Friends - A Bad Week

Me waiting at Dover Subaru yesterday for my Forester oil change

Hi folks.  I had several ideas for unique and interesting postings but I'm just not up to it after events of the past week and the one BIG upcoming event of Monday, undergoing a prostate biopsy procedure.  I've written about this before and won't go into it again here but it is one my mind and affecting my mood and enthusiasm.  I was supposed to get this procedure last year but changed my mind but have decided to do it this year just to rule out any possibility that I have prostate cancer.

So here are some of my random thoughts are things bothering me right now.  

My cousin Jana - I doubt if I'm violating her privacy by posting this picture of her with her cat

Notice that the picture of the cat I had at the top of this blog is now gone.  That's because it was a picture I took of a former friend's cat.  He sent me an e-mail stating that I post "everything online."  Well actually, I don't post "everything online" but he did say I was violating his privacy by posting a picture of his cat. He has a every right to do that so I took the photo down and replaced it with my dog Horace the day we got him as a puppy in 1982.  Bill is holding him in his lap.  I can post this photo because Bill doesn't think I'm "violating his privacy."  Notice that I mention "former friend." I know where his attitude is coming from.  It's coming from another former friend who was ended our friendship because he took offense to something I said on one of my previous blog posts.  I think it was something about me not giving advice in the future when asked for it because my advice is rarely if ever taken.  He took offense and sent me an e-mail saying "Sorry I wasted your time....bye."  Sort of a flimsy excuse to end a friendship don't you think?  I did too.

Me with my friend Bob's cat - I don't I'm violating his privacy by posting this picture of his cat 

I sent an e-mail back to my former friend and told him I removed the picture that so violating his privacy.  I also told him to stop reading my blogs if he is so offended.  I also suggested to him to tell my other former friend (who is a friend of his) to stop reading my blog if it so offends him.  What is it with these people?  

My friend Larry with his cat - have I violated your privacy Larry?

So you see folks.  It's been a bad week. Someone I liked a lot stood me up for a lunch date that he requested, thus giving me the reality check that apparently my friendship wasn't as important to him as his was to mine.  A couple of other guys I thought were friends are offended by what I post to my blog.  I'm not in a good place this week.  

My brother Isaac and "Bobby", my one and only cat - 1954 - I didn't ask Isaac's permission to post this photo but the cat was mine so I guess it's okay to post this picture

I have a couple of relatives on my Facebook page who are Righties and testing my patience with their gun-toting, Hate Obama postings into unfriending them.  Then to top everything off some douche bag hijacked my Twitter account and sent spam to all my Twitter followers.  

I think part of why I don't feel well now is that I had to take stop taking aspirin a couple of weeks ago prior to this biopsy.  I am on a baby aspirin regimen because I almost constantly have a dull, throbbing headache.  This week has been especially bad.

My Mom with her "bedwarmer" (Molly) - Mom never minded me posting photos of her cats and I never knew anybody more private than my Mom - go figure

Some people have asked me "What is the secret to your long relationship with Bill?"  You know what it is folks?  The answer is very easy.  Bill respects me.  Bill likes me, warts and all.  Bill likes me as I am.  He's not a hateful, spiteful, controlling, jealous, and selfish person.  He thinks I'm important.  And I feel the same way about him.  Everyday I count my blessings that I found someone like Bill because I would hate to think of what my life would have been like with some of the so-called "friends" I've had in my life.  I have acquaintances, not friends.  I had better realize that then I won't get my feelings hurt the next time my friendship is taken for granted.  I admit it, I'm too sensitive.  I go overboard.  I will try to correct that weakness in the future.  

I do have a few good friends (not counting my blogger friends who are in a different category).  Ironically they are friends from my high school days and from my former life at Girard Bank.  They know who they are (all four of them - yes, I can count them on one hand). They know me.  They accept me just the way I am.  They do not try to control me.  They like me.  I know them and like them.  They also are not perfect like I am but I accept them as they are.  I have tried to accept my newer "friends" they way they are but without much success.

Ironically the friend who stood me up to lunch asked for the date because he wanted to know how our (me and Bill) "open" relationship worked.  It's simple, when Bill asked me to move in with him back in 1964 I turned him down.  I told him "I'm still going to go out and I don't want anyone controlling me."  He said he understood and would never try to limit or control a "22 year old".  He said that was the fastest way to end a relationship. He was right, that is the fastest way to end a relationship with me, start dictating to me how to live my life.  Doesn't work with me folks.  Maybe it works with someone else and maybe they even prefer to live that way but I would never accept a relationship where someone controlled my life.  Nor do I control Bill's life.  We come and go as we please.  This is what works for us.  And it's not all about sex either.  When some hear the word "open relationship" they think we're out there swinging from the chandeliers.  I wish.  No friends, what "open relationship" means to us is that one doesn't control the other.  Yes, I can have friends outside our relationship.  I can even have romantic friends.  So what?  None of them ever lasted nor did I expect them too.  The initial physical attraction always wears off then it's the character of the person and in all my years I have yet to find anyone to match Bill's love for me.  And I have never loved anyone like Bill.  No matter what we will always be together because he understands me and I understand him.  

So this time next week I hope I'm in a better frame of mind.  Had to purge today though.  Bad week.  

Me at the dentist earlier this week.  That went well - no cavities!

I'm Tweeting!

Do you Tweet?  I do!

I finally got the hang of Tweeting yesterday.  Last night, during the presidential debate I was Tweeting up a storm.  Incidentally, I heard where a new Tweet record was set last night for the most Tweets during a political event.  10.3 million tweets!

The first presidential debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney last night broke Twitter records - thanks in part to a big yellow bird.

Users set a new Twitter record for U.S. politics as more than 10 million tweets hit the micro-blogging service with real-time comments on pundits, platforms, and fellow voters.

The most popular topics of the night, according to Twitter: Moderator Jim Lehrer's "Let's not" quip when Gov. Mitt Romney requested a topic, President Barack Obama's "I had five seconds" comment when Lehrer provided a time limit, and discussion about Medicare and vouchers.

Live-tweeting from the comfort of their living rooms, viewers did their best to fact check the statistics and promises made by the candidates.

Obama and Romney weren't the only focus of the event, though. PBS's Lehrer earned himself a parody account (Silent Jim Lehrer) and hundreds of thousands of messages assessing his moderator abilities. Meanwhile, the breakout star of the night was not one of the candidates or even the host, but rather a certain tall yellow resident of Sesame Street.

During a discussion on government spending, Romney promised to cut federal funding for Lehrer's employer, PBS, though he declared that he liked Big Bird, who also calls PBS home. That declaration prompted a quarter million tweets about the Muppet.

SnappyTV also followed the Twitter frenzy, noting that, aside from "Big Bird," the most popular debate topics were taxes, the economy, and healthcare - particularly the Obamacare moniker.

The president has a habit of overloading the Internet when he takes center stage, earning a grand total of 52,756 Obama-related tweets per minute following September's DNC nomination speech. The convention garnered more than 9.5 million tweets overall, more than the 4 million pulled in by the GOP convention days before.

According to the Twitter Political Index daily gauge, which was updated Wednesday, Romney is leading the microblog's polls by one point, though still lags behind Obama with 1.2 million followers, compared to the incumbent's 10 millon-plus followers.

I was among those 10 million tweets folks.  And it was fun!

From as long as I can remember I've written letters to the editor, my congressman, and sent e-mails to various and sundry folks to whom I wished to express my opinion.  

Now I can sit in the comfort of my own home, glued to the TV and send an instant brain fart to someone I see on TV.  I love it!

Do you Tweet?

Ron's Twitter Home Page

Ron the Old Fogey

Old Fogey at the beach

Yeah, I'll admit it....I'm an Old Fogey.  And I'm not ashamed to admit it either.


I consider myself a pretty "with-it" guy keeping up with the ever changing technology.  


I have a computer.


I have a cell phone.


I blog.  


I even take digital pictures.


But.......


I don't tweet.


I don't text.


I've been known to express disbelief to some of my former high school classmates and friends my age who brag they don't have a computer nor to they "need one."  My cousin Bud, rants on about he doesn't "need a computer."  He said he was finally talked into getting a cell phone only as insurance for when he is driving.  Well "Gee, welcome to the real word Bud!" I said.


I think these people are very foolish by not taking advantage of the newest technology.  But I must admit, ever since I saw Ashton ("Punked") Kuchter pushing tweeting ("how many million Tweet friends can I get?), that I seriously questioned do I need to tweet? Do I have to keep up with that smacked ass?


The answer is a resounding..............NO.


Texting.  Is that something I want to do with my cell phone?  I most teens do it. In fact, texting is rapidly become a serious cause of automobile accidents as teenage girls are texting their cell phones while driving. By the way what is it with girls and texting?  Is that a girlie thing?  Just asking.


By the way, I don't do the iPod thing either.


I even like Old Fogey music.


Just call me an Old Fogey.

Old Fogey (and proud of it too)