Prolonged Pick-Up at First Watch

My partner and I have been observing the rules regarding life during the coronavirus crisis and have been, for the most part, staying at home. We have eaten every meal at home except for one drive-thru last Sunday at Burger King where we purchased Whoppers. On the schedule for today was to call and order meals to pick up at First Watch, one of our favorite restaurants where we usually sit down and order. We pretty much always order the same things: Dimitris loves the sweet honey pecan salad with the Monterey Club sandwich; I get the beef sandwich with tomato basil soup. When I began to give the order the man who identified himself as Vernon, I mentioned that we like the split orders with half-sandwiches. I was told that, because of the limited menu, they were unable to do that now. I told him that I would have to call back after we had renegotiated our order. Dimitris still wanted the sweet honey salad, and I agreed to order the Monterey Club sandwich, both of which we would split. When we called back to order, Vernon recognized my voice and joked about my persistent phone calls. I gave the order and asked if the restaurant would honor my birthday coupon for a free meal. He said they would try, and I hung up, satisfied that all of the information had been given. However, when Dimitris asked if I had given my name , I replied, “No, he didn’t ask for it.” How could they know our order without a name? So, I called back. This time Vernon was very chatty and teased me as he had gotten my name from the caller ID. It has taken more of an effort than I had planned, but hopefully our order will be ready and delicious as always when we pick it up.

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A Sad Decline

Although I wouldn’t consider myself a prude, I’m very concerned about the crude language that now flows unabashedly from the mouths of our youth. Today’s films seem to infer that “toilet” language is the current normal language of our civilization. The F-word is used not only as a verb, but as an adjective, a noun, and a hyphenated middle for a compound word. Courteous restraint appears to have been cast aside on the assumption that all consider gutter language acceptable. Unfortunately, it isn’t only our youth who are spouting out unacceptable language in places where profanity used to be considered unacceptable. Our president is a crass speaker at times, despite rebukes from those concerned about his being a role model. As a former English teacher, while the language in class was always  properly respectful, the language in the hallways was frequently appalling. The language decline does not appear to be one-sided. Women and men are equal abusers. I’m not sure what has caused the acceptance of blatant profanity. I once taught a class in a drop-out prevention program and, when the students figured out that I wouldn’t use profanity in class, one asked me, “Are you a preacher?” Although I’m not a minister, I do have a reverent respect for appropriate language.

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Ring down the Curtain

Well, it was not exactly “another opening, another show.” It was a problem that I had this morning when I got into my shower/tub and realized that one of the holders that hold up the shower curtain had come unloose. It appeared to be a minor job to re-slot the holder. However, when I tried to reach over the bar to re-connect it, the entire apparatus came down. My trusty partner was sitting on the bed nearby, reading his morning e-mails. I called to him to show him my “handiwork.” He immediately suggested that I move to the guest bathroom for my shower. Although I knew that that was the logical thing to do, I had to think twice about that decision as the guest bathroom doesn’t have the safety handles I have in “my” bathroom to keep me safe. However, with Dimitris’ assistance, I climbed into the tub, feeling precarious, but grateful for my wonderful husband. During the shower, I was particularly careful as I have a bathmat in my bathtub that keeps me from sliding on the slippery shower bottom. When I finished showering, he brought my comb and towels and helped me get out of the tub. When I asked what I would have done had he not been here, he answered, “You would have fixed it yourself.” That’s true, but how wonderful it was to see the shower back in service again, thanks to my hero and partner.

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Watch out for Sharks!

It seems that I am notoriously unable to maintain a vacuum in working order. My housekeeper, Brandy, fussed and fussed at me, telling me that the Hoover that she had to use in order to clean my house wasn’t vacuuming up to par. I took the vacuum in, had it serviced, brought it home, and she continued to complain. When Dimitris joined my household, he asked me to let Brandy go as he would keep the house clean. He too complained about the Hoover. One day, while he was visiting his family in Greece, I decided to shop for a hand-held vacuum. Since I had a veterans’ discount at Lowe’s, that’s where I headed. As I am notoriously a lousy shopper, I bought the first hand-held vacuum that  I saw that was reasonably priced. That was in 2018. When I brought it home and charged it, it proved to be amazing. I had never had that kind of suction on my Hoover, and it was much handier in that it stayed charged for ages and cleaned up easily the small spills and crumbs. Dimitris continued to use the Hoover for cleaning the floor, but he too bragged about the Shark. This past week, the Shark that I had bought two years ago died. I don’t think it had anything to do with the coronavirus (smile). I immediately went online and learned that the model of our hand-held was an LV801. I was able to replace it at Amazon with a refurbished vacuum for $39.99 with free shipping. It has arrived, and it is as good as Shark 2018 was.

Reader, if you are not a follower of my blog, I hope you will become one. Go to http://www.bobosbest.wordpress.com and on the bottom of the right hand corner you will see the opportunity to sign up so that you receive Bobosbest automatically every time it is published. At present, I have 3001 followers. If you’re not already a follower, click on the word FOLLOW and enter your e-mail address. Thank you.

A True Story

Pat Archibald was a teacher friend of mine. We worked together for several years, but I retired while she continued to work. She became an administrator in an elementary school where she was incredibly successful. Pat and I belonged to a mutual admiration society and, while we didn’t see each other as often as we used to when we were both working in the same office, we maintained contact via e-mail and occasional phone calls. I certainly never intended to miss her birthday, but I realized one morning that her birthday was that day, and I had not remembered to buy a card and get it in the mail. So, I did the next best thing: I called her office at school. Her secretary answered: “Ms. Archibald’s office, who may I say is calling?” I responded, “Just tell her it’s Tom.” I had hardly finished that sentence when the secretary seemed to go ballistic, “Really! Are you kidding me?” I was left on the line wondering what had caused such excitement. When Pat came to the phone, I immediately questioned her as to why her secretary had seemed to go crazy. She said, “You won’t believe the coincidence. Just before you called, she asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I said Tom Selleck.” No further explanation needed.

Reader, if you are not a follower of my blog, I hope you will become one. Go to http://www.bobosbest.wordpress.com and on the bottom of the right hand corner you will see the opportunity to sign up so that you receive Bobosbest automatically every time it is published. At present, I have 3001 followers. If you’re not already a follower, click on the word FOLLOW and enter your e-mail address. Thank you.

Pandemonium

Our nation has been deadlocked by partisanship for many years, becoming  seemingly even more entrenched when Barack Obama was elected President. While he gained a great deal of support from his party, the Republican party became the “Party of No.” Whether or not racism was involved is irrelevant as the result was Republicans voting nay on bills that they, in the past, had supported. It is ironic that Barack Obama, who campaigned on ridding the government from Red and Blue states and replacing that ideology with  stressing again the importance of our being the United States, should be denied that campaign promise over and over. During this pandemic, the governors are begging for consistency from the federal government and for cooperation from one state to the other. Everyone is praying that the peak of the coronavirus crisis will come sooner than later here in the United States. In the meantime, governors are pleading for cooperation and assistance from other governors, whether or not they are Republican or Democrat. Recently, President Trump has appeared in his press conferences to be much more presidential than I have ever seen him. Could it be that the pandemic is going to reduce the pandemonium and create a spirit of cooperation that seemed to have been long forgotten? I hope so. I encourage all of you to observe the recommendations of our officials so that we will emerge a better nation.

Reader, if you are not a follower of my blog, I hope you will become one. Go to http://www.bobosbest.wordpress.com and on the bottom of the right hand corner you will see the opportunity to sign up so that you receive Bobosbest automatically every time it is published. At present, I have 301 followers. If you’re not already a follower, click on the word FOLLOW and enter your e-mail address. Thank you.

Delayed Gratification and Subtitles

When I was growing up, patience was required for many things. During the pre-digital era, taking pictures with your Kodak required patience while your pictures were being developed. Growing up in a small town meant mailing them in and waiting perhaps for weeks to get them back. When they were returned, they arrived not only with the published pictures but negatives as well so that the photographer could have copies made. Again, that probably meant another wait. When the Polaroid cameras became popular and were reasonably priced, people could finally  satisfy their desire to see the photograph they had just taken within minutes although not so clear a result with processed film. In today’s world, there is very little “delayed gratification.” So many things now are do-it-yourself, including checking out and paying at the local Lowe’s. When new movies are announced, people flock to see them the  first chance they have. Attendance at theaters continues to grow despite the rising prices. I am not a movie theater goer and don’t mind waiting until the movie comes out on DVD. For that reason, there is little reason for me to watch trailers of the latest movies as it will usually be several weeks or months before the movie will be available for rent or purchase. I don’t mind risking someone’s spilling the beans about the plot. In the meantime, I will watch the latest movie that is available  on DVD while enjoying my Orville Redenbacher popcorn and relying on the subtitles which I can’t use at the movie theater.

Reader, if you are not a follower of my blog, I hope you will become one. Go to http://www.bobosbest.wordpress.com and on the bottom of the right hand corner you will see the opportunity to sign up so that you receive Bobosbest automatically every time it is published. At present, I have 299 followers. If you’re not already a follower, click on the word FOLLOW and enter your e-mail address. Thank you.