Mom's Day

Time for the cards, bouquets, breakfasts or brunches. Mom's everywhere will be expecting their kids to pay homage to the giver of life, and rightfully so. Mother's day is this Sunday, and you'd better at least give her a call. Sweetser's are having us all over for a mother's day/birthday party for mom. Mom gets a double dip of party, given that her birthday is a few days before mother's day. I hope there's ice cream.

Roy dropped in on Saturday to wash his mustang. It was raining all day, and I told him so, but he was undaunted by it, saying "this isn't rain in Ireland." I said "but you're not IN Ireland, so this IS rain." He just laughed at me and continued on. Once done, we went to Bath to see Elizabeth, Penny and Chris. Penny and Chris are pulling stakes and moving to Denver, CO in 3 weeks. The small group of us who used to go to South Arm camping every year got together at Gimbels for a send-off party. It wasn't sad or teary at all, and I was glad. I wish they weren't going.

I'm going to see my primary care doctor tomorrow. Something wrong with the lumbar back area of my spine. It's been keeping me up at night now for about two weeks. It shouldn't be anything serious, but it's been preventing me from sleeping more than an hour at a time. When it hits, it's like a spasm and I can't find a position to sleep in that alleviates it. More on that later.

Hope this finds you well. See you soon.

Mayday.. Mayday!!

The snow is gone. Gone also are the dirty, gray piles of salty sand that collect everywhere after a long winter. Things are greening. It's a relief.

I haven't had a lot to say lately. There has been a lot going on, but it is easy to get lost in yourself and shut people out, even the ones who care the most about you. Emotions take me and make things seem worse than they are.

I was hospitalized for a week with cellulitis in my right leg. Most pain I think I have ever endured. The antibiotics killed every thing in my system. Cravings, sense of smell and taste. I haven't smoked in 5 weeks because of it. I was wondering if after I finished my antibiotics, if the cravings would come back or if I would have withdrawals from the cigarettes, but there were none. I am free.

Love you all. I'll be back soon.

Fall into Winter

Hello and welcome back to the world's favorite blog.

A few days after my last entry, Richie and I went to the Fryeburg fair to see what kind of mischief the woods people have been getting into. Wow were we in for a suprise. I am no lightweight, mind you, but we were astonished at how many really humongous, morbidly overweight people we saw. As Richie puts it, there were women, young women in their 40's, who had "front butt". A syndrome where your belly is so large, it is literally down between your knees and the seam in your stretchy pants creates a cleavage like your bum. Were they feasting on vegetable tempura and rice cakes? No, not at all.. Use your imagination.. Richie and I weren't real hungry for fair food after a while.

Well, we're part of the way through the holiday B.S...

Halloween was pretty uneventful as I never see any kids at my door for treats. Good thing because I never buy any. If I did, the trick or treaters probably still would never see them. Yeah, sugar is my drug of choice. Still, even though I didn't have any plans, I perused the giant halloween party store in South Portland to stay "up to date" on the latest devilish offerings their creators have imagined. I must say that things have changed a little since I was a kid.

I had a batman costume when I was five and I thought it was amazing. It was more or less a smock that you wore, hanging down about to my knees, with the batman logo emblazened on its chest. It had a molded plastic mask that was thin, cheap painted material. It had a elastic band that was simply stapled on each cheek to hold it on your head. Nice and simple, no frills and the elastic band almost lasted long enough for the one night it was designed for. Curiously, the eye holes were too close together, or I have had a big head since birth. I think it's the latter. My mom has confirmed that for me many, many times.

Today, we have moved forward from the simplicity of a $5 "complete costume in a box" to some really elaborate things. The designers seem to be pushing the limits of what the market will bear as far as how gory, complex or sexy something is, and how young the potential customer can be. We had Casper, Batman & Robin, Snow White, Scooby doo, Charlie Brown.. etc. I could list a lot more, but the point is the same. Today we've got costumes, some starting at $50 and $60 bucks, that are way over the top. Either way too revealing, or so scarily shocking that it would never have been imagined 25 years ago. In the simpler time of years past, it was enough to feel like you were that super hero and let your imagination hide the fact that you didn't have a cape or a belt loaded with gadgets. That was what the fun grew out of. Now, most are trying to out-do the neighbor kids. Sadly, the costumes made today are so current with the latest movie or video game, that they'll be out of vogue next year. I think a costume should be like a tux. Classic and always appropriate.

Thanksgiving was great. I called Shelley to see what I could bring for turkey day and she said she had everthing at hand already. "I'm not doing anything fancy, just nice and simple." Ha. She's so cute. I showed up at her house and there was so much food. The table was beautiful and had decorations and candles. The whole house smelled of family cooking. Warm and humid with all the different recipes vying for stove-top space. She cooked a huge bird. HUGE. I don't know how she got it in the car. Everything was delicious and perfect, especially the turkey. Not all of us were in attendance, however. The Cheney's were in New York visiting Ashley's future in-laws, (she's gonna get mad at me. he he) and Mom was home ill with a 24 hour bug of some kind. She's better now, thankfully. After feasting together, we played several non electronic table games and it was, as usual, a gas. (and it was a gas... Richie was there.)

My pals were out of town. The Morg's and Ferg's ventured off to Maryland to visit more of the Morg fam. I am still waiting to hear how the 'Stang performed on its first road trip excursion. Maybe I'll catch up with them this weekend.

All we have now, is to plod along until January 2 or so. That means getting past the meaninglessly sanitized and politically correct "Holiday" (can't call it Christmas) and the New Year. I don't mind the new year. It gives a sense of cleansing and renewal in a strange way. Hopefully 2008 will be that for all of us. "Holiday", however, has lost any connection to what I remember it being. Much like Halloween, its just not like it used to be when we lived it back then. I haven't put up a tree for 7 years. I don't know why really. Might be that a real tree is a waste of a nice living little tree, and to me, a fake tree is just retarded. Not that it isn't great for those who have them, they're beautiful, just that I don't want one. I know.. it's the smell. Plastic just doesn't have it.

Psoriasis update: As most of you probably know, I am having serious issues with the psoriasis in my feet. The weekly Enbrel injections are managing the disease quite well everywhere else, but in my feet it is not working. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I began a new puva treatment on just my feet that hopefully will give some results. It requires applying this goo on my toes a half-hour before the treatment, so I have to be careful about the timing. The goo makes the skin receptive to the puva light. I'll keep you posted on my progress. Please, whatever your faith, keep me in your thoughts. I have been losing many night's sleep and it is getting somewhat overwhelming. If you've ever had a night where you just couldn't find a comfortable position to be in, add to that the factor that your feet feel like they're on fire. That's a pretty accurate analogy.

So, to John and Roy.. stop flogging my blog. I'm here and I hope you're happy now.

Long time no see..

Does life grab you? Does it just take you by surprise and run with you without your really knowing where it's taking you? That's been my experience these past few weeks since my last post. Last thing I knew, it was my birthday.. still late spring and everything was so fresh and green. Had some great fun all summer with friends and family and then BAM~! It's the end of September.. I truly don't know how that happens. It isn't amnesia, because I have tons of great photos and memories of what I have been up to. Before you know what's hit you, it's over in a flash and you're shoveling snow again. We all need to face it. Summer is short.

Summer starts mid June and is over, usually, by the beginning to middle of September. Two or three days ago, you wouldn't have thought there would be an end to Summer, but you can feel it in the air now. The sun feels good, but the breeze has a chilling effect instead of a cooling one. Also, I have noted that tons of flies are gathering on the side of the house looking for a place to hide. That's a definite sign of change. The animals and bugs sense change long before we do. I guess I have to put away my patio table and umbrella and wait for next year to have dinner outside. That will be missed.

My open air dining room has been a lot of fun all summer. If you didn't have the opportunity to come for dinner on a Friday night or two, I'm taking reservations for next year starting after Memorial Day. I haven't put the menu together yet. I'll need something to do on those cold winter nights.

Shelley and I are still going to the gym 5 days a week. My old friend SJC has also joined about 5 weeks ago and is loving it. He's a great addition to the characters that show up every day. If laughter was like cardio exercise, we'd be modeling by now. Since I finally smartened up and made dietary changes, plus started drinking about 5 liters of water every day, I have dropped twelve pounds. I'm a loooong way from where I want to be, but it's a start.

Later~

Great Concert

Shelley and I attended the aforementioned concert by Great Big Sea Saturday night. What an absolute blast we had. We had to agree that it was the best concert by far that we had been to. Some of the determining factors for that were perfect weather, excellent performance with lots of humor and crowd interaction, and drunk girl. Obnoxious drunk girl. So drunk in fact that she just didn't care what or who was around her. "MARGARITA" she'd exclaim at the top of her lungs. We didn't know if it was the name of a song she wanted to hear, or that her glass was empty. Probably the latter. That small detail aside, it was really truly excellent.

Given that the show didn't start until 7:30 that night, I thought showing up at 6 would be plenty of time to arrive and get a great vantage point. After all, these guys are unknowns. I had never heard of them before getting the concert schedule in my email from JoAnn (thanks babe!). Man oh man was I wrong. People had started showing up at NOON and claiming their lawnchair wide patch of earth. When we did get there, there was no place to sit in the actual bowl-shaped stage area. Fortunately for us, LLBean thinks of everything. Just in front of the bowl, beside the retail store, they set up a huge video screen and speakers for the overflow. Yeah I know that doesn't sound great, but it really was! To our surprise, we could still see the stage, at quite a distance, but we had a better view than most because the projector was excellent. We probably saw more than those who were waiting all day to sit closer than us.

After the encore, we got up and folded our chairs and walked over towards LLBean's retail store. From there, we were able to stand on the bottom row of temporary bleachers they had and Shell could get a nice close-up view of the last couple of songs they performed. Yes, the concert was great on the big screen, but we still wanted to see a couple of songs performed in plain view. To any of you who didn't go. Too bad. It was great great great. Shell screamed in delight pretty often, so I pretended I didn't know who she was a little..

On our way to the car I committed an act of rampant indiscretion, thinking we were alone of course. Shell just kind of froze and stared right at me... needless to say, I'll check behind me more carefully next time. Two people were traversing the sidewalk right behind me and did their best to act like nothing happened. Shell and I just jumped in the car and laughed ourselves silly. See what you miss by staying home?

For more information about a really great band, CLICK HERE.
Later~

What the..? Again?

Yep.. Back again. Blogging twice in one day should keep my critic's at bay for a while.. then again, it is technically Sunday now, so...

I just wanted to send out a reminder to all my pals. This coming Saturday evening at 7:30, the L.L Bean Summer concert series is presenting Great Big Sea. They are a really good celtic rock group hailing from Canada. I am already committed to going with at least 3 other people in tow. Wayne, Nancy and JoAnn. If you would like to join us, call or email and let me know. Click THIS to see one of their music videos on YouTube and click THIS to see another. Listen closely to the words of "Ordinary Day". Very uplifting. I listen to it frequently when I am not happy with my current place in life. I love how it gets me through some of the rough spots.

Now I AM going to bed. No, really.

~Later

Don't Fall Down!

Yep.. Don't be shocked!! I am blogging again already. One day after my re-surfacing from the abyss of blog-neglectdom, I am here doing my duty to instill wisdom, humor and smart-assery to the masses. Ah, who am I kidding? I know I only have about 3 or 4 regular readers.. I must give credit to Richie for my use of the word smart-assery. Your royalty check is in the mail.

Today was another steamy, muggy one. Mid-upper 80's with 100 percent humidity. So much moisture in the air in fact that it looked like fog in the lower areas in the woods and along the road. It was the second day in a row that I had to turn on the A/C for most of the day. Of course I used the power saver setting for most of the time. Must save resources for future generations to waste I guess..

My mission, this morning, was to find some sandals to wear for the remainder of the Summer. I ventured to Reny's in Bath, but it was wiped out of the type I was looking for. I either wanted to find some Tiva's or some HiTec's, but no luck.

With tears of disappointment welling in my eyes, I headed home empty handed. At the last minute, I thought I should check out Target here in Topsham. YAY! No. They didn't have the brands I was originally looking for, but they had some nice ones for cheap. The tag said $19.00 . I thought that was an ok deal because I liked the design and leather. At the checkout, they rang up $9.00. YAY again. I like surprises like that. The big downer was that they were on sale for early Fall clearance. Early Fall Clearance. If that wasn't bad enough, all the summer stuff was noticeably absent from the store, and back-to-school crap was everywhere. How long before we start seeing Christmas crap everywhere? Mid September? Say it isn't so. 2007 is 7/12ths gone.

Later in the afternoon, my sis Shelley called me from Brunswick to see what I was doing. Silly me, I was anticipating some visitors, but hadn't heard from them until after Shell came to pick me up and take me out cruising. Sorry guys. (you know who you are~!) I am so in demand and popular that I will have to start keeping a date book and schedule my time out so everyone can have a piece of the majesty that is Dan. Book early. Tickets are going fast.

Shelley, Will, Ken and I had a fun cruise up through Monmouth, Green and Leeds and headed back South to make dinner and care for her dobie pups, Annie and Rusty. I made my magic A1 chicken, guacamole and bruchetta with baguette bread. There were no leftovers except a couple of pieces of chicken. Will, who is not a tomato lover, devoured my bruchetta like a wild potassium starved chimp on a banana plantation. Shell couldn't believe he loved it so much. Ken eats pretty much anything without complaint, quickly converting anything and everything he eats into methane.. as we found out in the car. I bestowed an Otter Pop blessing on my visitors and they were quickly converted. Otter Pops are Awesome! Go to RiteAid and get some before Summer is over and they're GONE again.

That's how I see it.. and now.. to bed!
~Later