Weird Dave

My writing pal Deb tagged me a while ago with this meme . . . "Name five weird things about yourself."

"You could lose your standing as an average guy," I was told by my wife, refering to my profile. Here is partly why . . .

1. I do not like my breakfast toast or my white bread sandwiches cut in half. So don't do it. I believe cutting toast or sandwiches in half reduces them to finger food. And as a big guy, I don't like finger food.

2. My change-spotting past-time has occasionally placed me in the company of eccentric locals like Weird Willie, so-named by the kids in the neighborhood. In the past, both of us have scoured post-crowd venues--him for returnable bottles and cans, me for the occasional quarter or dime lost in the shuffle. Isn't there a little treasure hunter in all of us? I did find a gold chain once.

3. According to my family, my taste in music is weird. I prefer to call it eclectic. What's so wrong with Meco Star Wars anyway? Last Christmas, my wish list included the soundtrack from "Little Shop of Horrors." My wife threatened retribution against anyone who bought it for me. Mostly for that reason, I didn't get it.

4. I taught our dog to wrestle. Doogie is willing anytime to throw down with me on the carpet. He ducks, he dodges, he feints. Eventually, I end up pinning him, after which he shakes my hand "good match." My son Greg comments, "All you did is teach our dog to flop on his back for a treat." Pavlov's dog had it easy.

5. My fascination with the macabre. During a family trip out east, I made a brief, and surprise, detour to a mall in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, the filming locale for the original Dawn of the Dead. I've also produced several home-made scary videos featuring my own sons and nephews. In one, my nephews played X-files styled detectives investigating strange goings on locally. I filmed this on location at a site in Washtenaw County that drew national publicity in a flying saucer flap 40 years ago.

BONUS. I blog. My family thinks I take blogging too seriously. I did see a news source recently state that bloggers are a "nutty bunch." I prefer to think of them as a supportive and caring community.