Go, Muse, Go

I don’t have a particular blog topic this week so I’m going to indulge in a little stream of consciousness. Let my writing muse take wing.

Now I did have a blog topic all set to go. Some weeks ago I signed up for a retirement class being offered by the local community college. I planned to go last Thursday to learn about elder law, investing, long-term care and other relevant topics, gleaning little pearls of wisdom which I was going to share here. But the class was canceled DUE TO LACK OF INTEREST!

C’mon fellow Boomers. Am I the only one planning to retire here? Don’t the rest of you want to learn the pitfalls of reverse mortgages and variable annuities?

I’m listening right now to an album I bought used for 50 cents. It’s The Chenille Sisters, a local women’s trio that has been singing three-part harmony in these parts for about 20 years. They have a blog too. I left a comment there reporting my find and the sisters replied that they hoped I got “50 cents of pleasure” listening to their songs. And they said they hope to meet me some day, though they called me “Kevin.” Guess Big Dave didn’t leave much of an impression with them.

There’s a guy at work who has an Ann Arbor internet radio program. He hosts two two-hour segments weekly, which he figures draws about 20 listeners, of which I'm one. Anyway, this DJ said if I had a song request to let him know. Talk about tough choices. Of course, I don’t want to hear just any old song you can hear every day on FM. So I asked him if he could play something from The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a fav from my college days. “It’s got to be somebody I’ve heard of,” he responded.

Aren’t DJs supposed to know pretty much every song that was ever made in the last 40 years? So I then requested something from Mundy. Certainly he had heard of Mundy, probably most famous for a hit song from the soundtrack of Romeo and Juliet starring Leonardo DiCaprio. “I’ve heard of Tuesday and Wednesday,” he said. Another no go. So I’ve yet to make my song request.

Today marks the beginning of March madness. For my extended family who have our NCAA basketball tournament brackets on-line at ESPN, it probably means another round of smack talk. Last fall, the family smack talk in our fantasy football league became so poisonous that my father wondered if the season should be canceled lest it end in fisticuffs at our Christmas party.

I’m not sure our on-line dart-throwing will let up this time either. My brother Gary (who comments here as “the enforcer") somehow put up two separate brackets in our league, which immediately drew the scorn of other family members.

My son Scott posted a message that argued, "Hey Gary, you don't get to put as many entries in as you'd like. I understand you're gonna need all the help you can get, but let's keep the brackets to one a person."

The enforcer claimed it was an accident, but said his toy Yorkie puppy Francesco would claim the extra bracket as his.

A dog having his own bracket in our family group? No way! That drew an angry response as well.

"The Bullsh*t already starts!!! I vote that the commish (league commissioner) gets fired immediately and Francesco gets neutered," demanded a message posted by the enforcer's eldest son. Last I looked, the enforcer pulled Francesco’s bracket from our tournament. And to REALLY keep things civil, my father has joined our group with his own bracket.