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.

Give of Yourself.

     A recurring theme kept happening today. It started with the podcasts that I was listening to, and it ended with Hillary Clinton's speech at then Democratic National Convention. That theme was public service. I have always been a long standing proponent of RAK (random acts of kindness), and charity. Public service however is a different kind of charity. It's giving of yourself in a selfless way. Giving you time, is maybe the most selfless thing that you can do. It's easy to give a contribution to a cause, but when you give your time to that cause, you are giving so much more. Don't get me wrong, this isn't belittling giving contributions. I'm just pointing out, that when you give of yourself, you give much more.

     I was listening to Greg Fitzsimmons podcast today, and he was talking about a charity bike ride he did about a month ago. It was for a group called Best Buddies. It helps people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The founder is Anthony K. Shriver.. That last name might sound a little familiar. Yes, it is those Shriver's. You know, the ones related to then Kennedy's. This all brings me to the public service of the Shiver's and the Kennedy's. There is a reason that the Kennedy's are seen as America's Royal Family. The Shiver's and Kennedy's also founded a little thing none as the Peace Corps. You may know of their great outreach programs that help underdeveloped countries, and people living in poverty. The Kennedy's also founded the Special Olympics, to give a spirit of victory to those with disabilities.

     Greg mentioned that at one point during the weekend, that he had a chance to talk with Joe Kennedy Jr. Joe, told him about how when he was young he went to the Dominican Republic to dig latrines for Haitian workers that were living in deplorable conditions in the Dominican Republic. He talked about how, even though he was blessed with a silver spoon at birth, that with that spoon came responsibly to help out those that are less fortunate than you. He gave of himself, like most of the Kennedy, and Shriver children have done throughout the years. They could have thrown money at the situation, but instead, the gave of themselves as well as the money.

     I know what you are saying. "They have money and can take the time because of that to do these things.". Yes, they do, and I don't expect anyone to head off to a foreign land to dig latrines. Here is what you can do though. Look around for a cause that you can relate to. Once you have it picked out, go to them and find out information about how you can volunteer. Maybe just do it 1 day a month for a while, to see how it goes. If that works out, and you can afford more time, move it up to twice a month.

     You will be losing time, but you will gain so much more in return. If you are helping out people, you will see how you affect their lives, and the smiles that are on their faces because of your kindness. If you are helping out animals, you will see the love that they give you in return, and the joy you will get, when you see them go to a forever home. Those things, those are priceless, and are worth far more than any bit of money.

     Take a chance, and give of yourself. Peace in and goodnight.

The Girl with the Mousy Hair.

     Since I didn't post a Favorite Song of the Week last week, I'm going to kick this off with one, but first, a little about this artist and the brief history I have of with this particular song. The artist is Aurora, and I first heard of here when the song I'm going to play for you was put at the end of an Episode of "Girls". I was mesmerized at how good it was, and a small part of me wondered if it was because of the imagery of the final scene in that episode. It all went together so well. My wonders were turned to reality when I heard her perform yesterday on the Howard Stern show.

     Howard was also a fan of the song. He heard it in the same place that I did. On my 365, I directed people towards this song. I don't remember if I had a link to Youtube or I just told people to look it up. Howard a few days after I had done that, played the song on his show, and talked about how much he loved it. He brought it full circle on Monday's show when he had Aurora on. I knew nothing about her, as did everyone else in the listening audience. I had just heard the song. To say that I fell head over heels in love with her from this interview, would be an understatement. I wasn't the only one either. Many people called in today to say the same thing. Here is the thing about her, she is wonderfully weird. She talked about how she doesn't have a significant other, because she collects dead moths. Her accent is adorable, she is from Norway. When asked if she had ever met Bob Dylan, it came up because she mentioned how much she appreciated his talent, she said she had met him in a dream. She was truly unique and original. She sees life through different eyes, and that is alluring.

     On to the song already. The song is a cover of David Bowie's "Life on Mars". It is haunting an beautiful. In the version she did on The Howard Stern Show, you could hear the slightest bit of nerves creep in, and it gave it an even more intimate feel. She was exposing everything in it, so that is the version I have for you. Oh, real quick before I play the song. I learned a new trick by playing around with this little blog here, and I learned how to put an embedded player into it. I know that doesn't sound like much, but it's a huge feat for me. I highly suggest that you listen with headphones on, so that you can hear every little nuance in her voice. It does make a difference. Without further adieu here is Aurora with "Life on Mars".


     The studio version of this song is fantastic, but this version just brings it to a whole other lever. David Bowie when asked about what the song was about said, "That it was about a Sensitive young girl's reaction to the media". This song was finished before he died, so I hope that he got to hear it. I believe that he would say, that he must have written it for her to sing. She is, that young girl. If you read this on Tuesday night, you may have a chance to see her perform on the Stephen Colbert show. I believe she will be doing one of her original songs, called "I Went Too Far". It's a very good song as well, and I hope you get the chance to see her sing in live on that show. Look her up, she is well worth your time. Here is a link to her site to help you out. Aurora She has a video of her single up on there for you to take a gander at. Quick funny story about when Howard read out her site. He said aurora dash music dot com. She was blown away about the dash. She had no idea what that little thing was called. They told her that the real name is a hyphen but they shorten to dash. She said that dash was a beautiful word, and she loved it. Like I said wonderfully weird, and easy to fall in love with.

     I could talk about Aurora all night long, but that was yesterday, and today was the first night of the  live shows for America's Got Talent. The live shows are where the exceptional part from the very good, and tonight was no exception. My opinion for the best act of the night, was the opening act, Jayna Brown. She is only 14 years old, but she commanded the stage and crowd as if she were a seasoned pro. Here is the video of her performance.



     Let me know what you think. I think she is destined to be a star. I could see her being a Whitney Houston type. She has a voice that can sing anything, and make it sound like a chorus of angels.

     With those two songs, I believe that I have taken up enough of your time tonight, but if you have a little more, go back up to that soundcloud clip from Aurora, and click on the Howard Stern name to the right of the arrow. I believe they have a good deal of her interview on there. You too, can fall in love with her. Peace in and goodnight.

Let's Ride

     I promised a picture of the new Icon Stryker vest, and here it is. It was very comfortable to ride in, and my back pack fit over it easily. It just gives you an extra level of comfort when you are on a bike.

     Now that that's out of the way. i have to mention something real fast. I woke up this morning, and checked in on here, to see how page views were going, and I noticed an extraordinarily large amount of views came in overnight. There seemed to be no reason for it, because no particular post got all the views. They seemed to be spread out amongst all of them. I then turned my attention to the traffic source. I can see where the views came from, as far as a link from a website or what not. I noticed that there was a redirect link on some half off deals site. It appears that someone like this up to that redirect. Although I appreciate someone doing that, I don't really want that. I'd much rather have people view this because they wanted to, and not because they were redirected to it. So, thank you to whomever did that, but please don't do it again. If you did it because you like reading this, the best thing you can do, is to just keep reading. I like the page views, but they won't change my life in any way. I"m just happy if I can make someone else happy.

     Let's get on with what happened over the last few days. After work on Friday, I went to the bank to deposit my check, and found out that my checking account had been drained. Since it was the weekend, there was nothing I could really do about it, so I have to wait until Monday. There is a good chance that this is my fault, and I double clicked on submitting a payment to a credit card or something. I'm going to look into it, but until I get to the bottom of it, I won't be going out much.

     A good buddy of mine, came to the rescue to salvage the evening, and invited me out. I told him I wasn't much up for it, since I had only the money I deposited in my account, and that I was going to hang low for a while, but he wanted to go out. He finally talked me into it, and I headed to his house to start the evening.

     He made dinner, and we split a bottle of wine (yes, i know this is sounding way too much like a date, but it wasn't). One of his lady friends was texting him the whole time, we were hanging at the house, so we went to meet up with her and her friends. We ended up at a little bar, well, it wasn't all that little. It was a little too spacious. It was a very bad attempt at a dive bar, but they had 3 pool tables, so we took over one of them and started playing. His friend, at some point, came up to me and told me that she was going to be my wingman, because my buddy was real bad at it. Her words not mine, but they aren't far from the truth. I can tell you this, she was no better than he was. He really didn't do anything except talk to every woman in the place, and she picked all the woman that I wan't attracted to at all. This is the dilemma of my dating life. I'm apparently the only person that knows what I like, or even has the most remote idea of it. I admit it, I'm picky, and I think what happened to me when I was 9-10 has a lot to do with that. As a result of all these attempts to be my wingman, I drove my buddy home with the woman he was going to sleep with that night, and then I continued on my merry way to my house alone. Now, that sounds like a bit of sour grapes, but trust me, going home alone, is all that I really wanted to do.

     The next day, which was Saturday, I went on a ride with a couple of friends. They were on one bike, and I was of course on Saki. This was the first time, I'd ever ridden with someone. I can't say that I'm a fan of it yet. I can say, that I don't like playing follow the leader. I want to be in the lead, that's all there is to it. I'm pretty sure that it is some kind of control issue, but when I was lead rider, I loved it, when I was tail rider, I hated every minute of it. I had no control of the pace, or where we were going, I just followed, and that kind of defeats the idea of the freedom of a motorcycle. I guess, that I'm just not a pack rider. I'm pretty much a lone wolf in my life, why would I think I would be any different on a bike.

     One note about the ride. When the lanes opened up on a Causeway, I got into it. I took off from my friends, and I was flying. I quickly got it up to 100mph as I was coming up to a bridge. It took it's time getting up to 110mph when I was going over the bridge, so I decided that it was beginning to top out, plus my friends were struggling to keep up. I throttled down, and it took a good while before they got on my rear wheel again. Saki handled it like a dream. It was stable with minimal shake, which was mostly from the road itself and nothing to do with the suspension or steering of the bike. It felt great. The whole ride the bike felt great. When I would approach a light or stop sign. I would simply take my hands off the grips to let it naturally throttle down. Saki went as straight as an arrow. I gained a lot of confidence that I didn't have on Saki before. It's still very new for me to be on a sports bike. I had only ridden dirt bikes and cruisers before. I like the sport bike a lot better than all those other ones. There is just a sense of being more of a part of the bike than on a cruiser or a dirt bike. If you've never ridden one, take a chance and give it a try some time.

     Today, I got to spend some real good quality time with a dear old friend. She is like a sister to me, and I don't get to see her as much as I would like to. We both have pretty busy schedules, but when we find the time, we always make the most of it. The thing is, it's all about talking, and great conversation. We have had some really great conversations over the years, and never seem to hit a dead zone, where neither one of us has something to say. The conversation just flows. I think that is how we became friends. We just sort of clicked from the start, and it was always easy to talk to one another. Anyway, to get to a point before this goes on forever. I was going to be her first human subject for photography. Yes, she has photographed people before, but this was going to be the first time doing it, thinking in a professional sense. She's really good at what she does, although there isn't a whole lot you can do with the mug of mine. Here is a link to her Instagram account for her photography Elie Wolf Photography Take a look at what she has, and if you have an Instagram account, follow her, you won't be disappointed in what she puts up there, with the exception of that human shot. Once again, not much you can do with this.

     I'll see you all on Tuesday night, with a "Favorite Song of the Week". I know I missed it this past week, but it will be back in full force this week. Peace in and goodnight.