Street Oddities, pokey Tuesday edition

Like Robert Plant said, “It’s been a long time since I rock and rolled.” TMM has been unusually busy-busy so focused on the ball, not the blog…

But Karen D’s wonderful news of her Sept. 12 engagement helped bring me back from my time of toil. That, and life constantly blowing down the ol’ stable door.

Anyway, the ‘Bus Oddities’ was so much fun that I thought to do likewise for the street life, my other home…

· Elevator etiquette is a subject of many a blog, article and probably even an Indie-published book. I’ll sidestep this odd box of human encounters and touch only on positioning. Why do some people basically HIDE in the $#*! thing? The door opens, you go to walk in, and belatedly someone steps into the entryway from behind the corner. Are they purposely lurking by the panel to make me jump outta my shoes?!

· Entrepreneurial Spirit Award, 2011: the HVAC guy loading his toys curbside into the trunk of his late-model Ford Mustang Cobra. You know, the thing with 500+ horsepower and a burble that knocks loose anything not tied down? He’s getting it done with style!

· The design of American towns perplexes me. Such a mishmash of architectural styles. Ever see the Tour de France? And notice the near-identical roofing colors and often façade styles? I’m not advocating vanilla housing but it sure is easier on the eyeballs and kind of pretty too, at least in France, where they know a thing or two about architectural elegance.

· Tourista wandering about, half-lost and delirious with heat exhaustion, and looking like they’re enjoying themselves. Madness. Yeah, color me jaded or jealous. Tell you what: send me postage-paid to Paris and make me wander the walkways along the Seine. I’ll report back to you, and take self-pix, to see if I too have this happy look. What a sacrifice for science that will be.

· The tie-in to Bus Oddities that started this all: People boarding the commuter bus and looking happy about it. What?!?! Eating dirt would be better. But you’d have to be a bionic earthworm to convert that pastime into a conveyance homeward. That’s food for thought! [the keyboard made me type that bad joke, ok?!]

Sky-tripping

(a sort-of poem sort of written as I mulled over being out of bed this cloudy morning)

Who am I to you?

Who are we to each other?

Love -- the mysterious way forward.

We got there quickly, passing by nowhere,

eyeing the edge of somewhere

and two-stepping through everywhere.

A few dawns have touched your eyes

and the wind still caresses your  hair.

yet you still make my life smile.

Our time is becoming overgrown

as we walk on the pebbles of years

and weave the ripples back into our own tune.

But it’s not to chance that we leave ourselves.

We sky-trip that light fantastic --

to what, we won’t know until we get there.

Humility and Education with Eyes wide open

You may know that TMM considers himself decently smart. A DODDS kid (aka Army brat who went to Dept of Defense’s schools on military posts). And fairly savvy about the basics in life. Heck, I used to work in UNIX, Solaris and other fancy-schmancy operating systems. Not that I knew what I was doing some of the time...

So, gentle reader, how is it I – and our IT department – did not know that my laptop has a strip of lights above the keyboard that also function as buttons?!?! After nine months and several wireless problems, I finally realize the wireless light turns from orange to blue when that button is touched. I must have touched it when wiping the keypad clean. And turned off my wireless card! I now resolve to live less cleanly.

[argh]

There are other little laptop buttons whose functions are beyond me. A touch and they flash, but nothing (apparently) happens. I think there’s a little electronic troll inside my laptop, one who hungers for electronic hobbit toes but settles for causing mayhem the next time I hook to office’s Intranet. He’s laughing now at me.

But I’ll get my revenge. I’ll keep pushing the buttons until something happens. I’m not beyond punishing myself! Go ahead, push all your own buttons too on ALL your electronic devices! We’ll get back at all this IT – because soon some won’t work and that will teach them.

It’s great to act childish on a Friday afternoon. Keeps me grounded…