Today is Sunday, August 5 and there are only 109 days until Thanksgiving.  I know!  I haven’t even started hunting mince for the mince meat pie, yet.  Today we remember the birthdays of Joseph Carey Merrick, Neil Armstrong and Loni Anderson.  On this day in 1775 the first Spanish ship, San Carlos, entered San Francisco Bay, in 1884 the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid and in 1981 President Regan fired 11,500 air traffic controllers who had gone on strike two days earlier.  In Upper Volta it is Independence Day, in Italy it is the Joust of the Quintana and in the US it is National Underwear Day and National Oyster Day.

It is a new month which means new trivia information.  August is the eighth month of the year and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days.  It was originally named Sextillis, in Latin, because it was the sixth month in the original ten-month Roman calendar under Romulus in 753 BC and March was the first month of the year.  About 700 BC, it became the eighth month when January and February were added to the year before March by King Numa Pompilius.  The birthstones are the peridot, sardonyx and spinet.  The birth flower is the poppy, which signifies beauty, strength of character, love, marriage and family.  August is also National Crayon Collection Month, National Peach Month and National Panini Month.  Time to close the monthly trivia folder and move on to other things.

We recently went to an REO Speedwagon and Chicago concert.  It was fantastic.  I wish I had the energy those guys have.  I was exhausted just watching them.  If you ever get an opportunity to see them, take it!  What made it better was the other show that was going on.  There was an amazing number of sights to see.  One of the first things I noticed were the women.  Many of them were dressed in outfits that were in fashion in the ‘70’s.  Not always a good look now.  Another thing was that most of the women were dressed nicely, while the guys that were with them were not.  With a number of couples, it looked like the woman spent some time getting herself ready, with nice clothing, hair and makeup done  and then got her husband to stop gardening and bring her to the show.

I also noticed that there were a lot of tie-died shirts and blouses being worn.  Some styles should just be left in the ‘70’s.  There were guys in their 50’s and older walking around with baseball caps on backwards.  Let’s get serious.  When you are wrinkled and have that wattle that us older guys develop, no one is going to believe you are a kid just because you put your cap on wrong.  One of the things that surprised me was the number of men I saw wearing ear plugs.  Generally, as you get older, your hearing starts to go so why would you need ear plugs. Seriously, if you did not really want to hear the music, why did you come to the show?  None of the women had them and we all know that they have very good hearing, even when a comment is made under your breath in another room … but I digress.

The crowd was an interesting mix.  There were some young people (and most of the young guys did not have their caps on backwards), but the majority were older.  As you may know, I am 68 and I felt young compared to some of those people.  It was great to see older folks out enjoying some great music, clapping our hands and getting our arm flaps swinging.  The one thing that everyone had in common was that we thoroughly enjoyed the music.  I could go on, but that would just make you jealous and I have a couple other things to discuss.

I have two new commercials that I want to rant about just a little.  One is a car commercial that shows cars looking out their apartment windows and wanting to get out and enjoy the summer.  Several questions come to mind right away.  The first being when did cars start having apartments?  Another one is how did they get into the apartment in the first place?  I understand wanting to get out and enjoy the summer, but why do we have to humanize the cars and have us believe that they are actually pining to get out of their apartments?

Moving on, there is another commercial that I think is a bit off the mark.  It is the one for people who suffer from dry mouth.  I myself have the problem, but do not feel the pain, suffering, embarrassment and agony that they show in the commercial.  The one that got me was one that showed a woman “suffering” from dry mouth.  She is standing with a group of people, chatting, when she is struck by the problem.  The interesting part is that she is standing there holding a bottle of water.  Has taking a drink while in a crowd become some sort of social faux pas?  If you were hungry you would eat something.  If you have dry mouth, drink some of the water you are holding.  I have gotten that out of my system and I thank you for your tolerance.

One final thing I have seen recently is something that harkens back to my years as a teenager.  I have noticed a number of people driving with their window open and their arm hanging out the window.  While it is somewhat nostalgic, I have to wonder why they do it.  When I was young, you had the window open because there was no AC in most cars and you needed air.  Nowadays, that is not the case.  Do they really want to have hot air running through the car as they drive along?  Or are they like my father, who always felt it was not good for the car to run the AC when you were driving locally?  I never understood that, but he was an engineer, so I figured he knew what he was talking about.  I ran it anyway.

This week our fact tells us that in Utah it is illegal to fish from horseback.  I am sure there was a reason for this law, but, not being a fisherman, I am not sure what it would be.  Does being on a horse give the person fishing an unfair advantage?  Are fish attracted to horses, making it easier to catch them?  Just another one of those things that make you go h-m-m-m-m.