It is Sunday, August 9 and there are only 84 days until we fall back.  That gives us that many more days to try and figure out why we spring forward in the first place.  Today we remember the birthdays of Amedeo Avogardro, Betty Boop, and Whitney Houston.  On this day in 1638 Jonas Bronck of Holland became the first European settler in the Bronx, in 1831 there was the first US steam engine train run, Albany to Schenectady, NY and in 1930 Betty Boop debuted in Max Fleischer’s animated cartoon “Dizzy Dishes.”  In Japan it is Nagasaki Memorial Day, in Singapore it is National Day and in Rhode Island it is Victory Day.

I’m afraid I don’t have much to talk about this week.  The lovely Elaine and I have spent every day at the new house cleaning and scrubbing and rubbing and wiping.  I mentioned last week that the former owners were somewhat casual about housekeeping.  As we get more into the cleaning, I am finding that casual was far too generous a term.  Unfortunately, there is nothing amusing or interesting about drudgery, so I do not want to bore you.

We did take a day off.  We decided to go down the shore for an afternoon of sitting on the beach.  Because I am now a senior citizen, I applied for my card and can now enter state parks without having to pay for parking.  We drove to a nice shore park and spent several hours sitting on the beach.  After that we went on the boardwalk.  The lovely Elaine was “jonesing” for a steak sandwich so we went to her favorite place and got dinner.  One of the things I enjoy about being on the boardwalk is that we usually indulge ourselves and have treats that we normally would not have.

After steak sandwiches and Kohr’s ice cream, we walked a little more and did some people watching.  Let me tell you, that is the place to watch people.  You see all kinds of people – Walmartian-type, young, old, tattooed, pierced, well-dressed, not so well dressed, some who obviously have no mirror or are color blind, some who obviously spent several hours getting ready to go on the boards and some who just don’t care how they look.  They all have one thing in common – they are there for the food, the games and to have fun.

Having said that, I still feel I should point out that just because you can force size 6 clothing onto a size 14 body, doesn’t mean that you should.  I saw one woman who looked like she was trying to wear her daughter’s clothing.  Unfortunately, the daughter was only 10 years old and about 200 pounds lighter.  Just the thought of what she looked like will keep me up late tonight.  I also feel that once you cross the 30’s threshold, you should start wearing your baseball cap the right way.  After that you just look like you think you are younger than you are.  Personally, I think it should be pointed out that the purpose of the bill on the cap is to protect the face from the sun, not the back of your neck.  But that’s just me.

I am not sure I understand the idea behind getting your body covered with tattoos, either.  When I was young, a tattoo made a statement.  It represented something and it was usually only on the bicep or forearm.  Nowadays, they cover the whole arm, back, chest and neck.  I am sure there is meaning to what has been done, but when you are in your 50’s and older, things will begin to wrinkle, sag and droop and the meaning will not be as obvious.  As I said once before, today’s picture of your mom will be, ten years or so from now, a char-pei with mom’s hair-do.  My son once asked me why I didn’t have a tattoo.  I explained to him that I never got drunk enough.

As I said, not much to talk about this week.  I will try and get out more and have adventures, watch people, experience things and hopefully have more to talk about next week.

Our fact this week tells us that banging your head against a wall burns 150 calories an hour.  That means that, when I was working, I burned around 6000 calories a week.  Unfortunately they were all metaphorical.