Category: Friday Fives

1. What weird food combinations do you really enjoy?

I may have written about this before, but I like to wrap a Pringles potato chip in a leaf of iceberg lettuce and make a crispy “unwich”; the salt, the sweet, and the crunch are satisfying. I also like uncooked egg noodles “raw,” But that is just weird.

2. What would a world populated by clones of you be like?

That is a lot of people making a lot of out loud, inane observations and bad attempts at jokes all the time. As well as a world of pretty clumsy people.

3. What inanimate object would be the most annoying if it played loud upbeat music while being used?

The dishwasher. We have a nice, quiet dishwasher, but it seems to run for a long time. If it played loud, annoying, perhaps inappropriate music that can’t be muted, well, then I guess hand-washing everything would be the course of the day.

4. What food is delicious but a pain to eat?

Pomegranate.

5. What obstacles would be included in the World’s most amazing obstacle course?

I have seen a number of obstacle course competition shows and have run through a few myself in my army days, so I speak with some knowledge. Remember that board game with a table board game-sized obstacles that had to be negotiated with a ping pong ball blown to float in the air by a hand-held blower to negotiate the course? That is, instead of a ping pong, it is a human, and air flow is provided by a drone.

1. Those who were in a gang, what’s the most f-ed up thing you’ve seen?

While a member of the “He-Man Woman Hater Gang, Buckwheat showed up at the clubhouse wearing full drag. None of us were ready for that.

2. What was it that put you in solitary while in lock up?

I started saying a lot of really mean things about Stephen Miller.

3. Why did you deserve that beat down?

I kept insisting on removing the canned green peas from my bowl of Grandma’s beef stew.

4. What happened that forced you to flee the country?

I was caught cheating while playing the all-in game of Risk.

5. You can tell me, I won’t share – how did you embezzle that vast fortune, and where is the money now?

I amassed my vast fortune by taking out tiny ads in the back of newspapers and magazines and flipping all that dough in a collection of rare coffee mugs.

1. What jobs are disappearing because of AI, but no one seems to notice?

I work in call center management, and the most significant AI push right now is for the Quality Assurance team, which listens to calls and scores them to ensure consistent service. Most of that work is now being handled by AI bots to monitor and score. We will have to re-purpose about 12 employees as they are no longer needed.

2. How do you deal with a chronically negative person?

Bluetooth headphones.

3. What was your first long-distance drive?

We drove from Stuttgart to London on aquick run over a three-day weekend while in the army.

4. What’s a small thing that instantly makes your day better?

A freshly roasted and brewed cup of coffee from the French press.

5. What small thing can just ruin your day?

Breakfast eggs when the yolk got broken in the skillet.

1. What’s your biggest “secret” tech you use all the time?

I run Linux Mint on my laptop – I don’t have to pay for access or upgrades, and it is incredibly easy to customize it. It runs all the modern web browsers and has lots of office software and music/video player options. Using Windows 11 at work is just so painful.

2. What is your best “analog” hack you still employ

Handwriting in my journal with just an ink pen. I find it easier to get my thoughts down on paper when entering into the “analog” journal instead of typing it into some app or document. More formal writing I prefer the keyboard/laptop but for those basic seeds and random thoughts my brain needs the time it takes to get it down in my notebook first.

3. What tradition from your family or culture do you still keep alive?

The parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles have all passed, but some kitchen traditions still exist. Cooking some dishes just exactly the way my mother would. Keeping the kitchen knives sharp, the way my father would.

4. What’s the coolest toy you ever received as a kid?

I was probably nine or ten and got this really cool action figure, “rescue airplane”Big Jim Sky Commander airplane, to play with my Big Jim action toys. A few years later, we got an Atari console under the Christmas tree. Childhood was fun.

5. What’s something you let go of that made your life noticeably better?

When my car was stolen, I decided to switch to a bicycle. I took some of the insurance money and bought a nice e-bike, and in the spring through the fall, I try to ride into the office three days a week. When I need a vehicle for something big, I borrow my sister’s truck or use a ride-sharing service.

1. What was the worst storm you ever lived through?

There have been several blizzards. Pretty sure it was the 1982 Colorado Christmas blizzard – the entire state was socked in. We were traveling to my grandmother’s house, and we remember returning home and spending hours digging out vehicles and shoveling the walks and driveways after being away overnight. We were way behind the curve in getting a handle on the mess.

2. What is the coldest weather temperature that you have experienced?

Thirty degrees below zero – and school wasn’t closed !! At least I didn’t have to walk to school that day.

3. What is the hottest temperature that you have lived through?

I recall a particularly hot summer around 1994 or 1995 when the temperature reached 103 degrees, and there was no A/C.

4. How do you deal with strong winds?

I hate walking in the strong winds – I have a great rain/wind coat, but it still can be miserable. My mom lived in Baggs, WY, for a bit, and I distinctly remember that the wind never ever stopped blowing. How do I deal with it? Remain indoors.

5. What is the longest you have been outdoors stuck in extreme weather?

As a teen in the Boy Scouts, I remember a summer camp stay up in the mountains, and it rained nonstop for four days straight. I got good at playing card games as we were trapped in tents and the meal hall to stay out of the elements.

1. Do you remember what it was like when smoking was still allowed in public everywhere?

Oh yes. In my days in the Army, you could smoke at your desk at work, in the motor pool, in the movie theater, and we were in Europe, in any public place, restaurant, etc.
It is weird to go down south in North Carolina and Virginia, for example, where they still have smoking and nonsmoking areas in restaurants. So odd.

2. What’s the kindest thing a complete stranger ever did for you?

A Gypsy cab driver helped me get to the airport out of Columbia,, South Carolina after basic training and tech school in order to fly home to see family before being shipped of to an unknown future in Stuttgart, Germany.

3. If you could only eat one cuisine for the rest of your life (Italian, Mexican, Chinese, etc.), which would you choose and why?

So many temptations, but I have said publicly that I could eat pizza and spaghetti every day for the rest of my life, so probably Italian.

4. What’s a sign you’re officially getting old?

Yesterday, when bending down to grab a comb out of a drawer in my bathroom, I tweaked my back. A comb? Really? Thanks, old.

5. What’s your all-time favorite sci-fi TV series? And why?

Long diatribe on the Star Trek franchise.
As an elementary child, I would run home from East Elementary school to watch the syndicated reruns of “Star Trek” on Denver’s Channel 2. (In Craig, it was on a UHF channel)
In the army again (many this week’s “Five” have been very Army based, sorry.) one of our floor mates in the barracks back in 1987 received a VHS tape from his brother in the states that contained the first six hours of Star Trek: The Next Generation” and we would gather in my big ass room and huddle on the couch and take this show in. I love ST: TNG so much out of nostalgia because of this member of watching the delayed on tape viewings and the anticipation of the next batch of shows.

Just the basics

1. What’s your favorite, easy go to breakfast?

Soft boiled eggs on an English muffin. Easy peasy no fuss no muss. If you are feeling fancy buy some polenta, the kind in a tube at the grocers and cut that into some medallions and give it a bit of a pan fry and replace the English muffin with the polenta puck – boom, grits and eggs.

2. What’s your favorite Mexican dish?

In my meat eating days the smothered chili rellano from Brewery Bar. Now a days it is the cheese enchlada from Viva burrito. Once of the best red sauces in town. Also a Torchy’s shrim taco and fried avacado taco is worth a try.

3. What’s your simple quick dinner dish?

Spaghetti with mushrooms and red sauce. (I cheat and use jarred pasta sauce then doctor it up with additional tomato paste to thicken it up and additional spices.

4. What’s your go to work lunch?

Sure, I’m old, but basic ramen. I doctor it up with fish sauce and chinese chlii paste and some nutritional yeast flakes to give it some umami . Some times I will toss in some salmon or sardines.

5. What is your signature “This will impress ’em! ” dish?

In my meat eating days it was either pork green chili or beef lasagne. Now a days it is probably home made bread.

1. What am I grateful for today?

Friendships. I had a great “Friendsgiving” this week and was very grateful to be surrounded by friends

2. Did I get outside today?

Not yet, I am working but maybe a quick little walk this afternoon.

3. Who will I meaningfully connect with today?

I don’t think that is in the plans today. Maybe my sister is as broad as tat will get today.

4. What beauty am I creating and/or appreciating today?

See photo – the West Elk Wilderness.

5. What am I doing to exercise today?

Wiggllng my toes.

1. If you could play one video game again for the first time, what would it be?

The stand up, arcade version of Atari’s Tempest. In my day, as a 17 year old, man ! That game was the bomb. i was so good at that. I have a version on my console emulator but it is so no the same.

2. What’s one product or service you’ve paid for (one-time purchase OR monthly/yearly subscription) that legitimately changed your life for the better that you believe more people should know about?

YouTube Premium. 13.00 or so a month but all of those damned annoying commercials are gone and the content is watchable.

3. What are TV shows or a series that you have the entire DVD set for?

Hogan’s Heroes, the Dick Van Dyke Show, Steve Martin and Mel Brooks “TV stuff” appearances.

4. Which historical event would look the most insane if we had 4K camera footage of it today?

The Lincoln assassination.

5. What will someday be illegal after we finally understand how bad for us it is?

Vaping tobacco. Very few published studies have been done yet we know that even vaping tobacco is dangerous – see mouth/jaw cancer in relation to those you chew tobacco.