Category: Uncategorized

The grocery store: The reflection of a community, a place to visit with friends and, best of all, a home for comic books and Nutty Bars

~ nickc324 ~ 4 Comments

I love going to the grocery store, I always have.

I don’t particularly like paying for groceries, but I like every other part of the experience.

It all started when I was a child and I would go to Bernicke’s grocery store in Napoleon, Ohio with my mom on Saturday mornings. At that time, I liked looking at the different food items, but mostly I liked looking at the comic books the store had on sale near the magazines. I can’t imagine why anyone would look at magazines when there were comic books nearby, but maybe they were just placed there to let adults look respectable if they were secretly looking at comic books while they pretended to look at magazines.

I spent a lot of time poring over the comics and my mom usually let me get one or two, since they were a good deal at that time. “Now only 35 cents!!!!” the covers of the comics often screamed to me. How could I pass that up? It was like throwing money away by not buying them! Continue reading “The grocery store: The reflection of a community, a place to visit with friends and, best of all, a home for comic books and Nutty Bars” →

Reason No. 23 I hate being an adult: I have to be ‘brave’ and deal with wild animals, ladders and genius plans

~ nickc324 ~ 2 Comments

I live in a small city, but lately I have been having an awful lot of interactions with wild animals.

About a week ago, for example, my neighbor stopped over to tell me how he and his wife had been watching a squirrel in my yard. While I don’t usually like the idea of my neighbors watching my yard (they might see me watching their yards!), I was interested in learning about how this squirrel had been working feverishly in a tree in my front yard, pulling off leaves and twigs, and then traveling back and forth on a utility line to a hole in my roof near the rain spout.

“That’s pretty neat, I wonder what he was doing?” I said stupidly.

“It’s actually pretty bad,” my neighbor said smartly. “She is probably making a nest. Squirrels can do a lot of damage if they get into your roof or walls.”

“Oh, that does sound bad,” I said. “I can only imagine what the moose would do if he got in there too.” Continue reading “Reason No. 23 I hate being an adult: I have to be ‘brave’ and deal with wild animals, ladders and genius plans” →

The mostly true story of a historic moment in my soccer career

~ nickc324 ~ 1 Comment

Most Saturday mornings throughout the year, I get up early, get dressed and go play soccer in my local league.

My wife loves it when I wake her up with my talking, loudly getting dressed and then double and triple checking that I have all of my shin guards and cleats, but I always offer her some reassuring words that make her feel better.

“You knew what you were getting into when you married a big time athlete like me,” I say before she throws my shin guards at me. I know she is really just making sure I have everything I need, and it always inspires me to go out and be the best soccer player I can be!

Unfortunately, though, that player is not very good. Continue reading “The mostly true story of a historic moment in my soccer career” →

These 17-year-olds with five eyes are flying around my yard

~ nickc324 ~ Leave a comment

As students are graduating and people of all ages are moving into new phases of their lives, it forces us all to look at how quickly life changes and the years fly by.

Somehow this is 2016, but it seems like it wasn’t that long ago that we were still in 1999, wondering what the new millennium would be like.

Those were the days when my son was only two years old, my two youngest stepchildren were not even born yet and the idea of an iPhone seemed like something out of Star Trek. This was also the last time that the 17-year cicadas emerged in my part of Ohio.

Like the people of Brigadoon, the cicadas are now mysteriously reappearing, and I am super excited about the whole thing. First of all, cicadas are fascinating creatures that live interesting lives. Second of all, I think a Brigadoon type musical about the lives of cicadas would be awesome. Continue reading “These 17-year-olds with five eyes are flying around my yard” →

Spending too much time in the makeup aisle has made me an expert on swimming pool toys

~ nickc324 ~ 1 Comment

To say that I don’t know much about women is a little like saying that I don’t know much about cell phones.

I certainly like them a lot and am somewhat comfortable with them, I just have no idea how they work. Also, I often mess up with them, but really have no idea what I did wrong. Continue reading “Spending too much time in the makeup aisle has made me an expert on swimming pool toys” →

Pets can teach us a great deal, but they also make too much poop

~ nickc324 ~ Leave a comment

As a guy in his mid-40s (I know, I know, I look like I am in my 20s…) I often think that I am a strong, competent adult who is in control of his life.

And then I come home and clean up dog poop, scoop up cat litter, constantly open and close doors for pets and clean bird poop off of the television.

Sigh.

I love our family pets dearly, (on most days) and I get more out of the relationship than I put in, but they can be taxing. Speaking of getting out more than I put in for them, how do they make so much poop and how do the cats fill the litter boxes so full? I don’t think I feed them that much. Continue reading “Pets can teach us a great deal, but they also make too much poop” →

The secret of my success

~ nickc324 ~ Leave a comment

People often come up to me and ask me, “What is the secret to your amazing success?”

Actually, I’m paraphrasing there as the actual words are something like “When are you going to leave?” but I can read between the lines, so I understand what they are really trying to ask me.

The answer is simple, it’s having a beard. Before I had a beard, I was just an ordinary person living an ordinary life.

Now that I have a beard, life is completely different for me. Continue reading “The secret of my success” →

Hello again, again

~ nickc324 ~ Leave a comment

Ok, I am writing this just to clarify and to explain to myself a little bit more about what I am doing here.

I now decided that this will be my WordPress blog, and I may post some items on another site, too.

So, I am going to move some columns back over here, eliminate my extra WordPress site and move forward with this.

Confused? Good.  That’s what I was going for all along when I developed this blog four years ago, cleverly did not post anything for nearly 4 years and then started writing confusing items here again.

So here we go once again, I hope to put a lot on here, and if anyone stumbles across this site, I hope you like it (even if it is a little dumb).

 

Hello again world

~ nickc324 ~ Leave a comment

Ok, after several years, I am back on here. I am changing this blog (which never really got started) and am turning the blog for columns and whatnot into nickoftime2016, which is my new blog on here.

I am going to use this blog more to write stories. Once again, these stories are mainly for me and to make me write, but we will see how and if it really goes.

If you stop by, please read over a little (I will have content here soon), feel free to offer feedback and please, please, leave doughnuts.

Thanks. Now, let’s see what happens next.