Wednesday's Digressions

• I try to raise my children to thoughtful and compassionate without being wimps. You would be very unlikely to hear them bellyache about physical effort regardless of environment. Hot? Drink water. Cold? Wear a good hat, gloves , socks and boots.



• Zachary is 4 and it's nothing for us to walk 2-4 miles just to do it when I'm up to it.. He will routinely when we walk out and he realises we're headed for the car say,"Uh! Can we just walk to the store instead of drive?"



• He's riding circles around me (literally) in the house on his bike.



• He's learned an astonishing variety of curse words from somewhere. I'm trying to get him away from that without entrenching it by making too big of a deal of it.



• Boat: a large fiberglass hole in the water into which you throw money.



• I'm unsure if a single friendship could be rekindled from interacting with old classmates at a reunion or whatever, but I'm oddly thinking it would be nice to see a lot of them.



• A funny thing in that regard: I still have a mimeographed copy of my first grade class roll. There is only a name or two I don't recognise and nearly every one else on there made it all the way through with the group to high school.



• Combat vehicle graveyard at my base in Iraq. My first thoughts: One of the Bradleys filmed was destroyed by a massive IED on a route my unit patrolled regularly. Six men were killed. One of the M1 tanks had a perfect, bloody hand print inside the commanders hatch. I could not help, but place my hand over that print and imagine that poor mans pain and hope and pray he lived. This was a parking area for combat vehicles which were to be canned (cannibalized) or rebuilt- the park for other destroyed vehicles had close to 100 HUMVEES, trucks, trailers etc. in it. Memories are mine- video shot by someone else.

Monday's Missives

• When anything out of the ordinary happens or I answer my phone I automatically check the time.



• I hardly ever have headaches.



• My daughter has the craziest, most gorgeous shade of red hair you've ever seen. She loves me like no other and is a total daddy's girl.



• Several days ago my neighbor sat for a long while with her forehead in her palm while parked in her car. I wasn't sure- finishing up a favorite song on the radio before going in the house? Was she sad? Bad day and have a headache? Was she hurting emotionally? I made it a point to engage her and now she stops by when she sees me, even sticking her around the corner in the morning to say hi when she sees my door open. That is a good feeling.



• Saving the world one person at a time- that's my motto.



• Pete Doherty covers Neil Young's The Needle And The Damage Done.



• My eldest is now a roadie for a local rock band and has gone on stage with the singer of the band he helps and another band during their set and rocked out singing Sweet Child Of Mine.



• Hey dude- stop living my dreams!

Caturday

• Joe Strummer And The Mescaleros The Redemption Song.




• Two things everybody should promise themselves- I mean they should make a pact with God and their significant others: If experiencing chest pain they should stop what they're doing, take an aspirin and go to the hospital and if they experience signs or symptoms of cancer again, stop what they're doing and call their doc.




• My work is contract so I never know when I'll get offered shifts- it may be at 6 in the morning for a day shift, 1 in the morning to finish a night or 3 in the afternoon for a case to start the following day. Recently two separate times helping two separate friends with something I have missed cases- that means not only that days shift, but whatever else I would have gotten out of the case. Yikes, I hate to think how much that cost.




• But I am- for even relatively short term-ish cases it would be a couple grand easy.




• I am a very good friend.




• Nicky D's burgers in Crowley are very good. My friend offered to take me there yesterday acting like he was offering something special. I thought he said,"Micky Ds". Not only that, but I distinctly heard,"great burgers and best in the world" in the same sentence that I thought he said,"Micky Ds"




• Really? Are you pulling my leg?




• America what a country: I know at least two people who pretty frequently leave the front door open while sitting on the front porch to allow a cool breeze from the A/C.

I Did Not...

• When I was downrange a pretty universally hated, fairly senior NCO left his camera in the guard shack at the entry control point. We did not take turns shoving it down our pants and taking pictures of our junk. Further, as an NCO myself I did not encourage the lower ranked soldiers and Marines to do the same.






• The same NCO considered himself quite the sniper hotshot after a short course back at Hood and being issued an M14 and scope. He absolutely berated one of our Marines when he asked to be allowed to have his picture made with it. I mean really- he intentionally tried to make a fool of the kid for no reason. I did not when that weapon got left in the guard shack call that Marine off his post and take pictures of said Marine rubbing his junk all over the weapon. I further did not provide the Marine with the NCO's email address to send pics to said jackwagon of an NCO once the Marine got back home.

Wednesday's Digressions

• Michelle Bachmann needs to realize she doesn't stand a chance and bow out gracefully before she allows herself to made a forevermore laughing stock.




• I saw a news clip where the topic of discussion was the suggestive nature in which she was eating a corn dog. Man- there is no non suggestive way to eat a corn dog if people are looking that hard to gig you on something.




• I've recently been watching more cable televising than normal. They still produce shows about UFOs and alien technology being used to build the pyramids and other structures here on earth.




• Nonsense.




• One goob said to the effect, they had sciences and technologies that we could not even imagine today.




• Ridiculous.




• One guy was termed an, independent Egyptologist. Pfht. He should have called gooberhead who spends way too much time on conspiracy theory chat rooms and sites.




• There's a show titled 50 documentaries To see Before You Die. Commercials beat me down too much to try and sit through a program like that which is kind of slow paced anyway, so I've tried to catch some of it here and there. Inevitably, I'm catching the same parts over and over.




• Most infomercials make me feel, sad, mad or ashamed to be a sentient being.




• Shh- 3000 Miles To Graceland is on.




• Now, that's what I call entertainment.

Monday's Missives

• Zac and I witnessed a wreck while we were out walking this morning. A woman in a KIA SUV smashed a curbside parked pickup. There's no telling why it really happened ( I picture her texting). She was going fast enough though the sound of her vehicle behind us caused me to turn in time to see it happen. Glass, reflectors, trim and body parts (of the cars-not people) flew forward 30 feet and as high as the landing to the second story of the apartments.


• Bet she's wanting a do over.


• I've met two people from the blogs we read and have figured out who 3 or 4 others were when I saw them.


• There's a girl who works in a local business who looks a lot like a younger Natalie Portman. I mean a lot- she says she hears that nearly every day.


• Got fussed at a little by a commenter who said I talk about war too much and mentioned to the effect we need to wrap up the ones we're in. I get that and she's probably right on both accounts, but part of the reason I have this blog is to document my thoughts on my war time experience and also our countries wars in general.


• We will never do anything like win in Afghanistan- one reason to get out.


• And Iraq? We've bought that country in more ways than one. We brought a lot of misery and also a lot of hope to the people of Iraq. We can't leave them for these reasons and the fact it is still winnable.


• My friend has a key to use the internet at my house. It's nothing to walk in and not know he's there (he usually texts me, but I miss them like any other occasionally). It sort of perplexes other people, but I think nothing of it at all.

Saturday's Situation

From a zombie walk in Mexico City. I guess this was done for the benefit of Mexican people who don't know what decomposing bodies littering the streets looks like- both of them.












• Translating womanspeak: A woman says to you," You could do so much better than me." Translation- I could do so much better than you.




• How was your day? After a sigh and a deep inhalation she said, "Well, for starters _______ walked out bawling without saying anything. I said,"What's wrong with her?" Well, she's pregnant. Then, _________ wouldn't help with anything. _______ is a mess since her boyfriend left..."




• After that, I could see her mouth moving, but I couldn't hear a word she said.




• It's going to be up to me to get my eldest to Army training the next session.




• Zachary found a cicada in the pool and brought it in the house. I assumed it was dead until I leaned against the counter it was lying on 8 hours later while I was talking to my friend and the stupid thing started trying to right itself by grasping my arm.




• No- I did not squeal like a little girl.




• NIN Every Day Is Exactly The Same




• My friend and I are very dependant on each other. Last night he text me at near midnight, Hey man are you still up? I felt awful that I was already long gone for this world and did not even see the message until this morning.

Friday's Dispatch

• The music of today which kids will have in their future to remind them of their past is very sad. The more vapid, unoriginal and vacuous it is- the more successful it will be. A friends teenager was riding in my car recently. When referring to a song playing on the radio I said,"Oh, there's new Lady Gaga." Impressed, she said,"I'm impressed. You listen to Gaga? No," I replied honestly. "How did you know it was her then? It sounds exactly like everything else I've heard them say was hers- except different. Her music is so pervasive I must have heard everything old of hers by just catching it here and there. So, you don't even like her then? No I do not. Why? Because she's awful..."




• Yeah, it pretty much devolved into a generational culture clash at that point.




• A recent patients family was pretty severely in a state of denial regarding their impending loss until essentially the moment the patient expired then, they seemed oddly OK.




• If you loved me, you'd buy me the Encyclopedia Britannica Great Books Of The Western World set of 54 bookesses.




• At breakfast which I had in my scrubs this morning the cashier said,"Oh, I bet you're ready to hit the bed after a night shift in the ER. No, I do hospice. Oh, you look just like a guy who works in the ER at the hospital." Poor guy I thought. "He's quite a bit shorter though I think, but he does look a lot like you." Poor, poor guy.

Thursday's Thoughts

This young Marine has just been gut shot by a Taliban insurgent and wouldn't allow himself to be carried to the MEDEVAC bird. God bless him. He gave me hope. Thank you Devil Dog- you motivate me.








• Motorhead Brave New World



• My eldest was bruised and sore the other day from stage diving, mosh pitting and crowd surfing at a concert the night before.



• The Blogfather was right- it's sucky we had enough of a break from 100+ days to be denied the record, but continue to suffer from 100+ degree days.



• OK- so I paraphrased.



• Another thought- one fairly decent rain and everyone got excited and thought, the good times are here again! That rain was almost meaningless- in the big picture.



• A Comedy Of Errors will be playing in Weatherford early 2012 (date not set). Man, I can't wait. Could Shakespeare have guessed his plays would still be going so strong hundreds of years after his death? I still read him often and assume I will until the day I die. My favorite is A Midsummer Nights Dream. Pretty lite fare maybe, but I love it and always have.



• Too. Hot. To. Swim.



• Ridiculous.

Wednesday's Digressions

I generally steer clear of mugshots, except for some interesting vintage ones. I leave them alone if no other reason than- I really don't agree with kicking people while they're down, but this one simply mystified me. I mean- male or female? Where is the persons shirt? I automatically hear vintage sci fi music and see their head throbbing when I look at this pic and imagine visible brain waves trying to mindcontrol me being emitted from that noggin.








• Ninja cobra owls will bite your face off.




• One of the selling points behind TASER use in the past had been the fact it could be used to control the biggest and the baddest without having to kill them. Over 400 people have died proximal to TASER use in this country alone. Interestingly, to me is when spokespeople indicate the only alternative at discharge of the TASER was deadly force. There have been multiple thousands of people tased by law enforcement. This means there would have been multiple thousands of people shot to death by LE? We're cool with that?




• Not enough of us in this country realise, that could have been me.




• Michelle Bachmann does nothing for me- in any way. I don't think she's interesting politically or physically attractive. She makes me think of someone who is way to used to hiding how she really feels. And thinking her small family business has prepped her for POTUS? Ridiculous.




• Don asked on a post I did if Calvin Coolidge was doing my ghost writing. I'm still trying to figure that one out.




• A long time acquaintance is acting interested in me even though she has a boyfriend who I know loves her and is crazy about her. Even though I don't know the dude all that well if for no other reason- I'm staying clear of her.




• I am an oak.




• I am tired of being gently corrected by people when I correctly pronounce a word.




• Earlier, I bumped into the spouse of one of my soldiers from downrange. When she found out I was doing hospice nursing she said,"You've always been one of the most compassionate people I've ever known though. Don't give me too much credit." was my practiced response. "You need to give yourself more credit." was her response. " To this day when _______ (her husband, who was often my gunner) is reminded of you he talks about the difference you made in his life and the unit."




• People need to get out more often I'm afraid.




• Foo Fighters are learning to Walk again.
  
  

Monday's Missives

• Something I really want to get done before I die is get dropped off in the outdoors somewhere and spend the night with just what I can carry. It wouldn't have to be some bug eating, urine drinking, death defying survival situation- just build a fire, put up a hammock or a tent, eat some jerky and dried fruit and watch the stars...


• Zac loves to watch documentaries for the sake of learning. I love that about him.


• I have never really cared for U2 or The Rolling Stones.


• I have always liked The Cure.


• Zombie by The Cranberries came out in 1994, so it has been one of my favorite songs for most of 20 years.


• If posts here ever seem out of order you can look at the tags box and there will usually be a date/time group for when it was composed.


• We saw a corn snake at Sunshine Lake last Saturday. It was very healthy and pretty looking and measured about 2 feet long making it about 1 year old. I resisted the urge to catch it and let Zac look at it up close- I've done that before with other species which is good, but I also think he should know- you don't just go scooping up a handful of snake every time you stumble across one. It was the first I'd seen in the wild.


• Stupid: private citizens having cobras and other dangerous non native reptiles. Stupider: not keeping them secured. Retarded: releasing non native animals into the wild.

Saturday's Situation

I tried about a hundred times to rotate this picture. It would show in the preview it was correct and then come out like this. Anyway, this is where I was last night. It was a two act play performed at the Pythian Home in Weatherford. It was a great time- maybe 50 people there. The rest of the world didn't know what it was missing. Pythian Home has been providing foster type care to children for over 100 years. Go ask for a tour. They love to do it and have a little museum upstairs.

• I cannot comprehend how anyone could waste one minute of their lives watching Jersey Shore. For me, it cannot even even work its way in using the train wreck effect. I would rather eat a dirt sandwich than watch that show.




• An American has been kidnapped in Pakistan. He was working for a development project in Lahore. His guards were tricked into opening the gates with promises of food supposedly to end the days fast during Ramadan. Crazy. It would be crazy to go there- crazier to trust ANYONE from the region.




• It rained all night- what a relief.




• Rainageddon.




• I generally do not like autobiographies of general officers- always self serving and who cares anyway? But, I do love war histories, even autobiographical ones if they establish context well.




• One of the better war books is A rumor Of War by Phillip Caputo about his experiences in Vietnam. It was made into a miniseries starring Brian Dennehy which is interesting, since he is a big fat liar about war time service in Vietnam.




• I Came home to my moms house once and went to the old library which was across the street from the fire hall. It was weird to see my name written in my little boy handwriting on the old style card in the front of that book.

Raising Zachary

At the Wise County Reunion two girls about his age got in the same car as he on the little kids roller coaster. After the ride was over he said,"Those girls were screaming and hollering beside me the whole time! Have you ever made any girls scream and holler dad?'

Friday's Dispatch

Edna Rush and Olga Joy Washington DC May 6,1925. Ladies, you rawked- I wish we could have hung out.

• Harry Nilsson- Without You. Nilsson was your favorite singer/songwriter that you had no idea who he was (or vaguely assumed was someone else familiar). This is one of my favorite songs of his and really all songs of all time- and it has been so since I was a boy.



• Where the law office is near the old Red's barber shop on the square in Decatur TX used to be a movie theater and to the rear of it after it closed was a pool hall/arcade called Sweets.



• I know the former locations of at least 3 other pool halls in Decatur.



• My dad took me to every one when I was little. It was like Mayberry with whiskey breath, the air thick with cigarette smoke and pistols sticking out of boot tops.



• You think I'm kidding.



• Der ist eine sauerkrauten in meine leiderhosen!- last text message I received.



• May have a new- very good job. Someone called me out of the blue and asked if I was available and said,"We might have something coming up for you soon."



• When you're awesome, raw and cool as me, that happens.



• I've never been very good at yo-yo, but have always enjoyed picking one up now and again. Zachary is swinging one wildly over his head right now. I've warned him of the dangers of same 2 times. The next one is on him- it will be a hard lesson, but one that will stick I suppose. My brother could do every crazy trick in the world with one- it was mesmerizing when I was a little boy to watch him.



• Foo Fighters Let It Die

Thursday's Thoughts

Pic from an article about alleged sex romps in the cockpit of a commercial airliner. Well done Mr. Newspaper Man- well done.

• AT&T texting PSA. Watch this with people you care about- I mean it. Texting while driving is so idiotic and pervasive it scares even me.


• Fergie, Eva Mendes, Sarah Jessica Parker and Cher all examples of decidedly unhot- supposedly hot celebrities.


• Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon. Winston Churchill


• Lasagna Hamburger Helper- it's what was for supper. It was the first time I'd had it in many years. Banana nut bread is baking in the oven. It will be consumed with Braum's premium vanilla ice cream. I will be deliriously comfort fooded out in about 15 minutes.


• I like wearing T shirts with funky sayings/pictures on them, but oddly have whittled those I own down to maybe 2 or 3.


• My guess is dragons (as in giant fire breathing lizards) were real and went out sometime after the rest of the dinosaurs and whose memory stayed on somehow in the collective consciousness of humans.


• Of all the things I miss from the military teaching classes is the one that surprises me most. There was just something about mastering the material and teaching it in a way that guys could value enough to absorb and then days, weeks or months later tell me what it meant to them. In fact, in Iraq a guy who was at that time an NCO, but the last time I saw him was a new private in our stateside unit came up to me and said,"I just wanted you to know I never forgot how you and SGT Foreman treated me and the other new guys when we came into the unit. The classes you taught and the way you treated us really made a difference..."


• I appreciated that a lot, but was reminded and thought it funny, that when 90% of those classes came down they were initially assigned to higher ranking NCOs who would come ask me to bail them out and teach the class for them.

Wednesday's Digressions

• As my mom was dying she hallucinated Robert Duvall and John Wayne arguing over her. At first the Duke was in the house and Duvall was outside and they were trash talking each other, then the Duke crawled out the window and they started fighting in the backyard. At first of course she thought it was real, then thought it absurdly hilarious and would retell the story and laugh until she was breathless.


• I'm very sure I'd be one of the few pool owners who would get my money's worth out of it.


• I've never grilled fish.


• When I was living in the country near Decatur as a kid we had some terribly poor elderly neighbors. The wife of the couple would take every fish, bird, frog, squirrel or rabbit I'd bring to her and clean, cook and eat it with her husband. It only struck me today- they needed what I brought them for food- not just to have something different.


• The most disturbing pillow fight you'll see all day- Cerebral Ballzy- Junkie For Her.


• The concept of muscle memory fascinates me. I think this is mostly because it's an easy theory to discount until you experience it. The most dramatic illustration I've ever experienced was when I started riding a bicycle again after 20 years off. The last bicycle I'd had (which I literally put thousands of miles on) had a brake lever going across the top of the handlbar which was unusual. The next bike I rode 20 years later did not have this feature and it's a wonder I did not get get killed constantly reaching for it to stop.

My Town- Weatherford TX A Review Pt 1

Caption read, Texas Farmer Weatherford 1939. He looks like he was made from the dirt. I bet that dried out old man could work circles around you or I.



• Bakers Ribs: Very, very good with consistent quality of everything they serve. I think they've broken themselves of the habit, but they used to burn you with poor cuts when you did takeout. I've never eaten one, but their fried pies are supposed to be tumultuous.




• Home Depot V Lowes: HD used to be the place to be now some of their formerly best employees are burned out and avoid helping people at times. None of Lowes people seem all that knowledgeable though. So it's a tossup with HD probably edging out Lowes. Anyway, Lowes is too bright and shiny for me to be buying hardware from.




• Simms: During a remodel I broke into some wiring that I knew to be wrong and I was also 99.5% sure I knew the correct way to do it. I had already decided to use Simms so I called and asked, the dude said,"Ha! If you don't know that- you don't need to do the work." I called HD the guy confirmed my suspicions and gave me a couple of pointers and wished me well. The next day I went into Simms to buy some parts. The goob behind the counter in the back looked at me like I was retarded, literally rolled his eyes at me when I interrupted some meeting he was having and said,"Can I help you with something? Ah, no thanks dude- I'll go to Home Depot."




• I spent 35,000 dollars at Home Depot that year alone.




• Downtown Cafe: Wide range of food and everything is good and cheap. Service and food always a little better when the manager's motorcycle with the impossibly high ape hanger bars is parked on the sidewalk. At lunch and breakfast rush it's always crazy and can get hot and loud so I go later in morning or after lunch hour. Years ago it was a pharmacy and supposedly the pharmacist killed himself in the basement and so still haunts the place. He's never bothered me though. Look up at the ceiling for the coolest ceiling fans you'll ever see.




• Davis City Pharmacy: The only game in town as far as I'm concerned. Not in a hurry- tell them so and come back later and next time you'll be worthy of getting bumped ahead in front of hundreds of orders just because you say you need it and will wait. I've never had them mess up a prescription. They've been in business 100 years or something like that.




• Denny's: A Denny's should be a Denny's, but ours is always a little cleaner and quieter than others I've been in and the food quality is very consistent. Oddly, they've had chronic A/C problems since forever and it can flat burn you out in there at times.




• Import Auto Masters: I would not let anyone else work on my import cars. I've had them correctly charge me 25% more than an initial estimate from another shop because cheaper repairs would compromise durability of the repair and ride quality and not charge me anything when the car would barely pull itself into the shop and a bad gas cap was freaking the computer out.




• Parks: Long history of mismanagement, but they're plentiful with lots of activities. There's even a free water park that's very nice. We have a brand new softball complex that is gorgeous.




• Cops: Plentiful, polite and professional. Due to my job, the fact I drive too fast and mutual friends I've had to interact with them a lot through the years. Occasionally, they get a little speed trap-ish with their motorcycle units, but really- I think they could be a lot worse.




• Traffic: Oh my God- kill me.

KIA SEAL Had Texas Ties

Matt Mills 35 a 14 year SEAL died in the Chinook crash in Afghanistan this past weekend. He leaves behind 3 children and a wife. He attended Arlington schools growing up and still has family in the area.

Monday's Missives

• As a person is dying they often experience a burst of energy called a rally. This is because at a certain point after the person stops eating the fats stored around the liver are broken down and circulated as a type of sugar.







• My camera has been on loan. I need to get it back and start recording mine and Zac's adventures again.







• I love spring- not too hot, everything is green. It feels like anything could be possible and energises me like few things in this world.







• Filth, stink and dirt. The first things that crossed my mind when I thought about Iraq today.







• Yes, I know- cradle of this and accomplished that... I've read as much as anyone about the place.







• Reese's Peanut Butter Cups- one of natures most perfect foods.

Caturday Thoughts

• I'll look up something in the dictionary if I don't know what it means, but will almost always try to put it the back of my mind to try and first figure it out by context first.



• My best friend and I have knowledge that counterweights the other based on experience, training and education. We hardly ever argue, even in a good natured way over our individual knowledge base- an answer to the other's question is as good as gold. We've never discussed this, but I know he's feel the same.



• Last phone call I received: "Kevin there's a snake in my house. Can you go do something about it?" One day my luck will run out and I'll get a call like that and grab a handful of black mamba some idiot collector let loose...



• Liam Neeson is almost always better as a strong character actor rather than lead.



• "Dad, want to swim over there and talk to those girls?" And then later as he drug a girl over to the side of the pool as she clung to her floaty, "I had to bring her over here to the side- she was getting water in her mouth."



• Two different people visiting other states have called me to report rain or in one case text me pictures of same.

Friday's Dispatch

In later life Emil Sitka would perform at weddings by saying, "Hold hands you lovebirds!" That. Is. Pretty. Cool.

• Impressionist does Shakespeare in 25 celebrity voices.


• Headlines are the billions of dollars, tonnage of food and the nations participating in relief efforts in East Africa. All associated articles should all be titled, Prolonging The Agony- A Lesson In Futility.


• Information here at War Is Boring related to the ATF operation to allow weapons to be transported out of the US to Mexico to track them and build cases against weapons smugglers. One of those weapons has now been linked to the murder of the former Chihuahua State AGs brother. I've said it when I mentioned this before, but man- some ideas should just sound so bad that they never take wings.


• I'm tired of my aquarium and intend to pawn it off on my friend when he gets back from vacation.


• Do Over- the title of the newest reality show where contestants plead their case to get a do-over for their lives biggest mistakes and disappointments.


• I made that up, but it will happen.


• I have autographed copies of books by Nguyen Cao Ky and Lam Quang Thi.

Wednesday's Digressions

My idea of a Hey Now. Dana Delaney.








• The Nixons- Sister.




• I think we all know we weren't made to be alone. Something that has interested me on this subject though is how especially true this is for males. As a hospice nurse I can assure you it's nothing for even the elderly female to outlive her husband by ten or twenty years- you rarely see a male do the same. The male by all accounts can be doing well until his wife expires and then he will die six months or a year after his wife. This is one of those non scientific observations I can say all hospice nurses have noted and I've never heard one argue the fact.




• Hospice nearly always comes out hopsice the first time.




• If living in an apartment I would definitely pay that extra fifteen bucks a month or whatever it costs to have covered parking.




• In the right place and from the right distance a garbage truck dropping a dumpster sounds like a VBIED going off at a distance. I was never hit by one, but heard and saw a lot- why I take note of the similarity in sound I suppose.

Monday's Missives

• Some time ago after a bunch of bills, having to buy a car, my contract work slowing down a little and a move etc. I found myself standing in a grocery store with my son having to decide between which was the cheapest of products, what would feed us best and the longest and tell him he couldn't have anything extra he asked for- I was ashamed. But really, I knew it would be very temporary and things could have been way worse. The first thing I thought was, there are people who have to make these decisions every day and not only those, but do I pay this bill or that? Do I eat or buy my medicine?



• I'm OK with being bald, but would like to have had great hair, I think it helps you a lot socially.



• Goatee, soul patch, Fu Manchu, chin beard and shaved in the middle mustache with two ends left (whatever that is called): different permutations of facial hair I've had through the years.



• The Crystal Method Keep Hope Alive.