End of the road

[pdedse]

Other than anecdotal stories, I won't have anything new to report until April 15th, which is when I have my next appointment with the neurosurgeon. Until then, it's just mundane crap like my lower-left back is absolutely hot knives painful now, likely as a result of favoring my damaged right side. I've ditched the walker and am now using a cane, and sometimes I ditch the cane too, but when I ditch the cane I'm still only able to do a side-to-side hobble, which is probably a leading contributor to this new pain in my back.

Oh, and this morning on my little walking trail some toddler-aged girl who was out with her mom pointed at my swollen, nasty-looking foot and lower leg and started bawling her head off. The mom offered me a look of furtive embarrassment and quickly moved her daughter along.

Yep, this is just awesome.

Not to minimize your pain in any way, but that's actually darkly funny. At least you can say that you (still) make the girls cry.

Years ago I went to my kids' halloween party at school and they invited parents to dress up along with the kids. Now I'm 6'3" and I dressed up as Shrek, who was popular with everybody. I looked pretty good, had a Shrek mask, put padding all around my torso, clothing looked true to Shrek...not way over done, but kids were excited to show me off to their friends. Was life of the kiddie party until little first grade girl dressed as princess arrived. She took one look at me and began, as you phrased it, "bawling her head off" and--would--not--stop! I took off the mask to show her I was a just another person, and then she really started crying!! I had to leave the party so princess could settle down.

All the kids were pi$$ed at her that Shrek had to leave.

Good to hear an update from you despite no great changes.

[VLJ_imp]

She cried even more, once you took off the mask?

Come on, now, you have to be less scary looking than Shrek!

[pdedse]

She cried even more, once you took off the mask?

Come on, now, you have to be less scary looking than Shrek!

Oh yeah, blood curdling scream.

She cried even more, once you took off the mask?

Come on, now, you have to be less scary looking than Shrek!

Don't underestimate me:

It was not a cold day.

[VLJ_imp]

So, you were simply looking out for the public's well-being. Doing them a service, as it were.

Got it.

[pdedse]

So, you were simply looking out for the public's well-being. Doing them a service, as it were.

Got it.

Yup! The little gal's mom was looking at me as if I had committed a crime!

[Guth_imp]

Back in 2007, I went all out for Halloween. I dressed up as the cartoon character Too Much Coffee Man. Unlike my wife, I'm not one to go for parties all that much. In 2007 she convinced me to attend the Halloween party that was being held elsewhere in our neighborhood. I was somewhat impressed with myself that I was able to decide who I would go as, how I would make my costume, where I would buy the supplies for said costume, buy everything, and put it all together in just a few hours time.

After finishing up my TMCM costume, I put it on and rode my longboard (yes, I was still skateboarding at 45 years of age) over to the original Stumptown Coffee location that isn't too far away from our house as we were all out of coffee beans and I needed to pick up a key component of what would be my wife's costume. I got a few smiles and some thumbs up, but other than most people seemed to have other things on their mind. In other words, here in the southeast part of Portland where I live, I did not really stand out as being all that unusual, even as TMCM while riding a skateboard.

The party was only 5 blocks away from our house and it was a nice evening so we walked. On the way to the party early in the evening I learned that younger children appeared to "not be fans" of Too Much Coffee Man. At least I assumed that I was the off-putting character. In hindsight I suppose that it could have been my wife who was dressed up as TMCM's mistress - a sultry bag of coffee beans.

Later that night, on our way back home, all of the young children were back inside, while the older kids were out doing whatever it is that older kids do on Halloween night in this day and age. It was then that I learned that TMCM was a definite hit with the older kids. There were kids rolling down their car windows screaming Awesome Too Much Coffee Man! at the top of their lungs. A couple of cars of kids pulled over and stopped so they could get out and check out the costume. Quite a few others who were out walking stopped us on the sidewalk to talk. I'm pretty sure that was the last time in my adult life that I had received any sort of genuine admiration from teenagers, lol.

As far as pdedse dressing up as Shrek goes, I could see where that might be intimidating. Even with my TMCM costume on, cup-head and all, I doubt that I would have been as tall as that version of Shrek. That would have been a sight to see. I have to be honest with you pdedse, I too found VLJ's story to be darkly humorous. I was picturing the mom using the encounter as a teaching moment. "Now this is why you want to practice safe social distancing dear."

[the Ferret]

Where have I been? I have never heard of Too Much Coffee Man. Is that a west coast thing?

[Guth_imp]

Where have I been? I have never heard of Too Much Coffee Man. Is that a west coast thing?

I'm going to guess that you were out riding.

I think that TMCM came about back when I was living in Austin. If I'm not mistaken, the cartoonist that came up with Too Much Coffee Man was also located in Austin at the time. With coffee being a huge thing here in Portland, it's not too surprising that people here would have heard of him. At one point I think that they even put on some kind of TMCM play or opera or something. I did not attend, lol.

I forgot to mention that what I devised to hold the big coffee cup on top of my head was constructed from of an XXXL pair of women's hose (do they make any other kind?). Now THAT purchase got a few stares from the checkout person at the store.

[Cormanus]

Mercifully, I think, I've not heard that Too Much Coffee Man has made it to the antipodes.

[Lord Popgun]

TMCM has a Wiki page. Don't go there. You can't unsee what Guth must have looked like...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Much_Coffee_Man