The dB’s hit Love Is For Lovers sums up my love life

Now that Valentine’s Day is over and everyone who either loves it or hates it has gone back to their neutral corner, I thought I’d share a little from the romantic side of things.  In 1984 the dB’s released this thing called an Album titled Like This.  The hit single from it was Love Is For Lovers and though I didn’t hear the song until the 90s, this song summed up my love life.

Do you remember when blue was the feeling
Gray was the weather, one was the number?
Do you remember when love was for others?

Back then we didn’t have an easy way to look up the lyrics of a song.  You had to buy the album and hope they lyrics were in the jacket.  I thought the line was Grey was the Word, which also works.

But the point is the opening stanza really summed up Life in my 20s.  I often felt blue about not having someone special in my life.  One was my number and it always felt like all my friends had girlfriends and I was some loser who couldn’t find someone.  Honestly some of those friends were craptastic and if they could find someone, what the fuck had to be wrong with me.

From where I was standing, it seemed like everyone had this dating thing down and had no trouble transiting from first date to coupledom.  Meanwhile I just  faceplanted  hard back in my days.

And then that thing happened.  I won’t go into the dirty details since Free Fun Friday is meant to be uplifting.  Remember Chicago how you felt when Reggie Bush taunted Brian Urlacher in the end zone of the NFL Championship game?  It was like that.   I drew a line in the sand and said enough.  And the next day, everything was pretty much the same.  But it was also the beginning of the path that would eventually lead me to meeting my wife Nightingale.

Now every day is like summer vacation
Christmas and birthday rolled into one day
Now every night is a special occasion
Where does it all end? Maybe next someday

Is the one quintessential song that sums up some component of your life?  Tell me about it here in the comments, then swing by my Facebook page and LIKE it! You’ll find funny, informative links and interesting pictures.  Don’t worry, your FB feed won’t get overwhelmed.

If you really like this post, please scroll back up to the top and click the “subscribe by email” button. You can sign up to receive an email whenever I publish something new.

No spam, no junk. Just me. Promise.

Need to reach me? Send me an email at therunninggod@gmail.com! Happy Reading!  Follow Mysteries of Life on Twitter (@MysteriesOLife), Facebook or subscribe via email.

How I got my old school stereo system to stream music inexpensively

The previous owner of our house had installed some speakers in the ceiling of the kitchen.  The speaker wires feed into a cabinet above the fridge.  I can play local OTA radio stations (aka Celestial Stations) and CDs through it ( He left behind a non-working CD player which I have replaced with an old school stereo receiver). However, it would be cool if I could to stream music through those speakers from either my PC or Spotify.

In my perfect world I would also be able to add additional wireless speakers in other parts of the house, maybe even using the sound bars of TVs (have not bought sound bars yet) thus being able to hear whatever choice of music I want throughout the house.  There are solutions out there but they can be rather expensive and it doesn’t make sense right now to put a fancy State-of-the-Art AV receiver in a cabinet.

So after a little research, I purchased a Dayton Audio WFA02 Audio Adapter which claims to let you connect your analog system with your PC or Music Streaming Service.

[placegallery]

While this device didn’t have all the functionality I was looking for, at the discounted price of $40 it is worth it as a stop-gap solution for playing my music until I either upgrade to a SONOS system or get a better house.

*****************************

Have you ever tried to marry old technology with new?  Tell me about it here in the comments, then swing by my Facebook page and LIKE it! You’ll find funny, informative links and interesting pictures.  Don’t worry, your FB feed won’t get overwhelmed.

If you really like this post, please scroll back up to the top and click the “subscribe by email” button. You can sign up to receive an email whenever I publish something new.

No spam, no junk. Just me. Promise.

Need to reach me? Send me an email at therunninggod@gmail.com! Happy Reading!  Follow Mysteries of Life on Twitter (@MysteriesOLife), Facebook or subscribe via email.

3 ways to fix the problems with air travel today

Air travel is very stressful and time consuming these days.  I’m not talking about being on a plane and worrying about it falling from the sky.  i’m talking about all the hassle and hoops one has to jump through just to get on the airplane in the first place.  You have to arrive hours before your flight and wait in long security lines.  Often your flight is shorter than the time you spent getting to the airport and through security.  Then you are waiting for your flight in a cramped area at the mercy of price gouging bars and restaurants.  Here are 3 ways we could improve the experience.

Charge People for Carry-on Baggage
One of the biggest annoyance is not being able to exit the plane because everyone in front of you is trying to get their bags down from the overhead bins.  Instead of charging to check bags, do just the opposite.  Charge people to carry a bag onto a plane but incenticize them to check their bags for free.  Also, push to standard the carry-on bag size.

Board the plane from back-to-front (FILO)
There really is no reason anyone seated in the front of the airplane needs to also board the plane before anyone else.  The plane takes off when the designated time arrives regardless of how many passengers are already on board (I need to fact check this but since most flights these days are delayed I’m not gonna make that a top priority).  If you’re in First Class, your seat will be there for you whether Walter the Unwashed boards before or after you.   And guess what?  being in First Class means you do get to deplane first, so you still have some eliteness going for you.

Get rid of the TSA
You never know how long it will take to get through security at the airport these days.  Most of the time, you get there 2-3 hours before your flight and you get through the humbling, humiliating and annoying task of taking your shoes, belt and other metal items off in 20 minutes.  Other times you might actually miss your flight because so many people didn’t get the memo.  There is an attempt to mitigate this with software, but there is an easier solution.  Eliminate the TSA.

Seriously, let’s just accept that they are a big fat waste of money and that they contribute more to the problem than to any solution.  I mean really if we are going to allow people to walk into a Walmart with an assault rifle, we can let people bring more than 3 oz of liquid on a plane.

*************

Do you detest waiting to board a plane?  Tell me about it here in the comments, then swing by my Facebook page and LIKE it! You’ll find funny, informative links and interesting pictures.  Don’t worry, your FB feed won’t get overwhelmed.

Happy Reading!  Follow Mysteries of Life on Twitter (@MysteriesOLife), Facebook or subscribe via email.