Don’t Forget the Troops!!!

I admit it. I’ve been wrapped up in my own world quite a bit lately. I had a stellar vacation up in Montana in which I got some very nice time in on the slopes and spent time with my friends I don’t get to see too often. My dad is still recovering, but appears to be in the clear for which I am thankful. I got to spend time with my family on Christmas, and I’ve been playing catch up with work.

But…. Yesterday I was listening to the radio on my way to my folks house. They were talking about women who are involved with soldiers that are deployed to Iraq. It ran the gambit from women that were loyal and dedicated to those that were cheating on them (deplorable).

One argument the host presented is that if these people really loved their spouse / girlfriend / boyfriend / whatever, is that they wouldn’t have enlisted and went off to Iraq. I have to admit, I can listen to most of this stuff on the radio and it never phases me but I got pretty bent over this and had to turn it off.

Ultimately, though, I got to thinking about our men, women, boys and girls over seas. You may not agree with the war. You may not support the war. But please, support the troops over there that don’t exactly have a choice. Many of us have friends and family over there that we cannot be with this time of the year. Take some time while you are sipping on your eggnog and playing with your kid’s new Wii to give pause and just think about them for a moment and be thankful that you are able to get your buzz on without having to worry about being shot at.

A Christmas Omen

I was making my first beverage of Christmas day. I grabbed one of my standard tumblers from my cabinets and proceeded to the ice dispenser of the refrigerator. As the ice was making it’s way into my glass, and I anticipated the taste of rum and coke, the ice broke the glass and it came apart in my hands!!

No, there were no cuts, and glass didn’t go all over the floor. I was just very surprised as I’ve never had that happen before – ever. I figured it must be some kind of omen. Based on that, I made my beverage a double.

Merry Christmas!!

…and the Little Drummer Bastard beats his drum. Sorry, that is a Foamy reference.

But, hey! It’s Christmas morning. No snow on the ground, here. It’s about 45, here and we might get up to 60 today. I should be out riding the bike!!! Last week I was boarding in about four-feet of fresh “cold smoke” powder. The highs were in the 20’s. Here I am outside in shorts and a t-shirt, but at least I’ll get to see my family.

I’ve never been a big Christmas fan. Every since I learned that Santa wasn’t real and the true “meaning” of Christmas I felt that it’s always been completely over commercialized. Then there is the pressure of giving. You have to give to everyone. Christmas cards, cakes, cookies, presents, emails, phone calls, IM’s, etc. It’s never enough. I can’t remember to send something to everyone. If I forgot you this year, I apologize. I certainly didn’t mean to. You just got lost in the mix!!!

And then there are the crowds and throngs of people all fighting to get the latest toy for their kids. Don’t hesitate too long in the grocery isle or as you reach for that last can of chicken broth you will be knocked senseless by some lady wielding a 20lb butter-ball turkey!! Hey man! I just wanted some soup!

Yes, I have no food in the house. I was on vacation for a week and my room mate pretty much scarfed down what was left while I was gone. That’s fine, and I don’t have a problem with it. But I go to the store and the fookers are parked out into the street. Really? You couldn’t have planned ahead just a little better than this? Now I have to starve or eat fast food because I sure as hell am not going in there.

I also seem to associate Christmas with relatives that have passed away either because they died right around Christmas, or that’s just when I really miss them.

So yeah, I guess I am a bit of a scrooge….but what I’d really like is just to get together with family and friends, have a bottle of wine or two, some dinner, and just be thankful that we are able to see each other without all the gift exchange hoopla. Oh…wait, that’s Thanksgiving.

I'm a Bastard!

For those of you who have been waiting to see how my father is doing, I apologize. Last week was kind of hectic between work, and making sure he and my mom were OK.

As of today, he’s at home and doing just fine. He’s still not quite eating as much as we’d like him to, but he says everything still doesn’t quite taste right. That will probably go away in time.

He also walked around the block yesterday and appears to be getting around just fine, though he is restricted from doing some every day things due to his breast bone having to heal up.

I’ve actually gotten up to Montana to have some vacation time! I wouldn’t have come up here if my dad wasn’t doing good, but since he was getting back to his old self (I got a history and political lesson the last day I saw him in the hospital) I wasn’t too worried about it.

So why am I a bastard?

Well, aside from the times when people have told me that they don’t want to play games with me –

Do you want to play Monopoly?
No.
Why not?
Because you are a bastard
What do you mean?
You play to win
And your point???

- I’m a real smart-ass and have a mouth on me.

My dad had just gotten out of surgery. We waited in the waiting room all day. It was fairly long, and we were all tired. You can imagine, we finally get to see my dad late at night and he’s barely coming around from the anesthesia.

He’s got two chest drain tubes, a catheter, a central line, pacemaker wires, all kinds of IV’s and stuff all over the place, a stomach tube, and he’s on a ventilator. It’s a little distressing seeing him like this, but his color was good and his body temp was back up to normal.

He’s very disoriented, his eyes are glazed and he can barely open them. They agree to take him off the ventilator and we step out of the room while they do this. It’s obviously not very pleasant having a tube shoved down your throat, and probably even less pleasant having them take it out after you just got through having surgery. But, they got it out and then they let us back in to see him.

He’s still pretty much out of it, but acknowledges that we are there. He manages to ask, in a very croaky voice, “What time is it?” to which my mom replies “It’s about 8:15pm.”

Now, in a micro second my brain reacts and I start to blurt out “January 3rd.” (he went in on December 11th) I had to bite my tongue and stifle a giggle. Here is my dad, laid up, just out of open heart surgery, feeling horrible, barely conscious, and just wanting to know what time it is, and then there is me with my natural reaction to fuck with somebody.

I’m a bastard.

Waiting to wait....

I am sitting in a waiting room. More specifically, I am sitting in a fairly nice waiting room that is part of the cardio vascular facility at Arlington Memorial Hospital. My father is having a triple bypass as I type.

It’s hard not to be at least a little bit worried, but for the most part I’m not overly concerned. This is a fairly routine procedure, if you find that having your chest cracked open and your heart stopped “routine.”

Besides as a friend of mine said, there isn’t any other option but for things to turn out OK.

I was on the way to the airport when I got the news he was supposed to have surgery immediately. My boss and company were kind enough to find a replacement for my gig and tell me to stay with my family. I know that my parents are comforted by my being here and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

My dad was in fairly good spirits this morning before he went in, but I can tell he was nervous. Who wouldn’t be?

I look at it like this – he had a major heart attack and lost about 40% of his heart muscle. At the time, the docs told him that if he did everything that they tell him to do that they would give him another five years. That was just over 10 years ago. I feel pretty lucky to have him around. I already got an extra five years with him. Both my parents mean the world to me.

Things and Such as they Are

I’ve taken a break from being heavily involved in political debates for the last few weeks and it’s been a bit refreshing. Other than reading a few blogs here and there that keep me up to date, I’ve kind of just ignored everything.

I guess this is extreme apathy, but I’m so disgruntled with everything that I don’t even know where to begin. I certainly feel that our government is not interested in what the people want nearly as much as their own agendas (whatever they may be).

The presidential elections aren’t too far off and there is absolutely nobody running that I want in office. Great. Since I’ve been of-age to vote I’ve never seen any candidates that I truly believe in.

*sigh*

Other than that, Christmas is coming around again!!! It seems like it wasn’t that long ago that I was wrapping up my niece’s gifts. Of course, yesterday it was over 80 degrees and I have been on the ‘Priller every day this week. It’s kind of hard to get in the spirit with that type of weather.

That also means I’ve been home almost a year!!! Not too long ago I looked up how many flight miles I had racked up, and it was somewhere around 38,000 miles. Considering I was racking up 90,000+ a year this is a fairly significant change and I am certainly happier with my job because of it. Averaged out, I spent about 1.5 weeks out of the month on the road. This is pretty significant compared to 45 weeks out of the year spent on the road. So these are good things.

I just got off vacation from Thanksgiving, and now December is here. I am heading out of town next week to a client’s site, then I get back for one day and am heading up to Montana to see my friend’s and do some snowboarding. Then I get back for Xmas, then off to Vegas for New Year’s!!! So lots of traveling over the next month, but it’s mostly for having a good time. I’m sure my credit card companies are going to love me.

A New Low for eBay

It's illegal to sell or auction off body parts on eBay. But apparently it's perfectly legal to sell or auction off fake body parts on eBay. I'm referring to porn star Mary Carey's eBay auction of her implants. It looks like the starting price was $1.00 and is currently up to $6,600 at the time of this writing!!

On a slightly more useful note, I just got my Joby Gorillapod in the mail today. I haven't gotten to play with it yet, but it looks like it's going to work like a champ. Often times I wished that I had a tripod, or even just something to hold my camera for a moment while I snapped off a photo. Well, the Gorillapod does just that. It's a tripod, but it also grips unusually shaped objects for that "quick hold my camera" moment when nobody is around. It's also fairly small and compact so you can carry it in a pocket. I had it hanging on a door knob earlier, just to see if I could.

Go check it out!!!

Smart Car vs. Ferrari?

Well....give someone enough time and they'll figure out a way to have some fun with two objects that should not go together. I'm referring to the Smart Car and a Suzuki Hyabusa motorcycle engine!!!

Yes, some brave soles have started bonding these two with impressive results. Did you ever think you'd see a Smart Car smoke a Ferrari?

Tres Cool Coffee Table

Uber geek or Uber cool? I want one!!!!




I believe it's made by a company called "Because We Can" and starts at around $2500. Apparently, this is the new thing in coffee tables....

Cherry - if you are reading this, don't let Bling! see it.

Brad Pitt Announcement

...so i am talking to my friend in CO and she is sick as a dog. She asks me if knew what Brad Pitt said this morning.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"Brad Pitt was supposed to make some big announcement this morning, but I didn't hear it."

"Really?"

"yeah."

Ok, I'll tell you the same thing I told her. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that Brad Pitt could announce that would have any relevance in my life or have a substantial moral, political, or religious impact on the rest of the world.

no offense, Brad....but when you get right down to it, you are just an actor.

Coming Together

Last night I watched a movie called "Talk to Me." It's a movie that chronicles part of the life of Ralph "Petey" Green. He was a radio personality that was the voice of black people in Washington D.C. He had some brief notoriety and momentary fame, but eventually elected not to pursue it.

Part of his time spent on the airwaves was when Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed. He apparently helped quell the fury and riots as well as helped soothe people during this time of mourning.

While watching this particular part of the movie I was trying to figure out why it always takes a tragedy like this to bring our country together. We have all kinds of divisional boundaries - religion, politics, racial, social, etc.

It seems the only times we truly come together as a country is during times of crisis and mourning. MLK assassination, JFK assassination, the shuttle explosion(s), and 911.

Why is it that for a while we can put aside our hate and prejudice, but not continue to do so?