Photo challenge: Change

This is just what it appears to be - a peanut butter jar filled with change.  Peggy and I scoop out excess change and stash it away in the jar, and then, every few months, we take it to the Credit Union and cash it in, sending all these coins into the electric jaws of a coin-counting machine, which pays off 95% of what it takes in in cold hard green cash.

The only way to get more money out of it would be to count and roll all the coins and take them to the Credit Union, as if anyone has time for all that nonsense.  We usually get around 45 or 50 bucks, and if that ain't enough for a nice night at the diner, I don't know what is!

By the way, I do carry some change on me, so that when I buy something for $3.28, I can give the cashier a five spot along with a quarter and three pennies and get back two singles.  Now and then you hear about someone wanting to get rid of pennies, but hey! Used to be, you could get a pretzel stick or a single Mary Jane candy for that penny.

Used to be.

Photo challenge: I care

This is about a little dog we all cared for. Her name was Heidi, and she was my niece Laura's little miniature pinscher, or "min-pin" as the canine cognoscenti say.   We all loved Heidi.  She was the kind of dog who would come running to a friend, her spindly legs all flying about and her little claws skidding across the kitchen floor, coming to a halt  at your feet so she jump up on you, all full of doggie hugs and kisses.   She was so smart, she knew when she heard the car keys rattling that it was time to get in her little box or in the car or whatever.  We would take her for a walk, and the words "walk" and "outside" and "go" all were in her vocabulary, which was quite extensive for a dog. (Beside her native German, she was also fluent in English and the languages of Mexican, Italian and Asian carry-out shops.)

The end came all too soon for Heidi, at about 12 years or so.  But that sweet little spirit in her kept on right until the end. Even at her final ebb, she still snuggled and said goodbye in her special way.  I know I get all misty over her even today but I see her cavorting around making the other angels happy, so it's all good. 

Photo challenge: Music

Most of us got our first daily doses of music from hardworking, reliable and honest radio Djs.  It was always a thrill to me and millions of others to tune in a cheesy little plastic transistor radio and listen to the top 40 hits of the week, along with a five-minute newscast on the hour, ripped off the AP wire printer and read with heavy echo sound effects that made every story sound important.  And the commercials! For acne creams and drag strips and toothpaste and soft drinks and hamburgers and the whole cornucopia of products and services of interest to the fans of Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs.

  Incidentally, why did the word 'cheesy' come to connote 'meretricious'? I like cheese! We should say those radios were 'Brussels sprouts-y'!   

 Music just sounded better when delivered by a friendly voice and accompanied by jingles and sound effects and slogans, so that's why, when I think of music, I like to think of a disc jockey playing it for us.

Photo challenge: Favorite View

You don't have to know my very well to know my favorite view always includes my wonderful wife Peggy. It's not that we are one of those couples so joinedatthehip that they can't take two steps in separate directions.  We can. But then again, of late I have needed plenty of help - and a walker or a cane - to take any steps at all.
                                                                                                                                                                        There are two ways of helping a person; a helper can just do the minimum with a maximum of huffs and sighs, or a person can totally immerse his-or-herself into the tasks, the hundreds of daily tasks that need to be done in a person's daily life.  That's Peggy, and if I could find some better way to thank her, I will.  But for now, I want to say, I appreciate both the help and the selfless manner in which it is given!

Photo challenge: I want

I pondered today's challenge for a while, and I have to say, what I really want is for people to knock it the hell off and start getting along with each other.

But there is no way to picture that, unless you google "60's Love-In," so I'll just make the statement, that that is what I would really like.

As far as something material, there is something I had when I was a barefoot boy with cheek of tan that I would like to have another of...a suede fringed jacket.

Colossal.  I would love to have another one, especially if it had that candy-striped lining like Seinfeld had, in case I run into Lawrence Tierney.  And that hasn't been possible since 2002.

Hmm.  Now I think I want a fedora like the one Tierney is wearing.

Photo challenge: I bought this

Among the several thousand records, tapes and CDs I have bought (or otherwise acquired) over the years, there are a few that I have in just about every format.  Cheap Trick at Budokan came out as an album in 1979 and I just about wore the grooves off my copy, so I was glad when the music industry switched to cassettes for two weeks before CDs came along.  I bought the cassette and of course I bought the CD, and then they came along with this version in 1997, a recording that included songs left off the initial releases.  For a fan of the guitar work of Rick Nielsen, the bass of Tom Petersson, the vocal of Robin Zander and the drums of the man I rank right up with Keith Moon as #1 of all time, Bun E. Carlos, this is something that can be enjoyed time and again.

Here's a song from the concert that shows the band at their best. It's the old Fats Domino number, "Ain't That A Shame." Play it now and it will be stuck in your head all day.  And there are worse ways to go around than that!

Photo challenge: Family photo

This photo must look like what you get if you google "family photo."  Left to right, it's Kathy (Laura's mother), Peggy, yours truly, Jamie (Jay's wife), Russell (Laura's father), Laura (it was her birthday), her husband Drew (my nephew), Robin (my sister), Jay (my other nephew) and John, my brother-in-law.

Of course, there are kids not shown, and my mom is no condition to be making the party circuit, but this is the current lineup of people over 7 and under 87.

8 x 10 reprints are available in the lobby as you exit.