Sunday, January 29, 2006

I smelled Pond's Cold Cream. My grandmother smelled like Pond's Cold Cream.

My grandparent's house was located in Shreveport, La. on the corner with a creek or ditch running along the side behind what I remember to be plum trees. They were trees with firm branches because I was assigned the task, by my mother, of choosing one for her use on my buttocks on occasion.

My grandfather was mechanical. His shop behind the house smelled of tar from the road that ran beside the place. All sorts of transistors, t.v.'s, t.v. tubes, little colorful pieces of wire were all over. He seemed to wear the same clothes everyday, greenish blue shirt and matching pants. A work outfit. He liked white bread frozen hard and stiff. I believe he ate it at every meal.

My grandmother kept in the house a cereal called "Concentrate" which my sister liked. It came in a smallish gold-covered box.

Their beds were high. I use to pretend I was a wrestler entering the ring to rescue my tag-team partner from the masked, bad wrestler. The bed was the ring. The bedspread was knobby and soft.

There was no air-conditiioning. The nights were warm while I laid high on the bed next to the raised window. There was a light blue oscillating fan clicking back and forth, side to side blowing toward the bed from its perch on a chair. The night began warm so the sheet was all that covered me, but by morning I had pulled the bedspread over me because the night air had cooled. I would lay there next to the open window listening to the night, sirens, cars, horns, distant thunder, eventually falling asleep to the clicking fan.

I smelled Pond's Cold Cream.

I am going to look for a light blue oscillating fan that clicks as it moves.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Last evening, my son, Caleb, and I went to see "Glory Road." We arrived early because I overcompensated believing the traffic on the highway and at the ticket window would be heavier. So, we did what a father and son should do. Bought popcorn and coke, Deal #1, and raced on the Arctic Cat, commanded tanks fighting enemy combatants, and fought in a paintball contest in a pretend suburban city.

We enjoyed the movie much. It is a great story, well told. It didn't elicit the emotion that "Hoosiers" did, but it was a thankful time because of the enjoyment from being with Caleb and after the movie we talked a little about racism, basketball, perserverence on and off the court.

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Today, after Caleb's basketball game, we head to College Station. We will visit with friends, eat good food, watch the Patriots and the Broncos on a big screen while our kids run, jump, pretend, and laugh.

That is a pretty good Saturday.

Tom Brady vs Jake Plummer - Tom Brady

Patriots vs Broncos - Patriots

30 - 28.
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"From wherever you are - enter and be welcome." Albert Camus

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I went to Albertsons this morning for Add Water Only Pancake Mix. No scoring change to report.

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Tuesday, January 10, 2006

So I went to Albertsons tonight with a short list. The self-checkout line did not disappoint. However, the store layout is flawed. One should not have to pass through the personal products when going from chips to beans.

Albertsons -1.

Kroger 2 Albertsons 2

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What is indefinite about "definite?" Why can the answer to some things be "definitely" and to other things the answer must be "most definitely?" There must be degrees to our definitiveness. The degrees would be 1)definite, and 2)most definite? What happened to "more definitely?" If some things are definite, and others most definite, can't some things just be more definite? A little more than just definite but not the ultimate, most definite? But I never hear anyone answer "more definitely." About this I am most unsure.

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The pill packages that require you to peel the foil off of the back before being able to extract the pill are inferior. Peeling the foil proves problematic.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

QuikTrip

Two signs today that time is passing by.

My son no longer takes medicine through an eye-dropper. The orange generic ibuprofin made in the likeness of orange Motrin has been a staple of ours. Now, he has a fever, takes the pills we hand him, and swallows. A sure sign yet to come that time is passing still more is when I again start taking my medicine with an eye-dropper.

Another one. I wore a pedometer today. A little, blue gadget clipped to my pants pocket. I read somewhere that a good goal was 10,000 steps. Although I tried to conceal the gadget, a student saw and asked how many steps I had taken. I believe I detected some sarcasm.

It once was that I ran. Then I walked. Now, I count my steps.

11,291

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Philip Yancey, editor of Christianity Today said this I found interesting.

"I remembered a remark by Lewis (C.S.) who drew a distinction between communicating with a society that hears the gospel for the first time and one that has embraced and then largely rejected it. A person must court a virgin differently than a divorcee', said Lewis. One welcomes the charming words; the other needs a demonstration of love to overcome inbuilt skepticism."

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In our convenience store society, QuikTrip reigns.

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Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Kroger vs Albertsons

About 1978, after interviewing at the local Holiday Inn, I was offered at job at the new grocery store coming to our Mississippi town, a Kroger. Up until then it was maybe a Piggly Wiggly. I was a checker and a stocker. My career at Kroger was tumultuous, and therefore, thankfully, brief. I resigned on the heels of a clandestine evaluation by a Kroger employee.

One late night amidst the Milk wars of Mississippi, I was the only checker faced with a long line of shoppers who had arrived in hopes of new shipments of Milk. Milk was not a finite product, mind you, it was just a little cheaper during the competition of the aforementioned wars. One of the inhabitants of the line at my register, the only open register, was a Kroger employee from another locale. Unbeknownst to me, he was grading me on my performance during the checkout. Was I saying the fifty-two required phrases that all Kroger cultists verbalize to each prospective convert? I did not. The "did you find your visit productive was everything to your satisfaction were the avocados appropriately firm would you like anything else and how about a carry out no ok then how about the new plastic bags because they are much more environmentally safe" statements. Mr Sisk called me to the upper room, the one behind the dark windows located above the floor at the top of the stairs that start by the clock and the blue printed posters from the Department of Labor. And I was reprimanded. Shortly thereafter I terminated my employment with Kroger.

Nevertheless, I am impartial.

We have a Kroger and an Albertsons nearby. Yesterday, I visited both. In the same outing.

Whereby Albertsons did not have the green onions I was seeking, I was forced to make another grocery stop at their competitor, Kroger. Kroger had the green onions.

Kroger 1 Albertsons 0

Both Kroger and Albertsons have the Icehouse Cookies, the thick, white cake cookies with colored icing to match the season that come in the clear plastic boxes located in or near the produce section.

Kroger 2 Albertsons 1

However, Albertsons has the superior self-checkout line. This is due to one significant fact or, better said, one less step in the self-checkout process. At Albertsons, after the computer reads the barcode you are permitted the luxury of placing your product directly into the plastic bag.

Not so, poor Kroger. You add a step and make me rub my purchased product on the "yellow pad" which is black because there is no longer any yellow because of all of the rubbing. The transgression is not in the color fade but in the required rubbing. Because I am forced to engage in the demaginitization process(Why must I demaginitize my produce?) of my purchase by rubbing my bunch of green onions onto the rubber pad, I award two points to Albertsons.

Kroger 2 Albertsons 3

So far.

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I'm neither a staunch fan nor vehement foe of Anna Quindlen, writer for Newsweek. What she wrote in her "The Last Word" column in the December 26th issue of Newsweek was insightful. Amidst the controversy of whether there is an attack on Christmas or not and whether the retailers of America are in collusion with the conspirators she says,


O ye of little faith, who believe that somehow the birth of Christ is dependent upon recognition in a circular from OfficeMax."

Monday, January 02, 2006

Post Christmas Ruminations

I'm not done with Christmas just quite yet. So, among my thoughts there are these:

1. The demand for Egg Nog seems to be waning, and this is probably not a negative thing..

2. I believe that there is a conspiracy in the Christmas-light industry.

2a. There seems to be a preponderance of Christmas light strings that work half-way, and I mean half-way. The first half of the string lights up and the other does not. We should not stand for this.

2b. It might be worth adopting as a policy the practice of throwing out the lights each Christmas and purchasing brand new ones each year.

2c. The icicle lights are nice, but too heavy for the holders sold that are made to slip under shingles.

3. When there is a street and every house has lights of some sort and array displayed - all houses except one, I can't help but wonder about the one.

4. The overall friendliness quotient of a neighborhood is directly related to the number of houses that have hung Christmas lights.

5. Sausage balls should be a year-round, not a seasonal treat. Ditto for peanut brittle.

6. Lonestar's version of Little Drummer Boy is very good.

7. I have already addressed the upstart businesses that hang and take down your Christmas lights for you. Next, there will be those who come and unpack, decorate, and then pack again your Christmas decorations.

8. Cleaning blinds is not an easy thing to do. This is obviously not Christmas specific just something I did today.