…and yesterday’s gone.
Luckily I have some photographs to document the interesting moments that took place. Such as they were.
I played darts in the Alley Cats tourney and drew a strong partner, Billy. We faced off against Cristy and Nancy in the first round. Now, Cristy is probably the best player in Barretto right now and Nancy is a good player, although she can be a tad inconsistent. They royally kicked our ass and sent us to the loser’s bracket. I figured maybe we’d meet them in the finals but a team with an average player with a weak partner beat them. Just goes to show you can never predict the outcome of a darts match. Sometimes your hot, sometimes it’s like you never played the game before.
Anyway, we did meet Cristy and Nancy again in the losers bracket and got our revenge. Then we beat the team that had beat them and made it into the finals. We had to beat Espie and Liza twice to take the championship and that’s just what we did.
My new blender is back from the shop and I came home after darts and gave it a try. Loaded it up with frozen strawberry, mango, ice cream, and milk and let it rip. Those razor blades sliced and diced the contents in almost no time. The damn thing still scares the hell out of me though.
I think I might have mentioned my downstairs neighbor got a videoke (karaoke) machine as a gift. As I feared, loud and off-key singing has been the evening’s treat ever since. Last night I had to sleep with music playing in my headphones to drown out the noise. Well, that’s not gonna fly. Videoke is part of the culture here and the locals play it loud and long. One of the benefits of living in Alta Vista is you tend to be above all that noise, or at least you only hear it from a distance. When I agreed that the caretakers of the property could continue living downstairs, it was just Tony and his wife. Tony is dead now but the wife has had family, including small children, staying over frequently. It’s only a one-room accommodation, not sure how they manage it. So I’m either going to have to be a prick and evict her or move when it is time to renew my lease next month. Or maybe if I ask nicely they’ll knock off the bad singing most nights. We’ll see.
Oh, and my head is still shaking about this one. Apparently, the neighbor’s husband told her that someone told him she was fucking ME for money. What the hell? First of all, I’ve never been physical with the neighbor’s wife at all. I’ve not even heard from her since the day I took her to church last week. But why would I pay to have sex with a 40-something married woman? When I want to pay for sex, I have a couple of 20-something hotties I can call. I’m actually pretty damned offended by the accusation, it seems like defamation at a minimum. Haven’t decided what if anything to do about it. Not even sure who made the allegation, it just got relayed to me third hand through my helper. I am glad I took my reader’s advice and maintained my innocence though. Might be another motivation to move, however.
Somebody’s day started much worse than mine did:
Via Facebook memories I enjoyed this photo of me and some of my former staff at our Christmas party four years ago:
A rather pleasant walk this morning with Scott and Dan. I’ll post about that tomorrow. Now it is time to prepare for another darts tournament. Speaking of darts, Facebook reminded me that eight years ago I wrote the lyrics to a song called “A Hard Darts Night” after a tough tourney loss. And yeah, I stole the tune from the Beatles, sue me!
It’s been a hard darts night
And I’ve been throwing like a punk
It’s been a hard darts night
But at least I’m getting drunk
Yet when I get to the line
I think I’ll get it right this time
But I still miss the outYou know I throw all day
To win some money to buy my drinks
And when you lose it in the final leg
Well the money, it kind of stinks
And so I get home and moan
‘Cause I’m to blame alone
You know I can’t hit an outWhen I practice, everything seems to be fine
In the games, I don’t have a clue at the line, yeah, yeah, yeahIt’s been a hard darts night
And I’m really having trouble
It’s been a hard darts night
‘Cause I can’t hit the f’n double
But I’ll be back for some more
Because I’m just a darts whore
And that makes me feel alright
Yeah, I won’t quit my day job. Oh, wait…
Coincidentally, today marks the 40th anniversary of John Lennon’s murder. RIP.
Congrats on the darts victory. These often seem to play out like the final bouts in the “Rocky” series of movies (Rocky II, III, IV, and V, anyway): Rocky gets his ass pounded for two-thirds of the fight, then he suddenly finds himself and fights his way back to a decisive win. I guess there’s something motivating about being in the losers’ bracket.
Glad to see you getting back into the groove and winning dart tournaments again. You have the gift in you !
Sorry to hear about your possible relocation. It is a bit of an awkward situation. But the person that you had originally allowed to live on your property is no longer with us, so technically their family has no rights to continue living there. The extended family definitely doesn’t deserve to live there on your dime if they were not even there at the outset. It’s probably near impossible to ask them politely to not turn on that karaoke machine now, so I guess an eviction or a relocation is in order.
Your house is quite huge, as are many others on your estate. Is there some sort of middle ground? A smaller place like an apartment (with a guard upfront for safety), which is easier to maintain and a little cheaper, but still far away to not hear the karaoke on a nightly basis? That would be the sweet spot . But now since you have dogs I guess a big house with a yard and a high fence is what you’re aiming for.
I seem to remember a line you wrote some time ago, about no matter how long you may live in the country,you’re still a foreigner and you’d still want to live your own lifestyle rather than adopt the local cultures wholesale. Which is good, because I can’t imagine you drinking Red Horse and singing loudly every other night:)
Good luck with the decision either way. I am sure you will find a place that suits your needs.
Thanks for the writing. Enjoy the ‘new normal’.
Kev, Yep, sometimes the loser’s bracket is nice because you don’t have as much waiting around time between matches. That doesn’t counter the advantage of making the championship in the winners bracket–then your opponent has to beat you twice to prevail.
James, yeah. It was quiet here last night. Seriously, before I’d move I’d just tell them the karaoke goes or you do. The widow is a nice woman and her family is friendly and all, it just seems strange to have several people residing in what amounts to a small room. It has a toilet, small fridge, and a burner stove. We’ll see how that goes. I guess technically the widow is my employee now. When her husband died the landlord heartlessly cut the pay. So, I help fill the gap. She does work hard around the complex.
Alta Vista is really the only gated community within Barretto and I do like the elevation–nice view and no flooding. So, if I do ever decide to move I’d probably look for another place here.
And yes, you are correct I don’t believe I would enjoy being assimilated into the culture. I get invites to join in the singing and drinking but almost always decline…it’s just not my thing..
John, when I saw the title of your latest posting, “But that was yesterday”, I already knew what song you would reference at the bottom of your entry.
“YESTERDAY”, by the Fab Four. Well, you fooled me, even though I picked the right musical group. I like the pic of you and Santa’s helpers. Santa’s helpers make me want to stuff a stocking (wink wink). Can’t believe John Lennon is gone 40 years. Seems like YESTERDAY it all went tragically down at the Dakota. On a bright note, Yoko is going strong, at I believe 87. we should all be so lucky as her. Peace Out!
Soju, well as a matter of fact I was referencing a song with that title, but I guess you ain’t old enough to get the reference. You’ve probably never even heard of Chad and Jeremy. I should thank you because I went and listened to it again to find this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UqEG0a_FOE
It’s a nice song!
If the karaoke is (or has been) the only problem with the caretaker and her family, it doesn’t seem to rise to the level of having to move because of it.
I am not a very confrontational person, but I think letting her know no music after XX o’clock is a reasonable ask. You hold all the cards so to speak, so I would not think she would want to upset her boss (whether or not you are officially that or not).
Yeah, Brian, I agree. A bit of an overreaction because I was still pissed when I wrote this post. Tonight when I came home they had moved the karaoke to the vacant house next door. That works for me (I couldn’t hear it from the upstairs bedroom), Not sure how they came to that decision to sing elsewhere, my helper denies saying anything to them and I hadn’t yet. I must have been putting out some seriously negative vibes!
John, this is really weird. Last night, I was watching some old Dick Van Dyke show episodes. There is an episode (#113) which aired in early 1965, and featured, you guessed it, Chad and Jeremy.
Had never heard of these guys before, but I had listened to the youtube link you posted above. As I was watching this show, these two guys, not exactly playing themselves but playing themselves with a different name, look familiar and yup, the credits at the end of the show listed them as Chad and Jeremy.
Just thought it was quite a coincidence that these two guys would pop up on a random show I was watching, considering I had just learned who they were from a blog post from 1/2 around the world. LOL
Maybe I should go out and buy a lottery ticket.
That’s hilarious, Brian. I’m actually quite impressed that you are watching old episodes of Dick Van Dyke. Damn, I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen that show. May have to go see if I can find it.