Late September

Touger and I don’t have a keyboard or piano, still.  We do have a white Washburn acoustic guitar, but it’s getting old and though it’s smaller, it’s still too big for my hands.  So, here’s where the story begins:

It was my birthday in late September and the Friday before my birthday, Touger, in his best shirt, took me to Guitar Center after work!  I knew he was messin’ with me…but I was hoping!  As we entered the acoustic guitar room, Touger pointed to the Baby Taylor.  Too small.  I entered through the glass doors (you know which ones I’m talking about) where the Taylor and Marshall guitars hung like gems against the wooden walls.  The Big Baby Taylor just didn’t cut it.  It was bigger than the Baby but smaller than a regular sized guitar; however, the neck was still too big.  Not only that, I didn’t like the shape of the body or the looks of it in general.  I picked it up anyway and played.  Um, too muffled.  Touger concurred.  How about the 100 series 114ce?  Ooo…the sound was great, but still, too big.  Darn!  I knew I wasn’t going to go home with one…but I didn’t even find one that I would want .  We went to check out the keyboards instead but I wasn’t in the mood anymore.  Oh well.  I was disappointed, but I couldn’t let Touger get me…so I walked out smiling .

Falling in like with America?

Photo by jcolman

(This happened at work.  This is a true story.)

I’m in the car with an older gentleman (he’s 80 years old!) and he tells me that he and his wife, after they retired, were hoping to live on the West coast.  I ask him why they ended up on the other side of the country.

He replied, “We traveled up and down the West coast but didn’t like any of the houses we saw.  We didn’t like Oregon or Washington.  And well California is messed up, you know, because of all the foreigners.”

Being an older man, most of the time I would let him slide when he said things that I didn’t agree with (e.g., “We need to get rid of all the liberals in the government so that we can fill it up with conservatives who care about us!”)

However, I was not going to let him slide on this one.

“What do you mean when you say that ‘foreigners have messed things up?’” I ask him.

He struggles and stammers then responds by saying, “I mean… You know… I mean… Not their personality or anything.  It’s just that… Well, my son works in Los Angeles and he worked as a photographer and went to the poor parts of the city and you know…  They… They don’t even like America!”