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Sunny and above-average temperatures this weekend in the Wyoming Valley

22 homes destroyed in northern Nevada wildfire

<p>You feel it is against the laws of nature to make more than one trip into the house from the car after a trip to the supermarket. Gather up all of those plastic shopping bags into two clenched tomato-red fists and get them into the house in one trip or die trying.</p><p>You spear a piece of food from your plate and hold it up to your wife and ask: &#8220;Do I eat this?&#8221;</p><p>You can recite from memory most, if not all, of the lines from &#8220;Airplane!&#8221;</p><p>You can be immobilized by a head cold and need round-the-clock care but if you fell six feet off a ladder and hit your noggin, you would tell your wife, &#8220;Oh, I&#8217;m fine.&#8221;</p><p>A bowl of cereal counts as dinner.</p><p>You have a beloved sweatshirt from 23 years ago you wear regularly but still have new shirts with tags on them stowed in your closet.</p><p>You see nothing wrong with picking up food that fell to the floor and eating it. Dropped a fork? Wipe it off on a napkin &#8212; or your pants &#8212; and keep going.</p><p>You see belching not as a sign that you ate too fast and swallowed too much air, but as opportunity to see if you can recite the alphabet while burping.</p><p>You see a well-timed joke that causes a buddy to laugh so hard that he snorts soda or tequila out his nose as a job well done.</p><p>Among friends, you announce ahead of time when you are going to fart. And when you do, they score it like judges at the Olympics.</p><p>You believe mozzarella sticks are a major food group.</p><p>You use your keys to slice open the tape on packages because getting scissors is too much bother.</p><p>You use a wet paper towel to stanch the bleeding from a gash on your hand but a paper cut on your finger requires gauze and a Band-Aid.</p><p>You see &#8220;jury-rig&#8221; not as pejorative verb but as a misunderstood craft.</p><p>You can readily sing the lyrics to the &#8220;Gilligan&#8217;s Island&#8221; theme song or &#8220;Bohemian Rhapsody&#8221; but have to think pretty hard to recall your kids&#8217; birthdays.</p><p>If you are unsure if food in the fridge is still good, you open the lid, sniff it and declare it to be fine. You do this every single time regardless of how long it&#8217;s been in there.</p><p>You believe in only making right-hand turns out of parking lots.</p><p>When it comes to gifts, you use more tape than wrapping paper.</p><p>You have at least once said after making a repair: &#8220;Well, it works now, doesn&#8217;t it?&#8221;</p><p>You have singed your eyebrows either playing with fire or barbecuing.</p><p>Your idea of drying a dish is to wave it around. Better yet: Leave it in the drying rack until it is ready to be used again.</p><p>You appreciate the Three Stooges as high art.</p><p>You have said to your friends: &#8220;Hey! Watch this &#8230;!&#8221; (Cue &#8220;Lone Ranger&#8221; theme music.)</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Christopher Mele</p><p>Mele&#8217;s Musings</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Christopher Mele is married and dad of two sons and two stepchildren. His childhood in the Bronx defined his friendships, which endure today. A career newsman, writer and editor, the Lords Valley resident is glad to share stories and insights about the challenges that the modern-day middle-aged guy faces. Reach Chris at seaosprey22@gmail.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Mele’s Musings: You might be a guy if …