4 de Julio

I had to work today, but I got off early and we had a BBQ with all of the guys and families from work. The BBQ included close quarter combat with roman candles, boxing matches and some very good pulled pork from Corky's BBQ. After the party we went to Southhaven, MS and sat on top of a large metal storage container (the kind that double as construction offices) so that we could get a good view of the firework show.

Here's a copy of the post I put up last 4th of July, with an updated list.


The 4th of July has long been one of my favorite holidays. I love summer and the United States and the 4th always seems to be a good way to celebrate both of those. A few years ago I was trying to remember where I had been each year for the 4th of July and I realized that where I spent the 4th kind of summarized that year's summer. Was it a fun summer? An adventurous one? A normal one? So here's where I've been the last few years on the 4th.

2009: Horn Lake, MS
2008: Provo, UT
2007: Provo, UT
2006: Provo, UT
2005: Lake Coeur d'Alene (probably the best place I've spent the 4th)
2004: Chimaltenango, Guatemala
2003: Provo, UT
2002: Niagara Falls
2001: Denver, CO
2000: Sao Carlos, Brazil
1999: Ribeirao Preto, Brazil
1998: Provo, UT (safely behind the walls of the MTC)
1997: Lake Coeur d'Alene, just outside of Worley, ID

The Ghetto

Sometimes when I talk to the people here I have recollections of living in a foreign county. More than once I've had to have people repeat things to me 2 or 3 times and then still not understood what they're saying. I sometimes wonder if we can both be speaking English and have it come out so differently.

I was at the Walgreens the other day (I don't know that I've ever actually been in a Walgreens before I moved to Memphis. They are a great source for clean bathrooms, cold drinks and magazines to read, and you usually don't get a dirty look for using the bathroom and leaving without buying anything) and I overheard a nice little conversation.

Girl: Are you going to go shopping later?
Guy: I am...uh...I is.

This guy actually corrected himself to what he thought was the right way of saying something, but he was right the first time. The funny thing is that judging by the neighborhood we were in, I felt like "I is" actually sounded better.

Who doesn't like Elvis?

"I never liked Elvis after he pushed me down the stairs"

When you hear someone make a comment like that you just can't pass up the opportunity to hear the story behind it.

Turns out the lady I was talking to knew Elvis when he was a kid, or as she puts it, when he was "young, skinny, couldn't sing and his voice was kind of changing."

She said one night when she and Elvis were 11 or 12 yrs old a group of them went to the movies. In those days, if you liked someone you sat next to them at the movie and the boy kind of put his arm around your chair or something. Elvis had asked to sit by her but when she got there he wasn't there and she went and sat by some other friends. After the movie he came over to her house because he was mad that she hadn't sat by him, and during their conversation she says he kind of shook her and she ended up tripping down the stairs. After that she never went to any of his shows or parties, she just took her mom and dropped her off and then Elvis made sure her mom got home all right.

I'm not sure I completely trust her powers of recollection (she was kind of old and not too quick at picking up the things I was telling her) but it was still fun to meet someone who actually knew and grew up with The King.

What would it be like to live in an apartment that has rolls of razor wire on top of the chain link fence around the property?Last week I drove past an apartment complex that actually has razor wire on the fence. Are they trying to keep someone out? Someone in?

I got offered drugs the other day.  I think it was the first time in my life that I have been directly offered drugs.  A guy came up to my car window and our conversation went something like this:

Him:  "Yo man, what chu need?  I got coke, week or speed.  Coke, weed or speed, what chu want?"

Me:  "No thanks man, I'm good."

Him:  "Yo, come on, I got it all.  Coke, weed or speed?  What chu want?  Heroin?  I got that too (then he listed some other things I've never heard of)."

Me:  "I'm workin right now, I don't got time for that."  (Notice the bad grammar used for solidarity)

Him:  "Ok then, you got a dollar I can have?  Come on gimme a dollar.

Me:  "I don't got any money man, see you later."

Him:  "Ah, come on.  Don't do me like that."

So I guess economic hard times have hit the drug dealers too.  If they can't sell you something, they'll ask for a dollar to get something to eat.

Oh the people you meet...

Tonight I was working for a nice little old lady. She was in her mid 80's, about 4 1/2 feet tall and her pants took up about 3/4 of her height. As I worked in her house, she had some nice gospel music playing mixed with a preacher on the radio. The password for her alarm system was "Jesus" and she had some nicely pressed, white table clothes laid out to take to church with her.

We started talking about life and where she'd been and she mentioned that she had traveled all over. She listed off the big cities she'd been to and said she was a dancer.

The next question was obvious, so I said, "Oh, dancing, that's nice. What kind of dancing?"

She said, "Strip dancing."

I've never seen a room go so quiet, so fast. I thought she was joking, but no. She was dead serious.

I guess I should have known she wasn't your average church lady when she told me about the .38 cal handgun she has in her bedroom just in case anyone gets past the alarm.

Roaches

This evening, as I was teaching a customer how to use their new home security system, I heard some rustling in the papers on the book case I was leaning on. I looked over and saw a huge cockroach emerge from the papers and continue on it's way. It was fairly obvious why the roaches were in this house, but I started to wonder just what decides whether or not there will be roaches in a house.
In the last week, I've seen roaches in some clean houses (the biggest ones I saw were in one of the cleanest houses I worked in) and not seen roaches in some very nasty, fusty houses. So who decides where the roaches hang out?

Last night I was working at a guy's house and I noticed he had a little Purple Heart pin on his shirt pocket. I asked him about it and which war he was in and he just kind of nodded and smiled, but didn't say anything. I figured he just didn't understand or couldn't answer because his wife had just told me he had Alzheimers. I kept working around the house and saw a little display full of military service medals that included service in the Korean War and WWII as well a Bronze Star and his Purple Heart. His wife talked a little about the awards and said her husband never talked about them much. He was part of the generation that came home from the war, got back to work and moved on with life.

As we left the house my friend looked at the guy and said, "You sure have a nice yard here."

The guy said, "Thank you very much."

The wife said, "See, he won't talk about that Purple Heart, but he'll talk about his yard all day long."

I guess he did understand me and just chose not to dwell on it. If he was from our generation he would have blogged about his Bronze Star as soon as he got it and his Facebook page would say:

George: is wearing his Bronze Star and Purple Heart

As I headed home from work tonight, I decided to swing past the National Civil Rights Museum. The museum is housed in the Motel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. The museum was closed when I got there so I just drove past and looked out the window. As I was driving by, I noticed a lady sitting under an umbrella with a sign tacked to the nearest telephone pole. The sign said that she had been protesting in that spot for 21 YEARS and 109 DAYS! I couldn't pass up an opportunity like this, so I pulled over and had a chat with the lady. Turns out her name is Jacqueline Smith and she was the last resident of the Lorraine Motel before they renovated it and turned it into a museum. We had a nice chat and her main point was that she thinks they've wasted $20 million building a monument that dwells on a violent and ugly past, when they could have followed MLK's example and used the same money to help with current problems like homelessness, health care, education, etc. She even has her own website.

After I got home and read about her I felt a little dumb for pulling up next to her and saying, "what's your sign about?" I was probably the only person within a 50 mile radius who didn't know who she is. It sounds like she is a well know fixture around Memphis. I don't quite agree with all she has to say, but I don't think you can write her off as a total flake. 21 years is a long time to live on a street corner. Maybe next time I'm in the neighborhood I'll stop and we can chat some more.

States Visited

My recent trip to Tennessee has helped me add a few states to the list of states that I've visited. Here's a current map.


visited 27 states (54%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

After a long absence I am back. I didn't really have a lot to post about, but my recent move to Memphis, Tennessee has given me more than enough. In the three days that I've lived here I've seen:

A man get out of his car at a gas station and very carefully place his open beer on the dashboard so it wouldn't spill while he was gone.

A 50 year old woman who was a great-grandmother (you do the math on that one)

Lot's of walking stereotypes

A line of at least 30 cars in the drive-through at Popeye's Chicken (every other restaurant in the vicinity had a maximum of 2-3 cars).

Some very beautiful scenery.

Watch this. I almost shed a tear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY



*I changed the link, so now it's the right one.

You learn something new every day

Today I learned that many nations, including the US, have a National Personification. I guess this makes sense and I kind of already knew it without realizing that I did. How many times have I referred to Mother Russia (with a thick accent of course) and Lady Liberty?
This little tidbit came about because of a book I was reading earlier today. In the book, the author made reference to something/someone called Columbia at a national cemetery in Hawaii. I could only think of the Columbia river in the Pacific Northwest or the Space Shuttle Columbia, but neither of these has anything to do with the battles in the Pacific during WWII.
My interest was piqued so I consulted Mr. Google and ended up at Wikipedia where I found this article on Columbia. I guess I was just more familiar with her cousin Uncle Sam.

Lady Columbia

Other things also named after her: District of Columbia, British Columbia, Columbia Pictures

How I spent my Sunday

CLICK HERE ON THIS LINK. It was great fun.

What's for Lunch?

When was the last time you ate a can of these babies? That's what I thought to myself as I walked down the isle at the Wal-Mart the other day. The temptation was too strong and I purchased a can for probably the first time in the last decade. I don't think I was home for even 3 minutes before I opened the can and enjoyed the mysterious goodness of meat rejects pressed in a tube and packed in some kind of a clear jelly. Yes, I did eat the whole can by myself.

Next on the list: Potted Meat Food Product