Short one tonight. I just spent a grueling two hours with a bathroom upgrades salesman.

One of the lessons I’ll have to learn as a homeowner is never to say yes when a salesperson comes around and says, “Hey, we’ll just send a guy around to give you a quick estimate; tell you about our sale prices. No pressure.”

It ends up as 120 minutes of close interaction (with visual aids) in which a poor working stiff brings out all his hyperbole and powers of persuasion, talking in the “when” mode while I’m keeping to the “if” mode.

In the end I told him I never make such decisions on the same day, as a matter of policy. He then called his boss and asked him if they could offer me the job at parts plus labor only, just because they want to list an address where they’ve done a job in this area on an advertising card. I still said no, and the estimate price jumped back up a couple thousand.

I think it would have been great to do, and I’m convinced the product is well worth the cost. But I don’t have the money, and I ended feeling guilty I’d wasted his time.

He went off disappointed.

But I guess he’d be more disappointed if I ordered the work and couldn’t pay for it.

Cold and snow (actually snow and cold, reading left to right) returned today. But although the temperature never topped 25°, most of the snow disappeared anyway. Go Sun!

Yesterday was a weird day. I missed not one but two appointments—my mind was obviously poorly seated in its housing. And my post on foods I don’t like—which was, frankly, a desperation post, composed because I couldn’t think of a good idea—garnered a fair number of comments and got linked both by Hunter Baker and the Thinklings.

Which shows that you just never know. And you may quote me on that.

So, on the principle that if something works you should beat it to death, I shall follow up with a post on Things I Don’t Like At All, But That Are Extremely Popular.

1. Sports. I don’t wonder why other people like sports. I have one semi-sport (live steel) that I enjoy myself, so I can comprehend the fact that other people find sports engaging and life-enhancing. I just can’t share the experience. Sports, for me, have always been merely a way to exhibit my inferiority in a good, strong, public light. Continue reading 10 more anathemas →

Even on a day like today, when our country took a possibly irretrievable step down the road to destruction, the most disturbing thing I’ve read is this post over at Big Hollywood, from former Federal Agent Bob Hamer.



My mood is still dark (that Big Hollywood post didn’t help), and it occurs to me that I might do A List. A negative List. A list that shines a good, harsh light on my own alienations and inadequacies.

Herewith, 10 Foods I Hate That Everybody Else Loves.

1. Cheese. Except on pizza (through which cheese has somehow managed to insinuate itself into even my life, obviously with my destruction in mind), I don’t like any kind of cheese, prepared any kind of way. Macaroni and cheese? Doesn’t even taste like food to me. Toasted cheese sandwich? Useful for inducing vomiting. I honestly think that on the day in my infancy when (I’m told) I fell over backward in a high chair and bit my tongue through, I must have severed some important taste nerve. There’s something good out there, that the rest of you can experience, that’s lost to me forever. Continue reading Children will starve in Africa because I won’t eat these foods →

I did my big presentation, “The Two Olafs,” at a retreat in Wisconsin this past weekend. Not a religious retreat. It’s a gathering of academics with Scandinavian specialties, some of their students, and a few other people who are just interested in Scandinavian culture. Once a year they get together at a nature preserve in Wisconsin.

The experience was both good and bad. I think I did as good a job with the PowerPoint talk as I’ve ever done, and the audience was attentive and appreciative, from all I could tell. I sold a few copies of my books, and got the nicest speaker’s fee I’ve ever pulled down.

The second day wasn’t great for me, however. I felt I’d been keeping to myself too much, which (as you know) is one of my besetting sins. So I determined to join the organizers for breakfast, and try to be part of the conversation.

I heard a number of things I disagreed with, but kept quiet and listened, attempting to understand and evaluate the things that were being said. But when it descended into plain Republican-bashing, I left the table with the words, “He never said that. He said he didn’t like broccoli,” and went back to my quiet area with my book. Then, when everyone else went off to see a movie, the final event of the retreat, I packed up Mrs. Hermanson and drove home without saying goodbye to anyone.

This is one of those frustrating things. On the rare occasions when I make a determined effort to move outside my comfort zone, I so often end up sorry I even tried. You know the old saying, “Better to keep silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt”? My own best motto seems to be, “Better to keep to myself and be thought a jerk, than to talk to people and remove all doubt.”

There’s a popular idea that all a shy person has to do is take the risk of talking to people, and he’ll soon discover that his fears are groundless.

I have very little evidence of that in my own experience.