Almost Summer, 2010

Almost Summer, 2010

I like to play a little game with myself and wait until the last possible moment to install the two window air conditioners in our old house. Wait until the warm weather forces me to stick 'em in the windows. See how long I can go before I gotta do it. It's a bit of a bother to install them, too, one down in the living room and the other in our bedroom, as they're heavy and I need some help from my son with the big one downstairs. I'd have put central air in this century house, but the way it's built made that option unrealistic and way, way too expensive. So we put in window units in the summer and take 'em out in the fall.

The last possible moment arrived last weekend, my little game ended and I finally had to acquiesce and install my window air conditioners. I was feeling smug that I'd gone this far into Ohio's hot weather before I had to do it, using the window and ceiling fans to keep us cool, but it was getting to the point where some extra cooling was becoming necessary. Necessary for two reasons, actually. First, it was getting warm, even for me, and staying that way into the late evenings when we were going to bed, making sleep more difficult. Second, the wife was giving me “the eye”, telling me non-verbally to cut out the procrastination and my little game and put the doggone a/c's in the windows for goodness sakes.

So they're in now and our bedroom is much cooler. In fact, almost too cool. The wife likes it best to sleep at night when the air temperature has descended through cool and nippy and is beginning to approach frigid. At least it feels that way to this hot-blooded participant. As my partner Patrick and I say at work when the office temperature is too low: “cold enough to hang meat.” Yep, that just about describes it. So I just snuggle a little deeper under the blanket and make sure my ears and nose are covered up to prevent possible frostbite.

Well, at least it feels that way to me!

***

Got a chuckle while I was working out at the gym the other day.

My wife purchases our gym membership through payroll deductions where she works. Our membership at a gym here in our hometown was coming up for renewal and she had the choice of three gyms for the upcoming year. One was the gym we had belonged to for the past couple of years. One was a health facility attached to the local hospital and was way out of our price range. The third was a place we had belonged to before our present gym and it was a few dollars cheaper per month. For that reason and a few others we decided to switch. The “new” gym has new ownership and has done some revamping of the equipment in the gym. It looks nice and has a good assortment of machines for most exercise regimens.

So, since I work evenings, I've been going to this gym for the past couple of weeks during the day. It's quiet then as there are few members working out at that time of day. There is a television on one wall of the exercise room and it seemed to be eternally tuned to a country/western music channel. Now don't get me wrong. I don't want to be critical of a particular genre of music, but I've never really been a big fan of c/w music. Not even close. I'm fond of bluegrass – lots of banjos and guitars, but most “cowboy” music (as I call it) leaves me cold.

However...

I was pounding away on the treadmill the other day and noticed that the c/w station was again on. I wasn't paying too much attention to it. I had my mp3 player plugged into my ears and was rocking along with some classic rock and roll when I happened to glance up at the tv. Shania Twain was gyrating and dancing on the screen to one of her songs along with a half-dozen other great looking ladies. It was very pleasing to the eyes. At the same moment, Dire Straits was rocking along on the mp3 player with “Money for Nothing”.

I watched the video.

I listened to the rock.

I was at once amazed at how well the video was matching the rock in my earphones! There were those country chicks dancing away to the sounds of Dire Straits! I started grinning and the steps and minutes and miles on the treadmill just melted away while I enjoyed the rock music and eyed the videos on the TV. I'd discovered the secret to watching c/w videos. Just plug some great old rock 'n roll into your ears and groove away!

***

My wife and I are into the final countdown before our first cruising vacation. If my numbers are correct, we have 23 days before our big ship pulls away from the Tampa docks and lumbers off south toward Cozumel, Mexico. To say we can't wait would undoubtedly be an understatement. I've been talking to the few folks where I work who've “been there, done that” and have been wringing their memories for their experiences on their cruises. All things look good. I've printed out our packing list and we're finishing purchasing the final “this and that” that we may need “on the boat”. Of course we'll forget something. But that's the fun of it, isn't it?

Won't be long now and it'll be time to pull out the luggage and start filling them up.

***

Patrick, my partner at work, and I were talking a couple months ago about our favorite comedians. We found out that we were both big fans of a man named John Pinnette. We'd heard routines of his in the past and considered them very funny. We decided to check on-line to see if he might be appearing somewhere nearby and found out that he was headlining at Pickwick and Frolic in Cleveland. So we purchased tickets to go see him. After asking around, there ended up being six of us going up to see him: Patrick and his wife Rhonda, my old friend Chuck and his wife Pam and my wife Judy and I who went.

We met at Fat Fish Blue restaurant in downtown Cleveland last Friday and had dinner before going over to the comedy club. This restaurant specializes in Cajun/Creole cuisine and was a favorite of my wife and I as we'd eaten there in the past when going up to the big city and watching the Cleveland Indians play. The six of us enjoyed our dinners and drinks, then wandered over to the comedy club about two blocks away.

John Pinnette was, as we had expected, very good. We all got our share of chuckles, guffaws and belly laughs as he recounted this and that from his apparently hilarious life. He is an extremely gifted funnyman and I'd recommend him to almost anyone. I was surprised at how clean he works compared to some of his fellow stand-up comedians.

It was definitely a night to remember.

***

So, in case you hadn't noticed, summer officially begins in six days.

Let the fun begin!