Oddities.

Yesterday was an interesting day. I go to have lunch with my cousin, anyone who knows me knows the one thing I have an abundance of is cousins. I have more cousins than you can shake a stick at. I’m lucky that I have them too because they are nice people and as I grow older I come to appreciate them ever more with each day.

One cousin though is probably the closest thing I have to a brother. Hell, we’re not even first cousins but, because of the way life works out we have a very strong bond with one and other.

There’s a restaurant locally that I frequent and as it turns out, this cousin was very good friends with the family way back when he was a teenager and first arrived in this country. So, a few weeks back I was in there picking up takeout and I happened to mention to one of the daughters who works with her parents how my cousin knew them from long ago.

She immediately knew who I was talking about and admonished me for never mentioning it before that day. Mind you, I’ve been going to this restaurant for a good decade now and they know me and treat me quite well. So, then and there the plan was sprung to surprise her brother who was a very close friend of my cousin.

Yesterday, was the day of the surprise.

It was warm and sunny, certainly a perfect day to have a nice lunch. We got down there and the two of them were very happy to see each other and get reacquainted. I felt really pleased if only because I did something that made my cousin happy and he’s done so much for me I can’t ever really do enough for him.

Afterward we stopped to have coffee and oddly enough while we were sitting in the local Starbucks, who should walk in but Anna’s vet. He said hello and I thanked him again for all his efforts in caring for her but I had to admit it was a little odd.

You are what you watch?

I’ve really been enjoying NetFlix, if you’re on the service drop me a line and we can do the ‘friend’ thing.

I was just going though my queue and it’s interesting if only to look back and see what I’ve watched over the last year:

Grindhouse: Death Proof: Bonus Material
Grindhouse: Death Proof
Grindhouse: Planet Terror
Heroes: Season 1: Disc 1 (7-Disc Series)
Threshold: The Complete Series: Disc 2 (4-Disc Series)
UFO: Vol. 6 (8-Disc Series)
UFO: Vol. 5 (8-Disc Series)
Heroes: Season 1: Disc 2 (7-Disc Series)
Threshold: The Complete Series: Disc 1 (4-Disc Series)
UFO: Vol. 4 (8-Disc Series)
The Invasion
30 Days of Night
Beowulf: Director's Cut
UFO: Vol. 3 (8-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 4: Disc 6 (6-Disc Series)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5: Disc 2 (3-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 4: Disc 5 (6-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 4: Disc 3 (6-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 4: Disc 4 (6-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 4: Disc 2 (6-Disc Series)
UFO: Vol. 2 (8-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 4: Disc 1 (6-Disc Series)
UFO: Vol. 1 (8-Disc Series)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5: Disc 3 (3-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 3: Disc 7: Bonus Material (7-Disc Series)
Primer
Torchwood: Season 1: Disc 1 (7-Disc Series)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5: Disc 1 (3-Disc Series)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0: Disc 2 (3-Disc Series)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0: Disc 3 (3-Disc Series)
Resident Evil: Extinction
Torchwood: Season 1: Disc 6 (7-Disc Series)
Torchwood: Season 1: Disc 7 (7-Disc Series)
Torchwood: Season 1: Disc 5 (7-Disc Series)
Torchwood: Season 1: Disc 3 (7-Disc Series)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes / Dr. Phibes Rises Again
Torchwood: Season 1: Disc 4 (7-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: The Sontaran Experiment
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
The Andromeda Strain
Dexter: Season 1: Disc 3 (4-Disc Series)
Torchwood: Season 1: Disc 2 (7-Disc Series)
Dexter: Season 1: Disc 4 (4-Disc Series)
Dexter: Season 1: Disc 1 (4-Disc Series)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0: Disc 1 (3-Disc Series)
Dexter: Season 1: Disc 2 (4-Disc Series)
Them!
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Battlestar Galactica: Razor
Lost: Season 3: Disc 7: Bonus Material (7-Disc Series)
It Came From Outer Space
Lost: Season 3: Disc 6 (7-Disc Series)
Lost: Season 3: Disc 4 (7-Disc Series)
Lost: Season 3: Disc 5 (7-Disc Series)
Lost: Season 3: Disc 1 (7-Disc Series)
Lost: Season 3: Disc 2 (7-Disc Series)
Lost: Season 3: Disc 3 (7-Disc Series)
Fantastic Voyage
Soylent Green
Immortal
A Scanner Darkly
Blade Runner: The Director's Cut
Jekyll: Disc 1 (2-Disc Series)
Jekyll: Disc 2 (2-Disc Series)
Transformers
X-Men 3: The Last Stand
Angel-A
Doctor Who: Season 3: Disc 6 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 3: Disc 4 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 3: Disc 5 (6-Disc Series)
Kung Fu Hustle
Doctor Who: Season 3: Disc 2 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 3: Disc 3 (6-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 3: Disc 3 (7-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 3: Disc 6 (7-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 2: Disc 3 (7-Disc Series)
Spider-Man 3: Bonus Material
Spider-Man 3
Doctor Who: Season 2: Disc 5 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 2: Disc 4 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 2: Disc 6 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 2: Disc 2 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 2: Disc 3 (6-Disc Series)
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Doctor Who: Season 1: Disc 4 (5-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 2: Disc 1 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 1: Disc 5 (5-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 1: Disc 2 (5-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 1: Disc 3 (5-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 1: Disc 1 (5-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks
Doctor Who: Robot
Doctor Who: Survival: Disc 1 (2-Disc Series)
Monk: Season 1: Disc 4 (4-Disc Series)
The Pretender: Season 1: Disc 1 (7-Disc Series)
Word Wars
Orwell Rolls in His Grave
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 3: Disc 4 (7-Disc Series)
Monk: Season 1: Disc 2 (4-Disc Series)
The Hours
The Man Who Wasn't There
Matchstick Men
Click
Munich
High and Low
WTC: The First 24 Hours
Monk: Season 1: Disc 1 (4-Disc Series)
Smiley's People: Disc 3 (3-Disc Series)
How to Draw Comics from Script to Print
The Notorious Bettie Page
Smiley's People: Disc 2 (3-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 3: Disc 2 (7-Disc Series)
In Her Shoes
Smiley's People: Disc 1 (3-Disc Series)
Classic Albums: The Who: Who's Next
Kinsey
Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider: Bonus Material
Sketches of Frank Gehry
Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 3: Disc 1 (7-Disc Series)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: Disc 3 (3-Disc Series)
Chicken Little
Defending Your Life
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 2: Disc 7 (7-Disc Series)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: Disc 2 (3-Disc Series)
Being There
Control Room
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog: Come Poop with Me
Inside Man
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 2: Disc 6 (7-Disc Series)
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Pan's Labyrinth
Saved!
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: Disc 1 (3-Disc Series)
Ran
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 2: Disc 5 (7-Disc Series)
I Heart Huckabees
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
Video Voyeur: The Susan Wilson Story
Rashomon
The Weather Underground
The Best of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
The American President: Disc 5 (Episodes 9-10) (5-Disc Series)
King Kong
The Lost Room: Disc 2 (2-Disc Series)
The Lost Room: Disc 1 (2-Disc Series)
The Constant Gardener
Superfly
The American President: Disc 4 (Episodes 7-8) (5-Disc Series)
Sky High
Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector
A Prairie Home Companion
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 2: Disc 2 (7-Disc Series)
The Who: The Kids Are Alright: Bonus Material
Strangers with Candy
The American President: Disc 3 (Episodes 5-6) (5-Disc Series)
The Who: The Kids Are Alright
Absolute Beginners
16 Blocks
Hard Eight
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 2: Disc 1 (7-Disc Series)
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
Broadway Danny Rose
The American President: Disc 2 (Episodes 3-4) (5-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 1: Disc 7 (7-Disc Series)
The Hills Have Eyes
The Aristocrats
Shaun of the Dead
The American President: Disc 1 (Episodes 1-2) (5-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 1: Disc 6 (7-Disc Series)
Jackass: Number Two
Slums of Beverly Hills
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Dilbert: The Complete Series: Disc 4 (4-Disc Series)
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Mallrats
Life and Debt
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 1: Disc 5 (7-Disc Series)
The Corporation
Dilbert: The Complete Series: Disc 3 (4-Disc Series)
Syriana
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
The Forgotten
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 1: Disc 4 (7-Disc Series)
Capote
Dilbert: The Complete Series: Disc 2 (4-Disc Series)
Art School Confidential
An Inconvenient Truth
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 1: Disc 3 (7-Disc Series)
Dilbert: The Complete Series: Disc 1 (4-Disc Series)
The Island
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Boogie Nights
National Geographic: Inside the Vatican
Six Feet Under: Season 5: Disc 5 (5-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 1: Disc 2 (7-Disc Series)
The World's Fastest Indian
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 1: Disc 1 (7-Disc Series)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
Six Feet Under: Season 5: Disc 4 (5-Disc Series)
Monster
The Final Cut
Six Feet Under: Season 5: Disc 3 (5-Disc Series)
Vampirella
Murderball
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Six Feet Under: Season 5: Disc 2 (5-Disc Series)
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
Thunderbirds
The Fog of War
National Treasure
Six Feet Under: Season 5: Disc 1 (5-Disc Series)
House of Sand and Fog
Six Feet Under: Season 4: Disc 5 (5-Disc Series)
Good Night, and Good Luck
Match Point
Six Feet Under: Season 4: Disc 4 (5-Disc Series)
Rumor Has It
Aeon Flux
Six Feet Under: Season 4: Disc 3 (5-Disc Series)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Man-Thing
Bubba Ho-Tep
Six Feet Under: Season 4: Disc 2 (5-Disc Series)
Spanglish
The Brothers Grimm
Hotel Rwanda
Six Feet Under: Season 4: Disc 1 (5-Disc Series)
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Kamikaze Girls
Six Feet Under: Season 3: Disc 5 (5-Disc Series)
The Matador
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Elizabethtown
Six Feet Under: Season 3: Disc 4 (5-Disc Series)
Six Feet Under: Season 3: Disc 3 (5-Disc Series)
Dark Water
Six Feet Under: Season 3: Disc 2 (5-Disc Series)
Transamerica
Flightplan
Six Feet Under: Season 3: Disc 1 (5-Disc Series)
The Weather Man
Domino
Crash

She’s gone.



I took this photo this morning, you can see her ribs poking through her side.

I’m going to indulge myself this last time on this subject and then I’ll let it drop.

So, today was the day. After watching her stumble around the house and knowing it was going to get even worse I took it upon myseelf to end her suffering. This morning I got up and she was lying down on one of her pillows (which I had placed strategically throughout the house so she would always have a comfy place to lie). When she saw me she got up and made to come over. You have to picture this little thing that is barely skin and bones weakly getting up and staggering towards me, my heart just broke.

So, I gave her water and held her. I stroked her and made her purr. I even gave her more whip cream and listened to her purr loudly and she tried to get as much down as she could. I called the vet and asked what time I could bring her in. A mere hour and a half left to her all too short life. I held her some more and stroked her some more because every precious moment she had left should be filled with contentedness.

Then, I put her on the pillow for a little while. Even though her energy was all but spent there was always something so comforting in just her presence. I took the last photos I will ever take of her. Morbid? I’m not sure but, I wanted to remember every moment I had with her. She really was my precious little jewel.

Some people would say why are you getting upset, it’s just a cat and admittedly I feel a little embarassed. This little creature that took up so much of my heart, that made me smile and usually was the best part of my day.

Anyway, I wrapped her in a towel and spoke softly to her. One arm had her cradled while the other I used to steer the car and we made our way down to the Vets. The window in the waiting area was open and I held her by it as she caught a whiff of the fresh air and I scratched her neck and she was happy.

We went in one of the exam rooms, placing that little bag of bones on the table and like that it was done. It was unnaturally quick and the moment the life had gone from her small body it was apparent and the shift was made from beloved friend to lifeless thing.

I’m sad. I know eventually I’ll get myself another pet but, there will only be one Anna. She was a wonderful little old lady, my special girl and I have been blessed by every moment I had her brightening my life.

Today, I will kill my cat.



So, I’m trying to get my head around this. I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing or not. I actually sent off a note to someone and told them about my crisis, basically is it ever right to end a life? I love my cat, I really, really do and over the last bunch of days I have watched as my poor little kitty has withered.

She was a small creature to begin with weighing in at just over five pounds but now I would think she is maybe only two.

I pick her up and she is so frail I think she might come apart in my hands. I can feel her bones. I have given her intravenous fluids every day, I have feed her as much as she would eat but, there is no avoiding the ineveitable. She is withering before my eyes.

It’s sad to watch because she is still in there.

By in there, I mean she is still that wonderful companion that owns my heart. I come up in the morning and she comes out and walks around gingerly awaiting to be fed. After chowing down she comes back out as she has grown accustomed to me picking her up, cradling her in my arms and giving her water through an eyedropper. Then I’ll take some time to clean off her face before she drops down exhausted from the effort.

And over the last few days, since last Friday, each day she has gotten a little worse. When she walks, her rear legs almost give out on her and she has to catch herself but still if I am sitting at the computer she comes into the room and takes up residence on the pillow near me just to be close.

Tonight I held her and gave her the good scratching she deserved making sure I hit all the special spots she loves, behind her ears, under her chin. She stretched her paw out and put her head back and purred away.

The question becomes is it right just to wait for her to whither away completely and the answer is no. The heat has been getting to her too and just making her already dehydrated state even worse.

She got her treat of whip cream this evening and I loved hearing her purr as she tried her best to lap up what she could.

I’m cried out, or at least I think I am but then I can still find some tears left within me. I know it’s time, it’s just so very hard to say goodbye to her, she has been such a lovely addition and I truly feel I have been blessed to have her in my life. She has bought joy and happiness not just to me but also to the EYOC especially in his waning days and Madame X as well. She was the glue that held a discordant household together. You wouldn’t think such a small thing would have such great power but it was true.

Anyway, I know it’s time and there is still a part of me that wants another day but the truth is it’s not fair to her.

All I know is how much I will miss her.

Greeeaaattttt.

So, I bust my ass to write an article for Comicon’s The Pulse and I even get it off to them:



...and the good part was I even got the damn thing done before Newsrama had posted anything on the panel I was writing about but, wouldn’t you know it that the site has been down for the entire day.

If this doesn’t say it all.

I was thumbing through this week’s Village Voice and came across this cartoon by Tom Tomorrow. It elicited quite the belly laugh and if it doesn’t sum things up about or nation’s current situation I don’t know what does:


Click through to read the thing full size at Salon.com

Winding down.

So, we’re back at the vet’s today. The visit being a follow up visit to Tuesday’s visit.

The specter of going to the vet now takes on foreboding proportions because I’m not sure if the vet will say it’s time to put Anna down. I’m dreading it but I know it is soon to come. Sometimes, I can be entirely normal about the world around me and other times I can find myself crying like a baby, just being entirely consumed by sadness over her loss of my little companion.

For her part, Anna wanders around the house. She sleeps but then that’s what cats do anyway. She walks gingerly, frailly, unsure of her own steps and very uncatlike. But she does manage to make her way around the house and still manages to get up onto some of her favorite spots to lounge about.

This morning I came upstairs and immediately went over to her in the bathroom (she’s confined at night for her own good as I have images of her falling down the stairs) and began to stroke her. She was genuinely happy and purred away lavishing in the attention. She had a nice breakfast and even though she isn’t drinking as much as I would like her too she has some appetite. Now she gets wet food twice a day because there really isn’t a need to worry about her overeating especially since she lost so much weight.

But there are times when her little mouth begins to shudder and she seems stricken by a wave of tremors causing her lower jaw to vibrate like an old person’s. It’s hard to watch.

Still as I was getting ready to take her over to the vet, she followed me all around the house in a surprising burst of energy (considering her weakened state). It was almost as if she knew what was on the agenda and wanted to make sure I knew she wasn’t ready to check out quite yet.

Still watching her and then thinking about the inevitable is overwhelming to say the least.

So, we made our way down to the vet’s and I actually wondered if this would be ‘IT.’ Would this be the last morning I had with her? What would the doctor say?

And it turned out she had gained a little weight but she was still dehydrated and needed more fluids. So she got poked and then we came home and she wandered around the house taking naps in various special spots.

Here it is beautiful outside, I mean the weather is just gorgeous and I find I can’t bring myself to leave her.

There’s lots to do and there was a lot scheduled for today but, in the end I wound up feeding her with an eyedropper and making sure she was comfortable. I’m just trying to get water into her anyway I can and the eyedropper seems the least intrusive way even though I can tell it is probably giving her gas as I can hear her stomach gurgling away but she seems to be parched.

Tonight I popped out just to get some dinner and while I was out I even managed to get her a little treat.

In the past, one of the great joys we shared was me putting a dollop of whip cream on a finger and she would stand up and greedily lick it off, delighting in the flavor. I know on some level it wasn’t the best thing but boy how she enjoyed it and once in awhile didn’t hurt.

Tonight when I got home I cracked open the whip cream and sprayed a bunch into a spoon for her. She only took some half hearted attempts at eating it and even then she was stricken with a good case of the shakes again.

So, I know it won’t be long.

But, I am trying to make sure it’s nice and like I said there are moments when I am fine and other moments when I am reduced to a blubbering mass of tears and sniffles.

It’s supposed to be a busy weekend and I’ll be spending the next few days away from the house, I can only hope she’ll be alright and not too lonely while I’m gone. When the time comes I don’t want her to be alone.

My first golden shower.



I’ve never been a big one for that kind of kink but I broke new ground last night.

I have cried and cried and cried beyond the point where logic says there should be anything left in my tear ducts. Right now someone is curled up on my lap with her head down sleeping. I go back and forth, really. One minute life is pretty normal and then another I am simply beside myself.

After a day at the vet getting fluids Anna was doing much better. Not great, just better.

As I said on Monday I kind of knew she was going downhill but it’s been a very rapid descent. The doctor showed me how I could administer fluids myself and then I bought her home and spent time cleaning her face (eyes, chin and crusted over nose) as well as her paws.

I managed to get her set up on a pillow on a chair in a favorite spot where she could lie in the sun and be warm and content. She purred away as I stroked her. Later on I bought her downstairs with me to bed. She‘s been sick awhile and confined to one room in the house and I had forgotten how much I loved having her curl up next to me at night. I put her under the covers and she immediately drifted off, purring herself to sleep.

An hour or two later she made a half hearted attempt to get out of bed and suddenly there was something warm happening. So, I got my first golden shower via my kitty. I stripped the bed down and bought her back upstairs, put her on her pillow and made sure she was comfortable. If you think I was at all upset, well I wasn’t upset at all because right now it’s all about her and her comfort.

Yeah, the mattress pad is getting thrown out but I don’t care. I just want her to be happy and enjoy what little time she has left to her. She is staggering around the house, she’s fallen over her back a few times (not from a height just trying to make her way around). It’s horrible but, there are moments when she is one my lap nice and warm and I am petting her and she is genuinely happy. I was going to go out today and when I started to make preparations to get ready she was all on top of me, standing on her back legs, demanding to be petted and wanting to be picked up.

And really... my heart is breaking and I cry some more. I am this brutish guy and this fuzzy little animal (the furthest thing away from what would be considered a man‘s pet) is my world. She has been the most wonderful companion and I hate having to face something like this again. I went through this when I had a cat as a teenager (she passed when I was in my early 20s) and I didn’t have another pet until Madame X bought little Anna into my life.

Who knew she would be able to make her way so deeply into my heart.

This sucks!



Sometimes you know something but, you just want to pretend you don’t. I kind of knew something yesterday (for the last bunch of days actually) but it was just confirmed this morning. I took my little pal to the vet and sure enough she is very close to the end. I was given the option of having her put down today or opting to try and get her more comfortable if only to stave off the inevitable for a brief time and to ease her pain. I chose the latter (though I have to wonder whether I did the right thing and whether it was in her best interests or guiltily mine).

Suffice to say it is a hard thing to contemplate a world without such a wonderfully small ball of fluff. Perhaps the most terrible thing was cradling her in my arms in the vets office, stroking her and having her purr away contentedly. I love that little creature and my heart breaks knowing she will soon not be a part of my life.

Funny accidents.

I came across this page quite by accident but the rant had me laughing out loud and it’s worth a gander:

Anyone who has an emotional bond with McDonald’s, or anyone who can relate anything they love about life to a company that sells deep fried processed chicken meat should be stabbed in the face. The only bond this campaign is rekindling is that of my ass to the toilet. I’d rather have my skin sand blasted off than eat another pig rectum sandwich from McDonald’s.

Awesome!

So, my big treat to myself for being sick was to go out and get Mountain Battles (iTunes) the new album from The Breeders.

JUST TERRIFIC!!!!!

I had already heard We’re Gonna Rise but, Overglazed, Bang On and Regalame Esta Noche are kick ass too!

Check out The Breeders My Space page and you can listen to the tracks for free!

I hate f*@#in’ being sick!

So, I’m coming into the last two weeks of the ten week gig and I missed two days last week and then two days this week, depriving myself of hours and money. Being sick is never fun but, it doubly sucks when I have work booked and it just doesn’t make a helluva lot of sense to work through being sick.

A couple of years back I made the mistake of working while I was sick and wound up paying the price by really damaging my hearing and winding up in the emergency room. Since then I vowed not to let work come before my health ever again.

So, the last couple of weeks have been crappy if only because various maladies have caught up with me.

A few weeks back, I thought something had gotten caught in my eye. Really! I had the kind of gritty feeling you sometimes get when something gets in under a lid and it is a b*tch to try and get it out. That went on for a few days as it seemed whatever was caught in the eye made it’s way from the corner around the back and the top of the eye. By the end of that week, I had a fairly intense headache thing going on on one side of my head (the side with the eye that had something stuck in it). I showed it to a co-worker discretely and they said it looked like pink eye.

For some reason I always think of kids getting pink eye though.

Anyway, over the course of the weekend it seemed to get worse and the eye was really hurting and finally I just took a day and decided I would get in to see the primary care physician. He took one look at it and sent me over to an eye doctor and it turned out there was something going on INSIDE the eye itself. Pink eye is inflammation around the eye and this was in the actual eye itself so, over the last week or so it’s been eye drops and a few more visits back to the eye doctor to keep up on the progress.

I took another day off just to rest and wound up back at work on Wednesday feeling if not 100% - much, much better than I had in two weeks.

Funny thing about eye drops (the thing that you wouldn’t know unless you use them quite a bit) is that you wind up tasting the damn things in your throat after you use them.

So, I had been using the things and the eye seemed to be clearing up nicely with the doctor pulling me back a little on my dosage and the eye started to get a little bad again and I increased the frequency of using the drops. Now though, I noticed my throat was bothering me and I wrote that off to just the drops irritating the throat.

But, no that wasn’t it.

Someone at work had been out with a really bad strep throat, something that had been running around the office and I think I managed to pick that up as well. So, even though I was in Monday and Tuesday, I noticed I started sneezing quite a bit and the nose was running and sure enough when I got up today I had a full blown cold.

Bleh.

So, the upshot is I hate being sick.

In the meantime though, during one of the sojourns between naps (sleep, up for awhile, sleep, up for awhile... you know the drill), I got to thinking about music. Specifically, I keep loading more and more into iTunes and I’ve been amazed rediscovering some lost loves of music so to speak. One of my long term goals is to go back and take all that vinyl and digitize it, I even got the hardware to do it but, it’s a big job and there’s a lot ahead of it on the list.

Ah yes, i remember it well...

Shea Stadium has been the site of some legendary concerts and this two-night stint by two major bands makes the list. The concerts were part of The Who’s first “farewell” tour, and it was the first concert in six years at Shea. The shows sold out in hours and the crowds were estimated around 70,000 because there was festival seating on the infield for the first time at Shea.

I can’t remember which of the two shows I was at but, i can very vividly remember where I sat (behind home plate on the mezzanine level). I also remember that it was the third time I saw The Clash and because they weren’t really a stadium band probably their weakest performance. Still a great, great show!

Bored with the internet.

So, i am finding myself increasingly bored with the internet of late. I don’t know why but, the usual haunts just have lost their luster. I’ve become much more aware of just how much time I spend either on the internet or watching TV or some combination of the two and it horrifies me.

Today, I have a few moments to spare while I’m waiting for something and I’m on the internet. And... it’s just a waste of time.

I love the internet, don’t get me wrong... well what I should say is that I love the web. We talk about ‘THE INTERNET’ and really what we are talking about is the web. I like having all that information at my fingertips. The big problem though is that I can find ways to idle away hours just on the kind of vague rollercoaster my interests will take me on.

So, I have to stop this... especially now that the weather is starting to get nice. I just don’t want to waste another summer stuck inside on the computer!

Breaking 60°!

Well, even though I wasn’t able to enjoy it, today’s temperature broke the 60° mark I think for the first time this year. I wasn’t able to enjoy it because of an ‘eye’ thing that has made me miss two days of work and had me sleeping away most of the day. Still, just the fact that the temps are climbing back upward again is enough to make me happy and means that idle afternoons of scooter rides are not far off.

Also, the other great thing about the warmer temps is that it means I won’t have to shovel snow again this year (hopefully at all). I really hate winter not just because of the cold but also because of the extra work whenever we get precipitation. To illustrate that, I give you a series of before and after photos from the last snowstorm:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I am waaayyyyyy happy today!

Why?

Well, at this moment I have the ESPN on and am watching the start of ’08 baseball season. The Braves are playing The Nationals in the Nationals brand spanking new park.

Now if you’ve really been paying attention, the season actually opened earlier this week when the Red Sox played the A’s in Japan. There is something very cool about that. Tonight though is the first night game of the season on the continental United States and tomorrow the Mets and Yankees will be playing their first games of the season.

I’m a big baseball fan.

Last year even though I am a tremendous Mets fan, I didn’t get to a single game. This year is the last year for Yankee stadium and Shea stadium so I’ll have to make it a point to at least get to one game in each park before they’re gone.

I have to start taking baseball trips again.

I got out of the habit of taking baseball trips over the last decade or so but, I have in the past enjoyed seeing quite a few major league parks and I can’t say I’ve ever had a bad time on one of those trips (at least not where the game is concerned).

These are stadiums I’ve been to that are no longer around!

Milwaukee County Stadium (locally known as just County Stadium) was a ballpark in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1953 to 2000. It was primarily used as a baseball stadium for the Milwaukee Braves and Brewers, but was also utilized for football games, ice skating, religious services, concerts and other large events. It was replaced by Miller Park. County Stadium was demolished on February 21, 2001.

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The Olympic Stadium [1] (French: Stade olympique) is a stadium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada built as the main venue for the 1976 Summer Olympics. It subsequently became the home of Montreal’s professional baseball and Canadian football teams. Since the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington, D.C. in 2004, the stadium has had no main tenant, and with a history of financial and structural problems, is largely seen as a white elephant.

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Philadelphia Veterans Stadium (informally called “The Vet”) was a professional sports facility located at the northeast corner of Broad Street and Pattison Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It housed the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League from 1971 through 2002 and the National League’s Philadelphia Phillies from 1971 through 2003. The final game ever played at the stadium was on September 28, 2003. The ultimate end came when the 33-year old stadium was imploded on March 21, 2004.

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Busch Memorial Stadium, or Busch Stadium was the home of the St. Louis Cardinals National League baseball team from May 12, 1966 to October 19, 2005. It opened four days after the last game was played in their old home, Sportsman’s Park (which had also been known since 1953 as Busch Stadium). The stadium was destroyed by wrecking ball in late 2005, and part of its former footprint is used by its replacement stadium of the same name.

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Jack Murphy Stadium, is a multiple-use stadium in San Diego, California. It is the current home of the San Diego Chargers of the NFL and of the San Diego State University Aztecs college football team. It hosts the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl and the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl college football games every December. Until 2003, it served as the home of the San Diego Padres in baseball’s National League. lso in 1997, the facility was renamed QUALCOMM Stadium after QUALCOMM Corporation paid $18 million for the naming rights. The naming rights will belong to QUALCOMM until 2017.

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Candlestick, after its original as well as future name of Candlestick Park, and sometimes just simply The Stick) is an outdoor sports and entertainment stadium located in San Francisco, California. On September 28, 2004, a new naming rights deal was signed with Monster Cable, a maker of cables for electronic equipment, and the stadium was renamed Monster Park.

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The Kingdome was an indoor sports and entertainment arena owned and operated by King County, Washington. The Kingdome was demolished by implosion on March 26, 2000 and the footprint is now occupied by Qwest Field.

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Riverfront Stadium, later known as Cinergy Field, (1970-2002) was the home of the Cincinnati Reds National League baseball team and the Cincinnati Bengals National Football League team. The stadium was demolished by implosion on December 29, 2002. Video clips of its demolition were featured in the music video for the song MakeDamnSure by Taking Back Sunday.

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Comiskey Park (35th Street & Shields Avenue, Chicago, Illinois) was the ballpark in which the Chicago White Sox played from 1910 to 1990. It was built by Charles Comiskey after a design by Zachary Taylor Davis, and was the site of four World Series (one of which was played by the Chicago Cubs due to lack of seating at Wrigley Field) and more than 6,000 major league games. Comiskey Park was demolished in 1991, a process that started from behind the right field corner, and took all summer. The last portion to come down was the center field bleachers and the “exploding” scoreboard.

That’s 9 whole trips I have to take all over again! In the meantime, these are the stadiums that I’ve visited that are still in use:

Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a ballpark located in Baltimore, Maryland, which was completed in 1992 to replace the aging Memorial Stadium. It is the home field of the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball. It was the first of the “retro” major league ballparks constructed during the 1990s and early 2000s, and remains one of the most highly praised.

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Fenway Park is the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club. The park, the oldest of all current Major League Baseball stadiums, opened in 1912. Fenway hosted the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 1946, 1961, and 1999, and has played host to ten World Series.

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Wrigley Field is a baseball stadium in Chicago, Illinois, United States that has served as the home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. It was built in 1914 as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Federal League baseball team, the Chicago Whales. It was also the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League from 1921-1970. It was also called Cubs Park from 1920 to 1926 before finally being renamed for then Cubs team owner and chewing gum industrialist William Wrigley Jr..

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Ewing M. Kauffman Stadium (formerly Royals Stadium) is a Major League Baseball stadium located in Kansas City, Missouri, and home to the Kansas City Royals of the American League. Together with Arrowhead Stadium, home of the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs, it is a part of the Truman Sports Complex.

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Angel Stadium of Anaheim (originally Anaheim Stadium and later Edison International Field of Anaheim) is a ballpark located in Anaheim, California. It is the home ballpark to Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of the American League, and was previously home to the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams (now St. Louis Rams). The stadium is often referred to by its unofficial nickname The Big A.

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Dodger Stadium is a large outdoor ballpark in Los Angeles, California at Chávez Ravine. It is located adjacent to Downtown Los Angeles. Dodger Stadium was privately financed at a cost of $23 million in 1962.

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William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium, is an American ballpark in New York City. It is the longtime home of the New York Metropolitans Major League Baseball club, and one of the oldest ballparks in the National League, serving as home of the Mets for 44 years. It is located in the Flushing section of the borough of Queens.

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Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium in New York City that is the home of the New York Yankees, a Major League baseball team. Located at East 161st Street and River Avenue in The Bronx, it has hosted Yankees home games since 1923 and has a capacity of 57,545. It was formerly the home of the New York Giants football team, and once hosted dozens of boxing's most famous fights.

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Commonly referred to as The Oakland Coliseum, or simply The Coliseum. It was formerly known as Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum and Network Associates Coliseum.

And to think, Yankee and Shea stadium will be off that list after this year! That will bring my total to 11 stadiums that are no longer in use and only 7 active stadiums. If that isn’t a good excuse to travel, I don’t know what is!

Devoid.

Or, Da Void depending upon where you were raised.

Right now, things have been generally quiet around here and on the Flickr stream of late. The simple reason for that is that I find my energy being directed towards the daily grind of getting in and doing my work on the gig I’m currently on. Right now, I’m on week 8 of the 10 week gig so there is definitely an end in site. It may run a few days over but, I’ve already started casting about to see if I can make the whole downtime thing a relatively short period.

Freelancing is funny in that you have to be like a shark in the sense you are always swimming about looking for your next meal. Sharks that get lazy and stop swimming don’t last very long in the ocean.

Truthfully, this sojourn into regular hours and office life has been fairly painless. Not perfect, just painless for the most part. I recognize my energy level (something I could never boast of being great) is diminishing with the passage of time. Consequently, I have little drive to do much else when I am focused on working.

Case in point, the day starts for me sometime between 4:30 and 6 am. Last week I was indulging and not getting up until seven am and was paying the price by getting into the office by ten. No one gives me a hard time about it, it’s just that I’m trying to establish good habits and get to work earlier rather than later. Any day I can walk into the office before 9am, I feel as if I started off the day right and accomplished something of a small victory.

It sounds a bit inane - either that or highly self indulgent. Like getting to work before 9 am should even be such a big deal but, the commute for me varies most days anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours so walking in the door before 9 am means I managed to get myself out of the house before 7:30.

Also true, is that if I wind up at work until 7:30 or 8 pm, I often don’t wind up walking in the door at home until sometime around 10. When you start crunching the numbers in terms of how the days fall out, it winds up being that there is very little time for me to do anything besides going to work and coming home.

Still, like I said I really can’t complain. I’ve gotten to a certain point now in my career where I’m just not thrown for a curve as much as I might’ve been earlier on and that means any potential disasters can be anticipated and dealt with well before they explode like the ticking time bombs they can be.

I still might dread having to drag myself in but, the truth is once I’m in the office I find myself having a pretty decent go of it. A lot of that has to do with the people I’m around but, as much as they may or may affect things the big determining factor is my own attitude. It’s something I’ve come to realize more and more - the simple lesson of how important it is to have a positive attitude and outlook on things.

Sounds simplistic?

I’m not saying I’m getting to the point where I put my head in the sand, just trying to manage a more even tone throughout the day and not let things bother me.

Case in point - Friday evening when I returned from work, I got to the garage where the car was park only to find my car had been keyed. Keyed!

Well, I walked up to the passenger door and noticed the kind of Jesus fish pattern in the side of the car and just thought someone was being a jerk. Then I saw that the same pattern had been carved into the driver’s side door as well. I imagine if the car was newer or something I might’ve been more bothered by it, as it was I wound up waiting for a policeman and filing a police report on the whole thing. I’m still not sure how I’ll handle it but, it didn’t ruin my weekend.

In the past I might‘ve walked around for a bit and held a certain amount of anger or rage about the whole thing within me but, something is happening in that I found it all together easy to let it go.

Like I said though, I’ve got to keep swimming around looking for the next meal so, I imagine there are more pressing concerns that are in the forefront of my mind currently.

What day is it?

The problem with working regular more than anything is that the days seem to pass by like mileposts on the highway when you’re doing 80. Today is Good Friday and Sunday is Easter! While the holiday moved up on the calendar for this year, it’s also just about April! How did that happen so fast!?

Well, I am fairly happy because it means the winter is over and the warmer weather is on the way. This bodes well as I can’t wait to get back out on the road again and run around a little bit more on my Vespa! I certainly want to start taking some longer road trips.

Work proceeds apace... that means I have given myself over to something of a routine and while there are days I still feel like I would rather stay home and putter, I manage to soldier through. I’m coming to realize a big part of that has to do quite a bit with my own attitude. That may strike many as one of those D’uh! moments but, there is a lot to be said for it and it sounds infinitely easier than one would imagine.

I was reading a column the other day that summed it up all quite well, much better than I might in my limited scope:

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” - Buddha

Simplicity? Easy to execute? Maybe you think so but, if anything you couldn’t be further from the truth.

Anyway, since it’s a quiet day at work, I think I will be happy and idle away the day anticipating leaving at a reasonable hour and enjoying the sun!

Hey! What happened!

My blogoversary passed on Saturday and I didn’t even get one note of congratulations (never mind the fact I got nary a gift).

Heck! I didn’t even notice it but, then again I’ve got a bit of an excuse as I spent Friday night wandering around the city.

So, if you want to find out about my adventures, click on the map below and be sure to zoom in way close so you can get a good view!


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Of crusading and disgraced governors.

Well, c’mon... with a name like Spitzer that pretty much tells you everything you need to know about what the man was up to behind closed doors!