline if Kim asks whether you’d like to see his dogs.

 

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Where is my flying car? Why, it’s in the garage behind the boxes of Slinkys.

They’re here! They’re really here! Well, maybe not exactly …

I speak of flying cars. Flying cars, or rather, the thought of flying automobiles have be around us for a long time. During the 50s and 60s, movies and TV shows like the cartoon “The Jetsons” placed the idea in many a young brain that come the turn of the 21st century we would be driving in and out of terrestrial and interstellar traffic. The assembly-line flying car has yet to materialize, even though they have really been around for quite awhile. And while some folks who have their heads way in the clouds and feel the airborne car will be here sooner than later, a technology is already here that could be the predecessor of the modern flying car — a cross between a helicopter and a drone — could be clogging the skies carrying Amazon deliveries by 2015. That is if Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has his way.

Entrepreneur and now owner of The Washington Post Bezos sure got his PR machine on full-throttle and heading way out to the clouds, especially since announcing on “60 Minutes” last night that his drone technology to deliver Amazon products is here. It just needs a bit of tweaking.

One needs only to take their heads out of the clouds for a few minutes to realize what all is involved for a drone to actually show up at one’s doorstep with a load of books, CDs and maybe even a pizza and a six-pack of beer.

It seems like everyone and their dog wants a drone now while everyone else and their cat believes drones are a terrible idea. But what about the flying car? And flying cars everywhere? Well, it seems as if that is being worked on as we speak, and probably by more than one dreamer. It just seems as if the drone will pave the way for flying cars in everyone’s garage. And probably a chicken in every pot just for posterity. I don’t know why to expect either to tell the truth.

But those in the crossed centuries have wondered why the year 2000 came and went without flying cars everywhere. Flying cars have actually existed for awhile now, at least 60 years or more.

I was always amused by the Bob Cummings TV series of the early 60s. The comedy starred the debonair Cummings, who both in the small box and in life was a former World War II pilot. He happened to have driven/flown an honest to Abe flying car, one which known as an Aerocar. This being the late 50s and early 60s, one might have easily guessed, and correctly so, that the airborne car was peculiar looking. Of course, given Cummings’ background his enthusiasm of flight must have been predestined.

Now I have not had time to verify this, at least to my satisfaction, but I will go ahead and repeat the biographical information gleaned from the Wikipedia page for Robert Cummings. The Wiki piece notes that Cummings was taught to fly as a teen by his Godfather, Orville Wright. Yes, that, Orville Wright. Supposedly Cummings also became the first person who the government certified as a flight instructor.

Whether the Bezos octo-drone actually takes flight and delivers stuff remains tot be seen. There does seem as if an awful lot of “tweaking” would be required for such a roll out. Of course, that might just be the spark needed for flying cars. But one has to think about this: These flying cars have been wrapped around inside a time warp and still the objects have not advanced. One has to wonder why that is so.

Think about it, then dust off the old Aerocar and fly over to pick me up. I’ll be the one wearing the parachute.