Tea for Two, Please.

Wink, wink.

Is it just me or did the number of reported drunk and disorderly episodes reported by the press for television and athletic personalities rise in the last few years?

I saw the headline for a couple of them on a web page this morning and I began to wonder if the media was reporting more because:

1. There are more recognized personalities drinking in excess, or
2. The press is just reporting more,

And if there are more recognized personalities drinking in excess is it because:

1. They want their name in the paper,
2. They think they're "special",
3. They are under more stress , or
4. They think they are "suppose to" because it's what celebrities do.

But if the press is just reporting more, is it because:

1. There are more episodes,
2. They think that's what the public wants to see, or
3. It's the press "thing to do" this decade.

I have heard that some celebrities have "pre-arrest" mug shots taken by actual photographers so they don't end up looking like Nick Nolte or Glen Campbell at their arrests. I don't know if that's true, but if it is, that's pitiful, just plain pitiful.

Two-faced

Where to start? Where to start?

October is only a week away but the temperature is still flirting with 90. Still ... I finally saw a streak of fall color. As I turned into a subdivision near my home earlier this week, I was startled to see bright red leaves on one side of a maple. It was the first hint I'd seen of fall color and a half block further I could glimpse bright yellow over the tree tops.

It was hard to drive straight while craning my neck to verify that it was indeed a tree and not the top of a house. I know one rarely sees a bright yellow roof, but it could happen.

Today, there was even more color along the route home. Despite the droughts and the heat of this past summer, I think we may have a beautiful (but short) autumn.

Now to the bitchy part. Let me set this up for you. In my department we have about 15 people (including the manager) in one state and 7 in my state. We did have one manager and two team leads, but because the Dumas company doesn't have leads they only had the responsibility for those positions, not an official title or salary. This week the lead in the other state sent an email to the team & in the signature it said "His Name, Manager, Our Unit". Nobody had informed us that he was a manager now so we didn't know if he was our manager or what. Being old, I sent an email to the guy that we knew as our manager & asked if he was still the manager or if the lead was now the manager or what. His reply was very curt and rather rude declaring that we were all one team, but it didn't say if that lead was our manager or not so we still don't know.

I've worked in over a dozen companies for over 30 years and have never ever heard of a company that refused to tell the staff who their manager was. Oh, occasionally they might not have revealed the name until other parties had been notified (etc, etc, lie, lie), but once a person started using the title, they weren't embarrassed to admit it.

Now I have to look for another job. I hate Dumas companies.

All Fall Down

Autumn started this morning. Not that you could tell it from going outside today. The weather here is 10 - 15 degress above normal.

I don't like winter so I shouldn't complain, but I really like fall. That little bite to the morning air on my way to work. The not-too-hot not too-cold afternoons. All the usual stuff. The geese honking, the leaves turning colors, Halloween candy on sale, hot apple cider, new TV shows, my birthday vacation, the end of allergy season, a new sweater.

This picture doesn't half do it justice, but don't you wish you lived in Southern Indiana?

Heebie Sheebie TeeVee

The new television season starts next week. What a bunch of stinkers! If the shows are as bad as they sound I may have to give up watching TV altogether. At my age, I'm too tired to turn the pages of a book most evenings so I don't know what I'm going to do to amuse myself from 8 to 12 every evening. I may have to start going to bed earlier.

Let's see now

Monday I can choose between Dancing with the Stars (unless we need to change the title to "Dancing with the Has-Beens), How I Met Your Mother, and Two and a Half Men (which I like when it's not too risque, but there was one season when it was too mediocre.)

Tuesday, we got NCIS across from Biggest Loser.

Wednesday, I got nothin'

Thursday, I got nothin'

Friday, Women's Murder Club is across from Vegas (this year with Tom Selleck!)

Saturday, there's football & "encores" (ie - repeats of shows you didn't want to watch during the week. Remember the "good old days" when they actually showed well written, well acted comedies on Saturday night?)

Hmmmmm, I wonder why people don't watch television anymore. Do you get the feeling that somebody doesn't want us to watch?

An exercise in imagery

I trudged uphill.

I tumbled downhill.

I meandered through the valley like a wilderness stream.

I frolicked in the meadow with the playfulness of a young lover in a personal product commercial.

I waltzed from blossom to blossom like a butterfly with gossamer wings.

I quenched my thirst by drinking nature's beauty like an alcoholic falling off the wagon in the neighborhood tavern.

Things to think about............

A dog always offers unconditional love. A cat has to think about it.

If you look up his family tree and you'll find he's the sap.

Everyone is gifted but some peoplenever open their package.

Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

Just remember -- if the world didn't suck, we would all fall off.

A huntin' we will go

The boys went hunting last weekend and bagged a squirrel.

On the wing

I saw a hummingbird outside my front door yesterday. I can't remember the last time I saw one of these little birds. I'm not sure if this was a different species or a different gender than those I've seen before, but it wasn't very colorful.

I suppose it could have been a very large, very fat mosquito.

A Penny for Your Thoughts

I have an idea for a new book. I want to record the opinions that America's working people have about the American workplace.

I know this has been done before, but the data was gathered by or for companies, or by academics, or by anybody but me.

I don't want to just spout dry facts and figures. I want to know what America's "hoi polloi" have to say about the places where they spend about half of their waking hours.

For example, I want to know how the workers really feel about their bosses.

It often seems to me that when workers become managers they think the wisdom of the ages immediately falls upon them, and that they automatically become better than everyone else.

They lecture the staff on the importance of team work, but act as if they think that doesn't include them. They take whatever steps necessary to distance themselves from the rest of the staff. They get an office with a door, they "forget" to pass on key information, they block communication with people outside the team.


A man went into a pet shop to buy a parrot. The shop owner pointed to three identical looking parrots on a perch and said, "That parrot on the left costs 500 dollars".

"That's a little steep. Why does it cost so much?" asked the man.

The shop owner replied, "Well, he knows how to use a computer."

Intrigued, the man pointed to the second parrot and asked "How much is that one and what does it do?"

"That one costs 1,000 dollars because it can do everything the other parrot can do plus it knows how to use the UNIX operating system."

"And the third parrot?" the customer queried.

" $2,000."

"$2,000!" the startled man exclaimed, "What does it do?"

The shop owner shrugged his shoulders and said, "To be honest, I've never seen him do a damn thing, but the other two call him boss!"

Ahhhh, Root Beer

A couple of weeks ago I went to lunch at a local pizzaria with my co-workers. The place has decent pizza, but serves Coke products and I prefer Pepsi or iced tea. Their tea is atrocious.

I ordered a Root Beer. From the reaction of my co-workers, one might have thought I'd requested something exotic tropical concoction instead of a simple, old-fashioned Root Beer. "You ordered Root Beer!" "What? What did she order?" "A Root Beer!" "She ordered Root Beer?" "Who ordered a Root Beer?" "Martha did. Martha ordered a Root Beer."

So I like Root Beer.

Sometimes I order iced tea and sometimes Pepsi. Occassionally a Dr. Pepper. If there's nothing else, I'll even drink a Coke without complaining.

And sometimes I order a Root Beer. If I had my druthers, I'd add a big scoop of vanilla ice cream to an icy mug of Root Beer. We used to call those a "Black Cow".

Do you remember Root Beer Barrel candy? Root beer flavored candy shaped like a barrel. Cute, eh? Did you ever try root beer flavored Fizzies? They turn ordinary water into a bubbly drink which vaguely taste like Root Beer.

I have a recipe somewhere for making barbecued ribs with Root Beer. It sounds good, but I haven't tried it yet.

I try lots of things. I'm old, but I'm not stuck in my ways.

Wanta make your own root beer? Get organic flavoring at Nature's Flavors.