what happened to the sign?
I walked past "Giant Burgers, 18 Different
Beers" this morning and noticed the sign is gone! Instead
of "Giant Burgers, 18 Different Beers" it's a blank brick
red space. They obviously painted over it. Maybe it's not
the image Justin's wanted to convey. Who knows. The
restaurant hasn't changed hands or anything. It's still
Justin's.
So instead of a kitschy painting of a humungous burger
and foamy beers - a blank. Hey, at least it doesn't fill
me with unutterable longing for beer and burgers with my
old buddies anymore!
Oh, the courtyard was empty this morning. Evidently
that woman
finished her beer and got over her cloud gazing...
where are the regulars?
Anne sans JoJo
Anne was at Starbucks without JoJo - he's at camp. She
was talking to a South African woman I've met a few times
before. They were talking about kids. I joined them for
awhile as Anne explained my credentials for talking about
kids - I am Super Aunt, Stepford Aunt, Robo-Aunt... I can
see the other woman is not impressed with my impeccable
child development credentials.
No Tom
I haven't seen Tom all week. I saw Ned briefly on
Monday but not since then. I haven't seen Julie in weeks.
Dick and Richard never come in anymore. I see Richard on
the street from time to time.
Philosophy Larry vs. an unnamed state college
I haven't seen Philosophy ¬Larry since the state
college budget cuts were announced. All I heard on the
radio was that students would still be allowed to major
in physics and chemistry at one of the colleges in
western Mass. - nothing about philosophy... I checked the
paper and there was nothing about it in the
Boston Globe or the Lawrence Eagle
Tribune. Evidently this isn't big news...
QI on Hokkaido
QI aka Language Larry has moved up to the wilds of
northern Maine for the summer. I won't see him again til
the fall semester. He's going to Hokkaido on his
sabbatical starting in January (I know I've written this
a billion times) and I promised to give him some info
about flights to/from Sapporo and stuff like that
there... he's researching the work of some Portuguese
writer/explorer who visited Hokkaido early on...
sometimes call the Portuguese Lafcadio Hearn... I did not
meet people who worked on stuff like this when I worked
in high tech.
Save the Bay
e-mail to save the bay
I e-mailed Save the Bay about the pipeline and have
not heard back from them. I am surprised that I heard
from Algonquin Gas faster than from Save the Bay, but
then Algonquin Gas has a bigger PR row to hoe...
under the harbor
Nancy talked to someone who works for some enviro
cleanup organization who said there is already a pipeline
under the harbor and they buried it way way deep so it
does no environmental damage. I suppose nothing is likely
to blow up underneath the harbor but I'm still not sure
about underneath the bike path.
crackpot or schoolkid?
My e-mail to Save the Bay probably sounded like either
a crackpot or a school kid. I have been having immense
trouble expressing myself in adult businesslike terms
these days. I don't get that much "adult"
conversation....
adult conversation
transactions
What is adult conversation anyway?Anne was lamenting
her lack of adult conversation the other day. She's a
stay at home Mom with 2 little boys. She asked if I
missed working as a source of adult conversation. Gee! We
didn't' have conversations at Cosmodemonic (not its real
name), we had transactions! Everything was a transaction.
Sometimes a negotiation. Never a conversation. There was
no time to schmooze by the coffee machine asking "How
'bout those Patriots!" or "Did you read the latest
so-and-so novel?" Nobody had time to read novels. If you
weren't devoting every waking moment to Cosmodemonic
there was something wrong with you and you'd hear about
it. Usually via voice mail.
what adults really talk about
It mellowed after awhile and we did sometimes have
social conversations, but I was lonelier there than I
have ever been in my life. Endless rounds of "which
patches have they got installed? why isn't the fix to bug
290988795235429834 in Patch 1231259723490? you're going
to Japan tomorrow go home and get a clean shirt before
your plane leaves..." just don't satisfy the soul at
least for me. Don't get me wrong. I love problem solving
and I'm damned good at it and I can talk shop
knowledgeably and happily but after awhile there's no
real content... it isn't humans having the
conversation...it's androids...
where did you put the car keys?
I read somewhere a long time ago that real adult
conversations consist of things like "Where did you put
the car keys?". I know I have this burning question to
ask Kevin: "Where did you put the bug repellent?" These
are the things adults need to communicate about. Who
cares if there is a God or original sin? Where's the
aspirin?
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