First things first, today is the third anniversary of my relationship with Swan. That’s quite a milestone given my long history of failing at love. My goal is to make this love last a lifetime. Wish me luck!

As far as yesterday went, the most significant event was me getting grumpy. That’s not particularly unusual, but I don’t recall it happening in a place named “It Doesn’t Matter.” It did to me. And yeah, it wasn’t a big deal, but I still found it irksome enough to spoil my visit. Here’s what happened: When I’m at IDM, I always sit on the outdoor patio. There are two tables out there and several chairs that line a countertop facing the road. I prefer the tables, but when I arrived, both were occupied with customers, so I took a seat at the counter and ordered up a beer while I awaited Swan’s arrival. I noted one of the table customers had a couple of the waitresses sitting with him, and he bought them lady drinks and some food. When he finally got up and left, I prepared to claim my table. Except the waitresses continued to sit there chatting away and playing with their phones. I figured maybe the customer was coming back and they were saving his table. Except he didn’t return, and they both acted like I wasn’t even there. I finally got up, went inside the bar, and got another beer. You’d think they’d take the hint, but they didn’t. So, when I finished my beer, I went back inside, paid my tab, and departed. No one inside seemed concerned about the failure of the wait staff outside to perform their duties. The owner wasn’t there, and it seems there is no one around to manage the place since Cliff and Ashley left for greener pastures at Red Bar. Yeah, I could have said something to the table loungers, and in hindsight, perhaps I should have. But as a long-standing regular customer at IDM, I shouldn’t have to. There are lots of other options in Barretto, and with things being so slow these days, I’m sure my business will be appreciated elsewhere.

Okay, rant over. And I acknowledge that if that’s the worst thing that happened to me yesterday, it was still a pretty fine day.

It’s the rainy season, and the threatening skies limited my hike options. So, I played it safe and did the boring Barretto street walk. Got in a little over 6K but didn’t see anything worthy of pausing to take a photo. On the bright side, I only had to pull my umbrella out twice during the journey.

I didn’t let the IDM thing spoil the rest of my evening either. We stopped by Sit-n-Bull for some grub, and I had a tasty shaved ham sandwich. Then we headed next door to Wet Spot for our nightcap and enjoyed ourselves as usual. The big difference between Wet Spot and The Jungle is that manager Brett plays songs we old-timers like, probably because he is one of us.

I didn’t have a thing to complain about for the rest of the evening and went home for a contented night’s sleep.

I’ve been refraining from politics lately because what’s the point when minds aren’t going to change anyway. I do enjoy laughing along sometimes, though:

I don’t mess around with AI much, but the Meta version on Facebook offered to fix up one of my old photos, so I hit the “okay” button.

Like this one, from Facebook memories today:

Continuing on with the June 2020 LTG archives, and I’m Seriously wondering if I might be better off alone. A nice benefit of this journey through the archives is being reminded of the hows and whys that led me to where I am today. Jessa has told me she doesn’t think I’m serious about her, and the best response I had to that was “sorry you feel that way.” Well, I figured it was my fault that things didn’t work out, but she was better off without me. A great woman, but I was unworthy. And here I am today celebrating three years with Swan, so I guess it was just a matter of timing.

Today’s YouTube video is a short one (less than three minutes), and the Filipina vlogger explains why the tide is turning against us old white guys when it comes to relationships. Yep, the local gals prefer men their age and of the same heritage who share a common language and culture. Go figure.

Humor time:

A guy was sitting quietly reading his paper when his wife walked up behind him and whacked him on the head with a rolled-up magazine.

“What the hell was that for?” he asked.

“That was for the piece of paper in your pants pocket with the name Mary Lou written on it,” she replied.

“But you don’t understand,” he pleaded. “Two weeks ago when I went to the races, Mary Lou was the name of one of the horses I bet on.”

“Oh honey, I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have known there was a good explanation.”

Three days later he was watching a ball game on TV when she walked up and hit him in the head again, this time with the iron skillet, which knocked him out cold. When he came to, he asked, “What was that for?” he pleaded.

“Your horse just called!”

Just say it was Mr. Ed’s girlfriend.

And there you have it. It’s raining again today, and I’ve got another birthday party to attend at Alley Hideout. Oh, and I was sad to see that Bonnie Tyler passed away yesterday at the tender age of 75. I’ll leave you with one of my favorite songs of hers:

(Oh, and keep scrolling for the parody version I heard for the first time today)