15 YEARS IS A LONG TIME

To be in the same band with the same 4 people. We don't get together much these days as the heat and divergent schedules tend to limit the time we can be at the practice space.
But Saturday we got together - late - and didn't get home til after 3 a.m.. Easy when your in your 20's & 30's...not so much these days as we cruise into middle age. ( One of us is already there ;) ).




I'm not sure what's going to happen to us Wolves in the future...as we splinter off into new projects and ( for me anyway ), more solo stuff.15 years is a long run for a local band ... something to be proud of I think , considering that while we have lots in common , we are very different personalities.
With a long ( most of it recorded ) history that is a document and a testament to friends with a common interest.
Long may we run.
...end edit...

I'VE NEVER SEEN DOGS SPOON BEFORE...



That's a true bond I think...

THE ARCHITECTURE OF INSECTS

I see lots of insects on my daily travels...sadly , some of them are dead spinning around in skimmers , which is sad , but most are around pools or in them getting water or needing to be rescued . and rescue them I do. I don't discriminate ...if your a bug in distress I'll help you out of a jam.
In my travels I have observed a lot of insects and spiders and ( as D liked to call them "stingin' lizards" or scorpions ) . I have netted out scorpions from pools who were prone on the bottom for god knows how long (at most a week) and were still alive.
The variety of armor and specialized appendages and shells and wings are amazing to me.
At one of my regular stops there is a huge wolf spider that lives behind where I stack the chemicals in the equipment room.I look forward to seeing him (or her)on my twice weekly visits. Giant emerald green beetles and giant rhinoceros beetles are common as are those fucking stink bugs or assassin beetles I despise that can give you a nasty bite , but if they are in peril I rescue them.

It's like mini karma points...:)

UNTIL WERE ALL SHITTING RAINBOWS



HA!

PALIN'S "NO QUITTER"

Except she quit. Why has no one mentioned her and her moron of a husband's ties to the A.I.P ? That would be the Alaskan independence party...a terrorist organization ... I mean third party.
Please run in 2012...please.

PUSHING MY FACE IN THE MEMORY OF YOU AGAIN


I'll never lose this pain....

A MONSTER IS BORN

A while back , me an LT traded guitars...he got my tobacco sunburst telecaster and I got his black Les Paul. Well , my tele had some electronic issues and LT took it upon himself to correct them , including a transplant of the bridge end pick up.
It now sports a mini double humbucker...killer sound.
I drove Annabelle out of the house (!) and caused Irene to howl (!!)...

AND NOW...HEADLINE NEWS

* 1.6 million seek 8,750 Jackson memorial tickets

That is a headline from CNN. It's like that movie Idiocracy come to life.
What's wrong with people ?
Nigga's dead...nuff said.
I guess it's easier to focus on the death of a junkie ex pop star alleged kid dick smoker than it is to focus on whats really happening in this country. Fucking sheep.
And the media is feeding it. Fucking media.
I wonder if those guys that got killed in Afghanistan the other day were in mourning for sir dance a lot and just got so wrapped up in the thrall that they didn't see it coming through their grief. Billy jean don't want my -BAM!-erk...something like that maybe.
It makes me sick.

SAMARITAN ?

I was pulling a pool cleaner out of one of my pools the other day , and about a third of the way out , on a part of the hose that floats on the surface was a clutch of little black eggs encased in an adhesive gelatinous blob. Probably frog eggs , maybe toad , or...could it be something else?
I think a lot of people would have just wiped them off and discarded them as so much flotsam and jetsam ... I transferred them as gently as I could into a container , brought them home and put them in my former Beta bowl.



Hopefully the will hatch out into tadpoles and I can release them in the creek behind our house. Then in a year or so , when I see a toad hopping across our porch I can wonder..."Hey...is that one of mine"?
:)

THE WEATHER CAN CLOSE THE WORLD WITHIN IT'S HAND

Clouds followed me this morning...I raced to get pools done before the sky opened up on me...I got 3 out of the way and the sky opened up on me at #4 , and it rained and rained...with thunder and lightning.
You don't want to be pushing a metal pole around in water in an electrical storm.
I had some important stops ahead of me , so I went home and dried my clothes and ate lunch and then headed back out.
I haven't been out in the rain cleaning pools since I was at Hines...You know , it's kind of cool being out in it , an adventure of sorts...until you are soaking wet.
Then it sucks.
I got to my important stops and only rolled over one stop that I'll hit on Friday...I may hit it tomorrow , we'll see. This particular stop has a very mean dog that needs to be contained. I don't get these mean dogs...I'm a dog person - dogs love me.
The dogs I should be afraid of on my route love me. I have one customer with 2 pit bulls. Pit Bulls mind you , and they love me.
I have another with a pit mix and we are the best of friends.
Go figure that one...or two.
Lot's of dead and bloated toads this week...in skimmers and auto fills...Gotta be the rain...Bums me out . How do you make the route and give a decent burial?

NEWS ON THE LAW ENFORCEMENT FRONT IN AUSTIN

Item 1...
It's called TACT , for targeting aggressive cars and trucks , and it works like this :
2 cops are driving around the city in a city bus ( an empty city bus ) looking for asshole drivers. They spot one and radio to a nearby patrol car who gives the asshole a ticket.Apparently , each bus operation has 10 officers involved , 2 buses , 20 cops , one day nets 24 tickets.
A huge waste of money and resources in my opinion.

Item 2...
The "No Refusal" weekend. during 4th of July weekend , if you get pulled over and are suspected of driving under the influence and refuse a breathalyzer test , a warrant is immediately issued and you are taken to a mobile lab where a contract phlebotomist draws your blood...and you have no say in the matter.
Driving under the influence is not good , but this is fucking police state shit.
Someone needs to challenge this new thing the APD is doing , surely , there's some rights violation(s) that could be argued here.

Our nanny state status continues to grow unchecked.

4 REASONS WHY I GET UP EVERY MORNING