• Tag Archives Age

  • “Ever since dying came into fashion, life hasn’t been safe.” Proverb

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Hoppy July 4th. So far, I have the day off. This could change at any moment.

    I’m going through all my bookmarks – yes, those things that occasionally save your place on the internet. Usually, they’re all pointing to dead links, etc. So I’m looking at some of them and determining if they still exist. If not, “ Baleeted.”

    Some of the links go to some really cool T-shirt websites. You know the ones, the ones that have such cool designs you never thought you’d see in a million years. It makes you feel like a kid – picking out the coolest design.

    Unfortunately, there are very few of these t-shirts that don’t make you look like an oversized kid. Or, rather, a middle-aged balding gentleman who can’t seem to grow up. While anybody can buy those shirts, it doesn’t mean they should. I’m all for geek chic, within the proper age range. Much like the Twilight Zone episode I just glanced at, with Cliff Robertson – I thought, “Boy, that top hat looks great!”


    However I’m realistic enough that I know that I can’t rock a top hat. Very few people can.

    Slash.


    Ummm. And Charles DeMarr.

    And……uh…..Abraham Lincoln.

    That’s it. The only three people who can rock a top hat.

    I guess that’s about it. For me Steampunk is cool in limited doses, but walking around Texas in a top hat and tails in the middle of summer not only looks foolish, you’re severely risking heatstroke.

    Speaking of inappropriate – how many older white guys out there are wearing white tennis shoes? As a rule I don’t purchase white anything, but since it was pointed out to me I notice it a lot more. Guys out there, look in the mirror before you go out. Shirt? Check. Pants? Check. White tennis shoes? Turn around, try again. If all you own is white shoes, save one pair for yard work and buy something else.


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  • “I think there’s nothing better than seeing a three-chord straight up rock ‘n’ roll band in your face with sweaty music and three minute good songs.” Joan Jett

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Saaaay….you’re mighty fancy. What’s a purty little thing like you doin’ in a place like this?

    So I’ve managed to maintain my composure and not go blindly seeking this his one guitar (and the case, c’mon, how can you resist a leopard print case?) mainly because I have so many damn guitars already. The other fact is that I don’t use any one of them enough to justify another purchase (and really, isn’t that what I said about the last one?). I’m so lame that I almost didn’t even realize that could upgrade the pickup in one of the SG’s to a P90 and get pretty close without having to get another guitar. Although…..I really like the white…..

    One of the realities that one has to face eventually is that there isn’t a piece of gear that’s going to make you play any better than just  straight old-fashioned woodshedding.  In the case of the above guitar, I’m not even sure how it plays. The RI series that I’ve played lately have had baseball bat necks (which I hate). The one above is a sig model, the Billie Joe Armstrong and it’s supposed to have  a “play fast” neck (like my 61 SG RI). Which of course I find intriguing.

    Here’s the part where I admit that I’ve got kind of a man-crush on Billie Joe. My daughter (should she ever read this) will give the obligatory “ewwwwwwww”.  It sounds really stupid, but I’m a huge fan of his songwriting.  Back in the 90’s, I listened to Dookie (like everybody else) and gradually fell off in interest as some of the later albums kind of kept going. At the AstroArena, we watched Billie Joe slobber all over the stage – good show.  It wasn’t until American Idiot came out that I became a reborn fan.

    Here’s the thing that REALLY freaks my daughter out. All the guys in Green Day are pretty much the same age as me. It’s hard to believe, but while they were singing about being burned out on a couch, I was sitting there burned out on a couch watching them sing about it.  Not that I think, “Hey that could have been me!” because obviously I wasn’t driven enough to really push myself with my guitar playing.  It’s just easy to relate to an artist that’s almost the exact same age as you. Oops. So Tre Cool has the same birthday as me. I knew I was forgetting something.  But they were all born the same year as me.

    Geez! These Geezers…..

    How come THEY don’t have grey hair?


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  • “The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one.” Jean de la Bruyere

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    The other day, I bought a straight razor. I have now found that it’s a low quality piece of junk, and shouldn’t be put anywhere near your face. But regardless, people see me with a blade and assume that I’m going to cut myself. I’m actually not that clumsy.

    The number of times that I’ve hurt myself (slicing, bludgeoning, etc,etc) actually were more of a result of not actually thinking about what I was actually doing than being unsafe. Of course, that’s a little contradictory.

    Here’s the thing. At some point in our lives, we all go in to “autopilot” mode. The multiple times that I’ve sliced my hand/finger open, I wasn’t being unsafe so much as I was on Auto-pilot. After you’ve opened hundreds of boxes (over a lifetime) and you haven’t cut yourself once….you figure you’ve got it under control. You just do it – and don’t think about it.

    Well, as of now, I can’t do that any more. I HAVE to think about what I’m slicing up because typically it ends up being something attached to my body.
    The same thing with my jacked-up ankle. I’ve been walking the planet for some thirty-mumble-mumble years and hadn’t sprained my ankle before……so why did I really need to concentrate on walking? Well, it turns out that I do.

    I especially do.

    Complaining about getting old gets…..well, old, but seriously – those aches and pains that appear and you have to figure out what’s causing them? Time killer for sure. Who would have thunk that my clutch pedal would cause my big toe to get so sore?


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