Some Time In The Past - You can't always be everything you want to be. Right now I want to be stress free and, among other things, maintain this journal. True, journaling doesn't take that much time but I have to set it aside until I'm more strongly compelled to maintain it again. I hope that times comes soon but until it does... I'll be concentrating on other things.
02-Jul-2002 - I spilled coffee on my socks this morning. I didn't know it had happened until I arrived at work. My socks weren't on my feet. My socks and my coffee thermos sat on the passenger seat. Apparently I tried to jam a touch too much coffee into thermos so some was forced, by the top, out of the liquid bearing section and into the threads which screw the top down securely. When the thermos tipped onto the socks the coffee spilled. Socks with coffee on them both look and feel funny. Luckily they smell more like coffee than socks normally do.
03-Jul-2002 - No coffee today but tea. Butt tea. That thought stops here. The tea I'm drinking now is 2 year old Brazilian (congrats on the World Cup thing, by the way) Yerba Matte given to Kara's parents by Kara's uncle. The stuff is good. It's meaty with a serious kick. I suppose it is green (as opposed to black) but I really don't know. At one point I had packaging but, when I moved it to an air-tight container in the freezer, I tossed the bag. Memory, which is reliable in this case, says this tea is supposed to be made in a gourd and the leaves of previous batches should be mashed tightly into the gourd thus the flavor changes with time and I guess the bacteria or mold growing in there brings good luck or a killer buzz or something. I use white paper filters in my regular old Mr Coffee... no altered anything here.
05-Jul-2002 - Since my wife has been pregnant I've been going to get her a specific sandwich everyday for lunch. The same sandwich everyday: A Stuffy's Great Garden heated with pickles, carrots, spinach, black olives and house dressing. Independence Day offered no reprieve. Stuffy's was crowded yesterday at lunch. I got in line behind a surly woman who ordered to grilled chicken subs. My subs took less time to make so I got in line to pay before the woman in yellow. I as stood in the second line the woman came out of nowhere and pushed me out of her way. I kicked her knees from behind thus putting her on the floor then jumped on her head few times freeing the world from her bad vibes. Ok, just kidding. The cashier, having seen what she did started to ask me what subs I had (in order to figure what I owed). The woman turned and glared her ugly stare at me. I suggested she replace her face with her butt as it would likely improve her appearance. Just kidding. I told the cashier to please ring up her order as she had hot subs and my to go order would be fine for a while. She continued to glare at me. Here's my thought: People like this woman are the reason the world is such an unfun place. What are only moderately selfish people like you and I to do about people who don't realize they aren't the center of things and they don't get everything they want simply because they think they deserve it? My gut reaction is to rid the gene pool of ilk but I calm down quickly enough to realize that ain't right. Still haven't found the right answer, though.
09-Jul-2002 - A spiritual mentor pointed out to me the evil sandwich shop woman could have been admist a very painful time and her actions unusual therefore forgivable. Most things are forgivable. Moving forward I'd like to call this paragraph "A lesson learned... again". Grocery shopping on saturday with a mind to conserve money I didn't by Starbucks coffee but chose Kroger Private Select or something like that. It was practically 3 dollars cheaper but it still said "premium select gourmet just like Starbucks but almost 3 dollars cheaper for fools just like you". I bought it so I bought it. After brewing the first pot sunday morning I looked down into the steaming cup and read this in the warm vapors: "You paid twice as much for this as you would have paid for Maxwell House but got nothing more". Afew seconds later I read this in the same place: "Ha Ha Ha... and you'll do it again in a few months". I guess it's just poorly placed faith that cheap products will have the same quality as the tried and true stuff. Notice I didn't say "Expensive stuff".
10-Jul-2002 - I think I had a great idea for today but it fled from my brain. Oatmeal will be the substitute subject. Specifically the Kroger brand Cinnamon Roll oatmeal purchased at the same time the Kroger brand coffee was procured. Having had store brand oatmeal from most grocery stores I can say, as a whole, they tend to be as good or better than Quaker for 2 main reasons: cost and sugar. Store brands cost less... 'nuff said there. Store brands generally contain less "flavor" than Quaker which I find desirable. On to the topic at hand: Kroger brand Cinnamon Roll. It was definitely cheap. No only was it priced lower than Quaker BUT it was on sale (with my Kroger Plus Card). The "flavor" in this case is nasty. The biggest factor, though, is the appearance. The food is the same grey color as a black and white picture; the pleasant browns of oatmeal and cinnamon are gone... replaced by an extremely odd, dark grey. Nothing looking like this can be easily enjoyed. Stick with the Maple Brown Sugar.
11-Jul-2002 - First entry in a series (randomly scheduled) I call: Cheap things to do in Richmond, VA. Maymont Park. Free although several attractions within the city park have "suggested donation" boxes. Maymont has a children's petting zoo, a nature center, cool grounds, a Victorian mansion and stable complex, gardens, paths, bears (in a bear habitat; bears walking around the park probably wouldn't be a great). There's plenty of room to go by yourself and be by yourself or go with a group and not feel like you are bugging others with your rowdiness. Kids can play; adults can enjoy company or the surroundings. Did I mention the waterfall or the bamboo maze? Definitely an interesting and worthwhile place.
12-Jul-2002 - Kara drove me to work this morning because the van is getting serviced and, if I had driven myself to work Kara would be carless. As we passed the river and saw geese galore she said "I need to bring Hannah here to see the geese. The last few times we've driven by there haven't been geese and Hannah has said either 'no geese, too hot' or 'no geese; geese sleep'". Oh, I thought. I laughed to myself because I love my daughter and because I think she is the cutest, smartest almost 2 year old ever. I know she's not but I can't help but doubt myself even before I've finished this sentence. Maybe she is the cutest and smartest kid ever. Luckily it doesn't matter how smart or cute she is. Hope she enjoys the geese, though.
15-Jul-2002 - A few updates: Mixed Starbucks grounds at about 2:1 with the Kroger krap. The resultant blend is good. I'll finish the blend then enjoy the pure good stuff. Hannah saw geese yesterday. We took the long way by the river when going to meet my parent's for coffee (at Barnes and Noble which servers Starbucks) and the geese were feeding in the shallows near the Pony Pasture (which is a good subject for Cheap Things to Do in R, VA). We also saw folks out in a red canoe which prompted Hannah to saw "Hannah saw a red canoe boat this morning" which for a kid not yet 2 is a long sentence. Which brings me to my last update: I still think Hannah is the cutest and smartest kid around these parts.
16-Jul-2002 - Yesterday was one of those great days people should never had. One of those days where you learn lots because there's lots to learn because the only options are learn or die. Thankfully I learn. Ok, today is here and things are a touch better.
17-Jul-2002 - Kara and Hannah left this morning for a trip to Vermont. The dogs and I are alone. Just incase unsavories are reading this: The dogs are silent and deadly plus the house is alarmed, booby trapped, and surrounded by nosey neighbors. I was depressed. It took a Snickers bar, Bruce Springsteen's "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ" and a cup of tea to snap me out of it. I face a long task list and my refrigerater is currently beer poor... plus my wallet is thin. Oh well, I've got Bruce, tea and a sugar buzz... and 2 dogs. I'd rather have the company of my wife and daughter but I'll do fine until I see them again, right Bruce?
18-Jul-2002 - Thursday comes too quickly. It's not that wednesday burned brightly or tuesday for that matter, too. No, it was wednesday night which was cursed with max celerity. The eyes closed at 12:30a then opened to find it 3:15a then blinked and it was 7:15a. Almost 7 hours of sleep which seemed and felt like 5 minutes. And no beer. A 22oz Legend Porter waits in the fridge for this evening; if only 8 hours of work could seem and feel like 5 minutes.
19-Jul-2002 - With every intention of sleeping soon I climbed into bed at 7:30p last night. Jeopardy led to a lousy movie called "The Phantom". The movie bored my beer and me but we watched it anyway just laying there in the darkening room. The dogs came in to say "Hi". The movie continued. My beer left. Sleep wandered in. Then the pager went started yelling at me from somewhere in the house. After turning every light on I still couldn't find the bleeping little box. Oh, it's by the phone. Well, after 15 minutes of work I decided there wasn't a problem so maybe the bed would be a good place for me again... trouble is I'm not tired anaymore. You know what else? I don't care I don't know how the stupid movie ends.
22-Jul-2002 - Sunday morning, 8:30a, three neighbors leave their street on foot... jogging. The weather, well, it's not so much hot as it is humid. Humidity acts like a blanket. When a body is still the air feels almost cool but as a body heats the heat is trapped in, on and around the body by humidity's thick, insulating blanket. Suddenly the coolness is gone, replaced by stiffling, wet warmth. Sweat runs in long paths from the head, down the torso and, somehow, down a leg... odd. Forty minutes late, and much redder than when they left, they return. One goes inside and falls asleep on the hardwood floor under the ceiling fan with the new Dave Matthews Band album on the stereo which, by the way, is very good once you allow youself the grasp the subtlety. Highlights: Grace is Gone to the end.
23-Jul-2002 - The song which made me play the guitar is Led Zeppelin's "Over the Hills and Far Away"; this song came on a Fredrickburg radio station while my car drove me to work this morning. Rounding the bend and merging onto the Huguenot bridge my coffee cup and I noticed traffic was rather heavy. Still, we were happily singing along to Led Zeppelin but trying to hide this fact from the other cars and drivers. About half way across the bridge the truck in front of us stopped. The car before it had stopped and the one before it, too; this patteren held for as far as I could see. I got a good look at the handrail beyond the oncoming traffic lane; very little traffic was coming. The handrail is very heavy steel painted pale grey and rusting through about 10% of the surface area. Substancial posts supprt substancial pipes running parallel to the road surface. Sitting like duck over the water I would have enjoyed the view of the river flowing peacefully below bespeckled with vibrant sunlight flashing as if Led Zeppelin had written this piece to accompany this very sight if planes hadn't slammed into and brought down even bigger structures last September. Odd, isn't it?
24-Jul-2002 - Two observations, both random in nature, will appear here today... make that three. The first, and most recently made is this: The first line sounds like a Shakespears spoof ala Romeo and Juliette. Ok, on to the real stuff. Two: A droning bass line played loud on a the stereo and heard from within a shower accompanied by a vent fan (got all that?) sounds like a jet circling your house. Three: Raisin Bran is the heaviest cereal on the planet.
25-Jul-2002 - Bruce Springsteen is my new hero. I heard a story on the radio saying Catholics are cheering the Pope not for what he is doing now but for what he did in his prime. Bruce may be past his prime, maybe not (I don't know) but, through the wonders of recordings, evidence exists stating quite clearly: Bruce rocks. Yeah, I'm cheering Bruce for what he did but, in a way, hearing his music is a timeless experience inspiring awe. The pieces fit so well together: Guitar, Voice, Words, Song. The liner notes reveal Bruce built it all. Were Rock a religion Bruce should be the Pope of Rock. I have been blessed with the good fortune to hear "Part Man, Part Monkey", now my favorite Bruce song. This song is about 7 years old so he is capable of greatness even now. New stuff due on tuesday... we'll see how it is.
26-Jul-2002 - I argue with myself. I fought over Evolution this morning. I said "It's science. I believe it because it withstands the rigors of the Scientific Method." But then I countered with "It's a faith issue. You haven't proven it yourself; you have faith in the Scientific method therefore you believe." Zoye! I don't know where I stand. I'll never get out there and dig bones but I do believe in something slight preposterous because it was "proven" beyond current doubt. Hmmm. I guess the human brain likes to grab ideas.
29-Jul-2002 - I wrote a song recently. I've written several in the recent past. The newest on I thought was pretty good. I had a random thought last night while trying get to sleep: Lee, you used mixed and incomplete metaphors. Here goes:
Woke up this morning to the sight of a plane wreck
dust and smoke and fuel
all around me
My life a victim its loss I survived
Off to revive it I am.
I am
skipping away from the wreckage
The morning ain't over but it's
going to be a new day
I went to bed thinking about sex and money
not about
love ain't that funny
In my dreams I heard the terrible sound
I awoke to
flames all around me
The way of things we think it our life
Think of this:
choose to remove them
like socks or shoes or hats just remove them
Take them off now is your chance to go
skipping away from the wreckage
The morning ain't over but it'sgoing to be a new day.