The Truth is Strange

Posted by: on Sep 12, 2011 | One Comment

Everyday you see things around that make you realize that the truth is strange. Or more likely, it’s just the strange true things you see that defy explanation or are just plain dumb.

For example, in the past two weeks, our little neck of the woods got hit pretty good by Hurricane Irene and what was left of Tropical Storm Lee. 20+ inches of rain over the past couple of weeks in some parts of the Garden State (also known as the “flood zone”). Now you’d think with all that rain you wouldn’t need to water your lawns…right? Well you’d be wrong because a few folks have decided they can’t be bothered to shut off their automatic sprinklers. Not really strange, just sort of stupid.  Pretty sure those folks sprinklers were going on during the hurricane.

For our next example of strange things you don’t see too often I give you the discman. You remember the Sony discman. Late 20th century invention, played CDs (remember those) and you could listen to one whole album on just one disc. No turning the album over, no skips, no scratches. Seems like just yesterday everyone had one but I actually saw some guy running down the road with one and it was yesterday. Dude, get an iPod will ya. After all, you were running through Short Hills. What will people think? Luckily this guy wasn’t wearing tennis sneakers, tube socks and thigh high shorts or the whole damn blog would have been about him.

But the one thing that has happened to me in the past month that really was just so strange was the east coast earthquake which we actually felt at the worldwide headquarters of Monarch Communications high above Millburn and Main (3rd floor, pretty much as high as you can get in my town without illegal drugs but that’s another story).  An earthquake…in New Jersey…now that is stranger than fiction. When the earthquake first hit, I actually thought I was having a heart attack, maybe a stroke or some sort of really bad college flashback. I could feel the building moving around me as if they were doing construction with heavy construction equipment on the street below. But the visual that will stick with me forever will be watching a 4 foot high file cabinet in our office swaying back and forth a good 4 or 5 inches. I actually thought it was going to tip over. The irony of  all this is that the weekend before the earthquake hit my daughter Allie moved to LA (where earthquakes are no so strange) and missed it. I’m sure she will feel her fair share in the future but for now, she moved out of NJ just in time to miss this one.

Those are my random observations for  today. Remember, watch and observe the world around you and look out for me. You could be the next thing to make it on IraSez. Wouldn’t that be strange.

1 Comment

  1. Marsha
    September 15, 2011

    I use my Sony Walkman on a regular basis and am proud of it. You should hear the comments I get when people notice.