{"id":103709,"date":"2024-11-21T07:36:21","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T12:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/?p=103709"},"modified":"2024-11-21T07:36:21","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T12:36:21","slug":"the-old-coot-has-the-blahs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/11\/21\/the-old-coot-has-the-blahs\/","title":{"rendered":"The Old Coot has the blahs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">By Merlin Lessler &#8212;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I was lucky enough to have been in the Netherlands last month. I still call it Holland \u2013 you know: the Little Dutch Boy, his finger in the dike, tulips, wooden shoes, windmills. That\u2019s the extent of my knowledge of the Netherlands. Or was.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Now, I know a lot more. I took a guided tour in an area of a dozen or so antique windmills, one or two restored to working order, the remainder just sitting idle. A beautiful landscape image.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The trouble started when we crossed a bridge leading to Windmill Lane. There were about twenty of us in the group. Walkie-talkies hanging on a strap around our necks, earbuds jammed into our ears, and a tour guide talking. Talking, talking, talking \u2013 while we stood in the middle of the bridge, frozen in time, learning all the intricacies of windmills.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I call it \u201cblah, blah.\u201d I wanted to move, to get to the windmills. So, I drifted ahead, crossed the bridge, ducked into the combination gift shop, snack bar at the far side of the canal where the pathway to the windmills started. Then, I walked back to the group to interrupt the blah, blah and tell the guide I was moving on. I loved the look of surprise on the faces of our two tour friends, Laarnie and Elaine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It was a look I\u2019d see a lot of over the next few days. Every time I moved away from the group and gave my patented, blah, blah hand signal. Again and again, in towns along the route we traveled in a long boat on the Rhine River. I learned years ago to slip away from guides who overload tourists with trivial information. I wish they\u2019d just hit the high notes and let us see and examine the subject of their blah, blah lecture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The first time I executed this strategy, I was on a tour at the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The guide kept the group \u201clocked up\u201d in front of a signpost in a courtyard outside the building. I lasted five minutes; then my wife and I sneaked away into a long entrance hallway lined with exquisite sculptures and paintings leading to the chapel proper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">We looked at everything and then strolled back to the group held captive by the tour guide, who was just starting toward the hall. I was there to see things; I could Google the blah, blah later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I\u2019m now a well-seasoned blah, blah avoider. It\u2019s a skill that also comes in handy at cocktail parties and other gatherings when you find yourself next to a human, blah, blah, windmill. Thanks to the mother\/daughter team of Laarnie and Elaine our journey was a fun one. But enough blah, blah from me. I\u2019ll stop right here and let you look at the rest of the newspaper. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Comments? Send to <a href=\"mailto:mlessler7@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mlessler7@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Merlin Lessler &#8212; I was lucky enough to have been in the Netherlands last month. I still call it Holland \u2013 you know: the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":82349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Old Coot has the blahs - Owego Pennysaver Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/11\/21\/the-old-coot-has-the-blahs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Old Coot has the blahs - Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Merlin Lessler &#8212; I was lucky enough to have been in the Netherlands last month. 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