The Invisable Man Strikes McDonald's!

I was on my way to an appliance store to buy a water filter for the refrigerator when I saw my hands were dirty.  Opps!

I hate to walk into a store with dirty hands.  It is like I don't know any better.  I decided to go into a McDoanld's I was getting close to, go into the restroom, wash my hands, then buy something.  I decided the cheapest thing to buy would be senior cup of coffee.

After leavin the restroom with clean hands I walked up to the counter  and asked the young lady for a cup of senior coffee, black.  She rung it up on the cash register and said, "57 cents please."

I handed her a dollar and she put it into the cash register and took my change out.  Before she had a chance to give me  the 42 cents an older lady rushed up to the counter and asked the young lady waiting on me if she could get smebody to help her get "all that into her car."  Then the young lady handed her my 42 cents and walked away with her, to help her I suppose.  And left me standing there without my coffee or my change.

After another young lady another waited on her customers she asked me what I was waiting for.  I told her about the mixup.  Before she had a chance to straighten it out the first young lady came back and I told her what she did and she said, "I did?"

Yep, you did, join the club.

NOT AGAIN? AWW ZHIT!

The Invisible Man and Mrs Invisible Lady visited a fast food chicken franchise that just opened near the hospital. The cashier took their order and money. He gave them a ticket with number 17 on it. He told them to listen out for that number.




They got their drinks at the self-serving drink dispenser and then sat down and waited for their number to be called. And waited …. and waited.

By the time they were calling out number 39 a lady employee cleaning off tables noticed the look of the invisible couple of concerned each time a number was called. She asked them what was their number . One of the invisible people said, “17.” She took their ticket and showed the people behind the counter, including the manager. Everybody went scrambling , scattering around and asking the kitchen employees about number seventeen. It vanished. They printed off the original order and redid it. Although it still took a while.


Finally the manager came out with the orders, an apology, and two coupons for free meals on their next visit. He also had an excuse, which he quickly added “was no excuse” – what was ordered, grilled chicken strips threw them off, because the lunch rush was over, and some things just aren’t cook and ready in the off hours – but according to him that wasn’t an excuse. With the free meal coupons we gladly accepted his apology.

Sighting of the Invisible Man at GC BBQ

We went to our favorite barbecue eatery yesterday, Grand Champion BBQ.

This was our 4th visit. As the other times we entered the first person we saw was one of the owners smiling as always. She instantly recognized us. She remembered what I had last time and the time before that. This time I tried the pulled pork.

She told me there was somebody there that knew me. Me? Nobody knows me! I thought. She said somebody was there that reads Chicken-fat and he was there because of my recommendation.

Did I get that right? Somebody actually followed my recommendation. Wow! And what is even more amazing they just happened to be there, in mid-day, with only two other customers in the dining room. Is that synchronicity or what?

As we were about to sit down a man walked up to me and said something witty like, “They don’t have chicken-fat on the menu!” He was a real chicken-fat reader. I didn’t know if I should have walked around him and pinch him or pull his nose to see if he was real or what.

It didn’t take too many sentences for me to know who he is. We have communicated on at least two occasions. He has made comments via emails about things as I said on the blog and he is also a neighbor to an ex-postal coworker.

His nice wife walked up and we talked to her also. She had her pocketbook, so I think that was a signal to him it was time to go. It was a nice conversation. At the end, he punch-lined it by saying, “See? you are not so invisible after all.”

They left and I sat there dazzled thinking a real person with no ties reading Chicken-fat. Unbelievable!

The pulled pork was very moist and delicious. The bbq baked beans had a body of its own and the coleslaw was chunky with apple chucks.

I meant to say this in my last posting about GC BBQ but when typing it slipped my mind: They play good old fashion Delta Blues, which seems to complement good BBQ.

I guess he was right, I’m not invisible after all. Oh by the way, here is a picture of my favorite GC BBQ part-owner and me. How do you like my new ballcap?

Invisible People Can't Read

If you have read my blog for any length of time you probably know at times I complain or politely grumble because I am invisible; or often ignored.

But instead of doing something positive like robbing a bank or be a spy I rather take the low road and just quietly and politely grumble about it.

Which brings me to my next “Being Ignored Adventure”: We live in a subdivision of about 200 houses. About every other week newspaper-like papers are thrown in each driveway. It is all advertising with coupons and all that sort of shoppers’ delight kind of stuff. The papers are in weather protective sacks just like the newspapers delivered and by outside appearances it is easily confuse the two.

That is all the houses get a copy but one: our house of course. The house next to us has been vacant since January. I always get the copy left in that driveway.

Another irritant with this is the people across the street always get a copy and never picks it up. The drive over and over it and finally, it just get torn into pieces and the weather carries it away.

I think the reason we don’t get one because the person delivering the papers probably has been instructed to leave them at houses with mailboxes. We don’t have a mailbox. We have a Post Office Box.

I guess that is understandable.

However, the bottom line is an unoccupied house qualifies to get the sales paper and we don’t.

The Wreck That Never Was

The Invisible Man has a wreck.

January the 5th of this year we were involved in a wreck. While in a stopped position in traffic when a truck hit us with speed and we were knocked into the car in front of us. Our car had the most damage, it was totaled.

Anna called the Cobb County Police and they sent an officer out, a swat team member. He wrote up the accident, got statements, and gave the guy that hit us from behind the ticket.

He told us the case number and told us in five working days to go to any Cobb County Police Precinct and pick up a copy of the accident report.

It has been three weeks and I have been to the precinct the officer worked out of once and they told me they did not have anything yet, why don’t I just call to save myself a trip. Now, I call almost daily and still nothing. They also told me the officer who wrote off the report has not been to work since two days after our wreck, he is in training, they said.

Yesterday when I called the lady connected me up with the desk sergeant's voice mail so I could leave him a message of my concern.

Being me, I am used to being ignored or just lost in the cracks of the system, so I almost want to say, “I understand.”

The Canoe aka Robinson Tropical Gardens

On our 43rd anniversary Thursday we had lunch at the Canoe Restuarant in Vinings, Georgia.

When I was a teenager the Canoe was then named Robinson’s Tropical Gardens. Robinson’s Tropical Gardens was a good place to go prom when you and your date were all dressed up in your finery, or so I heard. After high school the Robinson family’s daughter, whose parents owned the restaurant, carpooled with us to Atlanta every day. I think she and her family lived next door to Robinson’s Tropical Gardens. We would pick her up in front of the restaurant and let her out at the same place every day. She was quiet and easy going.

I don’t know if it is true or not but I heard that Robinson’s Tropical Gardens sold mixed drinks. Selling mix drinks in Cobb County back then was a no no. Cobb County was dry.

Snap! Back to the present! We were stepping out into a sunroom overlooking the Chattahoochee River.

Our waitress acted like a thrilled teenager when she learned that it was our first time at the Canoe and she got to tell us all about the restaurant; like how dedicated the chefs are and it is so much like a one big happy family. She said it was owned by 3 men. One of the men, I didn’t retain his name, also is co-owner with Ted Turner of Ted’s Montana Grill chain.

She couldn’t say enough good things about the place. She had been there only a short time. I wonder, if five or ten years from now she will still be mesmerized with the Canoe?

The people were not snobs. In fact, they all were very friendly. The food was good and the river side atmosphere was great.

While we were eating Anna saw two Canadian Geese fly low, just a few feet above the Chattahoochee’s water, upstream.

Next to us was a big table with about 7 women and 1 man. At the side of the table were a lot of brightly wrapped presents for someone(s) to unwrap. I think it was some kind of nearby office Christmas party.

I went outside and took some pictures of the river and hoping two more geese would get the idea to flap those wings and take a trip up the river just like their friends did, so I could get a picture. No such luck.

When I walked up the steps and tried to open the door back into the sunroom I discovered the doorknob was locked. It locks on the outside when the door is shut. People inside were having a good time laughing and cackling and not looking my way. The invisible man strikes The Canoe.

I shook and banged on the door and the party of 7 females and 1 male saw me. He ran over and opened the door smiling and with a big grin asked me for the password.

I couldn't think of anything witty so I just said "food!" in a joking way and I guess it was the right password, he held the door opened and stepped aside.

For lunch I had salmon on a bed of spaghetti squash, greenery, and other tasty stuff. The salmon was very good. Anna had a crab cake also on top of a bed of other garden stuff. She said it was the best crab cake she has ever had.

For dessert Anna had crème brulee and I had a cute little cake of some kind with plenty of icing. “HAPPY ANNIVERSARY” was written in chocolate on my dessert plate (see video).

When we got up to leave the gentleman with the 7 women said something jokingly to us. Anna said something to him about it looks like he has his own harem.

He laughed and said, “You are not far wrong.”

And one of the women said, “I heard that!”

Afterwards we settled up and paid the valet we walked around the building down by the river. On the back deck was some kind of weird duck looking in the plate glass door at the people eating (see video).

He was probably quacking “Anybody called wanting to see a duck fly low over the river?”

Growing Old Gracefully

Anna and I were sitting in a waiting room at the hospital very early yesterday morning. My sister was there for a procedure. A man and his wife walked in. The man looked in my direction, he saw me his expression lit up, he smiled and gave me a warm wave. I didn’t recognize him. As he and his wife talked to the receptionist I recognized him. His name is Joel. He lost hair since the last time I saw him.

He had been coming to our Good Old Boys & Girls (GOBAG) meeting but he hasn’t been there for a while. I felt bad that he recognized me but I didn’t recognize him.

After he and his wife sat down I walked over to say hi. He introduced me to his wife by saying “He (me) and I (him) went on those bowling tournaments in Las Vegas and Reno that time….” I interrupted him saying, “Wait! I have never been to Reno or Las Vegas.”

He confused me with someone else. He refocused and realized who I am.

While in the waiting room we decided to have breakfast. We had country steak and biscuit. On my biscuit I spread grape jelly. In my jumbled clumsy movements I dropped the little grape pack onto the floor in front of me. I picked it up and saw the floor had a little patch of grape jelly. I thought a cleaning lady will be by shortly and get it. Then I thought what about all the people who might walk on top of it and get jelly on the bottom of their shoes. They will have a sticky shoe each time they take a step. Being the humanist that I am, I cleaned up the jelly off the floor.

Anna wanted to move a few seats over to be able to watch the news on the big TV on the wall. When we moved I thought I got rid of our breakfast napkins, cups, and paper plates. I know I threw it all in a garbage can. As soon as we moved two Latino women moved into the seats we were occupying. There was a small table with a phone and a Styrofoam coffee cup. That was the same kind of coffee cup I was drinking my coffee from that I bought from the hospital cafeteria. Damn! I forgot to pick it up and throw it away. I didn’t want for my trash to be a nuisance to the two ladies – the best thing for me to do was to take a few steps over, smile and say, “excuse me” and pickup the coffee cup and throw it away in the nearby trashcan. I was about to stand up to make my move when one of the ladies picked up the cup and sipped out of it. It was her cup. In just another moment and I would have made a fool out of myself, again.

Back home, later in the day I called Paul and told him about seeing Joel in the hospital and that is where Paul was. He has been in the ER since the day before. His heart rate had drop to the low 30s. The doctors were trying to decide what to do and his daughter was trying to get him to change over to Saint Joseph’s in Atlanta. I checked with him about four hours later and his heart rate was back to normal and he was checking out of the hospital

Getting old is not for wimps.

Waiting in the Waiting Room

I spent another four hours in a Kennestone Hospital waiting room.

Again, I fell through the cracks. Other people came, sat for about one or two hours and got a call or met with their loved one’s doctor and moved on. Not me. I stayed on and on.

There were two ladies at the desk. The procedure was to sit and wait. A doctor would come in or call and one of the two ladies would announce the name and the family of the name would come forward and either talk to the doctor or talk to him on the telephone, or maybe for more serious cases, there one two small rooms to the side to give them privacy. If you are a regular reader of my blog you might recall this was the same room that a younger man bounded out of the room, saying, “SHE DIED! SHE’S DEAD!!” And the whole family went to pieces running up and down the hospital halls screaming “SHE DIED!!”

But that was months ago. This day was more sedate.

The lady at the desk called out, “The Lord’s Family? Will the Lord’s Family please come up?!”

An elderly man with a very deep voice, “I hope we all are.”

I noticed one man brought his laptop. He did some computer work then called a client and told him he has a better insurance deal, he only has to pay $488 extra annually. Have you ever had an insurance agent call you and say he found out a way to save you money that you would actually pay less?

That same man, his sister, and a couple more loved ones of a patient, were sitting and a doctor came in to tell them how the operation went that he just completed. The good news is that she did great. The doctor said a few clever remarks about the procedure that cracked them up laughing. On a roll, he told them while they had her opened another assisting doctor told him he would be she wasn’t Jewish. I heard the word ovary mentioned. I didn’t hear the punch line but it cracked them up again. The doctor walked out laughing at his own antics the lady of the group suddenly quit laughing and said, “They were standing there openly laughing about her ovaries while she was knocked out?” Everybody quit laughing and got quite.

One lady about age 50 came in. She had on tight-ass jeans and a leopard skin blouse and matching boots. I think I have seen her in this same waiting room the last time I spent several hours here. Either that, or she has the exact same style (hair dyed black) as another woman. There might be more.

I overheard a man in a wheel chair tell that one time in 1988 he was watching a live lung operation on TV; he named the city and what university it was being broadcast from. When the patient’s chest was opened up it showed his lungs were black. They looked horrible. The patient was a pack a day man. The man in the wheelchair said he was too. When he was watching that on TV he was smoking a Pell Mell cigarette. He put his cigarette out and hasn’t had one since.
Then he had a coughing spasm and his wife wheeled him over to give somebody room to walk by.

The cigarettes quitting got me talking to a lady next to me. For some reason she told me her mother, who died about ten years ago chewed Red Man Chewing Tobacco and another brand of snuff. I asked had she ever looked into a spittoon.

She said, “Eeeuuuuwwww….. yes! How nasty!”

I said it was nice we didn’t see spittoons anymore, times are changing. She agreed.

I told her at a bluegrass concert a year or so ago I saw an old geezer chewing a plug of tobacco and just didn’t look normal. She asked me where did I go to the concert and I said I didn’t remember, but named off several possibilities. She started asking me if I heard of some gospel singing groups. I never heard of any.

A big curly hair blond middle age lady sitting close joined in and told us she and her family are gospel singers and they lived in Cartersville where they mostly entertain but they have been to Florida, Murphy, NC, and Alabama signing. Now they have a 12 year old singer that really knows how to sing to a new beat and get down and people go ape over him. He is thinking of going into the ministry.

She was dressed in black and also had clothes like Elvis might have worn and on her pocket book in little glittering sparkles that spelled ELVIS. She said she was observing the anniversary of Elvis's death.Then someone overheard us and started talking about the top gospel singers of the north Georgia Mountains and western North Carolina. Someone else started naming groups they have heard, which triggered somebody else talking about what gospel singers they are fans of. I think over half people in the room were talking about their connection with gospel music. I looked around for the man with the deep voice who said he hoped everybody there were in the Lord’s Family – I bet he was a gospel singer too. I didn’t see him. He was missing something.

It is one of the few times lately that I have sat in a large room that everybody had Georgian accents. And it is the first time ever almost everybody there had some sort of relation to gospel music and they were all coming forth telling about it.
What did I just start?

1958 OLYMPIAN - B-Team Football

Man! I don't beleive my eyes! The Invisible Man is in this picture. Scary!

Invisible Man at the Madi Gras

Recently , out of curiosity, I ate at a fast food restaurant that is known for its Cajun flair. It shall be nameless in this post.

I wanted to try their Cajun chicken. At the counter I ordered 2 pieces of “spicy or Cajun Chicken” I said. And a Diet Coke. The lady behind the counter talked me into a combo, and I got coleslaw instead of fries.

When I took my traay there were two young ladies, maybe late teens or in their early 20s hanging out in front of the counter that had the drink dispenser and the plastic-ware and napkins, drink cup tops, straws, etc. they already had their food and the stuff this side counter had to offer. They were just talking.

I stood there politely. That is one of the main reasons I am invisible. I am polite and quiet – and mostly still.

I noticed the youngest looking of the two had on shorts and a low-cut blouse. The other one had a beach towel wrapped around her and part of it was hiked up to the end of her thigh…. Her fleshy thigh, with nothing covering that fleshy thigh. Oh-oh.

One of them finally noticed me and the one wrapped in a towel said, “I’m so sorry sir! I didn’t realize you were waiting behind us.”

I said, “No problem.”

She said you want napkins and a straw? And within a flash she had placed a plastic spoon/fork wrapped in cellophane, a straw and a plastic cup cap on my tray. I thanked her.

Then I looked at the drink dispenser. It was a State-of-the-art drink dispenser. There was only spout. I didn’t know where to start.

Again, the young lady wrapped in a beach towel came to my rescue. She showed me where to place the cup, and what to press for ice (the brace behind the cup) and then what did I want to drink? I told her Diet Coke and she pointed at the Diet Coke icon on the plastic thing above the dispenser. She told me to press that. This time the plastic thing changed icons. About 4 or 5 different flavor Diet Coke icons materialized. She asked me did I want the cherry flavor Diet Coke. NO, I said, just the regular flavor.

She told me I could have spurted a little of each type of Diet Coke if I wanted. They had Cherry, grape, lemon, regular, and maybe more.

I thanked her and carried my tray and sat down. The two females continued standing in that same spot, hogging the counter space of the extra stuff for no apparent reason.

Oh well,.

I tried the Cajun chicken. I had a thigh and a breast. It wasn’t as spicy as I hope. Chick-fil-a has them beat in spicy chicken arena.

However, I think this Cajun fast food restaurant’s coleslaw was better than Chic-fil-a’s.

There was only other person in the dining roor:. a guy on a lap-top and cell-phone. I suspect he was the manager. In fact, I am pretty sure he was. The cashier walked over and talked to him in a cheese-eating fashion. And also the two ladies did the same, walked over and talked to him in a very friendly cheese-eating way.

Which tells me the duo were probably employees that dropped by on their off day to either pick up their check or get some points in. And, I suppose all the assistance I got by the side counter was a points getting ploy.

The two females finally sat down and ate a while. Then the lady with the towel stood up. The other one stood up too and pulled out a cell phone from someplace on her scant clothing. The one with the towel dropped it.

Before, as I mentioned, I thought of the possibility that she was nude under the towel. She wasn’t naked. She had on an itsy bitsy bikini. It was not polka-dotted.

The cell phone was also a camera. It had a flash. The one with the bikini posed and the other one took the picture. I thought that the probable manager was in the background. I looked over to him and he was engrossed in his laptop and cell phone and didn’t seem to notice.

I bet he will when someone shows him his picture on a blog or something.

I saw that on both doors as you enter from either side there is an embedded sign that said something like, “WELCOME! EVERY DAY IS MADI GRAS HERE!”

I looked over at the girl clad in teeny bitsy bikini posing for pictures and thought this could be something like the Madi Gras, without the beads and the booze.

Xenophobia

One day the other week I took my mother-in-law to her beauty shop. Her weekly hair appointment takes about an hour. I brought a book to read.

The beauty shop is in an old shopping center. The old Shopping center is beginning to show signs of deteriorating. And also, a few stores cater to immigrants.

I was sitting in the car reading my book when a big pickup drove by me in the parking place beside me, then stopped in the row behind me. I watched in my rearview mirror as a young Latino man got out of his truck and went to a small grocery store that caters to people south of the border. Soon, he came out with a Weber-type grill fully assembled, standing on its legs, in a grocery cart.

He and another Latino pushed the cart to the truck. The next few minutes they worked to get the grill into a car sitting next to his truck. Then in a minute two more young Latino men or teenagers materialized. Then one or two more came out. By the way they were laughing, jostling, and carrying on, they all knew each other.

They were all standing around talking in Spanish. One decided to turn his speakers up very loudly. They liked Hip-Hop music.

I felt, with their loud music, they were being obnoxious. I felt threatened.

An old woman came out of the beauty parlor. She was using a walker. She looked happy with herself with her hair. Then she looked up towards the music and saw the bunch of Latino’s. She walked very carefully studying the group as she edged towards her car, not taking her eyes off them.

What was she going to do if she had any trouble? Guard them off with her walker? Lift it up and jab at them? They didn’t pay her any attention. They were enjoying each other.

She got in her car and hurried away.

They kept hanging out talking loud and laughing with the loud music thumping.

Then I thought: They are not hurting anybody. They are just hanging out. I hung out many times with my friends, when I was their age. Hanging out with one’s own is universal.

One of them started doing a mock dance for the others’ amusement twisted or hopped by my car and he saw me. He went back and turned off the car radio. They didn’t know I was there. How could I expect them to be harassing me if I was invisible to them just like I am everybody else?

They still hung out, but being aware of me, they were more subdue.

Apparently I was on-guard for no reason.

The Invisible Man Got 2 Phone Calls

Thursday or Friday last week I received a phone call from my friend J. He wanted some information he thought I might be able to furnish. It turned out that I couldn’t. While talking about other matters suddenly J said he was getting a call on the other line he had to take, he would call me right back.

I waited.

I waited some more.

The next day we had to go shopping and to the doctor. I was hesitant to go thinking J. might call while I was gone.

Wait! I will just have the calls forwarded to my cell phone, so if J calls I will get on the cell phone. No problem! It was even less of a problem because J didn’t call.

No did he call the next day or the next.

On Tuesday my friend P called. P and I talked a while and he said he was getting another call in, from M. He said he would call me right back.

Anna wanted to use the phone and I asked her to wait because P was to call me right back.

I waited and I waited.

Then I thought what if J and P call at the same time? I promised both them I would be waiting by the phone.

Maybe I better get a phone with two lines I thought.

Then, it was time to go to the Tuesday afternoon Good Old Boy Get Together.

J and P were both at the get together and they were not on the phone… but during the course of the next hour or two I think they both were on their cell phones from time to time…. maybe they didn’t see me (I’m invisible) and they both were trying to call me.

A-Ah-Ahchoo!!!

Yesterday I went to another waiting room of another doctor. This time it was my chiropractor.

There was only one seat available in the waiting room. I sat down. It was a small waiting room. Directly across from me was a lady with a respiration protection blue mask on. She was mumbling something to the lady next to her.

Then, after a while she turned her head and noticed me and her eyes widened. Being invisible most of the time I am rarely disruptive. Evidently, she didn’t see me creep in.

She studied me for a minute and then went back talking to the lady next to her – the mask muffled her voice. She kept looking back at me and talking. The other lady looked at me occasionally but didn’t want to look opinionated. I wonder how the lady understood the masked one. She only made muffled sounds and you certainly couldn’t read her lips. I think some of it was body language.

I flipped through a NEWSWEEK magazine. I read an interesting little article that insinuated that Russ Limbaugh is feared about as much as Joe McCarthy was back in the 50s. If Russ says anything against a conservative Republican, even though they know what Russ says is wrong, other conservative Republicans will not come to his aid and to speak for, or stand by their friend – they know it would be political suicide.

Oh, where is Edward R. Murrow now that we need him?

After I read that I picked up a FITNESS magazine. The woman with the mask studied every page (upside down) that I flipped to. Most pages had a beauty, with good muscle tone - well that was what the FITNESS magazine was about… how to eat right and exercise right. I could tell the woman was frowning behind that mask on what I was looking at.

I wonder why she had that mask on - if she was paranoid over catching the Swine Flu. As I wondered suddenly I felt that I had to sneeze. What would she do if I sneezed? If I sneezed and spray her with a fine mist of mucus droplets what would she do? Start beating me with her umbrella?

Then the nurse called her back. And I didn’t have to sneeze anymore.

The Invisible Woman Goes to the Doctor

My sister told me on the phone she went to the doctor yesterday and very probable got overlooked by the staff.

First they called her first name and when she stood up they said they meant someone else with a different last name and didn’t have the same first name as she did at all.

Then she saw people in the waiting room come in after she was there and called back before they called her. After 30 minutes she asked the lady behind the counter, telling her people have been coming in and being called back. The lady told her there were four doctors there and there different doctors for different patients, yada yada yada. She assured my sister everything was running smoothly with no mix-ups.

Then shortly after that the lady told her she was next.

And she was next. As she was walked back to an examination room the nurse said something to the effect “due to a mix-up she was left behind.” When the doctor came in he said something similar about being lost in the shuffle.

I welcomed her to the club of invisible people. I think being transparent and to-be-ignored is in our genes – something we have to live with.

Beep!! Beep!!! Eeekk!!!!

Uncle John’s Bathroom Readers and his page-a-day calendars always have interesting facts, statistics, or a clip about a bizarre incident.

Today’s calendar is no exception. It told of a truck driver in the United Kingdom that hit a small compact car and drove with it for two miles. The tiny car was wedged in of his semi and did not know it was there. No one was hurt or killed.

The story reminded me of an incident I was in back in 1967.

I worked at Sinclair Refining Company in Atlanta. Sometimes at lunch I would drive about two or three miles to a hamburger joint and sit in my car eat and listen to the radio – which is what I was doing in this event.

My car was a red Spits two-seater Triumph – I think it had Mark II on it. It was a nice day – I had the top down. I was sitting there eating my hamburger and listening to the music when I noticed a big dump truck was backing up – I haven’t noticed it before – and it got closer and closer… I started blowing my horn when suddenly WHUMP!!!
The truck’s big metal bed crashed over my car and was completely in my view with nothing else.

I was inches from big steel metal thing looking at me. The dump truck driver did not hear me beep the horn and begin to go forward and dragging my car and me with him. I blew and blew but the roar of the engine, I suppose, drowned out my little naked high pitched sounding “beep beep”.

A man, also sitting in his car in the parking lot saw the accident and ran out waving his arms at the driver. The driver stopped to see what he wanted. Saved.

My hood was warped and peeled upward. My windshield was broken. But the engine seemed fine. The driver just didn’t see me and admitted it. He called his boss and the boss told me he preferred to not make it official with the police and all…..(I wonder why).

It was many years ago and I am not sure if they furnished me some type of rented car or not. He had me take the car to a place he suggested and they had it back running looking new in about a week.

Although, I didn’t realize then, but not long after that the car had transmission problems which I think was probably caused by being pulled with the car in “park”.

To be continued.

An Uplift

Sitting in a doctors’ waiting room yesterday I saw two women enter and sign in. They somehow looked familiar. After studying them for a while it occurred to me. The reason I didn’t instantly recognize them is that they aged since the fifteen of so years since the last time I saw them. They were mother and daughter.

We used to shop at Kroger’s on Wednesday evenings (senior discount day) and that is also the time this family picked to shop. The man is dark, like an Indian or a Pakistanian (?). They had two kids, a preteen girl and a hyper little boy. The little boy was also dark. They had accents of some kind.

Seeing them only one time a week I could see the preteen girl’s health beginning to decline. First she had a patch on one eye and later developed a limp which seemed to get worse each week. Then, she were no longer with them at Krogers. The parents looked depressed. I thought she had died. And the little boy was just as hyper, getting into everything.

In the waiting room the mother’s hair was turning gray and thinner but it was them. The daughter looked like a grown up and in good health version of the little sickly preteen girl. And the mother and daughter looked very happy interacting with each other.

Of course, being invisible they didn’t notice me then and didn’t notice me now. They then lived only a few blocks from us I found out when one time I went to a yard sale they were having. I bought something from them, I forgot what.

That was uplifting for me, to see the girl, now a lady, uplift herself from whatever.

The Invisible Man in the Waiting Room

Tuesday we went to a doctor (see previous post).

In the waiting room was a TV continuously running the news… it was probably CNN or FOX.

There were clips of Obama having a town hall meeting. A man, who was leaving said something to the effect that he would save a whole lot of money if he stayed at the Whitehouse and not use Air Force One flying all over the place.

To my surprise an old lady with a back-woods accent defending him, shesaid they all did that. They needed to keep in contact with the people. A little later I overheard her tell someone she just lost all her savings to investors and they ended up getting huge bonuses by the millions – “It just an’t right!” Greedy bastards.

One lady, rather quiet, looked to be near sixty had long straight salt and pepper hair. She didn’t have anything to say. Finally she got up and went to the desk and asked if they had a restroom. They told her how to get to it, by going through that door and taking a left and bla bla bla. She left. While she was gone her husband came in from the inner offices and did not see her. He turned around and asked the elderly people sitting closest to where she was sitting did they see a lady wearing a denim blouse leave. One of them said she just went to the restroom.

He jokingly said they been married 37 years and thought maybe she took off running the first time he turned his head. She returned and they both gave each other a big hug – a big embrace, then a big mouth to mouth noisy kiss. It looked like a honeymoon going on for 37 years. Good for them! ….. unless they were just trying to impress us.

Two elderly couples that were in the same Sunday school class ran into each other in the waiting room and sat down and talked to each other.

They discussed an upcoming breakfast their church was having. You could have your choice of white fish or chicken. One wife was concerned about the cost of the breakfast and how much would be wasted. Her main question was what if they didn’t estimate right and there were more than expected that wanted, say the chicken, and you had a lot of fish left over – or visa versa?

That makes sense. I bet people preparing meals for a lot of people have that problem every day.

I was reading a book and also flipping through a locally published slick magazine that were mostly classy local advertisements…. I think it is mostly intended for waiting rooms – a big stack was there to help yourself.

One of the fancy expensive advertisements were a Marietta plastic surgery group. The ad showed all the doctors of that group standing with their arms folded like they knew the score. It looked impressive. I knew a kid in high school that became a plastic surgeon so I looked closer at the faces to see if he was in the group. He wasn’t. But what I did see was strange: All the doctor’s faces look strikingly similar. True! Underneath it had all their names and they were all different people… They were all different sizes but all the faces were nearly the same…. It was as if they all practiced on each other and only had one face pattern.

The Invisible Man Ponders Death in the Neighborhood

Last Tuesday our neighbor Tony died. Tony was 78. He and his family lived three houses down the street.

Tony had a stroke about two weeks ago and was rushed to the hospital. He improved enough for therapy and was sent to a nursing home that specialized in just that. Then he died.

Last May their son, in his 40s, died in their house. Apparently the son lost his job and his wife and was living with them. One day we saw a bunch of police cars, an ambulance, an emergency vehicle, and a fire truck – all with their lights flashing – parked in front of the house. I’m sure Tony and his wife was extremely upset over that.

While I was working out in the yard Wednesday and watching members of their huge family come and go I thought of another death. Directly behind them, Carl’s wife died on my birthday in July.

Carl grew up with Anna’s father and is a family friend. He is in his early 90s. He is a tall man. He has a deep voice and talks slowly and kindly. He reminded me of the donkey Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh.

I think Carl and his wife both has/had a form of cancer or leukemia.

Then it occurred t me that Carl’s wife was number two, Tony’s son was number one, and Tony was number three. There were three deaths on that block this year.

That sort of says something for theory of death comes in threes doesn’t it.?

The burial of Tony was yesterday. They did not have a funeral in a church or chapel, just graveside services.

We made two pecan pies. I walked them down and rang the doorbell – nobody came. I was counting on one friend or family member staying to keep an eye on the house – sort of a tradition.

I went back home and kept checking down the street waiting for the cars to arrive. When cars started arriving I walked down the pecan pies.

When I got even with their driveway was about the same time about 7 or 8 middle-aged good-old boys got out of their vehicles and were all walking and talking about car racing. They sort of fell in around me – they were in front of me, beside me, and behind me but they were talking among themselves like I wasn’t there. .. like I was invisible.

We walked up on the porch in formation and an older man held the door opened for us. Some of “us” decided to say on the porch and some walked on in. The older man nodded at me and told me to come on in. Aha! He spoke to me. I was there, just as I thought!

I gave the pies to the widow and told her we were terribly sorry and we will miss him. She introduced to me to the crowd as her neighbor, not by name. Well, at least she knew I was a neighbor, that is something. As I turned away I almost bumped into a lady I knew 30 years ago when I did a lot of photography. Then she worked in the camera department at K-Mart. I spoke and told her I knew her when she worked at K-Mart. I dealt with her almost daily. Then I knew her name, her family members’ name, and trials and tribulations of her life. She couldn’t quiet remember me she said… well, what else is new?

The Invisible Man Strikes P.F. Chang’s

To embigger (as Kenju says) a picture click on it.

Our little band of restauranteers went to P.F. Chang’s Restaurant Saturday night to celebrate Rocky and Sabrina’s birthday. They were in South Korea the day of his birthday. And Sabrina’s actual birthday was the following day, Sunday – which was yesterday. Confused?

Anna, Anna’s mother, my two sisters, Adam, Rocky, Sabrina, and Sabrina’s mother made up the group. And oh yes, me too – I forgot about me - I am so easily to be overlooked.

For instance, when we sat down I sat beside Anna – it was only a matter of a minute or two that someone counted people and counted the napkins and eating utensils and decided we had one set of dining tools too many. I pointed out that did not have any dining tools. Oh.

The birthday girl, Sabrina, brought the birthday cake – or in this case, birthday cupcakes. The cupcakes were handed out. The person handing out the cup cakes thought the job was finished – then I pointed I that I haven’t received mine. Oh.

I think I am going to have to start putting bandage tape around my head and body like a mummy and of course leave openings for eating and seeing.

We had belated birthday presents for Rocky and pre-birthday presents for Sabrina.

And, to our delight they had presents for us. They bought us gifts in South Korea. They are very thoughtful.

They gave me a little press or a stamp of a sort that presses an ancient Chinese symbol . The ancient Chinese symbol means HUNTER*. Below is a picture of the stamp, the red stuff which you use. It is like a seal. They had it made by an artisan who specializing in these. Rocky had one made for him that said HUNTER in ancient Korean.

Neat! I love it!




*Doing more research on the ancient Chinese symbols I discovered that anyone except one with the name HUNTER looks at this symbol it will cause an agonizing painful death within six months. You didn’t look did you?**

** But I know you didn’t fall for the above old gag – after all, I’m sure you remember it in MAD comicbook #23, takeoff on RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT drawn by Wallace Wood (below).

The Invisible Man Almost Got Photographed

The reunion we went to Saturday had group photographs. The common ancestors of us all were John and Nancy Sumner Ray.

Someone made a diagram on the wall. The top showed John and Nancy’s names, then across the wall were 12 sheets of paper. At the heading of each sheet of paper was one of their children’s names. Beside the child’s name was the spouse(s) name and under that were their children. Sometime during the afternoon, each of us was to go to the board and put our name beside the closest kin. In my case, it was Frank Paris Hunter, the 5th of 7 names under William and Emaline Ray Hunter/Trammell.

Near the end of the day someone decided to take group pictures of everybody descended from each child. Some of the sheets of papers had maybe 10 to 20 people standing by the name posing.

In the case of William and Emaline Ray Hunter/Trammell it was only me, along with my spouse Anna. I suppose we were the last ones to be called up to have our picture taken.

We went up to the wall and waited for the guy with the expensive camera to take the picture of the group ahead of us.

After he took their picture we walked up ready to have our picture made. While the other couple was walking off the photographer was putting his camera equipment in the camera case. He thought he was over.

That makes sense to me… us invisible people always gets lost in the shuffle.

So, we left without anybody taking our “group picture” for the people there to represent William and Emaline.