christine-murphy dot net

Father’s Day

It’s this Sunday. I’ll be glad when it’s over. I’m really sick of the sexist commercials that around both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

I mean, look at them. It is ASSumed that all women want frou-frou stuff, such as flowers, jewelry, and other girly things. When the family takes Mom out for a Mother’s Day meal, it is always to some frou-frou place that probably doesn’t even have beer. Even though ballparks often have Mother’s Day giveaways, they are usually something pink and girly. Gack.

The Father’s Day gifts are cooler…big screen TVs, cameras, iPods, and other cool toys. One store is advertising free tickets to see the new “Incredible Hulk” movie with certain purchases. If “Sex & The City” had come out before Mother’s Day, they may have offered tickets to that.

Not all men like comic book movies, and not all women like chick flicks.

I also get annoyed about the ads pushing stuff like power tools and air tools as Father’s Day gifts. Yet these same stores push kitchen appliances and such for moms. I guess it’s not occurred to these people that some women like power tools and would love to get them as gifts, and many men love to cook, and would love a blender of an electric mixer.

Gack.  I’ll be happy when it’s over for another year.

Scary…

…at least for me.

The digital converter box for our old analog TV sets work well enough. But I do have a few gripes about the bedroom one. Sometimes, it just turns itself off, and there is snow on the TV screen. But even worse, once in a while it turns off the whole TV.

Every time this happens, it scares me half to death. I HAVE to have a TV on when I sleep. If I wake up and it’s off, I freak. Mike knows this, and would never dare to shut it off while I’m sleeping. He doesn’t want to hear the freaking out screaming that would ensue. He’s learned to live with it, and I’ve learned to compromise by not requiring the sound to be turned up.

Years ago, when I lived alone, I fell asleep on my sofabed while watching “Saturday Night Live”. I used to fall asleep a lot with the TV on, I was used to waking up and seeing it on.

Anyhoo, on the Saturday night in question here, some guy invaded my apartment, through an open window, when I was asleep, and I awoke to this strange guy in my bed. And HE HAD TURNED THE TV OFF.

I jumped up and started screaming bloody murder. I went to call the cops, and he literally got down on his knees and begged me not to. He didn’t want his mother back home in Honduras to find out what a pervert her son was.

Okay, so I told him that if he left NOW, I would not call the police. He ran out the door so fast, it wasn’t funny. As soon as he was gone, I closed and locked the door and the windows, and called the cops. Oh, and bring a K-9 unit, too, I said to the cop on the phone. The loser left his t-shirt on the floor.

So the cops came, complete with dog, and they found the guy. Huddling outside behind the garbage cans, “where he belongs”, as one of the cops said.

He was convicted of breaking and entering and attempted rape, and was sent back to his mother in Honduras.

This happened about 20 years ago, but I still freak out over the TV being shut off thing. And now, with the TV turning itself off because of the digital converter box, I wonder if we should consider getting a new, already digital LCD TV for the bedroom.  Maybe that would not shut itself off for no reason in the middle of the night.

I also wonder what I am going to do when analog goes away next year, and I can no longer use my little portable TV.  I always take that along when we stay at hotels and inns that don’t have in-room TVs.  Dan’s place is such an inn, and I’d really have to give up staying there because I am scared to wake up without a TV on.  So I should look to see if I can find an affordable portable digital TV, too.  There is no way to hook up a converter box to the little TV I have.

What to do, what to do?

I was starting to think…

…that maybe I had a stalker.

I tend to freak out when ANYONE knocks on my door, unless they are expected. So imagine how I felt, when, earlier this week, I had a knock on my door at the same time, same knock (kind of soft, not a wake the dead knock that the UPS guy has), TWO DAYS IN A ROW.

I have no idea who it was, because I have no way to see unless I move th blinds or curtain on the door, and if I do that, whoever is on the other side will know that I’m here, and will keep knocking, and refuse to go away. So I just ignored it. Both days, they knocked once, waited a couple of minutes, then knocked again. Then they went away.

I am forever pissed because my landladies thought that a windowed door would look nice. But what about safety? A SOLID door with a peephole is much more suitable for what this neighborhood has become. If I have a stalker, I want to be able to at least see who the hell it is, without letting them know that I can see them. But with the door as it is, that has been taken from me.

Maybe I need to get some sort of security system, such as one by ademco. There are an awful lot of freaks out there, and you can’t do enough to stay safe in your own home.

Anyhoo, I was waiting for my *stalker* to knock on Wednesday, around noontime, but they never came. They didn’t come today, either. But I’m still a bit spooked out by the whole thing.

WHY…

…are people who are old and feeble enough to need stair lifts allowed to drive? I swear, these people drive at something like 2 MPH, and hold up traffic for blocks.

We were stuck behind such a person today, this little old lady who not only drove in slow motion, but she also did not use her turn signals. If she’s too scared to keep to the speed limit (which was 30 MPH on the roads we were on), she should give up her license and take the bus. Seriously…this is just so aggravating!

I also hate anyone, regardless of age, who refuses to use turn signals. How the hell are we supposed to know which way you’re going, unless you TELL us? See that little stick that’s on the steering wheel? Click it UP when you want to turn right, and DOWN when you want to turn left. It turns on these lights on the appropriate side of the vehicle, so that others can see which way you plan to go.

Try it sometime, okay?

Ah, the joy of Masshole drivers!  NOT!

Still around…

No, I wasn’t off at one of those fancy las vegas hotels…Mike and I went up to Maine to celebrate his birthday.  It was a nice little trip.  On Wednesday night, we went to a Portland Sea Dogs game.  And on Thursday, which was Mike’s birthday, we took a scenic cruise out on Casco Bay, and had his birthday dinner at Fore Street, one of our favorite restaurants anywhere.

I have a few rants, though…

1.  At the ball game, I got stuck sitting next to this big fat guy who did not understand the meaning of “personal space”.  Rather than trying to keep himself in his seat area, he kept moving his arms about, mostly his left arm, which was seriously pushing me out of my seat and into Mike’s lap.  Since there were some empty seats in the row in front of us, we opted to take the easy way out and move, rather than confronting the jerk.  If the game were sold out, and there was no other place to sit, I would have had to say something.

This guy and his two friends were all jerks.  They were all kind of gross-looking, and we overheard them talking about going to some skeevy bar after the game to pick up *girls*.  I think they said it was called *Ricky’s Bar*.  In any case, the fat guy who was invading my seat space was saying that at Ricky’s, *the girls will do ANYTHING for a drink*.  I guess that includes going home with skeevy guys like them.  Gack.

2.  Why don’t people bother to dress nice when they are going to an upscale restaurant?  I don’t mean evening gowns and tuxes, or even suits and ties…but certainly not a mangy looking t-shirt, blue jeans, and flip-flops!

Yet we saw several people there, having dinner, dressed just that way!  The blue jeans weren’t even nice, newer, less faded ones, they were old and mangy.  Now, I’m not big into getting dressed up, but even I can be bothered to wear nice black slacks, black shoes, and a nice top when I go to this place.  Fore Street does not have an official dress code, but I still think it’s nice to wear something at least somewhat nice to go there.

The only thing worse than this that I’ve ever seen was the time I went with a group to lunch at  Jimmy’s Harborside in Boston.  This place was kind of pricey, and people were supposed to dress nicely…even though I don’t think they had an official dress code, either.  I saw this family group come in and be seated at a nearby table.  One of the guys was wearing dress pants…and one of those sleeveless tank top UNDERSHIRTS!  Even a non-undershirt tank top would have been inappropriate, but an undershirt?  Would it have killed this guy to have at least put on a regular button-down shirt over his undershirt?

It’s acceptable to go outside in a sleeveless undershirt, if you’re just running out to the local packy to pick up some beer, or something like that.  And maybe it’s acceptable garb for a place like the aforementioned Ricky’s Bar.  But sheesh, in a nice restaurant?

What is wrong with some people?