Zona

How do I write boredom?

I wish I had too much to do instead of too much time and nothing to do, or say. I wish I had a chair on the dusty porch of an abandoned building and only the sounds of surrounding nature. I want the sun at my back and the breeze in my face. I want the songs I love on the radio and the shows that make me laugh on the TV. I want women to come and go without saying anything or wanting me to remember their names. I want cherry flavored powerade just the right temperature. I want these really nice frames I saw a guy wearing in the movie Ghandi. I want to sit on a nice sofa in a lounge and listen to Joni Mitchell play all her piano songs. I want to drive back and forth on I-8 between Gila Bend and Casa Grande with the top down and Rickie Lee Jones' Last Chance Texaco blaring out of the stereo. I want to walk through a ghost town with tumble weeds. I want to walk along the beach as the rising tide swamps the castles and I love yous. I want to nurse my drink on the far end of the bar while a group watches the game on TV on the other end. I want play both end against the middle. I want to stare into the abyss. I want to wave to strangers and hang up on a friend. I want the neighbors complaining. I want the brakes to fail and the luck to kick in. I want them hung over the chair or crumpled on the floor. I want a do-over. I want to walk the miracle mile.

I want to sum it all up and then throw it all away.

My daughter's divorce was finalized a few days ago. What started as two kids looking at each other and saying "I do" ended on a conference call. My daughter was granted full custody of the children which anybody would easily see, was in their best interest.

Now we move on.

The children are have dual citizenship and will grow up in the U.S.. I like that they have the option of choosing between the two countries when they get to that age, and I will be happy to facilitate their visits with their father when they are older.

My hopes also lie with my daughter and her ex finding some stability in their lives and progressing in positive ways towards the future.

One of the all time greats died yesterday

Paul Newman lived a fuller life than most and I wish him a good rest and his family peace.

My top 5 Paul Newman movies

Cool Hand Luke
Absence of Malice
Fort Apache, The Bronx
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Cat On a Hot Tin Roof

Day off Haiku

Go cross the border
To apply for a passport
Lunch with my daughter

After today I only have two more days where I have too get up at 3AM. On Sunday my work day starts at noon. It will change my life. I will be able to get up and have breakfast. I will be able to watch Sunday Morning on CBS. When I get to Salt Lake City my work day will start at 1PM.

I will be able to read the morning paper. I'll even have it delivered to the house in SLC and maybe even go out in a robe and slippers to get it from the driveway.

Two eggs and bacon and maybe some sliced potatoes fried on an iron skillet like my gramma used to do it. I would just run the hot potato over the stick of butter and then right into my mouth. Multi grain toast and a big glass of milk will top it all off.

That will probably become my new morning ritual before anybody else is awake. The kids will read this and want to get up with me for breakfast. I will direct them to the cupboard containing the boxes of cereal.

They're on their own.

But I don't like cheese and wine

An article in Time Magazine says that what the U.S. Government is doing by basically nationalizing the banking/mortgage/insurance companies is what France did under Miterrand. I don't know if I spelled his name right but I guess I better learn.

So the Bush administration, for as right wing as they seem to be, is taking the United States on the path toward Socialism.

No more Freedom Fries?
Crepes?
Berets?

At least we're not Commies.

Not until China calls in their loans anyway. But I say we default if they do. What are they gonna do? You can't get blood out of a wheel of Brie.

Sports update

We won both games last night. I batted 2 for 5.

The second game was against a bunch of college boys. Young dudes all in shape and all with good arms. Just a big group of cocky whiners. What I love about a group like that is they try to hit everything out. So I pitch short and they hit fly outs and ground ball outs. They finally came alive after 5 innings and mounted a huge rally that fell one run short.

Buh bye Facebook

I shut it down. It was pretty worthless to me.

Two of my links has shut down their blogs and who knows if they will return. I wish them only the best.

If you have followed my blog you may know why I blog. I blog so that one day, when I am gone, my grandkids will be able to read and see a part of what I thought about things, or what was going on in my life. Of course I don't get TOO deep because you just can't do that all the time unless you can either do it without hurting someone or exposing yourself to hurt by others. That's a trick that few have been able to pull off.

So I never worry about being a "good" blog by those who judge such things (whoever they are) because I know my blog's purpose. I know some enjoy it who are not family and I've met many people, and seen links come and links go and in that way it is entertaining to me. But it's not for me. If it were for me and it's sole purpose was to entertain and become popular and read by many, it would have been shut down a long time ago.

Two sides to everything

My brother-in-law lost his mother not too long ago and was wearing only black which is customary to some old school catholics in Bolivia. Before that he suffered some kind of breakdown crisis probably due to the stress of being a small business owner. He has a shoe store and when counterfeit name brand shoes are sold cheaper down the street it makes for worry.

He just recently found out that he is going to be a grandfather and everything has turned around for him. He's exstatic. He loves children and he and my sister-in-law were only able to have one. Now that son, my nephew, and his wife are expecting their first child.

So my brother-in-law has put his foot down and decreed that all six dogs and one cat are to be exiled from the house before the arrival of the baby.

A friend at work recently received news that his transfer has been funded. He's going to a really mellow place to work and is, as many of us would be, excited to be able to relax during the last years of his career.

He fell down at the cruise ship terminal and injured his knee. When he went and got an xray to determine the extent of the damage, a growth near his knee was spotted. Exploratory surgery was done and the worst was discovered.

He begins chemotherapy soon.

Watch for falling people

The stock market plummeted to under 11,000 yesterday. I moved my money out and put it into fixed bonds almost a year ago when the market was at 13,500.

Whew

So I go to the doctor and try to put what I'm feeling or have felt into words.

tight bungee cords
rubber straps
rusty hinges
dull
sharp
immobilizing
9 on a scale to 10

So he asks me for the number of this dominatrix I'm seeing and if she's taking on any new clients right now.

Then he tells me to go over to another clinic an x-ray of my hip to see if I'm in the beginning stages of arthritis.

Call me heartless but don't call me stupid

They told the people of Galveston, Texas that a rather large storm, that some people in the weather business refer to as a hurricane, was coming. They gave them a three day heads up. They told them to get out. Many stayed instead. Now they are rescuing them.

Here's a sample conversation of me as a rescuer in a boat in Galveston.

Me: Are you injured?

Them: No

Me: Okay, good luck

Them: Wait. Where are you going?

Me: I'm looking for injured people

Them: But we need help

Me: Why didn't you evacuate?

Them: Uh......

Me: Good luck

And then I'd go away.

You see, these people were warned. And unlike the people of Cuba, these people had some way to escape the wrath of the storm. They were warned that 7-15 feet of sea water filled with all sorts of debris and sewage was going to cover their neighborhoods. They were told that the power was going to be out for days if not weeks. So basically, a hurricane returned Galveston to the 18th century. These people chose to stay after 21st century technology told them that they should leave town to avoid what some even referred to as "certain death".

That would have worked for me.

So that's why, if I were one of the first rescuers into that area, I would leave the uninjured fools where I found them until I knew that all the injured fools received the aid that they needed and that they were taken out of the affected area.

Then when the uninjured asked for help again I would get them out of the affected area. If they still wanted to stay they'd have to sign a legal document taking full responsibility for any injury or illness caused by storm damage.

If you stayed and you had children I would contemplate child endangerment charges.

Softball breakout!

I was warming up pre-game by jogging about 30 yards up and back from the bench. After one trip I decided to put a little more speed into it. Have you ever seen one of those old movies where the jalopy car sputters and backfires. Well I sputtered but did not backfire. It turns out that I have one speed now.

But that's okay because my pitching was dead on.

We won both games and I struck out a guy who was all mouth in our first meeting three weeks ago. Struck him out looking. Slow pitch softball, and a guy that hit the ball wherever he wanted in our last encounter watched a nice slow high arc of a pitch hit the ground to be called STRIKE THREE by the umpire.

I took a hundred pitches at the batting cage a couple of days ago to get my timing back and it DID help but in the first game I grounded out twice. In the second game my impatience reared it's head again and I was swinging early. I flied out to left field in my first at bat but in my second at bat I hit a line drive over the third baseman driving in two runs and I was even able to make it to second base wher I was promptly declared OUT.

You see, when I reach first base in an at-bat, somebody comes and runs for me. It's known as a courtesy runner. I usually call for one while I'm standing on the base. What I found out last night is that our captain can also announce that I will be using a courtesy runner in the pre-game meeting where the captains meet with the umpire to exchange line-ups. That means I HAVE to stop at first no matter where I hit the ball.

So what I thought was my first double in some 15 years ended up being a single with me being called out for running to second base. The runs still counted and I'm still pretty stoked that my hitless slump is over.

What 9/11 has come to mean to me

4 year-olds removing their shoes at airport security
small town America has a SWAT team
everybody's the boogie man
the operator stays on the line and listens
attorney's general who won't answer questions
ground zero still vacant

There IS one good thing though. It's the anniversary of me being hired by Uncle Sugar, and this year marks 20 years. 1988-2008. Wow. Ten more to go.

Can I do it without getting up and turning off my iPod?

Days off are lazy days. All days are lazy days. I've fallen way off on my computer time since my laptop crashed and burned. My knee has scabbed up nice and now that's starting to fall off and I will soon be healed. I found a batting cage close to the house and will bounce over there later today.

Time for some breakfast

The old dog trying to do old tricks

I have a large bruise/scrape on my knee from falling down while trying to run to first base during last night's softball game. My legs just can't keep up with my desire for speed and I'm awkward and I fall down. I would probably laugh if I saw anybody else do it and my teammates and I DID share some chuckles once everybody knew that I was not hurt bad. And I did get up and return to the mound and retire all three players in the top of the next inning. And we won the game.

My legs feel as if they have no spring left in them and the joints are just bare bone.

The good thing is that I'm not sore today except for the parts of me that hit the ground.

I really need to get to a batting cage and work on my hitting. As for my running? Well, that's going to be a much longer process.

One of my favorite photographers on Flickr has passed away

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tommcfarlane/2772964746/

This was my favorite photo by Tom

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tommcfarlane/2296594369/

Why do our kids think we're stupid?

My son snuck out last night and did not sleep at home. He left the window open and used some clothes and a coconut carving to make it look like he was in bed. It was just like one of those prison escape movies. I would have laughed if his mother were not in tears.

What makes them think that they could get away with some of the stuff they attempt to pull off?

They've all gotten busted. They think they can show up drunk or stoned without us noticing. If my wife were like me, my son might return home to see all his clothes nicely folded and waiting for him on the front porch. But she isn't like me.

Let that be notice to some of them. She's the reason your father didn't toss you out on your butts.

They have all taken turns breaking her heart and making her question if she's a good mother. Well I'm here to tell you that she's the perfect mother. She will forgive them anything if they ask. She would give them the last breath of her life if they needed it to get to their next. She is the only person on this planet who cries for them, who suffers for them, who picks up after them, who is the proudest of their accomplishment, and is happiest when she sees them smile or laugh.

From JaG who got it from somebody else

1. My uncle once: tried to save his girlfriend who was pretending to drown. (he ended up drowning because he did not know how to swim)

2. Never in my life: have I had a hole-in-one.

3. When I was five: we moved into the house where my mother still lives.

4. High school was: four years full of missed opportunities now that I know what I know.

5. I will never forget: the first kiss.

6. Once I met: my fear head on and won.

7. There's this girl I know: that I'd like to see again.

8. Once, at a bar: a girl I had never met sat on my lap and did the grind to the horror of her friends who soon rushed her away.

9. By noon, I'm usually: ready to go home.

10. Last night: I slept without waking.

11. If only I had: a house in a valley on a farm in southern Bolivia.

12. Next time I go to church: I'll tell everybody you said hello.

13. What worries me most: are my kids once I retire.

14. When I turn my head left I see: a wall.

15. When I turn my head right I see: a luggage carousel.

16. You know I'm lying when: I smile.

17. What I miss most about the Eighties is: being debt free.

18. If I were a character in Shakespeare I'd be: dead now.

My photo of one of the courtyards of the Arizona Inn in Tucson was used in an online guide. Pretty cool. Even cooler hotel is the Arizona Inn where Joe Bonano could be found eating lunch everyday it was said.

http://www.schmap.com/guidewidgets/p=20555264N00/c=SH20291555

So my computer activity is down a lot.

No biggie, I still love you guys.

I bought a black University of Utah sweatshirt online. I'm starting to let my mind slide to the south which is something we refer to at work as "short timing". The wife and oldest daughter are already house shopping and I'm thinking of trips to Tucson on the long weekends that I don't take my son to Vegas.

One more move. Maybe in 6 or 7 years if I get a wild hair and Calgary or Aruba is looking for people and I could retire out of those slots. Other than that, Salt Lake is it for me.