Jack-o-lantern

Our neighbors had a Halloween costume party. We went for about an hour. I had not dressed up in a 'costume' since I was probably 14yrs old.

Tonight is actually Halloween. I doubt we do anything. Maybe I will upload some more pictures later.

Busy...

I apologize to you all for my lack of posting these past 13+ days. A lot has been happening and to be honest, this is the first time I have felt like posting since Smeagol died. I know it may seem rather lame to some, but you would just have had to know that little guy to understand.

So what has had me so captivated that I cannot even post a simple note to let everyone know that we are still alive and well out here? Well, I started class this week. Last week I was getting everything in order so that all lose ends were satisfied, leaving me with nothing else to focus on other than my schoolwork. There is an awful lot of paperwork, which needs to be tackled in order to satisfy all requirements and get into class. In order to do all of this, I had to pretty much focus totally on those tasks and tune everything else out. It is amazing really, all the red tape required just to transfer to a new University.

We also got away from the house some over the weekends. There was an air show, which featured the Blue Angels as well as some other feature performers and military hardware on display. Some of which you could walk right up and touch! See the pictures below.

So there you have it. Back in school and working hard. All lose ends tied up.

FYI: The best way to get in touch with me/us is to shoot an email. I have a tendency to silence the phone and the answering machine when either studying/reading/writing or when spending time with Priscilla. I apologize in advance for my lack of correspondence. I promise to do my best to you all and respond in a timely manner. Also, try to reach either of us through instant message. Or just leave a message on the phone and eventually one of us will check the machine.

Bye for now.

Ultra-low level pass by the Blue Angels. 

LockMart JSF (Joint Strike Fighter)X-35
 

Blue Angels. 

Blue Angels Fly by 

Blue Angels 

UAV "Predator" 

New Stealth unmanned combat aircraft. 

The B2 stealth bomber fly-by... amazing. 

Sad day...

Smeagol has gone missing.

For those of you who know and love him, I am sorry to give you this sad news. I do not believe that he got lost or ran away. He has been missing now for over 48 hours.

Smeagol always stays close by the house. He spends most of his time inside just lounging in the sun on top of the love seat or sitting up in the window.

*EDIT*

Smeagol has been located. Earlier this morning I posted flyers on every post or pole in the neighborhood. I got a call about an hour ago from a payphone. The guy on the other end said he had found Smeagol..

I ran to meet the guy since he called from the payphone just around the corner. He had found Smeagol on the side of the road, right under where I had hung a missing sign.

Unfortunately, Smeagol was hit by a car and died. The fellow was kind enough to get him out of the road. He showed me where his body was located. I brought him home and will bury him tonight.

It seems that Smeagol left the house on the 11th at around 11:00pm. That was the last time we saw him. The guy who found him said that he discovered him right around midnight and took care of moving his body so that little kids wouldn't see it in the road.

I don't know what else to write today. I am sorry for any misspellings, I didn't take the time to check over this post.

Thank you, everyone.

Phantom Menace?

So... I'm headed over to the local quick mart to snag a pint of Ben and Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream... you know, because 'A Few Dollars More' is comming on TV tonight... anyhow... I turn to the door to grab my sneakers and what do I see? ...sitting on the front porch is this HUGE racoon. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera in hand at that moment... however... this guy has paid us a visit before... and I nailed a couple pictures of him. No joke.

This sucker was sitting in my kitchen, eating from the cats food dispenser. I would estimate that this coon is maybe 3ft high [arch of his back] and probably weighs in over 60 lbs.

Go figure... coons... in San Diego.

On with the movie...

Lost

Lost... is good!
The difference comes down to getting lost as opposed to being lost.

We felt like it was time to get lost. So... we did. We went up into the mountains of S.Cal and found this little town, which was having an apple festival. Seems there are apple orchards all down in the valley here and it just happened that we came upon the place in season. So we caught the place having it’s blowout weekend. We had caramel covered apples, apple cider and a slice of boysenberry apple pie with two scoops of old fashioned vanilla ice cream heaped on top! Spectacular. It was so good that we bought a fresh jug of cider and a whole pie to take back with us.

Later we disappeared into the woods after dark and just sat a little while listening to the sound of crickets in the dark. I also just marveled at the sky a while. It has been so long since I have seen that many stars above. I also lost count of all the deer we had seen along the way. I took a few snapshots of them. They seemed content to just observe us as we sauntered about their world for a moment. We also came across an army of wild turkeys. There had to be a hundred of them. There were several large 'Toms' [males] who were gobble-gobbling to the others, which I assumed to be mostly females. They made their way past some guy's barn and near a small pond and then out of sight. However, we could still hear them.

I think I am having my fill of living by the beach. We returned tonight to yet another local Saturday night debauchery happening here. Seems a carnival breezed into town and set up at the park just down the street. We were greeted by banners declaring Octoberfest and beset on all sides by intoxicated pedestrians literally stepping directly and deliberately in front of our vehicle as we made our way past. Absolutely astounding… Some people are completely unaware.

Yes… a cabin in Norman Rockwellville would be much preferred tonight over the idiotic binge drinking retardedville tent city, which has invaded our beach.

So there you have it. The difference is clear. My wife and I escaped 'civilization' a short while in order to get lost, only to return to 'civilization' and witness the mass exodus of the truely lost diminishing themselves even further into being lost.

I wonder how much a moving truck costs to rent, one way to Texas…. Hmm…

Conspiracy?

My brother sent me THIS. Go see for yourself.

A return to me...

When I was in the Army all those years ago, [seems like another lifetime ago…] I had some really cool training! One of the more ‘fun’ toys that we got to play with from time to time was the M18A1 Claymore mine. Let me tell you, this sucker would gain your respect instantly once you actually observed one detonated and could see first hand the utter annihilation of a target area. After that, one could only imagine what a real life use of this weapon would be like.

Along with the Claymore mine comes a little less renowned device called the M40 circuit tester. This little gizmo would be used to test the connecting wire for a completed circuit. You would plug into the line and then click the device while looking for a small light to, well light up on the test device. During training, when the light lit up, you would call out to the instructor, “I see the light!” This would simulate that the mine is properly deployed and ready to do its thing, which is… blow something up!

The irony here for me is that whenever I would see that little light during training, my pulse rate would triple because I knew the very next step would be to disconnect the tester and connect the M57 firing device. One click later, my Claymore mine would detonate and anything and everything in the target path was history. The sound of the explosion is deafening. The shock from the blast literally takes your breath away, mainly due to the instantaneous change in air pressure outside of your ribcage once the shockwave of the blast overtakes your position.

Now, just like those training days from my time in the mud as a grunt, I can now again declare that I ‘see the light!” This light is equally exhilarating to me. I get a rush even now as I write about how I feel tonight. But this light is much different. It does not come from any device I hold in my hand, waiting to detonate. It comes from seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. You see, I finally have my future mapped out for the first time –ever- in my entire life.

I met with my counselor at the university today and had my last three semesters mapped out for me this afternoon. I have a schedule in my hand, which shows my last few semesters, which I need to take in order to complete my Criminal Justice degree.

I ran from my true self for many, many years, too many, in fact. I bounced from Criminal Justice, to Information Technology, to Business Administration. IT and BA just never really interested me that much. I was mostly in pursuit of those fields mainly because, well I felt like it would make others respect me or perhaps finally gain acceptance or perhaps achievement, which would amount to something. Or maybe it was because I had decided to just settle for something in my life. Yes, I believe that is what had happened. I had lost my passion for life along the way and had succumbed to settling.

Recently I have flashed back to myself, so to speak. I cannot adequately explain it really, but the sensation could be compared to waking from a dream or compared to snapping back to your senses after pulling the trigger on a riffle or shotgun and being dazed slightly by the incredible loudness from the report of the weapon. However I chose to describe it really doesn’t matter. What does is that I hold in my hand the little device, which lets me see the light. Nineteen classes later there will be an explosion of sorts. Of course, there won’t be any violent type explosion like that of a Claymore. No, this will be a bit subtler. Nevertheless, my life will be propelled in directions, which would not have been possible before. A shockwave will overtake my small little position in life, and once more my breath will escape me.

I see the light. I see the light! I see the light!

What a TOOL!

I love Photoshop... This is my new, home made 'bumpersticker' which I made [courtesy of JibJab.com] with some tweaking... It's now currently taped up inside my back window of my car. ;)

Blur...

Much has happened in the past two days...

Sunday and Monday are a blur to me. I began a new commitment to myself Sunday, which is to say I went back to the gym for the first time in a long time. [Far too long]… partly because I have been recovering still from my surfing injury… and, well… mainly due to me just being lazy. Although, to my defense, I was in extremely awesome shape this time last year… and I was preparing myself for the San Diego marathon until I fractured my foot.

Let me tell you that story… I had worked up to running 8 to 10 miles a day. I would run down by Mission Bay and around Fiesta Island and back. I had bought a pair of New Balance cross trainers which, by the way, are [were] fantastic… but I just plain wore them out from doing so much running. I must have broken the arch support in them… because my right foot was in a ton of pain when I got out of bed one morning. I could not figure out what I had done to hurt my foot, though. I kept wondering if I had got up in the middle of the night or something and kicked the refrigerator or dropped a bowling ball on it or something… hmm… I’m rambling now… at any rate, I had a hairline fracture in my right foot, which must have been caused by running. There was no other ‘good’ explanation. My aspiration of competing in a marathon this year was put on hold…

It is no secret that one of the hardest things for a man to ever do is to get back into a routine after he has dropped his commitment to that routine. I have not laced up my shoes and went for a run in about seven months. That is a very long time. I did give my bones some recovery time off in order to heal properly and such… but seven months should be more than enough time to get over a small stress fracture.

The reality is that I was overdoing it. I don’t really do anything in moderation, or so it has been pointed out to me. My wife says I only have two speeds: Dragging ass and hauling ass. I spend most of my time just blazing away at something in my life, but eventually I blow something out or lose my footing and have to take a step back from it for a while. When people in my life grow accustomed to my full-on throttled behavior and all of a sudden see a complete shift in my progression they seem to identify this with the thought of quitting or with the notion that I have given up completely because they no longer see the same level of intensity as before. I don’t know how to adequately describe it, really… sometimes when this happens I never really return to what it was I was doing again. Sometimes I do… it just depends. I think this is normal. Of course, I could also be wrong. But we are all entitled to our own perspectives.

So, back to my triumphant return to the gym. I had been working out at the Navy gym near where my wife works, primarily because it was close to her office and therefore was more convenient that way. Also, I was working out there because it was a much nicer gym than what we had at the apartment and I also didn’t want to pay a billion dollars to join a fitness club [California is insane with prices at these places…and this gym had all the work out machines I needed, just no free weights…] … Right… so after my foot injury I began to substitute swimming laps for running. But this was back in February… and swimming laps is very boring. So I lost interest… well, I discovered a whole ‘other’ gym in the basement next door to the other gym where I had been going. This was most upsetting because this gym was way better than the other one. This gym is old school. I felt, as though I were walking back into the high school gym where I used to work out the whole lay out itself was perfect! I almost expected to round a corner and catch Arnold pumping iron there. I cannot believe that no one had ever told me about the other gym one building over. I think it is a conspiracy… really…

I decided to spend my first day back just assessing my condition due to my long hiatus from working out. So, I targeted every major muscle group and did some triad sets in order to best calculate my present physical level. I was at the gym for almost three hours. When I left, I felt fantastic!

When I woke up the next morning I felt terrible. Every muscle in my body felt like they were either tied in a knot, on fire or a combination of both. I spent the majority of the day in misery, crumpled up on my couch in front of the TV.

Today was a little better. I will return to the gym tomorrow and focus on only one muscle group at a time [thanks thre3]… We will see what happens.

I am keeping a photo record of my fitness improvement. I will be taking week-to-week pictures of myself every seven days for eight weeks. We will see how it all plays out… and I may decide to share the pictures, but again… we will have to see.

YUM!

Mmm! Brownies, Ice-Cream and a pair of DvDs [Man on Fire & Eternal Sunshine]... Another Saturday night on the couch... yay!

College football today...
South Carolina vs Alabama. 20-3 final... Go Gamecocks!!! YEAH!
Texas A&M vs Kansas State. 42-30 final...Gig Em, Aggies!!! YEAH!
For the other scores... check ESPN... Looked like an upset weekend.

Can a day get any better?

Humor!

The boys from JibJab... keeping us well informed on the -real- issues.
go HERE to watch the video... [safe to watch at work too... just don't laugh too loud]

Hijack this holiday!!!

So... the other night I was kind-of half watching a show on TV and half messing around online with my log... so I am in and out of the living room... we were watching some CSI New York... and some other stuff... but that is not the point...It is around 8pm [keep in mind it is still September]... and this commercial comes on trying to sell me some Christmas music... It's not even Christmas time yet!

Every year, the Evil Corporate Empire[s] of the world get started hijacking our holidays a little more early... year after year.. after year... Pretty soon I won't even be through chewing on my chocolate rabbit before I have someone stringing up their Christmas lights next door!

It seems there is nothing sacred left anymore. Every 'family' holiday has been invaded by the evil corporate empire[s], leaving little room for an old fashioned life as it once was. I remember when Halloween was a real holiday. My whole neighborhood would shut down. We would have a block party. Each house would have a theme. One year my mom dressed up as a gypsy and she set up a spooky gypsy camp in the back yard where she would tell the 'fortune' of each kid before giving them a candy apple. -REAL- candy apples, people! She didn't drive over to Wallymart and buy ten bizzillion bags of tooth rot junk candy... no... she melted down caramel and put apples on a stick and dunked them in the goo to make candy apples... that was the best!

We also didn't have to worry about having our candy X-rayed at the local hospital too. Hell no! We ate that stuff right then, right there! Oh yeah! We had bags of candy left over that we had to toss out because we couldn't eat any more of it... Oh yeah, and our costumes were home made! YEAH! My mom would bust out the old school sewing machine and make me a pirate outfit! Me and dad would crank up the table saw in the garage and cut out a plywood pirate sword! OH YEAH!

My point, here [in case you were wondering] is that I feel so many kids these days are missing out on two -wonderful- parts about being, well... kids.
#1. Becoming best friends with their own parents.
#2. Exploring the limitless bounds of their own imagination.

Parents are so strung out on time these days. I doubt parents out there would take the time to make a class-a pirate outfit for their kids when they could just drive over to the local Wallyworld and buy one...

Children don't really 'play' anymore. I love where I live. I live on the beach. However, I don't think I have ever seen a single kid out playing in my neighborhood. Ever. I would wager that the kids are indoors, glued to their Xbox or Plastation... kids are losing out on the fundamental element of creativity. It is a pity. No amount of playing Nintendo would ever replace playing fort with my brother or playing 'army soldiers' out in my mothers flower garden with all my little plastic army men...

Our holidays... our lifestyles... our imaginations... and our children have been hijacked!Reclaim yours today! Make them a pirates costume... crash their playstation for a month... and buy them some plastic army men!!!