A little rain must fall

Now it may seem like I am quoting Sir Henry Wadsworth from his famous poem circa 1842 “The Rainy Day” but in actuality, his verse is:

Into each life some rain must fall

The passage seemed appropriate this morning as I swung my legs over the side of the bed, checked the time and heard the rain outside increase in volume and intensity. Inwardly I groaned as I knew my commute to work just doubled.

If nothing else occurs to you today, you can Google poems by Henry Wadsworth for giggles. Please note I added the Sir part. I’m not sure if he is a proper sir. His first name leads me to believe he is a he, which is a fluid situation in today’s day and age. But what I was really meaning by adding the Sir part is that I’m not sure if he was designated as a VIP by English royalty like Sir Elton John. From what I can tell, there’s really not much rhyme or reason to whom gets the Sir added before their name;  my junk mail comes addressed to Mr. S Latta but it doesn’t quite have the same prestige in my opinion.

In a sad unrelated note, I did win $4 in the Powerball lottery drawing last night. The next drawing is April 1st for $60,000,000. Remember to play responsibly and somehow let this fool be the big winner!

Before I duck out of work today, with management’s blessing, for a bowling outing, I would like to wish everyone reading this today good luck and at least one satisfying meal.

Peace.

And coming up…

Good day (Hump Daaaaaaaaaaay) to you!

It appears that my blog is coming up on four years in existence. My first set of posts from April 2, 2013 were on the topics of: April Fool’s Day (the day after), Linkin Park, Poppy Music and 5Linx. One was just to be goofy, two of those were music related and the last was in reference to my ill-fated venture with the MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) company 5Linx. After about a year and $1000 in expenses, I pulled the plug on 5Linx with very little in the way of positive things to show for it. The 5Linx business model had some good opportunities and for the right salesperson or recruiter, I’m sure it can be quite lucrative. But aside from a two year stint doing outside sales for a sign company, I’m not much of a salesperson.

Let’s fast-forward to the present. We are once again on the cusp of April and there is another business opportunity I am mulling. This one is a little more comfortable for me as there is no inventory to keep (aside from business cards I guess). So as soon as I can resolve an issue I am having with Paypal.com, I will be posting more details on here, Twitter, Facebook, my personal podcast and to any live body who wants to travel this summer either for pleasure or for necessity.

For the record, my blog has been around for 1457 days and about 213 celebrity deaths – give or take. Don’t know why that information has any real relevance but I just felt like throwing that out. And when you control the content of the blog, you can pretty much say whatever you feel like. (DUH)

Today, I toast each one of you reading this post with my 16 ounce Full Throttle (black can)! My kidneys may hate me but dang it – sometimes you just have to.

Here I digress. Enjoy your last Hump Day in March 2017. Remember how today goes down (or unfolds) and keep score whether or not the day is accurately labeled…just saying. No one needs to know your personal box score but you should remember just for your own personal knowledge.

Have a great day and keep your fingers crossed that today is the day that one of my two sets of recurring play numbers for Powerball hits on all virtual cylinders. One of you out there reading this right now holds the magic to make this happen. At least that is my theory because based on my track record, I clearly do not possess this cosmic power. So if I do not win tonight and you do not do your part, I will know. You don’t want that on your conscience do you? Do you?! Just kidding…but seriously, DO YOU?

Peace.

Just another day…

Good morning.

Hope you are well and not experiencing any headaches like those that seem to plague me for days upon days. Do you ever just flop down at the end of a day and just hit rewind and walk through your day? I do. Frequently. Do a little personal critique of the day’s small victories (if applicable) and the day’s miscues (which is usually a tidy little list). Sometimes I even have a song stuck in my head to give the playback a bit of a soundtrack. This post mortem of my day can last for hours. Sometimes it even spills over into my dreams (when I can sustain sleep for a Dixie cup portion of hours).  Here is my yesterday…

Send text at 12:07am to Kristi…fall asleep.
Wake up 2:11am…roll over, find phone, read Kristi’s message and go back to sleep.
Wake up 2:22am…re-adjust and go back to sleep.
Wake up 2:26am…get up, recycle ingested liquids, lay back down and go to sleep.
Wake up 3:01am…listen to Candy the cat snoring for awhile…drift off to sleep.
Wake up 3:40am…mentally calculate how much time before I need to get up for work, close eyes…drift off.
Wake up 4:08am…notice battery is at 54% and note that I forgot to put the phone on the charger. Mentally say eff it. Fall back asleep.
Wake up 4:16am…
Wake up 4:49am…wonder if it just turned 4:49 or is on the cusp of turning 4:50. Close eyes when it does turn 4:50 many seconds later.
Wake up 5:00am…dismiss phone alarm…fall soundly back asleep.
Wake up 5:20am…duck alarm on phone is going off (back up alarm)…hit snooze…first time of four.

Downstairs Sadie the cat is calling out for attention. Finally get out of bed 6:03am, Candy the cat greets me with a prolonged meow-like sound and practices trying to trip me while I wake up Ayden for school. I prepare his breakfast, lay out his clothes and make his lunch for school. I give Sadie and Candy fresh water and fill up their respective food bowls and eyeball their litterboxes and decide they can wait one more day to be cleaned out. A quick check of the clock reveals that time has lurched forward to 6:20am. We need to leave in the next 15 minutes to give me a chance to get to work on time with the usual fighting against traffic on highways 55, 270 and 40.

After I grab a quick shower, I come out and Ayden has finished his breakfast and has gotten dressed in the clothes I’ve laid out. I get myself dressed (at work I realize I have forgotten to put on a belt) and we get out the door at 6:37am. Mr. Ayden is dropped off for his morning school activities just before 6:50am and I am on the road to play in traffic with various drivers who are in differing stages of alertness.

With some luck, I skate into work and arrive at my cubicle by 7:27am to start my workday. During the course of the next 8.5 hours I have a couple of small victories, which mostly amounts to having the answers people are looking for in a timely fashion. In achieving these victories, I have been guilty of consuming an energy drink and drinking a can of Sprite to supplement my caloric intake that included the likes of Combos (pretzel version), Old Wisconsin Turkey Sausage Snack Sticks and a chocolate covered chocolate chip granola breakfast bar. Dietary choices aside and not even delving into the restroom misadventures, it was a good work day.

The return drive along highways 40, 270 and 55 was relatively painless as I mentally unplugged for a bit to listen to volume 5 of the Dark Tower series on CD (By Stephen King). But I found my mind wandering and not absorbing the reader’s words, so I turned off the stereo and tried to mentally plot my timeline once I got to Kristi’s house. With traffic flowing nicely (along the path of the beam?), I arrived about 4:45pm. From there I greeted Kristi and Ayden and Candy and Sadie, then changed my clothes into what I was going to wear to softball later that night. Athletic pants and my Sports Stalkers t-shirt (blue) was the ensemble that I settled upon. Since Kristi and Ayden had already eaten (McDonald’s), I opted for making myself an egg sandwich. In the span of about three minutes, I fried up the two remaining eggs that were left in the fridge on the stovetop (note to self: purchase more eggs), placed the cooked results on two slices of white bread, added a little salt and then consumed the sandwich in its entirety using 11-12 bites.

As Kristi got ready for her shift at work (she is a nurse) I hung out with Ayden in the living room and tried to mentally reason with my lower back as to why it should stop sending jolts of pain in a radiating pattern. My internal logical arguments pretty much got ignored. Ayden worked on his reading prowess and sight word recognition with excellent results.

After Kristi departed for work, I indulged Ayden by playing one of my PS3 games (Dead Space) while he looked on. He is in the final days of being grounded due to a behavior anomaly and settled for being my advisor on what to do once necromorphs appeared (shoot them, stomp them!). After twenty minutes of play, the game data was saved and everyone put on their shoes (me and Ayden – the cats did not follow suit). We gathered up some snacks and his LeapPad for his entertainment once we would arrive at the River’s Edge Sports Complex in North County.

Once in the car, Ayden requested to hear the ‘two minute’ podcast that Jeremy and I did the night before. I corrected him that it was two hours, not two minutes. He shrugged and said, OK.

For the most part the 50+ minute drive along highway 55 to 270 to Lindbergh was uneventful. Both of us listened to the podcast and contemplated the deep symbolism that may unwittingly be buried in there. Ayden even laughed at a couple of exchanges as he latched onto a word or phrase he found amusing – one such word was “butt”. I wont give you a play by play of the podcast but if you like you can listen to it yourself on the Podbean site under Sports Stalkers.

Arriving on the premises of the River’s Edge Sports Complex accident-free, we both unbuckled and went inside. Ayden set up his command center behind our bench on the right side next to the arcade machines and such. My team warmed up on the ‘field’ after the previous games were completed. As has been the pattern with my team, we jumped out to a lead but gave it away in the last inning before having to settle for a tie in the first game. In the second game, we manufactured a small lead and again tried to give it away late but managed to hold on for a 3-1 win. It’s hard to quantify how well you hit in indoor softball. Overall I felt like I hit the ball hard every time except for my last at-bat but that was by design. I was 1 for 3 in both games. The first game my three AB’s went like this: single with RBI (to left), liner caught by the pitcher (after swinging and missing on the first pitch) and fielder’s choice on a ball off the net in right field (runner forced out at second). In the second game, in my first at-bat I hit a liner to the second baseman (for an out). My second AB resulted in a liner to the centerfielder (caught for an out). And in my third plate appearance with no outs and a runner on second, I hit a slap chopper towards second base. The goal here was two-fold: one try to advance the runner to third base and two beat out the throw to first. Both goals accomplished. This scenario in the bottom of the sixth inning led to our third run of the game and with the way the top of the seven unfolded, it was nice to have that cushion.

During the games, Ayden was munching snacks and pizza while slurping some bottled water. There really were no other kids for him to play with so he mostly played on his LeapPad tablet and he did orbit around a few of the spectators and players for a few minutes here and there. After our second game victory, Ayden came out onto the field for a short game of catch. We worked on how to catch a softball with no glove (as he didn’t want to use one). The other teams started filing in for the late games so it was time to round up our stuff and head back to the car and ultimately home. We resumed listening to the podcast in the car, and Ayden was asleep before 10pm (games ended about 9:45pm) once we were on the road.

The best time to be on highway 270 is about 10pm or later during the week as traffic is sparse and you can make good time. Once back at the house, Ayden got the world’s fastest bath and changed into his PJ’s. I think I heard him snoring about two minutes later. After some laundry duty and a necessary restroom trip…it was 11:20pm. I did a quick check of my banking app, sent Kristi a few update texts and then fed my dinos from the Jurassic World app. By this time it was midnight. I sent one final text to Kristi to announce the midnight time stamp and then put my phone down.

Then of course the above sleep pattern more or less repeated but that was technically a different day.  🙂

How ever your day or week is going along, I hope there are moments you look back on and smile…moreso than bringing up the frownyface mug.

Remember – just a few more days until April Fool’s Day! Start getting your jokes and gags ready!

Peace.

From here to there…

Rollin

Move in, now move out
Hands up, now hands down
Back up, back up
Tell me what you’re gonna do now
Breath in, now breath out
Hands up, now hands down
Back up, back up
Tell me what you’re gonna do now

No seriously, what are you going to do now? We collectively have had seventeen human years to contemplate this question posed from the alternative rock/rap band Limp Bizkit. That question is kind of like a renewable resource because the question is perpetually being asked. As someone who considers himself ‘pretty fly for a white guy’, I still do not know how to answer this galactically open-ended question. In an interrogation situation, usually the person asking the questions will ask leading questions if they are angling towards a prescribed response. But if the response needs to be untainted and free of parameters, then they can opt to use open-ended questions for the max possibilities.

A-D-D Moment: Good day and happy Friday to every single person who is not a total douche!

As I sit here and scan the coupon sheet I printed out from American Cleaners (Business Shirts Laundered $1.79 each/No Limit!), I can’t help but think that the people on Survivor do not need dry cleaning services while the show is filming. But what if they had dropped off some dry cleaning before heading out for parts unknown. Will the dry cleaner hold onto their stuff for the 5-7 weeks they may be on the show? Is Survivor even still on? I stopped watching it about 4-5 years ago mostly out of protest since they did not select any of my audition videos. For awhile I even hit up Jeff Probst, the host, on Twitter nearly non-stop but alas it was as effective as trying to get Mark Cuban’s attention on that social media outlet. Spoiler alert: Survivor is still on…I checked The Google machine.

OK so I learned something today. I learned that Survivor is still on TV and that my face is peeling from a sunburn/windburn I received six days ago while playing softball…and no one in the office bothered to tell me about it. Thanks peoples! How mortifying!

While I am on the office topic, let me relay this bit of information. My past bathroom rants are notorious. Recently with transitioning jobs, I have this update on the men’s room facilities here; From a strictly visual aesthetic, they are not bad. Two stall, two urinal setup with dual paper towel dispensers flanking the dual sink with the obligatory sink to ceiling mirror setup. Regular (week) daily visits covering the last five weeks have revealed the usual men behaviors: mis-aimed urine, random hairlets and other biohazard material outside of the receptacles for the disposal of such bodily evacuations. What makes this bathroom a bit funky, in the nasal intake sense, is the constant odor in the room. I tried to describe it to an outsider like this: Imagine that someone died but before they died, they crawled up into ceiling to decompose in peace. Now fast forward a few weeks. The rankness is compounded by the deceased’s bowels rupturing somehow. Add that smell to the base decomposition smell as inhaled through a three-day old used coffee filter. No matter what time of day you enter the restroom, that smell permeates the whole room. Whether first thing in the morning or around noon or near quitting time, that gag-you smell is going strong. The stench is enough to make you seriously consider how much water you drink, eating a big breakfast or anything you might ingest that could have to be let back out before leaving the office for the day.

OK just had to clear the air on that topic.

Hope your day is going well and you are able to outwit, outlast and outplay those around you…in traffic.

Peace.

Monster

According to Dictionary.com (yes I looked it up online as opposed to dusting off a moldy-smelling ten pound relic from decades gone by), here are the top seven definitions of the word MONSTER in the noun genre:

1. a legendary animal combining features of animal and human form or having the forms of various animals in combination, as a centaur, griffin, or sphinx.

2. any creature so ugly or monstrous as to frighten people.

3. any animal or human grotesquely deviating from the normal shape, behavior, or character.

4. a person who excites horror by wickedness, cruelty, etc.

5. any animal or thing huge in size.

6. Biology.  A.) an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure, as from marked malformation or the absence of certain parts or organs. B.) a grossly anomalous fetus or infant, especially one that is not viable.

7. anything unnatural or monstrous.
The French word for monster is monstre.
The Spanish word for monster is monstruo.
The Dutch word for monster is monster.
The Italian word for monster is mostro.
The Latin word for monster is monstrum.

One slice of Muenster cheese (1 ounce) can have 103 calories…and 27 milligrams of cholesterol. Muenster sounds like monster so I looped that in for the cheese consuming audience. Forgive me.

From the movie Jurassic World:
Simon Masrani: I didn’t ask for a monster!
Henry Wu: ‘Monster’ is a relative term. To a canary, a cat is a monster. We’re just used to being the cat.

The opening passage in the song Monster by Eminem featuring Rhianna:

I’m friends with the monster that’s under my bed
Get along with the voices inside of my head
You’re trying to save me, stop holding your breath
And you think I’m crazy, yeah, you think I’m crazy
So many views and concepts of monsters exist today. Hollywood is constantly trying to create or recapture the next big thing in monster box office lore. Frankenstein’s monster was an abhorrence to those who placed faith in God’s creations and only his ability to give life. If Godzilla was 1/15 of his projected scale of height, there wouldn’t have been much to his monster status. Freddy Krueger’s vice for unspeakable things related to children made him one of the worst movie monsters of all-time. Typically big screen and small screen monsters are made to be feared based on their enormous size or the perceived invincibility with malicious intent.

Outside of the special effects realm, monsters in real life are vastly different:
A dentist looking through the scope of a rifle at a protected lion with the intent of luring him (Cecil) out of his safe zone for nothing more than a rich man’s whim to kill something.
A football player gathering friends and strangers alike to force dogs to fight to the death, whether the death be by bloodshed or by an electrocution from the losing owner…poe-tay-toe, poe-tah-toe.
A mother poisoning her children or driving them into a lake with their seat belts still on because some gears in the mental machinery became stripped.
A man abusing his wife or girlfriend due to alcoholism or just because he is an a$$hole who cannot handle being with someone that he perceives as a better person than him.

The human monsters from above and their many, many cousins are far scarier than anything that can be illustrated in books or fashioned for Netflix. Monsters always seem to be remorseless and insatiable. Their evilness and always being on the prowl to cause harm, sadness and death. Once cast in the role of a monster, it is near impossible to break out of that stereo-type. In real life, being painted with that horrible brush for even just a minute, can cause the taint of that association to always be there on a person and make every day thereafter a struggle to rise above the darkness.

Today is the day we all start with. Life may throw in obstacles and hardships and uncertainty but it falls to each of us to make something positive occur. An act of liberation for one person can in turn be an act of ultimate cruelty to another person. In today’s day and age of non-stop entertainment and never-ending choices, the actual living and personal interactions seem to fade into a series of iPhone purchases with little else to show for it. All I am saying is: leave the monsters for your HD devices and be good to those in your lives who can appreciate you. If you are too ugly to have human companionship, get a dog or a cat or a turtle. They need love too and seem to be less judgmental – just saying.

Happy Hump Day to all and to all, a good night!

Peace.

Catnip and Tears

Based on my bank account at this minute, if there was an annual purge, I would be able to afford some poorly crafted melee weapon that would not last more than a few hits on an elder gentleman with osteogenesis imperfecta. For those of you flipping over to Google the last two words of my last sentence, I will take a pause for you to catch back up to your contemporaries.

If you are satisfied with the knowledge acquired, let’s move on.

Yesterday in the STL I was sitting in my car, with the windows ‘rolled’ up, when I realized it was rather warm. Like sweat trickling down the sides of my torso warm. A quick glance at the digital display on my car’s dashboard, revealed the external temperature to allegedly be 89 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale. I guess Spring was announcing her presence with authority!

Even though it was warm, like medium summer temperature-wise warm, it was not unbearable. The reason for this conclusion I would guess was low humidity. Even thought it was 25-30 degrees warmer than it had been on Saturday (when it was non-stop breezy), it was not stifling like June-July-August usually are here with 178% humidity. OK I can take a hint, enough about the weather…

For those who are wondering if I will be playing softball this weekend…yes is the answer! It was also the answer the last four weekends and probably the next four to five upcoming. Luckily and unluckily this weekend’s action is close to home. Conveniently, the park (Sun Valley) is within 10 minutes of the house but unfortunately, this tournament is a fundraiser for a friend who lost her wife a few months ago in a car accident during an ice storm. So I get to play a game I enjoy, help raise some funds for a good cause and also pay tribute to the life and happiness brought to so many people by Tiffany. Obviously the results from the games on Saturday will take a distant backseat to the reason everyone will be there. In the area I live (not too far from St Louis) there is such a large and diverse softball community that knits together in times of need to help out and support one another. Saturday will not be about homeruns or MVP’s but about showing support for a lady who would in the blink of an eye do the same for her family and friends. So it’s a proud and humbling moment to be able to stand up for her even if it is in such a miniscule way like playing in a softball tourney.

A silly sidebar to this good cause, but heavy-hearted event, is apparently Tiffany (Mac’s wife) really liked cats (or maybe that was just a rumor in the Facebook Messenger thread for my team – it’s hard to keep on topic when you have 700 messages to sift through). On a personal front, it has been joked about that even though I am a dude, I am always channeling my inner Cat Lady. I do not know the level of her obsession with felines but mine could easily spiral out to intervention levels. My current household contains a pair of tortoiseshell kitties and in my previous life I had three at one time. Cats are fun and great for those days when you want to curl up and close the door on the outside world in it’s entirety. So Miss Tiffany wherever you are up there, out there in the cosmos somewhere – I hope you are chilling in an undiscovered kitty constellation.

For those of you trying to get a dogs are better than cats sentiment going in the mental ether, like the drunkards at a ballgame starting up an infernal wave…please stop. Now is not the time. Also in tribute to Miss Tiffany on Saturday, our team Cat Attack will apparently be wearing t-shirts, cat ears, tails perhaps and maybe even a onesie or two featuring likenesses of kitties. The games for Saturday truly are second banana to celebrating Tiffany’s life and being there for Mac and showing the love we have for one another in our softball family.

So if you are from the Midwest and within an hour or so of Pevely, Missouri, please drop by Sun Valley Sports Complex. Stop in and say hello and maybe get a picture taken (yes I will have my camera). There will be softball to watch, probably music and maybe an adult beverage or two raised in toast. I would imagine there will be raffles and other such fundraising items. Please check out the Facebook link below.

Facebook Link for Tiffany Fundraiser Tourney

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day friends and we’ll interact again soon.

Peace.

Rusty Bumgardner Interview – Podbean — SportsStalkers

Good morning. Wait…it might be evening. Who can tell anymore?

Today was a day I had been dreading for about five days. Why is that do you ask? Am I afraid of Wednesday / Hump Day? Nope.

After I got up for my day job and completed eight hours of work, I fought through an hour of traffic to get home. I said a quick hello to my kitty Sadie and then spent a little time with Kristi, Ayden and Candy before Kristi had to figuratively burn the midnight oil as a working night nurse. So where and why did the trepidation enter into the picture?

Well I had set up a phone interview with a Facebook friend who used to play major (soft) ball and I was nervous. Actually the interview had been on my mind pretty much non-stop since last night. The thought of doing the interview made me apprehensive and unsure. Why was I feeling this way you ask? Was the subject of my interview a head-case? Belligerent? Prone to loud random outbursts? No – none of those things. Actually Rusty is very well spoken and down to earth. So what was my issue? Well, since Rusty was doing me a favor by granting me the time for an interview for the Sports Stalkers Podcast, I really did not want to screw the opportunity up. I had previously done a phone interview with Amy Battles – NPC bodybuilding competitor but she and I had a past together as classmates from the same middle and high schools. As a bulked up woman who could probably snap me in two, she is a far more an intimidating figure than the man who is almost twice her body weight. If you are throwing your hands up and shrugging at this point as a perplexed person as to why I was nervous…here goes.

This interview with Rusty Bumgardner was a pretty big deal for me. The podcast I do with Jeremy and Dustin for our entertainment and for the fans of our Sports Stalkers show is just for fun. But that is not to say it is a throw away for me in terms of time and effort. Just like slow pitch softball, I may not be the best, but I do like to put forth my best efforts and leave people with a positive impression of myself. So in that context, this interview is and was a big deal for me. Rusty, as an icon in the sport I love, agreed to set aside some time away from his family to talk about his career and experiences that softball allowed him to enjoy. If the interview/podcast would come off as good and interesting, it could open up other possibilities and could lead to other interviews that I have in the works. But a bad show/interview could shut down getting to pick the brains of some of the people I would like to interview and interact with for the podcast.

Just like playing softball, some things are out of our control but it’s nice to control the things we are supposed to control. If possible, I want to nail down those things like a boss. So if you get a chance, check out my podcast interview with Softball Hall Of Famer Rusty Bumgardner and let me know what you think. I will try to get better…I promise.

https://sportsstalkers.podbean.com/

Peace.

Two snows diverged into…

Obviously I am stealing from the long deceased poet Robert Frost. The passage most often paraphrased goes: Two roads diverged into the woods, and I took the one less traveled and it has made all the difference. This is a pretty common ‘gist’ recanting or retelling by common folk. The technical verbatim passage goes as follows:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

This is the ending of Frost’s famous poem from the fourth stanza but not the complete fourth stanza mind you. Frost’s character is faced with a choice and thus the crux of the poem’s difficult decision. With limited information provided by his sight and senses, Frost’s virtual chess piece opts for something that the majority has not tried.

I think a big universal nod for this poem’s popularity and prevalence in today’s society stems from the 1989 film Dead Poet’s Society with the former actor/comedian Robin Williams. If you have not seen this film, I would humbly recommend it. William’s portrayal of the returned home professor John Keating is brilliant, amusing and genuine. Probably my all-time favorite role he played as an actor. RIP Robin. The world has put you on a shelf along with Robert Frost. There is some irony in him embodying a romantic, poetic character in a movie called Dead Poet’s Society in light of his demise. But is it not inevitable in the mortal world if you choose to sculpt your words as thus?

Now, as usual, you may be asking what does this have to do with the title TWO SNOWS? Honestly, absolutely nothing. I was just standing by a window looking out across an expanse of tree branches coated with snow and for some reason that portion of a classic poem hopped to mind. Perhaps the Easter Bunny’s minions are at work here. Maybe Mother Nature planted some sort of subliminal message in the seemingly random criss-cross of branches interlocked from her bark babies. I do not know. There are many, many, many things I do not know. But every day I try to turn over a different stone and see if that makes all the difference.

So whether (not weather) you got an inch of snow or two…or none, you can still check out my Instagram feed to see the scene that spawned the mental tangent and in turn an homage to a beautiful mind no longer with us but still inspiring us one hundred years after the poem’s first publishing. Mr. Frost perished from the Earth almost 10 years before I came into existence in this world but in the fraction of a nothing he touched my creativity and I thank him from beyond the grave. If only Harry Keogh were in existence and alive today, then maybe he could say thank you on my behalf.

I hope you encounter something or someone who nudges you onto a path you may not have traveled before but with enriching and grateful consequences.

Peace.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
~~ By Robert Frost ~~

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~~ First Published 1916 ~~

It is Friday…

Hello come right in. If you have been catching up on Dexter season one and you just finished the episode “The one with all the blood” (sounds like the title of a Friends episode, yes-no?) you may want to check your shoes to see if you are tracking any of that red stuff in with you. If not, then you probably are virtually spot free and have no worries.

Being an adult is usually complex, tricky and often-times so not worth it. Trade so many hours in the day in exchange for a paycheck to pay for your gas, car maintenance, utilities, food, rent/mortgage and every other thing under the sun that costs a dollar.

Some times you try to do all the right things and say all the right things but despite the best of intentions…it’s no Bueno. So all you can do it stand there with a dumb look on your face and contemplate your puzzled thoughts on what you could’ve done different. It just doesn’t matter. For the moment I’m just going to kick back and take a breather…

Tears for Fears

Coming this May to a venue near me…TEARS FOR FEARS and Hall and Oates.

Don’t get me wrong Darryl Hall and John Oates are OK, they haven’t aged well visually, but musically they are OK – even Darryl Hall’s solo stuff. John Oates may have some solo stuff, who knows and who cares?! Did I mention TEARS FOR FEARS will be in town a mere two months away? It’s like Christmas and Halloween had a love child! Maybe they did. It’s possible someone was cosmically sowing the seeds of love to make this happen? Some people may be head over heels at this news, so much so that maybe they will shout. But for me, getting to see a band that I first saw in concert in 1989 at the Fox Theater, it seems like a storybook tale and most everyone loves a happy ending so let’s party like it’s 1999. Whoops…cross-over Prince reference. May he rest in peace.

This PSA was brought to you by person who likes music from the 1980’s…also possible new studio album material! Oh yeah boooooy!

Peace.

Shane – TWD

Did you hear that The Walking Dead is bringing back Shane? Wow, can you imagine how that is going to come about? OK this is not a true item and it makes me sad. Why do you ask?

Because Shane was Rick before Rick was Rick. Shane was on the road to being Negan before Negan was the biggest bad ass on the mostly dead planet. Early on in the TV adaptation of the graphic novels (comic books) and in the books themselves, Shane was edgy and shady and when the unpopular decisions needed to be made, Shane didn’t shy away from doing the things that he felt in his guts needed to be done for his survival down the road. His character was ostracized for these forward thoughts and actions and eventually it led to his demise (twice). The amusing thing is everyone despised Shane for these shocking and despicable acts. Low and behold Carol and Rick started getting with the program a little late in game and everyone was like “oh well, this is what our devolved society has come to and we need to do this to survive”.

Hold the phone.

Shane, looking to protect his own arse and in turn the group he was essentially helping to lead, did horrible things that put him on par with Lord Voldemort. But Carol murders (sick) people whom she is helping (to lead) and all she gets is being put in real world timeout? Rick gets bad vibes about some outsiders, so let’s kill them. No Ghandi moments here, no turn the other cheek and we will just leave the area or hey, maybe we go north where it will be too cold for the dead to ‘live’? Naw, screw that jazz. He is our leader so his decisions are accepted and the remaining sheep are like okey dokey smokey.

Granted I am about a season and a half behind being up on current dead events (I think) but I still hold on to the Shane days. More recently I have found Jesus…the character to be interesting. But like I said I am a bit behind the storyline times. I have been without cable or satellite TV for a couple of years due to the price of the bundle – most of (the channels) which I never watched. So as Netflix or Hulu trots out the delayed seasons I tend to catch up here and there. One good thing about this approach in binge format is that I can eliminate or minimize the commercials and piece together the minimal story progression. For me, this happens in a shorter span than most people who are being forced to follow in real time and have to wait a week in between to get some flashback or flash sideways that takes up the whole show where only 5-10 minutes of actual interesting story takes place. So ha ha AMC!

Along with Darryl, Rick has been there from the beginning. So why not bump off Rick and continue on? You killed off much more interesting characters before in Shane, the Governor, Merle and Glen so why not? Have more of the show revolve around Jesus or if you fear cosmic repercussions, how about the all grown up sword wielding Raven Simone? I do not own the graphic novels so I have no idea which way the stories twist and turn but apparently that has never been a prerequisite for the show so all bets are off.

Back to my teaser at the beginning: Bring back Shane. But he died..twice! So who cares? Three decades ago the evening serial Dallas had one of their main characters die but they wiped out an entire season by saying the murder was a dream of one of the other characters and they rebooted as if nothing had gone amiss. So in that vein, why not have Shane visit Rick in some sort of advisor role, either through mental duress as a figment of his imagination (see Dexter) or as a side effect of some drug induced state from a bout that included chemical warfare or a captive situation where they are forced to consume tainted food or drink? The possibilities with creative license are endless. I say put on your Nike shoes that are sitting in dozens of abandoned Footlocker stores across the nation and JUST DO IT!!

Have a great week! Happy HUMP DAAAAAAAAAY!

Peace…unless the zombie apocalypse breaks out, then just Shane it!

Temporary

Imagine if you will living in a house of cheese. The entire structure: walls, floors, supports, stairs, foundation et al is made of good solid no holes cheese. The atmospheric conditions cooperate and allow for the cheese to be cooled enough to not spoil and mold but with enough moisture in the air so the cheese doesn’t dry out, crack, crumble and collapse. Most cheese is not easily painted even with a really good primer so you are stuck with limited choices of what color you are going to be looking at day in and day out. Perhaps a nice pepper jack if you have children or pets and don’t want to have to clean every minute of the day. Those mystery spices are decorative and can camouflage some of the dirt and stains that comes with day to day living. While this is all well and good, I would think many people would live in fear of the day when it became like Arizona at the end of July and they would die a horrible queso dip-like death with nothing but soggy chips all around to seal your doom.

Turning the page on odd deaths by complex dairy products, let’s think of things a bit closer to cute cate videos as opposed to 99 ways to die the reality show. If you don’t have a cat or dislike cats in general and prefer to substitute puppy or full grown dog in place of cat, be my guest. I drove by at least seven stores this morning that I’m sure contained various types of cat toys. Fuzzy yarn balls, squeaky mice, scratching postings, mesh tunnels, human height cat houses, faux birds and many other cat play things. I was tempted to skip work and go into one of these establishments and purchase various toys for the cats (some catnip enhanced) but alas my ‘responsible’ side made me opt for adulting once again. Lying around with a cat in the crook of your arm or sitting in your lap as you veg out be a total bum really does beat most things I accomplish during normal business hours Monday through Friday. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of my new job but my inner living pie chart has a large sliver that wants to be lazy and imitate sloth behavior minus eating leaves and defecating while hanging in a tree.

If you are reading or re-reading this piece for a plot or point…I believe the term is SOL (So Out of Luck)…as I don’t really have one…just looking to shake the figurative Etch-A-Sketch and start over. Maybe Monday Mania is running wild. Who knows.

Anywho, drive safe or be passenger safe and we shall convene again soon. Peace.

Potential

Talk about a word that spans the whole spectrum of all. Potential can be a positive thing or the gateway to the Sith ruling the universe unopposed.

Good day, good cheer and hopefully good weather in your geographical location. Today is one of the more beloved days of the week, namely Friday. Granted some people may change their favorite day or days on a week by week basis, but for the most part the majority of the masses appreciate Friday as a top 3 day of the week. Friday often times means a payday for some (not me anymore). Friday is often the closing of the work week and the beginning of ‘the weekend’ (yes, I fall into this category). I’m sure that out there somewhere, there are people who loathe Friday and have documented reasons why this it is legit for them to feel so. But different strokes for different folks…although, not for Gary Coleman since 2010 (What you talkin bout Scott?). Nor for Dana Plato since 1999. None for Conrad Bain since 2013. And finally, excluding Charlotte Rae and Todd Bridges…not because they are bench-pressing daisies but just because I’m sure they have better things to do than loathe on a day of the week.

Before I veer too far off course, let’s re-route to the topic mentioned above. Potential. What does it make you think of: Children? Athletes? Financial gain? Risks? Work load? An idea? There are so many different avenues that word can drive you down. Let’s say your child paints or colors a picture…he has the potential to become an artist. If you get your pet ‘fixed’ they have the potential to get fat. You run over a pothole in your car and there is the potential for a flat tire, damaged shocks/struts or loosening of nuts and bolts that hold vital pieces together. If you buy a lotto ticket, you could potentially become instantly wealthy. If your team is playing in a tournament, there is the potential for them to win it…or horribly lose and embarrass you amongst your friends.

The point is, with every single day there is the potential for good and bad and maybe evil. I could potentially be mauled by a mass transit bus on the way to work or have a jet engine fall on me from the heavens and that would be the period on my sentence. Or something seemingly insignificant from the past could potentially spark someone to reach out and offer an opportunity to travel or do something fun. Every day has a level potential. Even an inmate in prison serving a life sentence wakes up every morning and there is potential. Perhaps it’s just the potential to get shanked, so not every situation is a stroll on the beach. Sure you can hide under a blanket in your home and hope that time passes and nothing changes. But even passing on those opportunities, you still have the potential to develop an irrational fear of couch cushions or blankets or thinking about how many shades of grey actually do exist. Even sub-shades of grey.

So embrace your day and maybe that thing you really want but haven’t admitted to anyone in the harsh light of day, will come about. There is also the strong possibility (potential) that you will roll your eyes and perhaps flip me the bird for saying such things. I’m willing to put it out there to find out.

Peace and Friday y’all!

March 1st!

Good morning! Today is my first March post! Technically today is March 2nd but this is my first post in March so it is March’s first post! And Happy March 2nd BTW!

New jobs are in the air! Pregnancies are in the air! Spring training baseball games are underway! And with March comes more and more (outdoor) softball! Woot Woot! I’m still playing the indoor variety for the next five weeks but let’s be frank here (nice to meet you Frank): INDOOR SOFTBALL < OUTDOOR SOFTBALL. This year from a scheduling standpoint could get interesting.

With Kristi’s floating schedule as a nurse and Ayden wanting to get ‘involved’ in soccer – I say ‘involved’ because I don’t think he really understands the concept of playing a sport yet. The practicing, the strategy…and the spending more than two minutes doing something that doesn’t involve a video game console controller. But we shall see. Maybe this mob mentality of belonging to a sports team (loosely interpreted obviously) will lasso him into a 5-10 minute attention span. Baby steps, always baby steps.

Living under roof of a two cat household, broken into two spheres, is nice. Sadie is confined to the lower realm with the barrier being the basement level door and little Miss Candy is ruler of the upper floor. Both cats have similar colors as they are both tortoiseshell but vastly different social skills. Candy is the social butterfly and craves attention. Sadie on the other hand wants none of that…or sudden noises or vague movements twenty feet away or to be out in the open with nothing to hide under. Oh well, I still love them both despite their polar oppositity. Don’t think that is a legit word per se but I’m going to roll with it.

The Sports Stalkers podcast on the Podbean app rolls on. We recorded our 11th show on Sunday, February 26th and have almost 400 cumulative downloads of the program since the inception at the beginning of December 2016. So if you get a chance to check that out, please do so and let me know your thoughts. I haven’t recorded a personal podcast recently because my phone storage is almost wiped out and I am trying to figure out what to remove to alleviate that problem or perhaps upgrade to the iPhone 7 for more storage. This latter solution probably makes the most sense anyway since my lower screen is cracked but I’m putting off spending more $$$ for the acquisition.

To my mom and my friends whom I have been lax on conversing with, I apologize. Hopefully with the new job and set schedule, I can get into more of a routine and be ‘better’.

My goal for the month of March is to post 12 or more items on my blog to get the people reading my stuff and increase the traffic so this fall I can possibly branch out into a paying gig for my writing. Everything is a process and repetition will lead me to bigger and better things on the publishing front or so I am inclined to believe.

Hope this first (post) of March finds you happy and healthy…and if not, may you make decisions that put you stepping in the right direction.

Peace.