4,3,2

dangit
I miscounted.
Just another year.
Goodbye you big ol' furry year.
Bring 'em home alive. Let's start helping people out with our hands and hearts rather than guns and bullets.
Goodnight, Gorgeous. Wake me in spring.

5

So what's your story? Trying to figure out how to be a millionaire before thirty? Wondering if you can stretch an SS check and part time work to cover the bills each month? Are you just happy that such a good looking person is sharing a bed with you every night? Thinking about skimming some credit card accounts for fast cash? Are you looking someone, not necessarily so good-looking, to share an apartment with during weekdays? Maybe you've been at the drawing board all day trying to enhance those new shackles just installed in the basement? Are you dreading the next workday having to face the mother, who's a good friend, of that teenage boy that you "talked" into sleeping with you. Could be that you're really mad now. Mad enough to kill that spineless primate who blew fifteen hundred Christmas dollars on a "sure thing." Got a dream for the disenchanted? Got a warm fuzzy for the dispirited? Are you sitting there with a smile on your face thinking about how exhausted the kids were from playing all day and all the next with their gifts? Yeah.
Jim Valvano said to do three things every day. Laugh. Think. Have your emotions moved to tears. These are good things and we would do well to experience them daily. Valvano has a motto for his cancer research organization: "Don't give up. Don't ever give up." I don't know anyone who didn't get knocked off their original path. I've got two incredibly intelligent cousins. On is a very successful attorney and the other is a neurosurgeon. The neurosurgeon didn't get into his "first choice" medical school and the attorney started off toward medicine. They kept moving. Walt Disney got turned down by over a hundred banks before he finally found one to finance Disney World. Not everyone is going to be Walt Disney, a neurosurgeon, or a successful attorney. That's not really the point. The only thing that should be added to Valvano's three things is this: do something for someone every day.
Me? I'm just enjoying the rain and the view. That's my story (for now).

11-6

I got a Garmin nuvi, GPS thingamajiggy. It would be hilarious to feed my travel information directly into the blog.
Viewer: He's going in circles. He did it again. This is hilarious. Honey, ya got a second? Watch this imbecile drive.
Viewer's honey: Why does he keep taking that right?

It's a neat little device. https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=134

12 (Not right)

We exchanged our Christmas gifts this morning. Yeah, the day before. Not all traditions are good. Some are though and those are the ones that I would like to keep. Cousin Suzy dressing up like a chicken every Fourth of July and running down the dirt road beside the river trailer is one of those traditions. Opening gifts on Christmas Day is another one.

leather Appalachian Trail journal with my initials
electronic navigation system
flannel jammies
sweatshirt

My cousin Achilles came down to the lower 48. He's been to Iraq and might be going back. The army's been good for him. Our country is blessed to have a huge amount of great warriors. We need to be careful to use them for good purpose. Global police is not the purpose of the United States military.

Peace. Even to you people who drive in the extreme outside lane going no faster than the person to your right.

13

Like I said before, I'm bad with math. Yesterday, or the day before, I should have typed that I have seven cousins on one side, twelve on the other.
Remember in elementary school art time when you used to suck on the Magic Marker tips just to get that funny feeling? Well, today at work I was looking for that funny feeling. We have one part of production where they use a pretty strong adhesive. I never had tried it before, but after seeing Dynagirl this morning, it seemed like things were going my little way. I told the men in production how hard the winter was going to be and if we didn't work harder than lizards on a cricket farm, I teared up here for emphasis, that we might miss spring's frolic due to standing in a long, unhappy line for unemployment. They just looked at me with confusion. My distraction had worked though and when I left them standing there, a bottle of A75 glue was in my pocket. I snuck into my office, pulled up a picture of Catherine Deneuve on the monitor, and took a really big whiff of the 75. After that, I remember standing up and reaching for the doorknob. My mind was blank from then until I heard the words, very clearly, "how long has he been like that ..."

14

Have you ever had a sleepdream that came true? I was a manager for a high school football team when I was ten. I had a dream about a football field one night during the week. That weekend, we played on a field that was exactly the same as the one in my dream. Yes, all football fields basically look the same. Even at ten, I noticed all the small details. How close the stands were to field, whether they were wood or aluminum, the color of the scoreboard, whether the field was lined with lime or "paint," etc.
A girlfriend went to Metropolis for a weekend with friends. On Friday, I dreamed about a falling star that was slow to fall, leaving a very thick trial. Late Sunday evening, she told me about her weekend. She told me about hanging out with friends at a park and "we saw the longest falling star that I've ever seen."
I have seven cousins. When I had six, I dreamed about five planets/moon globes spinning around one planet/moon globe that wasn't moving. The name of my youngest cousin was spoken in the dream. Fourteen years later, he died.
Of course, the one about a conversation with Saddam Huessein probably isn't going to happen.
Some day, we'll tap the dna and revisit the "backwash" of all our tribes. The first ones who get to this will either create a nightmare or a utopia. Ever wondered what your dna was doing in 1492, 1776, or 1860?

36 f degrees here in Beauxdean County
72 f degrees in Miama FLA
Got three more days until the Christmas holiday. Might visit the sunshine state. Get sunburned in December. Listen to Dionne Warwick and watch the sunrise over the eastern beaches of America. My little dream: swamp critters and bikinis.
she's just a girl
she's just a girl
the girl you want
Truth and wisdom are not limited to straight and well-lighted streets.

Weekend

Meteor shower viewing tonight. Not far from here is a reservoir with boat ramps all up and down it. Pretty good area to lay back on a cheap lounge chair in the truck bed and take in the wonder of it all. Not far from here are tasty country girls who laugh loud and squeeze hard. Pretty good area to roll around and take in the smell of it all. Not far from here are some extremely beautiful people with minds filled up with logic. Pretty good area to flop around and take in the dream of it all.
I do enjoy the wonder, smell and dream of it all. Kissing is no small miracle to be sure and we are all small. So at one am, within five hours of the atlantic ocean, my little eyes will be kissing the universe. dodadodadodado
It all comes down to what's inside. We all know the difference between right and wrong. We all know that no one else is responsible for the chemistry set carpet burns, the dead frog, the broken window, her tears, the lost hours. We all know where to find the desire to do right. We all know that we have a choice to make. Here on the island, we've tried over and over to legislate that decision away to a huge decision deletion bureaucracy. When I hop in an internal combustion machine and am forced to wear a belt because of a law made by people who I pay, to ride on a road that I've contributed dollars toward to be made and paved, there is something fundamentally wrong going on. If you want to be safe, stay home. If you don't want to make decisions, then don't. Leave us ours. That's what the mind was designed for in the essence of it all. Maybe those legislators are smarter than me. They're not there at the end of the week helping me carry my load; not that I want them to be. Laws are not bad. Too many laws are bad. There are laws against murder. People get murdered everyday. Artificial life is all about money. Life is all about living. I want problems to solve, decisions to make, mistakes to experience, girls to lick, dogs to pet, fish to eat, and a sharp knife in my pocket. Occam's razor. Slice it, babe!
I still don't know what the heck's the matter with me.