Monday Morning Meanderings

Hello and welcome to September!  Today is the celebration of the American holiday, Labor Day, which was designed to be a holiday for and celebration of the blue collar workers of America as well as the last hurrah of Summer.  If you are celebrating this holiday, I hope it has been fabulous so far and will continue to be.  It has been raining all night here, and if it continues throughout the day, it could put somewhat of a damper on the backyard barbecues which are a big part of the holiday celebration.  As usual, I am working tonight like on most holidays.  The retail industry in general and convenience stores in particular do not shut down for a holiday.  Rather they think of ways to entice people into shopping for bargains as entertainment while most people have time off from working.  Great multitudes of people take advantage of the sales before heading home to gather with family and friends for the aforementioned barbecues.  As I have to work, I probably will not be out shopping for entertainment, saving my energy for my time at work.  

September also marks a new beginning of sorts for me.  August was the first month of my eligibility for my Social Security Retirement Benefits with the first payment due to be paid on the 4th Wednesday of this month (9/25/2013) and subsequently on  the fourth Wednesday of every month thereafter as long as the Wednesday is not a holiday.  For example, Christmas Day is on Wednesday this year so the payment will be received on Tuesday, Christmas Eve instead.  I am not actually going to totally retire, but continue to work a somewhat less than full time schedule, so I guess you would say I am semi-retiring.  I would probably be very bored if I did retire to sit in rocking chair on the porch.  I would rather continue to work while I can, making it easier to save towards the time that will come when I can no longer work for a living.  As I am in reasonably good health, I do not see that happening for quite a few years yet unless something happens to change that.  With the increase in income, it has become necessary to formulate a plan so that I do not needlessly squander the opportunity to make my life better.  I will cover The Plan in a later post to give it the detail it deserves.  

Over the weekend, as it would seem appropriate, I have finished off my Summer Reading List and caught up on all the latest chapters of the serialized stories I am following at GA and CRVBoy.  Lest I become bored in my off time from work and needing something to read, I have begun rereading Circumnavigation by author C James at GA.  With over 150 chapters, it should occupy me for some time into the future.  Like any great piece of favorite literature, it is fun to relive the adventure found within this excellently written tale.  I am sure this will not be the only time I reread Circumnavigation.

Your Monday Musical Moment features the music of Frederic Chopin with his complete set of Waltzes as interpreted by the late Sergio Fiorentino.  They were recorded in 1958 and released under the pseudonym Paul Procopolis after Fiorentino's death in 1998.  Included in the play list are Waltz in A flat Op Posth; Waltz in A minor Op Posth; Waltz in E minor Op Posth; Waltz in B minor Op 69 No 2; Waltz in D flat Op 70 No 3; Waltz in A minor Op 34 No 2; Waltz in E flat Op 18; Waltz in G flat Op 70 No 1; Waltz in A flat Op 34 No 1; Waltz in A flat Op 69 No 1; Waltz in F Op 34 No 3; Waltz in A flat Op 42; Waltz in E flat Op 70 No 1; Waltz in A flat Op 70 No 2; Waltz in D flat Op 64 No 1; Waltz in C sharp minor Op 64 No 2; Waltz in A flat Op 64 No 3; Waltz in E minor Op Posth and Waltz in E flat Op Posth.  Following the play list is this week's sultry selection of muscly men lounging about the page in the finest Monday's Undies for your visual inspection and appreciation.  Thanks for spending part of  your holiday with me.  See you again tomorrow.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Funny Thing Happend On The Way To The Blog

Laitaure Lake, Sarek National Park, Sweden

When I arose from my bed on Tuesday morning, little did I know it would be 48 hours before I would find its comforts again. In my last post I was telling you of my plans for a busy day with errandset cetera before heading off to work the audit at midnight. The day ended up being much busier than expected complete with surprises, frustrations and a complete lack of sleep. After I got off work Wednesday morning I changed into shorts, sneaks and a Cowboys T shirt along with my white USA ball cap in preparation for a warm day of many errands. I had my lists made and my bus schedules in hand as well as my paycheck which was ready for cashing. I had lots of things I had to accomplish and only a certain amount of time to do them if I was to get a chance for a t least a nap before working again. I set out, catching the bus which dropped me off at the local Ace which is at one end of a long stretch of road filled with retail businesses and restaurants just perfect for getting a lot done without having to spend a lot of time doing it. After cashing my check I stopped into the littleWalMart (we have a Super WalMart down the street from the mall) to see if they had any of the things on my list. It was the start to what I will call "my adventures in search of...." as it turned out to be a day where no one or two locations had the items on my list. Two of the items on my list proved to be surprisingly hard to find considering the type of one product and the seasonality of the other. You would think that a retail giant likeWalMart that sells printers would have the ink cartridges for them also which they do. I have a Lexmark printer that uses the apparently very popular 20 and 70 series of cartridges which means that of course they were out of them at this location. So then I went in search of another item on my list, a new pair of flip flops as I had completely worn out the last ones I had bought at Old Navy. You would think this would be a relatively simple task but therein lies the tale of the day. I found a great variety of flip flops for women and children and quite a few for men but none that suited my style or needs. I cannot wear the cheap thin soled ones that are just flat. I have problems with my feet so I need the ones which have just that little bit of arch support that makes it possible for me to be able to wear them. I did not find any at theWalMart so I went to the PayLess Shoe Source across the street thinking they should have some selections that would please me. Now you guys must know that I have a serious deficiency in my gay genes because I am not a "born shopper", I like to make a list, go in get the items on my list, get out and go. Going in was not a problem, getting the items on my list proved to be a lot harder than expected.

At Payless they had a BOGO sale going on so I thought maybe this would be an opportunity to get a couple of pair and save some money but alas it was not to be. I found dozens of styles for the ladies but only one style for men along with some horribly ugly sandals so the search was going to have to continue. I thought well lets run by the house, pick up the used cartridges I have for the printer and head over to the Office Depot by the mall where I could trade the used cartridges in for a rebate on my purchases. It was a few minutes before time for the bus to arrive so I went into the Family Dollar store where they had all the items on their portion of my list. I then caught the bus, buying a transfer for the bus I had to the Office Depot and the mall area after stopping home. I got to the house dropped off what I had purchased, gathered up the used cartridges (I had six of them) and head back out to catch the bus. I got to the Office Depot which is the only one north of the river here where getting replacements for my empties proved to be a challenge. I usually buy the OD versions as they are less expensive than theLexmark ones, but they did not have both the color and black cartridges individually packaged or a combo pack. They had the color cartridge but not the black in the OD andLexmark versions and the Lexmark combo pack was kinda pricey so I looked for a refill kit which of course they just did not happen to have. The salesman then told me about their refill machine which was a new service I had not seen at OD where they refill your cartridges for you for only $10 each. I go over to where the machine is and the attendant there tells me the machine needed repair and the part would not be in until Friday. That left the pricey combo pack as the only option and I thought oh well with the rebate from the used ones it should not be too bad so I go to the register where they ring it u p but only allow me to use three of the cartridge rebates this time and gave me three coupons for next time. You would think printer ink was liquid gold or a controlled substance instead of a commonly used product. Now that I had acquired the ink for my printer I continued my search forflip flops by heading over to the Target to look for them before heading over to the mall.

I did not find the flip flops I wanted at the Target either but I did find some other things on my list including a microphone for my computer. I then headed over to the mall to continue my search for flip flops stopping by for a burger and fries on the way. At the mall I was to be in for an eye opening experience. I found a wide variety of styles, some of which could possibly fit my needs but I was absolutely flabbergasted by the prices. Now granted, not being a big fashion shopper nor really a "shopper" at all I have not spent a great deal of time in a mall here of late, so the effect of fuel costs on the price of retail goods was a real shock to my system. I could not believe the prices they wanted for flip flops, I now that things have gone up butsheesh ! I went to a lot of stores, most of them not having the type I needed, but all of them wanting from $25 - $45 a pair!! $45 for flip flops!?!?! You gotta be kidding me, or do they suddenly turn into "thong strapped sandals" at that price? At any rate after a couple of hours in the mall I finally found one pair (one!) in my size in a style I like in a type I could wear at American Eagle on sale for only $15 so I snapped it up before someone beat me to it and I had to spend more time searching or more dollars somewhere else. I figured I had already invested enough time in this little shopping adventure, not believing how many places I had to go to find a decent pair of flip flops at the beginning of summer nor the way the prices have skyrocketed since last I was in a mall.

I returned home, turned on the computer to catch up on what was going on and hook up the microphone I bought at Target. WS has been calling me from NE using Skype and I have Messenger with Voice so I wanted to add this little upgrade so I could utilize VOIP on my computer. I hooked up the mike and configured Messenger and called WS in Omaha. He uses Skype as well as Messenger and told me he liked the voice quality at Skype better than Messenger so I downloaded Skype for a trial run. The installation went easy enough and I called WS back using Skype and found that it worked really great! So I now have the capability to to talk to anyone in the world that also has Skype for free and they have a variety of plans for calling other land and mobile phones for inexpensive rates. If you have Skype, and would like to chat with me, my Skype user name is uncle_gerry, just give a shout out over the PC and we will talk. By this time it was getting into early evening and I needed to get some rest before heading in to work so I set about to take a nap. It was an exercise in frustration as every time I wentto lay down the phone would ring, the last call being from the office calling me in to work early to cover for a sick employee. So now I was facing a 12 hour shift after 36 hours of no sleep instead of a few hours rest and a normal shift. By the time I was finished on Thursday morning at 8 I was a walking zombie, to tired to even eat before falling into bed without even checking my email or posting anything here. I locked my door, put a Do Not Disturb on the house phone, turned off the cell phone and hoped no one would ignore the do not disturb sign on the door to knock on it. Needless to say I did not make it to the Clinton Library as planned or do any thing else much except eat and sleep for most of the day and night. I have now caught up on my rest but I basically missed all of yesterday like it was not there. So I will get some errands in before going in for a short shift from 4-8 tonight and I am off tomorrow so I can go check outRiverFest. That should be fun and I will report my findings here in these pages for your edification.

That brings us to the entertainment portion of today's post that is chock full of videos and some tasty selections in the eye candy section. First up is DaveyWavey asking "Do You Love Yourself?" in his own inimitable style. Following that is the man of the hour speaking in Des Moine, IA, Barack Obama with his speech "Forging a New Future for America". Then we have three days of Holly Oaks episodes in one custom player right before another custom player with two days ofATWT featuring a Nuke Kiss on both days in "Nukelear Fusion x 2". The videos precede the eye candy section which is an expanded version for today as I did no post yesterday and wanted to give you something extra for today. Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Davey Wavey - Do You Love Yourself?
Barack Obama - Forging A New Future For America
Three Days Of Holly Oaks

Nukelear Fusion x 2!