My Thoughts

Art has always been a love-hate thing with the old guy. Insider's house has its share of art, but that doesn't mean it's something he really loves and cherishes. It was more a matter of putting something on the walls to make the place look lived in than it was about filling the place with meaningful pieces of work. Insider has been to homes where dozens of pieces of art from all the popular local artists are sported. They are more a matter of showing off their expensive taste in art than it is actually liking the piece themselves. That's pretentious but there are plenty of those types around here. More and more are coming here as a matter of fact.

Insider is not the type who goes to art galleries. The old guy is lacking something in the brain that makes that fun. He just doesn't understand what an artist is trying to convey with a watercolor of a cat on a hot tin roof or a half-naked boy posing with a fishing rod or a street lamp illuminated on a deserted dirt road. Insider knows he likes the colors, the strokes, the imagery and other aspects, but he does not get the deeper meaning. Art aficionados would say there's always more than meets the eye, but Insider does not always see it and especially is not okay with it being pointed out to him. That defeats the purpose.

Things The Old Guy Dislikes: telemarketers; a burger with too much bun; high electric bills; presidential debates; expensive cars; how food prices have skyrocketed over the years; being bullied by the technology world; books with slow beginnings; cable prices; high-scoring football games; weekly shows that are •€˜to be continued'; a long day of fishing and having nothing to show for it; a begging dog at the table; undercooked scrapple; bacon on a cheeseburger; a steak that needs steak sauce to taste good; a cocky waiter; kids who whine about inconsequential things; bureaucratic speak; places that don't have senior citizen discounts; an annoying ache that won't go away; when the pharmacy is out of the old guy's medicine; losing a set of keys; surprise visitors; bad piano players; stupid Leno jokes; and dead animals hung on a wall.