Also, congratulations are in order for the Chicago Cubs having won their first National LeagueCentral Division title since 2003. I didn’t think that after their abysmal start they could pull it off.
As much as I would love to see a Red Sox/Cubs World Series matchup we all know that it won’t happen. My major concern obviously is that when the Cubs do manage to get to the Series and are on the brink of that championship we may hear the galloping hooves of the Four Horsemen!
When I was a kid back in the mid-80s I did something that I am embarrassed to mention. This is something that I think about from time to time and feel terrible about myself. I lied.
Sure we all lie and we all get away with the lie and we usually don’t think twice about it. There was more to this lie that makes this particular time that I lied stick in my memory over 20 years later. It was 5th or 6th grade and we lived in Nashua, NH. It was a good time for me. I was a happy kid with friends, I was active in Scouting and loved to camp and even did pretty well in school. Some of this had to do with a wonderful teacher that I had, Mr. O’Keefe.
Mr. O’Keefe was that one teacher that never talked down to us students. He seemed to love his job and seemed to get a real rush from educating and shaping our young minds. He must have been a really good teacher having made the game of chess fun for 12 year old kids. Mr. O’Keefe was pretty close to most of us kids but a few of us found our way into that inner circle who were what you might call the “teacher’s pets”. I was one of those kids.
One early morning a new student was introduced to the class. For the life of me I cannot remember his name. This really bugs me since he is the one who took the brunt of the evil in this story. For the sake of continuity and ease of reading this, we will call him Sean. (Now that I say this out loud it sounds correct.) Sean seemed like a shy kid. We found out that he had just moved from the west (California, I think) with his dad. He was an only child of divorced parents. Sean never seemed to fit in with the rest of us, not for a lack of trying. We were nice enough but no one went out of their way to befriend the new kid who didn’t talk very much.
In hindsight I am sure that Sean was the ideal child…good with his studies, quiet, well-mannered and was probably an all around great kid. Actually, to picture him in my mind’s eye and to really think about what I knew about Sean, I bet he was a pretty sad young man. Let’s be honest, a boy of 12 who has recently gone through a divorce, has moved away from his friends and family, including his mother and is too shy to make new friends can’t be the picture of happiness. We also found out another interesting fact about Sean, his religion.
It was the first or second week after Sean arrived that we heard all about his religion. Mr. O’Keefe felt it necessary to inform the class about some possibly private information. It just so happened to be Sean’s birthday and birthdays were very much celebrated in Mr. O’Keefe’s class. This birthday would be the exception. Apparently, Sean’s father did not allow him to celebrate holidays or his own birthday. (The School Girl says he may have been Seventh-Day Adventist.) So that we wouldn’t make him feel bad we were not to mention anything about today being his birthday and true to our word to Mr. O’keefe, no one uttered a sound about it.
This seemed very sad to me even then that a boy of his age would not be allowed to celebrate things like Halloween and Christmas or even his own birthday. This would be especially difficult for a boy who used to be able to celebrate these things prior to moving in with his father who did not believe in such “frivolous celebrations”. Wow, I am feeling worse and worse about this as I get to the bad part. Well, here we go.
A few weeks later we had the lucky opportunity to watch a filmstrip. Those of you who grew up in the 70s and 80s probably know that a filmstrip was when everyone got to sit at their desks with the lights off (with potential for mischief) while one lucky student would turn a knob by hand on a projector in time with a cassette tape. Generally, these were history related. They were always a great time. Unluckily for me, it was not my turn to run the projector. I did, however, get to sit in the back row, one seat back and to the right of Sean.
At lunch that day I had procured a straw. I thought it would be fun to use this straw and the cornucopia of notebook paper from my Trapper Keeper to hurl nasty spit-wads at the new guy. I have to tell you that I was in rare form that day having made the greatest spit-wads the world had ever seen. My aim was dead on that day and it led to that moment in time that makes my heart sink.
As the filmstrip played and the lights were dimmed I reached for my lined paper. I began to slowly and quietly rip tiny pieces of paper to shove them into my mouth coating them severely with saliva. I pulled my carefully hidden straw from my back pocket and inserted the gooey paper into the end. With one eye on Mr. O’Keefe and one on my target, I made sure that the coast was clear and that my aim was true. With an easy breath I forced the air from my lungs into the plastic tubing. Direct hit!
Sean’s hand immediately found its way to the side of his head. He peered around the room with an anguished look upon his face. I, of course, giggled to myself. I got the attention of one of my classmates so that he could enjoy the fun with me. I proceeded to pelt Sean with spit-wads three or four times. Each time Sean would whisper out, “Quit it!” to no avail. Eventually, the young man had reached his boiling point and he hollered…”STOP!”. Quite surprised at him interrupting the filmstrip, Mr. O’Keefe found his way over to Sean.
Sean told him that I was spitting paper at him. Mr. O’Keefe seemed incredulous. The filmstrip was ending and the school day was aproaching its glorious ending so Mr. O’Keefe pulled us out of the room to find out what truly happened. Sean told him that I was indeed shooting spit-wads at his head and had been for most of the filmstrip. At this point I was scared. Almost shaking at the thought of getting into trouble. I never got in trouble, ever. I couldn’t fathom the thought of it starting now. Mr. O’Keefe needed both sides of the story; however, before he could render his decision on disciplinary actions.
Mr. O’Keefe looked me directly in the eye and I being so frightened looked him right back. “Brian, did you spit paper at Sean?”
He didn’t beat around the bush. He wanted the truth. He almost seemed disappointed that it was I who was being called into question. I hesitated a minute thinking that if I tell the truth that he and my parents will be upset with me. I had their trust and I didn’t want to lose it. On the other hand there was Sean. He was a good kid. He led a sad existence not through any fault of his own and I felt bad for his situation. I looked at Sean and saw that he was so angry that he was red in the face. I turned back to Mr. O’Keefe. I looked him dead in the eyes and gave him my answer.
“No, sir. I did not.”
Mr. O’Keefe then turned to Sean and told him the following sentence that I will not ever forget. “Sean, Brian looked me straight in the eye when he gave me his answer and I believe him.” Sean was then hauled into the principal’s office. My stomach sank as Sean looked back at me over his shoulder with tears in his eyes. He would get in only a little trouble for disturbing class and lying by the school. God knows what his strict father did to him. I am not really sure what happened to be honest. It was the weekend and by the following Monday I made sure to avoid Sean. He never called me out on my lie. I guess that proves that he was a better person than I was back then.
Not long after this incident, Sean and his father moved back out west. I don’t think that Sean attended our school for more than two or three months. I hope that everything worked out for him. I wish that I could shake his hand, look him in the eye and tell Sean that I am sorry. Hopefully he wouldn’t sock me in the eye.
For those of you who are “glass half full” people, you get the following sanitized version but it isn’t as cool:
Also, I decided to get my rating for this silly place I call my blog and for future reference you will need a note from your mother:
I am not really sure what any of this has to do with Big D and his birthday but what the hell. (I can say “hell” now that I have the proper rating, huh?)
After getting my new tires put on I decided to stay in Columbia and wait for The School Girl to get out of her chemstry class. She usually gets out around 8pm and it was almost 7pm when I was leaving Wal-Mart. I drove over to the campus and luckily had the foresight to bring my book with me. I was almost done with the book and completed it in around 20 minutes. Then I had to wait.
The pre-game stuff for Monday Night Football was on the radio and I was hyped for the game since if the Titans could stop Drew Brees I would win my fantasy football game against Michael TD. The problem was that the pre-game stuff was kind of boring so I grabbed my phone and walked around the campus a little.
Across the parking lot was the baseball field. The college baseball season is over so I guess they were having a scrimage or practice. The “ping” of the bat just wasn’t doing it for me. By the way, why can’t colleges use wodden bats like the professionals do? Good question, huh?
I had never been around this school much before so I stopped for directions. Yeah, I got no help at all.
I then noticed that the school was on fire, but I ignored it and it went away. Just like most bad things.
Okay, so maybe there wasn’t a fire, per se; however, there was a lot of smoke pouring from this ash tray for a good hour.
Well, I got bored again and jumped back into the car to catch a bit of the game which was about to start.
It was almost time for the wife’s class to be over with and I got excited. I tuned the radio to the Pulaski station to listen to Mike Keith and Frank Wycheck. These guys are way better to listen to than that stupid Tony Kornheiser over at ESPN.
The Titans did very well as expected for the majority of the game and yes, I did win my fantasy football game. I raised my record to 2-1 on the season and moved into 4th place overall. Props to G-Man for putting a stranglehold on 1st place in our league.
Time just dragged on and on and on and on…yikes! Before I realized it the 9 o’clock hour had come and gone. I was so antsy and bored (even with the football game) that I was going out of my mind. I am sure that you can tell my level of boredom by the fact that I decided to photo-blog my time spent in the car last evening.
Anyway, around a quarter until 10p The School Girl meandered her way back to the car. Apparently her lab group had trouble with some experiment and magnesium. We made it home in time to watch the last 2-3 minutes of Vince Young and the Titans rout the Saints. Good job boys, I hear the playoffs knocking.
So in my previous post I mentioned that the wife and I spent an inordinate amount of time in the belly of the beast (Wal-Mart). I find it ironic that I had been refering to them in an evil sense (and that at Christmas they wish you a “Happy Holiday” vs. a “Merry Christmas”) while we found these items in the toy section.
I think The School Girl’s favorites were the David and Goliath dolls…err, action figures.
Yeah, I said it and I mean it, by golly. The School Girl and I missed work yesterday due to illness (and sleeping problems) and decided yesterday afternoon to take her car over to Wal-Mart to get an oil change and some windshield wiper blades. I know, it is easily something that I could do myself but hey, I wasn’t feeling too swell and was willing to pay some poor scrub to do it for me.
We got to Wal-Mart and no other customers were present as far as automotive needs were concerned. The young man hopped to it and got us all written up. At this point we decided to go ahead and have the tires rotated as it has been a millenia since that has happened. It was then that I noticed the steel was showing through the rubber and the front driver’s side tire needed to be replaced.
Alright, well that happens. The guy working there also noticed that the other front tire has a decent crack in the sidewall and would need to be replaced as well. Hmmm, ok. Another kick in the ass. He said that he had 4 left of a tire that was about $65 each and I was okay with that. All total, with the road hazard, we are talking around $200 bucks before taxes. A pretty penny I must say. The guy told me that since there are two of them there working and no other customers around, it would be about 45 minutes maximum.
That didn’t sound too shabby. We walked around the store for what seemed like FOREVER! I looked at the time on my phone and “holy crap, Batman!” it had been well over an hour. I had periodically been checking on the car and noticed that it hadn’t been moved out of the spot in the garage. More customers had drove up and other people’s vehicles were being worked on.
Eventually (1 hour and 30 minutes!), they moved my car out and handed the ticket to the woman at the front desk who, by the way, had a label on her name tag that read “Dept. Mgr.”. This is somewhat integral to the story. We had picked up a few small items and added them to the pile. The total was rung up: $66 and change.
Uhh, that doesn’t seem quite right. In lieu of trying to get some free tires I asked what it was she was charging us for. Oil change…ok. Wiper blades…ok. Road hazard…ok. And that was it. “What happened to my two new tires?”, I asked. “I’m not sure, I just got back from lunch,” was her response. I began to get angry.
She came back and told me that the order for tires was canceled. They apparently did not have any in stock. I then paused for a deep breath. “Then what in the hell took an hour and a half when I was the only customer? And why in the hell could I not be paged to be told of this?” The response: “I’m not sure, I have been at lunch.” OH MY GOD! That was not the response I was looking for at all.
I then followed with: “If you didn’t sell me tires then why in the hell did you charge me for road hazard?” She claimed that she could take it off and then she did with my new total in the $40 dollar range. “I don’t think you are understanding what it is I am talking about.” She then got on the phone to her manager that told her to take $25 bucks off of my total. First of all, why would a manager need permission from another manager to give me some money off of my bill? Secondly, no one has answered why in the fark it took so damned long to just change my oil. I could have gone to Columbia to get this all done. Thirdly, if you were out of the tires, did you call another location to see if they had them in stock? And finally, and most importantly, is it so difficult for anyone to have friggin’ apologized? I still haven’t gotten one yet! Man am I pissed.
The worst part is that I now have to go to Columbia because I made them call and the other store did have them in stock and oh yeah, I need new tires. I also now have to take my wife to class and wait on her while the tires get finished up. Eventually, I did get new tires put on her car but no thanks to the lazy, useless, craptastic group of morons over in Lewisburg.
Those of you who know me are probably saying to yourselves, “Finally, he recognizes!”. Well, I already knew that I, from time to time, had a big mouth but this isn’t what I am talking about this morning.
I woke up around 8:30am today and meandered towards the lovely smells emanating form the kitchen. I noticed that The School Girl was in the midst of preparing a glorious breakfast consisting of biscuits and poached eggs. The plans were to make little breakfast sandwiches with provolone cheese, tomotoes and a bit of fried deli turkey. Throw in a bit of coffee and this is truly a masterpiece of morning deliciousness.
This all pretty much came off without a hitch (if you don’t count the melting of the poaching pot, it was an abberation!). The problem arose when I decided to start building my sandwiches. I cut open the biscuit and began to layer my items: tomato…cheese…turkey. At this point the sandwich seemed completed so I place the top of my biscuit on there. Wow, this looks like a big sandwich. Oh, crap! I forgot the egg and this thing looks kind of big.
I took off the topper and added the poached egg and began to giggle. How in the hell am I going to eat this?
Well I tell you, it wasn’t easy that’s for sure. A little squish here and a little squeeze there and voila! All gone. I am sure that my parents would be proud!
Pops went to Russia a few years ago for his class at the University of Tennessee. I think he was there for a few weeks and, of course, brought home some gifts. My favorite is this Russian Army hat that has Russian pins and patches on the sides.
I feel really bad. I am just plain worn out after this past week of work. The School Girl and I have these tickets you see. She got them from work and only an employee can use these tickets so we can’t even give them away.
We decided that by golly (how cheesy, right?) we are just going to stay at home and relax for the entire weekend. I feel bad that we can’t go. Yeah, it’s the Predators preseason game down at the Sommet Center. I hope the new ownership group will forgive us.
The man is a facist who blocks his people from accessing major internet sites such as the BBC and Wikipedia. He has even had bloggers jailed! He also banned most western music and prevents many women from having basic freedoms. This is only the tip of the iceberg. We, however, are pretty much welcoming this man to come speak to our citizens and walk freely amongst Americans as his government goes against the United Nations and continues to produce nuclear weapons.
Why are we not arresting him and trying him for crimes against humanity? Sometimes the mindset of this government is appalling to me. Why would the UN allow him to visit? Maybe it isn’t Ahmadinejad or the U.S. government I should be complainging about. It is quite possible that it is time for the UN to find a new home to harbor terrorist leaders.
Hello kiddies. I had some time this early afternoon (while washing some dishes) to grab another of Pops’ records. I reached in and grabbed the third effort by that little old band from Texas, ZZ Top, 1973’s Tres Hombres.
This record was the band’s big breakthrough charting them for the very first time in the top 10. This one includes such radio hits as “Waitin’ For The Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago” and “La Grange“. Bassist Dusty Hill provides the thundering bass lines while Billy Gibbons shows why he should be revered with other blues guitar greats such as Clapton and SRV.
Even tracks like the lesser known “Move Me On Down The Line” have incredible guitar licks regardless of their basic overall sound. This record is an early 70s blues classic that ranks up there with the greats and is also listed in Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. I really like the old stuff from ZZ Top much better and have learned to loathe the Mtv era stuff like “Sharp Dressed Man“.
Here is a 2005 version of “Waitin’ For The Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago”:
This is a 2004 version of one of my favorite songs of ZZ Top’s, “Tush”:
Let me make this perfectly clear. I am not into politics that much. It can get boring to me when I read or hear about it too much. Don’t get me wrong, I keep up on the important issues of the day but I couldn’t imagine thinking or talking about this stuff all of the time. I also need to mention that although I wouldn’t label myself an actual Republican or Democrat or anything else for that matter, I do tend to lean more to the conservative side. I should also make it clear that although I may have voted for our current President, I am by far not his biggest fan.
I feel like commenting on what President Bush said in a speech the other day. This story makes mention of an error in a speech by the President.
Nelson Mandela is still very much alive despite an embarrassing gaffe by U.S. President George W. Bush, who alluded to the former South African leader’s death in an attempt to explain sectarian violence in Iraq.
You may also view the video of what he said here:
Now I say to you, “What’s the problem?”. I understand what he meant to say. Okay, the guy is a moron, I get that too. Yes he actually said that Mandela was dead but come on people. Have you ever heard of a metaphor? Sure, maybe he should have added a word here or there to make it more plain but I got it the very first time I heard him say this. Maybe it is just because people aren’t used to this guy using an intelligent descriptive device like a metaphor.
I heard a group of young, seemingly intelligent, black people at work today discussing this topic in the breakroom. From what I heard (yes, I eavesdropped) they were extremely offended by what the President said concerning Mr. Mandela. I am not 100% sure what it was they were offended by exactly, they were just pissed that he said it; however, just to be clear, Bush knows that Mandela is not dead. He was trying to prove a point that the evil-doers, or Saddam’s, of the world have metaphorically killed those who strive for peace, or the Mandela’s of this world. Please don’t be up in arms over it, just relax because he will be gone soon enough.
It appears that the week long saga of the ever growing ditch in my yard has been completed. All that is left of the large gravel pile is this odd oil stain in the street.
The view down the side of the house looks much better sans huge canyon and yellow emergency tape.
How many bales of hay do you suppose were needed to cover this much ground? I mean really, for crying out loud!
The hay is so wide and long it appears that the Yellow Brick Road travels around my house. (By the way, where in the heck did the Red Brick Road go? I ponder these things.) I am sure glad that the city has finally completed this project. I only had to wait 2 months!
In celebration of this momentus occassion I think I will do some laundry, the dishes, take a shower and flush the toilet simultaneously just to test out how well they have done. Nah, I am too cheap to run my water bill that high.
