Who Tips on a Take-out Order?

This happened last night:

Alice and Kelly went out to eat. I had them pick me up a pizza on the way home, from Domino's on Eastern Blvd. in Clarksville. They brought it home, everything was fine, and then the phone rang.

It was a Wisconsin area code (I looked it up later), but they started cursing at me and wanted to know why I didn't leave a tip. Was the service not good enough? Remember, this was take-out. Who leaves a tip for take-out?

I kinda lost it on them. But when I hung up they kept calling back. If I didn't answer they would keep calling. I had asked for a manager. She too cussed me out for being rude and not leaving a tip. They said the people who picked up the pizza had displayed an attitude. Alice doesn't generally have an attitude.

After the fourth call from them, I put the phone down (I had already threatened to call the police), went to check what the number for Domino's is, talked with Alice a minute, then hung up and called the Domino's store before they had a chance to call me back.

Domino's assured me they didn't know who the people were (I had gotten their names, Tiffany and Allen). They apologized, call their district management to try and figure out how these people could have gotten my name, phone number and the location of their store. They thought their order system had somehow been hacked.

The number was 608-501-3377. On the Internet it says that number has also been used to harass Sprint customers and American Airlines customers.

The most unnerving part of this to me is how much personal info they were able to obtain from a pizza order placed over the phone, whether they're in Wisconsin or the Louisville area. Had I not been a loyal longtime Domino's customer, I wouldn't be one today. Domino's convinced me they had nothing to do with it and gave me 30 percent off on my next order. But other folks may have just believed it and been lost as a customer.

Also, if I could get my hands on the callers, I'd probably be doing time. And be happy to do it...

What I'd really like to do is find some way to turn this around on people who make prank calls like this.

Bunny Rabbit in Parking Lot Peril

Alice and I went to Planet Fitness to work out tonight and as we got into the parking lot I saw a cocoa brown bunny rabbit hiding under a car. I got out to make sure it was okay and it ran up to me, and when I tried to pick it up it ran under my car, which was still running. I went in to see if anyone had lost a pet rabbit, because obviously it was somebody's pet. I just got strange looks. I tried to call a friend who works with animals and might know what to do, but he gave me a bunch of numbers I couldn't remember. One was the Humane Society. I decided I'd call them when I got home...
After we worked out we drove back to where I saw the rabbit before. He was hiding under a car. The car was leaving. He crouched and didn't move, and narrowly missed getting run over when the driver turned his wheel.
I wanted to do something but didn't know what to do. We began to leave for home, then I saw a Clarksville Police car behind me. He pulled into a parking space, I drove over to him and said, "This is going to sound crazy but there's a bunny rabbit running around that dumpster over there, and he's obviously somebody's pet. I didn't know what to do about it."
He said he'd go over and have a look. I led him over that way in my car and he found the rabbit hiding under a car. He was very polite and acted concerned about the rabbit, but said it'd be hard to catch. I told him it's obviously a pet because it comes right up to you then hides under the car, but it wasn't really running away. He radioed for help and we left. Hopefully the bunny was caught and taken somewhere not near as dangerous as a parking lot with a bunch of moving cars...

Sixteen Tons and Whaddaya Get?

Two or three times in the last few months I've reached new personal bests at Planet Fitness, but I didn't post about it because after I set a goal of lifting 16 tons the personal bests just seemed like rungs on the ladder. Tonight though I thought I had reached my goal and went to ride on the recumbent bike, when I realized I was still 500 lbs. under the goal. 'Cause you know, math is hard.

After I finished riding the bike I went back to one more station and got it done. When we first started 10 months ago I was lifting 30 lbs. 30 times at each station, with a minimum of 10, or just over four tons of weight.

Tonight I lifted 33,300 lbs. in about 40 minutes, 1300 lbs. over 16 tons, and rode the bike for 15 minutes. Now I can take it easy, right? Or am I going to have to set a new goal?

The Beach Boys - Past, Present and Future

(The following was written for the Jacksonville State (Ala.) school newspaper, The Chanticleer, sometime in the fall of 1981, about 35 years ago):

Being older than the average college student I really remember when the Beach Boys first reached the top of the charts in the early ‘60s, and for one reason or another they have always been one of my favorite groups (their harmony, simple lyrics, harmony, fun approach, harmony…). Brian Wilson, the leader of the group and its primary songwriter, because of the legend he is, emerged as somewhat of a hero of mine. And I honestly thought if Brian decided not to show up for one of their scheduled concerts, it would be the one in Jacksonville.
He showed up. And as I walked thru the door backstage he was the first person I noticed in the room, standing over the food table playing in the dip. I’d seen the Beach Boys twice previously, but I’d never had the chance to meet them. I introduced myself to Brian, asked if he could talk, and he said he didn’t feel like talking, he was sick. So went my dream meeting with Brian Wilson.
But I found a willing conversationalist in the form of Brian’s cousin, Mike Love, who sat with his bride and discussed the Beach Boys - past, present and future.
Mike has a current solo album called “Looking Back With Love,” for obvious reasons, and says the single from the album is being added well at radio stations all across the country.
The Beach Boys' next album, due out in November, will be a compilation of old material entitled “Ten Years of Harmony.” And their next studio album should be released in January, 1982.
Mike says the group is hoping to do some symphonic arrangements of some of their old songs, such as “Good Vibrations,” “Surfer Girl,” “California Girls,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?”, “Heroes and Villains,” and the beautiful song that was played before and after the concert thru the sound system, “God Only Knows,” which the audience heard as interpreted by the London Symphony Orchestra. Mike sees the summer concert series as being the ideal time to work with a symphony.
Also in the works is a movie starring Mike Love with the Beach Boys, which will be humorous and musical, and have scenery with lots of pretty girls. Mike compared the content of the movie, “California Beach,” which he has written the title song for, with the old Bing Crosby-Bob Hope road movies.
Brian’s brother Carl is now working on a solo career, but plans to rejoin the group the first of next year. And brother Dennis Wilson was sick and couldn’t make the concert. Mike admitted to having a cold, too, but it didn’t seem to affect his singing any.
When asked about the music Brian had recorded following his nervous breakdown, in the late ‘60s, and the rumor that although it was some of the best material Wilson had ever written or recorded he had destroyed the tapes, Mike revealed the tapes had not been destroyed but that Brian had just filed them away. He called it “great music,” but added that it’s only “fragmented,” nothing whole, and responding to the question of whether or not it would ever be released he said, “I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
The concert was the most complete Beach Boys concert I’ve ever seen. I saw them in ’74 without Brian, who wasn’t touring with them at the time, and it was like I hadn’t seen the Beach Boys at all.
In 1977 when I saw them for the second time, Brian was with the group, but they were promoting the “15 Big Ones” album, and really didn’t concentrate on their oldies.
The current tour isn’t to promote Mike’s new album. He sang nothing but old Beach Boys’ songs. The group seems to have realized, with their current success being an oldies medley, and not tragically, that people really love to hear their surfin’ songs, and their songs about cars and pretty girls, and Tuesday night they didn’t miss a one, including “Sloop John B,” “Do It Again,” “In My Room” (which was sung by Bruce Johnston, who also sang the Barry Manilow classic with he penned, “I Write the Songs”), “Long Tall Texan,” “School Days” (sung by Al Jardine), “Be True to Your School,” “Help Me Rhonda,” “Barbara Ann” (Bruce Johnston on vocals again), “409,” “Little Old Lady from Pasadena,” “Little Deuce Coupe,” “I Get Around,” “Surfin’ Safari,” “Surf City” and “Surfin’ U.S.A.”
Their encore included “Good Vibrations,” “Rock and Roll Music,” and “Fun, Fun, Fun.” And fun, fun, fun it was.

I Think His Name is Oscar...

Earlier this week, Wednesday afternoon, I was sitting in the living room when I heard the screen door open then heard a quiet knock, the kind of knock our friend and piano teacher Rhonda makes when she comes to the door. Half expecting it to be her, I opened the door to see a young man with slightly dark skin, maybe America Indian, maybe Hispanic.
He was selling home security systems, and I told him after about 90 seconds of his presentation that I didn't think we'd need one. He asked why, and I said, "Because I'm here most of the time."
Then I turned the conversation away from what he was selling by asking if he was from around here. He was from Utah. Told him we'd been there and told him what resort we stayed at in the mountains. Told him we visited Salt Lake City. He asked what I thought of Utah and I said, "It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there."
That could've insulted him I suppose, but he asked, "Why? Too many Mormons?" And I agreed that they do have a lot of Mormons, though honestly never got around to telling him that wasn't the reason. Turned out he's Mormon (what are the chances?) and we talked some about our different belief systems. Told him we visited the Tabernacle while we were there, then he impressed me by showing me a card that allows him entry into the Mormon Temple. They don't let just anybody in the Temple. My understanding is it's a handful of folks, which would suggest he's got some pull in the Morman faith.
We shook hands, parted ways, but I thought I'd probably see him again. I had told him how I had met with Jehovah's Witnesses for 22 months and had Bible study with them weekly in my home for about two hours. That intrigued him.
After Vacation Bible School that night, Alice came home, and I went by Domino's and ordered a pizza. While I waited for it to get ready, my cell phone rang and it was Alice, sounding a little nervous and asking when I'd be home. I told her I was waiting on my pizza, but I'd be there as soon as I could.
She said there was a man sitting on our porch and she didn't know him. I asked what he looked like. She described the Morman boy I had talked to earlier in the day. I said, "Tell him maybe I should get a security system, if strangers are gonna be making themselves at home on my porch." She relaxed after that and asked him if he wanted something. He said he was just waiting for his ride and wanted to get out of the sun. I think she told him he could use our porch for that anytime...
The following day, Thursday, I was in the laundry room loading the washer when I heard the doorbell. I opened it up and there stood the Mormon boy with a friend, someone who was on his first day on the job selling security systems.
They asked if I would fill their water bottles. I did, and we talked some. The new boy was from Seattle. They wolfed their water down, so I filled their bottles again, talked a little more, then gave the Morman boy my home phone number.
He said he'd call before he left town and see if I wanted a security system. I said I wouldn't, but that I did care about their welfare, and if they needed anything to call me.
Where I'm hoping this is headed is a Bible study this summer with him and whatever friends he wants to bring along. I've got two water bottles in the freezer right now, just in case they come back again tomorrow. I think they will...

Dave Exits the Stage and a Late Night Era Ends

When David Letterman hosts his final show tonight, it will be the end of a television era. Letterman has been in late night TV for 33 years, and he's the last of the old guard.
I discovered Letterman when he made his first appearance on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, and I watched his short-lived morning program in the late '70s. When Dave got a show following Johnny's on NBC, I was watching. At the time I was in college. As he leaves the airwaves tonight, my youngest daughter is in college.
Dave was once a likeable, goofy, funny late night friend. He's become a little too left-leaning in his politics over the past few years for me, and way too mean about it. It's time for Dave to go, but what's left is a handful of young guys meant to play to a younger audience. That may work for some, but for me it's hard to sift through the Jimmys and the James and conclude who's the best.
For a long time I've watched late night TV for the guests, not for the host. When Johnny Carson was still alive and still in the game, I watched for the host. When Dave first came along I watched for the host. When Arsenio was on the air I watched for the host. Nowadays the host is the background and the guests are center stage, so I won't watch anyone of them every night, and I'll watch when the guest is so good I don't wanna miss it. Late night TV has forever changed, and not for the better in my opinion.

Uncle Ed

I knew him as my uncle Ed.

I also knew him as a friend of my dad’s. They attended the same youth group at Second Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala.

I knew him as a brother to James, who is also my uncle.

When my dad, a county missionary south of Montgomery, was invited home to eat with a family of the church where he was leading the singing for a revival, Magnolia Baptist, he met my mother. She had sisters. He introduced his friends to them. They all got married.

I knew him as an Alabama high school football coach. He also spent some time as an official.

He worked for the state and his job was making sure the school buses were safe. He took that job seriously, to the point of investigating the crash at Carrollton, Ky., when a church bus was hit head-on by a drunk travelling the wrong way on the interstate.

Later he would drive buses for tour companies.

I knew him as a husband to my Aunt Joyce, my mother’s sister, and a father to their only child, my cousin Angelia. He called his wife "Honey." I thought that was her name when I was little, and might've called her "Aunt Honey" a time or two.

I knew him as a rancher, with a nice spread outside Prattville where he kept his cattle.

I knew him as one of many members of my mother’s side of the family that we’d get to see on that day of feasting known as Thanksgiving, if we saw them no other time of the year. And often it was at his house.

I knew him as one of the loudest, most boisterous fans ever of the Alabama Crimson Tide.

And I knew him as a man of God.

Like my dad in his last few days, my Uncle Ed was in-and-out between Heaven and Earth. He told his daughter on Wednesday that he had seen Jesus.

He went to be with his Savior a little over 24 hours ago. He’s free from the pain of the cancer that took him, in a land where the Bible says we’ll know no pain or sorrow. But he’ll be sorely missed by those of us left to carry on here until it’s our turn to go to Glory.

See you there Uncle Ed…

2016 Presidential Long List

In case you haven't noticed, the campaigning has started for the 2016 presidential election, which is a little more than two years away (Nov. 8, 2016).
Dr. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, is the first Republican to announce his candidacy. Hillary Clinton is the apparent frontrunner for the Democrats, and may run essentially unopposed.

Other possibilities for the Republican Party, in order of my personal preference (which could change daily and I can be swayed by sensible arguments): Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Sonny Perdue, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, Tim Pawlenty, George Pataki, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, Rick Santorum and South Dakota Senator John Thune.
There are some young, charismatic conservatives on that list, and that's what the Republicans are going to need to oppose Hillary. Hopefully they won't tear each other apart too much in the debates. The first primaries are about 14 months away...

First Date

Thirty years ago today, Oct. 16, Alice and I had our first date. It was a Tuesday night, much warmer than today, and we went to the Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen on Bardstown Road in Louisville. We sat at a little table in the corner with a player piano drowning out the noise of the hundred or so other customers there. I was facing Alice and the wall. Eventually a waitress who was sweeping the floor asked if we wanted a cup of coffee. 

"Strange," I thought, and I looked around. No one else was there. All the chairs were turned upside down and placed on the other tables. I had been babbling on for so long (and wishing I could shut myself up) that they were getting ready to close, and I hadn't even noticed.

She's been putting up with me, and distracting me like that, for 30 years now...

The Last Week of July

And thus begins the worst week of the year for me, and some of my friends and relatives. On July 27th, 2010, my cousin Darrell died. He was a year or two older than me, and more like a brother than a cousin to me. He spent his last decade on kidney dialysis, going to a clinic for that about three times a week. On July 27th, 2011, my best friend of 40 years, Dave Brooks, called and asked me if there was anything I wanted him to tell my dad when he saw him. He had just gotten word that he had kidney cancer. It would rapidly spread and he would die three months later, on Halloween afternoon. He was more like a brother than a friend to me...
On July 29th, 2008, my dad died, another one of my best friends. He battled peripheral neuropathy and was wheelchair bound for his last five years, only to die from lung cancer. It was discovered at the end of June that year. My dad was buried on August 1st.
So forgive me if I seem a bit melancholy this week. And a bit paranoid. I don't trust the last week of July...

No Key Detected

Kelly decided she'd drive herself to church this afternoon to meet with the youth group as they were heading off to camp for the next few days. I didn't think her car needed to sit in the church parking lot all week, so I took Alice by the church to pick it up. Her car was in the driveway as we were leaving and mine was low on gas, so I thought we'd take hers. I got the keys to that car, and put mine back because I didn't figure I'd need them. Out in the garage she called an audible and said we should take my car, that I could get around hers backing out (and of course I could).
I had ordered a pizza from the Domino's around the corner from the church before I left the house, and once I dropped her off I drove over to Domino's, parked the car, reached in my pocket to lock it as I got out and realized I had no key. It's a new car (18 months old now), it's keyless to crank (as long as the key signal is somewhere in the car), and I hadn't brought mine. It cranked at the house because Alice had a key to the car in her purse. It remained cranked after I dropped her off at the church until I got to Domino's and shut it off. Yeah, I noticed the "Detecting No Key" message, but figured as long as it was running maybe it was just having trouble detecting the key signal. It took reaching in my pocket and finding no key to remember I had put it back on my dresser...
There was no longer a key or key signal in the car. It was in Kelly's car. Which was on the way back to the house. With Alice. Who evidently either didn't bring her cell phone with her or wasn't answering it. I went on into Domino's, paid for the pizza, went out to the car, kept calling the house till Alice got back home, ate a couple of slices while I waited, with the door to the car open because it was such a pleasant, mild summer night. But we now know there's at least one problem with a new car and a keyless ignition. And we also know what the car is trying to tell us when it says "Detecting No Key."

A Fourth to Remember

Highlights of the Gatlinburg trip last weekend for me, other than being with 19 family members in a luxury mountainside cabin: hiking trails and roads every day, in the park and near the cabin; driving the Cade's Cove loop, despite the fact I have the world's worst luck in seeing a bear (there are supposed to be bears in the Smokies, and for that matter Denali, right?); watching a movie (even if it WAS "Frozen," which I hadn't seen before and it wasn't THAT bad) on the really big screen in the cabin's theatre room - I need one of those in the house; shopping in Gatlinburg - didn't take me long to see most of the downtown shops and I spent about three minutes in the record store, which was disappointing in its stock of music and more of a head shop than a music store (I almost got a contact high just from being in there); and stopping on the way back at the KFC Cafe in Corbin, Ky., where Clark County's own Harland Sanders had his original store close by. I also really enjoyed the nightly gatherings around the firepit outside, talking and watching the kids roast marshmallows for s'mores, the younger ones and some older "kids." It's the first time we've done anything like that as a family with the whole local Bowles clan. Hopefully it won't be the last...
Now that I'm some distance removed from the trip back home, which was a nightmare and a whole other story, I can concentrate on the good memories part...

We'll Manage Somehow...

Alice and I went down to the river after noon to walk through the Jeffersonville BBQ and Blues cookoff Festival. It's the second largest in Indiana now. I saw competitors there from Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Georgia. Now that I've learned how to cook amazin' BBQ ;), I wasn't inclined to pay $7 for a pulled pork sandwich or $10 for ribs. That seems a bit overpriced to me...
From there we decided to ride out to Leavenworth and eat at the Overlook Restaurant, probably the best view on the Ohio River. We both had the Chicken Cordon Bleu, which was very tasty and worth the 45-minute drive, and before we left town we stopped at Stephenson's General Store, which was very clean and had a lot to choose from, or at least to browse through...
She wanted ice cream, so we stopped at Culver's before we got back home. I'm trying not to eat sweets this month but I had to give myself a day off, okay, another day off, so I could order a Snicker's Concrete Mix-In.
We got back in time to catch Louisville's first College World Series game in "Omaha!" this year. Looks like Vanderbilt may hand them their first playoff loss...
The girls are worried we're not gonna know what to do with ourselves when the nest gets empty. That's assuming it's considered empty when Kelly goes to college in a couple of months. I'm inclined to think we'll manage somehow...

Busy Day in April

Busy day. Had my annual physical with Steve Havens at 2 this afternoon. Got the cleanest bill of health I've gotten in years. On the kidney disease mix-up, he said that if I die from kidney disease it'll be at least 35 years from now. I said at the age of 93, I ought to die from something anyway. He said, let me change that to 50 years. You're not gonna die from problems with your kidneys. And then he took any reference to my kidneys off my chart. My BP was 120/80. My blood work was clean on any possible colon problems. He said come back in six months if you want to, in a year if you don't want to...

After the annual physical, I went by the AT&T store. They've been running a TV ad for about a month with a family plan that includes 10 gigs of internet and unlimited text and talking, which is the same plan we signed for back in August for $85 a month more than they're advertising it for. I thought I'd be there all day trying to renegotiate the contract, but the sales rep changed it for me, shook my hand and sent me on my way, in about two minutes, with a plan that's $100 a month less than it was...
They might get my business again in 18 months (he didn't even extend the contract). Heck, I may even toss out the cable, and bundle TV, internet and the land line phone with them. I'll at least consider it...

Done at the AT&T store, I drove down the road to the Sears store to see if I could get new glasses and discovered their optometry department is going out of business. They were packing it up. So I drove back down Veterans to Bizer's, had my eyes checked there, picked out some new frames and ordered the new glasses. The pet store was in the same parking lot, so I bought some cat food. And since I was in the same neighborhood as the Krispy Kreme store, I got a half-dozen chocolate-glazed donuts.

After that I came home, picked up Kelly and met Alice at Culver's for dinner. I ordered the pot roast with mashed potatoes and cheese curds. Having tried everything on the menu now that I wanted to try, I can say the Cheddar Butterburger still rules, but the pot roast dinner was a pretty good second choice. I've been to or had food picked up from the new Culver's every week it's been open, and I've yet to have any ice cream from this location. Seems we always have some at home...

Maybe next week...