My dog one-upped me

It was a lazy summer day yesterday. After lunch I was sitting languidly on the sofa, dozing off from time to time, trying to decide if I should take a nap on the sofa or do something else like going to bed. In one of those blissfully sub-conscious moment my concentration was broken by the notification sound from my cell phone. Though I had made a promise to myself that I would not keep my phone anywhere near me while sleeping, I didn’t realize that the cell phone would find a loophole on that promise. Afterall  a nap is not sleep, so the phone attached itself to my hand as I was dozing on and off.

That notification was a message in our family WhatsApp group from my daughter who was sitting on another sofa near mine and was doing what girls normally do, scrolling through social media, texting, watching TV and more social media while engaging in her obsession during her stay at home. She takes photos of our dog Skooby constantly and then shares it wherever she can. Yesterday was no exception.

The summer heat must have contributed to my fuzzy logic, otherwise I can’t think of any reason why I succumbed to my temptation. That notification from my cell phone was of a message in Whatsapp with a photo my daughter had taken of our dog Skooby as he slept blissfully next to us. He didn’t have a cellphone to disturb his beauty sleep, a process in which I had enormous contributions from taking him out every morning and evening on his long walk and cooking his delicious dinner every evening. Well, to make a long story short, I uploaded that photo to my Facebook story with an one word comment and then forgot about it. So far so good, no issues. I went back to my dozing and Skooby kept on sleeping.

Come morning and my eyes were wide open. That photo of Skooby overnight garnered 10x more views that any of my Facebook posts ever got in a day. So unfair. I spend hours on writing a post and all Skooby did was just sleep. He didn’t even bother to take his selfie nor post his photo.

What do we call this? A picture worth a thousand words? Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder? Brief attention span of purveyors of the internet? I am having hard time to accept that photo of a sleeping Skooby beat my thoughtful compositions. Unless of course the world has gone to the dogs, a possibility I can’t ignore.

Meanwhile I am trying to explore ways how to train Skooby to write my blog to attract more traffic. Any suggestions?

Five Years Old Today

I can assure you that when I got up today morning, I had no intention of writing this post. Forget the morning, even ten minutes back I had no inclination that this post was brewing. I was happily preparing my lunch, boiling lentils for the ubiquitous daal, staple of many Indian households for lunch and dinner, when suddenly popped up this announcement on my cell phone. Thank whoever is up there that my betterhalf did not see the announcement first. She would not have had the patience to scroll down and would have shot first. No, not with a gun, we don’t own one, but I dread more the treatment that would have been meted out more than the gun shot that I  am sure she would have missed.

To cut to the chase, I am five years old today. No, not in physical age, I don’t even remember being thtyat old any more. I am five years old by WordPress calender and that’s the anniversary note that popped up on my phone just few minutes back.

And what a wonderful five years it had been. Brought to social media kicking and screaming, I now relish the wonderful friends I have met across all the continents of the world except Antarctica. I have not met any of them physically yet but many of those friendships I cherish. They make life worthwhile through their writings and comments.

So without much ado, and before my dall boils over(and to spare myself from a tongue lashing), here is to friendship and a long, fruitful journey together in the world of writing in WordPress.

Growing Up

Growing up is no fun,

Before one realizes,

Grows up to

What used to be despised,

And now being resented

For being despised

For the same

That used to be despised,

And the whinings start,

For being misunderstood

Oh, why the world can’t see

What one sees,

Is the world that blind?

Growing up is

Surely no fun.

Shattered dreams of Super Bee Man

I was stung by a bee
Yesterday after lunch
I was hoping when
I get up in the morning
A new superhero will be born
The amazing Bee Man
Floating like a butterfly
And stinging like a bee
Alas, only lingering effect
A sight dull pain
Neither can I float
Nor can I sting
Shattered lies my dream
Of being Super Bee Man
Oh, if only I would have left
The stinger in place
And not pick it out
Of my flesh
I could have written
About the exploits of
Super Bee Man

I am afraid I am afflicted by the TION disease

I was told that to ensure retention

And to make sure of career progression

Must take part in retraining and re-education

---

For to remain competitive and beat the competition

It is a must to enforce cost reduction

For a healthy bottom line need job elimination

So occupants of corner offices can earn sky high remunerations

Getting a job after retraining, I have no expectation

Without experience may be looking at a possible demotion

Many of my friends out the door, I hide my emotion

Everyday morning fear more degradation

Keep my mouth shut for fear of retribution 

Boss said he tackled all the dirty work with gumption

And as a reward he deserved a bonus and promotion

Day came when he was handed his papers that caused a sensation

I sent him a sorry for you e-mail as I still may need a recommendation

Because of the situation I always have a premonition

Although the politicians always make grandiose proclamations

Well I think everyone working has a similar narration

But time has now come to bring my story to a conclusion

To run a race marathon I do not have any intention

If it is of any consolation

It affects most of the population

I fear I am afflicted by the disease named TION.

I shall rather enjoy my retirement and not seek redemption.

 

PhD

I never did a PhD. I did start taking classes once towards that lofty goal. Classes were in the morning before work. After a semester or so, with full time work, young kid and family, it became really hard to keep going. So PhD for me remained a Pretty Hard Decision, to pursue or to give up I was not sure then and not now also.

Yesterday I was on the phone with my friend, a university tenured professor and PhD to the boot. During our conversation he briefly mentioned that one of his friend got PhD after retirement. Somewhere in a corner of my heart, I felt a little bit of envy, may be a little jealousy too. I must have seen a ray of hope also and wanted to know more.

My fried explained that after retirement his friend got (Blood) Pressure, Heart attack and Diabetes, in short PHD.

Now it is not a pretty hard decision for me to stay away from that phd.

A little humor

My aching waist is complaining

Desire to spend a life time with you

Is being confined within the four walls

Upkeep of which is slowly throttling my will

The aching heart is no match

For the constant reminder

Of the pain from areas I did not know exist

A clean floor reflects my sweaty face

As I ensure that it does not drop

And ruin a beautiful day

I don’t know what I am talking about

As the sunny day outside

Mocks my darkened face

A little humor maybe

To uplift my sagging spirit

As I contemplate the sun will set

Before I call it a day

 

 

 

 

Duct tape saved the day

Many of us may have a story about duct tape coming to the rescue in a sticky situation.  To that I am adding my recent one.

On Monday, May 20, we boarded the plane ready to return home after a week long vacation.  The day started early. As the shuttle from the hotel to the airport that we were supposed to take were full, we were forced to take an earlier shuttle.  That meant that we had to get up real early and had a long wait at the airport.  We boarded on time and settled down for a four hour flight.  I dozed off and on but soon realized that the plane was still stuck on the runway and departure time had already come and gone.  Curious to know what was the cause of the delay, I started to look around for an answer.  Soon I saw the pilot walking near where I was sitting and open an over head bin diagonally across where my seat was.  It was a small bin with a small black suitcase.  my mind raced through several theories.  I overheard the pilot saying to one of the crew member that he can’t take a risk.  Soon a ground crew with a yellow vest arrived on the scene and opened the bin.  He took out a screw driver and tried to fix something.  He gave up after some try, went to the back of the plane ( my seat was on the last row before the toilets) and started talking on the phone.  Obviously there was some argument and I heard him saying that he can’t fix it as someone had replaced a screw with a non-standard screw.  Sabotage?  Soon another crew member took the black carry on out of the bin and moved to the front of the plane and out the door.  Another ground crew  member arrived soon and things started falling in place.  The door of the overhead bin had come loose and the pilot did not want to fly as he was apprehensive that the bin door may open during flight and be a safety hazard.  The first ground crew could not fix the door as someone before had replaced the original screw with a larger screw and now the standard screw won’t fit. The second ground crew had a roll of duct tape ( red color for good measure) that both of them applied liberally to ensure that the overhead bin door stay shut during the flight.

You can see the end result on the featured image.  No harm done.  A small screw delayed our departure by forty five minutes but the flight itself after that was uneventful.    I shudder to think of the delay that could have been if we were forced to change plane.  Duct tape did save the day.

One-Liner Wednesday – There is always a tomorrow

This post is in response to Linda’s  #1OneLinerWednesday.

When one is extremely depressed, it is good to remember that it’s not the end of the world, there is always a tomorrow and the sun will come up in the morning.

My original post was ” Instant gratification always leaves a unsavory after taste”, but then something happened today morning to change my post.

We are in the middle of a kitchen remodelling project that is now seriously past the original schedule and, surprise, surprise, seriously over budget.  Nothing new there, you will say. Please hear me out and you will understand ( and may sympathize with our plight).  Originally schedule of completion was end of February, 2019.  Cabinets that were coming in from out of state, came in much before schedule.  That itself may have rang the warning bells. Before schedule?  Lo and behold, when after couple of weeks, installers were ready to install the cabinets, they found one cabinet to be of smaller size and two end panels unfinished.  Everything went downhill from there.  New orders went out from the cabinet designer with expected delivery of April 8 to April 12.  So no work for three to four weeks.  In between the guy who was fabricating the granite counter tops became sick and hospitalized and the job that was supposed to start mid March was not started yet ( hopefully by this Friday, emphasis on “hopefully”).

One bright spot was yesterday afternoon when the cabinet and the panels arrived.  Ah, at last we were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  But today morning a landslide closed the tunnel.  The new cabinet this time was larger and only one panel arrived.  So back to square one.  Another month (?) of uncertainty and back to cooking in the garage with the stove and the microwave separated by a distance of twenty plus feet and zig zagging through wrapped up furnitures, balancing plates of food in your hand.

Oh, well! Still alive and kicking. Nightmare will end tomorrow.

 

Friday Freebies: It’s a Birthday

Well the birthday is not actually today but it is being celebrated today at the university where the university library is named in his honor.  His birthday is tomorrow, March 2.  But hey, it’s Friday, party time and I am sure he would not mind.  He most probably would have loved it today, being surrounded by young folks, many of whom must have