Monday's Missives

• FG is done with me for good.  I miss her like I never missed anybody- even the ex wife (where I more missed the marriage/family than her anyway). She was a friend, an amazing lover and fellow explorer (FG- not ex wife). We literally climbed mountains together. She made things I knew and loved before her better and made me want to see new things. It is a time worn expression but she made me want to be a better person.
• Suicide Squad is a great movie with fantastic music. If Leto had not been hyped soooo much as Joker before the movies release- he would have stolen the show. Even Will Smith who I do not care much for was excellent.
• My tablet will show the battery is fully charged. It will work for about 15 minutes then it will without warning- die.
• I scored on a stack of movies at the pawn shop yesterday- 8 movies for under 12 buck. Among my finds was 12 Monkeys- a great film. It is a shame I did not pick up more but the covers were all taped shut so I was a bit leery- but they are all like new. When DVDs were more valuable, pawn shops would buff  minor scratches out with rouge and a polish wheel but I do not know if that happens anymore. Anyway- I can always go back with Zac to teach him how to navigate life's seedy underbelly.
• Cinch clothing is among the most high quality you can buy. In my closet are jeans and shirts which have been worn frequently (if not hard) for 20 years.
• As I write this sitting by the pool the sound of the fountain is about to knock me out. Honestly, I am tempted to just turn over and doze off.
• People- even authors who should know better, are using commas these days where they should use semi colons or dashes.
• Today (12/28/2016) Zac informed his mother he wanted a microscope as in his words, I think it is time I began exploring my world at the molecular level...
• Songs to kill the mood.

Friday's Dispatch

• People who have an inkling of historical context may think the Tet offensive was a military failure in 1968 for the US military. It is often cited correctly as a if not the turning point toward a lack of support for the war. So the US lost that battle right? No, it was a resounding and complete military victory for the US, so much so what we call the Vietcong was so decimated it was never able to reconstitute.
• The sun feels good at 1240.32 hours on 06/08/2014 as I sit by the pool.
• When I was Zac's age I went to the pool by myself and would stay gone all day. Sometime I would dive for change and when I had enough added to the money I got picking up Coke bottles to sell I would buy something from the snack bar to survive. Those days are long gone now- in more ways than one. The pool in Decatur Texas by the football field was long ago filled with dirt. People have even argued with me it was there in first place.

  

  Here I demonstrate how to properly eat a yellow jacket maggot. They're sweet and slightly nutty, tasting vaguely like sweet corn

• My no dry cleaning experiment is now completing it's second month. I am not spending money on dry cleaning and instead I hit my clothes with a freshener, wipe the inside of the collars with a wet washcloth and pass the iron over them. Then I leave lots of breathing room between them in the closet and spread the wears out of each item as much as possible.. There are no odors and they look like new. As time goes by unless I reach some kind of critical mass and there is an explosion of funkiness in my closet I'll use the money I save to buy new clothes to improve my rotation. I'll buy 2 new shirts and some socks today.
• The fly catchers are back- working the trees over the pool. You see a black dot flying near them, the bird darts up and does some fantastic aerobatics, the black dot disappears into their beak, they then alight for a minute on an open branch and this repeats every few minutes.
• The Cramps song New Kind Of Kick has been playing in a loop in my brain for over 2 hours now. It is a great, in fact favorite song but enough is enough. Quit it head-brain. I mean it. Here, together we'll watch what cricket looks like to Americans and see if it helps rid us of this earworm.
• About 20 minutes ago (on 06/08/2014 @ around 4:20) FG said, I'm going to try cutting Zac's hair. About 15 minutes ago she called out, Hey Kevin, look up a hair place in the area that is open on Sunday. Ten minutes ago she said, I'm quitting while I'm ahead and getting out of here before they close. Five minutes ago they were a blur as they ran out the door like he had drunk a quart of antifreeze and she was afraid the emergency department was about to close. How bad was it? I didn't take a picture to put up here as I didn't want it to haunt him for rest of his life.

  

  Not for everybody (even car guys) but this is a perfect hot rod in my book.
  The long wheel base and color besides red and the factory-ish two tone colors make it look different  for a hot rod and work great.  It has an up-gunned small block and two turbochargers.