Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for July 24, 2018

OK Neal. Time for bed now. Neal 1, Grievances 0, for this inning.

Neal has a burning desire to get rid of his grievances. His flames are fanned in the pit of his desires.

If Neal gets any closer to that fire, his “grievances “ will need airing out.

Neal is given to inflammatory remarks and heated arguments…

Tomorrow night it’ll be the “conflagration of remorse”.

Neal is always feeling a bit burned….

If it isn’t the dry cleaner, who charged him full price but didn’t get the spots off his plaid shirt…

or the guy at work who borrowed $67, the day before he moved away….

or it’s the auto shop, where they gave him a great deal on the “labor,” but overcharged him $223.42 on parts.

 

Even his brother, who borrowed Neal’s favorite old Beatles albums and “lent” them to his friend…

4 years ago.

 

So this is his occasional way of “burning” everybody back…

where nobody knows, and it does no real harm.

Now he can sigh, go into the house, have a nice cup of cocoa with Betty,

and finally go to bed feeling peaceful.

 

Before I go to bed…. very very late…..

I’d like to thank everybody for helping me with all those leftover pies…..

and offer a quick explanation to some of you who had questions.

 

Some of you know, and play along, most of the rest of you guess, but just in case anyone is still confused:

Ballard Street is a magical place……

there are real and virtual characters…. and many virtual businesses….

Dennis, for instance, has a fabric store, that supplies a lot of the polka dots you see.

StelBel, who ought to come around more, owns, among other things, the Costume Annex, and a virtual real estate business, in case you’d like to move here.

 

We have a duly elected (see August 2012) monkey sheriff, who is a real poster called Sheriff MonkeyBlues, or MunkyBluz, depending on how he spells his name today….

And he owns the Tiki Bar…. a virtual place where we all like to gather….

and where I supervise the night shift, and do a lot of cooking….

and I also have a hair salon, a popular pie shop, and a bakery, among other things.

 

Because all of this is virtual… including the money….

you can drink beer all night and never get drunk or have a hangover,

and you can eat a big yak rib platter and 3 pieces of pie, and never gain an ounce.

 

But most important…. Ballard Street runs through every town and every city.

They’re all in Ballard County, no matter what country they’re in.

Thus the Tiki is never more than a block or two from where you live… wherever you live.

Never think you have to miss anything because you can’t afford it…..

or because you live in the boonies, in Europe, in far Timbuktu….

 

Just walk down to the corner of your street and Ballard…

or take the path, if there’s no street….

or just look inside your head….

and come on over!

We’re all already here!

Wow! Susie I"m starting to think you are an Avatar and live in a digital world like Tron…

https://youtu.be/mSUmzMi-vwQ

All the while airing his grievances to the tune of Arthur Brown…..Fire

Neal is about to start the first Ballard Street Burning Man…

“Habnerrrrrrrrrr!!”

I think Neal should invest a few nickels in Lucy’s medical advice.

neal enjoys fiery retoric.

The grievances are the neighbors’.