Forgot to mention…my fav waitres at my fav Saturday lunch spot…they have adjusted the menu…I can now get my open face gyro sandwich with a small Greek salad as a side…yes!!!…But as a typical upscale diner definition a small salad there is a large salad anywhere else…there are two spots in my eat out rota for sure and I am seriously considering adding a 3^rd…Chinese buffet on Friday…Greek upscale diner on Saturday…and Indian on Sunday…new place…but I think it will be added…

Today was not the day, I did the bare minimum at work today, must spend a few hours at inventory either today, tomorrow or Monday but today was not the day…I am concerned with the pain I have experienced over the last 2 or 3 days that finally I must accept the fact that knee surgery is in my future…on both knees…I have denied the pain from both for over 40 years but with what I have endured lately it might be time to get it done…

But with all the pain and all the crap of work was a gentile day…

After my brief stop at work…talking about that had a voice mail waiting from one of the execs…but was gone before I rolled in…live with it…I will do the Saturday deal but I get there when I get there…will deal with his concerns Monday…he ain’t goin’ to be there on Sunday…I will for a bit but you can bet your bottom dollar he won’t be there… on one hand I should get up 6ish to attend to work before church…on the other hand don’t think I can accomplish what I really should do in the time frame…and think I might attend work after church…

Ok, my comment to my faith may be a problem to some…live with it…it is what It is…I will never apologies for my faith…I will never “hit you over the head with it” as a fundamentalist might…but my faith is what it is…besides I have two commitments to service on Sunday…foremost I have taught adult Christian education for …well the better part of 40 years…and I sing harmony with my church’s worship team…contemporary music group…I am an amateur musician…or as some would say vocalist…I sing classical/liturgical with the local choral society…I am the lead high tenor…and with my local church worship team as a harmony singer…harmony singing is what I have done for over 50 years…although I have only a vague memory of the event…I first sang in public at about 5+ years old…children’s day…an event celebrated in fundamentalist/evangelical churches if no where else…and they tell me I already sang harmony…

I remember my first music class in first grade…I can’t remember the song but I do remember I sang a harmony line to whatever the song was…when we got done the teacher …Mrs. Strauss IIRC (forgive but that was like 53 some odd years ago)…said who’s singing harmony…I remember thinking I was in big trouble…but raised my hand and admitted it was me…she looked at me…pointed to about 5 or 6 others and said stand next to him and sing the line he’s singing…after a few other music classes she said to me do you hear another line…I said I hear 3 or 4 but only one I can actually sing…she put another 5 or 6 with me to learn that part…in the concert we where the only 1^st grade choir that sang any harmony at all and the only on with 3 parts…

I have a friend…Todd by name…he has his docs in physiology… but is a brilliant musician…chiefly on violin…but plays multiple instruments…I once asked him why he wasn’t playing with an orchestra somewhere…he looked me straight in the eye and said…why aren’t you singing with an opera company or a major choral music group…well I said there are really two reasons…the first is no one ever told me I could…and even if they had the real reason is music…performance …is my escape from the real world…it is my joy…it is my safe place …to hide…to relax…to find joy…and I was afraid that if I made it what my income came from I would lose the joy, the peace, the escape…Todd looked me right in the eye and said…exactly…

Really was pleasantly surprised today, for an end of month Friday work was reasonably sane. On the physical side, what with the cold (-3*F this AM)…and heavens knows what the wind chill was, add in too many hours on the folklift over the last several days…my knees were killing me today…

I am nothing if not a creature of habit…Friday night is Chinese…the buffet I go to has a pick your own raw ingredients Mongolian barbecue…nice…and Saturday lunch is a stop at a local upscale Greek diner for a gyro sandwich served open face…weird thing is those two places set side by side in a local strip mall…well at least I know how to get there…

Dang…today was simply another day in the life…not the worst day…not the best day…3+hours in an barely heated warehouse in minus something degrees F…and a meeting I was requested to attend…a meeting where I sat basically mute for most of the hour +…none of the issues I might have had were even addressed…

But on the bright side my cd-player is blasting out “Brass and Pipes”…nice…all is well…if you try to define what I am and leave out classical music…liturgical music…brass/woodwind music…and even Gregorian chat…then you will come up with a definition that misses the mark …badly

One other thing from the day that was…I got a shipment from the parent company that didn’t match up to any purchase order on file…could not make heads or tails of what we had received or match to any know PO…after much grief…and too much time with the purchasing clerk …well I did get an export packing list (said said clerk)…%$#@!”Why the h*ll didn’t you tell me that is the first place”…didn’t actually say that but wanted to…

And finally to the T-man, brilliant idea…I’m kicking myself that I didn’t think about that years ago…you are “The Man”…

I’ve got to admit…the more I think about the final two in “Top Chef” the more I get pissed off…both are your classic Johnny one notes…they only do one take on food well…my dream team to the finals would have been Sam & Elia …both gone…if Marcel wins…I refuse to use that language on this bog…

I think I mentioned my D’s and my trip to the new Indian restaurant in town Sunday past…she and her hubby went there tonight…I got a call from D tonight…you must try this dish…

The next two or three days promises to be an absolute bitch at work…really don’t want to go there but “It is what it is”

I am really worried about a co-worker…about my age …a few years younger…but we aren’t spring chickens if you get my drift…she seems to be having major memory issues…I hope I’m wrong but fear she may have some serious issues…

Just got done watching the “Top Chef” semifinals…of the two choice to go to the finals …they aren’t the ones I wanted to see…Ilan is mister one note Spanish …and Marcel is just a complete a-hat…rats…

It has been a very gentile, lovely day…probably should have gone to work…was not required …so I passed…Adult CE class went great…can remember the last time I felt the guidance like I did this AM…Worship team in both services…the combo of me, N, and Briel…and the addition of K in the second service…Briel and K sing a very solid melody line and N and I weaved an absolute solid quilt of a harmony below them…the M lady is back next week and that promises to put us over the edge…despite being very petite M has a contralto voice verging on tenor 2 voice…and N lady and I weave a pattern between her alto/2^nd soprano and my high tenor/countertenor…we are on the verge of doing better then the best we’ve every done…when C and J and I were the vocalist…we did an unreal ladies trio…and I’m not…a lady that is…

My daughter’s hubby was out of town today so we “did lunch”. Fairly new restaurant in town …Indian food…(I mean east Indian not native American). Except for one dish on the buffet, I really enjoyed it all…will definitely add it to my must be there once a week rota of restaurants…

Watch a bad movie this afternoon…and will watch it again early evening…Jennifer Biels playing a tough Amazon…”Stealth”…I know but if Biels is in it, and plays the tough chick which she is…I’m watching…over…over…and over again…I know I’m pathetic…and a dirty old man…I accept that…

As I sat down to write this post I heard the off key trill that cat Aggie Sue thinks is a meow…a brief pause…or is it paws…before writing this…

What a maniacal 3 days at work, I changed the propane tank on the forklift Wednesday morning, and again today AM…can't remember when I’ve put that many hours on the lift in a little over two days…I’m physically and mentally beat up as of now…

I am nothing if not a creature of habit…Friday evening is a trip to a local Chinese buffet…a nice spread and they have a pick your own raw ingredients and watch them being cooked on their Mongolian Barbeque

…And Saturday lunch is at my fav upscale Greek diner for a gyro served open face…the weird thing is that my two-fav spots sit next to each other in a local strip mall…

I’ve spent about 10+ hours out of the last 16 work hours in a very cold warehouse and it looks like another 5 or 6 tomorrow…most of those on a forklift…I’m getting too old for that amount of grief on 3 consecutive days…

What the hell were the contestants on “Top Chef” thinking in last nights episode…did they think rather then being on “Top Chef” they were on the WWE…dang

Today was not the best day of my life. First I slept through until the alarm awoke me, dang I hate that. Second it was –13 below zero F…and then I spent like 6 of the 8 working hours of the day in a barely heated/unheated warehouse…by days end I was spent…stopped off for a beef sub on the way hope but headed immediately for a very hot bath…I feel better now but still feel spent

Watched “Top Chef” tonight…the finally four have been determined…and I am pleased…sort of…I have thought from the beginning or nearly so than Sam, Élan, and Elia…deserved to be in the finals…I can stand Marcel…but we can have everything we want

What a beautiful, gentile day, I rolled out of bed way after 9 AM, didn’t have to spend the usual few hours at work today, had conned a free day, although I do need to spend sometime tomorrow. Usually do errands and stopped at my fav upscale Greek diner, for and open face Gyro late morning on the way home, but got up watched a little tube and went out mid=afternoon for errands…and a Gyro…it’s both sad, pathetic, predictable and nice that I walked in and the waitress told me what I wanted, the only changeable thing is the side, usually I just get the standards chips but today decided to go with the onion rings…

Do need to spend a couple at work tomorrow but whether I do it first thing…and that means like 6:30 AM, or after church (like 11:30 AM…haven’t made my choice) choice will be made at bedtime and decided by where I want to go to brunch…

Today might have been the weird day of my life. After a great night of sleep I awoke feeling prime…and as the day progressed I increasingly felt

Worse and worse…

Oh hell I hate old age

What a messed up day yesterday was…I spend 4 hours of my time and a total of 14 and a half man-hours to unload a container that should have taken maybe 1.5 man-hours if the vender had used appropriate pallets…

Well anyways I was spent by the end of the day…but went to my typical Friday restaurant…a Chinese buffet with a Mongolian barbecue…nice…ran into some old friends and had a nice meal and some interesting conversation…

Needed to put some time into work this AM and awoke in a very bad place…but did the deed at work even though …and though I debated my choice…did end up lunching at my typical Saturday place…my local Greek upscale diner, for an open faced Gyro…and it was a turn around for an other wise bad day…

I’m disappointed; Diem is gone from “Real World”… Jody is still there so I might watch…but without the personality of Diem…”Real World” is frankly halved in my interest…Jody is a physically presence…but little else…

A nasty day at work, would have liked to take the PM off, but that just didn’t happen…again…

I as annoyed at the result of “Top Chef” tonight, no I didn’t taste the food. But I do I think that this was a producers choice…