A Moving Experience!

 

Memoirs of a Geezer

  

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:      A Moving Experience!

    In 1995, or it may have been 1997 (I should check some documents, maybe...), we lived in a western suburban community.  We were eager to leave it behind and move eastward.  Even in GeezerHood, we, SweetHeart and I, were sentient enough to realize we didn't belong anywhere but in a city of a certain size and population, not to mention one having a political and social climate more conducive to our own

beliefs, values and attitudes.

The old House!  128 Yrs. Old!

    We landed on the east side of Milwaukee, a block from Lake Park, in a beautiful neighborhood.  Even the wild life seemed to enjoy the ambiance...  wild turkeys, coyotes, deer, strange humanoids, vultures...

    From the start, we both professed most adamantly that this -- a fine old duplex built in 1896 -- was fated to be our last place of residence.  We would never move again!  Never!  We'd be carted to the curb in green refuse carts with our feet pointed upwards in case someone needed shoes!  

    We inherited a tenant, a professor at a nearby university.  When she left us two delightful professors with their young child moved into the vacated upstairs flat.  We occupied the downstairs.  They departed after a couple of years to accept professorial positions in California.  He, the child, left a colorful kite for me!  Sweet lad that he was,

probably still is!

    Next a young couple moved in, but they wanted children and a larger home.  Then came Joan.  She remained with us for some 23 years.  We became great friends, and the friendship has endured, though she moved out a couple of years ago, having had increasing difficulty with stairs, being in her 90s!  

    The new tenant was with us for approximately two years, a kind and generous woman who has three children and a boyfriend.  He, the gentleman friend, is in residence occasionally when not plying his trade a a master electrician with a career based on the west coast.  He commutes, of course, frequently!

    The aforementioned tenant greatly admired the old house.   It, the house, in 2024 having reached 128 years in stable existence, remained a most handsome and admirable structure and place of residence.  She offered to purchase the home and we agreed to sell, abandoning our previous oath of "Never Moving Again."  

    What the hell!  Getting older, dealing with frequent breakdowns, repairs, purchases of new appliances for upstairs and down, paint, plaster, filling cracks, more paint, replacement of wood-burning fireplaces with gas fireplaces, new furnaces, installation of whole-house air conditioning, a new roof, a new porch (to replace a sinking one), concrete footings, new concrete stairways leading to the front porch and doors, interior stripping of ancient paint and wallpaper, new paint, new lighting fixtures, new sinks, re-tiling of both kitchen floors, installation of electrical breakers to replace ancient fuses...  most of the upgrades and improvements, beautifications thanks to the extraordinary Rob C.!  

    The above is a  partial listing of home-ownership duties and chores.  It tires me to enumerate, and listing more will only send me back to bed, I'm afraid!!  I'm already yawning and my eyelids are drooping...     

    We decided the time had come to move.  We explored condominiums, many of them.  Then we remembered the above, the litany of requirements of home ownership, ladders, painting, pounding things, snaking drains, mopping, cleaning sinks, toilets, Q-tips for crud that accumulated in sink overflow ports...  

    The moving project was a lengthy and arduous process!  (This is unlikely to be a revelation to those city denizens who have moved just once or many times!).  The wonderful daughter of our long-standing upstairs tenant, neighbor and friend engaged a Junk
Removal team that off-loaded and unloaded much of her mother's, along with our own

third floor (attic?) overflow, and then the subterranean (basement)  junk as well.  We all thought removal of the aforementioned stuff would never cease!!  (I believe it was quite dark when the parade of outgoing stuff finally subsided!!...  Sorta-like Aliens!) 👽

    It was certainly a purposeful start.  Extraordinary how much material (junk, unwanted stuff!) we all accumulate.  When we commenced the actual move, the big and permanent move, that is, we had already, previously, commandeered several vehicles of friends, daughters, grandsons and others to move to the new place of residence (an apartment) several thousand cartons and boxes filled with "treasures."  (Minor hyperbole!!). Our older daughter was a tremendous inspiration and help!  Her mantra:   "No one wants it; no one needs it; It's going...  Get rid of it!!"  

    We are now firmly ensconced in the new place of residence, a rental, that is, a rented apartment.  It's quite nice.  Two bedrooms, two full baths, a storage locker, an open

balconied porch that overlooks a very attractive courtyard...  flowers, trees, a seating area, a gas grill...  One can almost feel the presence of Frederick (Freddy, I like to call him!) Law Olmstead, ("Father of Landscape Architecture," I believe!?).  Everything is so darn "Becoming."  Freddy's descriptor, not the author's / perpetrator's of this writing!

    Quite an adventure.  We'll never move again until we're dead...  We've sworn a new oath of allegiance to "ultimate and immovable stability"!!  Not going anywhere!  Never!  If you see us many years hence walking along the nearby parkway, and we're still among the living, in or near our new place of residence, give us an acknowledging wave!!!

[Special Note of Dedication:    To SweetHeart and to our dearest and best-loved non-relative friends, Rob and his muse, Susie (if one may call her such!) and our Sweet Wonderful Alie, the master decorator / hanger of art -- to  all of them, for their unwavering love, friendship and companionship!  Thank you!]

 

    

Volunteering / Participating at The School...!!...

 

Memoirs of a Geezer

  

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:          Volunteering / Participating at The School...!!.....

    Now when was it?  Maybe two, three years ago?!  Maybe?...  Just to be clear, GeezerHood had already made its presence known in my being...  Had already appeared, to put it another way!  Our friend, Cathy, telephoned with a "remarkable" offer!  (I use the adjective sort of "Tongue in Cheek" style!...)   

(But wait, there's more, and it's all really positive and uplifting too!!)

Apparently people caught a lot of White
Fish here throughout the community's
history*...  Maybe still do!  And cafes 
serve whitefish dishes too, we told!
(* Meaning, of course, in the Big
Lake that forms its Eastern Border!)

    "Hi," said she, "You two would be a perfect fit for North Shore School for Seniors!  Ever hear of it?  The school is headquartered at a church nearby, United Methodist Church of Whitefish Bay, at the head, sort of, of downtown Whitefish bay...  where Lake Drive apparently ends, but then turns right at a traffic light...  go straight at the light and you're in the heart of downtown..."  

(Our friend is the Executive Director of NSS4S!)

"Not interested," said I.

"Yes we are," said SweetHeart.

We began as Volunteers, quickly becoming "Chief (and, dare one say) Executive" Volunteer Coordinators.  

"You've been unanimously selected as our principal Volunteer Coordinators," said Cathy, enthusiasm, like gold leaf, embellishing her words of pure delight (not to mention clever conscription strategy!).  "And, oh yes, the existing board voted for you as well!  You are also our newest Members of the Board of Directors"!  

"Gosh," we gushed in unison, "Board Members too!!  Great leaping anacondas!  Imagine..."  She failed to mention that only if we hadn't been actually breathing beings we might have been turned down for the latter superb honor that was (un-?) ceremoniously heaped upon us!!

Perhaps I'm being a bit sarcastic, or should the correct word be...   sardonic?  Truth is, we blended into the role with delight, perhaps not as far down the road to the destination...   BLISS!  Not right away, anyway!

In time, however, now some time and experience having passed, we, SweetHeart and I, have indeed embraced the roles we were offered, or should I say, thrust, co-op'ted, um...   "forced" into out of friendship, sense of duty, nothing we could do about it...  too timid to say NO...  (See Paragraph Three!)...  

In truth, we have come to enjoy the school, our 

NSS4S welcomes students / 
participants of any and all age
groups!  Register Today...
at:   www.nss4s.org!

roles, the wonderful people we've met -- including students, of course -- and the overall adventures of Learning, Having Fun, Making New Friends!!!  Our fellow volunteers are quite wonderful, and committed (or should be??...  A bit of humor thrown in to lighten the mood, of course!!  We mustn't get too serious around here!!) 

The school (and its class sessions, needless to add...!) occurs every Monday and every Tuesday for four consecutive weeks (Term One), then continues for four more weeks (Term Two).  There's a Fall session, and then a Spring session, the latter also consisting of Two Terms!  Classes are held -- some 60 of them -- on Mondays and Tuesdays, September through dates in October, and then comes "Term Two" that begins and ends on dates in November!  The Spring Sessions?...  (To Be Announced!  Stay Tuned, Stay Current, you Lucky Students!!  And we do mean Lucky, as the classes offered are truly diverse and...

NSS4S Instructors are
not so intimidating...
They are kind, intelligent and 
committed to offering our 
wonderful students / 
participants outstanding
and enlightening 
experiences!  

We don't usually offer 
obscure languages, but if
requested...  One never knows!

...outstanding, with equally Outstanding Instructors personally on hand, that is, personally present to edify, enthrall and often fascinate!!)...   

Examples of Classes Offered:    Learning Cribbage, America's Founding Documents, Exercise Classes, Poetry, Art, History, Milwaukee's Outstanding Art Museum and the Exhibits it Offers, Thomas Jefferson's Wisconsin Connection, Writing Family Stories, Knitting, Languages for Beginners, and So Much More...  It's True!!  

And, NSS4S has an excellent web site -- www.nss4s.org -- visit the site today, now, right away...  What are you waiting for, for Pete's Sake??!!  You can register for classes right there, OnLine...  Thank you for your kind attention to this introduction to North Shore School for Seniors!  Are you registered yet??!!  

(Special Note of Dedication:    ...For our Instructors, many of whom are well know in educational and professional Circles, our Outstanding and Devoted Volunteers, and, of course, our equally Outstanding and Committed Student / Participants! We thank you all profusely and most sincerely!!)

Submitted 09-26-2024 -- Joel K

The Older Brother!

 

Memoirs of a Geezer

  

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:                   The Older Brother!

He was Larger Than Life in so many ways.  Bold, brash,  loud, boisterous, full of fun, funny, a comedic presence, an exceptional talent!  He lived and loved his remarkably full life.  He acted in plays, including several theatrical musical productions.  He sang loudly, energetically.  He loved his family unconditionally, all six of them, Jaynie and five exceptional children, his life, his many friends, cribbage, pool, his work, his teaching adventures imparting his engineering knowledge and skill, until retirement at last beckoned.  He painted, he sculpted, he built things -- furniture, cribbage boards and so much more, even a sentry enclosure!

Walking Stick!

He volunteered.  His spirit was always a generous and lively thing, like a separate creature had attached itself to him exploding out of his trunk like a great,  floating, inflatable bear.  Those who rode his tour vehicle throughout a beautifully-flowered and lushly festooned arboretum enjoyed the narration, were always captivated by him, ultimately loved him too!  He was that extraordinary, that entertaining.  He was charismatic, an original, a true and rare first edition!

My year-and-a-month older brother, Kris, died in early August.  The entire process was quick, too damn quick.  Diagnosed with stage four lung 

cancer, that miserable 

Kris and Wife Jaynie were volunteer rangers at Rocky 
Mountain National Park, something they loved doing,
and for several years running!  The 50th!!!

disease  too 

suddenly traveled to and claimed his amazingly fertile brain, and then his lymph nodes as well.  Nothing could be done; that treacherous and evil entity, like a ravenous beast, eats its way into and destroys the best of us, indiscriminately, too fast, too hungry, too furious.

Enough of that.  Let's travel many years into his past, with apologies for a lack of chronology.  He played football for his high school team, and he played superbly, winning accolades, a major letter; he quite possibly might have won a scholarship had it not been for a knee, a badly wounded knee.  

Number 50, Kris, Out-
standing Football Lineman!

His mother, who was mine as well, saw no real advantage in having that knee properly repaired.  No point, she'd insist repeatedly.  A promising career as a pigskin athlete ended abruptly. 

(Years later, when he leapt skyward to capture a ripe pear in his Rowlett, Texas neighborhood -- the lower branches having already been denuded -- the knee collapsed anew.  He finally had it fixed correctly, but...   advanced age, no possible appearance of pro scouts...  far too late in the game!) 

He had many great pals in high school, one of whom shot him in his bicep, or was it the shoulder.  His gang was out hunting or just shooting at things, both alive and dead things.  Doc James removed the bullet, along with portions of T-shirt, sweatshirt and jacket.  His school pals were not always terribly bright or cautious when discharging firearms.  His family was greatly thankful the lad's aim was not directed further to the left...   or right.  Can't recall which bicep or which shoulder.  Doesn't really matter, I suppose!

In our youth, our teen years, Brother Kris was my hero, my ideal.  Other members of our nuclear family were either significantly years older, or absent or unconcerned or angry.  He and I were a kind of team, poised to stand tall, like sturdy, fortified and determined ramparts, a bulwark against the others.

In the mid-60s, My brother honored me by asking that I be a groomsman in his and Jaynie's wedding.  I can't recall...  second or third in line, maybe even best man.  I can't remember.  Doesn't matter.  I was truly honored, because I loved him best among my family members.  Didn't matter, the pecking order unimportant.

In our youth, in the double bed we shared on 68th Street, we wrestled constantly, every night at bedtime.  We invariably broke down the bed.  Our father burst in with angry, flashing eyes.  Unpleasant consequences ensued, physical ones!  In the old house on HiMount Boulevard, Mother painted clowns on the walls on either sides of our beds.  She claimed we were her inspiration, her models.  (Should we have been offended??!!)

Back on 68th Street...   In subsequent double beds, we wrestled; he queried, could he "toss" me like a coin, jujitsu style.  "Leemee flip you, Joey," he'd asked.  "If I hurt you
I'll give you a quarter."  I'd collide against the wall on my side, the wall adjacent to the parents' room.  Father burst in with angry, flashing eyes.  He'd pick up brother Kris by one leg and smack him, in a leg, or on his derriere...  It happened often.  The older brother took the brunt of it owing to the racket we made, his status as older sibling. We always seemed to wake the angry male parent.  Being tossed and flipped, I was often bruised or dazed crashing into the wall, but I never did get that quarter!! 

At "Flying Saucer" on the shores of Lake
Ray Hubbard.  Dinner and Pop!

There were steel-tipped darts and blunt-headed arrows.  We were "great rabbit hunters" in the Washington Highlands.  Kris liked to "skin me," as if I were a circus target, better than knife throwing, I suppose, but the darts stuck once in a while, and they sort of stung my delicate flesh!  (We tried to keep it from Mother; no need to upset her further!)     

Oh yeah, the house on 68th Street again...    One night, Kris had an epiphany.  He

Another Kris Creation!

announced, "Hey Dad, Joey's in this too.  He's just as much a part of the noise making as me.  Why don't you smack him for a change?"   The next night, Father came in angry as a building storm, awakened by the noise of me hitting the wall, the result of a successful jujitsu-style and dizzying air toss, picked me up by the leg and gave me a good hard smack, somewhere on my anatomy.  Can't remember the exact location.  

"Kris," I blasted him angrily when the ticked off Father exited, "Why the hell couldn't you just leave well enough alone?!"  He must have laughed for half an hour.  I fumed fecklessly! 

The orange crate...   The Lone Ranger gun butt....   The radiator incident...  As kids, we always found some means of battling one another!  In the orange crate, he insisted upon being the "chief FBI man," facing what he believed to be the driver's seat.  Defiantly, I sat with my back to his back, insisting I'd be the chief.  He plucked me out of said crate like rotten fruit, picked it up and bashed me in the head with that "FBI squad" crate!

The gun butt...  he pulled the trigger and claimed he shot me dead.   I "raspberries" him, my tongue waggling, spittle flying.  He used his gun to bash me in the head.  

The radiator...  Mother had large yellow cushions for the patio glider.  We held them in front of ourselves declaring ourselves "waring umpires."  We flew at one another,

cushions bumping.  I flew backward into an iron radiator.  In all three instances, my head was nicely bloodied!  

In each of the aforementioned episodes, Mother shouted with angry vigor, "Joel...  Why do you let him do that to you??!!"  I gaped incredulously, speechless, then was shortly hauled off to an emergency room or, who can remember such things, possibly off to the family doctor.  Partial head shavings, several stitches!  Three different times!  Or were there more??  Hmmm.....

It wasn't that he was constantly trying to murder me.  He was just much bigger, much stronger, taller.  He didn't mean it...  "I didn't mean it," he said to Mother, his voice raised emphatically.   "I mean, it was Joey's fault.  He wouldn't let me be the Chief FBI guy...   He wouldn't die when I told him I shot him dead...  He lost his balance...  Wasn't my fault..."  

On the positive end of the spectrum, he defended me.  He praised me when I incurred or deserved his praise, and he did so often and unfailingly.  I think he actually respected me, loved me in his way.  He was a great brother, fair, lovable, positive, strong in body and spirit!  We had a terrific, shared sense of humor, a sense of silliness as well.  We had such fun together, poking fun at the absurd, laughing uncontrollably, enjoying summer days and water, such as sailing on Big Cedar Lake aboard the "Big Barn Dancer" with its red and white stripes, he the skipper, me the crew!  I'll miss him terribly, already do!  I know I always will, at least until that "Big Beckoning Digit" sends me packing! 

(Dedicated to Brother Kris, and to SweetHeart who supplied great photos and other memorabilia, his family, my much-loved family members as well, in honor of an upcoming Celebration of Life, honoring Kris P. K...  1942 - 2024!)

Humbly Submitted, 08-23-2024 -- Joel K 

   

 

    

  

 

   

Boot Futures, Ltd.

 

Memoirs of a Geezer

  

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:               BOOT Futures, LTD.

   

    Sometimes, from the high plateau of Geezerhood, in rare times of quiet when reflection stimulates or even permeates the thought process, certain memories flow like torrents into the cerebral cortex of still working brain.  Memories such as...   "Boots."

    In the winter of an indeterminate time of life (specific memories aren't always all that crisp and clear!), I set my sights on a gift of Xmas for SweetHeart, a wearable product I felt certain she would love to receive, and to wear proudly and delightedly, subsequent to receipt of same on the day above referenced.  

    Off I motored to an (ugh) enormous shopping mall in a suburban location.  That particular shopping complex was quite popular among rabid consumers.  Though the center was considered highly attractive to the masses, it was not in its bloom of youth having been planted several years prior to the episode to which I refer.  It sported an enormous parking arena that circumnavigated the complex.  One could almost always find a space defined or demarcated by slanted yellow lines.  Never close, however, to the shop or store in which one hoped to focus her or his attention.

    I started my quest at a large department store that was named after an eastern seaboard metropolis.  It no longer exists, the store, that is.  Nevertheless, I'm certain that's where I began the search.  I went immediately to the footwear department.  I queried a sales person.  "I'd like to consider purhasing a pair of boots, of the stylish variety in vogue by today's modern woman.  You know, tall, sueded boots, in a brown-ish tone of color...  more brown than beige, I think..."

    "I see," the young man began, "and what size does monsieur wish to purchase?"  

    "Um," I stupidly responded, "and what size would you recommend for a woman of approximately five-feet-seven inches in height?"  

    He chuckled nervously.  "I haven't the foggiest notion," he replied.

    "Well, let me see now.  Why don't we say women's size 8-1/2, possibly 9.  Do you think that might be suitable?"  

    "Um, let me repeat, sir, I haven't any idea.  I don't know the person for whom you intend the boots to fit."

   

He delivered several sizes of sueded boots to the chair in which I had seated myself.  All of the proffered boots sported the same altitude and coloring.  I selected a pair.  He announced the price, turning the carton to my view to reveal the printed cost.  

    "How much?!" I nearly shouted at the young man.  He was taken aback.  A shocked look appeared like a frozen mask upon his young visage.  I tend to be somewhat frugal.  Some might prefer, "Cheap" or "Tight Fisted" or perhaps "Miserly."  After my own face lost its purple hue, I calmed, selected a specific pair of boots, insulted the young man, his management, commercial enterprises generally, offered grudgingly an instrument of payment and departed for my waiting vehicle.

   

Imagine two pairs of spanking new boots
having been placed foolishly atop a car, only
to "lose their footing" and slide off as the
car motored homeward, one pair never
to be seen again!  An expensive "hobby,"

    I fumbled for my keys, as if conducting a search for lost doubloons in a Caribbean shore-line cave; it seemed to consume an amount of time equal to such a search, amid cursing and patting my person in near panic and grumbling....  Winter weather tends to force ordinary mortals to wear heavy apparel.  Outside pockets, inside pockets, not to mention inner garments with many pockets.  In the search for said keys, I absentmindedly placed the boot purchase in its heavy carton atop the vehicle.  Having finally found the keys, I motored off toward my home.

    Upon my arrival, I looked throughout the vehicle, quite naturally expecting the package to appear, but with futility and growing rage.  "Oh shit," said I, "I left them on top of the damn car.  I'm a complete idiot!!"  More cursing produced no desired result.  I retraced my route, looking left and right, motoring slowing with angry motorists honking and beeping and uttering foul insults.  Arriving back at the shopping complex and its commodious parking area, I searched and found no package containing boots.

  

    Foolishly, as if shoppers during the Season of Good Cheer were completely infused with integrity, I found nothing.  I tripped into the department store shoe department and queried the young sales person who seemed displeased to see me.  "No monsieur, no one turned in a carton of boots."

    "Where is your lost and found department?"  He directed me to customer service, staffed by a surly young woman who reported that nothing of the description I provided was turned in.  I also quizzed the store's principal customer service desk.  Nothing.  I returned to the footwear department where the vapid young man was now serving another patron.  I waited impatiently, tapping my feet.  Finally he turned toward me, an annoyed and questioning look upon his insipid mug...  I asked for another pair of the same footwear.

    He disappeared into an apparently secret inner sanctum where probably thousands of pairs of shoes and boots sat on absurdly high shelves, approachable only by rolling ladders (I imagined).  He reappeared carrying nothing.  "I'm very sorry, he said, with no expression of sincerity upon his smug face.  "We sold the last pair," he added, a nasty smirk creeping along his lips as his jaw line began to crinkle.

    I left that accursed store and trekked in an easterly direction, then entered a shoe and boot emporium that specialized.  I asked the same question of a young woman, she being unoccupied in a somewhat busy shop.  She appeared with several boxes.  "These should do nicely," she offered, "seems to be exactly what you want, and they're all the rage in this market."  

    Once again my frugality reappeared as a wild beast in a shrubbery profused jungle!  I tamped down my ire and agreed to pay the exorbitant price for the boots.  The nice young woman packaged them, I paid the freight and went somewhat satisfied (maybe, partially dissatisfied?...) along my way.

    Upon reaching the automobile, having at first been lost, having circled the parking area a few times punctuated by angry cursing, I searched for keys in the manner described earlier, having already placed the boot package upon the car top.  Impatiently, I scrambled in and motored off homeward.

    "Oh my god, you complete and utter buffoon," I announced to myself.  Once again, I had driven off with boots on the roof of the car.  I repeated the same search on my way back to the shopping mall, feeling like a demented tennis spectator, craning my neck left then right (a crane...  a goose?), slowly following the progress of the roadway as it disappeared beneath the underside of the vehicle.  Beep...  Hook...  "Move it along you stupid sloth..." and other more vehement insults.  (I could spy the "F" word being pantomimed by trailing motorists in the rear view!!)   

    Back at the rotten, stinking mall, I returned to the shoe and boot shop where I had purchased Pair Two, and re-purhased the same boots.  On this occasion, the shop had another pair.

    Then, on an impulse, and thinking to my tired brain, "Well... why not, one never

knows."  I repaired once again to the primary customer service area.  A miracle!  Someone had found the package in the parking lot and turned it in to the lost and found department.  "This is extraordinary," I tried to explain excitedly to the woman who staffed the counter, telling her the remarkable tale of the "Boot Futures."

  "Aren't people wonderful," I exclaimed.

    With a bored and completely disinterested look upon her face, she merely announced in an exhausted monotone, "Next, please."  With that, I left carrying two pairs of boots, nicely boxed and packaged in brown paper sacks.

    Stupidly, I couldn't help myself.  On Xmas eve, I presented both pairs to my sweet and wonderful spouse, SweetHeart.  "Two pairs of boots," she said as she unwrapped the parcels.  "I mean, very sweet of you, but two pairs, and they're almost identical."

    "Wouldn't you like a spare pair," I suggested inanely!   

   

    "We'll just return one of them, and get our money back.  Then you can buy me something else," she offered, eyes bright with promise and excitement.  I had quite possibly created the original "Pug Dog" paradigm.  What an idiot, I thought to myself about myself.  Alas, I suppose I brought this on my own head.  However, everyone in our family thoroughly enjoyed the tale, as each in turn laughed heartily and looked at me as if to state, "You poor, dumb, hapless numbskull!"

    "Well," said I, "Boot futures...  An investment, sort of..."  (That Pug Dog thing, however, continues to repose in a troubled brain...   a sort of haunting ghoul...  as if we jointly created an economic demon, determined, from time to time, to wound the psyche as it stuns the pocketbook!!)  

(Special Note of Dedication:    This posting is intended to amuse and possibly even entertain SweetHeart, Alie and Bethie, who always seem to enjoy "Pug Dog" tales, even though they tend to wound the heart of the writer's fragile, economically-delicate psyche.  Sigh!  But, one supposes that laughter is a healing balm, something that supersedes other emotions!  Thank You!)   

Humbly Submitted for Viewing Pleasure, 02-13-2024 -- Joel K.