Happy Blog-O-Versary Baby

Two years! I cannot believe that I have kept this blogging thing up for that long. I started doing this at work one Halloween while there was absolutely nothing to do in order to combat extreme bouts of boredom. It has remained something extremely fun and as an outlet for my somewhat skewed version of creativity.

I am more than appreciative for all of the readers that I get on a daily basis, assuming that you people actually read this drivel. Those of you who feel the need to comment, whether in agreement or otherwise, are a blessing to me and my ego. I had thoughts lately of discontinuing this site and just becoming a lurker but the urge to post is just too strong. I may not be the best or most visited blogger in the area but I am one of the happiest when I do this thing that I enjoy immensely. Thankfully my wife has fallen down on her blogging exploits allowing me to be the most popular blog in our tiny town.

I hope that everyone continues to come back; the visits inspire me to be better. And please feel free to let your opinions and thoughts be known as frequently as possible. I tip my glass to all of you in hopes of another year at this grand waste of time.

Feel Good Friday: Train Kept A Rollin’

Happy Halloween everybody! Today is special for another reason, too. This is my second blog-o-versary. Can you believe that I have been writing this junk for two years and all of ya’ll have collectively been reading it for about 7 2/3 minutes? Nah, I am really thankful for any and all of you guys that have stopped by, especially those of you who feel the need to comment.

For my song I present my all-time favorite song by a band that in my opinion is the premier American rock and roll band bar none. If you take into account longevity, hit albums and songs, crossing genres and demographics, reinventiveness and straight-forward rocking ability there is no other US rock and roll band that can compare. That’s right, I am talking about Aerosmith.

And since the above version isn’t as powerful to me as the album track, here it is with some pics of actual trains!

I hope everyone has an amazing and safe weekend. I know I will.

The Worcester Ruby Legs Win The World Series!

Yes, I know that this is an unbelievably incorrect statement and a stretch at best. Stick with me until the end it may just make sense.

First of all, let’s get the back-slapping over with: congratulations to the Philadelphia Phillies for winning their second World Series. After 28 years I am sure that it is incredibly sweet. Having been a life-long Red Sox fan I understand how it feels. The best team won this year.

I was rooting for the Phils to beat the Rays for several reasons. 1) Because it fits into my doomsday predictions. 2) Because they have been trying to win a World Series for a longer time period than the Rays. 3) Because I am bitter over the Rays having beaten my beloved Red Sox in a game 7 when 5 games would have sufficed.

Also, to continue in with the title of this post I like to think that the Phillies were a direct descendant of an original National League team from my birth state of Massachusetts, the Worcester Ruby Legs (or sometimes Brown Stockings). In reality the Worcester franchise, which by the way was the first to have a perfect game pitched for them, shut down their operations in 1882 due to low attendance. To replace them in the league, the Philadelphia franchise was formed, known at that time as the Quakers. There is no real connection between these two franchises but it makes it more fun to me (kind of like rooting for the Atlanta Braves or maybe the Washington Redskins in the NFL) knowing that they used to play in Massachusetts.

Maybe next year I can have a nice World Series of the Sox and their cross-state rival the Ruby Legs! Way to go Rubies Phils!

On The Road Again

The other day over on his blog, Michael Beziat talked about the rumor that Robert Plant may stay far away from the reunion tour of Led Zeppelin and Beziat was pretty okay with the notion. He used Journey and Styx as examples of where this has worked in the past. I can see where he is coming from but I totally disagree.

I know that I may become a bit wishy-washy on this but with a band as iconic as Led Zeppelin I think that they are held to a different, higher standard than most. Sure bands like Journey or Styx have done well without their “classic” lineup singer and continued to rock out but these bands are of a lower caliber. Yes, Journey sounds sufficient with that YouTube-discovered Filipino guy and Tommy Shaw and James Young get on well enough without the vocal stylings of Dennis DeYoung but Zeppelin without Robert Plant? It doesn’t seem right.

Would you pay $100 or more to see the Rolling Stones with Joe-Blow from a tribute band belting out “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” instead of Mick Jagger? Would it be right for Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to tour together as the Beatles? Of course it wouldn’t. There are, however, several exceptions to this rule (at least in my own mind).

• Queen. Queen is an exception for a couple of reasons. Queen has added Paul Rodgers as their new vocalist with the passing of the legendary Freddie Mercury. Rodgers is a great rock vocalist but nothing close to the greatness of Mercury. Personally, I don’t like the way his voice sounds singing the Queen tracks but the thing is he isn’t just singing Queen songs but some of his own that he made famous. Plus, they are not billing themselves as just Queen but as Queen + Paul Rodgers. That to me is a totally different band.
• Lynyrd Skynyrd. Skynyrd lost their singer in a plane wreck. He is dead and gone. Ronnie Van Zant didn’t have the option to NOT sing. They replaced him with a dead ringer, his little brother Johnny. They get a pass.
• The Beatles. I would accept a possible Beatles reunion with McCartney and Starr only if Julian Lennon and Dhani Harrison were in the band. They are family.

These are just a few. With Zeppelin they didn’t feel they could carry on when John Bonham died. Why is it okay to continue now without Plant? When Page and Plant hooked up several years ago without John Paul Jones they didn’t use the Zeppelin moniker and they were more Led Zeppelin than a duo of Page and Jones.

As far as Pink Floyd is concerned, by the way, it is okay in my book, too. Roger Waters tried to say that HE was the Floyd and made it sound like the rest of the band couldn’t carry on without him. Now most people would say that the new music created by the Floyd was sub par but I find it to be some of their best work. It is better than The Final Cut, that’s for sure. Anyway, those are my two cents.

I Think I Am Feeling Sick…

…and I should go home or something. I am about bored out of my soul with a lack of work today. We had our company-paid flu shots today and I took my turn in line. Maybe I can tell them that I had an adverse reaction to the shot and/or the vaccine and I have to split out early. I would be able to get into the homemade soups that The School Girl brewed up in the kitchen last night. Mmmm…soup….

Anyway, they handed out the above stickers for those of us who braved the needle. It seems a bit dirty or something to me or makes it sound like I have some kind of communicable disease and I may be looking to spread it. I got the herpes, how ‘bout you?

Ya know, my arm is actually beginning to get sore…**cough** **cough**…and I am feeling a bit dizzier than normal…

Melancholy Monday: I’m Gonna Find Another You

Nooooooo! It can’t really be Monday already. I don’t quite feel rested yet. When I get in these moods the only music that feels right to me is the blues. One of my favorite new-ish artists that plays the blues like the old fellas do is John Mayer. All of you Mayer haters out there can just suck it. The boy is a damn fine musician and a great guitarist in the long line of greatness that includes Hendrix, Clapton, SRV, etc.

I hope I can make it through until my least favorite holiday, Halloween, and have a decent week. This also begins my blog-o-versary week so hopefully I can think of something spectacular to write on Friday. Have a good week everybody.

Age Progression

When I get bored I find odd things to do. I have drunk (drank, drinked, dronked?…whatever) too much coffee much too late in the day. I really don’t want to watch the World Series right now and I just walked away from reading. My wife is conked out on the couch sawing lumber and I am waiting on the last of our laundry to be done.

I found an old high school photo from 1992. I am pretty sure that I was 17 in the picture. I have lived that many years since that picture was taken so I thought I would do an age progression, 17 years at a time.

If I didn’t know any better I would say that these were three different people. Since this is such a blast I did high school “before & after” shots for The School Girl:

And since I can’t resist and because he was on that same picture from 1992, I have to do the same thing for the G-Man:

I’m not sure what I accomplished here today except maybe making people a little depressed and I might just have staved off boredom. If you are suffering from a bit of the insomnia please feel free to play along.

Jack-O-Lanterns

My wife really is the best. She loves holidays and I tend not to care too much. For example, I could care less about Halloween but she wants to decorate and hand out candy, etc. At the pumpkin patch she made me buy her four, count ‘em, four pumpkins for carving. Two were very small but two were comparable to the size of Buicks.

Once again, she did a beautiful job. This is what the front of my house looks like from the street.

Don’t worry, I have close up shots.

My favorite is the last one. How awesome is that haunted house with the bats and ghosts? My wife is a talent.

Douchebag Siting

I don’t know if any of ya’ll have heard of the website Hot Chicks With Douchebags but I get a kick out of it. It isn’t quite the phenomenon that LOLCat or FAIL sites have become as of late but it’s pretty good.

I posted earlier about heading out to the pumpkin patch at Gentry’s Farm and all the fun that we had. What I neglected to mention is that we saw “one of those couples“. You know, a hot chick with a douchie looking guy. Here they are:

So let’s break it down. On your left you see the blonde hair, blue eyes, pale complexion, tight sweater and jeans, large purse and arrogant attitude or in less words, a super hot chick. Her companion to the right is sporting the douchie-shit-eating grin, douchie glasses, douchie earring, douchie chain and to top it off (literally), douchie frost-tipped hair. These two were dressed more for a club than for hanging out on the farm.

When we saw them it was immediately decided that SueBoo would just have to follow them around and photograph them. Here we see this rare specimen choosing pumpkins to put out in front of their douchie condo.

My favorite photo of these two is this one where Big D is tossing middle fingers in their direction.

Just in case you missed it in the previous picture, there was at least a second douchebag on the farm that day…

Sorry, Big D. I couldn’t help myself. Anyway, if you see this strange creature out in public be sure to stay far away…after you take their picture and ridicule them profusely.

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Autumn

Last weekend The School Girl and I met up with the Green Machine and G-Man families for a little lunch, fellowship and autumnal enjoyment. The weather is getting cooler again and it was time to visit ye old pumpkin patch. We went out to the same place as last year since it was very nice and seems to be somewhat centralized since we come from all corners of the globe to get together.

Little Gracie, about to celebrate her first ever Halloween, was tickled to have her picture taken with just about darned near everything.

This place is beautiful. I really need to get me one.

It has been a while since I have played with a little baby. I like them because they are delicious they think I am awesome. It isn’t until they get older that they become afraid of me.

We had the brilliant notion that we could defeat the mighty corn maze…

…but the confused look on SueBoo’s face and the tears that I have hidden behind the camera say otherwise.

We met lots of cool people and new friends like Tom here.

I just could not get enough of this scenery. I mean, I really need a lake in my backyard too!

I think everyone had a great time, especially Gracie. I am pretty sure that she didn’t want us to go.

I think everyone needs to go visit this joint. Your kids (and the young at heart) will love it.

Feel Good Friday: Blister In The Sun

Man has this week been extremely long. I am soooo thankful that it is Friday. What is better than a Friday? Oh yeah, a Saturday. Nevermind. Anyway, what I present for your listening pleasure on this FGF is a band that I discovered, like most of us did, in college. I experienced a ton of grunge (Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam), psychedelia (Pink Floyd), mellow (Van Morrison) and whatever this is categorized to be (Violent Femmes).

I heard them for the first time out at MTSU and fell in love and ran out to buy their greatest hits. I would not be disappointed. So today I give you the Violent Femmes and their classic “Blister In The Sun“. Go weekend it up, ya’ll!

2008 World Series (And End Of The World) Predictions

First of all, so as not to be deemed a sore loser, I wish to congratulate the Tampa Bay Rays on their improbable run to the World Series. It took me a day or two to realize that they actually still play the Series even though my beloved Red Sox aren’t there. A Cubs fan told me.

Philadelphia Phillies vs. Tampa Bay Rays

Looking forward to the series itself I find several factors that should have me rooting whole-heartedly for the Rays:

1. I always find myself a fan of teams that traditionally are not very good and/or have not won a championship ever or at least in a very long time.

2. Being a fan of an American League team I tend to like to root for my league even though the NL has a more pure version of baseball.

3. The Rays have an outstanding and powerful offense and have shown that they will hit lots of homeruns.

4. David Price, the former Vanderbilt pitcher, will be anchoring (at least in my mind) a stellar pitching staff and I always like guys from Vandy.

These factors tell me that I need to be pulling for the Rays and that Tampa should win the World Series. This completely goes against my “End Of Days Theory” as it directly relates to baseball, however. My theory is that in the last decade God has become a fan of baseball again. Obviously during all of those Yankee years he stepped away from the game. With the state of things in the world nowadays it is almost certain that the world will be ending very soon (and you Obama haters probably agree it will be very soon) but before this happens all of the teams that have not won a World Series in a very long time will win one before the apocalypse. This will all culminate with a Cubs victory, of course. Since the Phillies have not won a title since Mike Schmidt was a young man then I can pretty much guarantee a victory for the team from the City of Brotherly Love. My pick: Philadelphia.

Cleaning Out My Cell Phone

I went through the pictures that I have taken with my cell and dumped them off. It is strange what I decide is important enough to document with a photograph.

First of all, I apologize for the blurriness of this picture. I snapped it in the hallway at work and I didn’t want to seem like a weirdo (at least like more of a weirdo) so I rushed it. Well, a couple of weeks ago my company was having a blood drive. I never participate in blood drives as it makes me unconfortable. And, hey, it’s my blood and I can be selfish with it if I want to. The girl on the above poster just seems to be giving me that “come hither” look and it really disturbed me. It just didn’t seem appropriate for this scenario.

The day I left for Talladega I had to run to Kroger to pick up the very important blood pressure meds. Obviously, I had some time to kill so I perused the books just in case there was something good. The book above, The Book Of Lies by Brad Meltzer, sounded pretty interesting but I didn’t want to dip into any of my trip money. Understanding that as soon as I started walking across the parking lot to my car that I would forget the title I snapped this picture. Luckily, La Hermana works for a prominent book publisher in Nash-vegas so I can snag this one up for the uber-discount price.

Last Sunday The School Girl and I traveled up to Franklin to hang with the G-Man & Green Machine families and head out to a pumpkin patch. I will probably post the pictures of that later this week if I can remember. We stopped into Jo Ann’s for a scarecrow or something like that when I saw the above Halloween decorative item. It seems a bit strange that a symbol of death or poison or pirates has any holiday inspiration or value. But that’s just me.

This picture above I found to be odd, as well. I mean it seems pretty cool for a former Olympic champion like Rowdy Gaines to grace our small, podunk town. I just wouldn’t think most of these people would be interested in coming out to meet him let alone even know who the guy is. Also, what made the local government interested enough in this guy to have a day for him? Oh well.

Having Fun With Goats

The other weekend we meandered to downtown here in the boondocks to celebrate the World Famous mostly unknown Goats, Music & More Festival. I know that you are jealous and hate yourself for missing it but fret not, I have pictures.

We continue to attend this gathering year after year for some unknown reason as it tends not to have too much interesting stuff going on.

Nonetheless, I do enjoy my little town and the beautiful architecture of the Marshall County Court House.

There is quite a limited amount of fun places to visit or spend my hard earned cash. This little place is highly priced and the employees are void of friendliness but their name amuses me. Fudgery! Hehehe.

The city park had a pretty decent music stage set up for this year’s artists such as Delbert McClinton and some other people I cannot remember right now. Ohh, that’s right a Beatles tribute band and Elvis impersonator.

They had a sweet ride around the park for kiddies and the young at heart in a tiny replica train.

Little Harry could hardly contain his enthusiasm, in between texting his high school hotties, when the goat judging was taking place.

The trip wouldn’t be complete without seeing a goat, right? Well, here you go.

One goat? Really, I only show you one goat? Nope, hold onto your socks, TWO! TWO GOATS! Ah-ah-ah-ah. And this one is trying to eat the wife’s pants.

I would be unfair to the whole fun atmosphere of the festival if I didn’t show you this gem. A fat man riding a rickshaw pulled by a goat. Classic!

Ain’t small town life the greatest? You know you are jealous.

Anyway, the fun was overwhelming so we dragged the boy to even less fun places for a (almost) 15-year old. We hopped on the Trace and stopped for pictures on our way to (of all places) W’boro where nothing exists. It is, not unlike Wyoming, which is some Indian dialect meaning “nothing here“.

Although there was little excitement, we had a nice weekend of doing math homework family time.

Melancholy Monday: Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around

What the hell? Where did the weekend go? Crap I am just dog tired. I stayed up watching that baseball game ya know. Of course the baseball season is now over (damn Sox lost!). My goals for today are to sleepwalk my way through my tasks at work and maybe post those pictures I took last weekend.

Anyway, here is a nice little tune from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers with Stevie Nicks. Have a good week.