“Ha! Look how those people ahead of us spelled ‘potable.’”

“You’re far too critical. It’s still affluent water, no matter how you spell it,” my wife, Bonnie said, as we went for the fifth trip to haul effluent water from the city plant on 12th Street.

And if this seems like a commercial, well it is. We’re pleased with the service by those people who provide recycled water to legions of pickup-driving residents trying to save their lawns, bushes and trees.

Some of the city employees assigned to the water department will even climb up the back of our pickup, remove the cap from the tank and insert the large hose into the opening. Continue reading →

Do men give other men friendly butt pats? Of course they do, especially when on the field. Somehow, the baseball field seems to be the most popular butt-patting venue, but you see it on and in football fields, basketball courts and baseball stadiums, whether in or out.

But not in a courtroom.

Of course, I’m referring to the hand-to-posterior action of Chad Johnson, a former professional football player who thought he did the right thing in swatting his defense attorney’s behind. Johnson, who refers to himself as Ochocinco (Spanish for the numerals 8 and 5 that appear on his football jersey), was in court, on a charge of domestic violence.

Judge Kathleen McHugh was about to recite the terms of an agreement — no jail time, probation and community service — when she reminded Ochocinco of the help his attorney had provided. Surely, as a way of affirming the judge’s judgment, Ochocinco swatted the lawyer’s behind. Whacko! Continue reading →

A delayed Christmas present for our three grandchildren was the promise of a trip to a place called Hinkle’s Family Center in Albuquerque. Replete with bumper cars, bungee jumping, bumper boats, a racetrack and video games, Hinkle’s must have hosted all of the Duke City on Sunday.

We took Carly, Celina and my namesake, Arthur, our son Ben and his wife, Heather, to Hinkle’s, where, after an invigorating game of Laser Tag, the group settled for an afternoon of playing Ski-Bowl and shooting hoops. Ski-Bowl is like bowling, its object being to toss a wooden ball down a lane into various holes that award points according to the degree of difficulty.

The hoops competition involves tossing regulation basketballs through a hoop that moves sideways. That, too, spewed out tickets. We made out like bandits. After a few hours, we’d amassed about 4,000 tickets, which we were able to trade in for valuable goods. Continue reading →

“Let’s all go to the movies in Santa Fe to watch ‘Lincoln.’” The idea sounded great, until we discovered that all showings of that film, starring Daniel Day-Lewis had sold out, as in, “There will be no more tickets sold today, and probably not tomorrow.”

As much as we believe in keeping our dollars in Las Vegas, there are times, when considering a new car or watching a new movie, that such just isn’t possible.

Crestfallen, we returned home to wait until “Lincoln” might arrive here.

I still haven’t seen “Lincoln,” but I bought a DVD, at a price that didn’t cause me to take out a second mortgage. I’m waiting for my family to gather before we watch it at home.

There are also those kiosks at Walgreens and Wal-Mart that allow one to rent the movie. Perhaps someone will explain how they work, my never having used those machines. Continue reading →