FATHER AND SON...
And no,I'm not pissed off...I was going for that intense we're at war snapshot but neglected to tell Kyle my plan for this one.But I love it anyway.

PRE-WEEKEND UPDATE...

I watched a documentary about the Monterey Pop Festival this afternoon,and other than being amazed that Sammy Hagar was there for the thing,the thing that impressed me most was Michelle Phillips lamenting how quickly it went south.Woodstock,Altamont and the introduction of speed and coke effectively killed the summer of love/Haight scene.Not to mention that Manson thing.And it reduced her to tears.It was very touching and testament to the vibe present there in 67.
I found myself a bit weepy as well.Watching her mourn the loss 40 years later made me kind of misty.Innocence lost...again,and it made me think of my time in the 70's and all that has changed since those days long gone but for cloudy memories.
But consider this...at Monterey,over the course of three days of massive pot and acid use nobody was hurt or killed,nobody got arrested and nobody OD'ed.(Thank god for the bad trip teepee!)
It hearkens back to a time when people really cared about each other and the vibe was all about the love.Even the cops there were sporting flowers and smiling.
We should really find a way to get that vibe back.
Everybody knows the main players at Monterey,but there were 31 acts over 3 days,all diverse but unified,something we are sorely lacking these days.
On that note,my son and his family are having a BBQ tomorrow evening and it will be diverse to understate the crowd.But we will all join together in the joy that is our new arrival,MacKenzie...and our love and joy about this will transcend any old hatchets we may be holding over one another's head.I don't know about anyone else,but I threw my hatchets away a long time ago.Life is too short to carry grudges and I have cast mine off in regard to my extended family.
I know it's hard to believe watching Hendrix fuck his guitar,light it on fire,and destroy it ala' Pete T could fill me with the loving spirit,but somehow it does.
It reminds me of a better time in this world.
I leave you with this...enjoy.

FINALLY...RELIEF

The offending tooth is gone!As is the lisp(once the Novocaine wore off)and the constant discomfort,and the compulsion to push my tongue back there...ewww.
My dentist looked in my mouth,proclaimed "This will be a walk in the park"! When he pulled it he proclaimed "You're FREE"! And in 20 minutes time I was on my way.
My dentist is great,and this coming from someone who fears them like some people fear clowns.

IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER,OR IS THAT BITTER?

I agreed to report for work an hour early this morning in an attempt to finish some essential things before the city inspector showed up.When he arrived,we were still trying to beat the clock...needless to say,we failed the inspection.
Then,the fire marshall arrived for his inspection,focused mainly on the general contractor and to paraphrase my foreman "things are failing right and left".Unfortunately,some of these things involved us,and in order to appease the FM the general contractor started placing unreasonable demands on us,to our foreman's credit,he shot them down with -gasp!- logic and reality.
The GC pretends to have all their shit in one sock,but there's a giant hole in it.Our sock,on the other hand is fairing quite well despite the ongoing clusterfuckery of the other trades.
Around 8:30 this morning,I noticed a coppery taste in my mouth,went outside and spat,and yes...it was blood.My tooth is now seeping blood.I rinsed with cold water and it stopped after a while.Next to biting and stinging insects,I think god's cruelest joke is wisdom teeth.Last night I ordered moo-shee beef and I couldn't eat it,I could barely eat the chicken and corn soup.On the bright(?)side,I'm losing more weight I suppose.
A week or so ago,I had a split in my left foots next to my pinky toe toe,that caused me pain and made me walk like Karloff as the mummy...more of a shamble than a walk really.Last night I noticed it wasn't bothering me anymore and thought to myself "at least it's just the tooth now".Wrong...by 10:00 I was dragging my left leg around and had I had a sense of humor about it should have held my left arm out straight and cried out "neeeeyaghhhhhh"! as I turned every corner.
To make matters worse,the elevators quit working right after lunch and I had to shamble down 26 flights of stairs with my insanely heavy tool bag (electricians really do need all that shit...really)before I could go home.
Everyone else had opted to stay until 5:30,so a ride home was not an option.I was finished by 3:00 and took the bus.
I was accosted by homeless weirdos at 8th and congress and 5th and oltorf (on my second bus trip to the corner store for smokes...this store is less than a mile away and it took me a fucking hour...).
I learned a long time ago that "hey man,can I bum a smoke"? was the homeless weirdo's pick up line and if you respond to it they've hooked you in and who knows what happens next.The one at 5th and oltorf I just ignored and was pelted with a litany of obscenities from across the street.I realize these people are sick,but come on.At that point my empathy meter was a negative 20 out of 10,and had he crossed the street to berate me further,I would have ripped off his winter hat and shoved it up his ass.
Come on nutball...it's June...in Austin for christ's sake!Lose the hat and coat already...you don't need to incubate your stench like that,trust me.
In retrospect,I could have simply said "shitty day" with this post and been done with it,but somehow ranting about it has made me feel better...sort of.

RUDIMENTARY MY DEAR...

I'm living till Thursday afternoon when my dentist can yank this fucking tooth out of my head and i will be right once again.I took Monday off in the mistaken belief that he could ease my pain and suffering,but instead was told "he can 'look at it today' but can't extract until Thursday.Now why would I let him 'look at' something we both know needs to come out on a monday when he can't take it out till Thursday?That's just crazy.
So,I've got a day and a half to go before the offending molar is removed.I am on a liquid diet...soup and vodka...this is bullshit.And to further my aggravation I saw in the Chronicle club ads a band booking itself as Wolf at the Door...now,hold on a fucking minute...we are Wolves at the door and have been since 1994 so...step the fuck off.When I saw this I immediately thought these bastards ripped us off.There is only one WATD,and these guys surely suck the big one,not to mention violating copyright infringement laws,I can't believe you would try to rip us off.
You suck.I don't need this added trauma.Really I don't.Don't fuck with me.And I mean that in the nicest way possible.Think Gangs of New York...seriously.Gangs of New York.
I mean it.Don't press me.

Comic Relief
Lest you think I'm all work and no play, I'll inform you that I do keep a few items stashed in my desk drawer to help me to keep my sanity at work. A few monkeys escaped my Barrel of Monkeys yesterday to decorate my cubical during the frenzy of floor managing. And today, when the phone system decided to act up, a fire engine emerged and took residence on my computer. It was just a one-alarm fire so the other four engines remained in their desk-drawer garage. I have several other items that come in handy at times such as the "Sarcasm Ball" which is just like a "Magic Eight Ball" only the answers are snarkier and much more appropriate.

Here at the new location, my desk is out on the floor in the thick of it all and the staff had never seen me use these things before I moved. I was very surprised at all the comments - never in a million years would I have thought a bunch of twenty-somethings would say that cheap kids toys were "cool".

Feast or Famine
Seems it's always this way, that we run into a few money woes which then get followed by even more money woes. My pay at work dropped substantially right at the time we needed to start making some big payments to various government entities. We looked at the budget and decided we could do it - it would be tight, but we could do it. Then my pay dropped even more and unfortunately that's left no room for extras like Rob's needed visit to a dentist next week. Then tonight, the brakes on my car started making a noise that makes any former high-school street racer mechanic like me cringe. No way I'm driving that thing an inch further until I can take a look at it. Rob and I will have to do some sort of half-carpool this week since I'm on one of the wackier schedules this go 'round. Tomorrow I work 8 to 5 so I can take him to work, but he'll have to find a way home. Then on Tuesday & Wednesday, I work 3 pm to midnight. So the plan is that he'll drive to work and then later in the day I'll catch a bus to where ever he is working (lets hope it's on the bus line) so I can take the car to work and get home again after midnight - once again, he'll have to find a way home himself. Taking the bus isn't an option with my schedule. It's not because the closest bus stop to work is a mile away - I would walk that if I had to, even in the pouring rain (inside joke - our employees that ride the bus or bike to work are notorious for calling in that they can't make it to work because it's raining.) Rather, it's that the buses don't run on a schedule that can get me to work on time if I'm working a 7 am to 4 pm shift and they don't run late enough to get me home if I'm working 1 pm to 9 pm or 3 pm to midnight. And cab fare both ways would cost me more than I earn in a day. It's a dilemma, but one that I'm hoping can be solved by me sitting in my driveway with a few tools and a bit of luck on my next day off. I haven't done a brake job in 20 years and certainly not on a newer model car (yes, I consider 1991 to be a "newer" model car) so there's no telling. But perhaps the fact that the heater under my desk which has been broken since last November just NOW magically started working when I bumped the switch a minute ago... well, maybe that's a good sign.

GREENBELT

I took Irene and Theo to the greenbelt this morning,They had a hella time.





I love my dogs,I love the greenbelt,and with all the rain we've had it's awesome.
Time for breakfast...

I THOUGHT RALPH NADER WAS DEAD

But that must have been just wishful thinking on my part.Have you ever noticed that the only time you hear about or see this pile of shit is around election time? He reminds me of a cicada like that,you walk out of your house one morning and see a larval husk clinging to a tree,split open all alien like and when you come home in the evening there's Nader,on Larry King Live...doing his best to fuck up yet another election.
Other than pissing in the wheaties of corvair enthusiasts everywhere,his biggest claim to fame is slanting elections...the wrong way.
I'm all for a third party candidate,but he ain't it.Currently,he's waxing philosophic about Bloomberg,that obscenely rich motherfucker from NY who ditched his party to become an independent and might join the race for the presidency.
Nader has good things(mostly)to say about Bloomberg which is all I need to hear to verify that he is the rich asshole I knew he was and has no business even thinking about running.Bloomberg's an independent alright,he's all about Bloomberg.
The republican bullpen is overflowing with shit this time around,you have people that openly deny the fossil record,war mongerers,and that guy from Law and Order.
And the dems don't have much to offer either,the front runner has a Celine Dion song as a campaign ditty for christ's sake...a canadian airlines commercial soundtrack no less.Hillary needs some dick or something...jeez...what's the world coming to?
Anarchy,that's what.
I have watched the body politic devolve since the Nixon administration and witnessed the political process in this country reduced to a sitcom not even worthy of MTV.
It's sickening to behold,people of station pretending to know what's best for the world when they don't have a fucking clue or vision beyond the amount of money they have or the money to be made.
They're killing me with their avarice...and you as well.But we are too complacent to do anything about it.
And that's why Ralph Nader is still,somehow,relevant.
When he should be dead.

EL DIABLO

There's a mile of graffiti on the walls at this project I'm on,most of it claiming cities that the workers are from,cities in Mexico and around the united states.Most of which are scratched out with the ATX (Austin,Texas)written boldly over them.I've had my fun scratching out the ATX and scrawling Dak To and Saigon in their place.
It's irony people...trust me.
But the other day I saw this...one of many rudimentary drawings around the place:



I'm sorry...but that's not a fucking devil.I found an outline of someones hand on another floor and transformed it while waiting for the elevator...behold:



Now that's a fucking devil,eh?

POPULAR OPINION POINTS TO THE KATRINA EVACUEES

In my circles anyway.Regarding the beating death referenced yesterday,all fingers point to people relocated here after katrina.A sampling of what I heard today...
Black dude:"I bet it was those katrina motherfuckers that did that,those dudes is thuggish and rouge".
Mexican dude:"It was the refugees that did this,they're fucking crazy".
Another mexican dude:"they came from the third ward,right?I'm not surprised".
Yet another mexican dude:"yeah,but it's worse in Houston,right?"
And so it went.
These are all opinions from guys who know better than me what the situation is in east Austin...they either live or lived there,or hung out there.Here's my contribution to the lunch time exchange:
"So,how many are there"?("refugees")
Answer:about 1500.
Second mexican dude:"Yeah,they never left".
The general consensus was that these people did the deed and that they are a blight on the east Austin community and should hit the fucking road.
Wow...did I feel really white and uninformed.
We'll see how this plays out.Should be interesting.

**UPDATE**
The APD had a press conference today stressing that the attack had nothing to do with the Juneteenth celebration in the park...right next door.The head of the EMS said it took them seven minutes to respond because of heavy traffic.Where did this traffic come from?Well,that's a no brainer...heavy foot and vehicle traffic from the festival you fucking brainiacs!
While I'll concede that the festival,in and of itself had nothing to do with it...celebrating freedom and pride isn't a catalyst to murder someone,but I assure you,there were some drunk/stoned motherfuckers leaving that festival and the perps were amongst them,for sure.So,in an indirect way it did have something to do with it.
This is just an example of APD pandering to the black community and walking on tippy-toes in light of the fact that they have a miserable record in east Austin,what with all the killing and shit over the last couple of years.
Maybe the city council will introduce legislation to build a wall....since they have no idea as to how to deal with the issue,or for that matter Nelson Linder (local naacp leader/stirrer of the racial shit).
God,this used to be such a cool town...now it's just a fucked up city.

HAPPY JUNETEENTH VATO...

Yesterday,celebrants at the juneteenth shindig at Rosewood Park were returning/passing through the Booker T. Washington apartments...it was apparently very congested...when a car driven by a mexican hit a 4 year old black girl (who sustained minor injuries).The driver got out to see what was up and he was attacked.The passenger got out and came to his aid, and he was beaten...to death.
Here's a link to the article:
BEATEN TO DEATH BY AFRICAN-AMERICANS.
Now,before I get into the opinion part of this post,let me point out a couple of things.1.The black community has been in an uproar in the last couple of years about police profiling them and killing three,to the point that there is a DOJ investigation coming regarding our police force and their conduct.I'm fine with that.I believe the APD needs to be investigated,for a lot of things.
2.Portrayed as "apartments" by the media,Booker T is a fucking project in east Austin,and as such has the social/racial demographic of a fucking project.
3.Other media (Fox news)said no less than four times in it's coverage that this "doesn't appear to be a hate crime".And I agree with that as well.
(Note:at this point I decided to call my buddy Clark and verify/nullify my initial take on this...it is important to note that Clark is a black man)
Me:Hey man did you hear about that shit at Booker T last night?
C:Yeah man,that's some fucked up shit.
Me:Well,I'm blogging about it and I suddenly realized I needed a brotha's perspective on this thing.
C:Well,I don't know about that,but I can give you a human perspective on it.
Bam!That's precisely why this dude is my friend.
And as usual,we were on the same page...to quote Chris Rock:"The party was goin' just fine,until the niggas showed up".Clark was fairly certain the guys that did this were between 16 and 30 and thuggish,with something to prove.And further,he and I agree to the point:what was a four year old doing out, unsupervised at 9:30 at night.Where were the parents?
Apparently they were amongst the crowd of drunks,wrapping up a celebration characterized by one resident of Booker as "the craziest it's been".
Not a hate crime...a drunk thug crime.And another tragedy driving that wedge further into race relations in east Austin.
I personally avoid that part of town at every opportunity because,like Clark,I don't want the cops to think I'm cruising for drugs,but more importantly,I don't want some thug looking to make book to jack the white guy and I would have to shoot him...and here we go again...
The message of tolerance and acceptance has been completely lost on a large segment of the population,young and old...most of it ingrained in the examples of the past,some of it fomented by the distortions of the past by the present on both sides.
One things for sure, it's gonna get interesting around here until the cops kill another black kid,then back to square one.

HEY GRANDPA!WHAT'S FOR SUPPER?!!!

Probably the only drudgery to our married life is what to eat for our evening meal,I mean,you can only eat so many different things and as the years pass you run out of new and exciting things to prepare.And as the primary preparer,I am almost over preparing.
Being in the trade I'm in has not helped...electricians eat a lot of shitty foods fresh from the snack section of your local islamic jihadi-mart.
"Hey!Have you had the deli express chicken salad sandwich with the lays bbq chips and a coke?It beats the hell out of that mom's chicken salad sandwich with the Tom's salt and vinegar chips and a doctor pepper ...even with the lil' debbie's lemon pie, deli express kicks ass!Way more mayo and celery bits.
I have been ruined by the snack food industry and the taco trucks that roll up on our job sites offering things with names you recognize,but when you open them to season them they look like that frog in Pan's Labyrinth after it swallowed the 3 stones.But you call it "Carne Guisada" and eat it anyway.
But,back to the point.Every night we say to each other:"Honey,have you thought about dinner"?And the answer is ultimately yes,with predictable caveats..."yes...but nothing sounds good" is a favorite."Yes,but I can't get past 'something with gravy'...is another.
Then,when the fridge and pantry will allow,"let's just fend for our selves" or in the other parlance..."you wanna just scrounge"?
Which tonight led to the age old culinary exchanges...
Me:"Well,we have have the microwaveable beefsteak fingers".
Ann:"Oh...I forgot about those...do we have any cheese"?
Me:"I don't know,but I do know I don't wanna order a pizza,or gook food,or a sandwich from south austin flying pizza...we have sloppy joe's"!
Ann:"But nothing to put them on"
Me:"We have tortillas...I could make sloppy joe quesidillas".
Ann:"But we don't have any cheese".
Me:"We might have a little bit...ummm...we have eggs...I wonder what sloppy joe and egg tacos would taste like"?
Ann:"probably pretty good if we had some cheese".
And that was the end of the conversation.
I have milk and fruity pebbles and toaster garlic toast and ketchup...I don't know what Ann's back up is,but I'm good.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY

To all you dads out there.I always liked being a dad,even when things were crazy.You gotta take the good with the bad and keep on keepin' on and hope for the best,even if you have a case of the I don't wanna's.
It paid off for me and now I get to enjoy the second half of being a dad that is a sense of pride that stays with you always and a different kind of father/son relationship where you're almost equals.And I say almost because I will always be the alpha dad...HA!



I just wish my dad was here to see this.

BROTHER AND SISTER...



MacKenzie and Sean Walsh...6-07

WRONG!!!

I chose the latter and not the former yesterday and painfully opted out of one of those "chance of a lifetime" deals to do the responsible thing.With some home improvement thrown in for good measure.
Observe...

The doves are dominant,I guess the seed I picked has a dove friendly mix.

This is just cool looking to me,and caught quite by accident.Grackle set down from the bath.
I'm glad I opted for the stay at home choice...
As predicted,we did not finish today,so I couldn't pass up the chance for 8 hours tomorrow at double time.Sweet.

A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY...BUT WHICH ONE?

Unsane is playing tonight at Emo's opening blast of their 15th anniversary.I saw them there approximately 13 years ago.I love these guys and turned a buddy on to them who became friends with the band over the years.I could get in free and meet them.
However,the crunch is still on at this downtown job and I am expected there tomorrow morning at 7 to work "till we're done".Unsane won't go on until midnight,which puts me home sometime after 2am.
I could alternately have a quiet evening at home,putting in the new bird feeder and setting up another bird bath in the front yard,go to bed at a reasonable hour and arrive at work in the morning without the ugly stain that is an Unsane show smeared all over me.
Guess which opportunity I took...?

THOUGHTS ABOUT BIRDS

I've resurrected the bird bath/feeder in the front yard since we have been spending so much time on the front porch these days.We see a large number of sparrows and ring necked doves using the feeder and the spill off to the ground,and the grackles hit the bath regularly.But there are few jays and cardinals coming around.And I've wondered about that.Where are they?And today I saw this article at CNN about the decline of bird populations.
Birds have always fascinated me in the way they interact with each other as same species and otherwise.While the doves are flying around the feeder sparring and flirting with each other,the sparrows eat at the feeders non-plussed and unharrassed,unconcerned with the dove drama playing out around them at close range,such tiny creatures,non plussed and pecking away as the doves do their thing.
It bothers me to read about declining populations.
I'm expanding this area to include a larger feeder to accommodate the bigger birds and hopefully attract some jays and cardinals.
We'll see what happens...

WELL,I WAS WRONG ABOUT THE A/C

This project is a conversion to condo to a downtown office building 13 stories tall.It has air conditioning to the 4th floor and after that there is no power the rest of the way up.I have been focused on the 7th,8th,10th and 13th floors.It's hotter than my other project.But you stay hydrated and deal with the sweat.
I'm installing lighting in units A and B...B is an efficiency size condo,A is a 1 bedroom (with a really cool pocket wall separating the bedroom/study from the dining area).The smaller units are somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 square feet and go for 240,000 bucks,the larger...maybe 750 SF are 400,000.There are larger units on the upper floors that go for half a mil.
Sure,they're cool and hip and admittedly well designed and laid out despite the small size,but you couldn't pay me 240,000 bucks to live in downtown Austin.Maybe if it was a reasonable rent,like say 300 a month,all bills paid,but free wi-fi doesn't legitimize the horribly inflated prices they are charging for these tuna tins.
Another bonus is my contractor has increased the size of the crew to speed up production,so I get to work with old friends from UT and meet new electricians and IJ's.Plus,we're working overtime.

THE CIRCLE GAME V.2

I was at work for about an hour this morning when my son called and said basically,if you're coming,come now.I bailed and by the time I got to the hospital and labor and delivery they were weighing and measuring and foot printing my new grand daughter,MacKenzie Ann Walsh...missed it by that much!She's a lovely little thing,6lb,15oz and 19 1/4 inches tall.
I hung out till just before lunch,and when Brandy crashed and Kenzie was in the nursery I went back to work.
Here's a shot through the "bars" of the nursery...Brandy's mom took some better pics,which I'll post when I get them.



4 hours this time as opposed to the 16 it took to produce Sean.