FAME & FORTUNE

A short time back I received e-mail from a man named Jon Segal who worked as one of the staff writers at our local daily newspaper the Monterey Herald. He had been browsing the Internet and had run across my blog. He found the story of how Jen-Chi and I met interesting and thought it might make a good human-interest story for the paper. He wanted to get together and talk about it.

I replied and after determining that he had an expenses account, I met him for lunch.

We chatted and he still was interested but wanted to also talk with Jen-Chi and get a couple of pictures. So, we set up a date for him to come to the house and he did.

The three of us had a nice chat with Jon scribbling furiously all the time. As he left he indicated the story would probably appear the following Friday, which it did.

The photographer arrived about an hour later.

I was surprised at the number of photographs he took. He must have click-clicked that thing 40 or 50 times and then he left.

Sure enough, opening the paper Friday morning revealed our story.

Caught up in the Net
This senior couple found adventure --
and each other--
on the Internet

It was complete with two --– not one but two -- photographs. We were now officially famous!

A few hours later our phone rang and it was a neighbor who wanted to compliment us. She didn'’t ask for autographs but did want to know our web site address. I told her it was www.oldprof.com and she thanked me. Then just as I was leaving to get some additional papers to send to our out-of-town friends and relatives, the phone rang. Jen-Chi said, "“Wait a minute. It may be another one of our fans." It wasn't but we both laughed.

If you would like to read the story it is online.
To view just click here Monterey Herald

I tried to scan the photos from the paper but they aren'’t very good. However, if you want an idea of what they were I have them in storage at my web site. You can see one at

Picture #1

and another at:

Picture #2

So, all right, now we are famous. I had always heard of "Fame and Fortune"”. When does the Fortune part begin?

By the way, if you, or anyone you know, happen to be interested in obtaining any of our memorabilia as an investment, just drop us a line. We have plenty of things like tee shirts that were actually worn by The Old Professor while sitting at the computer. He will personally sign it for you. Maybe something like a baseball he used to play with as a boy would interest you. If so, you probably should get these soon before we list them for sale on eBay.

The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
May 28, 2005

PEANUT BUTTER, APPLES AND PLASMA TV

The other day my Significant Other, Jen-Chi, went to the store. As she left she said something like, "Peanut butter and apples, right?"
"Right."
She hopped in her truck and took off. (She has a small Ford truck she actually loves.)

About an hour passed and the phone rang.
"I'm at the store"
"Are you almost finished?"
"Well, I haven't bought any groceries yet."
"Huh?"
"I bought a television set."

Well, this made some sense because she has a little room where she keeps her computer and exercise bicycle. There is an antique TV set there and she watches fuzzy pictures while she peddles away.

So, I said, "Oh, good. What kind did you get?"
"Plasma"
"Oh, plasma." I sat down. "What size?"
" Forty-two inches."
"We must have a bad connection, it sounded like you said forty-two inches."
"Yes, forty-two inch plasma TV. For my computer room, you know."
"Oh."
"The man said it's the easiest one to hook up so I'm bringing it home in my truck.
"Oh."

In about 20 minutes, the phone rang again. It was a lady from the Discover Card company. She wondered if I knew there had been an unusually large charge made to my card recently. She said, "It says it's a television set."

I was amazed and in admiration. It really impressed me that this company had spotted that transaction, that soon. I think it says a lot for the Discover Card people but I certainly was glad that Jen-Chi had called first. Otherwise I suppose I would have assumed that she had lost her card and someone picked it up and bought a television set. Especially when I found out it was a forty-two inch plasma TV set. What kind of a person would do that? Certainly not Jen-Chi. She went to buy peanut butter and apples.

When the set arrived home it still needed to be taken from the truck, uncrated and set up. The outside of the box had instructions on how to open it. Nowhere did it even hint that I should move my foot from under where the box would land when offloaded. Nowhere did it say that if you don't observe that caution your big toe will hurt like hell and you will limp for a couple of days. I figured that part out myself. The hard way.

The next job was to attempt to get the thing running. A couple of hours after various hookups we could see enough to know that at least the set worked and does display a beautiful picture. However, it only gets one station and that's a Spanish language channel. But is it a great picture? Si, si.

So, this afternoon the Cable Guy will arrive (probably) and straighten out everything I messed up.

I doubt he will do much about the toe. Maybe the peanut butter will help.

THE BEST OF OLD PROF

I have been looking back and reading some of the many blogs I have posted since I started doing this about 10 months ago. I found myself enjoying some of them and others, not so much. So I have decided to heed the requests from so many of you – well, one actually – and assembled some of my blogs that I find not too embarrassing. I’m calling this collection “The Best of Old Prof” and if you are interested you can find it at my OldProf.com web site or just click here.

If there is something missing that you think belongs, please drop me a note and I will compile “Son of The Best of Old Prof.” My e-mail is still OldProf@oldprof.com.

Thanks for the compliments I have received from so many of you. You often make my day.

The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
May 21, 2005

JUST WHEN THINGS WERE GOING WELL

May 20, 2005

Yesterday I received the joyous news that I will be the lucky recipient of a root canal. Oh joy!

Fortunately, this won’t take place for about 10 days, so I will be able to more thoroughly enjoy this dull throbbing sensation. I wonder if I will miss that feeling when it’s all over.

Meanwhile, I’m gulping antibiotics three times a day to get things started in the right direction.

I’m sure you can’t wait to hear the rest of the story.

---

MY IDEAL WEIGHT

A couple of years ago I had occasion to meet a new doctor. He gave me a complete physical and in the process he asked me how tall I was. I told him that I was 5 feet, 8 inches tall. He insisted on measuring me and said that I was actually only 5 feet, 7 inches tall.

I've protested this because I have written proof that I was 5 feet, 8 inches when I went into the Navy and also when I got out of the Navy. He said that it was normal for people to shrink some as they got older.

This didn't matter much to me until I ran across a web site that supposedly tells what your ideal weight should be. There were only two questions. It asks your gender. I chose male, as there were only two choices. They also asked for my height. I filled in 5 feet, 8 inches because I knew that was my actual height in spite of what the doctor said. Then I clicked on "Calculate" and it told me my ideal weight should be 154 pounds, which happens to be exactly what I weigh.

The only thing that remained was for me to prove that I was actually 5 feet, 8 inches tall. So, I stood with my back against the wall, heels touching the wall and head also touching the wall. Then I had someone put a mark on the wall using a level to ensure accuracy. After that I used my tape measure and measured from the floor to the mark on the wall. It was exactly 5 feet, 6 and 3/4 inches. Not only had a shrunk 1 and 1/4 inches but also now I was overweight!

It seems to me I now have a choice. I can either try to lose some more weight or I can try stretching myself to become taller.

I always knew that everyone in my family had big bones so perhaps that's the real problem. Of course, that’s it. I just have big bones. I am the ideal weight for a guy with such big bones.

The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
May 18, 2005

IS IT FACT OR FICTION?

The other day I received e-mail from my friend Rafael Nájera. Rafael is a sharp young man now living Montreal, Canada. He asked:

Did I tell you I was going to China? Well, I'm in Beijing right now.

Duh, no. I had no idea and I wish I had known. My domestic partner was brought up in Beijing and I would have asked Rafael to check and see if it’s really true that Chinese men do all the cooking and the kitchen work and the laundry as well as keeping the house neat and clean.

The Doubting Old Professor
Carmel, CA
May 15, 2005

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

A couple of days ago I received some e-mail from one of my daughters. In essence it was an apology for just now getting around to replying to my message and if it wasn’t to late she hoped we would have a merry Christmas too.

Better late than never, I say.

The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
May 14, 2005

SMILE DAMN IT, SMILE!

The great Scottish poet, Robert Burns, wrote a poem called “To a Louse”.
It had the famous line:

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!

In simpler American English he is saying “Oh, that some power would give us the gift to see ourselves as others see us.”

I recently had that idea brought home to me in a rather simple way.

From time to time over the years people have asked why I seem to be wearing such a stern expression all of the time. I’ve even had a student I had become quite friendly with mention it. This always amazed me because internally I am just the opposite. People who know me are aware that I am anything but stern – in fact “cream puff” is more like it.

And as far as what I can tell I am almost always laughing internally. There certainly are enough ridiculous things to internally amuse me forever.

However, I must admit my driver’s license picture of 5 years ago seems to belie that.



For my latest picture I deliberately made my face into a smile even though internally I was smiling already.



Since the difference in appearance is obvious I have been trying to learn how to apply this artificial smile more often.

The other day I was doing my morning wogging routine at the high school track. As I was finishing up students were starting to arrive for classes. Some of them walk along a path right by the edge of the track. I noticed one girl walking alone and could see I would be approaching her going in the other direction soon. I decided to put on the smiley face so as to not frighten her with that Year 2000 Drivers License Face. In my mind I pretended I had just been told an amusing joke. I smiled. As the distance between us decreased I glanced at her. She looked at me and smiled. Nothing was said to indicate we even recognized the other as being there but seeing her smile gave me such a good feeling.

Now I try to do that smile thing wherever I go. So, if you ever see an old geezer walking though a store or across a parking lot and grinning for no apparent reason, that’s probably me. What else do other old geezers have to smile about?

A NEW CAR?

A few days ago I was out driving someplace and saw a car I had never seen before. It was small and very square looking. Sort of like a shoebox with wheels. I checked and found it was made by Toyota and the model is called a Scion.

Now I like Toyotas, In fact, I drive a Toyota Prius but, to my mind and only my mind, this was one ugly little car. Yet it somehow looked familiar to me.

Finally I remembered why it looked familiar. There used to be a young boy who lived near me and one day he gave me a picture he had drawn in kindergarten. He said it was a car. For some reason I still have the picture.

Of course, Billy is all grown up now and I wonder what he is doing. It could be he is now working for Toyota. No, I guess not, that would be too much of a coincidence.