She Walked out of My Car, and Then Out of My Life.

     Have you ever had one of those moments when you are so caught up in that moment, that it isn't until the very last second you realize that you've just made a huge mistake? I have, and that is where we are going to start tonight.

     Several years ago, I had a plan. I was going to set up a friend of mine with another friend. I had it all worked out, that it would be a chance meeting, and we would see how things went from there. Here was the scenario. I would take this one female friend out for a visit to a planetarium, and while we were there, my other friend would just happen to show up. I would introduce them, see how things go, and if it looked good, I would ask her if it was ok to give him her number. That was the plan, and it worked flawlessly. The end of the story, and don't worry, I'm not going to gloss over the whole middle section, I just thing it is important to get to the end first. The end of the story is that they went on to date for some time. It didn't last forever, but what ever really does?

     Here is that whole middle section. I was thinking that this was just two friends going to a planetarium to see a comet through the telescope, and maybe talk a little until my other friend would show up. I piked her up, and we made our way to said planetarium. We were there early, still daylight and all, so the best viewing wasn't going to happen until nightfall, so we decided to walk down a nature trail that was near by. It was great, we talked as we strolled down a canopied trail of palm fronds, live oaks, and pine trees. It was a beautiful trail. To this day, I can't remember exactly what we talked about, but I can remember that it was real, and it was in the moment. We walked as far was we could get before the light began to fade, and we made our way back to the planetarium. We got in line, and went up to the telescope so that we could get our brief view of the comet with a name that I can't remember. It's remarkable that I remember anything from this night at all. We are engulfed in conversation on the roof waiting to take our turn when my friend shows up. I introduce them, being the good cupid that I am, and I watch for signs that things might be going well. It appeared that they hit it off, at least to a point that they were smiling and friendly with each other. We all got our turn to look at the comet up close, and then it was time to head home. We said goodbye to my one friend, and I took the lady home. It was the second she stepped out of the car, that I realized that I made that huge mistake.

     In that time that we spent to together talking and strolling through that nature trail, I learned a great deal about her, and it made me feel closer to her, closer than I had ever thought I could be to her. I had never felt that before, and to be honest, I don't know if I have since. I had told my friend that I would help I'm out if he was interested, and I kept my word. He said he was, and the rest is history. My loyalty to him kept me from a possible life changing moment. I don't blame him for that, It wasn't his fault, and I don't blame myself. It just wan't meant to be, or at least I tell myself that all the time. I think about that night quite often. It was truly one of the best nights that I've ever had, and maybe it's best that it was just that night. Who knows how things would have ended up, if I had went back on my word, and asked her out instead. Would my life really have changed, and if so, to what end? Would it have been better, worse? Would I be living somewhere else right now, doing something else? Would I ever have started this little blog here? These are all questions that I will never have answers to, and that doesn't bother me. So why do I keep thinking about that night? I really don't know, and me writing about it tonight, is possibly my way of letting it go. So many times I have written about things, and they have just left me. I was able to get the weight off my shoulders, not that this bared any weight on my shoulders, but it is still a memory that pops up from time to time, and today was one of those times. If this is the last waltz with that memory, then so be it, it's time.

     On to other things now. I have a video for you tonight. Of course I do, it's Favorite Song of the Week time right? Well it is, but not right now. Right now, I have Grace Vanderwaal's latest performance on AGT. She did another original song tonight, and I believe that it was her best performance yet. She had those same little moments of nerves until the crowd roared, and she melted into herself. I really think this girl has a chance at some big things, and it is really cool to see her beginning. Let's just get to the video so you can see for yourself.




     Now that's talent right there. She just has a way of making you happy and cry at the same time. It's a remarkable feeling. Tomorrow we find out if she made it into the finals. I hope that she does, I want to see what she can do for her last song in the finals.

     Now, before I get to FSOTW, I have to talk about someone that entertained me, as well as everyone else in this world. Swirling in the ether tonight, is the nervous ball of energy that was Gene Wilder. He was in many movies like Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silver Streak, Stir Crazy, The Woman in Red, and my all time favorite movie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. For years, I wanted to go to the chocolate factory and ride in the flying elevator with Gene Wilder. I will always love that movie, and the childhood memories that I have of that character. From the second he walks onto the screen, and a hobbled old man, and his cane gets stuck in the brick causing him to somersault directly into you hearts, to the moment that he starts to sing "Pure Imagination", I was enthralled. That movie made me a better person. I didn't want to be like those other kids. I wanted to be like Charlie. I wanted to make other people happy, hence me setting up my two friends. See this all comes around. Gene Wilder would tell you himself, that he wasn't a comedian, but he was one of the best comedic actors ever. When ever I'm clicking through the channels that that movie comes on, I stop what I'm doing and just watch it. About a year ago, I'd heard several rumors that he was going to be in the movie adaptation of Ready Player One, and I was excited that I was going to see him up on the screen once more. He isn't listed in the cast for the movie right now, but he could be an unlisted character, so that his appearance would be a surprise. I'm holding out hope, that he will be there on that screen. His passing isn't a tragedy, it's a triumph. He died at the age of 83. He created many great memories, and now he is swirling with Gilda. The most heartwarming and funny couples to ever grace this planet. This weekend, I believe I will bust out Willy Wonka, and relive my childhood.

     It is now Favorite Song of the Week time. This one is going to seem kinda of odd, with most of the content of what I've written so far, but when you really listen to it, you'll begin to understand. Eunice Waymon was burn in small town in North Carolina, in 1933. She would late change her name to Nina Simone. Now that name might just ring a bell. I first heard this song, when it was done by Michael Buble. He does a remarkable version, but Nina's version stilled my mind, with it's soul, and feeling. she gave it a grittiness that I hadn't heard in music at the time. Now Michael's version was many years after Nina's. Nina wasn't even the first artist to do it, but she did it better than anyone. She recorded it for her 1965 album I Put a Spell on You, and that is exactly what she did to me when I heard it. Have you any idea of the song yet? Do you know Nina Simone? If not, then you are about to. Here is Nina Simone with "Feeling Good".




     Now that is good music right there. I had a few more things I wanted to talk about tonight, but I can save that for Thursday. I've taken up too much of your time tonight. Peace in and goodnight.

When the Wind is Calling Your Name, Take a Look Around, it Just May Be a Person.

     A few things have happened since last we spoke. I decided that my next bike will be a super sport. Don't get me wrong, I'm not tired of Saki, I'm just looking far ahead down the road. I went to the dealer where I bought Saki, to look for a summer long sleeve shirt. Something with moisture wicking, that won't be hot but will keep the sun off my arms. It's still too hot for a jacket, so the long sleeve with the Stryker vest is the best option. While I was there, I did a little recon for a friend. He told me that the bike he wanted had been sold, but I found out differently.

   
     This was sitting right there in the showroom. The Kawasaki Ninja ZX 10R KRT Edition. It's a gorgeous bike, and something along the lines that I will be getting for my next bike. Once again, that is a long way down the road. I talked with the guy that sold me Saki, and he said he would give my buddy a deal, cause he personally loves that bike so much, that he wants to see it sold and to a good owner. It's a tough sell, because it is a very powerful bike. Personally, I think it is too much bike for my buddy, so it is up to him to keep both wheels on the ground.

     Speaking of my buddy, these things are all going out of sequence, and there is a very good reason for that, and I'll get to that later. I saw the bike on Saturday, and we first hung out this weekend on Friday night. We met up at the BBQ place that I'm not a big fan off. I got the pulled pork sandwich which is quite a bit better than their sliced beef. The sliced beef is rather chewy, and kind of bland. I could tell that he was a bit disappointed that I rode Saki up there. That meant that I wouldn't be drinking. Any chance I can get to ride Saki, I'm going to take. The bad part about it, it rained while we were there. He had a thing to do but wanted to meet up a little later for drinks. That meant I was going to have to park Saki for the night. I got home, and wiped Saki down, to get all the water off, and then I had to change because I was soaked as well.

     We meet up in Downtown Cocoa, at a little place that has an upstairs jazz bar. It used to be a speakeasy type of place, but that idea never caught on, but the jazz bar has. I can't remember the name of the upstairs but it was closed when we got there, so we went in the restaurant bar downstairs. That is called the Pub Americana. We had already eaten so it was just drinks for us, and it was a little sad that that was the course of things. I kept seeing these tantalizing looking burgers coming out of the kitchen. They smelled delightful, and ever since going to My Brother's Bar, I've been on the search for the perfect cheese burger within my vicinity. There is a place near my house that has outstanding burgers, but they all have a theme to them. I'm looking for that unadorned miraculous cheese burger. This could be the place. I will just have to go sometime with an appetite and find out.

     Anyway, we had a few drinks at the bar, and then I noticed that food was heading up stairs, so I suggested we give it another try. We were in luck. We could hear a jazz duo belting out the tunes, so we hurried up the stairs to find a hopeful open seat at the bar. it's not a very big place up stairs, but it's quaint and intimate. There were a few stools at the far end of the bar, which takes a little work to get to. The bar is pinned back near the outside wall with a small gap for the stools, so you have to suck everything in and slide sideways to get passed everyone. As we were getting to our seats, a rather attractive somewhat middle-aged woman started talking to us about why she was there instead of downstairs. It turns out that there was only one seat available downstairs and it was next to the pizza oven, so she took a shot with the jazz bar. I thought it was a little strange, but she must have seen us at the bar downstairs. My buddy decided that he was going to go for the wingman angle with this woman. I told him to forget about it, and to not worry. Mostly because, as I said before, it isn't in him to hang on the wing. Here is the reason why. I'm just not interested in being with anyone in any way right now. I know for some people, that that is very difficult to understand, but I have never been driven by sex. I don't need it. I enjoy it, but it is not a life essential for me. With that, she was able to eat her meal in peace, and I didn't have to make small talk to try and get something that I didn't need.

     We went out again the next night, this was after seeing the bike above, and he was all ready to be the wingman again, that is when I told him to just give it up, that he couldn't do it, but he insists that he is a good wingman. I don't know how he has come to that conclusion, because as far as I know, he has never done it before. This was when he finally realized how he has jumped in and directed women away from me in the past, and that is why he just will never be a wingman. We had some fun at the place we were at that night. There was some drama going on with the bartender and servers, and we managed to get to the bottom of it. It was far less than all the fuss over it. It turns out, that one of the bartenders promised that if they got to leave early last week, that they would cover for the other one this week. Well, something came up, and that same bartender had to leave early again, so yelling and shouting ensued. See, not much to fuss over. I got why the one was mad, but I told her to just blow it off, and that it was clear, that everyone saw what was really going on, and that is the revenge that she would get. It worked and she calmed down.

     Earlier that day, yeah I know I'm going back and forth, but like I said, it's all for a reason, and it will make sense when it is all said and done. Anyway, earlier in that day, after going to the motorcycle dealer, I headed out to just ride around. Of course, as soon as I got on Saki, it began to sun shower. Once again I was wet, but it was light rain, and I wasn't going to let it stop me. I picked out a road that I was hoping was going to be more than it was, but turned out to just be a straight shot to another larger road. I was a bit bummed, but since I was over there, I headed north towards Titusville. The road I was on, has a good long stretch of just nothing, so I opened Saki up. I saw traffic ahead of me, so I began slowing down, which was perfect timing on my part, because I sheriffs deputy was sitting in wait. Saved again. I continued on further down the road and finally hit Titusville. It was a few miles in when I passed something called Perimeter. I had remembered my ukulele teacher asking me if I had been up by the small airport there. I went by the road and remembered he mentioned that there was a nice twisty road there. It was the airport, so I turned around and headed back to that road hooping that was the one he was talking about. It was. It was a fun little road, ti ran about 3 miles I think. I took it pretty slow when I headed down it, but then when I got to the end, I turned around to go the way I had come, and I sped up the pace a bit. It was a lot of fun. At one point, I took the corner real tight, and was leaning over the grass on the side of the road, and the thought went through me head, that one wrong move and I would end up in that grass, and that would be a real bad thing.

     As I was heading out of the road, two the bikes were parked a long side of the road. It looked like one of the guys needed a short pitstop in the bushes. I'm sure they were then going to head down that road to do exactly what I had done. I'm also sure that they were going to take it much faster than I had.

     Ok, here is the part where all this out of order stuff is going to make sense, and it is because of two things. One, I got some really great news from two of my friends on two different days, and Two, I watched to really good movies on two different days. By going out of order on all those other things, allows me to group these final things together.

    The good  news. I found out on Saturday, that a friend of mine is going to be a father for the first time. He sent me a video since I'm no longer on Facebook to see these things (still not missing it). He sent men his gender reveal video, but the truth is, that I hadn't even known that his wife was pregnant. He assures me that I was still on Facebook when they announced it, but at the end, I really didn't look at anything, so there is a very good chance that I missed it all. Congratulations go to him and his wife on their expecting.

     Other good news. I got this one this morning when I woke up. One of my best friends in this entire world, and truly one of the best people in it, si now engaged. It's about time too. It seems like she has been dating her boyfriend for decades now. I know that is nowhere near the case, but it seems that way. I got to meet him last year when I went out to Portland to visit, and he was perfect for her. I had meant to ask her if they had talked about getting married, but I somehow forgot about it amongst all the catching up that we were doing. Another big congratulations go out to the bride and groom to be. I hope I'm invited to the wedding.

      Lastly, I know, this has gone on long enough right? I saw to fantastic movies this weekend. The first one was on Friday morning, and it was Brooklyn. It stars one of m favorite actresses Saoirse Ronan, and I'm sure you just pronounce her name wrong. It sounds a bit like Sur-sha. She was quite marvelous in the film. I did miss the first 10 minutes or so, but I did that with the second film as well. That didn't make a difference on how I felt about these two movies. Brooklyn takes place, in of all places, Brooklyn, in the early 50's. All I'm going to say, is watch it when you get the chance.

     The second film  was In the Heart of the Sea, starring Chris Hemsworth. You know, Thor. This movie is Ron Howard's take on Moby Dick. It looks at it from the perspective of Melville as he hears the story that inspires the book. I'm a sucker for movies about writers and how they came up with their story, so true or not, I really loved this movie. There are some great action scenes in it, and a turning of a man's perspective. The hunt foe the great whale, doesn't go quite like you would expect it to. For that reason alone, you should watch this movie. If you need another reason, it also has Frank Dillane who plays Nick in Fear the Walking Dead, and also Tom Riddle in Harry Potter.

     Well, I've said it all, and perhaps too much. I still have to come up with a title for this thing tonight. Peace in and goodnight.

A Little Joy and a Little Sadness.

     As I mentioned on Tuesday, I was off work today, and I did pretty much nothing productive. I didn't even take my 2 and a half mile walk today. I did go to my ukulele class and work on a little Nina Simone. Which by the way, just may be next weeks Favorite Song of the Week.

     I did promise you some videos tonight though, and I'm currently looking them up, in hopes that they will finally be there. Good news, I found the first video, which is Grace Vanderwaal, singing her original song "Beautiful Thing". She mentioned in the little video piece before her performance that this song is about her sister, and is't just as good as her first song. Here is the video.




     Now that you've heard that, I have to find the next video, which is going to be Brian Justin Crum singing "In the Air Tonight", by Phil Collins. Before I get to that video though, I wanted to remind you that this was my favorite performance of the night.  Both of these acts were the tops for me, and AGT pulled a fast one on the results show. Their normal procedure when they eliminate an act, is to bring two acts forward, one moves on, and the other goes home. Last night, they brought both Grace and Brian forward. My first thought was, "oh no", then it hit me, they were both going through. It's rare, but they will do that little gimmick from time to time. Nick Cannon kind of blew the surprise, when he made the announcement. He said, "The acts moving forward are", with a very long dramatic pause to get reactions from both contestants and maybe a few from the judges. What he was supposed to say was, "the act moving forward", as soon as he said "acts", I knew for sure that they were both in. Well anyway, here is Brian with his performance.




    Let me know if you agree with me on this one. I thought Grace was fantastic, but Brian was out of this world good.

     I have some sad news tonight, but this will probably only relate to me and one other person. Before I get to the news, I wanted to share a picture with you. This giant fuzzy teddy bear of a dog is Aslan, the Goofy Newfie. She left this world yesterday morning. She was the most delightful dog that you would ever meet. always full of energy, and good humor. This picture was taken after we had just done a very long drive from Austin, Texas, to Gallup, New Mexico. I was helping her owner relocate, and I drove her and her brother from state to state. It was an odd car. Me with two enormous dogs. There is a picture somewhere, of me in the car with them. I a but a spec surrounded by black and white fluff balls. The picture is very funny, and I wish I had it to share with you. Aslan hadn't been in the best of health recently. She had hip problems that made walking difficult for her, but she still always seemed to smile when you pet her on her head. She is missed greatly by her owner, and owner really isn't the right word. Aslam and  her brothers were very much family, so mother might be a more proper term. I was fortunate enough to see Aslan one last time this past Sunday. I made sure I went in to see her and give her a few pets. She lifted her head, in only that way that dogs can do, when they truly enjoy the pets that they are receiving. It won't be the same with out her in the house, but she is frolicking through green meadows, and ponds now.

     Sorry to bring everyone down, but this was a dog that needed to be recognized. I'll try to have something more jovial for you on Sunday. I now have to go to sleep and figure out what I'm going to do tomorrow. I'm leaning towards waking up and walking about 5 miles to make up for not walking today. I got poke-eggs to hatch, and they aren't going to hatch if I don't get to walking.  I will definitely get in some good quality time with Saki, which reminds me. My ukulele teacher gave me a stand for Saki, so that I can do maintenance on it easier. That is super cool, because those things usually run about $60. There is nothing better than free stuff. With all that in mind, peace in and goodnight.

Rain O'er Me (yes i know that isn't how it's spelled, it's a parody of the song).

     There are a few things to talk about tonight, so let's just jump right in on it. This one is going to be loaded with videos, so I hope you have some good quality time to sit down and read and watch. We'll start with the return of America's Got Talent. Ok, I was just looking up the videos, and maybe it won't be a video heavy night. I will however get the videos I want you to see, up as soon as I can, which will more than likely be Thursday night.

     It appears that the AGT Youtube page hasn't posted all the performances from tonight, so I will just give you a little about what I wanted to show you. As most of you know, I became a big fan of Grace VanderWaal after her first performance on AGT. Howie Mandel awarded her with the Golden Buzzer and sent her straight through to the live shows. Tonight was her return to the stage. I was a little worried for her. I found her Youtube page, and she has been posting a lot of cover songs on there, and they aren't all very good. She has limited playing ability on her ukulele, so she often times only plays chords that she knows, and they aren't always right. That being said, her voice is still great and unique. My worry, was that someone was going to convince her to play a covers song, in order to appeal to a broader audience. It's much easier to like a song, if you know it. With Grace however, her voice is so unique, that a cover would do her a disservice. You would spend too much time comparing her to the original artist, and maybe not like her version as much. fortunately, this was only speculation. She did another original song, and as soon as I find that video, I will post it for you to watch. You could tell that she was a bit nervous when she started out. It's an original song, so you can't tell if she was rushing it a bit, or that is just how it goes. Another great aspect to doing an original over a cover.. Once she heard the crowd cheer for the first time, a smile crossed her face, and she loosened up. She was fantastic, and I'm sure she will go through to the next round.

     As good as Grace was, she wasn't my favorite act of the night. That honor goes to Brian Justin Crum, who did do a cover, but he made it his own. He covered Phil Collins  "In the Air Tonight". It was haunting and down right beautiful. Once again, as soon as I can find the video, I will post it for you to see. This guys voice is uncanny good. He owns the stage like a seasoned pro, and doesn't back down from a challenge. Each song he has chosen, has basically been a small part of the story of his life. His first one was Queen's "Somebody to Love". His second song was Radiohead's "Creep", both of them relating to a time in his life. Early on, he was picked on, and he just wanted people to like him, later after he came out, he was the "creep", but now, was his moment to shine. When I get the video and you listen to the lyrics as he sings, it will all make sense. Where Grace was fantastic. Brian was superb. It was a truly flawless performance.

    Ok, time for Favorite Song of the Week. The song this week is one that I just couldn't get out of my head. I've listened to it several times this week already, and will more than likely listen to it a dozen times more. Here comes the crazy part, I've already posted this song as a Favorite Song of the Week. Can you guess what it is? I never said that FSOTW was going to be a different song every week. I didn't even lay down any rules for it at all, just that it was going to be my favorite song for that week, and this one definitely is, so here it is my Favorite Song of the Week, belongs to none other than Twenty One Pilots. Come on, like you didn't see that coming. The bonus is, that this time I will get to post the video that I want to, instead of what I could find through the pop up window. Here is the official version of "Heathens" by my favorite band, Twenty One Pilots.



     This is probably the first time that I hope, me writing about something, doesn't get it to leave my head. I want this song bouncing around in there for as long as possible.

     Amazon Prime has started their pilot season. That is where Amazon released pilots for possible series that they may do. You only get one episode, and then based on reviews, they decide whether or not to do a season of shows for it. I've watched 3 pilots. I don't know if there are more or not, but I'm here to talk about two of them. The first one I watched was The Tick. I've always been a fan of The Tick. He is an oddball superhero that is bit quirky, a little goofy, and a lot indestructible. They tried dong a series for the show several years ago, and it had potential, but Fox didn't want to spend the money on a fringe show, so it was canceled. This is where Amazon has a chance to shine, and in the first episode, they did just that. The show has good writing, and a really good cast. The CGI is relatively good, and gets you into the quirky world of The Tick. If you have a Prime account, you can watch it for free, and I recommend that you do. It's a full half hour long, so it won't take up too much of your time, and it's only one episode, so you don't have to worry about getting wrapped into binge watching, yet.

     The second show, and the one I thought was the best of them, was Jean Claude Van Johnson. the name sounds a little like Jean Claude Van Dam right? Well that is because he stars in it. Here is the premise. JCVD is retired from making movies, and just lounges around the house, eating Pop Tarts, and picking up women, but then he sees an old flame, and decides to un-retire. Here is the thing, what he really retired from, was not acting, but black-ops spying. That's right JCVD is a super spy, and his movies were only cover stories to get him to places that he had a black-ops mission. I won't tell you much more about it, because I really want you to watch it. JCVD takes the piss out of himself, and is self deprecatingly hilarious. The show is an absolute laugh riot, of the highest order. It is a must see, and I really hope that this one gets picked up, because I want seasons, not just a season of this. It has the potential to be one of the all time funniest shows, and I beg of you to go check it out.

     A couple of work related things and then I will leave you alone. I only have a 3 day work week this week, and it kind of blows. I'll get over it though, and move on. I'm looking at it this way. I get more time to ride Saki, and walk around to hatch Pokemon eggs. Yeah, I'm playing Pokemon Go. Don't judge me, it's fun.

     Speaking of Saki, here is the other work related thing. Every day that I ride in to work, a woman there always tells me that she hopes that it will rain, so that I get rained on riding home. Here is the way I hear that in my head. "I hope that you crash and die.". Seems a little dramatic right? Well, when you are on a motorcycle, you won't optimum riding conditions, and when those conditions change the slightest bit, the chances of you getting injured go up drastically. Wet roads, means slick conditions, especially here in Florida. Black ice is real, and it can put a bike down in a second. Rain also decreases visibility, not only mine, but other drivers. I'm small enough on a bike as it is, when a cars visibility is decreased, my chances of getting hit go up exponentially. As you can see, I'm not quite as dramatic as you would believe at first. That is why, when she tells me that she hopes I get rained on, I only hear, I want you to die. Here is the question for you. Do I mention this to her, or do I just leave it as is? Right now, I'm just leaving it lie, but I'm more enraged by it every time she says it, and I'm compelled to tell her what I think. I would be polite, but still let her know that she is being a prick.

     That's all I got tonight. I have to wake up early for my mid week Friday. Peace in and goodnight.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation.

     Ok, so I don't get a summer vacation anymore. Here is the thing though, I've never gotten to write a "What I did on My Summer Vacation" paper before. For some reason, the schools that I went to, either didn't care what we did over the summer, or decide that the assignment was no longer relevant. Today, I did something that would easily fit into the "What I did on My Summer Vacation". I went kayaking today, for the first time I might add. Well there you have it, "What I did on My Summer Vacation".

     Did you really think I was going to leave it at that? Me with the gift of gab when it comes to writing (would that really be called the gift of gab if it's in writing?). Of course not, i'm going to tell you all about it. First off, it was a lot of fun, even though it was a bit frustrating at times, with my inability to steer the kayak properly. I went out with my dear friend Elie Wolf, as you should know by now, you can click on her name to see a few pictures from todays journey. We went  out to Thonotosassa, Florida for this little jaunt down the Hillsborough River. We started out at, I believe, John Sergeant Park. We got in our tandem kayak and paddled out into adventure. The goal was to see the Florida scenery and a whole bunch of gators.

     The water level on the river was very high. The area has gotten a lot of rain lately, and it is also a normal high time in the season, so wildlife was a bit scarce. The first half of the trip was really fun. It was a new experience for me, and a battled through my terrible kayak driving skills. I was learning with each stroke of the paddle, and I was determined to get better. If not for the sake of being a decent kayaker, definitely for the sake of not screwing up my friends shots with her camera. If you clicked on that link up above, you would see, that she still managed to get some pretty good shots, and the best ones are yet to come. I'll get to that in time though.

     We meandered down the river, and kept away from other parties that were a bit loud. We worried that they would scare the gators, so we hung back, and it paid off. We had a pleasant and peaceful ride down the river. At times, it was so quiet and tranquil, that you could hear your heart beating in your eardrums. I feared that if I even spoke, that I would break the silence that was being held over us.. The silence would be broken though, but it was normally by, at one point an owl, at another a woodpecker, and at others random flopping of fish. It was amazing to experience that level of peaceful tranquility.

      We finished the first leg of our trip in about 2 and a half hours. We stopped for a quick snack and some leg stretching, and then it was back in the boat. The loud couple was stopped as well, and we wanted to try to get well ahead of them so as not to spook the gators. We saw quite a few on that first leg, and my friend had not gone down the second leg before, so we were hoping for a fair amount of gators there.

     Our meandering ways, in order to get some good shots, didn't pay off for staying ahead of the loud couple. They must have jumped in their canoe right after we left, because they were on us, in about 10 minutes. We once again stopped and got some shots of the scenery so that they could pass us by, and stay far ahead of us. softly after leaving them, we saw our first gator on the second leg. It was a good 5 footer, maybe a bit larger, but not by much. It hung there for a while, and then it decided he didn't like our company, so he swam off for a less paparazzi type of place. This is where the struggle began. The second half was a bit zig zaggy (yes i know zaggy isn't a real word, but it works), and you remember my struggles with steering. It was an adventure into tree branches to say the least. This new area was a bit boring. There was nothing to see, no wildlife, no new foliage, nothing, and I was getting more frustrated by the minute with my paddling. I didn't let it show, but it was there.

     To make things worse, the loud couple had some how fallen back and we caught up with them, so even if there was some gators in the area, they wouldn't be for long. Now, even though this section was boring, there was room for adventure, and a daring river rescue to get our kayak to where it needed to go. We finally catch up to the loud couple, and they are stopped, and looking confused. They mention a big log in the way, and that they must have taken the wrong fork in the river. I was sure that we were on the right path, and that we just had to go over the log and get back to paddling. I pulled out my trusty phone to check the GPS, to see if we were in fact in the right place, and by my map, we were. The woman in the other boat swore up and down that we were nowhere near where we should be. My friend called the rental area where we had gotten the boat, and they said that we were going the right way. I hoped out of the kayak onto a stump along side the fallen tree, (yes, i'm putting on my superman cape) and puled the boat over the log. My friend had to turn the kayak, and back it up, so that I could once again, pull the kayak back so that I could get seated again. Before doing all that, I did ask the couple if they wanted me to pull them over, since I was in a good position to do so, and they said they were just going to bulldoze over the log at full speed. With that, I was back in the kayak and we were paddling away. I was taking small looks back, because I was half expecting them to hit that log at full speed, and come to a dead stop, launching them into the river. Fortunately, they didn't. The did come to that dead stop, but it was halfway in the canoe, all they had to do at that point, was move themselves to the front and push off. It took them a little while to figure that out, but they did make it over.

     They were back on us in a a few minutes this time. We let them pass again. They had to make it to the checkpoint at a certain time, so they really took off this time. We had plenty of time to hit our check point, so meander was back on the menu. it was still boring. We made it to a much wider part of the river, and saw one gator. He didn't like us very much and went under. I tried backing up the kayak to get away from him to see if he would resurface, but then a boat came around the bend and there was no chance of getting any shots of him (yes i know i'm saying him even though i have no idea if it actually was male). We were working our way to a little offshoot near the final checkpoint called Trout Creek. We were going to spend a little time in there before dropping anchor in port.

     Trout Creek was a small let outlet that was a bit hidden. My friend pointed it out, and I steered into it. I was finally getting passable at my kayak steering. This little area was absolutely beautiful. It had that same quiet tranquility, but it also had the beauty of the Florida woods that I knew as a kid. There was a small raised banks on either side of us, and you were half expecting to see a wild animal of some kind. A deer, boar, panther, bobcat, anything really. This was the perfect area for something like that. This little creek bent around to a fork, and as I was saying "Uh oh". meaning, which way do we go, my friend spotted a gator. I finally saw it and started reversing the kayak. I asked if it was two of them, and then I saw what was really going on. This gator was massive. It was at least 8 feet long, and seemed to be 3 feet wide. I had the boat reversed and then slowed it, and she started taking pictures. I was so focused on the sheer size of the gator, that I failed to notice, that we were drifting towards it. We got about as close as I wanted to be to it. We were about 10 yards from it, when it finally hit me, that I could actually see it's pupils. I slowly started reversing the kayak again, but at a much slower pace. We drifted back to about 30 yards, when she finished up. I asked her where she wanted to go from there, and she said, "That's what I came here for. I don't need anything else." With that, we turned around and headed for our final destination.

     Guess who was waiting for us? Yep, the loud couple missed their pick-up time, and had to wait another hour until the next one, which was the same one we were waiting for. Oh joy! I was pretty exhausted at this point. I had paddled 9 and half miles in that kayak, not too bad for the first time out. It was a good day. I'm looking forward to the next chance I get to go out on a kayak. Hopefully I'll steer a bit better.

     I was going to talk about a few more things tonight, but they can wait until Tuesday. I'm exhausted and need sleep, and that's not going to come until I finish writing this. So with that, peace in and goodnight.

Like Frida Kahlo, My Writing is a Self Portrait.

     As I have mentioned before, I love going to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. I'm a member there, so I can go in whenever I want to, well, within their operating hours. They send me emails from time to time, to let me know what exhibits are going to be there, and when they will begin. This week I got the news that the next exhibit, which starts in December, is going to be Frida Kahlo. She is widely known for her self portraits. When she was asked why she always painted herself, she replied, " I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.".  When I began my love affair with writing, I was often told, to write about what you know. That is why, that eventually, the 365 and then this was born. The subject I know best, is me. More on that in a bit. I am truly looking forward to seeing  the painting of Frida Kahlo. I love looking at the different strokes that painters use in their works. I'm sure I will learn from these paintings, as I have from Dali, Picasso, Van Gogh, and others. I haven't painted in some time, but it is something that I enjoy. Unlike Mrs Kahlo though, I will not be doing self portraits. I am probably my least favorite subject when it comes to drawing or painting.

     I guess this is where we are getting into the me part of all this. Like Mrs Kahlo, I do believe I know this subject of me, better than anyone, which is a small part of why I began writing the 365 and this. I then found that it was very cathartic. It helped me with a lot of problems that I was having in my life; depression, love life, lack of a love life, getting over things. That last one, is probably the biggest one of them all. I found that when I wrote about something that was lingering in my head, I was finally able to let it go. It's like when the words came from my fingers, I freed myself of that burden. Maybe that is what Mrs. Kahlo was doing with her self portraits. She died at an early age do to a history of bad health that began when she was hit by a car as a teenager. I can imagine, that when she wasn't feeling her best, she could sit down, and paint herself. Maybe it wasn't necessarily how she truly looked at the time, but maybe it was a way that she wanted to appear. Although, most of the paintings of hers that I've seen, she has a rather sallow look on her face. I could be wrong about all of this, but I want to believe it my way.

     I started a new book today. I don't quite remember the title of it, and it isn't close at hand, but it is about the Greek god Apollo. It's fiction, and it is a modern take on the old god. He has been cast to Earth without his godly powers, and must find a way to redeem himself and get them back. The funny part about it, is how arrogant he is. He always puts himself first, and mocks others when they would dare put themselves ahead of him. He is a god after all. I got to thinking as I was getting further and further in the book, that I am a lot like this representation of Apollo. Not the arrogance, but in another way. It mentions at one point about how he is the god of poetry. He holds himself far above everyone in his ability to write the poetic word, and that is where I saw a little of myself. Not that I hold myself above everyone with my writing, but more that I do think, that I am a very good writer. I know, that does sound like arrogance, especially when you see it written in front of you, but the plain truth is, that I do feel that way. Here is the reason why, and it is also going to sound very self serving. There have been times when I have gone back, and read what I have written, and I was amazed. I couldn't believe that I had written it. Because of this, I began believing in my writing even more, so much so, that I began writing a story about a young boy that when he wrote, his stories would come to life in the readers mind. Isn't that what a book is supposed to do? Of course it is, but this was a little different. The character believed that he could create entire worlds. Isn't that what a writer does? Yes it is, and maybe that is the point of all of this. My goal, when I write fiction, is to put you in a different world, and I believe that I can do it in a way, that you actually begin to feel part of that world, and that is what that character did. He would transport people, not just in mind, but also in body, to other worlds. As soon as they were done reading, they would simply come back to life.

     I put that story away for the time being, because it started feeding into my own ego. I do believe these things about myself, but I have to take a step back and remain a bit humble.

     Wow, how did this go from Frida Kahlo to my ego going unchecked? Before I sign off tonight, it would be a disservice to not share at least one picture of a Frida Kahlo painting. I do believe that this is her most recognized work, but I could be wrong.

     You can see that sallow look in her eyes. I'm very excited that I'm going to see her work in person, not to mention that I will get to spend some time with Dali as well. Peace in and goodnight.

Stranger Things than 3 Libras

     I could swear that earlier today, I had an idea of what I was going to write about, but then again, I think that idea was about writing about not being able to have anything to write about. Let's just dive right in to the Favorite Song of the Week. I did have an idea of posting a song that isn't a favorite, or that I even like it, but it is getting a lot of play right now, and people seem to like it, even though I simply just don't care for it at all. That of course would diminish what the Favorite Song of the Week is, so I chose something else, and It was a song that I heard yesterday. This one goes back a few years, but it is such a great song. A Perfect Circle is the band, and it's an offshoot of Tool, with Maynard James Keenan doing the singing. I'm not sure, but I do believe that the band has broken up, and has no plans to do anymore albums under A Perfect Circle. Maynard is far to busy with Puscifer, Tool, and whatever other project he has going at the moment. So let's take a quick jaunt back in time for a little "3 Libras" by A Perfect Circle. It's one of my truly favorite song by them.

     I hope you enjoyed that, because I sure did. Now let's get on to Stranger Things. No, not let's not get to some strange things, but let's get to Stranger Things the series of Netflix. I finished it up today, and I have to say, I wanted more. This show is like watching a sci-fi show that was created and shot in the 80's. It is pretty fantastic. I do have a slight problem with the final episode though. It leaves way too many unanswered questions. It does leave the possibility for another season, but I don't know how they can do it without rehashing this entire season. I think they wrote themselves into a hole. I hope that I'm wrong about that, but it looks that way to me. I'm not going to say any more about it, but go watch it. I think you will enjoy it, and maybe you will get a different thought about the ending than I did. If so, let me know your thoughts, I would love to hear them, and discuss it with you.

     That brings me to something else I wanted to mention tonight. When you leave a comment, I try to respond if I feel it merits it. The thing that I think is happening, is that you don't see my responses. There is an obvious reason for this, and that is that you aren't notified of my response. This is an easily rectified situation. Whenever you leave a comment on any of these posts, there is a small box right below your comment that says, "Notify Me". If you click that box it  will send you a notification whenever someone replies to your comment. If you don't have a blogger account, I'm not quite sure how it works, but I can take a guess. My guess would be that it would ask you for your email address so that it can notify you. Once again, this is a situation where I do not see your email address. I'm sure someone does, but it's not me. If you have an account, than it simply uses the email that you provided during sign up. Easy peasy. Yeah, I just wrote out easy peasy. I must really be tired.

     It appears, that there is a strong possibility that I will go kayaking this weekend. This is something that I've never done. I have had plenty of people telling me that they were going to take me out kayaking, but it never happened for one reason or another. There is a slight possibility that this won't happen this time, but that is more of a logistics thing rather than someone just blowing the whole thing off. If I don't go, that just means I get open time to go ride Saki, and that is always a good thing.

     Just before writing this paragraph right here, I added the title to this. It is rather challenging to come up with a new title for each post. When this was the 365, it was easy. I would just write the day # then Diary / Journal Entry. No fuss no muss, but this is a whole different beast, and it deserves a title each time. I usually try to tie it into something within the body of the post, like tonight. I combined the Favorite Song of the Week, with Stranger Things. I know, it's not all that witty, but I"m proud of it. There have been other times where I have just thrown things out there, in hopes that it stuck. I'm going to work on being better at creating the titles for this. I think that might be the weakest part of this.

     Well, that is it for tonight. Hump day is right around the corner, and I can't wait to get over it. It's supposed t be sunny tomorrow, but the forecast called for rain for the first two days of this week, and no rain has been seen around here, so I'm expecting a deluge for tomorrow, because I will be riding Saki to work based on the current forecast for tomorrow. Wish me luck, but then again, by the time most of you read this, it will be tomorrow, and your wishes will be far too late. It's the thought hat counts though, so wish away. Peace in and goodnight.

Herons, Moorhens, and Alligators, Oh My.

     As I told you on Thursday, I was heading out on Saturday to go for a hike in Lakeland Florida with a very good friend of mine. I woke up early because I had to meet her at her house at 8:30 in the morning. It was a beautiful morning, with the potential of being a great day. I made the hour long drive to her place, before we made another hour long drive together to get to the Circle B Bar Reserve. It's tucked in about, the middle of nowhere. You turn down an unassuming road, that winds it's way through moss covered trees, before you get to a gathering of small buildings, that make up the Nature Discovery Center. We headed to the main building to see if we could find a trail map, and take a look around. There was a very nice older gentleman inside that helped us out with directions, and told us which areas were closed for the time being. He also told us where we would see what. He was very helpful.

     The areas that were closed off. Those were the areas, we most wanted to see, but the season dictates the closures. See, this is the time of season, when the alligators are hatching their newborns, and mama gators get real aggressive when you get around their babies, so the areas where they have their nests, were off limits. We really didn't mind, since we didn't want to get eaten by a angry mama gator. That particular portion of the trail was called Alligator Alley. The good news though, is that we did have access to that trail to a certain point, and we were more than happy to check out what we could.

     We made our way down a trail called Mossy Oak. At least that's what I think it was. I don't have the map with me, and I'm too lazy to go get it in the other room, so Mossy Oak will have to suffice. It rained the night before, so there was a lot of standing water on the trail. We slogged our way through, and my my friend got some amazing pictures of the sun poking through the, well, the mossy oaks. It was stunningly beautiful out there. At one point, I could hear a hawk somewhere near by. Hawks make pretty distinctive shrieks, so you tend to remember them when you hear them, and I definitely heard one.

     After about a half mile, give or take a few feet, we connected with Alligator Alley. We had about a quarter mile before we got to the area that the trail was closed. It ran along a lake so there was lake water to our left, and marshy water to our right. Along the trail we ran into this guy, just hanging out right int he middle of the trail.

He meandered his way across the trail into the mashy area, and hung out for me to get this picture of him with my phone. My friend of course, got much better pictures of him. While she was doing that, I walked up the trail a bit, and noticed a small 4 foot gator bobbing up and down in the lake near the trail. He was just relaxing and having a good ol' time, but these incessant humans kept staring at him, so he went under the water. My friend missed her chance to get a shot of him, so we walked a little passed where he was, and then double backed. It worked out pretty well. He had come up, seeing that no one was there staring anymore. I peaked around the tree that he was behind, and waved her over, to get around and take a few shots of him. I moved beyond his sight, and just hung out looking for other possible things for her to photograph. This also worked out pretty well. With only one person there, he hung out to get his picture taken. I of course found something to take a picture of myself.

Yep, a butterfly was flying around my feet, and it landed just long enough for me to get a picture of him. I haven't busted out my camera in quite some time, but one of my favorite things to photograph, was butterflies. They rarely stay still, so you have to be very patient and still in order to get a good picture of them. This one was pure luck. It's not the best picture, because I had to zoom in, and phone zooms are generally just a version of cropping, so it blurs the image a bit. That is what happened on both of these pictures, and the one I will have for you a bit later.








We go to the dock which marked the end of our access to the trail, but there was another section on the other end, that we could walk down, but that was a good 4 mile hike away. There was a quicker way there, but we wanted to see as much as this place had to offer, so we took the long way.

     The long way gave us hope of seeing a Bald Eagle. The old gentleman from earlier told us where on the trail we might have a chance of seeing it, and that was along the long way to the other section of Alligator Alley.  The morning had washed away, and the sun was at it's full blazing potential. It was a little hot, on these new trails. They were mostly out in an old pasture that was part of the old Circle B Bar ranch. That's where all this land came from. It used to be an old cattle ranch, and this was the grazing area for the herds, so not many trees along the trail. We got to the area, where we might see the eagle. We found it's nest, but the eagle was no where in sight. We missed that one, but we have a definitive place to start from if we go back.

     Once we got around that trail, which was called Eagle Roost, there was a junction of four trails: Eagle Roost, Marsh Rabbit Run, Heron Hideout, and of course, Alligator Alley. The opening to Alligator Alley on this end, was outstanding. There was a narrow canal to one side of the trail, with those moss covered oaks, canopying it. To the other side of the trail was the marsh. If you go here Elie Wolf you will see my friends picture of this wonder gateway to the gators.

     We started walking down the trail, I was mostly checking the canal for gators, when my friend grabs my arm, and says something very unlady like. I turn to see why this is happening, and off to our left, in the marsh area is this little guy. Ok, so little is a bit of an understatement.  You can't really tell from the picture, but this was an 8 - 10 foot gator. We assume that it was male, since it wasn't aggressive, and not guarding eggs. It was just lounging there. We still weren't taking any chances. It could easily have gotten up the bank to where we were. There was a group of three people coming up on us, so I waved for them to stop, while my friends got some shots of this big boy, and then I walked back to them to tell them what was ahead, so that they wouldn't spook it, and get a chance to take some picture for themselves. We left them to it, because we didn't want to make the gator uncomfortable with too many people around. He might have just as easily took off as went after us. We walked as far down the trail as we could go, and didn't see anymore gators. We worked our way back up the trail in hopes that big boy would still be there, but he had left his lunge area for someplace new.

     That was the best of the day. There was quite a bit more, but nothing as exciting as what was mentioned. Oh yeah, I put moorhens in the title. The reason for that, and no I don't have a picture of one, is because they were everywhere, and they make a a weird sort of whining sound, like a kid that doesn't want to eat brussel sprouts. They are small black birds with orangish-red beaks, and they look like the walk on water. I think it's a, they are so light and the marsh really isn't water on the top as much as it is water with branches and grass over it. All in all, it was a fantastic, sunny, alligator filled day. We are already talking about going back. We will probably wait until the fall though. the gators will be a bit more mild, and the rest of Alligator Alley will definitely be open.

     Something real quick to finish this up. A friend of mine was telling me that I need to start watching Stranger Things on Netflix. I made a plan to start watching it this coming weekend, but I found myself with time today, and I que'd it up. I'm three episodes in, and it is fantastic. If you ever watched Super 8, you will love this show.  It similar but not the same. I can't even tell you what it's about, because that would give too much away. If you find yourself with some free time to kill, give it a try. I think you will enjoy it. Peace in and goodnight.

Listening to Bohemian Rhapsody While Walking Through Wilderness.

     Well, it's Thursday night and I realized that I didn't post a Favorite Song of the Week on Tuesday. Once again, I still hadn't put any thought to it, but then I checked out Youtube, and what was waiting for me in my list of recommendations? Really, what was waiting for me? Just kidding. It was Panic! At The Disco's version of Bohemian Rhapsody. All of you should know, that that song was originally done by the band Queen. If you know that, you also know, that I'm rather critical of anyone covering a Queen song. I had prior knowledge of this particular version. I got to see P!ATD perform this song for only the second time live a little over a year ago in Denver at the Big Gig. I was blown away by it then, I'm still blown away by it now. Brandon Urie channels his best Freddie Mercury, to pull this one off. I should just let you hear it already. Here it is, Panic! At The Disco with their cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody".

     What did you think? Really, I want to know. It's not the same as Queen, but it's a great version in my opinion.

     I felt the need for a little night time riding tonight, so I took Saki out for a ride around town. This was the first time wearing my Icon Overlord jacket. It was real comfortable, but when I stopped at a light, it got real hot. It's still way to early to be wearing a full jacket in Florida yet, but I wanted the extra protection with going out at night, plus it gave me a little more visibility with the white logo and panels that are on it. There wan't a lot of traffic out, since it's a week night, so there were no close calls or anything like that. I did have one guy in a minivan decide that he wanted to race me. I just let him go, I didn't care about him or his desire to race.

     When I got back, I arrived home just in time to see Michael Phelps receive his latest gold medal. I can't remember what it was for, but he had to hit the medal ceremony, then he had to book it back to the pool for another race. It was a semifinal race, and he still managed to come in 2nd in that one after having just raced a half hour earlier. If he can do that being exhausted, it doesn't bode well for the other swimmers tomorrow, when the finals are.

     After swimming, it was time to finish up the Women's Gymnastics Individual All Around. The U.S. had Simone Biles and Aly Raisman competing, and the drama was created when after 2 events, the ladies were down in the standings. Simone was in 2nd, and Aly was in 4th, I believe. They both performed well on the balance beam, and then destroyed the floor exercise, to get the gold and silver. Simone with then gold and Aly with the silver. This was redemption for Aly, She missed the podium in London, when she was knocked out by a tie breaker rule. Oh yeah, the margin that Simone won by, is larger than the combined total of margin for victory for the Women's All Around, from 1980 to 2012. That is the total of 9 women gold medalist. That is a pretty awesome feat. She has 3 more events in the individual events. She is going for vault, beam, and floor.

     I'm off work again tomorrow, so I have to find something somewhat productive to do. My first option is to go see Sausage Party, which is a movie title I thought I would never say that I was going to go see, but here I am, and there it is. I could also go for a ride on Saki. Actually none of this is productive, but they are all fun, and it's believed that acts of fun and laughter provide a healthier life, so with that in mind, these things are very productive to me living longer. I could alway do both, oh, and I do have a planned trip to the gym. It's leg day after all.

     I will be more productive on Saturday. I'm going hiking in Lakeland Florida with a friend of mine. She mentioned that it is a place loved by photographers, with lots of great native wildlife. That means potential alligator sightings. If I get any pictures on my phone, I'll share them on here. I'm sure that she will have much better pictures, so make sure to check out, and follow her Instagram here Elie Wolf Photography . Her pictures will be much better than anything I will get.

     Until Sunday night, enjoy your weekend, and stay safe out there. Peace in and goodnight.

The Final Five

     I really don't have much to write about tonight. Work has been uneventful, and I haven't even put any thought into a Favorite Song of the Week, so I guess that will have to come to me, somewhere in the body of all this.

     There are two things that I've forgotten to mention to you. The first one is, that I received the newest Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I haven't started reading it yet, because I'm worried that it won't be as good as the original series. I just need to get over that, and start reading it already. Normally I would have been done with this days ago.

     The second thing, and probably the most important thing of all time, is that I sat down Sunday and watched Sharknado 4: The Fourth Awakens. Now when I tell you that this series of movies are the best ever, you are going to say that I'm nuts. Well, we already established that a long time ago, but with that in mind, these movies are the best, the best at being very bad. That is where the charm lies. These films are so bad, that they are amazing. You can't stop watching them for fear that you will miss some cliche on top of a cliche. They are completely overacted, and ridiculous, which is exactly what they are meant to be. You can't stop laughing during them, and you don't want to miss any cameo that comes on the screen. Half the fun is trying to figure out who each person really is. Some are rather easy, like Gary Busey, or David Hasselhoff, but then you have Adrian Zmed showing up, and you rack your brain a bit to figure out where you saw that person last. Just to make things even more ridiculous than they possibly could be, each famous celebrity of yesteryear, all get eaten by sharks in gratuitous ways. If you get the chance, and have absolutely nothing better to do one day, sit down and watch these movies, they will make you laugh, and then you will more than likely question your life decisions, for having watched them. I can't wait until they do another one, and they did leave it open ended to do another one. I hope they do 10 more. Ian Zerring will be 80 years old, running around with a chainsaw cutting great white sharks out of the sky.

     Now on to something a little more important. I watched the Olympic coverage tonight. They were focused on Swimming and Women's Gymnastics, and those are two of my favorite Summer Olympic events. First up, was the first half of the Womens' all arounds, with team USA heavily favored to take the gold. Now I know that NBC breaks up the coverage so that people will stay tuned in, but I am now sitting here past midnight on a work night writing  this, when I should have done it two hours ago. After the first half, they went to the pool where team USA was dominating in the water as well. Michael Phelps regained his title in the 200 butterfly, and his bitter rivalry with then South African swimmer now seems to be over. He didn't even place in the medals, so all the trash talking was just that, trash.

     I wanted to get back to the women's gymnastics. This was my first time getting to see Simone Biles, and she is what everyone is saying about her. She is the best women's gymnast that I have ever seen. Her body moves in ways that a human should not be able to move in. She is vastly superior than any other competitor right now. Even when she has a hiccup in her routine, her routine is so difficult that even with deductions  she still scores higher than anyone else on the floor. She is simply amazing. If you haven't seen her yet, take the time when the individual gymnastics competition comes on to sit down and watch her. You will be saying the same thing that I was, WOW!.

     This isn't a spoiler, because it is already out on several different sources. The women of team USA won the gold. They won in pretty much a landslide. The last points total I saw, had them up by 7 points, and that was before the final floor exercise. The never put the final totals up, so i didn't see them. I'm sure if I did the slightest bit of searching online, I would find it, but where is the fun in that? After the ladies took the all around, the finally revealed their name, you know, like the Sensational Seven of years gone by. The ladies chose the name the Final Five, because they are the final five women that will be trained by Marta Karolyi. She is the wife of famed trainer Bella Karolyi. If you don't know who he is, you better look him up. He trained the likes of Nadia Comaneci, Mary Lou Retton, and who could forget Kerri Strug? Marta took over the program, when the individual coaches got fed up with Bella's overbearing style. This is Marta's final year as head of the program, and I believe she will be missed, but she set up a program that should thrive as long as no one screws with it.

     It was a great night for the good ol' US of A. They added to their medal count, and made a  great deal of history today, and I''m sure there is more to come. I'm tired, so I'm heading off to bed. Peace in and goodnight.

Truf, Suicide Squad, Saki, and Baseball.

     There is a lot to talk about tonight, so let's just dive right in. First and foremost, I have some fantastic news for you. The Truf is safe and sound at home. she is currently sleeping in her bed, and happy as can be.

   
     That picture was taken right after she got home. She was very hungry, but I think that was more because she was safe, and not because she was malnourished. A woman in the neighborhood behind mine, found her in her yard shortly after I believe she went missing from my backyard. She took her in for the night, and then took her to the local Humane Society. A very good friend of mine helped me greatly in finding Truf. She mentioned a few things I should do, and after posting flyers all over, I finally started taking her advice, and called Animal Control, which led me to a website, that my friend had also said to check out. I went to the site, and lo and behold, there was Truf right on top. I called the contact number, and told them I was on my way up. I had to prove ownership with pictures and vet records, but as soon as the woman at the desk saw the flyer I had made, she knew it was her. I couldn't be more appreciative of the woman who found her, and kept her safe over night, and everyone at the Humane Society for taking care of her until I could get there. I will be taking a big donation of food, blankets, and toys as soon as I can to them. Which, by the way, is a good thing that you too can do for your local Humane Society or pet adoption center. They always need things like that, and it is a great way to get a RAK out there. Just a little food for thought.

     A friend of mine emailed me about what the subscription emails look like. I happened to know about this little problem that she was brining up, and was thinking about talking about it sooner, but kept forgetting about it. Here is the thing, when I added the subscription button on the page, I thought that it would give you a reminder that a new blog had been posted, and would provide a link for you to go to it, not give you the entire blog in an email. I subscribed myself, just so that I could know that it was working and what it all looked like to you the reader. I thought it was a kind of cool that it came out like this, but there was one problem. The media players that I post from time to time, do not translate through to the email, so you are missing out on some really cool stuff. That being said, the best way to experience this blog, especially when I posted a video of embedded song player, is to come to the site, and read it from the direct source. Not to mention, that if you read it in the email alone, I get no sort of feedback, and it appears that no one is reading this at all. I've said all along, that I do this more for me, than you, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't affect me when I see 0 page views for something I wrote. Listen, I get it, it's super convenient to read it in the email, but even once in a while, just click on the title of the blog in that email, and read it directly from the source. It's like spring water, it's always best from the source.

     Ok, I'm done with the begging, let's get onto the rest of the weekend. While Truf was missing, I walked around my neighborhood a lot. I needed to clear my head a bit before I made one more pass, and got Saki out, so we could take a ride to the bank, and then a little extracurricular ride. It felt good to just free my mind, I was in a bad place, I was thinking the worst, and couldn't see any other outcome. I was lost. The ride worked, I got home, made that one more pass around the neighborhood, and then sat down to do the phone calls and website stuff. After I got her back, it was time to relax a little with her, and then celebrate by riding Saki some more.

     I decided to head to the tattoo shop, and talk to my artist. I hadn't been in since I went to Colorado, so a visit was over due. As soon as I got there, he said, "come here, I got something to show you". We headed to the back storage area, and he brought out this small case that looked like it could be a soprano banjolele. It was, and it was a old one. If I had to guess, I would say it was from the 40's easy, and possibly sooner than that. He needed to get it strung, but it was super cool. I told him, that as soon as he got it strung I wold show him a few chords he could play to get things going.

     While I was there, I talked to him a bit about my friends tattoo design. He told me that he was going to paint it, and then see where it goes from there, and then once he had that down, he would get the sizing she wanted when she was there. The sizing is the simple part of the whole thing. He can just punch in a few numbers on the printer, and it will make the stencil what ever size he wants. He told me a few ideas, and said it was just baffling him. I told him that he was just over thinking it, and if he would just let it flow, he would get it with no problem. I'm not worried at all, that he will have this down when she comes to get it done. he works best when he is in the crunch time.

     My drinking buddy wanted to meet up for drinks, but I was on Saki, and not about to drink, besides, I wan't in the mood to drink. He met me up at the shop, and we decided to go see Suicide Squad instead of hitting a bar. It was a much better idea. DC finally got it completely right, well, completely might be over selling it. I did have 2 problems with it, but one I will hold off on until a later time, if the topic comes up. The one I will mention, is that, I believe the under utilized Jared Leto. You don't seem to get a sense of whether or not, he is good as the Joker. Don't get me wrong, the small scenes that he has are good, but you really don't get a sense of who his Joker is. Margo Robbie simply steals the show. She is fantastic as Harley Quinn, and it's not the outfit. She really pulls of being a sociopath with a wild sense of humor. I could see an entire movie of her as Harley Quinn. As long as the writing was as good for her character in that movie as it was in Suicide Squad. The movie was visually stunning, and the humor was off the charts funny. I want to see it again.

     While we were in the theater, it poured down rain. I could hear it durning the movie, but I wasn't completely sure that it was outside, or in the movie. The scene that it happened during, it was raining in the movie, so it was a bit perplexing. Sure enough though, rain water was puddled everywhere. My buddy asked me what I wanted to do. He was suggesting that he give me a ride home. There was no way I was leaving Saki in a strange parking lot. I just got the Truf back, I wasn't leaving Saki hanging. He apparently doesn't like riding in the rain. Who does? That wasn't going to stop me from riding home. The rain sucks to ride in, but it isn't the end of the world. The worst part was that I don't have a visor wiper on my gloves, so my vision was going to be obscured. Mu buddy still wanted to go out drinking, and he wasn't going to take no for an answer, so I told him, I would head home, change and then we would meet up somewhere. He agreed, so I rode off. Just before crossing a bridge on my way hoe, some idiot decided to cut me off. fortunately, I am ultra focused on Saki, and saw it coming, so I slowed down in anticipation of it. He used no turn signal, and just cut over real aggressively. I'm sure when he saw me waving at him and my headlight in his rearview, he knew he did something really stupid. First opportunity that I got. I throttle up, and bolted around him. I didn't want him in front of me at all. After I went around him, he slowed down a great deal, and turned into a completely different driver. A driver that doesn't cut bikers off.

     Before we go any further, I forgot that I took a picture of Saki one day this past week, and I wanted to share its with you. So this picture is Saki under the trees where it sits in the shade when I'm at work. Saki looked too cool, so I had to snap a pic. Here it is.

     My Arai helmet is on the tank, and my Icon gloves are on the seat. Saki likes the shade, and so do I. That way I don't have a hot seat or handlebars. That's a good looking bike, don't you think?

     Anyway, back to Friday night. My buddy decided he wanted to stay close to his home, so I had to drive out to the Port. It's his favorite place out there, called Fish Lips. I'm not all the fond of it. I find it rather boring. He likes it cause they have a dance floor, and he can pick up lonely women there. My day had already been made with The Truf being safe, so I couldn't care less about hooking up. I think it drove him bonkers that I was watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics rather than be his wingman for the night. Like I said, i just didn't care. We got our last drink and headed out to the dance floor, cause there were people dancing. We got out there, and realized that we should have stayed where we were. The best dancer on the floor, was a woman with a cast on. That should tell you all that you need to know. He was upset by the music the DJ was playing, but I told him, that he was playing to his audience. They were older, so he played older music. They were the only ones dancing, and I wasn't going to perform any magic and get people out on the floor that night. I was taking the night off.

     We left there, and went to a little Irish Pub that we like. There was a guy there playing keyboard and singing. He was pretty good, but like most places like that, no-one applauded for the talent, and I end up being the only one clapping. When we walked in the door, there was an attractive yet unusual woman sitting at the bar. She was sort of my type, weird. My buddy parked right in front of her, to order drinks, and I noticed her tattoo. It was a skull and crossed bats, on the back of her arm with the word "Slugger" underneath. I told her that it was cool, and she said it was her nickname in high school. I asked if she was a big baseball fan, and she said "no". I was a little confused, but people get tattoos all the time that don't really represent what they really want. She told me she was a bit of a fighter, so I suggested that she get it redone with boxing gloves underneath. She then told me that she was a good softball player. It all made sense now. My buddy decide that since I was having a conversation with her, that he was going to use his new, but yet never tested powers as a wingman. Within a few words of speaking to this woman, I knew that she was there with someone else, it was only a matter of tie before they showed themselves. I was going to let him do his best, knowing full well, that there was no chance of anything coming from it. He threw a game of pool to try to get her to play me, but she turned him down. Then her date showed themselves, it was the keyboard player. I stifled a laugh and just went on playing pool with my buddy. His new found powers need some tweaking. He will keep trying, but I still don't hold out much hope. It's just not in him to not be the guy with the girl, even if it's one that he doesn't find all that attractive.

     Real quick, before this goes on far longer than it already has. I got to watch some Rockies games this weekend, because they were playing the Marlins. It was a great weekend for me. I could watch the RAYS game, and then turn over as soon as it was done, and watch the Rockies. I have to say, the Marlins broadcast team, shows the worst angles for a game. I don't know if it was because they were in Denver and they only gave them certain areas to shoot the game from, or if that is their normal style of shooting. It was just awkward. The announce team was pretty good though. They kept a good vibe going even though on Saturday, they were getting trounced. They were't down on the Rockies, they just tried to keep a positive attitude about the whole thing. It was refreshing to watch. The RAYS announcers are the same way, that is why I love watching the games. I can't watch nationally televised games, because the announcers are so bad. They pick a side and then blast the other team. It's ridiculous. They are supposed to be unbiased for those broadcasts. They aren't being paid by the team, they are being paid by the network, and aren't supposed to have a favorite team. The RAYS and Rockies both won pretty big on Saturday night, and they both lost today, but I did get to see Ichiro Suzuki hit his 3000th hit. It was a triple off the right field fence at Coors Field. He is only the second player in history to record his 3000th hit with a triple. The first player to do that? That was the guy managing the team that was playing the RAYS. Paul Molitor. He was a fantastic player back in his day, so for him and Ichiro to be the only ones to do that, is a pretty neat thing. To the credit of the Rockies fans in the seats at Coors Field, they all stood and cheered for about 15 minutes for Ichiro. He is one of those players, that no matter what team he is on, you always root for him to do well. Even if it's your team he's playing against. You just hope that he is the only one that does well.

     This has gone on far too long now, so I must say farewell. Peace in and goodnight.

The Truffel is Missing.

     I was hoping to have a fun post for you tonight. It would have explained a few things that have been brought to my attention about this blog and the email subscription service that goes along with it, but that just won't be the case.

     I sit here heartbroken tonight. The smallest of my two dogs, Truffel, is missing. She was in the backyard where she loves to spend time, and then she wasn't. I checked the neighborhood several times looking for her. I had no luck. My only hope, is that someone took her and she is safe, but I don't really see that as a possibility. She is very timid, and I am the only person that she will let pick her up, and that is reluctantly, and I can't hold her for very long. She doesn't like people, and she tends to run from them. I just can't imagine someone getting in my backyard and taking her, when my other dog is very people friendly, and will walk up to anyone for attention.

     This is the very same photo I used in the flyer that I will be putting up tomorrow. She is a tiny thing. She only weighs about 4-5 lbs. and she suffers from chronic seizures. I have medication for her, that helps alleviate the seizures, but it doesn't get rid of them completely. If someone does have her, they won't be able to give her her medication, and the seizures will become more frequent and worse. She isn't the crazy shaking Chihuahua, like most that you see. She will shake from time to time, but it is minimal at best. She always wants attention first thing in the morning, and that is when I get to pet her most. In the afternoons and evenings, she won't stand for it.

     The Truf is tough, she has had a rough time of it throughout her life. When she was young, she injured her ACL while running around the yard. As she got older, the seizures started. After that, she has some form of a heart attack, and she has battled through all of it. She got the best and worst traits of her breed. As you can see from the picture, she is adorable, she is the quintessential Chihuahua, but with that comes all those things above, and the losing of her teeth. She has lost her major canines, and a few other teeth, so her food has to be cut into small pieces, or she has to have very small kibble.

     I simply feel sick and weak. I don't know what to do. There is no closure with this, she is just gone. I don't know if she is safe, if she is injured, if she is dead. I don't know anything about what is going on with her, and that is the worst part. I'm going to call it a night. I'll get to all that other stuff I said I was going to write about on Sunday. I hope that I have news for you about the Truf. Peace in and goodnight.

Saki and the Unobservant Bicyclist.

     It was not a good day to ride Saki. Everything seemed like it would be a great day for it. I checked the weather report, and it said that there was little to no chance of rain. If rain did show up, it would be right around the time I got off work, but more likely later. That didn't happen, but I'll get to that a little later.

     As I was turning onto the rode that I work on. I noticed a guy on a bicycle. He looked right at me as I was turning onto the rode. He then looked behind him, and crossed the road right to where I was heading. I quickly came out of my lean to widen my turn so that I would go to the high side of him. He freaked and rode his bicycle straight at me. I had to jump on the brakes hard. If it wasn't for the ABS brakes, I would have endo'd Saki, and more than likely laid it down, because I was in a turn. I doubt he heard me when I yelled at him, because my visor was down. He looked at me, like he just escaped his own death, and there is a good chance that he did just that, but he didn't escape it, I did.

     These are the challenges of riding a motorcycle. People will look right at you, but they won't see you. Please, please, please, notice exactly what you are looking at, and register it in your head, so that you don't end up, hitting or being hit by someone on a motorcycle.

     Back to that rain thing. About mid-day, it began to pour, and it was that kind of pouring that could possibly last all day. I was bummed about it, but we did need the rain. I just began running though my head, all the things I would have to do different on my ride home. I've always been a proponent of visualization. It prepares you for things that could happen, and it is always better to be prepared. Then rain stopped after a half hour, so I figured Saki would dry off, but have spots, that I would have to rub out when I got home. No big deal. Oh wait, a half hour before I was to leave work, it began to rain again. No matter what, Saki was going to have a wet ride home.

     It managed to stop raining for the second time, 5 minutes before I was to head home. Saki was soaked, even though I parked it under some trees in the back of where I work. I would just have to go fast enough to get Saki air dried. When I turned onto the main stretch of road that I run down. I opened it up, to get around a truck. I saw that I had a small gap that I could fit through behind another car and in front of the truck, so I throttled up hard. That is when I saw the Cop, waiting for speeders. I quickly backed off the throttle, took a second and then changed lanes. I don't know how I escaped that ticket, cause before I slowed down, I was already doing 15 MPH over the speed limit. I was still going 10 over when I made the lane change. That was a close one. I got Saki home, and wiped it down, to get all the excess water and spots of it, and parked it in the garage.

     It was America's Got Talent night, and it was't starting off well. The first few acts were full of mistakes, and quite frankly weren't that good. I was beginning to think that I was going to be hard pressed to fight a favorite act of the night. That changed when Calysta Bevier came out to sing. She was flawless. The song choice was perfect for her (memories of her fight with cancer ran through my head as she performed), and her voice was fantastic. The night proved to not be as bad as I thought it was going to be, but Calysta remained as my #1 act of the night. Here is her performance for you to see and agree or disagree.

     That brings us to my Favorite Song of the Week. I've been hearing this particular song for a few weeks now, and the drum beat just gets to me. It's primal and just makes you want to dance. The band is Glass Animals, and the song is, "Life Itself". Well, lets just get to it, and forget all the rigamarole. I don't know anything about the band anyway, except that they have a great song.

     And with that I bid you farewell for tonight. Peace in and goodnight.

Friday Night Drinking

     It was a rather weird weekend. Let's just start with Friday. My drinking buddy texted me in the afternoon, wanting to head out for drinks. I'm still in a no spending mode, so I really wasn't up for it. He said it was all on him, and to come out. After a couple hours, I headed out and met him at a place of his choosing. It was a BBQ place that he likes. The food is so-so, but the service is good, and the bartenders are friendly. When I got there, he already had a woman with him, which meant that I was going to be a third wheel for the night. I'm not very fond of being the third wheel, but he apparently needed an excuse if it failed, and I was going to be it, but we will get to that later.

     I have no idea how much we drank at that place, but it was quite a bit. What to do after drinking a lot at one bar? Go to another bar to have more drinks, of course. That is what we did. We made our next stop at my favorite watering hole, and had couple more until they closed down. They close at 10, so that meant we just had to go somewhere else to drink. Mind you, I'm still a third wheel at this point, and he is working hard to get her to go to the next place.

     I mentioned to him about how I went to the gay bar a few weeks ago, and how much fun it was, so he wanted to go. We started making our way there, but his date decided that she was going somewhere else. I was drinking whiskey up unto this point, but since the alcohol selection at the gay bar is the worst of the worst, I had to switch over to beer. Now at this point, I can remember having two drinks at my favorite watering hole, and I was starting on my first beer. We were just sitting there while he texted his lady friend. I needed something to pass my time, so I just started talking to random people. It's sort of against my nature, but when you have nothing to do but stare into your beer, you change your nature.

     People do like to approach me, mostly because of the beard. I've learned how to deal with that, and turn it into a positive. It's always a good conversation starter, but since I was the one striking up the conversation, I had to do to them, what they do to me, and that is find something unique about them. Once I did that, the conversation normally turns to the beard, and it takes off from there. I'm taking to a few people, and my buddy tells me that his lady friend is on her way, and he is going out to the parking lot to meet her. I'm ok with that, I'm talking to about a half dozen people at this point. I'm pretty sure that most of them don't know that I"m straight. There were a bunch of ladies out for the night, and they asked me to dance with them while they braided my beard. I obliged, and got to dancing. They had to move on to their next stop after one song, so I headed back to my beer. My buddy was still gone, but once again, I had a crowd of people now.

     A lesbian came up to me, and told me that she had to take the braid out of my beard, because it was off to an angle. She seemed a little upset about it, so I let her do it. You never argue with an angry lesbian. She wasn't really angry, but she did insist on taking the braid out. I then started talking to an older gentleman and what turned out to be his foster son. I thought it was a May/December thing at first, because the younger guy, kept calling him daddy. That is not unusual in the gay community. It was the younger guys birthday, and he was out to have a good time. The older man told me some of his story, and how he was his foster father, and that younger man wasn't gay, but he had Aspergers syndrome. and that he had never had more than one beer at any given time. That night he was on his sixth one. He was having a good time, and wanted his foster father there having a good time too. He new that his father liked gay bars, even though he wasn't much in the scene anymore.

     The father had come out when it wasn't very good to do so. He came out in 1969 living in the South. That time period and that area of the country were definitely not places that you would feel comfortable if you were gay, but he did it, and survived to tell his tale. He had also stopped drinking 26 years ago, so he was just there, in reality, supporting his son. It was a very cool thing to see, and they were interesting people to talk to.

     The night was just starting to turn in a slightly odd direction for me. I stuck up a conversation with some woman, just as a transgender woman came by that I know. I said hi to her. She must have forgotten that I'm straight and started hitting on me. I had to let her down gently. She was fine with it. I'm good at getting people to feel good at not so good things. My buddy had finally come back, about the time the other woman I was talking to, asked me if I had ever kissed a plumber. I said no, and she then asked me if I wanted to. I was already several upon several drinks in at this point, and said, sure. I thought she was kidding, and then she leaned in, and we kissed. She was a good kisser, or at least from every perception that I had, she was. We sat and talked for some time. Somehow the conversation got to sex. That's when she bit me. I know what you are thinking. You must have really pissed her off to get her to bite you. Not at all. She told me that I had to bite her neck and pull her head as she was orgasming. I asked her to show me, so that I knew what she meant. She then bit me on the neck. I can still feel the bruise that it left. Shortly after that, she told me that we weren't going home together. I really didn't care. My goal was to never go out that night so anything was pure bonus.

     About 30 minutes later, she lifter her shirt up over her head, and showed me her bra. I was definitely getting mixed signals, but I was sticking with the more direct signal, and figured that we weren't having sex that night. Her best friend showed up shortly after that. He was a very large gentleman, and seemed to me to be rather gay. After several minutes of conversation, he told me that he wasn't.  Sometime during this conversation, a new beer showed up in front of me. Here is the thing about being the straight guy at the gay bar, and just being friendly and kind. People buy you drinks, and women feel way to comfortable around you. Even when they know you are straight, they still feel like you might be lying to them, or at least that is what I think is going on.

     At some point, I got whisked outside with the woman and her best friend. There were more people out there to talk to, so I started talking. The next thing I know, another younger woman, pulls me into an alcove to show me her breasts and pierced nipples. She was telling me that they were ugly and she hated them. I think I said that they can't possibly be that bad, and that is when she drug me in the alcove. I was right, they were rather beautiful. We walked out of the small alcove, and then she tells her boyfriend that I think they are beautiful. He agrees with me. It was just a weird situation.

     My buddy comes out with his lady friend, and says that they are leaving. They were closing everything down, so I was sure to be right behind him. I was completely wrong. it turns out that my new friends, the woman and her best friend, were very friendly with the bartender, so we got to go to the afterparty back in the alley behind the place. The bartender poured drinks for everyone. I opted out of a final drink, and just sat back there an chatted with everyone. I was told that I had to come the next night, which would have been Saturday, to see the drag show. That is where the woman and I would pick up where we left off. I told them I would. I didn't. I'll get to the reason shortly.

     This is getting kind of long, so I'm going to try to get to everything and wrap this up quickly. My buddy texts me Saturday afternoon, wanting to know if I want to hit a movie. Jason Bourne was the movie of choice, and I did want to go see it. I met up with him for the movie. It was pretty good. Not the best of the Bourne movies but still pretty good. When the movie was over, my buddy wanted to go get something to eat. I suggested a new place near the theater. While we were waiting to get called for a table, he told me that I nearly cock blocked him on Friday night. The reason, I had mention at some point during the night, that he was out with another woman a couple of weeks ago. Apparently his lady friend of Friday kept asking him about this other woman. He began to chastise me about the whole thing. This is the same buddy of mine, that every time I am talking to a woman, he jumps in, and directs the conversation to him. It even got to a point, that I picked a woman out, and told him that I was very attracted to her, to see what he would do. After a while, he began flirting with her. It's in his nature, and he can't control it. I could have pointed all of this out to him, but decided it wasn't worth the fight that was going to come out of it. He still thinks he can be a wing man for me. He can't. It's simply impossible for him to let someone else get the girl.

     We were told that there would be a 30 minute wait for a table. After about an hour of waiting, we finally got up and went to another place. We ended up at a Buffalo Wild Wings. I'd never been to one, so it was a new experience for me. The place was noisy, but everyone was friendly and the food was really good, so I can take a little excessive volume for that.

     When we were done at BWW, mu buddy wanted to know what was next for the night. He wanted to hit up the gay bar for then drag show. I wan't up for drinking and after him telling me how I ruined his chances, I really didn't want to go hang out with him. He knew that woman was going to be there and was wanting to see me. In my head, he was going to do everything he could to try and take her home. The best way for me not to let that happen, was to not go at all. He may have went, I have no idea, but I went home and watched a little TV before going to sleep. If he did go, I'm sure that he will tell me all about it the next time I see him. I'm also sure, that if he did, he will also tell me about how he hooked up with that woman. Like I said, he can't control himself when it comes to that. If he does tell me all that, I will just have to see how I react. Even though I don't care about that woman, I'm pretty sure, that that will end our friendship. More for the principal of that matter rather than the actual act of it. I'm kind of leaning towards not drinking anymore anyway. I'm not saying that I'm going to stop, I just don't see any benefits that come from it anymore.

     I'll let you know how everything goes. Peace in and goodnight.