Freecycle Strikes Again - Special Bonus Edition

NEEDING: VERRY IMPOTANT
A bassett hound or a schnousher my
husbands booses neibhor's dog gothit by a car on 15th street and she is an older
lady. She is verrydevistated and would like to find a friendly new companion.If
anyonecan help please let me know her dog was her life and i hate to see
hersad(MY # IS XXX-5760) if you have one of theese or know someone whodoes
please give me a call or e-mail me Thank you!!!!!!

Oww, my brain.


But I've got mine. Friday morning, I spotted a listing on the local Freecycle group for a pair of Bose 901 speakers. I e-mailed back as fast as my fingers could type, and was apparently the first of many responders wanting them. My wife met up with the lady just a short while after, and as it turns out I scored a nice little find.

They're the series II from the mid-'70s. Cloth driver surrounds, non-ported cabinet, solid wood. They sound sweet, and I'm pretty happy!

Lamest. Excuse. Ever.

I often have trouble sleeping. Last night's sleep was awful, but the reason is novel, at least.

I received my spiffy new homebrew keg system last week, and Saturday afternoon was spent boiling wort for a new batch to fill the keg with. I'm making a triple-hopped ale. I finished the boil, put it in the fermenter, and placed the fermenter in the shower in our master bathroom. I like to use the shower for fermenting because the temperature stays pretty steady, it's out of the light for the most part, and if there is a spillover, it just goes right down the drain. I was a little worried when I checked on it yesterday morning, because there was no indication of fermentation. My fears, as it would turn out, were completely unfounded.

Yesterday afternoon, I peeked in on the beer again. Fermentation had started up in a big way. I've never had a batch of beer ferment this vigorously. The foam blew the top of the airlock off, and you could actually hear it fizzing and burping.

Last night, I noticed that I could hear the beer foaming away while I was lying in bed. That's right...I couldn't sleep because the beer was too noisy. Stupid noisy beer.

Music is Powerful

I'm sure that anyone dropping by my blog is well aware of the ongoing fight between the corporate music giants and the few vehicles we have left by which we can hear genuinely good music and/or new and exciting artists. It goes without saying that we should not allow this to happen, and I'm sure that all of you have contributed in the grassroots campaign to save the music. The corporate-types who seek to control the music industry do so in many ways, and it's frustrating to me that artists who most deserve exposure will never get it through the "conventional" channels.

The man in the video linked below is named Jason Isbell. He's a member of Drive-By Truckers, and I consider him the most talented songwriter in that group (which is saying something.) He's had a solo album recorded for a couple of years now that has been in record company/legal limbo and subsequently unreleased. It's another example of how we can be denied truly exceptional music.

This song is called Dress Blues. It is beautiful, and it's giving me chills.

Spring Forward X2

The weather here has been almost freakishly nice lately. March, typically, is a big snow month for us. This year, we've had temperatures in the fifties and sixties. It's been fun to get a reprieve from winter, but after last summer's wildfire scare I'm a little fearful of the coming fire season.

As we lost an hour Sunday, I gained a year. We had a quiet day at home, for the most part. My wife and I played tennis for an hour or so in the morning, until it degenerated into us just trying to hit one another with the tennis ball (as it always does). Then, the weather was nice enough that we could spend the entire afternoon in the backyard goofing off and listening to music on the patio.

I had purchased myself a new pair of sunglasses as a present to myself last week, but I was surprised to find that relatives had gifted me enough cash to buy something that I had previously filed under "unattainable and unnecessary extravagances." So, by Thursday or Friday, I will be the proud owner of a spiffy new keg system for my homebrew. I can't wait!

Or Maybe it's the Tremendous Body Odor

I would estimate that at least one third of the times that we make plans to get together with friends, they end up cancelling and backing out on us. We'll arrange something, then they'll remember a previous engagement or something else will come up or whatever.

I wouldn't feel bad if it were just one set of acquaintances doing this, but it seems to be the same for anyone we hang out with.

I mean, hell, if we're that annoying just don't agree to the plans in the first place. It would save us a lot of planning and headaches. Often, it even costs us money, and that's annoying.

I can take this several ways, I guess. A.) Folks are secure enough with our friendship to feel that we won't be bothered by it. B.) We are doormats. C.) Our friends (or relatives, as the case may be) are inconsiderate jerks. D.) We are the lowest on the friendship totem pole E.) All of the above.

Well, it happened again. Bah. Hanging out at the house and watching a movie sounds like fun anyway.

Ghosts on VHS

Part of the reason that my posts have been sparse lately is that I'm working on another project. Last weekend, we went to my parents' house for my grandmother's birthday. While we were there, I dug up a couple boxes of VHS tapes (old home movies.) Most of the tapes are of my brother's track races. There are also quite a few of my high school cross country and track races, a couple of my sister's swim meets, assorted piano recitals that my bro and sis did, our wedding video, and a few miscellaneous family events and gatherings. My goal is to get all of them converted and copied onto DVD.

As would be expected, there are a lot of things on these tapes that I'd forgotten about in the last 20 years. I've seen footage of my great uncle who died in 1989, my grandpa and my uncle who both passed away a couple of years ago, and a lot of footage of my brother growing up. There was footage of my friend Leshelle running hurdles. She was killed in a wreck in 1991. It's been interesting - alternately entertaining and very sad.

I'd forgotten how my brother intentionally mispronounced my sister's name for several years. I'd forgotten about how my uncle kept grabbing our brand-new video camera and surreptitiously filming his wife's ass. I'd forgotten about how another one of my poor doddering, senile great uncles had spent a good part of our wedding reception seeking out young women to hug. I'd forgotten about the piano recital where my eight-year-old brother finished his piece, stood up, took a bow, noticed his shoe was untied, tied his shoe right there onstage, then bowed again.

I'd also forgotten about how much my lack of competetive nature frustrated my parents. I'd never really gotten the impression at the time, but they had a tendency to be plenty critical of me. During a lot of my high school races, they can be heard on the camera: "He's not running very well, is he?" "Why doesn't he pick it up?" "He's just not doing ANYTHING." I'll admit that I probably could have pushed myself harder quite a bit of the time, but I never cared to. But, in my defense, during at least one of those races I remember getting blisters on my feet that covered nearly the entire sole of my right foot. Bad shoes, or something. I suppose that in order to be among the best, one has to have a special sort of drive that I fundamentally lack. That being said, what percentage of us can say we've run a half-mile in less than 2 minutes? A mile in 4:46? I've done both. So there.

I also copied the race where my brother broke the high school record for the mile run. That's the one I really wanted to preserve, as I fear the VHS tapes won't last forever. Perhaps I'll Youtube it.

Thankful for a Happy Marriage

Last night, our friends The Possible Perverts invited us over to their house for pizza and beer. We've known them for about 4 years now, and have gotten to know them pretty well. They're both smart and funny, and can be a lot of fun to be around. Unfortunately, they have one of those confrontational marriages. There is a lot of friction in their relationship, and they like to butt heads with one another. Often, it's the kind of friendly scuffle that most married couples like to annoy one another with from time to time.

Yesterday evening was different. They were really fighting. Pointed verbal jabs and thinly veiled insults were flying back and forth at a pretty good clip. It was uncomfortable for us, and neither my wife nor I slept well last night.

It has to be difficult for them (and their children) to live in an environment like that. Threats of divorce have been bandied about the entire time we've known them, but always for stupid or childish reasons. I can understand this level of animosity if there is abuse, infidelity or even financial trouble, but their biggest conflicts are over ridiculous things.

I'm afraid I'm at my wit's end. I don't want to sever ties with the people who are probably our closest friends right now, but I don't want to see any more episodes like last night. Part of me wants to speak up and tell them to lay off of one another, but I know that would be disastrous. So, I guess we just wait it out and hope that it was an isolated occurrence.







(nah, I don't think so either.)