End of vacation blues
I love time off.
I know I’m not alone. I would also make a great multi millionaire. I know what I’m doing when it comes to lounging and spending money. I’m very good at it. If there was a professional league for relaxing and spending money, I would be in it. I would probably be an all star.
This leads me to the downside of this conversation. I loathe going back to work after time off. Its depressing. It starts the Sunday before going back to work on Monday after days off. I start thinking about work, what I need to get done, what has to be done by noon, and so on and so forth.
It usually causes me to not sleep very well Sunday night. My mind is reverting back to work mode. No more lazy days by the pool. No more dining out late. No more driving or flying to exotic or non exotic locations on a whim. No more sleeping in late.
I wonder if everyone feels the way I do, thats why so many people have terrible moods on Mondays. So many gloomy people.
Maybe we should move to a 4 day work week, Mondays become the last day of the weekend. Maybe that would work.
Probably not, we would just dread Tuesdays. Oh well, a boy can dream.
Happy Go Back To Work After A Long Holiday To You All!!!!!
Bah Humbug!!!!!!
Fishing and catching
My dad used to tell me that there was a difference between fishing and catching. He said that he did more catching than fishing. I remember “sneaking up” on the fish at times, making no noise, watching where I stepped, holding sneezes, as if the fish were watching us.
My dad loved to fish, but what he didn’t love was making sure I was fishing properly. I can’t tell you how many times I got my lure snagged in a low hanging branch, right after my dad told me to “watch out for that branch there”. He would turn three shades of red as he tried to wade out to the branch and retrieve the lure.
I went fishing recently at Lake Texoma and had a wonderful time with friends catching our limit in under two hours. I was reminded about my dads’ frustration when I looked at our guide’s face a few times when he had to undo what some of us did to our lines and our bait. The familiar grimace and the face changing colors and the biting of the tongue.
It seems comical now, but back in the day, I’m sure my dad did not find anything funny about taking care of an amateur fisherman trying to do the right things.
I guess the important thing about fishing is making sure you do some catching.
Everything is better when catching, even the mistakes.
Hot hot heat
My daughter was complaining yesterday about how hot it was in Midwest City. She apparently forgot how hot it was last summer, when you could boil an egg on the sidewalk every day of the summer.
She tells me that it just feels hotter this summer. I guess I can’t argue, I told her, the older you get, the more the heat affects you. At least from my perspective this is true, of course she is only 18, I tell her, when I was 18 I wasn’t bothered by the heat. This isn’t true of course, but she doesn’t know this.
Reminds me of the stories from my dad and grandpa, about walking through 6 miles of snow and ice to get to school, when a loaf of bread cost a nickel.
I guess each generation has their horror stories, I know this because when I told my daughters that when I was in school, when I wanted to find someone, I drove around until I found them. No cell phones. Their jaws dropped in amazement. The horror!
They asked me what I did as a child for entertainment. I told them I went outside and played. Again, shock and awe. They couldn’t believe kids actually went OUTSIDE to entertain themselves. True story.
So the next time my daughter tells me its too hot to go outside, I will tell her the story of when I used to walk half a mile to school, in the sun. Beads of sweat dripping off of my brow. Thinking how nice it would be to have a cell phone to call someone for a ride.
Only thing is, I had no idea what a cell phone was at the time.
She doesn’t need to know this.
I can see my dad and grandpa smiling now.
Thunder fever hits the street corners
Noticing the other day that the one Thunder t-shirt stand in Midwest City has blossomed into three stands overnight. Impressive growth!
I guess if there is ever a time to sell Thunder merchandise on the street corner, now is the time. I haven’t stopped to look at the t-shirts yet, but I will say the ones that I can read from my car are pretty clever and colorful.
Someone told me that some of these stands are operating illegally due to NBA merchandising laws, but I say more power to them. Making people proud of their community team by selling a few t-shirts, nothing wrong with that.
I hope the Thunder continue to win and bring home a World Championship, that would be incredible. It’s amazing the power of a sports team to bring together a community. I wish that we could bottle that and use it year round, maybe do something crazy like eliminate homelessness or help cure poverty or crime.
I wonder how much money is being made by local stores and outlets on Thunder merchandise, I bet it is astronomical. I hope at least a small part of the proceeds are being put back into the community.
You know, do some good.
Traffic increase
I’ve noticed over the past several years that traffic in Midwest City has drastically increased. At least it feels like its a drastic increase every time I go out to do something and find myself rubbing my ears in frustration.
I don’t even think it’s the amount of traffic, but the manner of traffic. Let me explain. If everyone is paying attention to what they are doing, watching out for each other, you know, courteous driving, then everything is fine.
When I have a problem is when we get Johnnie Hot Rod zooming in and out of traffic, or Sally Makeup, or Dave SlowDriver, or Oh My, Victor, We’re In The Big City Now not knowing how to use a center turn lane properly.
Ok, I know, I’m venting. But when the traffic volume increases, it seems as if these people really stick out in a crowd. I think I have a solution.
Let’s give those people special orange lights that go on the roof of the car, so that we can all at least see them coming or going and have an ample chance at avoiding them altogether!
Anyhow, I know that other large metro towns are probably feeling the same pain, Norman comes to mind, I just hope the city fathers are allowing for the increase of traffic that added good eating and shopping bring to a community.
Orange lights on sale now, send checks made out to Ken Tate. Installation extra.
Summer job hunting tough going
My daughter graduated high school last week. She has began her search for a summer job.
She has had one job in her life at a sandwich shop in Midwest City last summer. She enjoyed the work, and it was a great experience for her. I loved the look on her face when she received her first check. She was floating on cloud nine. When she asked me why she had to pay taxes, I almost fell out of my chair laughing!
This summer, it seems a little harder for her to find work. Everyone keeps telling her that she doesn’t have enough work experience.
I’m no genius, but how does she get work experience when no one will hire her due to her not having work experience? I’m chuckling as I type this, but underneath the chuckle is frustration and a papa bear that wants to protect his cub.
I know eventually someone will “take a chance” on her. She is a great kid, wonderful work ethic, always does what she is asked to do, very loyal. Intelligent and funny.
I just wish folks would remember when they were first looking for a job, how nervous they were, how hard it was to get out of the car and walk into a place and talk to total strangers.
I told her to keep her chin up and keep on trucking. I told her to be herself, be honest, and look people in the eye. I told her to be persistent and to check back with anyone who showed interest in her.
I told her these things, but I didn’t tell her the most important thing about all this. I didn’t tell her that what she’s going through is a part of life. I wish I could be with her and help her with this, but some things she will just have to overcome on her own, it’s what will make her who she is.
I wonder if my parents felt the same way when I was looking for my first job.
Heritage Park Mall
We have a mall in Midwest City.
You can’t shop there.
You can’t go inside and walk anymore.
Why is it still there? There is a church where Dillards used to be. Sears still anchors the other end. Why is it still there?
Why doesn’t someone have some vision and do something! Lots of traffic all around it, surely something can be done!
The mall used to be the place to be for teenagers here, but now nothing goes on at the mall. No shopping. No walking. Nothing.
I’ve got it! This is where the movie theater could go! Perfect place for one! Large parking lot, lots of space. Hello, Warren Theaters, are you listening? What a great addition to this community, and what a perfect location!
Maybe someday, but for now, the sad old mall sits abandoned, waiting for new life. Waiting for someone with vision to make something out of nothing. Cold and lonely. But not forgotten.
Memorial Day
I never really understood what Memorial Day was all about as a kid, other than spending the long weekend at the lake with my parents or in someone’s swimming pool.
I just kind of figured it was a fun weekend and my dad didn’t have to work on Monday, which meant that I was out in the yard with him doing things I really didn’t want to do: mowing the grass, edging the lawn, pulling weeds, you know, the things that he didn’t want to do.
My dad passed away last year, and for the first time, I didn’t have him around for Memorial Day weekend. I caught myself out in my yard, doing the things that he made me do as a child, hands in the soil, thinking about some of the funny things he used to say to me.
I think maybe as you get older, these holidays mean more to you, because the older I get, the more people I know have passed away. Sad at first thinking about them, then chuckles when the sadness turns to good memories of days gone by, funny things they used to say and do.
I miss my dad, he was a little crazy, but a good crazy. He could always make me laugh when I didn’t want to.
No movies in Midwest City
Midwest City does not have a movie theater. That’s right, we do not have a theater of our own.
At one time, we had three, count them, three theaters.
There was the Apollo Twin at the corner of SE 15 and Air Depot. It’s now a furniture store.
There was the Heritage Park 3 in the now-defunct Heritage Park Mall. That’s a whole other story.
There was the Heritage Plaza Cinemas 5 behind the mall, which is a church now.
Why can’t Midwest City support a theater? Tinker people go to movies. I know this because I run into them all of the time at Crossroads movies, Tinseltown, Bricktown and Warren theaters.
I know for a fact that Midwest City teenagers go to movies. I frequently hear and see them — especially hear them — at all of the theaters mentioned.
So why doesn’t someone invest in the community and put in a nice theater here?
I, for one, would frequent the establishment, and I know my three teenage daughters would as well, and I would feel much safer knowing that they would be staying in Midwest City limits instead of driving to the other theaters out of town.
So, my request is simple.
Someone with a lot of money and a sound business mind, please build us a nice, safe movie theater here in Midwest City and keep it running for years to come.
I will even volunteer to pop some popcorn for you free of charge. Well, maybe free other than a bag or two for private consumption.
Thanks in advance for investing in your community and filling a large gap in our local entertainment.
The old Bomber tower
The old Bomber water tower in Midwest City soon will be torn down.
I remember my buddies and I in grade school daring one another to climb it. Of course, no one was brave enough for the task.
Compared to the new tower, the old tower is really unattractive, although something about it takes me back to the days of piling into someone’s car and going to Bomber football games, the crispness of the air, the sound of the band playing Bomber Fight, the smell of fireworks (no names mentioned here to protect the guilty), the wildly inappropriate chants coming out of the student section.
The old tower harkens back to more innocent times, when you could let your children roam the streets and not worry about them, and gasoline was affordable.
Yes, the old tower will come down soon, but we will always remember the days that she kept watch over, the good old days, the innocent days.
