THE BEATDOWN THAT WAS 2005

Paycheck to paycheck...cut off notices hung on the door...power actually cut on two occasions. On the verge of giving up and shining it on. Dump it all and become a train jumping drag rat.
On the other hand, I'm struggling, we're struggling, but thanks to a friend, I'm learning a trade and earning a check and getting by.
I can cry like a bitch about my misfortune or be thankful for the fortune I've got...and you know what? I can bitch like the best of them, and I think I do here. Another thing I'm thankful for...this venue, to write about this hand I've been dealt.
But what's more important is the gifts I've been given over the last year.
The list is too long to count, but high on it is the unending love and support of Annabelle...my shining light. We get so wrapped up in the day to day bullshit I miss my chance to say how much she means to me...so I'm saying it here. My son and his wife gave me a gift, my grandson...and as much as I was conflicted about it, I look at that little guy and it makes me feel all warm inside...family, you know?
I do this crazy rotation with the dogs, they ride with me to the store to trade off scratch tickets and get a walk in between the store and home. it's a simple thing, but they love me more than they did before I started doing this with them, and it shows at night when we sleep...cuddles from dogs rock. They pile around me like I'm an energy source or something, and with the exception of claws in the ribs, neck and face , I don't mind it at all.
So maybe 2005 wasn't so bad after all...*
Unless you get into all the political shit that went down...and I won't. You guys know ALL about what happened in 05 and so do I. That's where the beatdown comes into play.
Here's to a better time in about 48 hours...
"I can swim"..."Hey Kyle! Whose this??? "Two words...first word starts with a "J" and envision this guy nailed to a cross...next word starts with an "L"...think about the cold blooded critters we caught on the greenbelt...anybody else care to wager?
* We're still here after all.

HOLIDAY DELIGHTS

Or something like it...



Click on it for a bigger one...

We had cajun basted turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy and carrots and green bean cassarole and sage sausage stuffing and biscuits.



We had to do the generational thing :)


And of course there were prezzies...Annabelle likes the flannel :)



Click on it for a bigger one...

And of course the dogs had to score...


It was an awesome holiday...more pictures to come...

I JUST CAN'T DEAL WITH THE TECHNOLOGY AT THIS LATE HOUR...

The kids came over for dinner...it was awesome. there are pictures coming, but it's after 2 am and I'm addled...so here's a teaser of the great and awesome Sean...more to come....

Gwan...click it...he's fucking cute...

More later when Ann can help me out.
I'm such a retard:)

KINDA LIKE CHARLIE BROWNS TREE

We hung up our christmas decorations today, one pathetic little string of blinking white icicle lights along the top of the porch. And you know what? That's just fine with us. That we even did that says alot. And it was nice to come home from the folks home after christmas dinner and gifts there and see them twinkling away. That charlie brown christmas special with the wimpy tree has always held a special place in my otherwise anti holiday heart. I could echo Ann's sentiments, but I won't. That would be redundant. Instead, I give you this:



That something so slight could carry so much weight effected me since the first time I saw it to today...this christmas day.
It's not the size of the wallet that matters, it's the size of the heart.
And with that, I wish you one and all love, peace and joy and a better 2006.
Merry christmas from the gang!

Ann

Th' Rev

Theo "scammer for treats"

Irene "shish-ka-bob legs"

Sullivan "Barky boy-tell you a story"

Hippy holidays ya'll!!!:)

Time to shake off the "Bah, Humbug" attitude
It's Christmas Eve and in an hour Rob and I will be visiting my parents along with my brother and his kids to have dinner together and open a few gifts. The gift side of things with my family has always been way toned down compared to other families I know. A box of home baked cookies, a flannel shirt or a pair of houseshoes are all fine and dandy as a present and if any one of us had enough money to buy someone a Lexus or a diamond necklace, you can bet we wouldn't dare do it as Christmas present. That would be totally unacceptable. I didn't realize how rare this attitude was until I got older and saw how stressed out my friends were over the whole Christmas shopping experience. Many of them felt they had to spend a set amount of money per person even if it meant running up so much credit card debt that it would take them the next year to pay it off. Some of them would scour all the stores in the area for days/weeks or even drive out of town in an effort to find some particular item that they just "had" to give. I had a taste of that kind of pressure when I was married to my ex-husband. I suppose I caused even further Christmas stress for my ex when I refused to go along with the game plan, but too bad. As a result, I'm usually pretty free of Christmas stress so I was a bit mystified by my humbug attitude this year.

It only took a couple of conversations with my co-workers yesterday and today to realize much of it comes from the work I do. The day to day interactions with customers who seem to get ruder and nastier this time of year, the fact that we are working instead of having any days off, plus it's the busiest time of the year so we are all overworked, well it definitely takes it's toll on the holiday spirit. But for tonight I will try to shake that off, enjoy the good food and company of my family and maybe feel a little bit of the Christmas spirit before I head back to work tomorrow.

I REMEMBER IT LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY

I don't know if all this maudlin shit I've been scribbling down has anything to do with christmas, but I suspect it does. When I left home it was after a row with my mom. I had wrecked the car they'd given me for my birthday, and had to hitch hike home from school. Now hitching home from school was a stress inducing experience. You never knew when a truck load of rednecks would come along and chase you, and if they caught you, kick your ass and cut off your hair. On this particular day there were no rednecks, no chase, just the drunk asshole that picked me up and gave me the white knuckle ride of my life down the windy bee caves road (back when it was still 2 lanes and not 4 with a turn lane). He missed my driveway by a mile and i had to walk through the woods to my house. Needless to say, I was still kind of stressed out when I got home and my mom decided I was pouting about the car, and how ungrateful I was and blah blah blah. One thing led to another, and I ended up packing some clothes into a garbage bag and bailing. My mom chased me out of the house with a stew pot and hurled it at me, losing her balance on the throw and almost turfing out on the porch, and what did I do? I went to help her only to be met with a hurling of recriminations and insults. I grabbed my bag of shit and hit the road with that north country voice drilling insults into the back of my head ( the english are really good at calling you out, especially the ones from the north, apparently).
I walked to the main road and stuck out my thumb again. This time a classmate picked me up and took me to my girlfriends apartment on east riverside drive...miles away from westlake hills and home. With my garbage bag and my soul. And while I stayed connected to my parents, in some sense, I never turned back.
I still have that garbage bag...just a pantry away.
And I remember...like it was yesterday.

BETRAYED...CONTINUED

My mom didn't limit her railing to my dad...her hammering drove my sister out of the house at age 16, and me a few years later at 17. I was a loser too. One I remember clearly was I was "a bloody hunch backed hippy hopped up on dope who would amount to nothing". Another one was "You're just like your father...no spine. Ouch.
But the fact of the matter was my dad was a man before his time...a soldier/warrior and a middle aged hippy all in one lifetime. He was something to look at with pride.
But, according to my mom, he was a loser and by genetics, so was I apparently.
So here I am, thinking my dad was a loser, but at the same time faced with the reality of what an awesome human being he was. And as it turned out, he was. But by my moms estimation he was a useless pile of crap, and so was I.
While I was able to reconcile my dads situation, those hurtful things hurled at me for years by my mom stayed with me for a long long time. Faced with this kind of bullshit, a person can over achieve or fall into the abyss. A kind of "I'll show you" mentality. Well...I tooled it down to something I like to call "over achieving loser". I was a self defeating machine that somehow managed to reach a level of success while at the same time maintaining my moms estimation that I was a loserI was proving her wrong, but at the same time I was wrecklessly trying to destroy myself.
And I didn't even know it.
Why am I even rambling on about things that shouldn't matter? Because it does matter.
Where you've been is who you are.
Unless you figure out how to step out of the circle, and create your own.
And I did.
But I can still look back and see it all.
I was betrayed...and they never had a clue. But I'm here in all my fucked up glory.
Just trying to get by.
And it seems to be going OK.
And with that, I wish you all a merry christmas and a happy new year.
See you in 2006.

BETRAYED

For a long time, my parents didn't have a very good relationship. In fact, my mom left my dad and returned to England twice. Once when I was about 14 and again when I was 18. My dad didn't say much about it the first time,and as a result I felt abandoned and spent alot of time listening to Led Zeppelins "Thank You" off of LZ II and weeping like a bitch. My mom had left me, and I was crushed. I knew my parents weren't happy, but the lack of information offered by my dad made it hard not to personalize it on many levels. Even though my mom and I fought like cats and dogs, I was thrilled when she came home.
I was out of the house when my mom bailed again. But since I was an "adult" my dad was more vocal about it. Tired of being picked on, tired of not being good enough. And truth be told, he had taken a beating from my mom on this subject for years. I was silent witness to alot of it, laying in bed and hearing my mom rail on my dad for being a loser...and by rail I mean fucking rail. He rarely responded, except when he had had that wound poked enough and would beg her to just shut the fuck up. Which resulted in more railing on his character. It wasn't pretty, believe me.
One day, my dad and I were going to the pet store together, and on the way, we were talking about mom. Where we worked at the time there was was this woman...a cowgirl...a rough and tumble woman who was my dads friend...and mine as well. In fact, when i was about 15, she invited me to her ranch to spend the weekend...her sons were at thier dads. This woman oozed horny to me, and while the weekend never worked out, I am convinced to this day I would have scored some hot MILF action out in her barn.
She apparently had the same effect on my dad, because he opened the glovebox and showed me a jumbo box of trojan condoms and professed his desire to "bang the shit out of Julia".
But he couldn't do it. In spite of all the anger, the temporary hate, the heartbreak, he loved my mom and honored his vows.
My mom must have felt the same way, because she returned once again and for the remainder of thier life together they were at peace, and i think, finally mended whatever rift was there to begin with.
This experience has had it's effect on me over the years and I have a string of bad/failed relationships to prove it. Fucked up marriages have a long lasting cascading effect and some people never recover from the damage. I recovered...or found my true soul mate ( or both ) and for the last 11 plus years have been happy and content for the most part. The parts that have been less than happy have nothing to do with Ann...just the stones of life, and we've endured them together.
The reason for all this nostalgia is a result of a betrayal. A blog friend ditched his family for someone else, and crushed them in the process.
I remember how that feels.

THIS CAN'T BE GOOD

The president of Iran has banned western music This is the same asshat that has denied the holocaust ever happened and wishes Israel many bad things. All of this takes me back to 1979. This kind of bullshit coupled with our sabre rattling in regard to Iran just makes me nervous.
The Eagles? Kenny fucking G? Eric clapton??? Come on you raghead asshat...Now the hip hop thing...that's rotting your people's brains no doubt...get it??? NO DOUBT!...hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
That's funny...but you, Mr. Ahmadinejad, you're just asking for trouble. And you gotta know you are...I mean just look at this idiot:



He's crazier than you Ahmad...take a slow careful look and you will see, and shut up about that holocaust shit already.

IT'S HAPPY MAKE BELIEVE TIME

My fellow americans...When I said back in may of 2003 that major combat operations were over in Iraq, 140 men and women had died as a result of our invasion. Since then, 1585 have died as a direct result of combat with insurgents, approximately 475 have died from a variety of accidents unrelated to combat. But we are winning this war...the one I said was over back in may of 2003. Remember...I was all in my sock packed jump suit on the deck of that battleship with that banner behind me that said mission accomplished. Remember? Good.
That was a lie.
It was right around this time that I started spying on people in the united states ( I'm probably lying about this too, but I have told so many lies that it's becoming difficult to keep them all straight) without warrants. Now this is illegal as shit, but as you heard me lie about it today, I am authorized to break the law for myI mean your own good by the laws that govern this country and it's government. Now, most of you are too stupid to notice that I didn't mention or reference any specific law or precedent that would allow me to spy on americans. Well, that's because there isn't one. As Regis say's..."I'm outta control"!!!
And then there's that whole torture thing...I finally had to roll over for McCain, cause he has real credibility on this issue, and the latest info on the "iceman" makes us look really bad. Had Durbin held onto this legislation, I would have steamrolled it into the ground, along with every other piece of information that exposes us for what we are.
And then there's this whole Plame thing that just keeps growing and growing...and Condi getting ridden like a bicycle in europe over our secret prisons.
And beyond the war...we folded oil drilling in ANWAR into a must pass defense bill...GOD DAMN! We have giant balls. What the fuck does drilling for oil have to do with national defense? Nothing! Nothing at all. But if I say" terrorist" and" WMD" and" 9-11" enough times, you sheep will buy anything.And I can get away with murder...and I am.
It's happy make believe time in america and 1939 germany is the functional model.
Thank you and good night...you monkeys.

Truth.
Lies.
What's the fucking difference to these people?
And they question the oppositions patriotism? Please...

MY FELLOW AMERICANS

I am so completely and totally full of horse shit...if it's not obvious to you yet ( and it should be ) let me repeat this mouthful of retard I spit out earlier this week to NBC anchor Brian Williams:
"Whether or not it needed to happen, I'm still convinced it needed to happen".
I actually said this on national television.
Can you believe it?
Well 34% of you do anyway...of course, we in the white house don't believe in polls.
I think you can see why.
God I suck...it's a shame I can't own up to it...you'd think my recovery status and my born again status would afford me the humility to own up to being a piece of shit, but my status as a sociopathic criminal won't allow it.
And all that money made on the backs of real americans.
Happy holidays suckers!
HaHAhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

FOR THE LOVE OF MURPHY

I would sneak down the hill to the house of Grace and wreak havoc. In the dark I could creep up to the back of thier house undetected. On the first visit, I opened the outdoor faucets to full bore...two on the back of the house, and one on each side. 1000's of gallons flowed to nowhere. it was a 12 year olds prank, meant to annoy, I never realized how it would effect the utility bill at the time. On that visit I discovered the breaker panel, and my subsequent visits focused on the switch marked main...which I tripped on several visits.
I tormented these miscreants for over a year, and forgot my new found empathy for the sisters for one episode.
The walk from bus stop to home was about 3/4's of a mile if you took the driveway, 1/2 a mile if you cut through the woods. I convinced the sisters to follow me on the short cut one afternoon and led them deep into the woods and ditched them in the middle of (for all they knew) nowhere. I knew these woods like the back of my hand and ran off like a jackrabbit.
That was the extent of my revenge for the killing of our Murphy...had this killing happened when I was 14 or 15 years old, I would have burned thier house down.Adolescent hormones can be an unforgiving thing.
Lucky for them.

I FOUND MURPHY

As a child, our family dog was an irish setter, who, duh, was named Murphy. He came from a champion bloodline of bird dogs and was trained in all manner of dead bird retrieval. When he joined our family, those dead birds were replaced with tennis balls, and his once predatory skills were reduced to really cool tricks with tennis balls. He was also prone to wander, sometimes for days, but he would always return, full of burrs and hungry, but there was no question that he knew how to find his way home after his wanderlust subsided.
When I was 12 we moved to 512 Grace Lane, called such because the Grace family owned the surrounding property of ours, and thier road was the only access. The Grace family had the monopoly on garbage pick up in the hill country at the time, were southern baptists to the extreme, and pumped out a variety of, erm, challenged successors to the the Grace garbage dynasty. The two daughters went to my school and were the constant ridicule of the other kids...one was called penquin, the other waffle wiffer...I too, engaged in this teasing until I got involved in the special education department as an aide and got to know Sherry and Nancy...the aformentioned penquin and waffle wiffer...at the encouragement of my dad who worked with the retarded for the state.
Sherry and Nancy had an older brother, Roy...he was in his early twenties, and I only ever saw him on the garbage trucks. Except for two times. Roy was not right...not by a long shot.
The first time, he was pounding on our door, weilding an ax, screaming at us about teasing his sisters. I tried explaining that I was trying to help his sisters not tease them, but he would have no part of it and stormed off. I'm not sure, but the ax was probably just a prop to intimidate us...but considering he was in the most shallow end of the gene pool, he was probably chopping firewood and ruminating on his sisters torment and just clicked off and marched up the hill to our house ax in hand.
The next time he had come to warn us to stay off thier property, all of us. After that, anything below the hill from our house was off limits. This was before westlake hills was littered with subdivisions and you could wander for miles in undisturbed woods out where we lived. I ignored the warning...I loved these woods, all of them, including the woods owned by the Graces. Wildcat Creek ran through the property and some of the best pools were below the hill.
Murphy took one of his walkabouts shortly after the last visit and when he didn't return in a week, we started to worry. Time passed, and even though we tried to be optimistic, after a couple of months, we accepted he was gone. but what had happened to him?
Several months later, I was in the forbidden zone, running along wildcat creek and I came across a skeleton on the trail...the skeleton of a dog, a red haired dog...bones and red hair, and a collar.
Murphy's collar.
I ran home as fast as I could and burst into the house and announced to my mom...
"I found Murphy"!
We could never prove what happened, but I am sure that Roy Grace killed him.
And I did what any 12 year old would do under the circumstances, I waged war on the Graces.
They had killed Murphy, a member of my family, and for that they would pay.

Time to get stupid
I avoid taking prescriptions or over the counter medication as much as possible, but there are times when my allergies get the best of me and I have to dose up with an antihistamine. It's something I've been dealing with for about 40 years and I've tried all the anithistamines on that very long list of old and new drugs. Only four work for me and they all have side effects. The best is Pheniramine Maleate which is almost impossible to find. There's plenty of Chlorpheniramine Maleate and I'd really like to know why if it has "Chlor" in front, it doesn't seem to work as well. I don't think it's all in my head, because I didn't even know what was in the products back when I was trying different things to find something that would work. The nice thing about these two is that they come in 4 hour doses so I can take it before I go to bed and when I wake up in the morning, it's worn off and I can think and function normally. Diphenhydramine also comes in a four hour dose and while it's the most effective, it gives me a day long hangover after it's worn off. I save that one for the bad allergic reactions to bee stings and accidentally eating crab or lobster. The other one that works is Clemastine (Tavist) which comes in a 12 hour dose and makes me stupid for the entire 12 hours. That's what I took tonight because it was the only choice I had in the medicine cabinet. You would think I was smoking pot or doing heroin when I'm on this stuff. I've never actually done heroin, but I used to know some one who was a user and I'd say my behavior was pretty similar to his after he was past the initial rush. It's already kicked in and I'm having a very hard time finishing this post. I was going to tell you just how stupid this stuff makes me, but it kicked in much sooner than expected and composing sentences is taking way too much effort. Time to go stare at the TV while I nod in and out of consciensness... consousness... con... ah to hell with it.

THE COOLEST THING

I've seen in a long time...enjoy

Charlie Brown does Outkast

:)

POPE BENNY CHIMES IN ON THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS

So the rest of you asshats can shut the fuck up. It's settled...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -- Pope Benedict has warned against rampant materialism which he said was polluting the spirit of Christmas.

"In today's consumer society, this time of the year unfortunately suffers from a sort of commercial 'pollution' that threatens to alter its real spirit," the Pope told a large crowd gathered in St. Peter's Square on Sunday to hear his weekly Angelus blessing.

He said Christmas should be marked with sober celebrations and urged Christians to display a nativity crib in their houses as "a simple but effective way of showing their faith and conveying it to their children."

Last year, under Pope John Paul, the Vatican launched a high-profile campaign to urge Roman Catholic Italy not to compromise the spirit of Christmas through excess or dilute its message out of fear of offending a growing Muslim population.

I'm off to target to buy my nativity crib right now! Fuck the tree...I'm getting a crib and were going to fill it full of presents.

AUSTIN ENERGY CAN KISS MY WHITE ASS AND OTHER HEARTFELT SENTIMENTS

Lets start out by averaging our electric bill...in the summer months they average about 350.00, in the fall and winter we run about 200.00, give or take 50 bucks. This is ridiculously high in my opinion, especially considering we have window units for our AC that if we are not in the room they are not on, and we have 99% compact florescent lighting , energy efficient to the max. You'd think our bill would be much smaller considering, but the S in Austin energy looks like this: $. Actually, it looks more like this: $$$.
Since Austin is such a cool place to live, the people in charge have decided we have to pay for the privilege. Energy costs are exorbitant, property taxes are astronomical, traffic fines are insane...it's a money grab.
Having been here for most of life, and remembering a very different town from the one I currently find myself deployed, it's very easy to blame all you people who have moved here from someplace else in the last, oh, 15 or so years. California has a special disdain for me, but there are other states to blame for ruining our thing. Yankee is the word I'm searching for, and I wish you would go home. All of you, what you have done to this city makes me sick and sad.
It's like an alien invasion...things seem to be cruising along just fine, but...slowly but surely, these interlopers begin to infiltrate every aspect of our infrastructure. And all of a sudden you find yourself dealing with an asshole at Austin energy...a supervisor level asshole who has no discernible regional accent (because he's not from Austin, or Texas, for that matter...He's infiltrated us from somewhere north of the mason/dixon line) because he's a money grubbing yankee asshat.
Back in the day when a city employee asked if they could help you, that's what it meant and they did. Now when you escalate a call to a supervisor, they still say "can I help you" but what they really mean is "how can I shut you and your 'complaint' down in 30 seconds or less". Asshole...major asshole. ( You can thank Ann that I wasn't waiting for you in the parking lot of Austin energy with a sock full of wood screws the other night after you unleashed your special brand of arrogant, uncaring bullshit my way...consider yourself lucky ).
I don't have a problem with being told I have no option beyond your arbitrary, policy binded one, but you don't have to be an asshole about it. I need to focus on the predicament and the possible solutions, not react to being belittled by some interloper fuckstick with more money than compassion...go home dickweed, we don't want you here.
Phew! I feel better now. Plus, I found my box of wood screws and some odd socks...better park close to the building for awhile buck-o.And buy that minimum wage security guard something nice...
;)

CAN'T BUY A THRILL

They shut us down at work on wed. afternoon because a cold front came in with some light, and by light I mean I could spit more, rain. They shut the whole campus down and sent everyone home at 2pm. They told us to report back on Thurs. at 10 am. I got a call from my boss at 9 am telling me they had shut the entire campus down for the day. So I effectively lost 25% of my weeks pay because people in this city are complete pussies when it comes to "inclement weather". I've lived up north, and for those of you who have or do...you understand the true meaning of the term inclement. A patch of ice the size of a dinner plate every half mile or so hardly qualifies as such. Like I said...a bunch of pussies. Let me add that by 11am the sun was shining and the pitiful amount of ice was mostly melted.
Now, the good news is it put us behind schedule and as a result we are working an overtime shift sat. that will make up for the hours lost during our "Texas sized blizzard".
I get my 40 hours in exchange for sacrificing a day off. I'm not bitching about that...I'm happy to make up the lost time. We didn't need the hit to the budget.
But it's this very kind of give and take without moving forward kind of lifestyle that's slowly but surely wearing me down.
And then there's the city utility...Austin energy, that almost sent me south with a hand gun today.
I'll get to that tomorrow though, cause it's really late and I need to crash.

NOW THAT I GOT THAT DOG FARTING THING OUT OF THE WAY

There's a lot going on in the world of american "politics" which has a new definition that includes the words lie...conniving...smoke...ass...up...red and herring just to name a few.
The conspiracy charges against DeLay have been dropped, but the money laundering charges stand. It appears that the conspiracy wasn't one by law technically when it occured. There are no laws on the books for slimey ass tactics. Oh well. But money laundering has been around for ages and hopefully the bugman from sugarland will choke on it. Meanwhile, Cheney was down in Houston attending a fund raiser for DeLays defense fund.
The Vice president of the US of A is at a fund raiser for a shamed politician accused of money laundering???
Come on...these assholes can't be that brazen can they???
Sure they can...Condi's overseas talking about "mistakes" that could "be made" in a campaign of the scope of "the international war on terror", and how they will take every measure to correct them "as they occur". I think what she really means is " I'm laying the groundwork to cover the plethora of mistakes we already made"...I heard a guy on the radio today say that Condi would'nt know the truth if " it stepped on her 1000 dollar shoes". I agree.
Come on...do they really think we're that stupid???
Sure they do.
The unending stream of horseshit from the likes of Bunnypants his own self in a lame ass attempt to counter Dean's comments on the radio comparing Iraq to Viet Nam. Bush is full of that transparent patriotism..."we support our troops...blah blah blah". Implying that to tell them the truth is unpatriotic...oh, wait. That makes perfect sense if you're a republican criminal.
I agree with Dean, this war is unwinnable under the current circumstances. If we want to "win" we need to dramatically increase the number of troops and just pummel the country into the stone age. We could do this. Why aren't we? If the war on terror is so fucking important, and Iraq is the "center" ( wholly manufactured by the bush administration ) why aren't we swarming over the country with the full force of our military might? WWII style? We could end this shit in a week, but we aren't.
Why not?
Good question.
$$$$$$$$REVENGE$$$$$$$$$$PAYBACK$$$$$$$$$$$OIL$$$$$REVENGE$$$OIL$$$
What else could it be?
I refer you to this picture:


(rumsfeld greets hussein in baghdad during the iran/iraq war...1983)

Something must have gone wrong.
I wonder what it was that was so bad to manifest itself in the shitstorm we currently find ourselves in?
It's also of interest to me that Russia has signed an agreement to provide Iran with TOR missles this week. After they failed miserably in Afghanistan.
Bandwagonesque, innit?

QUEEFY McBUTTCHEEKS

Sullivan and I continue our nightly rides to the store and he has learned cues beyond the putting on of the cap and the handling of keys to signal his impending ride. For instance, that annoying fiddler at the end credits of NYPD Blue ( my 5 to 6 pm guilty pleasure ) and seeing scratch tickets.
Tonights ride was different, because Sully was, uh, gassy. We hadn't made it out of the driveway when the rodeo was filled with an aroma vaguely reminiscent of hashish.
I don't have any hash...and after the initial bouquet, I realized what was happening. It continued all the way to the store, growing in strength until I was flooded with memories of an old cheech and chong routine involving burning eyes and rosarita refries.
I let out a noxious cloud when I opened the door and hoped the smell wouldn't follow me into the store.
I don't know what he ate...maybe it was the banana he stole out of the turtle pen...

A car in my future
It was a day off work and I could have slept late, but I was up at 6 AM when the dogs let me know they really needed to go out. Some days I can go back to sleep after that, but this wasn't one of them. Not a problem, it gave me an early start on lounging around in my pajamas and doing a whole lot of nothing. About 2 PM I finally showered, dressed and went over to my parents house to sign the title transfer for the Tempo. After tomorrow, I'll have a car again and it's one with an affordable, interest-free payment plan to cover the $2000 cost of repairs (some of that cost was just routine maintenance though.) That's a lot more than I would pay for the car from a used car lot, but it's impossible to know what you are really getting when you buy a used car from a stranger and it would not have come with such a budget friendly loan. I know this car has been well taken care of and at under 60,000 miles it should run for many more years. Even if the new harmonic balancer only makes 50,000 miles like the old one, that's still a long time given my driving habits. I typically put less than 5000 miles per year on a vehicle so that comes out to about 10 years provided there's no other major repairs needed down the road. Heck, if it lasts even half that long, it will still be money well spent.

Bus Trip
Rob was working late today so I planned on taking the bus home. My shift ends at 3:30 PM, but I'm usually not out of there until 4:00 or so because a call will inevitably come in at 3:29 and even if it's a short one then I'll still have slew of trouble reports in my box that I need to finish off before I leave. Today we were really slammed with calls and I agreed to work a bit later to help out. I was more than ready to high-tail it out of there after what was most definitely a day from hell, but I stuck it out as long as I could stand it, until about 4:45. I caught the 5:00 bus by literally running to the bus stop.

It's a very rare occasion to see me running, but I knew I had an hour long trip ahead of me and I didn't want to delay it by waiting another 30 minutes for the next bus. I made it, but soon realized catching the 5 o'clock bus was a mistake. This bus is frequently standing room only for a stretch of the way at any time of the day, but I've never seen it quite so packed like sardines as it was this time. I hate crowds and it was a miracle I didn't hyperventilate. I would have been better chilling out on the bus stop for 30 minutes after the day I had just experienced at work. At some point on the trip I decided a cold beer or two was in order once I got home and since there wasn't any in the 'fridge, I figured I'd stop on the way and grab a six-pack.

I decided against HEB because I'd have to catch the same bus again and then transfer down the way meaning two more waits for a bus, but the Akbar & Jeff's mini-mart is right next my usual transfer point. Except that transfer point is usually populated by crack-heads and gangsters and it was getting dark so I opted instead to stay on the bus to another transfer point at the end of the line which was located in a more hospitable area, directly behind Central Market.

Unfortunately Central Market doesn't have a back entrance and while it's not that far to walk all the way around the sprawling strip mall complex, my ankles were definitely letting me know that I should not have run to catch the bus earlier. And then there's the whole Central Market experience which I thought would be much less stressful than the HEB. Well, there weren't any unsupervised children running wild, but there were a whole lot of pushy people in a hurry and I was literally whisked through the store by the momentum. It was an odd contrast to HEB where large groups of people blocking the aisles is the norm. And the check out lines were short, very short! Too bad I can't afford to shop here on a regular basis.

Another treck around the strip mall and after a short wait for the bus that goes by my house I was home by 6:30. Not too bad. Plus, the trip seemed to have cleared out some of those brain cobwebs that I usually have after a day on the phones. I wonder if it was the walking or the reflective time spent sitting on the bus staring into space? Either way, it's something I'd like to duplicate on a regular basis. The cobweb clearing that is, definitely not the bus ride.