good grief...
I am in pain. I tried to roller skate today. I managed to make it around the rink once without falling on my ass and immediatly got a cramp in my left calf. I am so out of shape it's not funny. And, roller skating is most definitly not the same as ice skating, which I can do with great ease and grace. I think some lessons are in order and I really, really need to start stretching and working out again. I must stop being so lazy.
Tiger the cat is hanging out with me, she's sitting on the computer table watching me type and head-butting my arm. I think she's feeling old, too. I really don't remember exactly how old she is, but she's at least thirteen or so. Starting to get a bit scruffy around the edges, too. She's my constant companion. We're a lot alike, we pretty much like to be left alone and we're both content with our lives. She sure sheds, though. Not a good thing for my usually black wardrobe. I can understand why the ancient Egyptians considered cats gods and why other civilizations considered them to have mysterious and mystical powers. I think it's their itensity; what ever they do, from sleeping to eating to sitting and staring out a window, they put all they have into it. Cats are most Zen like in that way. I think they've found the one in all things. I feel bad that she has spent most of her life confined to the house, I wish we lived where she could go out and safely explore the world. I hope she doesn't hold it against me. I almost lost her once to an encounter with a car and don't want to go through that again, nor put her through that again, either. She seems happy enough, I hope she really is.
Well, friends, I'm going to go have something to eat and a beer or two. Maybe it will make the cramp in my leg go away.
later.

pearls before swine...

life a go-go...
whew! It's a good thing that my body eventually gives out and I get some much needed sleep every few days... we've been very, very busy on the roller derby front. Lot's of wheeling and dealing, handshake agreements, total madness...
The benefits of living the good life are finally coming around, and *gasp* my faith in humankind may yet be restored. Even if the roller derby gig falls on it's ass, we'll have made some great friends and had one hell of a time, but I doubt it will fail unless we let it. It is so much fun putting something like this together and watch it take on a life of it's own. If things keep progressing with the same pace of the past few weeks, we may be able to have an exhibition match in the late fall.
Other than that, life, crazy as it is, goes on. The final phase of the great kitchen remodeling adventure is about to begin with work on the new countertops, sink and fixtures and all the little cool stuff like new switchplates and decorative stuff. Then, on to the dining room. Fear not, a new chapter of This Old Lair is in the offing.
Gotta run, lots to do tonight so I can meet the girls at the rink tomorrow morning for some skating practice.
later.
pearls before swine...

I promise...
sometime over the next week I will update my links in the sidebar. I need to get rid of the dead links and add those of you, dearest readers, who have blogs of your own. I feel guilty when I read your blogs and see a link to SOG and I haven't yet returned your kindness, I will amend my lazy ways soon...
as you were. or weren't. whatever...
pearls before swine...

the further decline...
of western civilization, part 35...
I'm sitting here, surfing the net whilst watching a college basketball game and a commercial came on that really made my balls hurt; It's a commercial for BMW automobiles, starts out with some woman in a parking garage climbing up on a garbage can to adjust a security camera. Then it moves inside to a series of little vignettes of this business suit clad, hair pulled back into a severe bun loser taking every opportunity to hang out at the water cooler so she can peek in the windows of the security office to look at her fucking car on the security video monitors. And, to top it off, it's USED! Oh, pardon me, BMW, previously owned... good jumpin' jesus on a stick, what the fuck? Do people really swoon and moon over their damned cars like that? Have I been missing out on something all my long, obviously unfulfilled life? I don't recall any car ever giving me a hard on like that dizzy broad had over her's. Don't get me wrong, I've owned vehicles that I was really, really fond of, like my '39 Packard Hearse and my '67 VW pop-top camper, but I managed to keep my undies dry and I sure as hell didn't stand there all day staring at them. I guess it's the same deal as these guys who just have to drive Hummers and Mercedes and pickup trucks that you could haul the Titanic up a boat ramp with, just because it says, "HEY, LOOK AT ME! I'M A MAN!". Nope, you're just some insecure asshole with good credit. One of these days when I see one of these manly types getting out of their 'Vette or their jacked up SUV in a parking lot, I'm going over to him, shake his hand and tell him what an honor it is to meet someone who's fucking dick is so small that they had to buy something like that to make up for it. Think they'll get the joke?
Our society (note: word used very, very loosely here...) is most definitely going to shit, friends. How much better would it be if people doted over their fellow human's plight as they do over their cars? I don't know anyone who would take half of what a car payment would be and donate it to a charity once a month, but they'll take their three or four hundred a month and throw it down the rat hole so they can feel good about themselves. Fuckin' party on, Wayne...
Well, I'm gonna go smoke a cigarette outside and stare at my eight year old car and my wife's seven year old car...
later, citizens...
pearls before swine...

damn...
I've been around...

bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

I gotta hit North Dakota one of these days, I have no idea how I missed it!




pearls before swine...

it's gone...
there was a time when I could hear the earth sing under my feet. Maybe not an actual song, but singing, none the less. It would resonate in the bark of the trees I touched, it would whisper behind me in the wind and lift itself in crescendo in bluest skies or murmur, unseen, in the darkness of night; I would feel it in myself when I walked upon the world, in the woods, in the towns or beside the waters. I would vibrate along with it's chord, sometimes knowingly, sometimes not. It was a song I sang to in the gold of the morning and in that color of twilight that you can't describe. It would overpower me when I tried to accompany it in the driving rains, it would be the faint chorus behind my song in the softness of falling snow. A voice in the spring breeze that stirred the nodding daffodils, a song in the breathless heat of summer sun and the long sustain that announced the end of summer in the rattling of dry leaves that hung on tired branches, a last applause, and a plaint to call the world to rest in the night of it's winter. It would be the first music I would hear upon awakening and the melody that drew me to sleep. It was a gift, freely given to me as long as I was willing to listen to it, but now it's gone. And, worse, it's been gone for a long, long time, and I've only just noticed, and now, I'm nothing...
pearls before swine...