It is Sunday, January 12 and there are only 98 days until Easter.  I know, it is not as exciting as Christmas, there is no special music, no gifts, no cookies, etc., but you still want to be ready.  Today marks the birthday of John Winthrop, John Hancock and John Francis.  On this day in 1773 the first US public museum was established in Charleston, SC, in 1912 the temperature hit -47^o F in Washta, Iowa, setting a state record and in 1966 “Batman” with Adam West and Burt Ward premiered on ABC TV.  In Tanzania it is Zanzibar Revolution Day and in Switzerland it is Meitlisunntig Festival.

I have decided that I am just going to throw out some observations today.  They will be random and will not necessarily connect to each other. They are just some things that I want to share.

I got very excited the other day.  The lovely Elaine and I were on our way home from the kids’ house and were traveling on the interstate.  I was in the middle lane doing the speed limit.  I happened to look in my rear view mirror and saw a car coming up behind us at a rapid rate of speed.  My estimate was that he was doing at least 80.  He was changing lanes, without signaling, and was really flying along.  I noted a police car lurking on the island and wondered if he would spot the car.  Apparently he did.  Just after the car went by us, the state trooper came by.  He pulled up next to the car and “lit him up” as they say on all the cop shows.  He pulled him over and I would assume he issued a ticket.  I did not hang around to see because I am sure they do not welcome an audience while ticketing a speeder.  In all my years driving, I think this is actually the first time I have ever seen a car pulled over.  I may have seen it before, but I do not remember.  Of course I may not remember this incident in a month or two.  One of the joys of getting older is that many experiences are new, no matter how many times they have occurred in the past.

Recently, I was out driving and I saw a huge flock of birds all take off at the same time.  I am sure you have seen that before.  Suddenly a large group of birds take flight as if startled.  The reason I mention this is that it made me think about what it would be like if they happened to fly over my car and, because they were startled, all decided to crap at the same time.  I hoped that I had enough washer fluid to clean the windshield so that I could see to get to a car wash.  I wondered if a car wash would even accept the car.  Would they charge me extra?  Would they have to run it through more than once?  When I got home I checked the windshield washer fluid reserve just to be sure I was prepared.

I was just checking my e-mail and it made me think about the benefits of this service.  Prior to having e-mail I had no way to receive jokes and pictures of naked women.  I couldn’t get daily advertisements from any company that I had done business with, even if it was only one time about three years ago.  There are a number of benefits to e-mail.  For example, without e-mail they would not have the evidence they need to hang our governor out to dry.  Reading the news articles regarding the whole GWB thing, I am amazed that these people were so careless about using e-mail as a means of communication on this issue.  Yes, e-mail was set up for quick, easy communication, but when you are planning something like Bridgegate, don’t you think you should be a little more circumspect? 

Anyway, I think e-mail has pretty much been replaced by texting.  The only benefit to e-mail is that you are not restricted to a set number of characters.  Another drawback with texting is that because of the limited characters, you have to use things like LOL and OMG to express yourself and some of us older people have no idea what some of those things mean.  Of course, e-mail does not have all those cute emoticons ;-)  I suppose there are plusses and minuses to both.  The main thing I like about e-mail is that I can use more than one finger to write it.  I also like the fact that I usually do not have to guess about whether or not I sent an e-mail.  If I am not sure, I can look in the Sent folder.  There are times; however, when it is not there and it is not in the trash and I have no idea where it is.  One of these days I will have to ask my son where these things go.  There are probably 20 or 30 e-mails lurking in my system somewhere that should have been sent and never were.

One more quick issue I want to address and then I will let this go for the week.  We went to a mall yesterday and while I was sitting waiting for my wife to come out of a store, I had a chance to observe the people walking by.  I won’t go into outfits being worn by people in this episode.  That will be a topic for another day.  What I want to talk about is men and their hair.  I know my hair is thinning and I wear it short so that my “solar panel” is not as obvious.  I am not trying to hide it, just trying to keep it from being as noticeable.  The men I want to address are the ones who try to hide the fact that they are bald.

Here are a couple tips for you guys.  Tip one – when you buy a hairpiece, spend the money and get a good one.  They are still obvious, but at least they do not look like a hair cap sitting on top of your head.  Tip two – no matter what you do, when your hair is parted ¾ of the way down the back of your head or the part is behind your ear, everyone can figure that you are working a combover.  What makes it more interesting is when you are outside and the wind blows and suddenly you have a 12 inch strand of hair blowing around.  Baldness happens, learn to live with it.

Today’s fact tells us that 93% of all greeting cards are purchased by women.  Either they purchase a fantastic amount of cards or a great deal of birthdays, anniversaries and Valentine’s Days are missed each year by forgetful or unthinking men.  Wake up and smell the Hallmarks guys!