Happy New Year - It Is 2016

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Amskeptic
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Happy New Year - It Is 2016

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Jan 01, 2016 9:24 am

I don't know about you, but these numbers are getting pretty high. I can remember well the simple dreams in 1965, "by 1975, we will have atomic flying cars," the more measured concerns after the Vietnam War about 1984, "will we lurch towards an Orwellian dystopia?" I remember the anticipation of technological modernities as we approached The Millenium, 2000! The computers are going to crash! and those bizarre runs on duct tape and water that matched in sheer panicky uselessness the old "Duck and Cover" drills we had in elementary school to protect ourselves from nuclear attack.

Underneath those Prognostications For The Future, the future indeed did arrive, underneath and above our collective imaginings, more wondrous than we could have imagined, and more mundane. The cheap crap sold at Walmart, the horrendous potholes on I-75 northbound into Michigan, the blizzard of pharmaceutical ads, the smooth dulcet tones of a rapacious corporation's shareholder shmooze, and Republican debates that are spookily reminiscent of McCarthy Hearings on Communist Infiltration, we have our examples of maddeningly mundane reminders of the stubborn refusal of humans to take to the possibilities . . . yet, the rise of the World Wide Banquet of Information aka the internet, medical and scientific marvels, nano robots!, our sharpening vision of the Cosmos, our collective consciousness, the outbreak of Louis CK and Amy Shumer from the germinations of Bob Hope and Lucille Ball, and right in the 21st Century here, the decided tradition of our hearts, our most popular operas in 2015 being La Bohème (1896), La Traviata (1853), Carmen (1875), Tosca (1900, first review "shabby little shocker"), Madama Butterfly (1904), I find wondrous.


I expect not ever to see the year 2039 written on some then current document like,
April 17, 2039

Dear Mr. Kellogg,

The bill for your emergency room visit of November 11, 2015 is now past due. Our Mercy Flight of The Bill Collection Drone will be conducted on April 18, 2039 4:25AM. If you would like to avoid collateral or ordnance damage to your loved ones or property, please remit $ 689,475.62 at once.

Mercy Hospital
a subsidiary of F**k Off And Die Already Hospital Enterprises, LLC, INC
I expect not ever to type "Welcome To The 2039 Itinerary!". Yet I will be typing "Welcome To the 2016 Itinerary!" next week. I can do the math. I have 23 years remaining on this Earth, as is my choice. This year, my resolution is to keep exercising the experience of life, keep folding in those grinding little moments of drudge and discomfort into the Amazing.
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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whc03grady
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Re: Happy New Year - It Is 2016

Post by whc03grady » Fri Jan 01, 2016 9:22 pm

Amskeptic wrote:I have 23 years remaining on this Earth, as is my choice.
Huhn?
Ludwig--1974 Westfalia, 2.0L (GD035193), Solex 34PDSIT-2/3 carburetors.
Gertie--1971 Squareback, 1600cc with Bosch D-Jetronic fuel injection from a '72 (E brain).
Read about their adventures:
http://www.ludwigandgertie.blogspot.com

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Amskeptic
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Re: Happy New Year - It Is 2016

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Jan 01, 2016 10:01 pm

whc03grady wrote:
Amskeptic wrote:I have 23 years remaining on this Earth, as is my choice.
Huhn?
Roughly speaking, I will not be doddering into a slow descent through dotage. I have to select when to get off the merry-go-around. Now that I know your average idiot bee sting in the throat costs approximately $1,000.00/hour at the local ER, any future health emergency that does not include specialist intervention should wipe me out within 24 hours.

So, I look at cost/benefit/likelihood/family genetics, and decide for myself (subject to internal negotiation, of course) when it might be best to leave. Does that seem weeeird?
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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dingo
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Re: Happy New Year - It Is 2016

Post by dingo » Sat Jan 02, 2016 2:19 pm

Where would you like to be buried ? or scattered ?
'71 Kombi, 1600 dp

';78 Tranzporter 2L

" Fill what's empty, empty what's full, and scratch where it itches."

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Amskeptic
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Re: Happy New Year - It Is 2016

Post by Amskeptic » Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:47 pm

dingo wrote:Where would you like to be buried ? or scattered ?
There will hopefully be no human intervention with human cultural traditions. I rather like the thought of having a final showdown/confrontation/beat-down/acquiescence/meld way out where I love the planet and the cosmos best.

Should my timing be off, I will demand that you all of sufficient mobility please visit me in the state run nursing home.
" HI Colin, it's MITCH!"
"Heh?"
"It's uh MITCH, you know . . . Ludwig Gertie?
"It's a WHAT? a BITCH? YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT IT'S A BITCH, IT'S A BITCH I CAN'T PEE, I CAN'T GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE, IT'S A BITCH?? IT SURE IS A BITCH."
"Geeze, take it easy old man, Esme and her little ones are here, pipe down. You talking like that within earshot of kids..."
"AHH THEY WOULDN'T SHUT UP, I ONLY GRAZED THEM."
"What do you mean you only grazed them, grazed who?"
"CRAZY? I'M NOT CRAZY."
:geek:
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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weisswurst
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Re: Happy New Year - It Is 2016

Post by weisswurst » Sun Jan 03, 2016 5:37 am

Amskeptic wrote:
dingo wrote:Where would you like to be buried ? or scattered ?
There will hopefully be no human intervention with human cultural traditions. I rather like the thought of having a final showdown/confrontation/beat-down/acquiescence/meld way out where I love the planet and the cosmos best.

Should my timing be off, I will demand that you all of sufficient mobility please visit me in the state run nursing home.
" HI Colin, it's MITCH!"
"Heh?"
"It's uh MITCH, you know . . . Ludwig Gertie?
"It's a WHAT? a BITCH? YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT IT'S A BITCH, IT'S A BITCH I CAN'T PEE, I CAN'T GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE, IT'S A BITCH?? IT SURE IS A BITCH."
"Geeze, take it easy old man, Esme and her little ones are here, pipe down. You talking like that within earshot of kids..."
"AHH THEY WOULDN'T SHUT UP, I ONLY GRAZED THEM."
"What do you mean you only grazed them, grazed who?"
"CRAZY? I'M NOT CRAZY."
:geek:
We will visit you Colin regardless of the language! With the way advertising in society is headed today most kids will not notice a few blue words sadly enough! I saw a billboard on my last trip to Miami that said in 10 foot letters: "Website sucks? hire us!" how many kids got in trouble reading that from the back seat out loud I wonder? :pale:
-jeffhowdidIendupactinglikestandardsandpractices? :scratch:
"I drink, therefore yes ma'am..."

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JLT
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Re: Happy New Year - It Is 2016

Post by JLT » Mon Jan 04, 2016 5:57 pm

I like John Prine's predictions:

"We are living in the future
I'll tell you how I know
I read it in the paper
Fifteen years ago
We're all driving rocket ships
And talking with our minds
And wearing turquoise jewelry
And standing in soup lines."
-- JLT
Sacramento CA

Present bus: '71 Dormobile Westie "George"
(sometimes towing a '65 Allstate single-wheel trailer)
Former buses: '61 17-window Deluxe "Pink Bus"
'70 Frankenwestie "Blunder Bus"
'71 Frankenwestie "Thunder Bus"

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