Start of Something

Well, maybe.

You will just have to tune in later, I guess.

In the meantime, anyone ever switch from Blogger to Wordpress care to give me any tips? Or should I just stay put?

Anyway, I am still alive, and I am mostly well, and I have something else to write here but I forgot, so...

Carry on.

Travel Day

I like to travel, really I do.

I don't think I like airports though, I mean I used to, but not anymore. I think.

Maybe it's because I have been coming back to the same airport over and again and again for the past two months, I don't know. It just seems like a broken record whenever I come here.

I leave for the airport in plenty of time - insuring that I have just enough fuel to get me back to the rental return. Yes, I pre-purchase the fuel, and if you ever come to the Dallas Fort Worth area, I recommend you do too, because I have found the price I pay for fuel is at least sixty-five cents less per gallon, which is a lot in my opinion. I get to the airport in plenty of time - I had always heard to be there at least two to three hours before your flight, so I make sure that I am at least that early. Dropping off the car is a breeze - thank you Enterprise.

Riding the bus to the airport from the rental car center is likewise a breeze, very efficient operation they have here, honest.Checking my bags is a piece of cake, in fact the past three trips I had just left my bag here since I was coming back anyway and I didn't want to pay for the honor of having the airline bring my luggage along for the ride. By the way, I love how the TSA gives me a placard stating that they are not responsible for anything being broken in my bag, or the bag itself, even if they are the ones responsible.

Now for my only complaint here at the airport - the security line, especially at Terminal E the one responsible for gates E31-E38. Dudes and dudettes, when the line is stretching all the way back to the ticket counters, believe me this is a long line, maybe you ought to open up all your scanners and have more than one person check people in. Every single time I have been here, I have had a minimum wait of 32 minutes.

Yeah, I was clock watching.

Oh and this is for all you travelers out there that think you can get to the airport fifteen minutes before your flight, please don't get mad at the ticket agents when they tell you that the doors are closed and that you will need to take an different flight. It's not their fault that you cannot plan accordingly and get yourself there on time.

Coming down from the soapbox now to continue with my tale.

So I get through security and guess what, I have a long wait for my plane. Now some of you may be saying, "But Roger, if you get to the airport later you won't have as long to wait." To that I say, did you read the previous paragraph? If I try to plan on that I will end up stuck in traffic, running into a inconsiderate rental return person, a bus driver that takes me to the wrong terminal, oh and the inevitable, a long line at security. I know that I will have a lot of time to kill, I wasn't complaining about that. In fact, the only complaint I have, and it's really minor when you consider that it is there to protect us travelers, is security.

What can I say, I have first world problems. :)

So now that I have a lot of time to kill, what to do.  Well first I stake out a chair to claim, then I start to read my book, although I get interruptions with all these darn phone games like "Words With Friends" and "Dice With Buddies" - the horror, I know. After a while, my gum starts to taste stale and I feel the need to get a drink - here comes another complaint - wow do they really know how to jack up some prices! Some airports are worse than others, I think you know who you are *cough* O'Hare *cough* and you know what? They can do it, because they have a captive audience, and limited drinking fountains (they either have very low or no water pressure and generally taste like rat vomit (No I don't know what rat vomit tastes like)).

So begins my quest. My quest for something to quench my thirst, preferably something under $1.50. I will walk up and down the terminal twice, sometimes three times, in search of this elusive beverage only to fins out that everyone sells the same drinks at the same price. There's a tip for you, no need to comparison shop when looking for a beverage. So if you are thirsty and don't want to walk for miles, just grab a drink from the first watering hole you find.

After completing my quest, which will almost always include getting something to snack on, because, well it keeps my mind from wandering.

Squirrel!

I head back to my staked out spot, only to find out that it has been taken over by a family of stinky lobsters and their cache of crustacean buddies. I really have no idea why I wrote that, but it will stay because who has time to edit the ramblings of a travelling man, right? Although, for the record, I did have to go back and spell crustacean correctly, so there is that.

All that means, I have to find a new spot. That is when I notice that either my Kindle Fire (love this by the way, please feel free to send me Amazon gift cards anytime) or my cell phone, or worse, both have low batteries. Now DFW does have this going for it, there seem to be plenty outlets of which to charge up all these electronic gizmos that we all love so much. Kudos to them. So I head over to an area that has an available outlet and plop myself down and wait.

And wait.

And wait.

In the meantime I listen and watch people, when I am not reading.

I think I might have a story or two from these observances.

Your time is valuable and I do appreciate you reading through my screed - ha! that's why the blog is called 'A Screed In Time' after all. Funny, I think this might be my first one, and I'm not so sure it even qualifies.

Such is life.

Have a great day and safe travels!

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

Remember this?

August

It is August.

Yes, I know, where has the year gone?

It has passed like a blink of an eye and it seems to me that those blinks get quicker and quicker with each passing year. Does this mean that time is actually speeding up? I don't believe that there is a physicist anywhere that will allow you to believe that - they are kind of cranky about all those laws and such.

Does it mean that i am slowing down? This has a greater possibility of actually having some sort of relevance and the like, after all I am well passed my days of running a six-minute mile.

Shush, I did too.

Once.

No twice.

I really have no idea, all I know is that the school year starts soon, and I will have one college senior, one high school senior, one high school freshman, one junior high school and two elementary students, oh and one more that is just chomping at the bit to get into school.

Okay maybe not that last part,

What I am saying is, that it seems like just yesterday that my college senior was getting ready for his first days of Kindergarten and his little brother wanted to go to. Now one is nearing the end of the road as far as schooling goes - trust me, he cannot afford any kind of post graduate schooling, not for a while at least. And my youngest is filing the role of my senior in high school.

Timmy is more than likely our last child. That saddens me in more ways than I think I can even comprehend at this point in time. It probably also explains why I am so afraid to blink.

Look! It's Roger!!

I just used up my quota of exclamation marks in that title, so sad.

So, how the heck have you all been? I have been doing well, just playing hooky from the blog because, well, I didn't really feel it, if you know what I mean. Sure, I had that voice in the back of my head saying "Dude, you gotta blog this."

I then successfully committed murder to that voice and shoved it back into the closet in the back of my mind.

That was so wrong to do, on many levels; one murder is bad be it literal or figurative (oh the guilt!), second is the smell, you wouldn't believe that these disembodied voices would have such a stench, but trust me they do.

So it is time to clean out that closet, which means I get to share all those things with you.

Okay, I'm not that cruel.

I had to find a Potters Field for most of them, since they were no longer recognizable and to be honest, no one came forward to claim them. Such a sad situation indeed, but that is all in the past, and I have nothing but a fresh and clean outlook ahead of me.

No, really.

I am done complaining about whatever it is I have complained about, except maybe Texas drivers (more on this later), and have decided to move forward instead of just spinning my wheels in neutral, so to speak.

Yes, I know that when a car is in neutral it actually will not be spinning any wheels, so shush.

Pictures, I will need to share more of them, because well, I like pictures and think you will too. My love of all things Disney will also make an occasional appearance, I am sure that some of you will be surprised by that.

The design is newish, and I am still trying to figure out all the neat little bells and whistles that Blogger has thrown my way, so who knows maybe I will come across something totally cool and it will knock your socks off. I doubt it, but it could happen.

My biggest fear right now is in trying to figure out if I can get back into a regular groove here, which goes to prove that no matter how much I try to throw that past behind me and forget it, the silly thing just keeps coming back to haunt me.

Maybe I should create a whole new Roger. A new and improved Roger. An outgoing and friendly Roger. Become the extrovert I long to be in real life, here on these virtual pages.

Don't be silly, I couldn't keep that up. If you don't like me, please don't feel obligated to stick around. Either way though, please drop me a line and share your wise thoughts. I promise to read them all. It's not hard to read a comment or two, after all.

So, be forewarned and forearmed that I plan on being here for a while and regardless of what I have said in the past, I plan on sticking to it.

No, really.

Tootles

What's "The Dish" at Walt Disney Imagineering?

Evermore

“Are you prepared to die?’

The voice came from the man seated across from me on the bus, and the casual manner in which he asked me the question made me think that maybe I was hearing a random voice in my head. They have been coming back more frequently now that I no longer had a source for my medication so, to me, another random voice in my head was nothing to concern myself with.

“Are you prepared to die?”

Okay, now this was getting a little annoying, I mean having a voice inside your head is one thing but for it to keep asking you the same question over again was borderline redundant and I was not a particular fan of redundancy. Which is ironic considering what I did for a living; there was a whole lot of redundancy built into my job. I wish the voices in my head had warned me about that, it would have been very helpful. Of course they probably wouldn’t be in my head if I had a position with a company that didn’t deal with doing the exact same thing, over and over, day after day.

“Are you prepared to die?”

I must have dozed off or something because when I opened my eyes at the sound of those words, the man was seated next to me. Funny that he hadn't smelled bad from three feet away, but now with this close proximity he reeked of alcohol, cheap cologne and, was that urine? His faced looked as if it had survived a battle with a blender, the scars crisscrossed in a pattern that made me think of pick up sticks from my childhood, except for the colors, which were all either reddish purple or white, depending on how far along the healing process was, I imagine. His teeth were a nice shade of brown, yet his eyes were a remarkable green that seemed completely out of place. It fascinated me just the same.

“Are you prepared to die?”

Again with that question, which was definitely coming from his foul-smelling mouth and not the foul-tempered voices in my head. Now I needed to come up with an answer as it seemed that the bus was moving approximately an inch per hour, and my stop was still several blocks away – an eternity at the current rate. Now the voices started to ask me some serious questions and I had a choice to make, voices in my head or voices from the old smelly dude. I decided to listen to my own community to see if they had any insight into my situation.

“Whew, where did that guy climb out of a dumpster from, the local fast food joint?”

That was the voice I named Justin as in just in time for a mean and sarcastic comment. He never failed to have one.

“Maybe he’s trying to hit you up for some money. You are dressed for business today so maybe he thought he would take a chance with you.”

That was Celeste. Yes, I have a woman’s voice inside my head, doesn’t everyone? She is the practical and no-nonsense mom of the voices, always looking for why something happened and always good for some practical advice when the situation warranted. At least that is what she told me. Besides, I was dressed in one of my more expensive suits, so she really did make sense.

“I told you taking the bus wasn’t worth the risk.”

That would be Fred, my cowardly voice. He always liked to tell me that he would rather be a cowardly voice that is still a voice, than a brave voice that no longer existed.

“You are being rude.”

This voice was new. I was pretty sure that the man’s lips never moved, yet somehow I heard him. In my head.

“You can stop acting all paranoid, Charlie, and just answer my question; are you prepared to die?”

Well that pretty much made today the number one day for my craziness. Some old, drunken, decrepit man with eyes that shouldn’t be, is now in my head telling me that I am being rude and really succeeding in freaking me out.

“Who you calling decrepit? And before you jump back into that mind of yours, realize that I am following along with every conversation, so you might as well talk to me, Charlie.”

“Um, okay,” I managed weakly.

“Now isn’t this better? Talking like two civilized people on a bus, just passing the time until our stops.”

“How do you know my name?” I asked in a slightly less dazed but still weak voice.

“Your nametag.”

“What? Oh my goodness, I forgot that was there,” I tore at the paper adhesive nametag that said: "Hi, I’m Charlie." I was coming back from one of those fancy little seminars where they talk about all the features that their equipment could do that no one else’s can. Boring as all get out, but the free lunches were pretty good and you could usually sneak out at some point in the afternoon. I could still taste the roast beef on rye with a hint of dill pickle and Cheetos.

“Are you prepared to die?”

“Why do you keep asking me that? I mean is it important to you for some reason, do you have a tract that tells me all about your deity and how he/she/it will save me from eternal damnation, but only if I give you all my money and bow down to you, my poppa/granddad/father figure?”

“Are you finished?”

“Yes," I started, “I think I am. This is my stop coming up and I have to get prepared to exit the bus.”

I have seen many television shows and movies where all the action seems to stop, with the exception of a character or two, and always thought it to be a far-fetched deus ex machina that helped move the plot along without having to explain a whole lot of actions/events that occurred to get to this point. In other words, a really convenient way to get from point A to point B in a story.

Well, that just happened. Everything stopped. Except for me and.

“What is your name anyway?” I asked, wondering why it took so long to ask this of the stranger, yet not really concerned.

“Well, I have quite a few; there is Thanatos, Odin, Ankou and, of course, the Grim Reaper.”

“What? Wait? You, you are death?”

“Always knew you were a smart kid Charlie.”

“But that’s just legends, and mythology and fairy tales meant to scare kids, and…” I trailed off not knowing what else to say.

“It’s also pretty cruel. I mean what is there to be afraid of? Everyone has to die sooner or later, so making me into some kind of monster just results in, well, look at yourself.”

“Yeah, but I’m not ready to die.”

“That’s what they all say, kid.”

Delectable Delights

Dystopia - an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives.


The end of the world has been supposedly prophesied for Friday December 21, 2012. 


I'm here to tell you that they were wrong, the world as we knew it ended on July 17, 2012 when the forces of evil - sorry I cannot think of a better term for them at the moment - attack everyone.


That's right everyone.


If you were near evil on that date, you were pretty much toast.


And then buttered.


And finally consumed.


Yeah, life as we knew it was over and the new life pretty much sucked eggs.


I am still alive though, so I figured that I would take this "free" time that I have to write down a few quick things that may or may not help anyone in the faraway future when this evil scourge decides to come back for some more fun.


Like I said, evil has taken over the world, and wouldn't you know it but they made themselves look just like us.


Talk about not fighting fair. 


I'm sure that if you complained though, they really wouldn't care. Just pull out some more butter and maybe some salt for taste, and then munch on your nose for a little while before they hit the main course, the... never mind, let's just say, you will wish to be dead by then, but you won't be.


They are everywhere and you must be very careful who you trust. In fact, my best friend turned out to be evil. Lucky for me, I saw him eat his wife, so I was prepared . 


I... Hold on, I think they have found me, I have to go....


(to be continued?)

Chocolate

That is all. :)

Chicken, Fries and Bugs oh my!

I live in the Fox Valley in Northern Illinois, roughly fifty miles west of Chicago. It is a nice and quiet little town of roughly 26,000 residents most of the year.

Currently that number has seemed to increase exponentially by, well, a whole lot!

Let's be conservative here and say that the population has increased recently by at least a million. 

Apparently we are having a huge party that someone forgot to invite me to - I seem to always be the last to know these things. I noticed the extra traffic this evening when I took my son to get his favorite snack of "chicken and fries."

So bad was the traffic and the - I'll call it what it is, air pollution - that I had to close my sunroof and windows on the family 'minivan of extreme coolness' just to be able to breathe. It was bad people. Even my son was freaked out and wanted me to fix it.

Have any of you ever tried to fix a problem for a freaked out two year old? Not an easy task, even with the promised chicken and fries.

After that last journey we have decided that venturing into town in the evenings while this great river bug infestation is going on - hopefully it will be over in a couple of days.

A

Acceptance.

I need to learn to accept the fact that I am once again trying to revitalize this blog by joining another interesting - at least by outward appearances (to me) - blog party. This April, which started today, some 21 hours ago, I will be posting daily, except for Sundays (this Sunday obviously has been made an exception) with a theme for each day that starts with a different letter. 

Today being the first day of the month, the letter is A.

Hopefully I understand what is going on, if not please leave me a comment and let me know what I am doing wrong. Also, since I have the newest Blogger, I cannot figure out how to add the badge to my blog, a simple mind I do have, so I will just add it to each post. That I can figure out.

I also read that these should be short and sweet, so I think I will end it here. :)

Which is Tyler Durden?

A Whole Bunch of Silly Going On

As you may or may not know, I have been writing seven hundred and fifty words (at a minimum) per day for the past few months and I occasionally post what I write there, here. This is the case here. Now mind you, this is totally silly and off the cuff and it was basically fifteen minutes of straight typing and "story telling" going on here. There will be grammatical and spelling issues so if anyone doesn't like that sort of thing, you have been warned. Hope you enjoy it.


Na na na na hey hey hey good bye!

I have no idea what that was about but it popped into my head and I shared it with you, who is me, who is we and we all can come together, right now.

Blah de blah de blah hot chocolate and apple sauce along with a banana and there will be fighting in the trenches no doubt and we are all going to die, someday. So why not go out with a bang, right?

So do we take our hot little sports car and drive it as fast as we can towards that wall at the end of the block, just remember that we have several gallons of fuel siting there next to you and you can be smoking or something just to make it all flame out big time because well, you really want to make a show. So why not call the police and the news and have them witness it and save it for all posterity and such. Think about how infamous you will become as your images will continue to play through at least three news cycles and if you leave a letter behind you can make it so that when they finally find it they will all marvel at the maturity of your response to the current situation that you are in and then you will flip the page and there will be a picture of your sister in ;law naked on face book because she has not a ounce of maturity or intelligence in her body.

Chocolate!

Or we can have aliens flying by in their space cruiser decide that they want to show us puny earthlings a thing or two so they come by really really close to the planet, close enough that the actually knock the moon off of it's orbit and sends it flying through the galaxy towards lord knows where and it doesn't really matter since they are also responsible for knocking the earth off of its orbital path and send it hurling towards the sun, or would that be hurdling towards the sun, or gurtingly towards the sun... okay that is just being silly, but who cares since the planet is on a crash course with the sun and you have done the math and you realize that we are only ninety some odd million miles away from that gaseous orb in  the sky that has nothing but bad intentions on its mind. After all it thinks that we are attacking it, even though Venus and mercury saw the whole thing and mars thinks it did, but the same space cruiser actually knocked them a little silly and... remember that moon of ours? well as you can imagine the shock of mars as it looks up into the sky and sees a new satellite in its sky and realizes that they are about to either have high tides or a really really big whole in the planet. So what do you think is going to happen? Why Bruce Willis will board a space shuttle and sacrifice himself for the planet by taking a HUGE tow rope out there and wrapping it around the equator so that he can tow the planet back into its normal orbit because that is what Bruce Willis does. Only there is a small problem, NASA decided to retire the shuttles and put them in the Smithsonian and a couple other places so we have to rely on some Russian or French ship that just doesn't have the horsepower needed to tow a planet. Now I know what you are saying... "Roger, there is no friction in space and no one can hear you scream, so why not take the soyuz thing and push the planet?" .... That is pretty much the dumbest thing I have ever heard, and I am not even going to think about it anymore. But you did give me an idea... everyone sends their missiles up up and away into the sky, towards the sun and that will push the planet back, right? Okay, that's pretty lame too, so where are we?

Bruce Willis takes the newest Virgin spaceship up into the sky, with Richard Branson, mostly because well, he looks good on the camera, has a pretty awesome accent  and well he doesn't like to share much. So they get a big rope wrapped around the equator and then attach it to the space ship that Virgin has donmated to the cause and Bruce and Richard step on the gas and the planet starts to move... towards the sun. Which is actually the way you want to go because they willactually be pulling the planet back into its orbital path quicker that way and they warned everyone to wear their highest SPF sunscreen, just in case. Except that Al Gore says that because of their actions the planet is warming up and the glaciers are melting which means the oceans are rising, blah, blah, blah and DUH! So he has the brilliant idea to take one of his many yachts out to the equator and cuts the rope!

Yes he did.

He is stupid that way.

So what happens? Well Bruce and Richard are pulling on the planet and when the tension is released in the rope they get shot into the sun - bye by e Mr Willis and Mr Branson (Maybe). The earth meanwhile is violently pulled towards the sun where it will then be consumed in a great ball of flame and all life on the planet ends.

Meanwhile....

Bruce and Richard actually shot through and past the sun and actually knock the moon off of its course towards mars and they land safely on that planet where they are welcomed as heroes and new rulers to the realm of mars... Oh, did I mention that Richard brought along a couple of young ladies, figuring that he and Bruce would be celebrating the earth being saved and all, and join the multi-million mile high club, but now they are rulers of mars and are each given half the planet to rule as they please.

Moral of the story? It's good to be Bruce Willis.

I'm Human - Liberty Broadcasting Squad

Jumbled, just the way I like it

Because I can and will I think I should do this writing thing now as opposed to later since I will have children to deal with, a wife to love and a work out that is more than way overdue to do. Try saying that last part fast five or six times; overdue to do...

So where were we? I wrote a quick story for Jessie last night, well not really for her per se but  suggested by her and I honestly think it turned out pretty good considering it took me about fifteen minutes to write and there will be lots of words to cut down and even some more to expound upon, or would that be expand from? Not sure the definitions of words in my head are matching up with the definition coming from various and sundry dictionary's. I love that I just used sundry there, as I have always had a strong feeling towards that particular word.

Not really.

However, if I ever were to fall in love with a word, sundry is no worse than say pickle, which just sounds nasty, and then there is the fascination that some people, mostly women, have with the word moist. Why is that I wonder? Maybe I should post that as a status on Plurk or Facebook or Google plus and take a survey as to why that is. Worse thing that will come from that will be... nothing really. Other than people ignoring me, for which I am fond of and thankful for. You see, if I were to become famous I would probably be miserable. Now if I were to be rich, well that I could probably handle.

Lost the rest of another tooth today - about eight minutes ago in fact, or was it more like twelve. Does not really matter in the end, but I think it is coming to a head here with my ignoring the tooth issue and I think that I will be in dire need, or at least some need of some new chompers be they dentures or implants, or maybe I'll just become gummy. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Now that was a phrase that pays oh so long long ago, what maybe ten years? Not nearly as good or as enduring as, if it is to be it is up to me. I so very much love that, along with the phrase all that jazz because of my affinity towards jazz music I guess, although if the truth were to be told I listen to pretty much anything with jazz being a ways down on the list, behind classical music in fact, so since we need to be telling the truth here, I figured that I would get that off of my chest. It is a beautiful thing, music, that makes the world go round and round. Just take a moment and stop what you are doing and listen to the music all around you.

Seriously. The next time you step outside, I want you to just stand there, or sit if you would like, and listen to the music that is playing all around you. You have the slight rustling of leaves, or branches in the areas where we have no leaves left on our trees, and tell me that you don't hear any music. Go ahead, try it, you will be amazed at what amount of noise is being made while being silent. Then you may even find yourself moving to the melody that the leaves, or branches, are playing. It's all good I tell you, and you will not be disappointed. Of course then you will have the obtuse sounds of motor vehicles sputtering along trying to overtake the sweet sounds of the rustling branches and leaves. Occasionally you will hear a sparrow chime in their part or better yet a robin. Ah, music is everywhere. It's even in my head as I am typing this, it kind of sounds like "Boys of Summer" by Don Henley, which brings back memories of a simpler time in my life when I was trying oh so hard to play grown up only to have it fail and I fell flat on my face, yet I still love the song and the image of the kid playing the drums in front of a video screen - such a powerful video and if you get a chance you should go and watch it, and I promise you this, if I post this on the blog, I will have it linked or embedded here, as long as it is legal and all.

By the way, in case you didn't catch that, I have my head phones on and that is the song that is currently playing...

See, I knew you could catch on to these things, just like how it has turned to "Sunset Grill" another excellent song, but one that doesn't hold me as much as "Boys of Summer" which kind of shows a point that I really didn't know I was going about trying to prove, which is music is great and all around you and everyone should stop and turn the volume controls up every now and again, either by being quiet, or plugging in your head phones. Sorry that came out all jumbled and confusing, just like myself every now and again, especially after a few shots of vodka - which I have not had, mind you, so I cannot use that as an excuse.

So where was I going with this today?

Oh yeah, Go Broncos!!

Pax!

The Moment

Running up and down the court trying to catch my breathe I couldn't believe that we were down by so many points, but we still had five minutes left in the game and I just knew that we could make a game of it. All we needed was some discipline and some good shooting, otherwise we might as well pack in it and go home.

Timeout.

Coach gave us some encouragement and told us that he thought we were playing really well but if we could find it in ourselves to dig a little deeper and try to get some more points and what not... I can not really remember much because I had a strange feeling over take me and I just remember being at total peace with myself and the situation. When the whistle blew, I just knew that we would come back, after all it was only twenty seven points, right?

If it is to be it is up to me was my mantra. I wanted that ball.

We took the throw in and headed down the court, I was pacing along side my point guard imploring her to give me the ball. With our team being down by so much, the other team couldn't play any defense outside the three point circle. My dad and I were just practicing those shots the other day, and I started getting pretty good at them. The secret was in the arc of the ball. You might think that you were giving it too much, yet for some reason it seemed that the higher the arc the better the shot.

My point guard decided to go to the three and see what she could do, and as she picked up her dribble, I instinctively knew that she was going to lose the ball to number fourteen. Number fourteen has been our main nemesis on this team for three years running, she is quite the athlete and I could see the ball being stripped from my team mates hand and she would be off down the court, so I started edging towards the other basket knowing full well that I would be making a defensive play very soon, or at least trying to.

Yet, I knew that I would get the ball back and bring it up court and take one of those three point shots, and I just knew that it would go in and we would be down by only twenty four points. So when number fourteen stole the ball from our number three I was already heading down the court to play defense. It was at that moment that every thing went into a slow motion mode so that I could see every flake of dust coming off of the ball and number fourteen's finger tips. I could see the way the floor actually gave way to the pressure inflicted upon it by the weight of number fourteen as she was running towards her basket. I could see the flattening of the basketball as it hit the court with a force that seemed to be much greater than I realized, with the ball flattening literally a quarter of it's own size. I could see the way number fourteen looked at me and my defensive position and thought that she had a basket for sure. I could see the over confident smirk in her face, and the twinkle of mischief in her eyes - now why I thought it was a look of mischief was beyond me, even in those moments because after all it really was just a basketball game, our first of the season, and nothing magical or dramatic would happen to us if we won, or if we lost, but it was definitely mischief and it sort of scared or startled me because I could tell that I was going to be going up against a competitor unlike any I had faced before.

I shuffled to my left to get a more direct position to make a play against number fourteen and she made a little adjustment herself. It was amazing how she altered her foot just a little to her left which made her move more to my right, yet at the same time my instincts took over and I moved to my right at the same moment. It was then that I saw concern and disbelief on number fourteens eyes and I knew that the ball was soon going to be mine and that this play was going to be the breaking point that got us started on our way towards the victory that we so desperately wanted and needed to rebuild the confidence in our own abilities. We would no longer allow number fourteen or any other player to  push us around and treat us like we didn't know what was going on. She would never again take us so lightly. She might even grow up and become my best friend, and we will be in each others weddings and be the god mothers to each others children. This moment was going to change the world.

This was my moment.

Number fourteen started to leave the ground in preparation for taking the shot...


*** Jessie asked me to write a story about basketball for my 750 words tonight - 16 minutes and 870 words later, this was what came out. - Thanks Jessie! ***

Jazz and Shizz

I thought about getting a beer to go with today's installment then I thought better of it because I really don't feel like having a beer just to have a beer you know, especially some domestic beer like Miller Lite or something... Now if mayber, per chance, there was a Southwicks... then maybe... Nah, I still wouldn't want one, and if I did I am pretty sure that I wouldn't want to be writing here at this point in time any more than I do at the moment. So you know what that means right?

If it is to be it is up to me and all that jazz!

I love how I just took two different phrases and melded them together into some sort of weird mantra that gets me slightly motivated about doing this writing thing which I would think would not be needing any motivation especially since I have written over one hundred and fifteen thousand words over the past three and one half months.not that it means that much unless you want a book of gibberish, half truths some wicked expose and a lot of, but not as many as you probably think, I I I I I I  I I I I I I  I I I I I I I  I I I I I I  II  I I I I I I  I I I I I I  I I I I I I I I I  I I I I I I I I  I I I I I I I I I I I  I I I I I I II I  I I II  II I I  II  II I I I I I I I I I II I II I I I II I II I I I  II 'S

So whacked out I am that I feel justified in writing several I's and feel like I have written several other words that I can string together to make wonderful sentences, mesmerizing paragraphs and sensuous chapters that make up such a loving book that generations will cherish and share with their children and grandchildren and which someday a rare first edition of it will be auctioned off at Christie's and fetch over seventy seven million dollars, of which I will see none of, but whomever does sell it for that, I hope you do good things with it.

Hey have I told you that I am some sort of freak genius that knows stuff that others just cannot comprehend - either that I know it or that I know it, you know what I mean? Maybe I should put some sort of emphasis on there and then add at the end of the paragraph a parenthetical stating that the emphasis was added. Because that is what the cool people do and I just know that I am one of the cool people at least in my mind although there has been some recent stirrings going on in there that make me somewhat nervous due to the fact that there are way more of them than there is of them?

Anyway.

Yesterday I said that Michelle Bachmann would drop out of the race for the good old party's presidential nomination, and guess what? She did. I also said that Rick Perry would probably think long and hard about his choices and then decide to quit the race as well... okay I didn't actually say all that, the Rick Perry part I am so owning the Michelle Bachmann part because , well, you know I actually published that shizz on my blog and who knows maybe this will go there as well, only I need to start insulting more people and causing a stirring in the controversial pot, so to speak, because you know life around the blog is rather boring and dull and out of specifications when it comes to the almighty SEO and shizz.

No, I have no idea what SEO and shizz actually stand for or mean, but I do like dropping them in here every now and again because like the good Doctor would say "they are like bow ties, so they are cool." I'm am pretty sure that he would say that and I firmly believe that the only reason he didn't like the apple that Amelia Pond gave him was because it was neither a Gala nor a Fuji apple which are BY FAR, the absolute best apples ever made/created/ hatched/grown/harvested - whatever. Funny how just by adding that slash in between those five words, it made it look like and only count as one. What "it" is - it is definitely not some freaky freaking clown that lives in the storm sewer, but rather the program that I originally typed all this shizz (see I cannot stay away from it) on for 750words.com and that is where I am at write now, so to speak in a purely metaphysical manner - at least I think it is an a metaphysical manner otherwise I totally use that word wrong and it takes my whole genius claim and throws it out the door.

Got it?

Pax!

A Rant, of sorts

This is getting to be a bit nuts, I mean here I go and plan everything down to the minute, more or less, okay maybe it is closer to the hour, but still. Here I am with fifty nine minutes left to write my seven hundred and fifty words and I have nothing to say or write about... The Iiowa caucua weas today and wow, did I ever butcher those three words... Iowa caucus was today  - much better, and you know what we found out? That they cannot decide between the ultra social conservative Catholic Rick Santorum, who by the way supported a pro choice candidate over a pro life one which is a big no no in my book, so he will not be getting my vote in the primary (if he is even still around) and the somewhat wishy washy conservative wanna be who is more of a moderate than anything else and who has also flipped on the whole pro life dealy and brought Romney Care to Massachusetts which is just as bad, if not worse than Obama care, Mitt Romney.

*** just because spell check says that I have misspelled some words does not mean that they are misspelled okay? Just saying that some of the words I use are words that others just haven't thought of yet***

Where was I? Oh yeah, Iowa. So what have we learned? Let's see; Rick Perry spent a boatload of money to finish in fifth place out of six candidates that were running in Iowa. Technically there were seven on the ballot but John Huntsman decided to not even try and win the state and is sitting back enjoying some martini's in New Hampshire. Michelle Bachmann will probably start concentrating on her reelection campaign for her seat in the House from Minnesota (she came in sixth by the way). Newt Gingrich didn't do too bad considering that he never really started putting people in the state to help him until about a month ago when he became the candidate du jour. Ron Paul, that crazy Republican, er Libertarian from Texas came in third with about twenty percent of the vote, which is not bad for a crazy old man that claims he isn't a politician even though he has spent nearly thirty years in political office of some shape or form, including the past twenty four years as a congressman from the great state of Texas. I think I have that right, if this is posted and I am wrong and my son Benjy sees it, he will correct me no doubt. He is a huge rEVOLution guy and believes that Ron Paul is the bees knees so to speak. I like his stance on the Fed (a waste of government expenditure), the UN ( a waste in general), but do not agree with him in regards to national defense, in particular our current policy of trying to help keep the peace world wide and bombings those that disagree with us.... wait, I don't really like that either. Maybe that candidate predictor thing that I took was correct and I am a Ron Paul supporter. News to me, but I digress.

Which leads us to our two top dogs in the Iowa caucus, Mr. Santorum - a Catholic that apparently forgot what the Church teaches with regards to the sanctity of life, when it came to supporting a pro choice weasel (Arlen Spector, over a pro life candidate Pat (I think) Toomey - and Mitt Romney the multi millionaire former governor of the fine state of Massachusetts, who said he was pro choice to get elected in the pro choice state and then when it came to the national audience he is now pro life and says that he has always been - oh and he is also a Mormon which I really don't care about, but those crazy evangelicals will I am sure. And you know what? I got so long winded there that I completely forgot where I was going...

Or did I?

That is the point I think. Nothing, absolutely nothing, has been determined here today in the caucus of Iowa. I do believe this though, Mitt Romney will be rolling over every single candidate - including you and your martini's Mr Huntsman - in New Hampshire and will then probably roll to a couple more victories on the way to the ultimate prize on Super Tuesday and he will be the candidate for president of these here United States against the bozo that is there now. And I don't mean to besmirch Bozo the Clown with that comment, because I actually like that clown. Anyway, that's how I see it and that is how it has been written by me. I think I will post a briefer version of this on my blog for the world to get mad at me about. I love that sort of thing, don't you know.

Since this will be posted there, I should point out that this entire piece was written in about twenty minutes without any supporting documentation, so in other words it is an opinion piece and it is mine, so take it or leave it as I am not really caring. Oh, and any misspellings are more than likely intentional, as is the piss poor grammar. What can I say, it is late at night, my back hurts and I think I need to lie down and get some sleep.

Pax!

Happy New Year!

Wow, can you believe that it is 2012 already? Where has the time gone? Let's see if we can do a recap here for you - by that I mean, let's see what I can remember.

January - Cold... Grey... COLD. Pretty much wraps that month up. Well, that and I continued to work out at the gym to lose my winter weight that I have acquired over eighteen plus winters of marriage. What can I see, I like being the jolly guy apparently - and in case you were wondering, I still have a bit of weight to lose, not as much as before, but still more than I am proud of.

February - Work is starting to take its toll on our hero as he is coming to the realization that he has a job that has no description and has two bosses that have no idea what to do with each other let alone with him. This will prove to be an interesting time in his life as he tries to work out all of this while keeping his multiple bosses happy, as well as, those who look to him for guidance and the like. I also think that we had a "snow day" for work - paid even, because of a pretty big snow storm. Or it could have happened in March, like I said I am trying to remember these things, and I am not relying on the blog, which seems odd to me now that I think about it.

March - Danny turned five, which means there is a Disney trip in his near future- lucky kid. Oh wait, what's that, we get to go too? Sa-weet! Now June is gonna rock way more than it normally does. Jenni also had a birthday, and if I say so myself - which I always do - she looks great! I am so blessed to have her as my wife and best friend.

April - Pretty blase' month to tell you the truth, as I don't think anything really happened then, other that the promise of a great vacation in two months and some better weather.

May - Maggie received her first Holy Communion in May, she is growing up so fast. Andy also finished his sophomore year at Loras.

June  - Dominated by a certain trip to a certain magical place in Florida, I am sure I might have mentioned it a few times, and I bet I added some pictures as well. And since I didn't blog nearly as much as I liked in 2011, it shouldn't be too hard to find, right? Jenni and I celebrated our nineteen years together in Orlando, granted we weren't there on the actual date of our anniversary, but it was close enough.

July - the shoes started dropping at work. I was put back on the bench, which really wasn't a bad thing, since I really don't believe that there was much focus on the top and it enabled me to feel productive once again and start working and earning some over time pay again, which is always very helpful, let me tell you. The country celebrated it's 235th anniversary, even with the knuckleheads in Washington doing their best to bankrupt us and make us start to burn like Rome did so many centuries ago. Will 2012  show any kind of changes, probably not since they are all politicians that care more about themselves then anything else, which is really sad and I am pretty sure that the founders are rolling their eyes while rolling in their graves over what has become of this once fine republic. Oh yeah, and Timmy turned two!

August - brought the school year back to a start and a trip to Wisconsin for me - my first work onsite in almost five years. It was nice to get that change of pace, but I really do miss my family while away, and I don't think that I could ever see myself doing that kind of work for very long. A week every now and again, might be okay, but I would really rather just hang loose at home and soak in the atmosphere and climate.

September - brought Katie closer to the teen years and brought a close to a chapter at work that involved my direct supervisor for almost five years leaving the company to pursue other opportunities - in other words he was shown the door because they felt that the issues brought up by him were just too dang logical or something and we can't have anybody thinking like that now can we? Never mind the fact that in the few months he has been gone, we have started to implement changes that he wanted to do all along. Guess he was just too smart for them.

October - brought Benjy closer to the end of his teen years and Jessie fully enveloped into hers. Oh and I had a birthday as well. I also started writing daily at 750words.com. I have well over 100,000 words written that will make a great work some day. Only if it can be deciphered by the few that are as crazy as I am I imagine. It also inspired me to get back to blogging here on a regular basis, starting with today, we'll see how long and well it will last and go. I do want to make the time to pursue it though, as I think I am finally realizing how important it is to me.

November - Maggie has one year left in the single digits, and apparently still rules the roost when it comes to me. Yes, she is my baby girl and all but there should be better limits set by me I think. I may learn this one day. The weather hasn't been to bad and there was this quarterback for the Denver Broncos that started doing some pretty amazing and heroic things, well that and his awesome defense and special teams - more on them later, and by later I do not necessarily mean in this post.

December - Saw the end of an era for one of my children, illegal drinking. That's right, Andy became a full-fledged legal drinker at the ripe old age of twenty-one. Talk about culture shock, and the fact that he can drink me under a table does concern me, until I look back at my early twenties and say "Thank God I am still alive." Hopefully he will be able to look back in twenty plus years and say the same thing. Jenni got herself an iPad for Christmas, I got a Kindle Fire, Benjy and Jessie got iPod touches, Katie got a Kindle... So we will be ignoring the rest of the family now I imagine. I am kidding, besides Maggie has used my Kindle more than I have.

Not much of a review, but it really wasn't going to be anyway, I mean 365 days is a lot of stuff to remember. So here is what I hope to accomplish for this year - which has 366 days in it by the way, I plan to write more and take more photographs - at least one entry of both per day on the blog, although the pictures might be posted once a week - I haven't decided yet. I also want to try to read three books per month, and write a review for each one read, there will be pages dedicated to these things, so if you want to just see my pictures look at the picture page, if you want to see what I have read, look at the books read page and if you want to see what those voices in my head keep saying, well just keep on coming back.

Together we are going to make 2012 an awesome year, so let's get on with it, okay?

P.S. - That is totally my artwork at the top of the page, it took me all of thirty eight seconds to make, I hope you like it.