On the boat to heaven

It was rather a roundabout way on Bluesky (as things often are on SoMe) that I came to today’s earworm.

Someone skeeted an AP story about one of the winners of the $1.3B Powerball lottery. Guy’s an immigrant from Laos, was a machinist at an aerospace company and he’s suffering from cancer. His comment on his net of $422M for him and his wife (they took the lump sum and split their winnings evenly with a friend who chipped in $100 to buy a bunch of tickets) was that now he’d “find a good doctor for myself.”

The commentary ran to “now that I won $200M I can finally afford decent healthcare,” which is a fair take. And one person added, “America, the land of opportunity. The Oldest Established Permanent Floating Crap Game in the world.”

Which of course features large in Guys and Dolls, so my contribution was “Sit down, you’re rockin’ the boat.” One of my favorite numbers in one of my favorite musicals. So here we are.

©2024 Bas Bleu

Sign of the times

I’ve added a new dogleg to my morning walk, so some new yards to assess.

This variant on the “no soliciting” sign was…interesting.

 

©2024 Bas Bleu

Not crop circles

Here’s an interesting pattern I saw on the putting green (? I assume that’s what this is?) I pass on one of my morning walk routes.

Not sure what caused these—at first I thought it was the push-jobber they use to collect all the golf balls that are left overnight after a day’s worth of putting. But possibly one of the mowers?

I dunno—I just thought it was interesting.

 

 

©2024 Bas Bleu

 

Have a seat

This bench is along one of my walking routes.

I’m not sure whose property it sits on—whether the townhouse cluster that would be to the right and behind me or the golf course onto which it looks out. I suspect the former, although there's a community path separating the bench and cluster, so it would be their landscapers' responsibility to trim the area.

But I don’t think anyone’s going to be watching the sunset from it anytime soon. It's actually looking like the kind of setting where unwary sitters disappear unexpectedly.

"I dunno, Muriel. I ain't seen those kids since they went out to watch them golfers tee off on the 9th hole..."

 

©2024 Bas Bleu

 

Gratitude Monday: new neighbor, old friend

A few weeks ago, a neighbor brought me a pastry, which was lovely. But what sent me over the moon was that it was in a Paris Baguette bag. Because that meant PB has made it to the ‘hood.

Back when I lived in the Valley They Call Silicon, I was a regular at the Santa Clara PB. It was my preferred coffee shop for lingering over a coffee, writing and people watching. My status was so well established that as soon as I opened the door, Kenyon, the manager, had someone start my decaf latte. The pastries were extra primo good, too.

I’ve not found anything close to PB, either in the District They Call Columbia or the People’s Republic, so I was profoundly grateful to learn that an actual PB has opened in Herndon. As soon as I could, I tracked it down.

It was interesting to me that it’s located on the ground floor of a block of mid-rise apartments—first to fill the space that will be all-food all-the-time, apparently. Like you might find in a city, instead of an ex-urb next to a highway. Whatever—I was just happy to see it.

Right after I found the place, I mentioned it to my yoga instructor, showing her a couple of pix after an in-person lesson. Not 20 minutes after she left my house, I got this text (and then follow-up):

Well, I mean—just look:

So my gratitude today is knowing there’s a Paris Baguette nearby—but not as close as the Santa Clara one was, so I won’t be tempted to pop by every day.

 

 ©2024 Bas Bleu