LAST CALL? NOT FOR YOU

Last call for alcohol?

Nope, not that one.

If you don’t hear from yourself on a regular basis, check in.

If it’s busy, make a recall.

I remember being fifteen and learning to drive.

The car was a manual shift on the floor Volkswagen camper.

From the gear shift to coordinating the clutch and gas and brakes pedals to the steering wheel, it was too much.

My Mom was a DMV worker, and my first driving instructor. I was sweating it then.

After learning I didn’t need to ‘look the shifter into gear’ like baseball players learn to look the ball into their glove, it all worked out.

Since it was the family car, or second car to my Dad’s company car, the VW camper was also teen date-night car a year later.

What could possibly go wrong?

The night the nice policeman had me step out of the parked camper was when I learned my date’s dad was on the Police Reserve.

Enough recall? Never.

 

You Get What You Need Last Call

I know a man who has been challenged severely and you’d never know.

He keeps his life in order somehow where others give up.

Did he make a last call to himself and he answered?

Yes he did, and he had a long talk.

In health related problems, like cancer, you move on. Eventually. At least that’s the plan.

From treatment plan to life plan, you move on.

I got tagged, talked about it, then heard this from a cancer survivor nurse:

“You either live your path, or your pathology.”

I guess the idea was a polite way to say shut-up.

So I did, while they told me all about their problems. Is that how it works?

 

Pro Tip:

When someone you care about shares their life, and it seems similar, familiar, so much so that you need to tell them all about it right now . . .

Take a breath and listen.

You’ll have a chance to tell your story another day, maybe to someone else.

Let’s hope they’re as good a listener as you.

It takes practice for a helper to help instead of being rude.

Who Listens To Rude

When you go to someone’s house for the first time, what do you notice?

Do you start connecting dots?

Your host is overweight and has jars and boxes of cookies stacked in shelves?

That checks out.

What if you see all the kitchen gadgets and healthy food for snacks and hear a story about weight loss struggle?

Don’t say something like, “Let’s skip the small talk and break out the cookies. No one gets fat eating celery and nuts.”

When I’m in a large person’s house I want to know what’s so good they can’t stop eating it.

 

I boarded a plane with my wife once. We had separate seats.

No, not because we have ‘that kind’ of marriage. We’re just cheap.

Her seat was in the back, mine up front with an unexpected upgrade for more room.

I waved to her thinking, ‘This is as close to First Class I’ll ever be.’

I had the window seat.

A nice couple found their seats next to me. They had to clock in between 350 and 400 lbs.

They were traveling to settle their kid into a dorm room.

If I weighed 400 lbs I might not get on an airplane, which I kept to myself.

There were a nice couple in their forties, which over-ruled any complaint I had for getting squeezed out of my upgraded seat.

Besides, the upgrade came from the airline, not because I paid for it, so it felt like a wash.

Did I tell them my weight loss journey?

 

Be Cognizant Of Your Audience

I’ve got topics on boomerpdx, lots of topics.

Too many topics? 

A hobby blogger loose on the internet always has too many topics, so I stick to what I can land on the page.

I like a nice round 1000 word post, or close.

And I like to skip the incessant bullshit associated with targeted blogs by ideological writers.

At least that’s the plan.

Since I also have a wife and adult kids with partners and the works, I wonder how seemingly normal people can shit-post the way they do.

“But what’s a shit-post Big D?”

If you know right from wrong, but some blogger insists the wrong is right? That’s a shit-post.

Keep this handy if you decide to read shit-posts:

If you’ve got an urge to taunt religious zealots whose reason for living is to deny women’s health and reproductive rights?

Or an urge to understand the reason for separation of church and state?

And what to say to the dipshit looking for Taylor Swift in the Ten Commandments?

That’s not a last call you want to make unless you want a never-ending harangue.

So keep this to yourself:

It could be this, it could be that.

Make up your own mind.

Go ahead and take your time for last call.