More Monday Musings

It's been awhile, hasn't it.  While I have a few minutes, I'm going to jot down some things that have occurred to me in my absence.

--  I don't know how many people will agree with this, but I think that two very underrated American actors are Stanley Tucci and John Tuturro.  Given the breadth of the roles that they've had, I'm shocked one of them hasn't won an Oscar for best supporting actor yet.  They're both so versatile.

--  Why does everyone insist on calling Kate Upton beautiful?  She's a moderately attractive young woman with an enormous natural chest.

--  One night coming home from teaching, I was able to drive twenty-eight miles using cruise control without having to break or slow down once.  Yesterday I again drove somewhere on the expressway using cruise control without having to break, but it was a much shorter distance.  I can't believe that in all the trips Karen and I have made -- which have been for a considerable distance many a time -- that I've been able to duplicate this once.

--  I simply don't understand the need for people to use, much less overuse, exclamation marks.  It's tantamount to using all caps intentionally.  Either the person is overly excited about something, overly geeked unnecessarily or just unclear on the rules of punctuation mark usage.

--  Speaking of unnecessary things, I forgot to include something in my list of what I don't like about Christmas:  Unnecessary insincerities.  These are usually found in the mailbox from the person who cuts our lawn or the person who delivers our newspaper or the person who delivers our mail.  Let's call it what it really is:  Marketing.  This has about as much to do with Christmas as panhandling has to do with practicing to flip pancakes with an iron skillet.

--  A week ago,  Custer dawdled so long in doing his second round of business before I left for work that I forgot I'd put my book on the roof of the car and drove off with it on the roof.  I realized when I got to work that I'd done this and worried that it was gone.  My worry multiplied when I remembered that are road was being graded that day (we live on a country road).  Imagine my relief when Karen told me our reliable neighbors out a sign that read Book Found On Road.  I'm almost done finishing it now, and I'm going to lend it to our dear friends across the road so they can enjoy it too.

--  I  am witnessing too many people driving in and out of traffic trying to improve their position at speeds topping eighty miles an hour.  Karen says that I can never be sure, that those people may be in a rush to get to the hospital.  The way I see it, they're headed for the hospital one of these days the way they're driving.

--  On a similar note, I've been rudely cut off two times for parking spaces in the last three weeks.  I have enough trouble finding parking spaces legitimately to have jackholes competing with me for spots.  One of these days it's not going to end well for these people.  I'm going to be buying a lot of chalk.

--  Christmas shopping is fun when it's for other people.

-- While out shopping yesterday we were helped by a pleasant young woman with whom we chatted about engagements and such.  Karen wandered off to look at something while I settled up, and I said something off the cuff about not giving up on men, despite the fact that this woman had been engaged three times.  Actually, she said, I've been engaged once to a man and twice to women.  I guess you could say I'm a bit of a free spirit.

You don't say....

--  Having a cat nuzzle my face at two or three in the morning is now SOP for bedtime.  If you'd told me a year ago that that would be happening to me I'd have laughed in your face.

-- It hit fifty degrees today.  No, I'm not apologizing to Al Gore.

--  Speaking of movies, Karen and I rented Jersey Boys the other night.  I didn't know what to expect, although I'd heard good things about the movie.  I was surprised by the backstory, but when the movie moved into the 70's, it got quite nostalgic for me, listening to the songs I grew up on.  And Christopher Walken is always entertaining.

--  Coke or Pepsi?  I'll take Dr. Pepper, thank you.

(c) 2014 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles