In a day

As a desperate measure to get son out of the house and away from his Xbox/on-line gaming, I relented and agreed to take him out once  again for a day of paintballing, which again left me with the challenge of what to do with myself for the day.

The day turned out to be a series of snapshots as it were starting with,

One of the more bizarre/inscrutable bumpers stickers I've seen of late which read,

Take Your Revenge!

Shit on a Pigeon!

 Wish I had had a camera.

Winding up in Charles Town, W Va out of curiosity as it advertizes the racing and casinos it has.  Did not go there for that, I'm a poor gambler and besides the 'ambience' of the casinos I've been in is a far cry from anything cooked up in a James Bond film.

Did learn though that Charles Town W Va is where the abolitionist John Brown was tried and convicted of treason (the courthouse stills stands) and a few blocks away, now enclosed within someone's yard,  is the site of his execution  ( creeeeepy).

Noting the gray-bearded good ole boy,sporting a day-glo orange headscarf  leaning on the fence in front of his modest home, cigarette dangling from his fingers,  staring vacantly as the cars drove by,  was still there on the way back from Charles Town.  

A bittersweet conversation is a small Japanese woman originally from Okinawa,  old enough to be my mother-in-law, working the counter at a MacDonald's in a small town  west of Leesburg.  Perhaps I read too much into it, but I'm guessing she is now a widow and she's got to work to support herself. But then perhaps she just wants some walking money for herself.

Having a  cup of coffee at a shop in Leesburg and working on the WaPo crossword.  In a bit, a family of four came in and the 2 girls, all dressed up for Sunday, one maybe seven and the other maybe 3, plopped down on the couch next to where I sat started sipping their drinks and after 5 minutes or so, big sister let out a belch worthy of any boy her age.

Parents of course clucked their surprise, shock and disapproval.  I looked over, caught the girl's eye and smiled ( thought it was cute), then I saw the parents were looking at me; they were not amused. Oh well.

Learned from another customer  that while communisism may be over, the Cold War isn't as he  was complaining that despite the Russian language abilities (native speaker) of his friend/girlfriend/wife, she cannot get security clearance e for a government job.

Meeting son back at paintball felid, and before I can ask how the day went, he tells me the bad news, that he fell waist-deep in water while fording a stream and the other cell phone is now full of water.  I also get advice from others around me, to stick the cell phone in the freezer to dry it out (understand the concept dude, but doesn't water first expand as it freezes) , put it in the fridge to accomplish the same thing, or bury said cell phone is unwanted rice (that I tried an am awaiting the results).

And now its the next morning and I am quietly celebrating growing another year older with coffee and cinnamon waffles.