Candyland

The day’s big event was the candy walk with Swan as she handed out sweets to the kids we encountered along the way. Here’s how it looked:

Changing from flipflops to hiking shoes
That rooftop in the distance is our first stop along this route
Bound and determined
Here they come
Into the woods
Then into the Hills
The village chapel
On the quiet “streets” of Marian Hills
Sweets for the sweet
Two of our regulars
A beautiful morning to be out and about
Come and get it, little one
Besieged
Long and straight
Easter’s over!
That bridge again…gets ricketier every time we cross.
Valley view
Crossing over Bridge #4
Goodness gracious!
Looking for handouts
A come to Jesus moment
Crossing Bridge #3
Gimme, gimme!
Ain’t she sweet?
Back to work
Back across Bridge #1
Out of candy and out of gas at 8K.

I took Swan out for a Saturday night dinner at Myleen’s.

Swan enjoyed her lasagna
The shredded beef enchiladas were good, too. I ate one and brought the other home for breakfast this morning, part of my effort to reduce portion sizes.

After dinner, we had a nightcap at Wet Spot. Then, we made it an early night and headed home at 7:30. I’m getting so damn domesticated.

Speaking of the diet, I’ve lost 3.6 pounds this week (7.1 overall). A little frustrated that I haven’t lost anything since Wednesday, but at least I’m not gaining. I may have to do something radical like reduce my beer consumption. We’ll see. I’m back to see Dr. Jo on Tuesday for a follow-up visit and progress check.

To be fair and politically balanced, I’ll post this Biden campaign ad:

I believe you

Facebook memories reminded me of an incident back in 2015 when I was still a smoker.

I went to the neighborhood 7-11 to buy some smokes. As is my custom, I told the clerk, “dongbae Marlboro silver chuseyo”. He pointed at the black pack, and I said, “Anio, silver.” He pointed at the gold pack, and I repeated, “Silver.” I finally had to gesture to where the ones I wanted were. He pulled them from the rack, pointed at the word silver, and proceeded to instruct me on how to pronounce the word “silver.” Apparently, it’s “sil-buh.” Who knew? Still, it was a unique experience having a Korean try and teach me how to properly say an English word.

On this day in 2017, I attended a meeting with the USFK Korean Employees Union reps and the American Ambassador to Korea.

Apparently, I was the only left-handed person there.

Over at Althouse, there was a post where a young American woman talked about the advantages of being with an older man.

“I could study all I wanted, prove myself as exceptional as I liked, and still my fiercest advantage remained so universal it deflated my other plans. My youth. The newness of my face and body. Compellingly effortless; cruelly fleeting…. I could diligently craft an ideal existence, over years and years of sleepless nights and industry. Or I could just marry it early. So naturally I began to lug a heavy suitcase of books each Saturday to the Harvard Business School to work on my Nabokov paper. In one cavernous, well-appointed room sat approximately 50 of the planet’s most suitable bachelors…. I could not understand why my female classmates did not join me…. Why ignore our youth when it amounted to a superpower?…”

Grazie Sophia Christie, in “The Case for Marrying an Older Man/A woman’s life is all work and little rest. An age gap relationship can help.”

Anyway, it made me smile because almost all foreigner/Filipina relationships feature a considerable age gap (mine is 68-39). But it is no surprise that there are advantages for all concerned in these autumn-spring romances.

Let’s do the Quora Q&A thing:

Q: Who, as a previous boss, canceled the vacation time of an employee? Why? Did you offer something else?

A:  I wasn’t the boss, but had it happen to me. Back when I was a letter carrier with the USPS we had to “bid” on vacation dates based on seniority. Only a certain percentage of employees were allowed to be off at any given time. Anyway, I had the first week in June, and another guy had the second week. A few days after the bidding was over, the other carrier came to me and said his plans had changed and would I mind switching with him. I didn’t have anything going on that week, so I said sure, let’s clear it with the boss. So we approached the supervisor and told him what we wanted to do. He replied, no problem and instructed us both to fill out a leave form canceling the approved time off and then fill out another form requesting the new dates. And so we did just that.

Once he had our cancellation forms, he took our names off the board showing approved leave. And then he DENIED our new leave requests, saying another carrier was on extended leave, and so the maximum number of carriers was already off. In other words, both of us lost our planned leave. He was gleeful as he told us, and it was obvious he had suckered us into canceling our prior approved leave.

So, all these years later, I just want to say thank you, Mr. Frank Nathan. Your actions that day caused me to join the union and later become a shop steward and eventually the president of the local union branch. My work with the union impressed the HR Director, and she promoted me into my first management job. I had over 35 years of government service when I retired as GS-15 Human Resources Director, and I’m now living a happy life on my pension in the Philippines.

No hard feelings, Frank. I’m still alive, and I’m sure you are not.

Time for the daily dose of (so-called) humor:

That sucks
Baaah!

Sunday feeding at Hideaway and some Arizona floating bar time are on tap for this evening. Hasta la vista for now.

I can’t remember if I used this song before or not. Either way, I guess it is worth hearing again.

4 thoughts on “Candyland

  1. A come to Jesus moment

    Looks as if Jesus has taken over for Yoda.

    Back across Bridge #1

    Bridge #1 looks kind of pitted and dangerous.

    He pointed at the black pack, and I said, “Anio, silver.”

    The Korean word for “silver” is eun-saek/은색.

    Apparently, it’s “sil-buh.” Who knew?

    Usually the pronunciation rule is that, if an “s” sound comes before an “ee” or “ih” sound, the “s” becomes an “sh,” so “shil-buh.” Ask a Korean to say “A-B-C,” and he’ll say “Ey, Bee, Shee.”

    I can’t remember if I used this song before or not. Either way, I guess it is worth hearing again.

    You did, and I responded with this.

  2. Yeah, there is signage up now saying Bridge #1 will be repaired. It is the only vehicle access to a large San Isidro neighborhood, and it is also only one lane. I don’t know how they can fix it without closing it, and I don’t know how they can close it without isolating several hundred homes. I hope no one needs an ambulance.

    Yeah, it was just weird being told how to pronounce an English word. I should have said, Oh, you mean eun-saek?

    Damn, now I remember! Love that version of the song and the ashes disposal. The worst part of dementia is all the cool things you forget.

  3. I assume that Bridge #1 is the crossing closest to the red dot on your map above?

  4. Yes, it is. I can see the bridge from my house, but because of the river, you have to go all the way to the highway then back up to Alta Vista. The red dot is where I said “fuck that” and caught a trike.

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