Is anyone else as sick of "cyber" deal ads as am I? Even the wanks at wally-world have jumped on the catch-word. My junk email box overfloweth with cybers and I do not know what is a cyber.
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The following is a completely true story, although some parts may be truer than others. This is a tale about my first real computer. My first computing device was a used Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, but I won't say more about it except it was only a teaser.
Now for my first real pc. On Valentine's Day in 1992, I suggested to Carolyn we should go to the mall. She figured I wanted to go to Sears and ogle their meek line of computers but when we got there, I managed to steer her in the direction of Zales Jewelers; I knew she liked to ogle the rings behind the dispaly window. I suggested we go inside and look around, and I twice noticed her eyeing a pair of garnet earrings. That's when my dastardly plan began to bear fruit. I had a couple of hundred dollars in my pocket that I was willing to part with for a good cause so I asked her if she wanted the earrings and of course she said no that we could not afford the $100 pair. It took less than a second to attract a sales clerk who was buzzarding close by, and in no time Carolyn was smiling, the clerk was happy, and I was ecstatic. That evening we went to The Cottage—my favorite pub—and had a romantic meal of cheeseburgers, fries, and beer, and on the way home, I stopped by a poke store and bought a bottle of sparkling wine for her and a bottle of Black Jack for myself. We imbibed to excess, finally retiring to the boudoir of our trailer home around eleven where I put forth one of my better efforts during the remainder of that night, enough so that we both walked spraddle-legged for much of the next day. Two weeks later, my efforts bore fruit when the UPS man delivered a new baby; $2,000 worth of near cutting-edge computer. I was a bit kniving I suppose, but without that hard day's night, I probably would never have met any of you dear friends and readers; Alice excepted of course, she has known me most of my life.
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I will drive Carolyn to Fall Branch and back to Boones Creek for work this evening, and I may go into the old town for some photos, but the Lady Vols game is on tv. It is not an important game, so I could give it a miss, I suppose. Dunno ...
6 comments:
very funny story Ken. This may explain why recently when Mike got a new car he immediately drove me to the nearest WalMArt and let me pick out a brand new HOT PINK Ipod that I had my eye on. I'll trade the loss of our savings for walking funny any day of the week.
I liked the Romanian singing. Very soulful and rich. I dance some Turkish Rom numbers to a 9/8 rhythm which are very up and happy and very fast! Gypsies don't like to be called such and prefer instead "Rom." Gypsy is a slang word derogatory to their kind. It is my understanding that the Rom people were at the top of the list to erradicate by Hitler and just as many of them fell to his hand as the Jews did, although history makes little, if any, mention of this fact. I sure do love the music of that rich and diverse culture of traveling nomads.
Happy Tuesday.
Thanks, Tammy.
Carolyn also wound up with a diamond dinner ring and a ruby ring. The year was a bit tiring ... but worth it.
9/8 time is very fast; must be a heck of a workout!
Hitler's "master race" program tried to kill off a lot of ethnic groups. That is some good history about the Roms. I didn't realize just where the Families originated. In US, a few bad apples have given the entire group a bad name.
Happy Tuesday to you.
@ Tammy and Ken - Romanian is Romanian. Romanians lives in Romania. This is v. old European nation.
Gipsy=Rom. Both names are correct. Gypsies live in many countries of Europe, but it is not European nation. They came here from Asia. They are also in Poland; not a big group. They have their own style of life, well, v. special. They are rather closed community; nevertheless we try to protect their children and we insist that they should attend school.
Yes, Tammy is right; they suffered a lot during the 2. world war.
I'll try to describe you our supper we eat on Christmas Eve.
I know only such American movie "Fried green tomatoes" . I love this film. I have such DVD and I watched it many, many times.
My gentle kisses for you all. :-)
Thanks, Jola.
The Roms or Gypsies keep to themselves here in US, too. I think it is one reason they are mistrusted here; they are misunderstood.
Here, we prepare fried green tomatoes about the same way we do squash and eggplant. Tammy may have other ways, but they are always delicious. The movie is one of the greats.
Have a wonderful evening, young lady. :-)
Heck my computer story is so sad compared to yours. I am still a newbie. I bought my first one in 2002.
The Roma have a fascinating history and certainly are discriminted against in much of Europe. I have seen a few good photography books on them. It is very interesting. Although you do not hear much about them in the U.S. what you do hear is never good. Unfortunately my only interactions with them was back when I worked at Big Lots and it was not good. I'll just say they were fond of the "five finger discount" form of shopping. But a few bad apples are not a culture.
Same here on the wandering Gypsies, Mark. They used to come through the countryside and offer cheap roof painting; most of the paint disappeared from the houses during the next rain.
I have worked with a few of them on construction, but they still were not as sociable as are most people.
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