January thaw? What's that?

As I write this, at 11 pm on January 26, it is minus 7 degrees F. That is ridiculous. The cold snap we are enduring is getting extended, then re-extended and now it is indefinite. What did we do to have our world thrown into the icebox? Al Gore is a bullshit artist. There is no global warming.

I use a small space heater at my place and it is on all the time. I am afraid of what kind of damage that is going to do to my power supply bill. Maybe if I don't check the mailbox, it won't be there. I know when I extend my hand in to retrieve my bills, it is going to bite my hand. It will chomp down on me and take blood.

The gathering at the church Saturday night was amazing. The movie was really great. The food was stupendous. I made 11 pizzas. We had 14 in all because another attendee brought some also. They were mediocre compared to my creations. Even my plain cheese pizzas earn raves. I have secret weapons I use to lure the masses into my culinary cheesy masterpieces. I did make a version of my white chicken pesto pizza. The difference this time was no feta cheese. It didn't make that big of a difference. Next time I might not use the whole wheat dough balls to make pies smaller than 16 inches. It was too thick. At the end of the movie, there wasn't a single piece of pizza to be found. It was a good night.

It is up longer.. noticably so.

Wednesday. Hump day as some call it. Even though the 21st of December was the turn of the solstice, you already can see a significant lengthening to the day. It is still nice and bright closer to five in the afternoon.. Ahhh.. Summer is going to return.. Now for that beach body.

My car is filthy with salty mud residue and it is gross. The other day when I went to see the Ferguson's, it took tons of washer fluid to keep my windshield clear. All the adjoining vehicles kept spitting up speckles of the stuff. It is like watered down chocolate milk and it dries in streaks if you use the rubber wipers alone. Why is it that my windshield washer fluid reservoir is slightly less than one gallon in capacity? The blue juice comes in gallon jugs. It would make sense to design a tank that can fit under my car's hood, but can easily consume the entire container's worth. It is so silly. I am left with about a cup or so that has to wait until there is enough room to pour it in. DUMB!

Happy New Year

Happy 2009 and many good things to all in the coming year.

2008 was pretty ok for the most part. I had some downs, but a lot more ups. Many things are different: Richie is seeing someone I actually like.. (what's that ringing noise??) I am doing well with the current treatment regimen for my psoriasis. I am now keeping very busy helping out my friend Tony at his store on a daily basis. It doesn't pay, but that isn't what it is about. It is fun and gets me going and doing productive things again. The feeling of accomplishment from making non-working things viable and valuable again is very satisfying. Also, I get to flex my customer service muscle quite often by fielding questions posed by customers, when they aren't retards, and sometimes when they are. Boom boom.

Mom's Day II

It is my mom's birthday today. If you're one of her kids, and you didn't call her today, shame on you. She birthed you and you can't call her? Bah.. Sure she doesn't call you much, if ever, but she should be reminded that you appreciate her giving you a place to incubate. I'm sure it wasn't an easy job. If you've seen my head, you know I caused her pain on my birthday..

May is going as May should be expected. It is rainy and sunny today. It is supposed to get up into the 70s F. I still need to sand and paint my picnic table before any Friday night soirées can start up again. Those are a great way to round out the week. Food, friends and shooting the breeze. Something to look forward to.

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.