Reading

You know what?  I love to read!  I've always have and I know I always will.  The problem is that I never seem to have the time to read.  Other than the Newspaper I've gone years without reading a book.  That has all changed over the past year or so.  My oldest daughter has me back into it.  She constantly reads and has read as long as she's been able to read.  There was a book called "The Passage" by Justin Cronin that my daughter convinced me to read.  It was part one of a three part trilogy.  That, my friends, was one of the best decisions that I've made in awhile.  Amazing book!  I've read part two but the problem is part three doesn't come out until sometime in 2014 and I have to wait! D'oh!  Oh well.  The latest book craze that I have now is "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" which is another three part trilogy with the potential to become even more books in the series.  From what my daughter tells me is the author, Stieg Larsson, has passed away after writing the third book but he has left the plot outline of like 10 other books in the series.  Someone else would have to write the book but with the plot outline it would still be basically Larsson's book.  All I know is as good as "The Passage" was these books are even better!  I can't put them down!  "The Girl with the dragon Tattoo" is a hard book to get into but once you're there I promise you won't be able to put it down!

The slightly eccentric mind?

The slightly eccentric mind wonders aimlessly 

without regard for anything in particular. 

Nothing in particular being both a good and bad thing. 

One second happy fuzzy warm thoughts 

fill its mind

soon to be replaced 

by much different stressful thoughts

to be replaced again 

by some more calming 

soothing thoughts

and so on. 

Sometimes it feels 

it solved the worlds problems 

only to be interrupted, 

lost by some other stupid mundane thought! 

Thoughts rush non stop 

like a wave of reality 

slapped upon a shocked delicate face. 

This goes on and on 

all day long, 

every waking hour! 

Exhausting!

Why?

Why does so much go one in there? 

Why can't it focus? 

Why can't it be still? 

Why?

Why?

Why? 

What? 

The end of the best summer ever!

Tonight I came to the sad realization that what was probably the best summer of my life was coming to an end.  I took the dogs out and it was freezing and I could smell the smoke from the neighbors chimney.  It just made me realize that the nights are getting longer, the days are shorter, and soon the snow will fly.  This summer was really the best ever and I think it will be the beginning of many more great summers to come.  I love that my kids are getting older and that I can do more fun things with them.  My wife doesn't get the same amount of vacation that I get so when I took my two full weeks in a row off this summer I got to spend it all with the kids while my poor wife worked.  We had many adventures!  We swam pretty much every day, we golfed, we biked, we played at the park, we hiked Currie's Mountain, etc, etc, etc.  So much fun with them and I'll tell you what, I savored every minute of it!  They are getting older and I know we won't be able to do this much with them forever.  They'll get older, do other things, get busy, not want to hang out with old dad anymore.  Before I know it they'll be all grown up!  Wow...

Kijiji Intervention???

Well its been a while since I last wrote but I now have a new obsession, KIJIJI! I love it! You can sell things and buy things and for the past couple of months I've been doing both. So far I think I'm breaking about even and may even be up $5 or so?  I see it as a way to up grade my old stuff and to get rid of stuff I don't use taking up space in my garage. I even bought my car through Kijiji and I feel that I got it for a steal!  I hardly ever buy anything new now. My wife thinks I'm obsessed and has joked with my daughter that they are going to have to have a Kijiji intervention for me but I'm having fun with it, so where's the harm? Take today for example. I sold my old gas powered weed wacker that was seriously taking up space in my garage that I literally haven't used in three or four years. It was a two stroke, the kind where you had to mix oil with the gas and let me tell you I am NOT good mixing oil with gas! I could never get it right and it would be smoking like no ones business! I used to have an old Lawn Boy lawn mower once that I used to have to mix oil in it and man the smoke that came from it when I mowed was something else! I mean it was almost embarrassing to mow with all the smoke coming out of it! Anyway I'm getting a bit off track right now so this guy buys the weed wacker from me and I could tell he KNEW how to mix his oil in gas, would treat it right, get it to work great, and get much better use out of it than I ever did. I swear I owned it for over 10 years and I'm pretty sure I've only used it like five or six times! So he gives me $40 and I was pretty stoked thinking that $40 was going towards my golf fund for the summer. Wrong! Cue Kijiji! Yep I got on Kijiji and I found an add selling an electric hedge trimmer for $35. I emailed the guy and offered him $20.  He emailed me bad saying no, stating he wanted the full $35. I noticed his other adds and saw a sweet lawn fertilizer spreader for $15 so I emailed him again and offered him $30 for both the spreader and trimmer.  Again he emailed me back saying no but said he'd throw in the spreader for free if I paid the full $35 for the trimmer. I liked that deal and took it because I was actually prepared to pay $40 for the both of them. So I get to the guys place and he looked older than Moses. His house was sold and he was moving into a seniors complex. I actually liked this old guy and gave him his $35 and he tried to sell me some other things but nothing tickled my fancy but ss I was leaving his garage I noticed this small electric weed wacker and I asked him "how much"?  He said $5, I couldn't give him the $5 quick enough! So I spent all of the $40 I made today but I feel like I'm ahead of the game. I turned an old gas powered weed wacker that I haven't used in years, that frustrated the hell out of me, and was an awkward piece of crap to store in the garage into a hedge trimmer, fertilizer spreader, and another weed wacker that is easy enough that I will actually use it! Anyway when I got home I got a call from the guy who bought my weed wacker and my heart sunk because I though he wanted his money back but he was calling to thank me because he got it working great and saved him a ton of money by not having to buy a new one. Yes today was a good day and that wouldn't have happened without Kijiji! The day was even better because when I got home I used the hedge trimmer and I went on a trimming rampage on out three ceder bushes.  What fun!

The Ghost of Max

Our poor old Boston Terrier, Max, was hit by a car back in November and passed away.  It was a sad time for our family but we have managed to get by it.  The running joke (perhaps joke is not the right word to use due to the seriousness of it all but for now I'll just use the word "joke") around here whenever our other dog Molly acts weird or barks for some unknown reason we'll just say it was the "ghost of Max" bugging her.  You see Max and Molly were the best of friends and did everything together but Max was like a younger annoying brother to her where he constantly bugged her and drove her crazy sometimes.  You see he would nip at her stomach or legs until finally she would go ape shit on him and they would have their big fight.  They would never hurt each other but Molly would make sure Max knew who the boss was!  If she ever tried to come down the stairs he would wait at the bottom of the stairs and attack her.  If anyone ever tried to pet her he would butt right in wanting to be pet.  When ever I let them out first thing in the morning he would barge right out in front of her like he was demonstrating his dominance over her.  If I threw the ball for them he "always" took the ball from her.  He was relentless!  But there were other times when they laid together licking each others face and sleep on top of each other.  Even though Max never really "hurt" Molly he would drive her to the point where she'd had enough and put poor old Max in his place.  It was quite funny watching the two of them together because you would think that she hated him and that he was jealous of any sort of attention she would get from us but it was really opposite.  They loved each other!  You see Molly hasn't really showed any signs of grieving and for me personally I think it is weird.  She just kept going on like nothing has happened.  She always wants to play and continues to eat.  But like I said there are times when for some unknown reason she'll just bark or run off and we just "joke" it is the ghost of Max tormenting her.  Well maybe he isn't really "tormenting" her, maybe he is "soothing" her?  Maybe the ghost of Max being with her is the reason Molly was never depressed with his passing?

golfing away

Today I slept in until about 10am and my daughters came in saying they were going to a ball game with their mother and were going to the clay cafe afterwards. I was not going...hahaha...I turned on my phone and I had a text message from my buddy wanting to go golfing.  Saturday with my wife and kids gone, you bet your ass I was going to go golfing! I have a few passes for the Kingswood 18 hole signature course and thought that would be a great time to use them but deep down knew that there was no hope in hell that we'd be able to get a tee off time on a sunny Saturday.  No dice with Kingswood so we settled on our home course Gilridge.  The only thing is Gilridge was busy and we couldn't get out until after 1pm.  Trust me, that wasn't a big deal.  I didn't feel rushed and I turned the TV on sports Center.  I was able to get a couple more buddy's to go and the four of use went out.  Let me tell you we baked out in the sun!  But it was fun and so relaxing.  I had so much fun that my buddy and I went out again this evening.  And even more fun with be had tomorrow morning when a few of us are starting up our Sunday morning golf games again.  We haven't done this since last summer.  Yep, it was a great day....

my first post

I created this blog in a continuing effort to improve myself.  I want to become a better person but I need an outlet, and this my friends is it.  I have always loved to write and for me it is a way to express myself.  I have issues and over the years I have kept them in check but I feel that i am lacking something?  This will be a constant work in progress.  Right now as I write this I'm not sure how, or even if, it will evolve from this one lonely post.  Speaking of lonely, even though I am constantly surrounded by people, I feel as though I am a very lonely person.  It sounds weird I know but like I said, I have issues.  And what's weirder is that I'm not even sure if my self perceived loneliness is a bad thing or a happy thing?  Anyway I do know one thing, no body gets me?  Or at least I think no one gets me?