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  • “I shot the sheriff” Bob Marley

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Not sure why Sunday has turned into such a peaceful day….

    It used to be because most of our customers were least busy, so I would get the least amount of phone calls. I was jolted earlier today when I thought, “Where is my work phone?”. In some ways, I’m still getting out of “work mode” – in other ways, I’m way, way gone.

    Right now it’s quiet, the TV is off, my daughter is still asleep – I’m thinking about pattern one scales in the way that this one book is telling me…..and wanting to write a song.

    There was a police officer across the street – and knowing my neighbors are out of town, I went to see if everything was ok. Everything was fine – including the officer. *wink-wink-nudge-nudge*. I could have easily crossed over in our tiny insignificant conversation and asked for her number, but I passed that tipping point where it felt natural, and just let it go.

    Also, I never feel comfortable doing that kind of thing when my daughter is within say, 500 feet?

    Sunday is supposed to be a religious day. I was definitely thinking about the big “R” the other day when someone asked me if I used to be a priest.

    These days, I consider myself a non-theist. I’m a practicing non-theist. LOL.

    Atheism, to me, prescribes a kind of knee-jerk reaction to whatever religion is being presented.

    The only god I pray to is the porcelain kind – and speaking of which: I was replacing the wax seal (again) because I undertightened the bolts on the toilet, and ended up breaking it (the toilet). Bummer. My new one is in route to get here in the next hour or so – then I can install it. I’ll be kind of glad since I’ve been meaning to replace the disgusting seat that’s been on there since we moved in.

    I gave my first guitar lesson on Friday – and I think it went well. I don’t know how the student thought it went, but overall we covered some things, and started down the path.


    📂This entry was posted in Guitar 📎and tagged

  • “I’m not that interested in fashion… When someone says that lime-green is the new black for this season, you just want to tell them to get a life.” Bruce Oldfield

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Well, I went ahead and did it.

    My artistic side is getting a chance to roam for a while. I had no less than six conversations about my hair today.

    I love it up here – people make conversation with me rather than gawk. (Some gawk too) One lady asked me what band I was in, and I said, “I’m not in a band right now, I teach guitar”. Her (probably 4 year old) son plays drums – I told him to keep at it, that there is something in the water in Texas and EVERYBODY plays guitar.

    Lots and lots and lots and lots of people just walk right up to me: “You have GREEN HAIR!!”

    Me: “You are soooo correct!”

    *laugh*

    One thing I forgot about our trip to Galveston, when I was driving the seawall, I was nearly a third car in a three car collision – my four wheel discs stopped in time, and the first car (that was rear-ended) pulled away and drove off! My zippy little car caught up to them so that we could get their license plate, and we turned around and gave it to car #2. Good deed for the day.


    📂This entry was posted in Main 📎and tagged

  • “Babies don’t need a vacation but I still see them at the beach. I’ll go over to them and say, ‘What are you doing here, you’ve never worked a day in your life!’.” Stephen Wright

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    I’ve been a pretty busy dude.

    Obviously.

    Friday was my last day at work (have already covered that).

    Didn’t really feel like doing anything, but drove out to Houston on Saturday. Monica and I stopped at Mai’s for food – and picked up some for Tam and Chelsea. My daughter ate steak at the Hilton – where I managed to get them a room for the night after the Green Day concert. I think I tried to eat fish the entire weekend. Went to the show –

    which was obviously cool. They blew ticker tape all over the place – it had skulls on it. I think I just washed the few pieces I had. Or I dropped them – I don’t remember. my kid got some, which is really what matters. I got Terry a Green Day sticker (per request) and got a shirt for the kiddo. She loved it.

    Drove to Galveston on Sunday – had a lot of fun. We went to Seawolf Park which was pretty much decimated by the last hurricane. It was all dirt. I got pretty pink in the 20 or 30 minutes we were out uncovered. Got some great pictures in the submarine – but didn’t get to go into the conning tower. Used to be able to look through the periscope when I was a kid. 🙁

    Walked on the beach (2 miles) at night which was really, really cool. Got a lot of exercise walking, but picked up about four pounds over the weekend. 🙁 Since it’s mostly beer, I suspect I’ll lose it by the end of next week. Time to start drinking a lot of water – and quit eating food after seven pm!

    Great news! On the way back from H-town, I decided to tempt fate and contact my GI guy (not the GI Joe guy, the General Internist or whatever he is) and they said that I had “allergic espohatitis“. That’s good – it’s not cancerous. I now have an inhaler that I have to use for the next 6 or 8 weeks – and then we’ll go from there. I will surely laugh at the prospect that it may be coffee that I’m allergic to.

    Got back and then I REALLY got busy. I shipped the IC300 out to be painted, and got some hair bleach at Hot Topic, went to Sally’s Beauty Supply and picked up some Green Manic Panic. Stage One:

    Being unemployed is so freaking cool. (Until the bills roll in……)

    I also picked up some music books and a music stand – getting ready for LESSON # 1!

    LOL.


    📂This entry was posted in Guitar 📎and tagged

  • “The world, dear Agnes, is a strange affair.” Moliere

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Wow.

    Today was my last day of work. They held a great little luncheon for me, and I cracked jokes pretty much the entire time, probably to try and convince myself that I’m not nervous about the leap I’m taking. Oddly enough, we had some conversations about my age. Apparently pretty much everyone there thought I was in my mid-forties – and were very surprised that I’m not. LOL.

    After it was all over, I came home and passed out for four hours. It honestly was pretty emotionally draining. After spending five long harrowing years pouring blood and sweat into this job – I walked away.

    Some people kept saying, “It’s going to be impossible to fill your shoes”. I don’t truly believe that’s the case, I think there will be a relatively natural evolution that will occur. It will just be different (for them). I didn’t expect the place to go up in flames without me at all. It remained standing as I slowly pulled myself away over this last few….uh…er…..weeks. Ha!

    In other news:

    * I went to a golf driving range last night. The twist? All the balls were RFID’d and you had a monitor next to you that would track how far and how accurately you hit the ball. Since I haven’t golfed in 25 years (pretty close to not ever golfing) it was pretty rough for the first 60 balls. I finally got my swing in a little bit and managed to hit 4 out of 5 balls (in a row) pretty much where I wanted them to go. It was a lot of fun and there were lots of cute girls there too. Apparently driving ranges are the new meat market! Beer helps too…..except when my brother is bellowing “You suck BALLS???”. It was funny though.

    * I’m having my Ibanez custom painted to look like a White Zombie model that’s no longer in production. I’ve owned a guitar with a floyd rose, and I’ve never been truly excited about getting another one with a Floyd, so I might as well get my cheap stop tail painted custom and save myself $3000.

    The guy that is doing it is pretty excited about it – so am I. I’ve been posting on every guitar forum that I’m looking for one – no go. They’re HARD to find. I even e-mailed Jay Yuenger – since it’s his signature model – to see if he had one, but he didn’t have one to sell! I’m mailing the body off next week – crossing my fingers that all goes well.

    * Green Day is tomorrow. I begin the trek down to Houston tomorrow morning some time. The way that I feel RIGHT NOW is that I’m so worn from this last two weeks, I almost want to crawl into bed for a week or two and not get out. I’m sure I’ll feel differently tomorrow morning, but I’m still mentally a blob right now. We’re going to go to Mai’s for some spring rolls (yay for Mai’s!!) and then hit the show. Heading for Galveston on Sunday, and will be spending the night. Mini-vacation if you will. Coming back Monday to see if anyone tried to test out my Brinks alarm system.

    * One of my former employees is interested in learning guitar (zero experience) so I’m going to use this as an opportunity to try my skills at teaching guitar, which is one thing I’m pretty interested in doing. Being interested in it and doing it are two separate things, so we’ll see how this works out. Should be pretty fun.


    📂This entry was posted in Guitar 📎and tagged

  • “It’s all fun and games, until someone looses an eye…than it’s fun and games you can’t see anymore.” James Hetfield

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    The week is slowly, slowly crawling toward Friday. Not only the end of the week, but the end of my illustrious career at my current employment.

    In talking to one of my employees today, I was invited to a “midget wrestling match” in the next few weeks.

    I agreed – but somehow the “PC” person inside me is thinking, “Whhhhaaaaatttt???”

    All in all, I need to be trying new things – this one should be a doozy!


    📂This entry was posted in Main 📎and tagged

  • “Hell, by the time a man scratches his ass, clear his throat, and tells me how smart he is, we’ve already wasted fifteen minutes.” Lyndon B. Johnson

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Tonight was a pretty exciting night.

    Was invited for dinner at Rod’s, and managed to get a large chunk of beef brisket stuck in my throat. I could breathe, but my esophagus was jammed tight.

    I went home, attempting to cough it up and gave up. Went to the ER, and had two sets of drugs pushed into me via IV and then the last resort was “Nitro” – nitroglycerin – before they were calling the GI guy.

    Right after I took the nitro, I managed to hurl the chunk of meat out of my throat and they said I’d be spending the night since they wanted to shove a tube into my insides to look around.

    Awoke at 11 or so to a nurse telling me that they were going to do it in one hour.

    Got completely doped up, had the procedure, then woke up.

    The GI guy said that my lower esophagus was too swollen to do a routine dilation (widening) and that he’d taken a biopsy of some lumps down there. Of course, I’m pretty paranoid since my father recently passed away from esophageal cancer – but he reassured me that these were pretty standard lumps for someone my age and treated with steroids.

    We’ll see what the biopsy says. I’m not overly negative toward it – if they are cancerous, it’s my own damn fault for not getting them checked out sooner.

    Follow up in 8 or so weeks. Guess I’ll be filing for COBRA – since I’m still giving my notice tomorrow.

    Rod picked me up and I’m at home.


    📂This entry was posted in Main 📎and tagged

  • “Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit” George Carlin

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    They always say, “Never quit while you’re ahead”. Oddly enough, I never hear a corresponding statement for any other occasion. So, henceforth, forthwith, I shall now say, “Never quit while you’re ahead, but get the hell out when you’re behind”.

    As I inch my way toward my impending resignation…….

    Oh.

    Did I not mention?

    I’m giving my two weeks notice on Monday. My last day will be August 7th, the day right before the Green Day concert. I’ve considering going blonde – then lime green for the show, but that might be a little much for a senior as advanced in age as I am. That and I don’t want to “flame out” like I normally do on these work ending occasions. Usually I’ll end up burning some bridges – but this time I think not.

    What will I do with myself? Going Back to School as it were…..

    Can’t find anything else worthwhile to do, so I might as well get an edumacation (again). Maybe I’ll get one of those degrees this time.

    So….I’m thinking this will be pretty much like any other job ending that I’ve had….with the exception that i’ll still have to come up with child support each month. D’OH!

    Have to take a math placement test tomorrow – by the time I get a degree there should be jobs available again. LOL.


    📂This entry was posted in School 📎and tagged

  • “What this country needs is more unemployed politicians.” Angela Davis

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    This pretending to be un-employed in preparation for the real thing is kind of cool.

    Nobody calling me, getting things done, hanging out with my daughter.

    I’m going to head over to the school to re-register and see how many of my class hours evaporated. *Poof*

    I used to be a sophomore….somehow after 20 or so years, this time I’ll probably have to start from scratch.

    What to do, what to do…….

    Awaiting the Brinks alarm installation folks – finally getting around to that.


    📂This entry was posted in Guitar 📎and tagged

  • “On a bell curve, we’re all born with certain skills. Some people are better track runners than others, and on and on, and everyone knows this. But there are some people who are more psychic, more tuned in. If you’re too far above average, you can walk down the street, go into information overload, be empathic, be an empath, pick up all the feelings of all the people around you… and your life can be miserable.” Major Ed Dames

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    In further conversation with an aforementioned beautiful women, regarding my previous theory she said (and I quote)

    “I just can’t understand why guys do some of the things they do – I mean, I just don’t get it”

    So I said, “It’s because they’re male, and you’re a gorgeous woman.”

    So, I came to the conclusion that there’s a pretty typical bell curve (which I am too lazy to illustrate or even steal somewhere off the web).

    Whereby – there is a chasm of understanding between what men will do for a gorgeous woman, and what a gorgeous woman understands a man will do for a beautiful woman (the bottom of either side of the bell curve).

    AND

    a very close margin of understanding of what men will do for a gorgeous woman, and what a gorgeous woman understands a man will do for a beautiful woman (the top of the bell curve).

    So:

    At the bottom of the bell curve, there’s probably the typical “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” understanding.

    At the middle of the bell curve – where most of us are, realize the differences and there’s a give and take between the sexes’ realities.

    At the top of the bell curve, are the people who know what they’ve got, know how to use it to their advantage, and could get the opposite of their sex to commit murder and make them think it was their idea.

    Totally non-scientific – but entertaining nontheless.


    📂This entry was posted in Main 📎and tagged

  • “A smile says a million words. A tear says a thousand words. One look says it all.”

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare 2 Comments

    As I was discussing earlier with a friend, I’m not sure if it’s a fatal flaw or just that I’m male….

    When I look into the eyes of a beautiful woman, I can be told anything and I’ll believe it’s the truth.

    sceyes

    She could be covered in blood, with a knife in her hand and a corpse at her feet – and say, “I didn’t do it…..”

    And I’d believe her.

    Consensus was because I’m male. Apparently I’m not the only one who has this problem.


    📂This entry was posted in Main 📎and tagged