So, I’m crossing a side street near the U.S. Embassy today and I hear a whistle fervently blowing. Turns out it was a Korean cop getting on me for jaywalking. Who even knew they had whistles? I mean, all these years I’ve been dodging motorbikes on the sidewalks of Seoul and nary a tweet from the local constabulary.
So, selective enforcement or racism? Or both?
So, I signed up for a singles dart league here in Itaewon. Last night was the first for competition. The format is “a race to 9”, meaning you keeping playing until someone wins 9 legs (games). Potentially, that can require throwing 17 straight games. I was fortunate enough to take my match 9 straight. I’m not sure I’d have the gas to go much more.
Anyway, it should be interesting and it will give me the opportunity to throw a lot of darts and hopefully improve my game. Although I doubt I’ll ever throw quite as well as I did last night again…
Or so it seems.
Yesterday Jee Yeun and I had our semi-annual doctor appointments with Dr. Yoo at Soonchunhwang University Hospital.
Jee Yeun is doing fine and I’m still too fat.
When Dr. Yoo completed his examination of Jee Yeun I said “Doctor, Jee Yeun frequently complains of being bored. Can you prescribe something for that?”
Without missing a beat he replied “Viagra.”
…we wouldn’t be in this mess. C’mon, you know it’s true.
In California people double the value of their car every time they fill the tank!
Energy Secretary Cho said it was desirable for U.S. fuel prices to rise to European levels. Finally, an Obama administration success!
Meanwhile we sit on oil reserves equal to all the known reserves in the Middle East. Unemployment soars, and we won’t drill oil, build pipelines, and jump start the economy by reducing our dependence on expensive imported oil.
I keep hearing Obama talk about raising taxes on the middle class. Hell, the price of gas has almost doubled on his watch. And that has a disproportionate impact on the poor and working class.
The country is in the very best of hands.
This time we played a supercricket format at Pub Dolce Vita.
Your humble blog host and his partner Chris Werner took home first place money…
…and the fans went wild!
As is our custom, following the tourney we retired to a favorite restaurant for some fine Korean delicacies (in this case Don Valley for samgyapsal).
Tonight is league night in Itaewon where I’ll be making my first appearance of the season with Dolce Vita’s What the Bulls? team.
Ain’t life grand?
Successfully completed the long journey to Korea. Full flight (isn’t it always?) out of Atlanta. Jee Yeun and I wound up seated in the “baby row” again. Two one year old kids–one was mostly sweet and calm, the other was a screamer. All right, no one wants to be jarred from an already uncomfortable sleep repeatedly, but it’s hard to blame the kids. I’m pretty miserable confined to my seat but at least I can watch movies and periodically move around. For a child to have to sit on mommie’s lap for 14 hours must be torture for them both. Whatever aggravation I felt was more than overcome by empathy for parents in an “I’m so damn glad that’s not me” kinda way.
After a good night’s sleep and an afternoon nap, it was time to renew my acquaintance with Itaewon. Ran into my nephew Justin on the street and we had a couple of beers together at Dolce Vita. Then it was off to Itaewon’s newest dart bar, the Beer and Barrel for a little tournament action.
A third place finish for me and my partner Bridget.
Some hanging out and drinking with friends…
And a dinner of galbi and sides to cap the evening.
Tonight it’s back to Itaewon for a supercricket tournament at Dolce Vita.
I guess you could say I’ve gotten what I came for.
Last time we were in Korea our garage refrigerator stopped working when the GFCI tripped. This wouldn’t have been a big deal except for the fish we had in the freezer. It took weeks to get rid of the smell. Hell, for all I know it still stinks and I’ve just gotten used to it.
To avoid a repeat of that fiasco, before departing we gave all our stock of frozen fish to my daughter-in-law. She just informed me that she forget about the fish and left them in her trunk.
It’s been 85 degrees this week in South Carolina.
The mail must go through. Snail mail at least. I’ve had email with aol from the beginning of time. Well, internet time anyway. And I never switched to the glamor babies like gmail simply because after all these years people now how to find me. It would be great if you could have your email forwarded like the post office does, but apparently that is just a dream for the future.
I bring this up because when I tried to log onto my email account I got a message that it has been “blocked” due to “suspicious activity”. Hmm. So, at first there was a screen for changing my password. The security questions it asked were the last four digits of my SSN and my birth date. That seemed plenty suspicious to me because that kind of personal info can get you past most gatekeepers (like bank accounts). Concerned someone was Phishing, I logged off aol and tried again. This time it didn’t ask the security questions, just said I was “blocked”.
There was an 800 number provided (lot of good that does me in Korea!). Well, I’ve called it on my dime 3 times now and got the same message about “due to unusually high call volume” I have to call later.
I had the bright idea of sending them an email to inquire as to what was going on, but when I tried to log on I got this message about my account being blocked…
Shutting it down around the old South Carolina homestead.
Ant poison in the yard. Seeds in the bird feeder. (Damn, I hope I got those in the right order. I guess I’ll know if I return to find ants devouring the carcasses of dead birds).
Furling the Taeguki (and Old Glory) until our return.
And putting the trusty kimchi pot away.
A tad more packing to do.
A money dart tournament tonight at the Duck.
A little sleep, then off to the airport in the early morning hours.
UPDATE: Ok, got just about everything in the suitcases. Had to do some shuffling around to get the two big bags under 50 pounds. It’s close, but I should be golden…
It’s October 1950 in my journey through LIFE. The troops in Korea have captured Pyongyang. The headline reads: Hard Hitting UN Forces Wind Up War. Kim Sung Il has apparently fled to Manchuria. MacArthur says the war is won.
Alas, it was not to be.
Oh boy.
But here’s a day in the life for you anyway:
They took my neighbor away in an ambulance this morning. I hope things work out for him, but I’ll not be surprised if he isn’t here when I return.
So, through some mystery of physics a goodly portion of my clothing seems to have shrunk while hanging in my closet over the years. Nothing to be done about it, so I loaded them up in the automobile and gave them a ride over to the Goodwill store. At the bottom of that pile is a 47″ flat screen TV. I brought it home all the way from Korea and then I learned just how unforgiving electricity can be. You can read all about that unfortunate incident here. Also donated were a set of home theater speakers, a dog carrier for my parent’s now deceased dog, and a couple of used up designer purses.
After leaving those treasures behind (thanks for the memories!), it was on to downtown Columbia to visit the Registrar of Voters. There was a surprisingly large crowd of folks there to register and/or cast an absentee ballot. After suffering the line and completing the appropriate paperwork I exercised my right of suffrage.
Of course, voting is a private matter and I work hard to maintain a neutral political stance here at LTG. Alright, maybe I don’t work that hard at it. Suffice to say, I hold the view that we are Taxed Enough Already and voted accordingly.
Next stop was my credit union where I withdrew some cash money that I will soon convert to Korean won in order to pay for life’s necessities these next three months. Well, I’m going to buy beer and Jee Yeun is going to pay her taxes. And we’ll be eating out a lot at our favorite Korean restaurants I suppose.
I also needed to get a document notarized, a service my credit union has ably performed for me on numerous occasions. To my chagrin, the notary advised that they cannot notarize “legal documents”. I pointed out that this was the same type document I’d had notarized before, so she went to get a manager. The manager came up front and said “I’m sorry” which I interpreted to mean go fuck yourself. So, I left an unhappy camper.
In a tragedy of epic proportions, Jee Yeun ran out of kimchi last night. I was quite certain that she would be suffering severe withdrawal symptoms prior to our Friday arrival in Korea and I can’t stand to see the poor girl suffer. So it was off to the Korean market for a small batch of that pickled delight to tide her over. That put a big smile on her face, believe me.
Next on my itinerary was the Bank of America to make a deposit. I had Jee Yeun stand in a longish teller line while I hunted down a bank official to see if they might be willing to notarize a legal document. To my relief they had no qualms about doing so and soon enough the task was completed. Assa!
The final stop on my quest was the Kroger supermarket for some necessary supplies to sustain me in the Land of the Morning Calm.
Just the bare necessities, mind you.
And now you know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall. Or not.
I guess I’ll call it sickness gone
It’s hard to say to say the meaning of this song
An ambulance can only go so fast
It’s easy to get buried in the past
When you try to make the good thing last.
–Neil Young
Spare me the fireworks. Please.
And yes, I’ve been around to long enough to know that it is all bluff and bluster.
I used to enjoy Farmer John bacon, but this is ridiculous.
Landsharks.
Too much of nothing
Can make a man ill at ease
One man’s temper might rise
While another man’s temper might freeze
In the day of confession
We cannot mock a soul
Oh, when there’s too much of nothing
No one has control.
–Bob Dylan
Winding down my last couple of days in the USA until next year. I’m looking forward to being back in Korea for awhile, although truth be told I guess I’m also feeling ambivalent. Nothing I can put my finger, just in general I guess. Ah, but this too shall pass.
In other news I’ve decided posting on Facebook is a waste of time and energy. So, I’m going to stop wasting time and energy posting there. Lord knows, there’s plenty of other things to waste my time doing. Like writing worthless shit like this on my blog.
I continue to work on my dart game and hopefully I’ll continue to improve. I’ve got the added motivation of joining my Korea team mid-season which is going to force a reduction in playing time for the current players. Shooting well will go a long way to silence any dissension my presence may arouse, but it is somewhat pressuring. We shall see.
I suppose that’s enough nothing for one day.
If it walks like a duck, and squawks like a duck, it must be a duck. Right?
Right?
(A Toyota commercial from Japan, a Korean music video, and some classic 70s rock and roll)
I only wish I had the wisdom to be more compassionate, but I am afraid to try.
