LADDER, FLASHLIGHT, SHOTGUN

There's something rootin' around in our attic that is bigger than a squirrel. Ann says I just like shooting holes in things, and while that might be correct, I have some invading mammal to kill. Thhat's the funny thing about coons and possums...they don't have a concept of crazy human with a shotgun until it's too late.

ANNIVERSARY

In honor of 11 years oooopps...12 years...neither one of us can keep up with the time...we did the following:
Went to a nice dinner, bought a new window unit A/C for the bedroom, some electrician tools, some flowers and some new music.
12 years...that's a long time if you think about it.
We don't. maybe that's our secret. Ann...happy number 12.
So much for the 5 year plan...eh? :)

I don't wanna grow up

I keep trying to play this version :

Tom's version

But it keeps turning into this version:

Ramone's version

Which version do you prefer?
This is a poll I guess.
So tell me bitches...what should I do?

PERSIUS RISING

At the close of Billy Boy's party we discussed an acoustic event coinciding with a meteor shower cause where Billy lives it's not polluted by artificial light and you can still see the night sky. Everybody ( The band and maybe a couple of guests ) loved the idea. I'm down with it for sure. So much so, in fact, that I'm learning a new song to do solo by Tom Waits. Traditionally , we have not done covers as a band since way back when we were called Left for Dead in the 80's ( Jeez were old...but not as old as the Rolling Stones who have confirmed a show in Zilker Park in October...let me riff on this...)
The Rolling Stones are going to play Zilker Park. In my life I have seen more local bands play there than I can remember, I saw the Moody Blues play there for FREE. And while I have yet to and never will attend an ACL event in Zilker, The Stones playing Zilker fucking cracks me up...they need to listen to Neil Young's "Tonights the night" record and get the important parts.
Back to Persius rising.
There's a good window for a meteor shower show coming from persius on August 12th and 13th...a friday and a saturday. I like the 13th.
I haven't pitched this to anyone else yet, but it gives us time to put it together so I think it will fly.
Expect performances by :
Th' rev
Acoustic wolves
Cousin rodney
And whoever else we can wrangle into playing alone without the benefit of wah-wah pedals and distortion...
Which could be any number of Austin players.
Plus...serious BBQ and libations.
And that Tom Waits song? " I don't wanna grow up"...here's the words...


When I'm lyin' in my bed at night
I don't wanna grow up
Nothin' ever seems to turn out right
I don't wanna grow up
How do you move in a world of fog
That's always changing things
Makes me wish that I could be a dog
When I see the price that you pay
I don't wanna grow up
I don't ever wanna be that way
I don't wanna grow up
*
Seems like folks turn into things
That they'd never want
The only thing to live for
Is today
I'm gonna put a hole in my TV set
I don't wanna grow up
Open up the medicine chest
And I don't wanna grow up
I don't wanna have to shout it out
I don't want my hair to fall out
I don't wanna be filled with doubt
I don't wanna be a good boy scout
I don't wanna have to learn to count
I don't wanna have the biggest amount
I don't wanna grow up

Well when I see my parents fight
I don't wanna grow up
They all go out and drinking all night
And I don't wanna grow up
I'd rather stay here in my room
Nothin' out there but sad and gloom
I don't wanna live in a big old Tomb
On Grand Street

When I see the 5 o'clock news
I don't wanna grow up
Comb their hair and shine their shoes
I don't wanna grow up
Stay around in my old hometown
I don't wanna put no money down
I don't wanna get me a big old loan
Work them fingers to the bone
I don't wanna float a broom
Fall in and get married then boom
How the hell did I get here so soon
I don't wanna grow up

* My favorite line :P

WELL...LOOKIE WHAT I FOUND

About 2 weeks ago, Hezbollah crept into Israel and kidnapped 2 IDF soldiers...since then, the fighting has been intense and deadly. Not only between hezbollah and the IDF, but with the media and the US government in simultaneously taking the focus off of the travesty of death and quagmire happening in iraq...and, oh yeah, afghanistan ( the red headed step child in all this bullshit ).
Wanting to learn more about Hezbollah and remember what I knew long ago about them I did an interweb search and found this little nugget:

Hezbollah abducted three Israel Defense Forces soldiers during an October 2000 attack in Shebaa Farms, and sought to obtain the release of 14 Lebanese prisoners, some of whom had been held since 1978. On January 25, 2004, Hezbollah successfully negotiated an exchange of prisoners with Israel, through German mediators. The prisoner swap was carried out on January 29: 30 Lebanese and Arab prisoners, the remains of 60 Lebanese militants and civilians, 420 Palestinian prisoners, and maps showing Israeli mines in South Lebanon were exchanged for an Israeli businessman and army reserve colonel Elchanan Tenenbaum kidnapped in 2001 and the remains of the three Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers mentioned above, who were killed either during the Hezbollah operation, or in its immediate aftermath. For the entire period between the abduction (October 2000) and the end of the negotiations (January 2004), Hezbollah did not provide information about the death of the 3 kidnapped soldiers (Adi Avitan, Beni Avraham and Umar Suad) even though Israel intelligence has suspected them to be already dead. ( Emphasis mine ).

Further adventures reminded me that they operate out of Lebanon, but are supported primarily by Iran and Syria ( Knew that already ) , but further investigation showed me that the geography of the war grounds then and now are in dispute...are they fighting over syrian land? Israeli ? Lebanese? They can't even agree on where the fucking property lines are. (This too, is kind of old news, but takes on new life in the current situation).
Do a google search on the history of the Hezbollah and be reminded, amazed and confused. It's really worth the time.
Especially if you have insomnia :)
A post script note to my tattooist friend calling himself the hez...maybe it's time to think about changing your name, at least for a while, or expanding it to it's proper hezakiah.

INSOMNIA

Or is it like Rollins says " I get so wound up...I feel so let down" ? I don't know. Tonight is Rescue me night from 9 to 10. My plan was to recline on the bed with the doggies and watch, and by now be blissfully asleep, to be bright eyed and bushhy-tailed for tomorrow. ( You may notice some extra letters in certain words in recent posts, or perhhaps missing letters...see that fucking extra h ? My keyboard is full of ashes, scratch ticket flotsam and dog hair jetsam, yet I can't be bothered to clean it. And I'm sick of fucking back spacing to correct so- deal with it. )
I've got alot on my mind.
Like this evaluation I keep putting off. Why am I doing that? I know my job pretty well, yet I am averse to this latest union development. Also, I am averse to tests...period.
The other day ( fridaay ) See? Theree is is again and again...fuck you michheal Delll.
Anyway I got this letter on friday and thought it was my invite for a random drug screen...anothher in latesst union developments to test my mettle.
It wasn't...it was a letter informing me I haave been advanced to IJ level 4...half way there in less than half the time. Wow...nice bump in pay, nice bump in self esteem/ confidence. This is a direct result of my time in the field.
So my Rescue me night gets interuppted by a call from my son ( that one's a mis spell )...of course I'm gonna talk to him, no question about it. I can catch what I miss later, no biggie. Then it's the dogs...barky as hell and flea ridden ( it's summer in Texas ) so between the scratching and the chewing and the whining it's hard to follow the scratching and whining and chewing of probably the best drama on television...ever.
So I figure I'll catch what I missed on the rebroadcast coming right uup next. But my stressed out, over worked wife comes to bed, and after telling me the TV won't keep her awake, it does...not to mention the renewed scratching and chewing and whining and jockying for position on thhe bedd of the dogs. After a symphony of sighs and some nice conversation about something other than work, I finally kill the TV and come out here, to my nasty ass keyboard to bore you with this shit. Actually, I came out here to let Ann go to sleep since I wasn't having any of it right now.
And thhe house is quiet...the soft whir of thhe ceiling fan the only other sound, except for the cycling of the AC and my fingers on this shitty keyboard. And the victor electronic rat trap that came in the mail last week.
It does buzz when it fries a fucking rat...and some hhow that's soothing to me. I've been throwing them in the neighbor's yard tonight, the house is vacant but the yard is not.
Buut not soothing enough for sleep.
And then there's the poison ivy.
Fuck Insomnia.

SOME MORE

We came - we saw- we conquered...photos by Jon....
As far as birthdays go, this one was right up there. Good food, good friends, good times. I'll write more about it after it sinks in, in the meantime...

I give you tigger...hand sized dog





LT...





Band shot...




It's the wolf at your door...

DOES HE HAVE TO BE SO FUCKING EARNEST ALL THE TIME?

Yes...apparently. ;) more to come later....

BILLY BOY IS FIFTY

The big party is tonight at his place out in the country. Bands, BBQ, and debauchery. I'm up early to go find an appropriate gift and deliver maps to some of my friends. One who has never seen the wolves perform live...an electrician friend who is very excited to see us. But anyway...Billy boy is fucking 50, but when I look at him he's still 18.
Go figure.

WORLD WAR?

Newt Gingrich is calling this WW III...some other asshole called it WW IV. Did I miss III ? Or is that suddenly and coveniently the new name for Nam, or the first gulf war, or Bosnia? They were all wars, make no mistake. And they happened in the world...is that the new criteria for world war? Please. For starters, who really gives a fuck what newt has to say? He's like the shit that got stuck in your shoe. Please.
What's going on with Israel and Lebanon is just a continuation of what the UN set in motion way back in 1947 when Palestine was partitioned and 700,000 plus arabs were displaced to make room for the jews that were displaced by WW II...oh yeah, and 6 million or so were exterminated by the germans, or specifically, the nazis.
We all agree ( well, except for those crazy white power assholes) that that was a bad thing.
So, after the jews got their homeland given to them by the UN in 47, before they even broke in the dish towels they found themselves in a civil war with the very same countries that are fucking with them now...Arabs and Jews.
Over the years...shit, the centuries probably, religion has been attached to this conflict. And while it has legitimate roots at it's beginning ( religion and religious belief were the ancient precursor to the bullshit world of politics we currently find ourselves deployed in).
Anyone who doubts the connection of church and state today is an idiot...an idiot who buys into the notion that they are separate. They are not...they are convoluted.
The current "administration" makes no bones about it's connection to religion...this road we're on is an old one, travelled many times. Look where it's gotten the jews and arabs.
But I digress.
I talk alot of shit on this blog about different races...and while it is funny (sometimes) it is not a true reflection of how I operate. That's not to say I have some issues where race is concerned, as we all do. Admit it or not.
But what this really boils down to is showing your ass...being an asshole, being so totally invested in being right about your asshole opinion of yourself that you will :
Tunnel into a neighboring country and kidnap some of their soldiers and shoot up a check point...that's them golldamned a-rabs doing that shit.
Fire rockets into civilian populated areas...Yep...arabs again, but come on...they have been shat upon since 1947.
Launch an assault on major highways...the airport...the airport again...Major cities and suspected and known Hezbollah strongholds and in the process killing lots of civilians...Jews doing this shit. And don't forget that the IDF and the military wing of the Israeli govt. is hardcore...they put up with no shit, and have proven their propensity for violence and revenge over and over again.
Without regard to the consequences.
They are acting like assholes...and so are the arabs.
And the sooner both parties admit it the better. They don't want us getting involved. Militarily or diplomatically...we lost our moral compass as a country about 6 years ago.
Because currently, we are the biggest assholes on the planet. And under the mistaken premise that "God's on our side".
If he's got any sense he's not.

JAM

MAN...WHAT A SATURDAY

So...Toody called me and set up a brunch for Saturday at 11:30. It was just going to be me, Toody and LeAnn. They couldn't find Diane. Well...I found her in about 10 minutes using my Ann given internet skills and invited her as well, then I called Mike and invited him.
It ended up being Mike, Leann and myself brunching with Toody. It was awesome. She is aged, yet ageless. Still whipsmart quick and on the ball. She said her husband was shocked that she wanted to spend time with some kids she had in school 30 years ago and opined that she still thought she was 40 and we were 18. And for that moment in time we were. I have always been in awe of Toody and I finally figured out why ( sort of ). She has the common sense in abundance, the ability to look at things for what they are and call it like she sees it. And it occurred to me that my prime years fighting the good fight in the treatment centers had as much to do with her as an influence as anything else. Plus the fact that if she loves you there's no doubt that she does.
And she loves us...not just us, but the thousands of kids she's had an impact on over the years. Sure, she's aged...white hair, gnarled hands...she had all the indicators of a long life. But that spark was in her eyes...bright and quick and on the mark.
We said we had to do it again, and we will. In August. And hopefully the attendees will grow ( if I've got anything to do with it :) )

Next we went to Billy-Boys place to work up a set list for this weekends celebration of our esteemed drummers 50th birthday. LT called and asked me to bring the monitor and thhe board and the DAT recorder...we had a full set up for the first time in a long time. I was under the impression that it was just going to be us, but there was a fucking gang of people there. We did our thing anyway...it's a rehearsal after all. I think we are gonna kick some solid ass at the party this saturday based on how the practice went. It felt good, and I look forward to the shit show this saturday. We took pictures, but I can't edit them on this laptop...I'll edit and post tomorrow on Ann's. I drank and smoked more than I should of, not to the point of making an ass of myself, just to the point of being seriously pissed which caused a nap in the car and we got home around 6:30 am sunday...When I woke up at 11:30 I was reminded of my age, and the cure was quevos ran cheros with a pork chop and 4 margs at La Feria...and that creeping realization that I am too old for shit like that.
After I left La Feria, I went and got the movies "The Boondock Saints" (excellent) and "the Hills have Eye's ( disturbing ) and spent my sunday in front of the TV watching people kill each other in very disturbing ways.
It was awesome.
Then I went to home depot and bought some screwdrivers and a speed square...cause I'm an electrician after all...right?
I wish I was a Boondock Saint...BOOM!

I GOT YER REALITY TV RIGHT HERE

I used to think about ways to make my experiences working in psych hospitals into a screen play for a tv show "dramadie-com". But it was always too depressing to be effective as a drama, and too twisted to be funny to anyone but the souls who have lived it...Beside that, it's been done...over and over again, in film and TV and cable TV, and while it's been fun to watch, they just don't get it.
So why not a show about an electrician and his journeyman? The possibilties are endless. First, we have to have a premise...a basic storyline. Oh...let's see, a crew of contractors at a large state run university. Check. Next, the differences between the feral-like contractors and the state employees...eerily similar, yet fundamentally disparate...Check.
Mayhem insues, and along the way we learn to love each other...has'nt happened yet.
Now the cast...in pairs. A journeyman and his apprentice, a crew. Times 6...12 people on a journey to provide power to an institution of higher learning, a place with a 3 second rule, full of men who can't count to 3 when "ham" is involved.
Cast shots tomorrow...

IS IT JUST ME, OR HAS GOOOOOOOOGLE ADS LOST IT'S MIND?

The last post on this here blog was about nightmares, a bloody dying dog, knife weilding action and quasi talk show histrionics perpetrated by eletricians. And what is the lead ad?
1-800- Balloons & Flowers. Are they trying to cheer me up? Are they trying to cheer you up?
Who cares...
On to the big news...
On saturday I bought some scratch tickets at a store that I don't normally buy them...19 dollars worth, counting the 10 dollar trade in winner I already had. So...9 dollars out of pocket. One was a 5 dollar ticket called "Three of a kind". You have ten chances to get 3 matching cards and you win that prize. I had 5 wins. 2 of them were 6-6-6...(cool...if you were into sabbath in the 70's :P).
Now, normally on a 5 dollar ticket, 5 wins means 5 $2.00 winners and you double your money.
Imagine my surprise when I scratched the prize box on the first win and saw 100 dollars! On the third 100 dollars! I called Ann over to verify that I wasn't losing my mind. I wasn't. I had won 500 dollars!!! On a 5 dollar ticket!!!!
I got on the phone and called some of my friends to gloat, I mean celebrate.Never mind how many dollars it took me to win 500....it's 500 dollars dammit! And I was proud of those thousands of dollars that gave selflessly over the years to bring me to this place...this pinnacle of lottery achievement.
Being the big gambler that I am, I cashed in my winnings and went on a rampage. I bought a nice dinner for me and Ann, I bought some work clothes, And I hired some guys to clear out my back yard, which, over the last year and a half has taken on the patina of Cambodia or Laos...oh, fuck it...both countries entire jungle canopy was crammed into my backyard in the form of hackberries,mulberries and poison ivy / oak. And I still have money left over.
I am the current heavyweight champion scratch head in our circle...beating the previous record holder by 250 dollars....
Wanna see my lucky dime?
Maybe I'll have another belt made at the flea market this weekend..."Scratch Champ", and buy a buckle with the card suits or lucky dice on it, and we can pass it around like the WWE or something.
Nahhhh...

A RHETORICAL QUESTION ABOUT NIGHTMARES

I 've got a pretty good idea about what this all means, with that said,feel free to throw in your 2 cents.
I went to bed last night at 9ish...I had consumed no mind altering substances. I did'nt fall asleep until close to 2am. I had these dreams that woke me up one after the other every hour, on the hour.
They were increasingly disturbing. Let me add that before I fell asleep I watched TBS late night..."saved" , "Without a Trace" , and "Alias"...and oh yeah, "Las Vegas"...Human suffering, mans inhumanity to man, Jennifer Garner getting the ghost treatment, and excess ( with porn convention ) averise and corruption. Quality TV, eh?
Dream 1...
Rusty and I are interviewing black UT employees of the physical plant at UT. About racial relations. The guys we interview are friends of ours, there is no predisposition to racism. They look at us like we are crazy. It's like a never ending segment of the view...or Dr. Phil...only me and Rusty are the hosts. I wake and scratch my head...disturbing, yet amusing
Dream 2...
Theo and I are at some kind of community hospice that is definitely not dog friendly...the residents continually hit Theo and subject him to all manner of abuse despite my prostestations, which by the way, escalate to my pulling a knife and cutting one of the people in the dream...only after he drives theo's face through a chain link fence, cutting him badly. To make matters worse, theo repeatedly swallows a long length of tape that cuts off his air supply, only he doesn't suffocate, he fills up like a balloon and his skin starts to crack open...= more blood on my dog.Until I pull the tape out and he deflates and the wounds close but continue to ooze. I wake up from this one mid swing at the guys face with my knife, theo under my other arm, limp and bleeding.
This one got me up for a smoke in the dark of the living room with theo.
Dream 3...
Theo part 2...we are trying to get out of this building, but suddenly we are up high and theo is dancing precariously around the edge of the building while I try to calm him down and find the stairwell...where is that fucking stairwell??? Theo finally falls and I pull him back up by his collar and I carry him to the opposite side of the roof and find the stairwell. We are met by a guy with a cut up face screaming at me to get the dog the fuck out.It's that guy from dream 2.Only now he's showing me a giant scar on his chest and screaming that we don't scare him. I kick him down the first flight and theo and I exit the building. Stepping over him on the way down, he's grabbing at me. I kick him in the face HARD. We step out of the stairwell into the street.
I woke up again.
Then the fucking alarm started going off. So I got up and got ready and went to work.
And where the hell was Jennifer Garner through all of this??? Good question. Maybe tonight.

SO I'M NOT FROM CONNECTICUT

But I watched the debate between Ned and Joe on C-Span because I've been following the race at Crooks and Liars ( I like this on line magazine because it speaks to my politics in general and is genuinely entertaining and informative ) That's your plug from us.
On to the debate. Let me be clear...I don't like Joe, I never have. In addition to being a traitor to the democratic party on a number of levels, he has the smarmy visage of oh, I don't know, a catholic priest...draw your own conclusions to that one. But it was clear to me that Joe was full of shit throughout. Ned, on the other hand, was full of feel good rhetoric. Is Ned for real? If so, sign him up. It sounds good and lots of people are lining up behind him with thier support. Based on the commercial they showed during the break, they are all young latinos. Now this is only ONE ad. He may not be pandering to this demographic, but this choice was questionable for a sample ad, and could make it appear that he's just a different, more or less sinister version of Joe.
Joe on the other hand spent most of his time touting his questionable 18 year record and feebly attempting to attack Ned on a variety of vague levels. "Who is Ned Lamont?" works maybe once Joe...not over and over on almost every question. He changed his colors....ok, what about this independant candidacy nonsense you been spouting? And why didn't Ned hit you with that?
Positive Ned: Lot's of good forward thinking ideas for his state and the country.
Not so positive Ned: Dodged a question about making his tax records public.
Favorite Ned line: (paraphrased )...Let me finish...this isn't FOX news. You go Ned.
Positive Joe: Make up artists hid slime from viewers.
Not so positive Joe: You still knew it was there.
Favorite Joe line : His compliance with silence to the fox news comment.
Ned's got my vote and I'm not from Connecticut, nor am I latino...if that's even an issue.

LONG IN THE TOOTH

This was a great 4th...yesterday we spent the evening with our friends Jon and Sandy...I even put new strings on my washburn for the occaision, but I got the most out of my G&L ASAT.
Plus, there were lots of dogs around, football dogs mostly and one spazz named stinky. And there was even a cat.
Tonight...the actual 4th... we spent with our friends Cris and Suzanne who have a shitload of dogs...all rescued dogs. A greyhound, a ridgeback and the rest are foxhounds. The patriarch is Muddy.
Muddy is an old man...ravaged by age, the most obvious being his cataracts. When I petted him tonight, I could feel his age telegraphing through my hands...I remembered when they first got him and where did the time go?
He's had a good life since they took him in...but he's coming round to the end. And it made me sad. Sad that Muddy's life is almost over, and sad for the loss Cris and Suzanne see on the horizon.
And I thought about our own dogs. Theo is no spring chicken, and he's not been the healthiest dog. And he's 9. And he's probably near the end as well.
When I was a kid I had dogs. As an adult, I've buried dogs...Buddy, Skeeter, diamond...and we can't forget about cypress.
Loss is what I'm getting at here.
Muddy's not mine, but looking at him tonight, he might as well have been.
I'm not sure what I'm trying to say about dogs exactly...but I think I've said it.