The Applebee Chronicles

I got up at 4AM. Now it is 6:30. I sent a friend a WhatsApp message. Soon we moved to Skype and continued for 2 ½ hours. What did I do before video chatting was invented? 

Oh, I remember. I had a life. I used to go to the bar at Applebee's where I knew everyone and I talked with people face-to-face. Those days are long gone. I even had a blog at the time. That was in 1999, about the time the word blog was invented. At some point in history I moved the blog to Blogger. If you read it, begin at the beginning, which is the earliest post. There are about ten posts per page, and you'll have to go to the bottom of the page and click "Older Posts." You'll have to do that several times to get to the first post so that you can begin reading at the beginning. 

I called that blog "The Applebee Chronicles." It's posted here. But as I said, don't start reading it there. Begin at the first post, which is the earliest post. The earliest post is here. It will be there for as long as Google exists, I would imagine, inasmuch as Google owns Blogger.

That blog was written about an Applebee's in Roanoke, Virginia. When I later moved to my current home, I began visiting the local Applebee's about once or twice a week. I got to know some of the bartenders, and I knew one especially well. Knowing your bartender makes lunch or dinner or just having a beer at the bar a lot nicer. I think anyone who has been a "regular" at a restaurant will understand what I mean.

There's nothing happening today. Cloudy, with rain this afternoon. More rain this weekend. Temperatures will be 60° Saturday and 67° Sunday. I'll be inside, studying Spanish. Which reminds me, I haven't answered my last two homework assignments. I have to do that and email them back to my Spanish tutor. The Spanish lesson I take each day lasts from two to four hours, depending on how long I can take it before I flake out. The homework usually takes an hour to do. So altogether I spend three to five hours per day on it. 

Why am I learning Spanish? I think as we get older we need to use our brains more to keep them healthy. I studied engineering for years, but I don't use that knowledge any more. I think having it helps me to think more rationally about all kinds of things, but I don't need it. There was a time when I took flying lessons in a small Cessna, but I don't need that knowledge now. There was a time when I built a ham radio station and got a license and operated it using Morse code. There was a time when a friend and I built and operated what was then called a "pirate radio" station, operating on both the AM and FM bands. Fun, but what did it do beside make some memories?

So why not learn Spanish? I started in high school with two years of study. Maybe I will finish that now. If you choose to read The Applebee Chronicles, I hope you enjoy them. I enjoyed writing them.