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Meeting up with friends before cell phones

The other day, I was telling someone to text me when they arrive in town and we’ll hang out and of course, that’s how we do it. But I was thinking about years ago when I would meet my friends when we were both out of town and we would always meet up without arranging things and texting.

I think I talked about this before, but it always intrigues me how we did things in the past. You know, like missing a tv show if we didn’t see it when it was on, not being able to tape, DVR or stream it and things like that.

I live in Miami and I would go to NY a lot during the year, and I had so many friends in Miami, and I don’t know how I told them all, but I guess I would do it separately, one at a time, and I would say, “I am going to be in NYC from Nov. 15 to 30, so if you are going to be around, let me know.

Now these friends and I were in Miami at the time, we lived in Miami, and I was making plans for NY maybe a month or two away.

And we would arrange to meet – a friend would respond, “OK, I’ll meet you in front of the Empire State Building at noon on Friday, November 28, see you then.” And we would actually meet then and there, after making these plans a month or so in advance.

We didn’t call each other on the phone, I mean landlines – I don’t remember why, but I don’t remember anyone calling me at my cousins’ houses or at hotels I was staying at, but there they were on the appointed date and time.

I remember meeting one friend at my hotel, the Grand Hyatt on 42nd Street, one night in December. I remember another meeting me at the Empire State Building one day and another meeting in Greenwich Village somewhere and that always happened.

We made a date and time, and we showed up.

Now we text back and forth 100 times before meeting up for lunch on the same day.

I liked it better the old way.

Till next time . . .

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It’s a mess out there; but for a good cause

It’s almost like the pandemic here at home.

I don’t mean anyone is sick, what I mean is that we are sort of in quarantine here at the building.

For the past few months, our cul-de-sack has been getting new pipes buried in the street, which involved the streets being cut up and pipes being taken out and replaced. The workers are quite methodical. At first I thought the whole area would be dug up at once, and we would be navigating piles of dirt and big ditches in the streets, but they seem to work in sections of about 20 feet.

They dig up a 20 foot section and do their thing taking out the old stuff and putting in the new.

From a distance, it looks like a movie scene is being filmed on one corner. Everyone and every large piece of equipment is concentrated on one area – everyone in a large circle is looking at the same thing – the center of attention. Sort of like “lights, camera, action.”

When they leave at the end of the day, it looks as if they weren’t here. The street is all cleaned up, the huge ditches are covered up with some sort of metal covering, the areas are all hosed down and I guess until they lay the new street down at the very end, it looks nice, clean and tidy.

For the past weeks they were in one area, not far from me. Now these past few weeks, they have been in front of my building. I was hoping it would be when I was out of town a few times over the months, but it’s now. So for now, we stay home most of the time, but to be fair, we are able to get in and out and exit and enter the neighborhood through various ways.

But sometimes, it’s just easy to just stay home.

I waited a bit the other day to get out because large equipment was blocking my exit, but I made it out and back home. UPS, FedEx, the mail carrier and Amazon all make it through. Which reminds me, I still haven’t given the mail carrier her Christmas present, guess I’ll go down and look for her this week.

Unlike the pandemic, it’s noisy, where during the pandemic is was so quiet and the streets were empty. Out back on the bay, I would see people kayaking, boating, water boarding and things like that. There was a couple who would be in some sort of gray float or inner tube and daily they would flow out with the tide and then back in again, talking with each other the whole time, just taking life easy.

Being confined to the house reminds me of that period. Only now the bay is quiet, since people are at work and school. But the street out front is very busy with the construction crews doing their thing.

But again, they are methodical and neat and accommodating, but I do look forward to the day when they are done and gone.

I know- first world problems, and at least we aren’t dealing with the major snowstorms which are affecting millions of people in the country this week.

Till next time . . .

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It’s been a cold week

Read my blog: Tomversation.com
Subscribe via email to my cartoons here – they will arrive each Friday plus 2 short blog posts during the week.

Read my blog: Tomversation.com
Subscribe via email to my cartoons here – they will arrive each Friday plus 2 short blog posts during the week.

Florida’s bizarre winter: Falling iguanas and snow

It’s been a cold winder in Florida. Last week, it was about 39 degrees in South Florida with the wind chill one morning, and in the teens upstate in the Panhandle. It actually snowed an inch or less, but still, it was a white snow covering.

I can usually tell when it will be a cold winter from the weather we get in the Fall. If we get a day or two that’s cold in September or October, inevitably, it is a cold winter in December, January and February – not every day, but on and off during the season.

The thing all over the news, local and national, is the falling iguanas, who freeze up from the cold and fall from trees. It’s because they are cold-blooded and can’t regulate their body temperatures. They art sort of pliable, not stiff, and they don’t get hurt, they just make a plopping sound when they hit the ground. It’s almost as if they are playing dead.

I’ve seen thousands of iguanas around Miami all my life, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that has fallen from a tree. But I’ve seen it all over the news this week.

At times we’ve been in a park having lunch and look up and a bunch of iguanas are running through the lawn in unison, it looked like a mini Jurassic Park. They are ubiquitous around here.

One of my nephews had an iguana. His name was Iggy. He was well trained. He went to the bathroom in the bathtub and he had the run of the house. You would just be sitting on the couch and he would be walking, very slowly, behind you on the top part of the couch.

One time I had to go to their house to get something, no one was home. I walked into the kitchen, and there is Iggy, up on the counter, grabbing for the bananas. The large green body against the yellow bananas was startling.

One of my nephew’s first internet handles was “Iggy Falco,” which I laughed at every time I saw it. It was such a funny name.

I have a friend from New York who calls Miami the land of Peacocks and Palm trees. We of course have palm trees and we also have peacocks walking all over the place. We have to stop while driving to allow them to cross the street – everyday. And we also have roosters and chickens and of course iguanas all over. Yes, roosters and chickens. I hear a rooster crowing from down the block as I type this. A rooster. In an urban area. Don’t ask.

One time I was leaving Publix and a chicken and baby chicks were blocking my path. I got out of the car and waved a newspaper at them to get them to move (yes, a real printed newspaper). I looked up and a cop who was sitting in his car was watching and laughing.

Life down south.

Till next time . . .

Read my blog: Tomversation.com
Subscribe via email to my cartoons here – they will arrive each Friday plus 2 short blog posts during the week.

My cars and I

I went to my mechanic the other day to get some things done with my car – I needed Schedule A service and new tires. Did you know there are “non flat” tires now? They are tires that don’t have a spare tire, they can get flat and drive for up to 75 miles without going flat. You don’t change the tire with a spare or jack, you just get it repaired.

The first time this happened to me, I opened the trunk to change the tire and was freaking out that there was no spare tire or jack in the trunk. I thought they screwed me when I purchased the car, but since I just get in the car and drive it, I didn’t know there was no spare until I needed it.

The mechanic bought my old car during the pandemic – in 2020 and he says he still is using it. It must be 20 years old by now and he says it is running perfectly! At the time, it was dead. It just did not run.

For years I leased a car but got tired of having to turn it in every three years, so I said to no one in particular, “I am going to buy a car now and keep it until I run it into the ground.” And apparently the Universe was listening, because that is what happened. I bought a car and had it for 16 years – I put a lot of money into it over the years with repairs and all, but I never thought of turning it in for a new car. It just never entered my mind. I guess that was part of the Universe’s plans, since I put it into the Universe.

But when it finally was run into the ground, I got a new car and I sold the old one. And the mechanic got it running and it’s still going – it just shows you what a good mechanic can do.

This is the second or third mechanic that has bought one of my cars and I always wondered why. The cars were in for service with them and they know of the issues over the years – so why buy the car? But I guess that’s the answer – they knew the cars and they knew I took care of them even with all their warts. So three of my mechanics over the years, bought my cars when I was ready to sell them!

One car just died because I didn’t maintain it. It was a Camaro. I never put oil it or anything else, so the car just locked up. Like I said, I just get in my cars and drive them. I had the car towed into the garage so many times in the middle of the night that they would just show up in the morning, call me, and ask me what was up this time. They were a block away from where I lived, so it was convenient.

The time the car locked up, they were honest enough at the garage to tell me that the job would cost thousands of dollars, but if I had it towed to the dealership, which was ironically across the street, it wouldn’t cost me anything, because it was still under warranty. So that’s what I did – and it didn’t cost a thing.

I’ve been lucky to have honest and good mechanics over the years.

This last mechanic wants my to buy my current car when I am ready to sell! It’s nice to have a ready built-in buyer.

I often think of selling my condo and I have the same thing here – I have three neighbors who want to purchase my condo – so I have built-in buyers when I’m ready to sell!

Till next time . . .

Read my blog: Tomversation.com
Subscribe via email to my cartoons here – they will arrive each Friday plus 2 short blog posts during the week.

The 5 cartoons of the week

Read my blog: Tomversation.com
Subscribe via email to my cartoons here – they will arrive each Friday plus 2 short blog posts during the week.

Read my blog: Tomversation.com
Subscribe via email to my cartoons here – they will arrive each Friday plus 2 short blog posts during the week.

Remembering Scott Adams: Our unique interview

Scott Adams, Dilbert creator and cartoonist passed away yesterday, of prostate cancer.

While I didn’t agree with Scott’s politics, he didn’t agree with mine. I started my column “10 With Tom” some years back for the Huffington Post and I asked Scott if I could ask him the 10 random questions. He said he didn’t want it published in the Huffington Post, but he was a good sport enough to do the interview if I had it published elsewhere, so I had it published here in my Tomversation blog.

Here it is, from August 8, 2016.

10 With Tom
10 questions in 10 minutes

After looking over the 10 With Tom I did with Stephan Pastis, Pearls Before Swine cartoonist, I thought why not ask the 10 questions of Scott Adams, creator and Dilbert cartoonist, after all, it was Scott who was Stephan’s tipping point. He liked the strip when it was kind of new, talked it up and overnight it became a sensation, something like that.

Here are my 10 With Tom questions with Scott Adams.

Tom: Are you recognized on the street?
Scott: Almost never, except locally.

Tom: If you had to kill off one of your Dilbert characters, which one would it be and why?
Scott: I have a character named Ted the Generic Guy. I kill him whenever I need something bad to happen in the strip. After that, probably Dilbert, but he’d come back to life somehow later.

Tom: What newspaper(s) did your family subscribe to/read when you were a kid?
Scott: Albany Times Union

Tom: Which comic strip, past or present, would you like to crawl into and spend the day?
Scott: Sounds like a sad life any way you look at it. But I’d go with Mutts because I like pets.

Tom: Without looking, what color is Lucy Van Pelt’s dress?
Scott: I’m thinking yellow or red. My final answer is…yellow?

Tom: No. It’s actually blue.

Tom: What do you usually order at Starbucks?
Scott: Cafe Mocha (hot) with whipped cream.

Tom: Me too! Always.

Tom: Last book you read
Scott: Hard to Ignore by Dr. Carmen Simon.

Tom: What bores you?
Scott: Listening to someone describe food or TV shows.

Tom: Tell me about someone you envy.
Scott: Someone has a better life than I do? My life hasn’t always been easy, but at the moment it’s spectacular. I honestly can’t think of anyone I envy. (But envy isn’t a big part of my personality in general.)

Tom: Do you still feel that Trump will win the election? (I know you endorsed Hillary)
Scott: It wouldn’t be any fun if I changed my prediction now, would it? My prediction assumed Trump goes into a deep hole before powering out toward the end. So we are right on schedule.

Thanks, Scott. Good sport.

Till next time . . .

Read my blog: Tomversation.com
Subscribe via email to my cartoons here – they will arrive each Friday plus 2 short blog posts during the week.

Smart cars, smart phones

I finally saw one of those self-driving Waymo cars, although I suspect that I have been seeing these “smart cars” all the while. I think I have seen them, but have been thinking they were a Google Maps cars with the camera thing on the roof.

But recently there was a news report about the Waymo cars and I realized that’s what I’ve been seeing. Then the other day, one drove by and a friend said to me, “Isn’t that one of those self-driving cars?” And I realized it was.

I’m thinking now of all the times I’ve seen the car, but I never really looked at it, or looked inside it. I’m always in my own world and I’m not really nosey, so I guess I never looked over at the car to see who was in it – to see that nobody is in it! But I will look over now and probably freak out at the empty car.

To think, they’ve been in front of me, behind me and around me and have been interacting with me and I didn’t even know it!

I read, I think on Reddit, that Kyle from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (RHOBH) is using the term “Hey Siri!” often, because she uses Siri a lot to do things for her like call her sister Kathy Hilton, remind her of an address, things like that. And the issue with viewers, according to Reddit, is that her voice is carrying through the tv to their own devices and it’s calling Kathy Hilton, who they don’t know or it’s doing things they don’t want done like looking things up on the phone, etc.

Has that ever happened to you?

I don’t watch RHOBH, but it’s happened with other people via the tv and even if I say something out loud to myself while driving or something, Siri sort of does it. She opens up the phone and starts looking for answers to questions I didn’t even ask.

Social media sites seem to be more sensitive or maybe it’s the iPhone that’s more sensitive. I seem to send or almost send things to people that I don’t want to send.

Three times I’ve sent a direct message to one of my cousins by accident, and the odd thing is that all three things had to do with Broadway or acting or something related to that – and he’s an actor! But it wasn’t intentional, I didn’t even think of my cousin and I wasn’t interested in the meme or article.

I wasn’t following these sites who posted these Broadway messages and memes. For instance, one was about a Broadway show closing soon, and I was just deleting it or swiping through that post, but it swiped right into my cousin’s Direct Message and was sent to him. This happened three times – messages sent by me, going to my cousin regarding something about acting to my cousin who is an actor.

Very strange – and he never responded – I presumed he just thought I was hacked and it was a random message from the hacker. I don’t think he ever opened them. I asked him about it when I saw him and he said he never saw them. I don’t think he uses Facebook Messenger, so he probably never did see them.

One time I sent someone, I think it was my electrician or a/c guy, a picture of something when I was swiping trying to delete a picture! I don’t remember what it was, but luckily it wasn’t something personal or important.

Yesterday, I was home alone, and I heard a guy talking. I got startled. It was in my pocket, some video started playing and that was the voice I heard.

Smart phones? Too smart.

Till next time . . .

Read my blog: Tomversation.com
Subscribe via email to my cartoons here – they will arrive each Friday plus 2 short blog posts during the week.

Resolutions to Influenza

Read my blog: Tomversation.com
Subscribe via email to my cartoons here – they will arrive each Friday plus 2 short blog posts during the week.

Read my blog: Tomversation.com
Subscribe via email to my cartoons here – they will arrive each Friday plus 2 short blog posts during the week.

Ubering in style

I brought my car in for service today – I needed schedule A service and I needed tires.

I go early, before my mechanic arrives, and I leave the car and the key with the gas station attendant in the store part of the place. I block the main garage door, and I leave a note. So when the guys arrive, they get to my car first and it’s done by lunchtime.

I dropped the car off at 7:30 am today!

When my gas station guy called me to discuss the car, I asked him if he was surprised the car was there so early. He said, “No, you always do that.”

My Uber ride home was a Tesla. My second Tesla. I was thinking it was my first, but when it was time to open the door to let myself out, I couldn’t find out how to do it, and it reminded me that on my ride to LaGuardia Airport in NY last month, I was also in a Tesla.

I’ve been in three or four Ubers that were Mercedes and one Ferrari. Yes, a gleaming white Ferrari driving by a beautiful blond girl. It was at Miami Airport, coming home from NY a couple of December’s ago. Maybe it was for Art Basel people, which was at that time, maybe not. I was tempted to ask the girl why she was driving an Uber, but it was none of my business.

A few of the Mercedes were in New York and one in Miami. One Mercedes was an SUV – really nice.

I sometimes think it might be fun to drive an Uber. For maybe a day. But then again, I hate to drive down the block to the supermarket, so that’s out.

We used to have a Freebee service in our village. Many towns in the Miami area have them. They are golf cart type things that you summon on an app and they take you anywhere you want in each particular town. It’s free, hence the name Freebee. You just leave a tip.

So basically in Coral Gables, you are picked up and dropped off in Coral Gables. In Key Biscayne, the same – only service in Key Biscayne, etc.

Miami neighborhoods also have free trolleys. I used to use that often when dropping off my car, but they changed the route so that I would have to take two trolleys, which isn’t bad expect for the wait for the trolley. So a half hour wait, four times – two and from, wastes a lot of time.

So for now, Uber will do – until I pick up my car later today.

Till next time . . .

Subscribe via email to my cartoons and my blog here – the toons will arrive each Friday plus 2 short blog posts will arrive during the week.