Finally Got to Meet Janet!

Sometime back, I posted about a dear friend who I met at the Yahoo Group, Hearts On The Mend. Go here to check out the original post. Janet was going through a breakup at the same time as me and we shared a lot of heartache and frustration together, for a year or more, via e-mail and Instant Messaging.

Janet recently moved with her two daughters from Pennsylvania to Florida. A big move, no doubt. Starting over. This past week she had to make a trip back to PA to finish getting her things from her old house before her ex-husband sells the house. Her travels took her past Charlotte last Thursday, so we met for dinner at Azteca's on Woodlawn. We had a great time. It was so nice to finally meet in person someone who I have shared so much heartache with. I feel like Janet is an old friend who I've known my whole life. It's nice to have people like that in your life, even though we met under less than desirable circumstances! Too bad it sometimes takes heartbreak and tragedy to meet some really good people!

So anyway, on her way back to Florida Sunday night, she stopped in Charlotte again and we went out to dinner and just hung out at my house. We had great conversations about our lives and goals and about our childhoods ... growing up and that sort of thing. Janet is from my generation so we grew up with all the same memories, even though we were states apart. All of us who grew up in the 70's and early '80's have so much in common that so many other generations probably never will.

So to Janet ... It was a complete pleasure meeting you and I hope we get the chance again. I'm sure we will one way or the other. I hope you had a very safe trip back to Florida and I know your girls were glad to see Mom home again!

I'll talk to you soon and keep cool down in the "Sunshine State."

What I Did On My Summer Vacation Part 1 ... (part two at a later date!)

Ok ...... so just what the heck did I do with myself all day today on my glorious "work-free" Tuesday????

• Went back to bed after calling in and didn't get back up til around 8:30am! Feeling very well rested, incidentally!
• Fixed a gloriously big breakfast, for a weekday, and enjoyed it on the front porch while the temperature was still cool!
• Sat on the porch and read the Observer from front to back while polishing off over half a pot of hazelnut coffee. Oh yeah!
• Checked and rechecked my email, jotted off a few of my own, and checked on a few eBay auctions I'm watching.
• Walked around the back yard and checked on my flower beds, weed beds (inside joke), vegetable garden (picked one cucumber and one tomato) and chased my dog around some while enjoying a couple more cups of coffee!
• Played a round of golf on the computer, via Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002 .... played historic St. Andrews in honor of last weekend's British Open. Didn't do nearly as well as the real Tiger did! hehheh
• Took a small nap around noon ........
• Fixed a large lunch, for a weekday, and polished it off with the first of about 4 ice cold beers! Yeah! If I were at work, where I was supposed to be, I'd be drinking bottled water instead!
• Took a picture of myself on the front porch with one of the aforementioned cold ones, just to commemorate a great day!! *hic*
• Too hot to sit on the porch long ...... fled back indoors.
• Turned the lights off in the computer room and played Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic til my eyeballs were spinning around in my head.
• Dinner time! Fresh veggies from the garden, ice cold fresh brewed iced tea, and a baseball game (cubs at reds) on the tube .... a fitting finish!!

Ahhhhh ....... now that's a good way to spend a day playin' hooky! Of course, if it had been about 10 degrees cooler outside, I would have gone fishing ...... or mountain biking, or maybe played a round of golf ....... but considering it felt like 140 degrees outside today ..... I think I did pretty dang good!

Back to the dungeon tomorrow!!! (albeit with a slightly better attitude!)

Playing Hooky ....

I played hooky from work today! And it felt great!

They've really cracked down on us lately on the amount of sick days we can take and how we rack up "occurrences" ... it's all pretty juvenile in my opinion. But the idiots who run my company have nothing better to do than sit around dreaming up bigger and better ways to make all of the employees' lives more miserable!

So here it is the middle of July, and I've only taken one sick day so far all year. I woke up this morning a little late. Oh ... I could have busted my ass and made it out the door on time ....... but sometimes ya just gotta say, "Not today." (are you with me Steve?)

So today I said, "Not today" and called in sick. Hey ... it's only the second time all year .... two sick days in 7 months ... I think that's pretty good. Some of the guys I work with have already racked up a baker's dozen by this time every year!

So .... I originally thought that maybe I would trek down to Fort Mill around noon to watch the Charlotte Knights in action. Today was a rare afternoon game and I thought, "hmmm ... what a great way to spend a day off .... kicking back, eating a hot dog and a bag of peanuts, drinking a few cold beers and watching a baseball game."

But then I stepped outside around 11:00am and had a sudden change of heart! Wow!
It feels like a 100 degrees out there today! As a matter of fact, the thermostat on my front porch..... which is in the shade, mind you, is reading over 100 right now! I realize of course that's not accurate .... but it sure feels that hot!

Needless to say, I decided to forgo the baseball game and instead piddled around in my shop which is at least partially in the shade and I have a good fan running in there!

At least I wasn't at work today! That's all that counts. Sometimes we all need an impromptu, spur of the moment day off.

NOT TODAY

Indeed!!!

Fishing Adventures

Never underestimate the value of your friends.

That value can become evident in any number of ways. And I don't mean "monetary value." LOL As a matter of fact, I've hardly ever made any money off of any neighbor.

But one real value of friends is entertainment value!!!

Last Thursday The Three Stooges .... er I mean .... the Three Musketeers .... (oh ok, Stooges is more like it) decided to go fishing on Mountain Island Lake. Just for the record, the Three Stooges are: myself, of course, Scott... my next-door neighbor, and Skip ... my neighbor across the street. So we loaded up Scott's boat with all our gear and plenty of water, gatorade and .... ahem ... beer ..... and headed out onto the lake.

We were cutting across wakes at record speed as we headed for our new favorite shallow cove. Suddenly ... *sputter sputter* .... the Yamaha engine dies. Scott makes the startling discovery that we are out of gas!!!!!!

"That's what it was I forgot to do!!" he exclaimed as we slowly coasted to a stop in the water.

"I knew the whole time we were putting the boat in the water that there was something I forgot to do."

Wow .... of all the things to forget. And naturally we are wwwwwwwaaaaaaaayyyy away from the boat ramp. Like, a mile or two .... which is a long freakin' way on the water!!!!

So we decide the only thing to do is fire up the trolling motor, point it in the direction of the boat ramp, and slowly "fish our way back" to the ramp. Of course, this plan hinged on the trolling motor's battery having enough juice to get us all the way back to safety.

But .. we had plenty of liquids to drink, plenty of rods and tackle and plenty of daylight, so off we buzzed.

About 2 hours later we finally limped into "port" .... the battery was on it's last legs ... the beer was all gone and most of the water and gatorade ..... but hey ... in the long troll back, we managed to catch a nice share of bass and bream! So hey, what's not to like? As far as we were concerned .... it was just another day on the lake! Just a little slower than usual!!!!!

Needless to say .... the entertainment value of the whole affair was priceless! Between Skip and I riding the hell out of Scott for forgetting the gas, to Scott and I threatening to throw Skip overboard for talking smack, to both of them threatening to throw me overboard for catching the most fish .... it was a BLAST.

And as we always do, we ended the night with a stop at Vinnie's Sardines on Rozzelle's Ferry Rd for a few well-earned pints of Guiness and some Vinnie's grub!

Ya know .... to coin a phrase .... It just don't get no better than that!

Guilt Trippin'

So I go out to lunch today with my good friend Rick Sutton. We work together and have a few things in common. We both love music and used to play in bands. Rick was a singer and keyboard player in a variety of R&B/Dance/Soul bands while I was more into Rock and Blues. But we love to talk about music. And like me, he is well into his second year of separation from his wife with no more idea what he wants to do or how he wants to proceed than I do.

Rick and his wife split up barely a month before Tori and I did. Unlike us, they were married a long time. Several kids. One still in college. And like me, Rick is struggling with his feelings every day. Like me, one day he wants his wife back so bad he can hardly make it through a day .... the next day he hates her so bad he wishes he had never met her. We talk a lot together about our feelings toward our ex-wives and where we are going with our lives.

We're both confused, frustrated, stressed-out and all-together baffled by the whole turn of events. Like me, Rick still doesn't know exactly what happened to his marriage. Unlike me, he and his wife have actually tried to get back together a couple of times. But everything goes to shit again after a while and they end up apart again.

Tori and I have never discussed that sort of thing. She knows how I feel. But I don't think she will ever make the attempt. As I have said before, she knows that if we were ever to try to make a go at it again .... she would need to come clean with me once and for all about everything that happened in the waning months of our marriage. And I mean everything. I don't think she will ever have the balls to do that.

So Rick and I are sitting at Taco Bell this afternoon and he says to me, "My ex and I's anniversary is tomorrow."

"Wow," I said. "How do you feel about it?"

"I don't know man .... I mean, it's gonna suck. It hurt me bad last year and I think it's gonna hurt again tomorrow."

"Are you gonna call her, or did you send her a card or anything?" I ask.

"No card," he says. "But I will call her tomorrow and talk to her. It's the least I can do."

So then my mind starts spinning ... as usual. This past March 30 came and went and I didn't even realize my anniversary had passed til about 3 days later. At the time I thought that was a good sign. "Movin' on" I thought. But then this past Monday, the 4th of July, her birthday, hit me a lot harder than I thought it would.

And I didn't call her. I wanted to so bad. But I stopped myself. And I didn't send her a real card in the mail. I sent her a stupid little "e-card" that basically just said "Happy Birthday" and that's all.

And 4 days have passed and I'm guilt-trippin' bad. And I don't know why.

I really don't think she gives a damn whether I remember her birthday or not. Why should she? Hell ... she didn't call or anything on my big 4 - 0 last year. Why should I worry about her? Why am I beating myself up mentally over something as stupid as a birthday card? Or lack thereof?

I know why.

Because July 4th will never be the same for me the rest of my life. It will never just be "Independence Day" for me. There will always be something else lurking in the background. A feeling that I should be celebrating a different holiday with somebody special.

I'm guilt-trippin' and I wish I wasn't. I wish I had the strength and the "balls" to never, ever give a damn about her the rest of my existence.

But I do give a damn. And that's the problem.

That's why I'm guilt-trippin'

Slow News Week

I haven't posted anything since Monday ..... because good grief it's been a slow week.

The fishing on Monday didn't go well. My neighbor Skip started feeling ill about an hour after we got down to our ponds. Of course we were at about the furthest point from his truck as we could possibly be. So we started the long hike out with Skip having to stop every few minutes because he thought he was gonna hurl! What a long walk! I gave him my bottle of water to drink because he had already drained his Gatorade and was still looking bad. We finally make it back to his truck and drive back to the house with Skip white as a sheet and no fish! haha .... That's just the way it goes.

The rest of the week has just been hot and uneventful! Been sweatin' my everlovin' keester off at work. Been coming home in the evenings too tired to even cook dinner. Shower, cold beer, a pbj sandwich and bedtime at 9:00p! Geez louize it sucks gettin' old! heehee

Today started off looking like there was gonna be a major storm before lunch. We were watching the remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy on the weather radar on the computers at work. But we got nothing all day til about 3:00p ... 15 minutes before quitting time! Go figure! But it did rain buckets at my West Charlotte house. And I guess a tornado did touch down somewhere in south-eastern Charlotte. So maybe today wasn't uneventful for everyone!

Oh well .... Red Sox and Orioles on ESPN right now so I think I'll go see if I can stay up past 9:00p for a change! Anyone want to bet on this one? hahahah .... All I know is I'm damn good at sitting down to watch a ballgame and waking up at 2:00am still in the recliner and some stupid infomercial blaring on the tv!! Been there, done that .....

Happy Fourth of July!

So far it's turning out to be a decent holiday for me. It's 11:00am and the weather is shaping up to be nice and sunny. A tad hot, but not unbearable. A good day to go fishing. Which I will be doing very shortly. As soon as my neighbor, Skip, calls and says he is ready to go.

Lest we forget, today is also Tori's birthday. So that is on the back of my mind. Hopefully some good fishing action down at the ponds will help push it waaaaay back to the back burner. I have more important and fun things to think about and do on a day like this than dwell on my ex's birthday. Like she gives a hoot about my birthday, right? Heehee ...

Anyway ... Happy Fourth of July to everyone ... and especially our nation and even more especially our troops overseas. Gosh, it's gotta be hard to be working your ass off in Iraq on the day that you know all your family back home is having cookouts, fireworks, trips to the beach, etc. God Bless those men and women over there. They are over there in my place ... and your place. They are heroes. Indeed.

Everyone be safe today ... don't stand too close to the bottle rockets when you light them, and don't stand too close to the grill when you light it, either!