It is Sunday, August 16 and there are only 131 days until Christmas and still no Christmas music.  Today we remember the birthdays of Amos Alonzo Stagg, Frank Gifford and Eydie Gorme.  On this day in 1743, the earliest boxing code of rules were formulated in England, in 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation was signed and in 1954 Sports Illustrated published its first issue.  In Cyprus it is Independence Day, in Liechtenstein it is Prince Franz-Josef II Day and in Vermont it is Bennington Battle Day.

While we have not officially moved to our new abode yet, we have been spending a considerable amount of time there.  This past week, we have had a crew of painters in.  We wanted to give the place a new look, but did not want to have to do the work ourselves.  At this point in our lives we are not really in the mood to take on that chore.  These guys, a crew of three, came in and did the whole place in five days.  To appreciate what was done, you need to know that they fixed all the nail pops, patched all the cracks, painted all the rooms, the ceilings, doors and trim.  They removed all  the switch and outlet plates, pulled the blinds, removed the HVAC vents and then replaced everything after they painted.  Each room was given two coats.  The two bathrooms had stripes painted in them that required sanding to smooth the lines out.  They had us go around and use blue tape to mark spots that needed touch up.  I wanted to put a few pieces up on the 12 foot high white ceiling, but the lovely Elaine just gave me the look.

We estimated that if we had to do this work we would still be working on it when my birthday came around in November.  These guys came in did the prep work and painted the rooms.  First they did all the patching and then they sanded and vacuumed the dust.  Next, one guy did the ceilings while another guy started cutting in around the edges.  They did amazing work.  My only problem was their music.  Not the type of stuff they played.  A lot of it was music we like, too.  The problem was that they liked to sing along.  To put this as simply as possible, they absolutely cannot sing!  There were times when I thought maybe one of them had his own music on and he was listening to it with earplugs.  Nope!  They just cannot sing.  Unfortunately, they cannot sing with great gusto.

They reminded me of two people that went to the church I used to go to.  These people loved the music we did and participated with great zeal.  The problem was that they had absolutely no musical ability whatsoever.  The rest of the people in church made sure that they sat nowhere near either of these two.  I complemented their fervor, but cringed when they got going.  They knew they couldn’t sing, but didn’t care.  I suppose you have to admire their desire to be part of the service, even if it seemed like the service they were involved in was at a different church.  But I digress …

As I was saying, the painters sang along when they knew a song.  Sometimes they only sang what appeared to be their favorite parts, sometimes all of the song.  All the time it was not good.  One day, the lovely Elaine was down there by herself because I was going through the travesty of dealing with the Code Enforcement people trying to get our CO.  I will not regale you with the issues that I had with them right now.  First of all because I need to calm down so that my language is not too offensive and secondly because they have not yet issued the CO and I do not want to take even the slightest chance that I might say something that would somehow get back to them and jeopardize the process.  I know, I am digressing again.

Anyway, the lovely Elaine was there and she complained that they spent most of the day listening to a soccer game.  I pointed out that she was lucky – they could have been singing.

An interesting thing that I have noticed since we have been down there is that we are, comparatively speaking, the young people in the area.  There are several 55+ communities and all of them use the same stores.  I find that when I go to the grocery store, most of the people are our age or older.  Keep in mind that I am not a great judge of ages, but if some of the people I have seen are younger than me, they have had a very hard life.  There is a Dunkin’ Donuts near us right across from the super market.   I usually have to run for more cleaning supplies in the afternoon, so I stop at Dunkin’ on the way back.  Apparently, this is the local hangout for the men in the area.  The place is always busy and there are always groups of men sitting around, drinking coffee and talking.  I used to manage a Dunkin’ and never saw it as a hangout.  Maybe we were doing something wrong.

Nearby, there is also a Starbucks, but that is where the younger people go to hang out.  That place is also busy, but the denizens of that establishment are much younger.  I have never understood the desire to hang out in coffee shops.  I want to go in, get my coffee and go.  There are people that stay so long that the staff comes out every so often to dust them and nudge them to be sure they are breathing.  I guess free wi-fi has something to do with it.  That is not the issue at Dunkin’ because most of those guys think wi-fi is some kind of fancy hi-fi system that plays those little records.

This week our fact tells us that on average, an American adult male will get a haircut every 37 days.  That means I trim my finger nails every 18.5 days.   

Please feel free to share this site with friends.  My income for the ads has already risen past $3.  I hope this will not affect my social security.  Have a good week and thanks for stopping by.