Do I know you? No? Great....let's keep it that way.

Have you noticed how UN-social we've become?  People are withdrawing, to one degree or another, from social interaction.  It's been a creeping thing for years, but now it seems to me it's becoming a stampede.  The most obvious example of this....

Texting

Given a choice, people....young people in particular, would prefer to not talk to other humans, ever.  Instead of going to see our neighbor two houses down the street, or calling them, we text them.  People go out for dinner, and then spend half their time texting, sometimes to the person sitting right across the table from them!

Shopping

It's estimated that 20% of American shopping malls will close within 5 years.  People are just not going out shopping like they used to.  Toys R Us, Radio Shack, Circuit City, and Blockbuster, among many others, are long gone.  Sears and Kmart are dead men walking, JC Penny isn't far behind, and even big chains like Macy's are closing stores as fast as they can.  Yet online retailers are THRIVING!  (OK....guilty.  Just this week I placed online orders with Amazon, LL Bean, and REI.)

You can even buy a car online without ever speaking to a live homo sapien!  That is, those who still want to drive can.  I recently read that the average young person doesn't even bother getting their driver's license until they're 19 years old.  In my day (as we old farts used to say) we were at the DMV at 6 am on our 16th birthday to be first in line to get our license.  Auto makers are seeing a trend of "car sharing", where a number of people will buy a car together, then take their turn driving it on the increasingly rare times they have to venture out of their house/apartment.

It wasn't long ago that if you wanted a meal of a slightly higher caliber than a drive-thru joint, you had to go INSIDE, be seated by a human, tell a human what you wanted, and pay a human on your way out.  

Today we have home delivery via Grub Hub and Uber Eats.  Just place your order and pay online, in half an hour open your door up just wide enough for someone to slip your food to you, then slam the door and lock it again.  No eye contact necessary.  *sweet!*

Many local grocery stores are now making home deliveries, and they all allow you to order everything from beans to toilet paper online, then just pull up curbside where they will hand you your assembled order.  (Coming to a complete stop is appreciated.)

If you're feeling puny, you can call any number of online doctors who will examine you long distance (?) and in many cases send you a prescription from a mail-order pharmacy.  (Just hold your camera phone up to your open mouth and say 'ahh'.)  Why go out to see a doctor or to a hospital (oh, many hospitals are closing, too) when you can sit at home and get fixed?

Will dermatology eventually become an extinct medical specialty?   Today dermatologists are in their heyday, treating all of us who regularly went outside when we were younger and now have skin cancer.  Soon we won't go outside enough to absorb any of those evil rays that give us problems 30 years down the road.  *note to self:  sell all suntan lotion stock*

Are we just getting lazier, or just more scared to interact with others?  Gee thanks Gates, Jobs, Bezos, and Zuckerberg.  *sigh*

S

Weekend's ROCK!

My, how time flies when you're having fun. 

Today it's a cool, cloudy, very quiet early Sunday morning in 'da hood....

....but yesterday we took Luke the Wonder Dog to Clyde Warren Park in downtown Dallas, a first for him.

There were sights and sounds and smells (and tastes) he'd never experienced before.  I think he enjoyed himself.

We had a great selection of food trucks to choose from:  I ate off The Butcher's Son....2 brisket/jalapeno, 1 cluck fillet sliders....sorry, too good to stop and take pictures of, while K had a Ruben grilled cheese off another "roach coach".  (Not really, they're super clean!)  For the record, Luke preferred my brisket. 

We wore Luke out!  On the way home he curled up in K's lap and passed out.  Back home I gave him a bath as he was overdue anyway, plus being on the streets of downtown Dallas.... 

I even gave K a haircut (yes, another skill set on my resume) and sent her to the showers, too.  Then I hosed myself down also and settled in to an evening of college football.  :)

Today it's Starbucks for a coffee and a read, then a trip to *gulp* Toys R Us to do the grand-kidlette's Christmas shopping.  Better now than DECEMBER 10th, right?  I think there's a small art show somewhere, too.  I'll have to Sherlock Holmes that.

But my sacrifice will all be rewarded when this evening I'll grill us some beautiful prime steak fillets I purchased from David's Meats yesterday.  Good times!

S

It's "Small Business Saturday"

I don't know where the idea came from, but I like it.  

Today we're encouraged to make a special effort to do business with the mom-and-pop small merchants instead of the giant national big-box retailers in our area.  The trick is to find one.  I don't know how things are in smaller towns or rural areas, but here in the Big City they're becoming as rare as hen's teeth.

Back in the late 1950's-early '60's when I was in my "yout" that's pretty much all we had.  Mom bought her dresses at Stern's, while I was outfitted by Ken's Mans Shop and The Varsity Shop.  Dad shopped at Jas K. Wilson.

The toy store was M. E. Moses.  Hardware was available from Plaza Hardware.  (I worked there as a kid assembling and repairing Schwinn bikes and Lawn Boy and Toro lawnmowers.  I learned about tools there, too.)  The pharmacy was Payne's Drug Store.  If you wanted a casual meal out you went to Harris Restaurant or to the Plaza Cafeteria and saw Mr. & Mrs. Padgett.  Want a hamburger?  Try Lindy's drive-in.  Need a new car?  Go see Ken Pruitt (Buick) or Mr. Jackson (Chevy).

Mr. Tedford owned the Enco station (now Exxon) and would always wash your windshield and check your oil while filling your tank.  We got our furniture and appliances from Hollingshead's, and our tires from Shugart's.  That's just the way things were back then.  You bought from your neighbors.  They knew you and went out of their way to make you happy. It was called "customer service".

Today we have Walmart and Target, Macy's and Toys R Us, Home Depot and Walgreen's, Chili's and the Sonic Auto Group.  Need gas?  Just swipe your card at the pump.  (A complete stop is still required.)  The "owner" is usually in a far-away city somewhere looking at a spreadsheet, and the "manager" was a senior in high school last month.  Neither knows your name.  Or cares.

I understand "economies of scale".  I know we have many, many more choices at much lower prices today than we had back in those days, but something deep inside me says we've lost a whole lot, too.  If you can still find a small local business where you live, go buy something from them today. (Maybe again tomorrrow, too?)  Spend an extra buck or two.  It won't hurt you, and it will mean a lot to them.

S

Making reservations for the 2024 Olympic Games

I hope they hold the 2024 Games somewhere cool* as I'll be there cheering on my grandson.  And by cool I mean "cool" as in "not hot".  By then I'll be older than dirt and I don't want to pay big bucks to travel half way around the world to sit there and sweat.  I can stay in Dallas and sweat for free!


Today my daughter sent me pictures of her son intently mimicking every Olympic event he sees on TV:

Volleyball...

tennis...

even fencing.

And yes, he does live in the back of Toys R Us, thank you for asking.

Maybe by then they'll bring back baseball as an Olympic event.  Right now at 3-years-old the little Slugger can hit a (plastic) baseball over the house.  And with a trampoline in his back yard, that's a possibility, too.

Move over Shaun White.  Make room for the new Olympic cereal stud.  ;)

S

*A quick check with the Weather Channel shows that today in Stockholm, Sweden (which coincidentally is the home of the Swedish Bikini Team) it will reach a high of 72 degrees.  72 in August....I could handle that.  Just sayin'.  ;)