Eating Mexican Food with Jaime Sommers

There’s this nice little Mexican restaurant in San Diego.  It’s called Palamino’s, named after the USS Palamino in the Disney movie “The Black Hole.”  We usually opt for their chimichanga combination plate.  (My wife likes the shredded beef; I go for carnitas).  They offer great tasting chips, hot carrots, and fresh salsas.  Eating there is a pleasure, and better yet, we end up with leftovers for home!

As we’re contemplating alternatives to cable TV service, we went to Fry’s Electronics on Saturday, figuring that their helpful staff could advise us.  Strangely, the store had completely redesigned their interior, and although they appeared adequately staffed, the workers just breezed past us, as if we existed in another dimension, one that allowed us to see them, but prevented them from seeing us.  I finally went up to the camera counter, and told a gentleman what we were looking for.  He shook his head.  “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”  So I repeated, telling him that Cox Cable seemed to be charging too much money these days.  “You want a coaxial cable?” he asked.  By this time, my wife and I had grown frustrated.  So I told him “Never mind,” and walked away.  Fry’s Electronics stocks lots of neat products, and we saw much that tempted us.  But when a store staffs its floor with people who either are uninterested in serving us, or incapable of doing so, we find ourselves reluctant to support them.

Oh well…off to Palamino’s for calories and consolation.

As we were leaving the restaurant, a woman stopped my wife at the door.  “Excuse me, but where did you get that shirt?” she asked.  While I had opted for warmth, my wife had braved wearing her Jaime Sommers T-shirt on this pleasant winter day.  We told her about meeting Richard Anderson at Stan Lee’s Comikaze, and she and her husband mentioned that they attended Comicon, but had never seen a shirt like my wife’s.  The woman shared that she had a big photo of Jaime Sommers hanging on the wall above her desk.  From the way she described it, it sounded more like a poster.  She said that Jaime Sommers was a big inspiration to her, which was why she had purchased the photo, and placed it in such a prominent location.

For so many people, TV shows such as “The Bionic Woman” are just passing entertainment.  If they like the show, and have bought them on DVD, more than likely they do so for the gentler, slower-paced stories than the studios make today.  It’s a special joy to connect with people who view one of your favorite fictional characters as a role model.  Those moments remind us that great characters take on a life of their own.  They never die, because they live on inside us.

Now, if only they could advise me on my alternatives to cable TV.

Dragon Dave 

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