From today's Sunday 'funnies':

If bologna is pronounced 'baloney', then why isn't lasagna pronounced 'lasahney'?

For some reason, I couldn't get Fire TV on my Smart Samsung t.v.

After trying to see if the app was compatible (it wasn't), I went another way.

Bought an Amazon Firestick.

It had the highest rating on Consumer Reports.

So I bought one. It came in the mail today and only took me a few minutes to hook up.

Now I can enjoy the programming I was watching on a smaller Fire TV set.

Let the fun... continue!

I have a friend I've known almost my entire life. He is a Liberal Democrat.

He posted something on Facebook yesterday that had me shaking my head.

He was getting (as usual) self-righteous about the Republican National Convention and what they were saying in their speeches.

I told him that to watch something he doesn't like is only going to feed his anger...

and increase the t.v. ratings of the program.

I haven't heard back from him.

Took a drive through the old 'hood recently.

My, oh my how the area has changed.

There are only random streets where the homeowners maintain their properties now. The rest look ghetoish, with unmown lawns and junk cars sitting out in the front yards.

It was a beautiful, sunny summer day and not one child was to be seen outside playing or riding bicycles.

My family moved into the neighborhood on my sixth birthday. We had lived in town, but Dad wanted some space and to live in the suburbs, like everyone else seemed to be doing at that time. Our neighborhood was situated north of a major highway that went through some small towns to the east and ran straight through downtown and west out of town. It had a population of roughly 2,500.

We lived a long block west of the brand new elementary school that opened that fall.

My Dad, like most of the other dads in the area, worked in one of the two large factories in town. Almost all of our parents had moved to my hometown after WWII from Kentucky, Tennessee and even West Virginia for the good paying jobs, which turned southerners from farms into the growing middle class. It was an ideal environment to grow up in.

Almost every day after school we would play whatever sport was in season - pickup, or as the call it now, sandlot games. In the winter we would even shovel the snow around the basketball courts behind the school and play with gloves on until we were heated up.

On Saturdays we could take the city bus into town, where we would go see movies at the theaters, then go to a cafe for a coke (and maybe some fries) before heading home.

All of that has gone away. The big factories all closed down (the last one over 10 years ago). The school was deemed 'out of date' and closed as well. There are no movie theaters downtown any more. Houses were built on the lots where we used to play baseball and football.

It's hard to drive around the area now without feeling a large loss as there is nothing left to remind one of their youth.

Changes aren't always for the best.

Life goes on.

~

It's amazing how quickly one can scroll through Facebook postings once you 'unfollow' all of your political-minded friends.

One of the few non-rock songs of the Disco era I really like:


Herb Albert was always a gas, man.

You always hear people complaining about Mondays.

Complaints about going back to work and lamenting the weekend being over.

But think about it -

What is the first day of the week listed on calendars?

Sunday

It's like we start off the week with a day off.

Monday's get a bad rap. The day we should focus on is Tuesday, the boringest day of the week.

I dreamed last night that the last child on earth was born.

I asked the obvious question:

How can this be the last child born when there are billions of people on this planet?

A booming voice (God? A higher power? Aliens?) simply said:

THINK ABOUT IT.

~

When a love affair first starts, the stars are in your eyes and you swear you'll love that special someone forever:


If you're not lucky and it doesn't last, one will say to the other:


And so it goes.

~

One more trip around the sun.

I have a roof over my head, clothes on my back, food to eat, a job, money in the bank, my health and a good car.

Everything else is gravy and I am a happy camper.