Get to Know Me! - Pointless sleep habits

For the last couple of decades, my bedside alarm clock has been set 7 minutes ahead. I got into the habit years ago, to trick my sleepy brain. When my alarm would go off in the morning, I would be bummed, but then I would suddenly realize I had seven more minutes to sleep and that made me happy! (I'm embarrassed to say that this worked for a surprisingly long time. My brain is easily tricked.)

Why seven minutes? Because that's how long the clock's snooze function is. When I hit snooze, the alarm would go off seven minutes later, which was actually the time I needed to get up.

In any event, a couple of weeks ago I decided it was silly for my clock to be wrong all the time, so I set it for the correct time. So far it hasn't bothered me, but since I'm teleworking and have no commute, I can pretty much sleep in anyway. 

And now you know me a little bit better. Sorry about that.

Get to Know Me! Music from Musicals

I really like the song "A Hard Knock Life" from the musical Annie.

Not a big fan of the show itself, but damn I love that song.

Here are a few versions.

Original:




I much prefer the tempo of this one. 2014:




I even love this one:

Get to Know Me! Elementary School

I went to Cleveland Elementary in Elkhart, Indiana for grades K-6 in the 1970s. It was the same school my parents had gone to and where they met. The mascot was, and still is, an Indian. It's now a magnet school.

When I started there, the Principal was named Mr. Gay and the 6th grade teacher was named Miss Homo. Not nicknames, those were their actual names. They were brave.

I think Miss Homo lived with one of the kindergarten teachers, Miss Cook. My understanding is that it was a poorly kept secret that they were lesbians. They were likely the first gay couple I ever knew. (Then again, I just did a web search and while I didn't find anything specifically about Miss Homo, I did find evidence of a series of younger Homos who also teach in the Elkhart school system and who may have been her children. So I could very well be mistaken).

I liked and enjoyed my elementary school.

Get to Know Me! Earliest memories

After I was born, I lived in a little house on Stevens Avenue in Elkhart, Indiana. I think my parents were renting it, but I don't know for sure. When we left, it was to live with relatives temporarily while my parents had a new house built in another part of town.

I have three memories from that house, although they may be manufactured from stories I was told about my childhood. I lived in that house until I was three, I think.

(I'm pretty sure my Mom will correct me on this and, if so, I'll edit this entry.)

Here's the house today, by the way (from Google Street View).

The earliest memory I have is walking into my parents room at night with my beloved teddy bear, Teddy. (I was really good at naming things.) I had pulled one of its eyes out and showed them, which sounds pretty gruesome now that I think about it. For the rest of the years I owned him (until my Dad made my Mom throw him out) he had only one eye. I loved that bear.

The second memory I have is a drum set I had in my closet. I remember pounding on the drums so hard that I put a drumstick through one of them.

I guess I was a pretty destructive kid.

The final memory I have is coming down some stairs in my pajamas while my parents and some friends were watching TV. I've always thought it was at the neighbor's house who lived behind us, but I don't think that's right; it was likely our house. This would have been around 1967, so I like to think they were watching Star Trek, but that's also pretty far-fetched.

I do know that I had a beloved Batman costume as I have a picture of myself sitting on that porch wearing it. But I don't remember that.

As I said, they all may be false memories, but they're in my mind, so they may as well be real.

Edited to add: My Mom says they owned the house, buying it for $10,000.

Brighton Rock

Queen's Sheer Heart Attack was one of the first albums I ever owned and Queen was the first band I ever called "my favorite". As a teen, I listened to that album A LOT. One of the songs on the album, Brighton Rock, is apparently in the new movie, Baby Driver, and so has garnered recent attention.

The other day, someone posted the lyric video below and I watched it. Even though I had heard the song countless times, I realized I didn't exactly know all the words (hey, it's sung in sing-songy British English). To my surprise, I was struck by how literate and charming the lyrics are.

Check out the song below.  If you'd like to skip back to the lyrics once the instrumental part starts at 1:54, skip ahead to 4:38.  But really you should just listen to the whole thing.

The Timeline of Ipecac

I was born 52 years ago.

I started dating my wife 36 years ago.

I graduated from high school 34 years ago.

I graduated from college 30 years ago.

We were married 29 years ago.

I graduated from law school 27 years ago.

I started working at my current job 27 years ago.

My daughter was born 22 years ago.

My son was born 19 years ago.

I switched to the department I'm in now 19 years ago.

I became the deputy manager of my department 16 years ago.

I was diagnosed with diabetes 12 years ago.

I became the head manager of my department 11 years ago.

I started this blog 10 years ago.

My daughter graduated from high school 5 years ago.

My daughter graduated from college and my son graduated from high school 1 year ago.

Both of my parents are still alive. All of my grandparents are gone.

Time flies.

(All times are rounded to the year)

Get to know me! TV Shows

I was watching part of a Gilligan’s Island episode the other night on TV Land and got to thinking about TV shows that made a big impact on my life or that I really, really loved. I haven’t seen many of these shows in years, and I may never see some of them again, but at some point, they were really important to me.

This isn’t a comprehensive list as I’m pretty sure I could come up with dozens more, especially sitcoms from the sixties and seventies. But I’ve tried to limit the list to just those special shows.

In more or less chronological order, here they are.

Captain Kangaroo
HR Pufenstuf
Scooby Doo, Where Are You?
F Troop
Gilligan’s Island
Star Trek
Happy Days
Welcome Back Kotter
Quark
Battlestar Galactica
Taxi
Doctor Who
Soap
Hill Street Blues
Cheers
Star Trek: The Next Generation
The Simpsons
Mad About You
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Mystery Science Theatre 3000
Friends
Futurama
Survivor
24
Pushing Daisies
Battlestar Galactica
Lost
Community

Which brings us to 2014. I reserve the right to amend the list if I remember anything I’ve missed.

What about you?

Get to know me! Cash money

I don’t like carrying anything bulky in my pants pockets and that includes a wallet. For years, my wallet has been the Brookstone Ultra-Thin, which holds my driver’s license and credit cards, but no cash. When I am buying something, having to pull out and rifle through a wallet seems like a lot of work and delay. I’ve seen people pull out huge wallets, stuffed with cards, money, photos and whatnot, and I’m baffled as to how they can sit comfortably or why they would want such a hump on their bum.

What little cash I carry daily goes into my front pocket and it’s rarely more than $50. Whenever I hear of someone carrying more than $50 on them, it always freaks me out a little. I’ve been told that someone I work with always has a couple of hundred dollars in his wallet, a completely foreign concept to me. Why would you need that much cash?

I also never carry change in my pockets if I can help it. I don’t like noisy jangling when I walk and the constantly shifting mass bothers me. If I’m at a carry-out for lunch and I get change, I drop it into the tip jar, which I see as a win-win. They get a tip and I’m not carrying coins.

I am really looking forward to the day when I don’t need cash at all, a thumbprint or wave of a smartphone will handle all transactions. Sign me up.

Get to know me! Potatoes

I generally like potatoes. Hash browns are good, french fries are great, but my absolute favorite type of  potatoes is mashed with salt and butter. Nothing fancy but awesomely good.

My least favorite preparation is probably baked potato, no matter what toppings. I don't dislike them, they're quite good. They're just my least favorite.

Get to Know Me! Coin Flips

Whenever I’m asked to call a coin flip, I invariably choose tails because picking heads seems cliché and conformist.

Get to know me! Pillow Talk

This was a momentous week for me.

I’ve used the same pillow for well over a decade. I know, pillows are actually supposed to be used for only a few months because they become repositories for dead skin cells, mites, and whatever else. But I can only sleep on a very flat pillow and have never found a replacement. My need for this particular pillow is so great that I take it with me when I travel. (Yes, I pack my pillow in my suitcase.) If I don’t, I don’t sleep well on the inevitably thicker pillow I’m forced to use and wake with a stiff neck.

Last weekend we went to Ikea. In the bedding section, they had numerous types of pillows of all thicknesses and firmness. The ones labeled “For back sleepers” (which I am) looked thin and firm. I tried one as best I could as the sample pillows were secured to the display (really, Ikea?) and it seemed good or at least better than any I’ve tried over the past few years of on and off searching. So for $8 I bought one. Yes, $8.

And it was a complete success! It’s definitely a bit thicker than my old one, but I have slept soundly on it all week with no neck pain. I accidently bought the Queen size, which is wider than my old pillow, but that’s not the issue I feared it might be. I haven’t thrown away the old pillow yet as I was worried the new one might not be suitable, but it has since crawled away so I guess I’m good.

So, huzzah for me. I’ll post again when I buy another pillow in 2022.

Get to know me! Smoke

I don't smoke and never have. I hate the acrid smell of cigarette smoke and nearby smokers seriously tick me off. When I was a kid we traveled to Florida from Indiana and back in a car with my Grandfather who smoked constantly. I don't know how I survived.

I consider it a huge advance in civilization that smoking is now banned in most places I go.

However, I will admit that I really enjoy the rare scent of smoke from a pipe. I'm sure smoking a pipe is just as noxious as a cigarette and I'd never consider smoking one, but the smell is sweet and reminds me of my childhood. I don't remember who I knew who smoked a pipe (I think it was one of my uncles on my Mom's side) but it's a smell the evokes good feelings in me.

I was walking outside the other day and got a whiff of pipe smoke and immediately smiled.

(Now that I'm thinking about it, as a kid I always liked the once ubiquitous cigarette machines. For a vending machine, cigarette machines had a huge selection. I knew what brand my Grandfather smoked, Taryton, and seeing a machine I always wondered about the dozens of other choices in their colorful packaging. Their colorful, death-filled packaging. Thankfully, the cool machines o' death dispensing never enticed me beyond that.)

Get to know me! Scents and secret forts

It's well established that scents can evoke strong memories.  Just a few minutes ago, I blew out a candle and as I smelled the smoke, I was suddenly, for just an instant, twelve years old again, sitting underground by myself in a fort dug into an empty lot while outside it rained.

The older boys in the neighborhood had dug out the fort, an eight by eight foot hole two or three feet deep.  They covered the hole with plywood and covered the plywood with dirt to hide it.  Inside was nothing but a few candles and some matches.  I imagine now that they used it for smoking but they didn't let me in for more than a minute to see it.

One rainy day when no one was around, I snuck in, sat in their fort for a while and burned one of their candles.  Thirty-five years later, the smell of candle smoke brought that scene instantly to mind.

Soon after that, someone collapsed the fort.  I don't really remember why or who.  They may have done it themselves.  But I still remember.

Get to Know Me! My favorite gemstone

I took a lunchtime walk through the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History yesterday, which inspired this topic.

My favorite gemstone is the yellow topaz. It’s my favorite because when I was a kid my Mom had a big yellow bottle of Avon perfume called Topaz, and the bottle had a fake yellow topaz on top of the cap. She kept the bottle in the small “powder room” adjacent to the main bathroom so I could see it whenever I wanted. I really loved that bottle and that fake gem. The gem seemed beautiful and mysterious to child Ipecac.

So now you know me a little better. (Sorry about that).