It's been awhile. I feel bad about that. I've been feeling the need to get reoriented a bit, being a little, I don't know, I guess lost is the best word for it. I have a lengthy drive to my current employer, from the Elmwood Village out to Varysburg (about 20 minutes east of East Aurora). It's a small operation with an animal safari at its center. The surrounding area is less than progressive, but when the social media climate, surrounding area, general lack of escape gets too much, one can always talk to the animals as well as try and decide when it was I started using phrases like "one can talk."

Here’s some of the folks I can handle working with currently.

take the out of towners to the falls they said, it will be fun they said

Transitions...they sneak up on you. I haven't been writing much of late since maybe summer. I took a new job at the Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls and it has been a world changer.

I was feeling reflective mostly about the commute. The work is pretty similar to what I was doing in regards to public relations, marketing and tv and the like, but it's the ride where the world is a little different. I used to tell people that you couldn't play Stairway to Heaven all the way through in the time it took me to get from my apartment to my Zoo office. When your destination is Niagara Falls, it's a different kettle to be sure. I've become one of those people of the 190, and that sometimes great, sometimes a ride, especially in the weather we've had this winter.

On its uneventful days, it's 20 minutes start to finish, not a bad amount, but in this winter that is already available in book form, it sucks. The unrelenting cold has frozen over roads, last week random sections of the 290 went to solid ice. I'm driving a Sportage these days on and on soild ice its fanny wants to shake. There's a message in there somewhere.

I was happy to see the sun today.

Happy Days, EStrip

For the past few years, I've also been working part time on the events staff at the downtown sports arena for all types of stuff, hockey, concerts, wrestling, what have ya. It's a fun venue to people watch

Usherin…got my chips cashed in…

There are some places at certain times where you can get an interesting insight into the human condition, where you can study without being studied. Patrolling the aisles at the local professional lacrosse game the other night was one of those times. I’m a sports fan, but this one doesn’t do it for me. So, I guess that makes me a more attentive usher since the game isn’t distracting me (yeah, we’ll go with that for now.).

Look up in the aisle, it’s Usherman…able to leap tall drink spills in a single bound.

I knew this most recent game was going to be interesting to watch unfold. A promotion had autographed lacrosse balls for sale to raise monies for a worthy cause. A family appeared in my section where the grandfather produced the autographed ball and gave it to his granddaughter, a little moppet of maybe four years old. She accepted the ball and considered it for a moment, duly looked at the signature as her grandfather pointed out, thought for a moment and prompted tossed the ball down to the section beneath ours. This usher? I thought that was funny.

There was the t-shirt gun. I’m convinced it’s the hunt that gets folks going, not the actual trophy. This was confirmed to me as the Bandits‘ mascot brandished a t shirt gun that had some wallop, and turned a few folks near me into searching for “the precious.”

A recent balloon drop had me shaking my head as folks in the upper levels were jumping in the first row of the upper level to catch a balloon that had a coupon inside. Again, the prize was for something not so rare. It’s the hunt that is the thing. But I can’t walk in that first row without getting the proverbial willies.

So, I have to ask, the chance at a not rare souvenir something to take a foolish chance over? I think not, but people forget themselves, and that they are not alone, or at home, or the manners their parents carefully taught them.

It’s priorities, man. I remember a few years ago, my dad and I were heading to see some minor league baseball and there was a giveway that night, I believe a stadium replica in some fashion. One of those little desktop size statues that was produced with the same level of care and detail that the average 4 year old puts into their playdough houses. But again it was the hunt. Folks lined up around the block as there to be one admissions gate where the freebie was going to be distributed. This line snaked by plenty of other ways into the stadium. Dad and I looked at each then sought higher council, as seats, beer and grilled meat in tubular form was decidely more important.

So, yeah, I don’t get too jazzed with the fast food company blimp flies over ahead and drops coupons, because that isn’t worth putting the effort to, well, stand up for, let alone post up to keep somebody else from getting one.

But if that suits ya, have at it, as at least the cost of the seat didn’t rise with ya.

Well, this time