Milt's Listy Thing

Gabbi tagged? me to do one of these pesky personals. I tried to rise to the challenge.

10 years ago: Used to wander down the road to the Hole in the Ground bar here in Bogsville. Some things never change. Except that in those days it was a good place to go after work. It was clean and bright and there were people to chew the fat with and the girls behind the bar were something else to behold.

5 years ago: I was still wandering down the road to the Hole in the Ground bar in Bogsville but the place had changed management a few times and was beginning its slow decline into total filth and squalor. By then it was just a place to go to. I'd acquired a dog, from a rescue centre, and had been followed just about everywhere by him for two years. When he first came to stay I took him for his shots. The vet said, "Best not give him any shots until you've had him a week or so. He may well not live longer than that." The dog died last Summer so he lasted about seven years longer than the know-it-all vet predicted. He was a very nervous dog and ate like a cat rather than a dog. He'd eat for a while and then walk off. He'd come back to the food later and have a bit more. Dogs don't generally eat like that, he was unusual. We got hold of another rescue dog to try to teach him how to eat. He caught on, slowly. Bogsville became Dogsville.

1 year ago: The Hole in the Ground became the place to avoid. It was dirty and the carpets stank of stale pee, not because the patrons peed themselves at the bar, as far as I'm aware, but because there had been a serious blockage in, and backflow from, the main pipe to the sewers. I haven't been inside the place since Christmas. Dog1 died. Dog2 got sick and had half a lung removed. He didn't appreciate it but he seemed to enjoy the morphine trips.

Yesterday: I was trying to get a bench into my template so visitors would have somewhere to sit and rest a while. A couple of blog people seemed to have gone away on a long vacation somewhere. Ants in her pants came back from a week at some university or other. I recognized her. I'm not sure that dog2 did but then he's deaf and can't see much of anything at all.

5 snacks I enjoy: I got some Lindt chocolate somethings for Christmas. They were round and there was orange print on the wrappers. They were enjoyable. Dog enjoys biscuits. I don't care for his biscuits much, they are a bit on the hard side so I try to avoid eating them.

5 songs I know the words to: I don't know all the words to any songs but I sing along or toot to just about anything. Have a feeling that toot could be open to misinterpretation there. Feel free. I probably know the words of these better than most. I can remember trying to sing harmony lines for
Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
Memphis Tennessee - Chuck Berry
Peggy Sue Got Married - Buddy Holly
Baby Let's Play House - Elvis
Sea of Heartaches - Don Gibson

5 things I would do with $100 million: I'd definitely buy another box of those Lindt round things with orange writing on the wrappers. Probably get Graham Elderson a station wagon to drive all his drums around so he didn't have to use London Buses. Buy a ticket that would take me round all the interesting people I've exchanged words with but never met, Gabbi, Arc, STN, Lisa's knees, Mercedes Rosa Consuela Juanita Marisa Conchita Alicia Isabela Jones, Gran and Cheryl and everyone else in the sidebar. I might get one of those new fangled digital hearing aids so that I could hear the phone ringing. Right that's the first day's interest spent, now what on earth would I do with the rest?

5 locations I would like to run away to: I don't think running away is something that Milt does but I guess I've already covered places I'd like to visit. Alternatively any patch of shade would do under a palm tree on a deserted beach somewhere in the Caribbean, with a book, a saxophone and some mp3 tracks. Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Stan Tracey for a start and I'd better have the ones I know the words to just in case I felt like singing or tooting. Broadband access would be much appreciated, so would air conditioning.

5 bad habits I have: Falling in love with the grocer's wife, the grocer's sister, my Chinese dentist, the occasional barmaid and most recently the back of a right ear that I spotted three rows ahead of me on the lower deck of a bus.

5 things I like doing: Sitting in the sun, listening to live music, reading, writing stories and tooting.

5 things I would never wear: Spandex (whatever that is but I'm with Gabbi on that one because it sounds vaguely architectural and restrictive), the guy next door's underpants, a Hershey Bar wrapper, a Big Mac or a suitcase with a telescopic handle and wheels.

5 TV shows I like: The weather forecast, because I have a thing about weather ladies, the Simpsons, IBM adverts, Volkswagen adverts and reruns of Leon.

5 biggest joys of the moment: Waking up in the morning, sunshine and blue skies, being able to walk down to the Tulip and Tiara knowing that the place is clean and won't stink of stale pee and thinking about bare knees.

5 favorite toys: My I put it together myself and it still works computer, my HBpencil that I am keeping a very close watch on since I read Cheryl's piece on muscle control, my Selmer saxophone, my digital camera and my lawnmower.

Anyone still here? Oh well, I'm not surprised.