69 and Oxley Field

69 years of age is rapidly approaching. Two and a wake-up and I’m there. Who’d a’ thunk it ??? I mean I really do recall not thinking I would make it here. Even before I approached retirement and gave thought to the early death of my parents. Then, given all indications I thought if I could get just a few years, two or three, out of retirement I would be happy. But even before that, going back to as early as 1957 I recall having a conversation with my best bud, Bruce Rogers, about the subject. I think it must have been about ‘1957’ ? Somewhere in there. It was a summer night in Grandview Heights, Ohio, where I grew up. A suburb of Columbus. And like lots of summer nights we were at Oxley Field watching Little League baseball. If we weren’t watching we were playing. Oxley Field had lights, an adjacent playground, basketball hoops, tennis courts, and of course a baseball field. It was also just a stones throw from Bruce’s house. Literally, about a hundred yards down the hill which was his front yard. This particular night there was a ‘Old-timers’ game. Mr. Guyton (I think it was Mr. Guyton? Pretty sure, and BTW all dads were Mr. back then) was playing center field. The batter hit a hard liner to Mr. Guyton’s right and he gave chase. He made a dive for the ball at the end and did a real good somersault to finish his move. Unfortunately he remained on the ground because he had broken his collar bone. This gave Bruce and I pause and we wondered if these guys who were in their 40’s and 50’s should even be playing softball? The thought gave momentum to a rather lengthy discussion of growing old. Remember we would have been 14 or 15 at the time. I really do remember talking about what it would be like to live into the 21^st century if we could possibly live that long. And Mr. Guyton; he walked off. But he didn’t make the catch. No matter though. The game was over. And after Bruce and I pondered all the possibilities of growing old, if we had any money in our jeans from cutting grass or delivering papers, we probably wandered over to either the DQ or Leonardo’s pizza. Ahh Leonardo’s!! Where you could get a really good pepperoni pizza with all the grease you wanted at no extra charge. And that didn’t count the grease already floating in the middle of the turned up pieces of pepperoni. That was just the regular ‘comes with it’ grease. Leonardo’s had anchovy pizza too. Brother in law Dom still maintains you are not a real man until you’ve eaten a whole anchovy pizza, anchovies of course live and flapping. I dunno ?? I think I made the real man thing, I just took a different route.
Damn !!! I just about broke my collar bone by tripping over our 3 dimensional carpet and RV site stain. Of course I’m talking about our favorite pet, Jade. She gets no respect. Well…… maybe some. She’s a good pet. Takes the blame and barbs with aplomb and the flick of a her tail and the showing of her rear end parts.
Do you know I have been breaking eggs regularly since about 1951 and still haven’t made a mess like those people on TV who need one of those egg breaker pieces of crap. How pathetic must you be to not be able to crack an egg without assistance? I just had to get that out. It’s even worse than Father Garducci’s Mister Tea. Remember that? I think it was Father Garducci on Saturday Night Live back when SNL was funny who did the take off on Mister Coffee. A stick on a stand with a ring at the top that you poured the hot water through into the cup on the stand that you put the tea bag into. So in effect you were pouring water through a whole into a cup the held a tea bag. SNL’s best, and it cracked me up. But it was a long time ago. Don’t watch anymore.
So we are well in Phoenix. I have all my appointments lined up now. I should know all of what I need to know by the 10^th after seeing urology and oncology. By the end of April we should be mostly done and ready to roll now that I don’t have chemo. Chemo sucks, as does Agent Orange, but, the hair is thickening.


Hooray!!!!!  An explanation of Debt Ceiling that makes sense. ___________________________________
THE DEBT CEILING

• Democrats don't understand THE DEBT CEILING
• Republicans don't understand THE DEBT CEILING
• Liberals don't understand THE DEBT CEILING
• NO ONE understands THE DEBT CEILING

So…. allow me to explain...
Let's say you come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup in your neighborhood. Your home has sewage all the way up to your ceilings. What do you think you should do?
Raise the ceilings or pump out the shit?
Your choice is coming in November. Don't miss the opportunity.


One of the benefits of age is that I don’t have to look forward to another 70 or 80 years of the direction this country is going. I know I’m not alone in saying “Thank God I’m old!” But I do wish with regret that I had done more to forestall what we have become. What a mess huh?