Monday, August 2 – Sunday, August 15, 2021(Two weeks…summer vacation edition)
The Week in Summer Vacation: My yearly Houseboat trip with friends took place the first weekend of the month and it was way less COVID fraught than last year’s trip! Delta variant is here and, because our government often treats us like children (rightly or wrongly) no one has the information they need to make correct, informed choices. Glad to get away from all that for a couple days, eat some snacks, and not get sun burned. Very healthy. I mean, I’m not a doctor, but, even with a couple of random Oreos, it seemed pretty healthy! LOL!
The Week in Specs: I’d put off getting new glasses during the height of the pandemic, as did a lot of people. I did not expect a big hassle when I finally came back to getting my eyes examined. Welp, that was not the case. The first pair the optometrist made were “off” like I was wearing someone else’s glasses. I took them back, after trying them out for a day, and had quite a testy conversation because, the folks at the office didn’t believe me. I mean, I’m okay if a mistake was make, I just wanted correct glassed. They questioned me like I had no idea what what I was talking about, like I’d never worn glasses before. It took a few minutes, but I insisted that the look at both the new glasses and the glasses I was currently wearing.They didn’t admit any error, but asked me to come in for a re-exam. Turns out, the RX was wrong (though they never quite said those words).
We tried a second time. This time I had Superman vision on distance, but couldn’t see to work at my desk. I went back and said that and, again, they didn’t believe me. After too much of a struggle, I got my money back. I went to another eye doctor, got a new set of frames, and, get this, those frames worked. I broke up with the first eye doctor office forever.
The Week In Food poisoning, Which is Gross: My neighbor got some extra Pre-cooked meals from her subscription service and gave me one. Once I re-seasoned it, they Chicken, Kale and Mushroom pasta was fine, to my tastebuds. Then my digestive chimed in. I diagnosed myself with C. Perfringens (which sounds like a Harry Potter character) and suffered through about 24 hours of gastric distress. Wow! Colons, amirite?!?! Needless to say, I will not be signing on as a spokesperson for the brand.
The Week in One Rib: My coworker’s husband got a new smoker and she has been bringing me some tasty treats. This week, with the food poisoning, I wasn’t totally in the mood, but I still wanted to try his attempts at ribs. I ask for, and got, one rib. Long live Chris Rock.
The Week in Books: I randomly downloaded a book from my “to read” list and, didn’t realized until I was 50 pages in that the book was over 800 pages. It seemed interesting enough, so I charged on. The first 600 pages of The Way the Crow Flies, where the plot unfolded very slowly, were, nevertheless, extremely suspenseful and I really could not put the book down. Those pages concerned events on an airbase in Canada in the early 1960’s. When the book shifted to the 1980’s, the book meandered a bit before getting back on course. Overall, the weak 150 pages toward the end were easy to overlook. The power and gruesomeness of the story of innocence lost will stick with me for a long while.
The Week in Flames: I have been trying to get my 80 old Mom away from burning candles for quite a long time. She used to burn candles and oil lamps like a suburban pyromaniac trying to hold arson feelings in check. Our compromise over the last couple of years has been that she can only have one candle, and she has to leave it in the bathroom.
This week she and I were taking a rare walk through the mall and she was, obviously, drawn to the Yankee Candle store. Before she could get wrapped up in candles, I led her to the cartridge “burning” air fresheners, or as the brilliant marketers at Yankee Candle call them, Scent Lights. These lighted canisters were a revelation to my Mom, and we bought one. She really likes . I felt the sweet smell of victory in my grasp.
Today though, she told me that even though she liked the scent canister, she still wanted a candle in the bathroom. Victory slips away!
The Week In Standards, Part One – An Old Dude and His Guitar: The final musical performance for the summer in the park my apartment overlooks took place this weekend. The organizers set up fewer chairs than the previous two shows but, even the scaled back seating was no match for bad pre-marketing of the event and the seats were never more than 1/4 full. I just wanna go out and hug these guys for playing into the abyss! The guy was older and didn’t play a single song written before the early 70’s. He was strong on the Beatles and Bob Dylan. He played for a solid 2 1/2 hours, A very competent, no-surprise, extremely pleasant set of tunes. Loved it.
The Week In Standards, Part Two- Live Jazz: The next day, at the relatively new jazz club Nostalgia, on Vine, some young dudes, the Myles Twitty Quartet, played a mix of jazz standards and new compositions to a receptive Sunday crowd. Cincinnati is not a big jazz town, but whenever I do find it, it warms my soul and this was no exception.
Books on the bar…the band is not as far away as it seems 
“You got to be in the sun to feel the sun. It’s that way with music too.” – Sidney Bechet 
Nothing Ever Happens on My Street 