Daddio No Mo'

This is addressed to folks of all ages.  Tell me what you honestly believe is inappropriate or odd in some way for any older person.  By "older person," I mean a babyboomer or a senior citizen (over 65 years of age).  When I say "inappropriate," I do not mean things that most older persons find physically impossible (such as doing acrobatics) or extremely dangerous (such as rock climbing). 

Here are some examples: Do you consider it odd for a babyboomer to wear a thong bathing suit in public?  Or is performing heavy metal music not what a senior citizen should probably do?

See?  This is an opportunity for you to share any pet peeves you have about things older persons do that bug you or even irritate you. 

For a change, I do not now intend to reveal my opinion(s) on this matter until I see some comments on this topic from folks of various ages.

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A. After my DW and I discussed my options regarding my future employment and factors affecting those options yesterday, I've pretty much decided to foresake my restaurant occupation in lieu of daily work as a substitute teacher once local schools reopen in mid-August.  And I remain firm on that opinion tonight even though I earned more at the restaurant today while working as a To Go Order server than I would on any day substitute teaching.  However, disadvantages with my on-going restaurant work are

(1) needing to earn as much as I can on most workdays so my DW and I can more easily afford to travel to NC twice a year to see our family there,

(2) knowing there's no reasonable assurance that I could earn such revenue again at the restaurant, and

(3) realizing that I only work as a TGO server one day a week and on other work days I earn only 47% of what I'd earn as a degreed, certified substitute teacher.

B.  I'm monitoring the progress of Tropical Storm Dolly which the National Weather Service now predicts can send tropical storm winds and waves to the vicinity of the beach house on the west end of Galveston Island which I take care of for my family.  I kind of expect to go to Galveston on Wednesday morning to ready the beach house for the approaching storm.

I'm pulling the plug on my planned series of dreaded things.  For one thing, those who choose to read my blog these days barely participated at all in my first list of dreaded things.  Furthermore, while in the tub this morning taking a shower, I pondered what I would list as my upcoming dreads.  And wouldn't you know it?  I could think of nothing starting with the next letters "g" and "h" off the top of my head that I truly dread.  One might say that I dread not.  So I am a dreadnought.  [Get it?  Dread not, dread nought...]  

Actually, a dreadnought is the class of US Navy battleship used around the time of the Spanish-American War and WW1.  The last surviving dreadnought class battleship in the US Navy, the illustrious Battleship Texas, obviously now de-commissioned, is moored at San Jacinto State Park on the Houston Ship Channel.  That's not too many miles from my house.  http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/battleship_texas/

NOW ISN"T THIS STUFF ABOUT DREADNOUGHTS ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING ?!  [yawn]

But I digressed big time, huh?  Ahem!  Soooo it seems that none of us was intended to continue the sporadic listing of things we dread.  Maybe we have little to dread in our lives.  Either we're all deluded or all's well in our lives, I'd say...

Regardless, NOW HEAR THIS: I've aborted this mission, Space Control.  Daddio's Deep Space, over and out.

[Bet only a couple of you remember back in 2005 when I called this blog of mine Daddio's Deep Space...]

Hey, don't leave, don't leave!  I haven't finished this blog entry or once again decided not to blog any more.  I AM HERE!

Speaking of "dread" a little more, in a way I am dreading a choice I must make in the next ten days.  You see, I must decide whether to abandon my current job at the seafood restaurant or return to substitute teaching as my occupation in mid-August. 

"Uh, it's not mid-August, Richard.  What's the big rush to decide whether to return to subbing in the next few days?"

OK, OK, each school district for whom I subbed late last spring requires its prospective subs to attend a meeting two Tuesdays from now.  Attending these meetings is the best way to receive as much sub work as possible during a school year.  So the rush is this: do I intend to sub in '08-'09 or not?

I obviously cannot work 8 to 3 at an area campus and work 10 to 4 at the restaurant on the same day, right?  Therefore, I must choose what path I'll follow for the next months.

Before I describe the pros and cons of each occupation, I want to say that I am not crying for advice.  Conversely, I am merely sharing what's going on in my head a little bit--being chatty, if you will.  Comprende' ?  [Y'all watch...SOMEone WILL offer me unsolicited advice; just hide and watch!]

Now, where was I?  Oh, yeah: deep space.  No, no I wasn't-- it was subbing versus serving.  Subbing pays $85 or $90 a day and I dearly love subbing at elementary schools, as I've said last spring.  Problem is, it's unlikely that I'd be offered sub jobs every day at an elementary campus, so I'd feel obligated to often sub at junior high or high school campuses as well.  And I usually don't find subbing older kids as much fun as subbing little elementary school kids.  However, the heightened responsibility of being a teacher is something I don't experience at "my" restaurant.

I assume that I'll learn on this coming payday--Wednesday the 23rd--just what I'll be earning for the foreseeable future at the restaurant.  I really like my job at the restaurant in many ways.  Maybe you know that I've just assumed new duties once a week there: assembling and serving To Go orders for folks every Monday.  On other weekdays, I will still work as a Door Host.  Since I worked my first day as a To Go server on Monday, July 14, I've yet to discover exactly how much my income will increase.

Both jobs have the same work times, except the subbing offers more days off.

So it's plain to each of you and to me that my imminent occupational decision actually hinges on these things:  my love for teaching little kids, my love of interacting with adults and little kids in a no-stress environment, and my middle-class preoccupation with earning as much as I can at my job.

Whatever floats my boat, eh?  My DW does not care which I choose; economically and otherwise, both occupations work well for us.  We feel the same about this stuff.

So until next time, Kiddie Troopers, this is Richard, bidding you a fond farewell.

P.S.--For a change, this entry was a lot of fun to write.  Took me over two hours to compose and revise, but it sure was a treat for me.  Hope you find pleasure in it in some way, too.

To possibly get more familiar with my online friends, I will begin occasionally sharing a few dreaded things that occur to my mind.  "Why focus on dreaded things instead of desirable things?"  I don't know; why not?  Dread shapes our lives as much as our desires shape our lives.

I'll do this exercise through the use of a sequence of brief alphabetical lists, adding a subsequent list of dreads every few days.  Some dreaded things will readily come to my mind as if that dread is always on my mind, while I will have to struggle a bit to find other dreaded things to list.  If I think of more than one dreaded thing beginning with a certain letter, I'll simply choose one of them for some reason that makes sense to me. 

Perhaps you too will give this some thought and leave a comment here that shares something you dread that begins with each entry's span of letters.  What do you say?

As you'll see, I'm listing things I dread today that begin with the letters A-F.

I DREAD . . .

assassinations (I fear for Obama's life.  I really do.  Some Caucasian racist or racists may attempt to end the life of America's first truly electable African-American candidate for President, and in this post-9-11 era when many Americans fear Muslims in our country, a bigot or bigots could also single him out for assassination because he has Muslim names.

I vividly recall the horror I felt when JFK was assassinated.  Other assassinations, e.g. those of RFK and MLK, Jr., affected me somewhat less because JFK's assassination was the first one I was aware of, and sometimes the first exposure to something dreaded is the worst.)

blindness (The physical inability to see, primarily...I have no imminent threat of totally losing my eyesight now, though.  I just enjoy seeing things with my eyes so much, you see.)

chainsaws (but I use 'em anyway)

diseases ('nough said)

ecological destruction (whether I see such change in my own geographic area first-hand or discover such change elsewhere on the Earth via media)

falls (that cause serious injuries and adversely affect one's quality of life)

I'll come right out and acknowledge that a person's choice of things, whether the choice was deeply heartfelt or a rather lighthearted, semi-random choice, does reflect that person's innate values, seemly or not.  This certainly is as true for my choices above as with anyone else.  For example, my choice of "falls" for the letter "f" shows that as a middle-aged person, the possibility of sustaining a permanent injury to my no-longer youthful body due to the trauma of a serious fall is a by-product of being the age that I am.  It's a real concern for me and many other babyboomers.  If I were in my twenties, not my fifties, I would probably have chosen something else for "f."