September 6, 2004

• Various Topics

  Fiftieth Birthday Party

  Early this last week we received a strange telephone call from an old friend, Jimmy. Part of what made it strange was that Jimmy, rather than his wife, Gloria, left the message, as Gloria is the one who usually talks with Delia. The message indicated that it was a matter of some urgency and mentioned two telephone numbers at which we could reach Jimmy, one being his cell phone number, but no clue was given as to the nature of the emergency. We've been out of touch with Jimmy and Gloria for about three years, ever since her parents moved down into Mexico to set up a restaurant associated with a family cattle ranch.

  Delia tried to call back, but she couldn't reach anybody at either of the numbers. Fearing there had been a death in the family, Delia started calling all of the relatives she knew of who lived nearby. She finally contacted an aunt, who told us that the emergency was Jimmy's 50th birthday party, which was to be on saturday. Minutes later, Jimmy called and Delia, without consulting me, confirmed that we would be there.

  The last time we were there, Jimmy, recently out of the Navy, had joined the San Diego Sheriffs Office, working on Otay Mesa. He gave that up some time ago and has a new job, about which I know nothing, but there were a lot of new faces at the party as a result. I had good conversations with a few of them before the live music started, a dj with a multiple keyboard setup who produced a mix of live and recorded stuff at ever-increasing volume settings.

  We were sitting on folding chairs -- none too kind to my poor, damaged back to begin with -- and mine kept sinking into the lawn. I had to keep standing up, pulling the chair up out of its grassy sinkholes, move it a few inches and sit again. Then a woman spilled her margarita on my left arm and leg ... and the mosquitoes descended on me. Between the musical torture, the sinking folding chair and the unintentional blood donation, I was distinctly uncomfortable. I decided to move to a nice wooden chair in the kitchen.

  There I observed a couple mixing drinks ... and wished I hadn't. They filled their large plastic cups with ice, enough so the ice would be about a third of the resulting drink, and they added about an equal amount of inexpensive, but decent, Cabernet Sauvignon. The remaining third of each drink they prepared was Coca-Cola ... and the guy lamented not having the diet variety.

  That's disgusting.
  

  Favorite Comics

  There are a number of comics I follow on the Internet in addition to the selection available in the newspaper I subscribe to.

  One of my favorites is Frazz, the tale of an elementary school janitor and the students he comes in contact with. One of those students, Caulfield, is somewhat of a philosopher and, in the sunday episode, he discovers that the concept of summer ending is all in his mind.

  Another favorite, 9 Chickweed Lane, is somewhat more mature and more intellectual, but no less funny. It treats of three generations of women in one family and their relationship problems. The youngest is a student in a Catholic school, which allows affectionate jabs at the entire Catholic way of life, and whose boyfriend is an ubergeek. The next generation is a university professor, the central character, who delights in driving men mad. Then there is sour granny, critic of everything and everybody, whose boyfriend is a large person with godlike powers of possible extraterrestrial origin who may be thousands or millions of years old. This old alien has been the subject of analysis by Men In Black for the past week, ending the week with his confusion on the topic of botox, and it may continue next week.
  

  Heat

  The WeatherBug temperature for our area was 104. The newspaper had predicted just 98. At 9:00 this morning we experienced blast furnace winds from the south and south-east as well as what Panamanians call el sol que pica (the sun that bites).

  Until today, it has been relatively cool. Today made up for it. Cathy's dog, Rocky, could only stand it outside for about two minutes. After going out briefly in the morning, he refused to go out again until the sun set.

  All three of us had headaches all day long.
  

  Mosquitoes

  When I was being eaten alive at the party, the subject of mosquito avoidance came up. I knew, from experience in Panama, that eating garlic helped keep the critters off. But I learned something new from the rarest of sources, my wife.

  According to Delia, if you want to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes you have to stop eating bananas. Mosquitoes and chiggers both love the flavor you get after consuming bananas. She said they will attack if you've consumed the fruit as long as ten or eleven days previously.

  I can believe it. The mosquitoes had ignored me until I had the margarita spilled on me, which worked as a blood-sucker magnet. Even washing the stuff off of my arm didn't discourage the critters once I became live bait.

  • 01:24
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