inside the Blue Room...

from craigslist today... (no, it wasn't me!)

2008-08-01T18:58:55Z

to the a**hol*s who post and dont open (everywhere)

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Reply to: see below
Date: 2008-08-01, 1:44PM EDT

Have you noticed the high price of gas here? why would you post to have a yard sale, make we want to get out of bed, drive my ass over to you house and you dont open? and im referring to the bitch in alkire lakes this morning! you post to start at 8, i drove by 2 times and the last time at 10 am and you are still not open! if your not gonna open then cancel your post, post a cancellation, be considerate to other people who are wasting time and gas driving around looking at all your shit!
contact me at 1-800 stick your yard sale up your ass

the long goodnight...

2008-06-10T15:51:33Z

Last night Boo' had the worst time getting to sleep in a long time, starting out at 8-8:30 and going way past 12:30. I tried to help and take over so Laura could go to sleep, but she ended up taking the brunt of it all...except for the head-butt directly into my nose...which still hurts a little. This morning Boo' slept in until 9:30 and is all sweet and cuddly and has been on my lap for the last hour or so because it's "lawnmower day" (a dreaded weekly occurence).

done

2008-05-13T05:15:14Z

This journal has been very neglected. I've mostly been writing in myreccollection and on my new myreccollection myspace page.

The big countdown to unemployment is now over. Today (Monday, that it) was the first day of being an ex-Borders employee, and I handed in my badge this morning (I was allowed to keep it because my official last day was Sunday and I wanted to shop on Friday and still use my discount one more time!). I'm not so much sad as just feeling vulnerable and without a safety net. For 14 years I've felt mostly pretty secure in my job (aside from a few scary moments). I know I'll miss people that I work with, but I don't yet. In a way, I'm relieved that it's now behind me and I'm free to do something else. I really want that something else to be having a record store, but it's such a financially uncertain time to do so. People are having to spend all their money on gas...it's a slow time for retail and for anybody except Exxon-Mobil.

Elizabeth had a melt-down at bedtime, and it felt more like a Saturday night for her getting to sleep. Her mommy usually gets her to bed by 9 and she was up well past 11. I guess she'll get used to me being here when I'm usually at work.

I have to admit...sometimes I'm really scared about being free. I'm not even in the mindset yet about getting another warehouse job (and if there's another kind I can get if the record store doesn't float I'll do it if it's not...well, there's a lot of jobs I wouldn't want to do).

I wish that my live-journal writing had led to a professional writing career like it has for some people I know, but I guess I've been kind of blah about that as well. I'm sick of writing for free, and uninterested in the kind of crappy-assed writing that pays.

Oh well...I've been up since 8AM and had no nap and it finally occurred to me that maybe all of this muddle-headed-ness is just me being tired.

Mavis?

2008-04-01T16:33:32Z

Not sure where she got it but 'Boo is running around saying "MAAAYVIS? MAAAYVIS? MAAAAYVIS?" like I'm supposed to know what that means. I played it tough today and made her watch 'Jack's' even though she was crying and threw herself on the floor. It was the 'Seven Silly Things' show and she eventually overcame her fit and enjoyed the show.

"MAAAYVIS?" WTF!

Who said pink slips were pink?

2008-03-11T16:33:33Z

We had the long awaited "meeting" yesterday at work and second shift were given their 60 day notice. This means my last day will be May 9th, one week before my 14th Anniversary with the company on May 16th. I'm actually sadder than I thought I'd be now that I know. Now we need to figure things out, like when we're going to Seattle and all that. Then I'll have to start all over again from the bottom and be "the new guy" somewhere. I haven't been "the new guy" since 1994.

They are offering us a number of helpful things like job placement and things like that. We are even having a course on strategic "will work 4 food" sign-making and where the best places are to beg for donations! Cool!

snowed in! blizzard of 2008

2008-03-08T18:21:41Z

The view from our front porch earlier today of snow coming down. We can't get to the sidewalk. Laura almost got buried in snow coming back from shaking the snow off the Dish so our television would continue getting fed images of the outside world. Luckily they called off my work last night even though it wasn't a "Level 3" snow emergency (which they still haven't called in our county for some reason). The kicker is that, by this time next week, the forecast is for 40s & 50s, so all of this snow is going to melt and have to go downstream somewhere!

Boo Wiggin'

2008-03-02T05:42:13Z

Today I felt somewhat better...enough to take the e-bay to the post-office. Later, when Laura went out for a bit, Elizabeth and I went into my office and listened to old new wave records really loudly! Above she's boppin' out to "Precious" by the PRETENDERS...and we were both dancing to it and, next, the Police (she was singing "do do do da da da"!) and, of course, the RAMONES (which I knew she'd love...though I didn't tell her about Johnny voting for Bush...).

tomorrow...the world (or something like that...I need to finish fixing up my room and we want to go to a couple of in-door flea markets...Laura says I need more records!).

welcome march...

2008-03-01T07:38:11Z

goodbye to the month of sickness (off and on, by all three of us, including a quick bout with some kind of flu that sent me home Thursday night from work)...sick of getting sick.

they learn early...

2008-02-09T07:04:22Z

Elizabeth before we leave for supper: "Milkshake? Milkshake? Milkshake?"

Elizabeth after dinner at home, after supper, after having taken two sips from milkshake that we went out of our way for on the way home:
Me: "Elizabeth, drink your milkshake sweety, before it goes warm"
Elizabeth: "Night-night milkshake, night-night milkshake"

Elizabeth fifteen minutes later after I got frustrated and drank the shake she wouldn't drink and ran away from in tears whenever I tried to give it to her:
"Milkshake? Milkshake? Milkshake?"
Then she finds the lid and straw from the now consumed milkshake and licks them, making me feel guilty for drinking her milkshake!

It's been a rough couple of days...she had 104 degree fever twice, we were in the hospital for five hours yesterday (and I went into work afterward half a night late), and then a follow-up at the doctor friday.

six months...

2008-01-24T13:59:23Z

...until unemployment!

We finally had our meeting yesterday and learned more details of our certain fate. One week of slow until the new fiscal year begins then we'll be busy busy for a while, and then our in-coming will taper off and be re-directed to the other facilities gradually. The first to go will be second shift, as a group, and they expect that to be in May or June. So, at least I may make my 14th anniversary. It's weird how un-gloomy the room was to find out our collective fate. In general, most of us are kind of looking forward to it. I certainly am, even though the prospect of starting all over again somewhere else scares me. For the last ten years I've been the guy who's been around a long time. It will be weird being "that new guy" somewhere. Plus, now I need to figure out what else I want to do, and what other line of work I can do. I'm thinking of going back to college and taking more 'Speaking Casual German' courses to perk up my prospects. I could also get into Ice Road Trucking or climbing Mt. Everest, but I guess we'd have to get a sitter if I did, so maybe I'll just find another job around here somewhere.

my new photo journal:

2008-01-16T03:47:20Z

Since the first of the year I've started a new photo-journal, from all of the pictures I've taken over the years. It is here:

http://fotojedentag.livejournal.com/

It means photo of the day in German.

willpower...

2008-01-16T03:37:33Z

I have very little willpower when it comes to being called at 1:30 by my job and being asked if I want to take the night off. Since I had one more vacation day left (until Feb,) I said yes...especially since last night my boss intimated that I might be working in shipping tonight like we had to before our department was too busy to work elsewhere. I already miss those days! It was barely two weeks ago when they were telling us we'd have to work mandatory overtime, now they're offering us VTO! The big wigs are supposedly coming in this week to "discuss the future" with Ron, our boss, so next week we'll supposedly have a better picture of what is ahead and how numbered our days are. There are some days that I realize how good we are at what we do and how specialized it is, compared to the books side of the business, that I imagine it will be quite a struggle getting the other DC's to be as good at it as we are. But I guess that's not for me to worry about, is it?

In the living room Laura is watching the debates in Nevada. I'm still not sure who I'm for (aside from good over evil). Still worn out from the last race I got involved in and the emotional wear and tear of that disappointment. The current administration is just so out of touch and witless that the Evil one's supposed trip to the Mid-East and his "quest for peace" was glaringly transparent, as is his call for war with Iran now and his begging the Saudi's to lower gas prices. I'm just so sick of him. Sick of his face, his voice, his actions, his tone, everything. Sick of his being the face that people from far away places put on our country and think of as being who we are. It's hard to even talk about how sick I am of this, but it's gotten well past the point where Laura and I can talk about the idiot without getting all pissed off and loudly ranting about it before realizing we've done that a million times before and it never helps diminish the wrongness of the situation. We come from a generation that doesn't deal well with being powerless, that doesn't accept that we can't make a difference, that won't allow the possibility that we can't do anything about it. Didn't I go through eight years of Reagan feeling this way already? I feel tired just thinking about it. Looking at the Republican front-runners, as scary as they are, none are as scary as GWB.

I'm glad I didn't go to work, but I wish we could've made better use of my day off by going skiing or something.

Oh well...only a few weeks until more time off. I'm taking a long weekend for the record convention and for getting the Ikea record shelves set up in my closet room, which has been in bad need of order ever since the old wire rack shelves experienced failure akin the the I-35 bridge disaster (no casualties though). I've already got a bunch of my records priced and ready to go and hope to do more this weekend. Hopefully I'll sell every single record and go home with empty boxes and a wallet full of green...but that probably won't happen. I know I'll sell some, but I'll probably buy some too. Like I said...I lack willpower when it comes to certain things.

hating to be right about some things...

2008-01-06T07:15:52Z

a draining sort of day, and yet I'm rested from going to sleep during most of the Steelers last game of the season. Jacksonville went up 21-7 and I couldn't stay awake anymore, muted the TV I was watching in our bedroom and fell into a deep sleep. A short while later I was in a sub-sleep, waiting to hear Laura react to something good or bad in the game. I woke, put on my glasses and squinted to see that it was 29 - 28, Steelers ahead. Oh, great, I missed something good. Then I went into the living room and they blew it in the last two minutes just like I knew they would. Laura said I jinxed it and I should've stayed asleep. Maybe she was right, but the outcome is what I thought it would be, and the football gods have decided to give it all to the Patriots this year anyway...so we don't want to take away from their having a good time now, do we???

So, the football season is over and, unless it's Peyton in there again, fuck the Superbowl this year!

look who has a birthday today!

2008-01-04T14:52:47Z

Laura Kathleen
no longer stuck in her '30s!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

(oddly enough...this is one of the few topless shots I could find of her...)

more fun with craigslist ads!

2008-01-02T15:11:56Z

do you have elderly person in need of - $75

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Reply to: sale-524896773@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-01-01, 6:39AM EST

I have tow elderly tolets for sale one is a beadside tolet with bucket. the other one is for the bathroom that fits over the tolet they both are adustibul. I also have a u shaped walker as well. will sell sepratly if need be.one tolet is bran new i will sell for 40$ the other one i will sell for 30$ the walker i will sell for 15$. you may e maile me at __________.com only serious responces thank you.they will be avalibul for pick up on wednesday.

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I sent a reply saying that my dad was elderly and could use $75...but haven't heard back. I'm not sure what a tolet is but said they could keep all that, he just needs the $75.
We'll see!

Oddly enough, this was not listed to the West Side...

playoffs

2008-01-01T20:54:23Z

It's not easy for me to feel good about the fact that the Steelers are 10-6 in the playoffs and the Browns are 10-6 and not, even though they are our rivals and I'm supposed to hate them. It just doesn't seem fair, and I feel for the friends I have who are Browns fans. I'd be so pissed off if I were them. I can't say that I have much hope of the Steelers getting too far into the playoffs, though, especially past the Jaguars (whom just beat them a few weeks ago). They've pretty much already ordered the Superbowl rings for Brady and his asshole "Best Team EVER" Patriots, and any last tiny bit of support I had for them during the Bledsoe era has long disappeared!

2008

2008-01-01T09:26:47Z

just thoughts and concerns before I go to bed on the first day of 2008:

By this time next year I will have a new job somewhere else...hopefully not in a warehouse, but if I have to I have to...

I've already decided that I'm not going to write for Pop Culture Press anymore (though I've only told them that I'm only sitting out this issue in case I change my mind...). There's just no thrill in being published anymore, at least not on that level, and the excitement of getting a box or two of free CDs and discovering new bands isn't motivation enough to endure several weekends of putting everything else aside for the writing every year. I had already decided a while ago that the Eric Matthews interview was the last I was going to do, mostly for good reasons, because we sort of became friends because of it and he re-mastered my album for me, but mostly I hate transcribing and I just don't give a shit about anyone enough to do an interview. It's not likely I'm going to get to talk to David Bowie or Neil Young...so fuggit.

I really wish that opening my own record store was a realistic goal, but it's not, as much as I wish I could. I'd need a lot of start-up money, some steady income for the bills and car payments and stuff, and lots of help and good luck. The ebay stuff is going well, though, and really helped me provide a good Christmas to my girls, so that's something worth doing that I enjoy.

Not knowing when the job is ending is a bit un-nerving sometimes even if I know there's a bit of a buffer in the separation package they're offering. I want to use some of the money, and time off, to take us three out to Washington for a couple of weeks to visit our loved ones there, but I also have to make a few months worth of car payments just to be careful about it all. I've also been thinking about trading in my car for a newer one with cheaper payments, even though I love my car, just because it might be better to have a new new car that I don't have to worry about (my "new" car is now a three year old car!). It's something I want to check into at least...

Boo & Bob...

2008-01-01T08:46:50Z

One of my proudest moments as a dad thus far:

Boo relaxing in her Mickey Mouse chair watching Bob Dylan rather intently, and enjoying it...

...that's my girl!

Goodbye to a childhood hero!

2007-12-01T07:15:18Z

R.I.P Evel!!!

what the hell, man...

2007-11-27T07:58:04Z

Okay, so I'm relieved that the Steelers didn't lose and become the awful Dolphins first win of the season, but on the other hand, a field goal in the closing seconds of overtime just barely qualifies as a win. I didn't get to see the game, and I'm not sure I want to, but it just makes me wonder if we're this bad against two really bad teams, then how badly are we going to do with the actual teams we've got ahead??? The last game I saw was the Browns game and they looked good then...but I'm left to wonder just where the Steelers of four games ago went. If we even manage it into the post-season, the Browns really are the best team now, and unless they manage to upright everything...there goes our season...

birthday weekend...

2007-11-19T05:19:53Z

My birthday weekend and virtually all of my sports teams lost. Steelers in a pathetic one TD /three field-goal loss in overtime to a Jets team who have lost awfully all season (including to the Bengals in their only win that wasn't over the Ravens!). The Bills, as expected, were blown off their "maybe we're a real team after all!" high by a 56-10 blast of reality by a team I'm increasingly convinced is 95% cyborg. Penn State lost their last game to MSU on a game they were earlier leading, in a season that started out so well. I didn't check, but I'm sure the Sabres lost because they suck this year, and the Yankees didn't win either...

Yet, as I hear my sweet Laura snoring in the other room, and after holding my sweet Boo as she slept for the entirety of Michael Moore's 'Sicko' (which, predictably, made me cry at the reality of what a fucked up country this has become), I feel so loved and so lucky, and so pampered with gifts, and cake, and dinner/ice cream out, that it's difficult to feel bad about anything. I realized an hour or so ago that I had forgotten to acknowledge the sixth anniversary of my meeting Laura, and the beginning of my new lease on life. We used to celebrate this weekend as our anniversary of being together, but that's since been shunted to April, when our actual wedding anniversary took its place in 2005.

older than I've ever been before...

2007-11-18T06:00:23Z

It's now my birthday. Another one. This time closer to 50 than 40...which is scarier than being closer to 40 than 30 was ten years ago! Some people just stop celebrating them but I'm all for celebrating even if it means admitting to being old. I never intended to get old...it just sort of happened.
[adventures]

Today was an interesting day. I got to spend some of my windfall on my two e-bay sales today at Used Kids. I chose the time around game-time, thinking it would be easier to find parking. I was wrong. It was just as bad as last week and I ended up parking three miles away and walking through frat-land to get to High St. Since I hadn't been to UK in a few months I spent a few hours there, and by the time I left OSU had just beaten Michigan 14-3. I had to walk a path right through frat-land to my car, and it was kind of scary. It would've been scarier if OSU had lost, but there were cop cars all over and helicopters above, and drunk people in red and white clothes acting like idiots everywhere. Because I was wearing my Penn State cap, as one group of frat-jocks passed by one of them said "Penn State's a bunch of FAGS!" and, just ahead there was a girl with a Michigan shirt on pouring beer over her head and the crowd at the frat-house behind her started throwing beer cans at her, narrowly missing me as I walked up on them. "Take that Michigan shirt off and show us your tits you skank" one of the more intelligent frat-boys yelled out. I felt bad for her, but she took the outer shirt off and walked off with the under-shirt on (she was with an OSU girl, who was kind of protecting her, even though they were both obviously drunk). I made a call on the cell-phone home to let my last wishes be known, in case the worst happened, but eventually made it to my car intact.

Later on we were to meet up with friends for dinner but they canceled because they ran into a deer on their way over. They were okay. Their car was damaged. Bambi was orphaned. They will have free venison for Thanksgiving! We went on to dinner without them, and, once we got to Red Robins, I realized that I didn't have my free coupon for a birthday (turkey) burger (I left it on the table as I was putting on my shoes) so we went to Ruby Tuesdays instead. Then we went to Target and I bought myself the new Led Zeppelin CD/DVD set (another best of, but with 20 videos!) and the new-ish double disc DVD of 'the Sound of Music.' I've been wanting it for a while. It's pretty much the only musical I like, ever, and that's mostly because I really loved Salzburg and I love to see it on-screen. The extras include updates of where scenes were shot and how they look now.

My e-bay repostings didn't sell, which was disappointing, but when I was at Used Kids I was talking with one of the guys at the counter and he said that everyone was experiencing an e-bay sales slump lately. No doubt partly because of the same factors that have plagued retail lately (gas prices, Bush fucking up the world, etc.). So, it hasn't so much been my fault that I've not yet established a steady business based on fair prices and good offerings, people just aren't buying as much as they were a few months ago. It could also be that they are buying stuff for other people and not themselves. To that I say this: buy records for other people! It always made me really happy!

Happy Birthday Lei!

2007-11-16T14:14:37Z

AKA almostwhitemeat

My favorite sister-n-law (west-coast)! I wish we could visit more often! You are a wonderful mom, a wonderful aunt, and I love to hear Laura laughing loudly when she's in the other room talking to you on the phone, that's a true measure of the happiness you bring to others! The world is so much better with you in it, and I know that Neil and Fallon feel lucky to have you in their lives. I know we do!

Here is my favorite picture of Lei and Fallon, swimming together in that lake over by Poulsbo:

Have yer'self some cake Sis!

a wonderful wonderful morning!

2007-11-15T15:54:23Z

Autographed Daniel Johnston record plus two ad mock-ups he did for an ad:

winning bid on e-bay: 190.50!!!

Collection of Elvis singles that my Dad gave me, plus singles box with some other 45s:

winning e-bay bid: 40.00

knowing that I'm not an e-bay failure (and resting assured that I can pay my e-bay fees, up-date my auto tags AND go to Used Kids on Saturday...): PRICELESS!!!

Plus UPS just brought the Robert Plant / Alison Krauss CD I'd been waiting for and also Elizabeth's present from Aunt Valerie...a cute little princess outfit and a card with "butahfwhys" on it!

I'm so excited I'm going to go take a nap!!!

No Mail Today...

2007-11-12T14:56:41Z

It's Neil Young's Birthday!

HAPPY 62nd BIRTHDAY Neil! You don't look a full day over 61!!!