It was you or freecell

What the hell was I thinking? 3:27 in the AM. and I really don't have anything to say except a book recommendation. Ha! if you knew what an irony that is. Well some of you do...
Space by Jesse Lee Kercheval. It is awesome. It is a memoir about growing up in Florida in the late 1960's during the heyday of the space program. I grew up in the late 1960's so I identified with the feeling of the era and the way summertime was described.
In a Devil's advocate moment let me say the Mrs. found the book to be OK. Not as awesome as I did. I will describe it now as the Wonder Years for girls. Please don't get me wrong. It was the whole world that was recreated that got to me. I felt the time again, briefly.
Maybe the book is best viewed if you're in your (late)forties, but I love this book. Believe me, if I say I love a book, it has to be a very special book.
I'm gonna go write to other blogger's now that haven't been around for awhile and try to find out what the big fuckin' problem is. If it's alack of wine I got plenty right here. Oops. My bad. There's a lot less than there used to be. I am SO embarrassed.
[edited to note list was destroyed by sober author]

Less Than an hour

...to do this post, so it will be incredibly short, and only mildly informative. I'm doing a quick in and out of the city of Cincinnati, Ohio this coming weekend. Flying there on Friday early AM. Picking up a car and driving it back to Connecticut.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Oh, Rick. That sounds like the plotline for The Transporter or Vanishing Point!" And on some level you'd be right. And I do expect elite hitmen and spectacular car chases (at least on the Jersey Turnpike), but then again, if nothing remarkable happens, then I would just chalk it up to "well, they didn't catch me again! Woohoo!"

The wine says...

I'm load'n up on wine at the moment so I'm going to let the wine do the talkin'. It's a California wine, so note the inclusion of words like 'dude' and 'bitchin'. I'm going to retire for the evening for I am drunk now. Good Night.

Dudes and dudettes! It is most pleasureable to be here. I have been lent this forum and I shall now begin to expound.
Rick's birthday is coming up in a week or so (I'm not totally clear). He's on the far side of 45 and not beginning to have those self doubts so much as feeling like being in the middle of them.
Do you ever feel like you just want to lay down on the floor and stretch out because you don't find comfort in any of your furniture? random thought
Where was I? To the best of my knowledge I'm not a manic depressive. I don't have those mood swings (wish I was dead/hap hap happiest guy on earth), but sometimes you just get tired of wondering what people think judging by the facial expressions or tone of their voice, to what you say.
Graduated from high school thirty years ago this year. Best year in my memory. There are of course more significant events, marriage, children, etc. but as a year and a summer it will never be surpassed. I had a car, my first girlfriend, I was young, and it was summer.
Can't really bitch and complain because I have a lot of good things now. Oh, but that nagging feeling like you really fucked up somewhere along the line. I don't wear a nametag in my job. I'm thankful.
I'm not really happy, I think. But I don't know why, so really i can't bitch about it.
I don't read people as well as I used to. Or I should say, I never could really, these days it's just more obvious.Should I write more, save this as a draft...no. I don't want to write more because i'm tired.

Wine and Women Remedy Feelings of the Sky Falling

The fresh mountain air had a little to do with it, too.

You run around, figuring the way you figure things. You figure by all accounts that you're happy with what you got because you figure you've done your best. About a week before this little excursion to wilds of New Hampshire, my boss was remarking that the night before he had dinner over a friends house that is on the beach. This friend is a self-employed web designer and his wife has some non-specific good paying job. This friends work day consists of heading down to the beach with his laptop, working for a couple of hours (most of his clients are on the West Coast), then heading back to the house, making some phone calls, and thenback to the beach for another couple of hours work. The workday then concludes. My boss said to him, "I know you gotta have bad days", and I'm thinking, "Yeah, like when it's not sunny". But hey, nice life if you can get that kinda work.
So Friday rolled around and the original plan was to start out incredibly early (the dog could not be dropped off at the kennel before 8AM, so that was zero hour) and make our way to Boston to pick up the key for the condo in New Hampshire.
That was the original plan.
8:20AM, I wake up. aaaarrrggghh. OK, no big whoop. Let's make this a more casual mode. Get the dog to the kennel. 9:30AM. Not a problem. Casual mode. Pick up ice, and wine for the cooler and New Hampshire and get back home. Nothings ready to be packed, In fact, laundry is just going in. Not a problem. Casual mode. Other various things prevent leaving until 2PM. Not a problem. Casual mode. We have a smooth speedy trip to Boston, pick up necessary key, are given directions for a less trafficked route, and we're back on the road by 6PM. We easily find the condo in the darkness of New Hampshire at 10PM. And here friends is where the continuous chanting of, "Not a problem. Casual mode." paid off. Stepping away from the air conditioned minivan, I could smell the woods. That is a very important concept to understand. At that moment, all bad things, things that suck, faded into the New Hampshire darkness.
We took our first load of bags up to the front door (my cousins condo is on the third floor) and entered a place we had never been before. The condo was magnificent. Later when we had time to explore, we wound up on the deck stargazing millions of stars you can't see when in a lit city, and listening to the roar of the river going by in the blackness. It was incredible.
The next morning as we ate breakfast on the deck, a hummingbird appeared and hovered for 5-10 seconds only about a foot away from us. This was too much.
My cousin (the owner) showed up at 10:30AM and suddenly it was Bloody Mary time! We ate, switched to wine, explored the river (the pictures above are my daughter and I in a section of the river pictured above us)and had a fabulous casual dinner in a restaurant less than two minutes from the condo. I was totally swept up in this environment. I forgot about absolutely everything.
We were supposed to leave Sunday morning, but we delayed and didn't return until Sunday night. And we didn't stay any longer because there were too many commitments to overcome.
I know with the gentlest of prodding I would drop everything and move there. Yes, I really would. It was that good.
Thank you my cousin for inviting us, and I love you.

Away to the White Mountains

..of New Hampshire for a few days.

Will be back with tales of wine, women, and song.

Feels better already!

I'm already receiving positive feedback and let me tell ya,it feels great. I had a momentary, 'I feel like a boob' moment when I was reading jo's comment (Hi jo! It's great to read you!) about my wit and wisdom, only to realize she was reiterating what I had written in the original post. (God, i am such a chucklehead).
BUT, all pales in comparison to the fact that I got FREE STUFF in the mail. You can't beat that with a stick. How did this happen you ask? Ooooooh, let me tell you.
I have a another blog, Silent Running, which is focused on my efforts to not die a big fat guy. Eventually working my way down to a studly form would be a major bonus, but i'm not going to be an idiot about it, and we'll just have to let time tell. I do report good things have happened so far (with only one minor setback) since starting and progress is slow but that is the best way. My methodology includes making little narrative videos whilst I'm on the road about my adventures. This is mainly to serve as an incentive for me to do the exercise, which it does. I also have tunes that i listen to on my pseudo mp3 player and it all makes me happy and the time just flies.
Well, Bloggerdom as a whole, besides being a world populated with people who can read and write, is also at times, very much a support group. You meet amazing people (meet in a way because you'll never actually meet most of your fellow bloggers in real life) and you form bonds, etc.
As a way of adding incentive to 'keep up the good work' a fellow blogger sent me a CD that she mixed without any foreknowledge really of my musical tastes, and it is AWESOME! The road is even more enticing, and as I like to say, "the pounds are just melting away".
I call it free stuff, but I have to figure out how to reciprocate in kind for this wonderfulness. She is my heroine.

It's ME time

I thought I could just show up here and all the loyal bloggers of earth would greet me spouting a hearty, "Welcome Back! We've missed your wit and wisdom (as well as the other shit you were peddling when last you were here)", and all would be right with the world. At least in my corner of it anyway.
Well, as I stand in my empty virtual house which is sans any festive homecoming decorations, it occurs that I'm going to have to give up the ghost and do some campaigning to get readers back. Doorprizes, contests, balloons? How will this be accomplished. In the old days you could just go into a bar and club the drunk readers over the head and when they woke up they would find themselves stuck reading your blog indefinitely. Oh, wait...no, that was British naval conscription. My mistake. My bad.
While I mull this over, leave a comment on ways I might be able to entice readers to join my stable. Oh, there, wasn't I clever! My first idea turned out to be getting other people to do it for me. Yes. I'm back!