Chatting with an old friend.

yes,  it's a duplicate.  I know.

Last night was one of those “red sky at night” type of evenings,  so I nipped upstairs and grabbed a quick photo.
I’m still having some slight issues with using Live Writer,  but if I desperately want to have something appear a certain way,  then I can always re-open the post from Blogger and make my changes.  The page break thing and the size of photos are two issues. The top image is what I get if I load directly to Blogger,  whereas the lower image was loaded first onto Live Writer.   You can appreciate the difference if you click on either one...






I haven’t bothered to try and source out the answer ‘on the line’,  since that almost always ends up in the evaporation of copious amounts of time.  One could argue that I have gobs of time,  but that doesn’t mean I want to frustrate myself trying to find answers on the internet.  That’s all.

June 9th was not only a special day for our daughter, since she got possession of her new place,  but also the birthday of a fellow I’ve known since grade seven.  That would be,  lemme see now,  the beginning of grade seven for me was 1969?   Holy Crap!    That’s a long time to keep in touch.  Seriously.
But hey,  we were best buds.  After about grade 12,  it became harder and harder to stay connected.  It’s easier these days of course with email,  and well,  a couple extra shekels to pay for long distance calls can help as well.  Plus,  if you think about it,  during one of our phone calls with Daughter Unit Number One the other day,  she was on the GO train heading for Toronto,  and we were sitting on Franz-Josefs-Kai here in Vienna!  That’s kind of mind blowing!  I recall one time Travelling Companion and I were somewhere in New Brunswick in the motor home,  and she was talking to some guy in China!   That kind of stuff still blows me away.  I can’t even imagine trying to explain that to my Old Man, who passed away as recently 1988.  He’d think I was bullshitting him.

Anyway,  I’m drifting off here.  Didn’t mean to.  Old School Friend and I had a nice chat.  He started his family a little later in life,  so his 16 year old daughter not only just got her driver’s licence,  but is also in the throws of choosing her post secondary education.  Gah!  Good Luck!  Being the smart cookie that he is,  and holding duel citizenship, he made sure both his kids are also duel citizens,  (hey, I didn’t even know that was possible) so they’ve even been checking out Canadian Universities.   Oh,  one of the reasons keeping in touch has been such a challenge is that he moved to New York city in 1976 I think it was,  to attend Juilliard.   He has a Master’s Degree in Performing Arts from that fine institution.   Like I said,  smart cookie.
I’d really like for him and his family to come to Vienna for a visit,  but it seems they all have very busy lives,  and being a musician and running a production company,  coordinating time off seems to be a real challenge.  We experience similar issues with Travelling Companion’s obligations.  The Europeans seem to have no difficulty whatsoever booking six weeks off,  since they know damned well that not only will their job be there when they get back, but if for some reason their services are no longer required,  the payout is such that a company will think long and hard before summarily punting someone out the door.  That’s not necessarily the case in the States,  where if you leave for five minutes,  there’s someone right outside your door waiting to move in.  That’s my naive impression anyway.  Others may have a differing view.  But I don’t think I’m too far off the mark.

It’s the usual Friday here in Wienerland,  and of course I haven’t figured out what we’re going to eat yet,  but I’ll get there.

Have a fine weekend.

Blast!  I just realised that some of my links weren't working!  Live Writer sticks in an extra "http",  which I failed to remove.   I've gone back and fixed them all,  I hope.
Please forgive this slight disturbance in the Force.




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