Catching up

[Murfreesboro]

So sorry about that. Yes, throwing a desk, or throwing desks around. Usually I proof meticulously, but sometimes I get distracted by something before I'm done. I hate making typos, but I have only my phone for internet access, and they occur more often than not. Especially since my phone sometimes decides that I'm saying something I'm not saying at all.

Maybe we're all paranoid together. IDK. My daughter works in a Christian bookstore, and she says the books about end-times prophecy are flying off the shelves. At the very least, I think most people have an intuition that we're on the brink of an epochal change, and everybody's nervous about it.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Oh, I know what you mean, I hate making typos too, but I type so fast that sometimes they happen. When they introduced keyboarding class to us in grade 6, my teacher Mrs. Thompson said that she hadn't seen anybody pick up typing that fast, and that I was a natural at it. It must have been because I played so much Nintendo.

I type such long posts that I don't bother to proofread it anymore, besides, I know this forum doesn't recognize certain words as being spelled correctly, even though they are, so I just ignore the red squiggle under the words when I'm posting.

Sometimes I get distracted as well, like the cat will meow at me and I'll turn my head for a moment and then I'll type the same word twice, or miss a word, that's really annoying.

My wife brought the kids to visit her parents today, so I just watched some movies and cleaned up the yard.

On a side note, our anniversary is coming up, and I wanted to do something special for my wife, but she told me that she doesn't want me to surprise her with anything, and that we should just go out and do something together as a family. I was going to do something romantic for her, but I guess that I'll have to think of something else.

By the way, Murf, out of curiosity, and if you don't mind me asking, how long have you and Mr. Murf been married?

[Murfreesboro]

It was 44 years this past Oct.

He's five yrs younger than I am, so he's still working.

I hope you and your wife enjoy your anniversary, however you spend it.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Thanks Murf.

I know that in some areas it's expected that people retire at age 65, though it's more of a suggestion as more older people are working now than in previous generations, there are some employers that try to force people into retirement at 65, but organizations like the ADEA are there to fight for their rights, as long as they want to continue to work, and are still capable.

My oldest employee is 77, he's my head chef Raoul, and he has been working here since the 70s. On the day that I signed the papers to close the deal for the restaurant I told him that he would always have a position here for as long as he wanted to be here, and that I wouldn't ever force him to leave, and I've honored my promise. He is extremely passionate about his cooking, you might even call him a artist because he's that good, and he can still perform under pressure when he has to. He has also become one of my closest friends and one of the few people that I trust without question.

I don't know how much longer he will want to do this, but he told me earlier this year that he is slowing down and he asked me to bring in somebody to help out, so that's why I hired the new chef Anthony from Texas to assist him. Anthony does some great things in the kitchen, and he will become the head chef when Raoul decides to leave.

[Murfreesboro]

It sounds like you're a wonderful boss, and I'm sure your employees appreciate you.

My husband has the years accumulated to retire from teaching, even though he started later than many, since he was in the military out of college, and taught in Virginia before we moved back here. He has also worked in two different systems here, first the city, then the county. All that affects the age at which you can retire with full benefits, but he has finally reached that point. Now he's wanting to work until he reaches maximum social security benefits for someone born in his birth year. And he feels honor bound not to leave in the middle if a school year, even though that's quite common for retirees. But he doesn't think it's right. So he'll probably teach one more year after this one.

He's tired of the demands and the schedule and really wants to quit. He's in special ed and works with the intellectually gifted. He's not tired of the.students, but he's tired of the government paper work. It is ridiculously time-consuming. He has the reputation of being the best in the system at what he does. Whenever a school needs a person to do this job, he is the one they request, but he likes where he is and won't leave. His principal, who intends to retire about four years after him, has jokingly asked if he won't stay around and retire with him. The principal knows he won't get a comparable replacement.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Your husband's devotion to his profession is admirable. I can understand how that principal feels, sometimes when you already have the perfect person for the position it's almost impossible to find a suitable replacement capable of filling their predecessor's shoes.

A few years ago my head manager told me that he wanted to leave, it wasn't for any specific reason, he just wanted a change, 2 other people held the position for awhile until I found the right person for it. Now I've got a great head manager that knows how to run this place efficiently, she's the type of person that steps up without being asked, and everybody likes her, but as good as she is, she still doesn't compare to what our original manager could do.

Regarding retirement, as I told Mike and Andy a few years ago, I don't ever want to retire, and I'll probably be doing this until the day I die. Of course, I say that now while I'm still young and healthy enough to do this, but I might change my mind when I'm older, I guess it depends on what's going on at that point. I mean, I'm always awake and my mind is always looking for something to do, that's why I'm up typing this right now, but I don't know if I'll still be this way when I'm older.

I know that I'm sure as sh*t not going to depend on a pension/Social Security to be there for me in my old age, which is why I'm looking out for my family from now with the choices that I make. I know a lot of people, regardless of age or background, that can barely get by, and with the cost of living always rising above their ability to sustain themselves, it's just going to get harder for them as time goes on if something isn't done about it.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

By the way Murf, I don't know if you watched it, but I forgot to mention that on Nov. 6th there was a tv special called Wicked: One Wonderful Night, it was a 2 hour special with musical performances, cast interviews, behind the scenes moments, and a preview of Wicked: For Good.

My family forced me to watch it, and it was a living nightmare for me, but I'm sure that you would love it.

[Murfreesboro]

Lol! I would have watched it if my TV could bring in anything other than a smattering of religious channels. Before the HD revolution, our tv reception was excellent. But it's been diminishing steadily since that change away from analog. We'll never get anything again unless we re-up to the internet, which my husband seems loath to do. He's always feared that TPTB could spy on us in the privacy of our home through it

There's been a turn away from Cynthia Erivo in our family since she took the role of Jesus in JCS last summer. Even my daughter is reluctant to attend Wicked: For Good because of that. However, I think I will go. I enjoyed the first part and want to see the story conclude.

Social Security: I think you are wise not to count on that. It's always been a Ponzi scheme. And I don't think it's uncommon for business owners to work as long as they like, without regard for conventional retirement. It's a totally different mind-set from working within a bureaucracy.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

My family will be going to watch pt. 2, but I'll wait until it's available digitally. I'm already going to have to put up with a plethora of musicals and Hallmark movies because it's the Christmas season, and there's only so much suffering that I can stand.

I usually go and do other things while they watch that stuff, but sometimes the kids tell me that they want me to stay and watch it with them, and it's hard to say no to them. If only they understood the sacrifice they are asking of me.

Regarding your husband's suspicions about being monitored, well, he's absolutely right. But here's the thing with that, every single piece of technology that we use today is designed specifically for the purpose of monitoring us, if he thinks that the phone and email he is using on a daily basis isn't already tracking his activity, then I'm sorry to say this, but he's being naive about it.

Why do you think that they make technology so accessible to everybody? In the 90s when the internet and cellphones were introduced, only the people that could afford it had access to it, but now it's affordable and accessible to almost every single person on the planet.

The only reason that I learned how to use computers and the internet is because they were teaching it to us in school, and I'm glad that I learned those skills back then, and when I started working I decided to purchase a computer and I got a phone for my mother and myself.

These days everybody and their mother has a Facebook profile, and they use complex algorithms to track your online activity. Sure, they tell you that it's to enhance your browsing experience by using the information that they gather to suggest content they think that you would be interested in, it's also used to generate ads that are specifically designed to target you based on your browsing.

Social media is the worst of these, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or what the Hell they're calling it now, Tik Tok, and Youtube are not only making our society stupider, but they have made everybody perfectly comfortable having everything about their personal life, and browsing behavior tracked as long as they can fill their day with cute cat videos and pointless memes.

Andy is extremely smart for not having a Facebook profile, I don't have a personal profile, but my wife does to stay in contact with family, and we also have Facebook and Instagram profiles for our businesses because every business these days needs to have marketing to survive.

There are ways to cover your tracks online, a private browser will give you some protection against tracking, but your employer, school, and ISP can still know every website you visit. There are other, more technical options, to help prevent tracking like using VPNs, and router and ghost browsers, but nothing is a hundred percent tracking proof, as every program that we use is deliberately created with a backdoor for that very reason, but the truth is that as long as you aren't doing anything wrong, then you shouldn't be worried about it.

With that said, I know that you said that you have a smart tv, and if you were to hook up internet to it then you would have access to some good content. However, if you want to get the full experience of browsing online like you would with a computer, then you could use the HDMI input to connect a desktop or laptop computer to it. That's what I do for the living room tv, and I can just sit here on the couch typing this. Look at it this way, you paid for a smart tv, you might as well enjoy the full capabilities it has to offer.

On the other side of that, I recommend that both you and your husband watch this 25 minute video for a more detailed explanation. You might remember this guy from about 15 years ago, but if you don't then you can look him up for more information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFns39RXPrU

You should also watch, if you haven't already, the movie Enemy of the State from 1998 starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman, and Jon Voight. That was almost 30 years ago, and it certainly reflects the current state of our society.

[Murfreesboro]

Oh, I think my husband is well aware that we can all be tracked through phones, iPads, etc. I suspect he just doesn't want to make it even easier than it already is. Our son mislaid his phone the other day and had a dickens of a time finding it because he'd turned it off. He said he was worried about TPTB snooping on it. My husband said, "I hate to break it to you, but they don't need your phone to be turned on to access it."

I think all three of our kids have FB, but they've pretty much stopped using it. My older son said it was just too time-consuming. I've never been on FB, though I do sometimes consider it for the same reason your wife does, because it's an easy way to contact far-flung kin.

Since my mother's family owned an advertising company for most of the 20th century, I grew up being very aware of that occupation, how it works and drives the economy. I wanted to laugh aloud several years ago when Zuckerberg or whatever his name is was squirming before Congress. He acted as if he'd been caught out because his company was data mining his patrons to sell ads. I thought, "What the h*** did people think he was doing? Nobody pays a dime for FB, yet it's worth how many billions of dollars? Where did people think that money was coming ftom?" I didn't know who I thought was stupider, the people complaining about the data mining, or Zuckerberg for not owning up to it. His business model was always transparent to me.

Of course, I don't mind if people should guess my buying habits from my browsing. At the worst that's a nuisance. The dangerous thing is people who want to assign each of us a "social credit" score based on our political and religious affiliations, biases, etc.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Happy Anniversary to ... ME!

When I was growing up there was a old saying ...

Heaven help the man that waits to find the perfect woman to marry, Heaven help him even more if he actually finds her.

I always thought that saying was unusual, I get what it means, and there is some truth in it, but sometimes it's definitely worth the wait for the right person.

We just celebrated our 15th anniversary, and since everybody is sleeping and I'm wide awake, I thought that I would tell you how I met my awesome wife.

It's funny, before I met my wife I only used to date blonde women, it wasn't intentional, that's just the type of woman that always came my way, but I was always attracted to women with black hair, mostly from tv and movies because I just didn't know many of them around here. Then one day, the woman that would eventually be my wife walked into my life, and I mean that literally, she walked into the restaurant with her mother for lunch. The first time I saw her I was immediately drawn to her, not just to her beauty, and her gorgeous long hair, but to the way she conducted herself with her gestures and mannerisms, it was almost like watching a sleek cat, you just couldn't stop looking at her.

It was early 2008, I was the manager at the time, and I was standing there with another employee when she walked in, and he was about to rush over there with a pair of menus for them, and normally I would let him because it was his job, but I grabbed the menus out of his hands and I went over there to introduce myself, but I didn't tell them that I was the manager. I can remember they both greeted me with a smile, I brought them to their table, I pulled out their chairs for them, and I made sure to compliment her mother first because I know that older women always like to be complimented on how youthful they look, though in her particular case she actually does take care of herself and does look good, so it wasn't a lie. I asked them if they were sisters, they both giggled, and as cheesy as it sounds, it worked, and I won her mother over right there.

I recommended our specialties and took their orders, and after I brought them their meals I told them that if there was anything else they needed that they should ask for me specifically. While they were eating I stood at a distance watching her, and her mother noticed and told her, she turned toward me trying not to look directly, and then turned back to her mother, they were giggling and glancing toward me periodically. After they were done eating, I brought them their bill and told them that I would meet them at the front of the restaurant. I honestly thought about waving the cost of the meal, but I didn't want to come across as desperate or pushy, I also didn't want the restaurant to cover for the meal just in case she wasn't interested in me.

While her mother was paying for the meal, I casually started a conversation with her, and asked her if they lived around here, she said yes, and I asked her why I hadn't seen her there before, she told me that they like to go to a new place every time they eat out. Her mother walked up and said with a grin ... If you and my daughter are done kanoodling, we'll be going now. I honestly don't know if I spelled kanoodling correctly, or if it's even a real word, but it's what she said. I told them that I hope they come back soon, and she smiled and said ... we'll come back if you're going to be here. I said that I'm always here.

As they were about to leave, I swear to you that it felt as if something pushed me in the middle of my back, pushing me towards her, like I was supposed to talk to her, I said ... wait! They both turned around and I approached, usually I wasn't nervous around women, but at that moment my heart was racing, I mean, she was a stunner, I didn't even know if she was single, but I had to do something. I used every ounce of courage that I had and I asked her for her number. They both looked at each other with a large smile, she got the receipt from her mother's hand and grabbed a pen from the reception area and wrote her number for me. Then they walked out looking back as they went, and I didn't stop looking until they were gone. I looked at the receipt after they left, and apparently they must have thought that I was a pretty good server, because her mother gave me a $20 tip as well.

Being a guy, and not knowing the appropriate protocol for the situation, or if there's even one, I didn't know how long I should wait before I called her, so I waited 4 days. Apparently, that was too long, because she immediately asked me why I didn't call sooner. I couldn't tell if she was joking, but she sounded serious, so I told her that I had been busy with work. Anyway, we talked for about a hour and arranged to go on our first date. After dating for a few months, and getting to know each other more personally, what our beliefs and opinions were, and realizing that we had so much in common, we decided to go steady. Does anybody say go steady anymore? Well, I do.

When our first Halloween together came around, she suggested that we do couples costumes, I thought it was a great idea, and being the classic monster fan that I am, the first couple I thought of was Herman and Lily Munster. She enthusiastically agreed immediately, and I was shocked, not only did she actually know who they were, but she was a fan of the show. It's hard to explain how I felt in that moment, and I know most people wouldn't understand it, but somehow I knew right then and there that I had found the woman that I was going to marry, that I had found my Lily Munster. In the years since, we have done couples costumes almost every single year, and have had some of our best moments on Halloween night. I've said before that making babies is fun, and we are pretty sure that Phoebe was conceived on Halloween night, because 9 months later on July 5th she arrived.

Anyway, after being in a relationship for over a year, I proposed to her, and we got married on Nov. 20th 2010, and here we are. It's hard to believe that it's been 17 years with her, and 15 years since we got married, but I'm forever thankful that she came into my life, and for the family we have created together. I couldn't even imagine what my life would be like if I didn't meet her.

My wife said that I could post some pictures as long as I don't show our faces, I know that you might think to yourself, then what's the point? I can understand that, but I still wanted to post the pictures anyway. I've mentioned before how long my wife's hair is, she usually wears it in a long braid, and the pictures below will show just how long it has grown over the years. The best thing is that I'm the only person that gets to enjoy her beautiful flowing hair when it's not braided.

1. This picture was from around our second month dating. Honestly, I'm glad that my head is covered by that circle, I had such a awful hairstyle back then, ahhhh, the stupidity of youth. Now that I think about it, I wonder why my wife went out with me, I should ask her.

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2. This is one of my favorite pictures, it was my wife's first pregnancy, there's a Sam in the oven! I still have this picture on my desk.

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3. So, every year in Dec. we always go to a professional photographer to get our family portraits and holiday photos done. We dress up nice for the portraits, and we also wear Christmas sweaters and costumes for other photos, and most of the pictures are just us having fun and goofing around. This picture was from last year, and there are a few things that I should mention about it. I know you can't tell, but I'm trying desperately to hold in my stomach, and yes, that black circle is covering my receding hairline. Also, my wife and the girls are wearing platform shoes to make them taller, though I'm sure they didn't want me to mention that, oh well. The girls have grown a bit since then, but my wife hasn't.

Man, I hope that she doesn't read that.

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[TheHeadlessHorseman]

There's another post above this.

As a bonus, this picture is from our second Halloween with Sam, and we were dressed as The Addams Family. Yes, Sam is wearing little koala shoes, they were the only grey shoes we could find to go with the costume.

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