Weekend vs. Monday, Part 2

Monday morning again, & I felt like crying. It didn't help that I lost my watch the day before and I felt like a fish out of water. Then I had to take the later train. Every little thing was bothering me. When I take the later train, there are 3 women I usually talk to and crowd into these 2 benches in the back of the train (facing each other) and the leg room is absolutely cramped and with my old, stiff knees, it's just a killer. Well, one of the women didn't show up, instead it was a guy. So my legs were meshed into his legs (again it's because the boothlike arrangement of the seats make it that way). I'm so glad that for the most guy this guy is either sleeping or acting like it doesn't bother him, because it certainly bothers me. It's like, "Please, man, I'm not gay, I just have absolutely no room." I know you all think that's ridiculous that I would think like that, but guys do think like that, we're different from women.

The weekend was nice and relaxing. It's so funny because the highlight wasn't going to a restaurant twice in the same weekend but laying down and taking a nap in the middle of the day and feeling really good after I woke up.

But even on the weekend there were problems. The NCAA basketball teams I bet on were disgraceful and lost decisively. I lost my watch & I still feel lost!!

The lowlight of the weekend was my verbal fight with Sal, our Handyman. Sal is a man of the streets. He got a girl pregnant when he was 14, he left home and stopped going to school shortly thereafter. It completely stands to reason that his way of thinking is completely different than my wife's way of thinking and my way of thinking. Even my kids can't believe he lives the way he does and disapprove.

So why in the world do we even hang around this man? Because we keep needing things fixed both at our place and at our condo. Also he needs us because he doesn't have a valid driver's license and needs to be taken places and most of all, he has no money, no person wants to hire someone with a checkered past. Yet, Sal is a very talented individual inspite of his very checkered past. This is a man who re-sided in a very expert, workmanlike manner my father in law's house . This is a man who took a mouse & rat infested house (again my father in law's house) and turned into a decent respectable place with nary a varmint and nice, hardwood floors. A place that could sell for over $200,000.

So basically, Sal needs us and we need Sal. Saturday, Sal really irritated me because I extended him a courtesy by telling him that I would be a certain place later on, and he took it as being bothered. I told him he wasn't being bothered and he damn well better mind his manners because I was damn sick and tired of him making stupid accusations against me. I had been nothing but nice to Sal since November of 2006, but my patience with him has absolutely come to an end.

So anyway, here I am feeling very sad at work and needing to get on with life. One adjustment I really must make is my management of my meds. When you have to take medication, you sometimes get the urge that you really don't need them that you're tough enough to withstand life without them. So during weekends I'll think, "If I'm taking time off of work, then I'll take time off of my other medicines." Then Monday hits me like a ton of bricks and there's no anti-depressants flowing through my blood stream. That's bad planning on my part.

So let's go and get on with the week!! & be smarter!!

Yahoo: It's not as good as it use to be

At least 10 times a day, I look up my Yahoo e-mail and see some title like: SEXUALLY EXPLICIT PHOTOS AND VIDEOS! I yawn wearily and spam it out. I'm so tired of spaming out the porn promotions. I think I went astray once a while back and they all learned my e-mail address and now I'm paying for it in "spades". ("Spades" is a saying about getting a heavy punishment; in this context, it has no racial implications WHATSOEVER!).

I am struck at how boring and tiresome spamming out all my porn is.

• NAUGHTY MOTHERS & THEIR WILLING NEIGHBORS - yawn, sigh, spam out
• FUNKY CHEERLEADERS & THEIR HAPPY SPECTATORS - roll my eyes, spam out

NASTY SLUTS with EVERYONE ELSE - not at all surprised

So the flipside is, "Well, Vince, how much are you paying for your Yahoo Mail? Yes, it's free. So what do I want for nothing?? Huh??????
Well, many of us know that when the spam filter is active it takes spam mail and puts it in the "BULK" folder. It used to be that the BULK folder would reach 1,000 e-mails (LITERALLY, THAT'S NO EXAGGERATION) in 3 days! But at least then, I wasn't getting all this nonsense porn. It used to be better. No it sucks. I have to wade through all the cesspool of spam to get to messages that actually mean something.

The other thing is people who I love dearly and think the world of sending me these enlightened, inspirational messages but then they ruin it at the end by the message going
"If you don't send this to anyone, you're going to hell
If you send this to no less than 10 people, you are going to get something really nice.
If you send this to 100 people, you have a great shot at heaven.
If you send this to 1000 people, you are going to be canonized a saint!! "

ONE OTHER NOTE OF CLARIFICATION!!!! I am not directing this last paragraph at anyone who puts on their great blog questions about you, what are those things called, memes?? tags?? I'm so clueless I forgot. (like name 5 things you're impassioned about? what are your 5 favorite bands or musical artists). No I don't mean anyone whose my blogging buddy. They have been nothing but kind and I love them. xo!

Y'all know what I'm talking about now, don't you??

Sunday morning/Monday morning, a sad contrast

The contrast of Sunday morning and this morning could not have been more stark. Yesterday, I was in bed, sleeping late or reading the papers while I was listening to good music when I wasn’t getting my daughter to and from CCD. The bed felt, oh so nice!! It was so nice, so undemanding. Even the kids helped and didn’t ask me to get out of bed and help them with things. My God, I was so content. & I knew it would be so different 24 hours later.

This was one time I wish I wasn’t so right. This morning, I woke up about a ½ hour before the alarm went off. I still let the snooze alarm go off once in a feeble attempt to sty in the place that was my refuge (the bed). I got up later and Maribeth was in a foul mood and getting upset with our oldest son because he couldn’t locate his keys.

Then, it also hit me that we have the problem with the pool at the condo, and there’s no real solution to getting it fixed or even a timetable to getting it fixed. I felt terrible, getting ready, driving to the train, being on the train. It didn’t even help getting some Rolos candy which I usually enjoy.

All the words of consolation were like so much water falling into a big fire. Here’s how I feebly tried to cheer up:
Well, at least I have a job, it would be worst if you didn’t have anywhere to go on a weekday morning………..SSSSSSSSST! (sound of water hitting fire)
If I didn’t have a job, I wouldn’t be able to help or do anything for my household, that’s what would be depressing……….SSSSSSSSST

There’s so many people in the world who are worse off than I. Heck you could say that well over ½ the world is considerably worse off than I………..SSSST & everyone you know at work and at your club has a house whereas you have a limited little condo. Everyone around you is driving a nicer car, has a better paying job and has a nice home. YOU LIVE IN OAK FOREST, AFTER ALL!!SSSSSSSSSSSSSST!

So, I sat there and took it one minute at a time. I was too upset and down to take it 1 day at a time. I would just go through the motions and do what I normally do.

Then finally, late in the morning, early afternoon I felt better. There was enough to think about at work, and enough that I got off my chest about our pool problem that I simply felt better. Let’s hope that nothing goes wrong for the rest of the day.

& I am thankful that I do live in a decent place with a decent car and job, & the Lord is in my life. The morning was a sign that he needs to be in my life more so that I can deal with these situations better.

something to cheer me up

I really, really love history, so, obviously I enjoy talking about it. During work, there was a general announcement to shut down your computer. They were doing some work to the network so everyone had to turn them off. Well, in a law office, if the computers go down there is nothing to do, 99% of your work is done from the computer and I'm not even exaggerating.

So, we went into this lawyer's office and talked about history and current events. We were saying how Bush is probably going to go down in history as one of the worst presidents since Harding. We were pretty amazed that his vice president would ask, "So" (who cares?) when told that 2/3 of the American people were against the war. Bush thinks the same thing that happened to Pres. Truman will happen to him. (Truman retired in 1953 very unpopular because he put us in the Korean War, then history gradually rehabilitated his reputation now he is considered a great or very good president). But there's a difference. Iraq didn't invade anyone and in the Korean War, N. Korea did invade in 1950. There's a really good show on last night and tonight called Frontline on PBS channel talking about the war.

----------------------------

Another topic.

I'm not sure if anyone local (in the Oak Forest, Midlothian, Tinley Park, Frankfort area) reads this blog but if you do, please come to our TMA Clubhouse the afternoon. It's April 19 in the afternoon; my sister-in-law is having a crafts show (bring $$, it's good stuff!).

Amel, we will rent you a jet so you can fly into Oak Forest, Illinois and come, too. (he, he)

a few issues

I got up this morning and after getting the kids off to their grandpa, I felt anxious and very worried. At first, I couldn't put my finger on it (have you ever been worried for no apparent reason??? I actually have).

• But then it hit me as to why I was worried. As my profile on the side says, I am the president of our 28 building, 160some unit condo complex. We have an apparent problem with our pool because there is buckling near the pool. But we have to spend 10s of thousands of dollars to find out what the problem actually is!
• Our Treasurer says that we will have to pass a special assessment/bill to all the owners to pay $100 per month for 3 months. It makes me cringe just telling people about that. They are going to hate us! It just makes me feel awful.

I think the other reason why not only me and others are not so happy is that this has been such a long, cold, snowy winter and it's March 25 and we are still having days where it is literally freezing.

laughter and more laughter

Maribeth usually has a saturnine personality. Work at Loyola is tough for her and her co-workers, and there’s obstacles that come up at home, not the least of which is paying all these expenses for a household with 3 kids. So usually she’s not too happy. Maybe in one respect, I’ve failed her because I’m no comedian and she would be happier if I was one.

So here’s what happened all 3 of the kids, Maribeth and I were watching Family Guy. The punchline at the end was pretty funny. Yet, Maribeth thought it was hilarious. She laughed very hard, then she laughed more. She was laughing as I hard as I ever saw her laugh in about a decade!!!
Seeing her laugh so hard was really a wonderful thing to see. Just for those 5 minutes or so, it seemed like all was right with her world. It seemed like none of her problems at that small point in time mattered. At that point, Maribeth rose decisively above her worries and enjoyed laughing. When she was laughing, I just stopped and stared at her. It was really, really a beautiful, sublime sight to see Maribeth laughing so hard. Just for those few minutes. it was really nice to see a ray of sunshine brightening up her world.

a little note about the pix on the last post

Due to my backwardness and complete lack of savvy making my blog (I need to learn!). I put 3 pictures together. I wanted the 2 pictures of the WhiteStripes/Meg White to be together but not with the picture of "happy plant". I don't want people to have the idea that I'm associating the White Stripes with "happy plant". My intent was to put MJ at the bottom with the White Stripes being at the start of the post. But blogger outwitted me & I gave up. I'm so GOMER!

Lists inspired by Chocolate Mint Girl

I credit these lists to Chocolate Mint Girl. There were a few lists I had a lot to say, so I went to 10 instead of 8. Sorry, everyone, I still am not sure what a meme is and how to effectively use one. Really, I am!!!!!!!

10 things I'm passionate about:

1. Good rock and roll music.

2. My religious views, my pursuit of being in tune with God.

3. Politics, I’ve been a political junkie since I was 7 (I memorized the names of all the US Presidents in the summer of 70’)

4. Being a good friend.

5. The idea of being in love

6. My 3 kids – Andy, Ted & Brianna.

7. Doing well at work as a paralegal.
Now the negatives of my passion

8. I hate cynicism.

9. I hate sweeping generalizations (for example remarks like “all men are pigs”, “all politicians are corrupt” “all couples cheat”). Sweeping generalizations are such an exhibit of human stupidity, and I do know people who are convinced that all couples cheat (or as this one cynical woman would say “all men cheat”)

10. I can’t stand people who don’t listen to reason and who blindly, stubbornly cling to stupid, ill-informed views.

8 things I want to do before I die:

1. To buy a home of our own.

2. Go to Washington DC. and get a first-hand look at the institutions that I frequently read about. & getting a very good “dose of politics” :)!

3. Possibly hold a political office (I am an elected official, but want to go “further up the ladder”).

4. To be thought of as someone who tried to help and someone who made a difference.

5. To be thought of as someone who was a good father, and did a good job of preparing his kids for adulthood.

6. To feel just a little bitty ounce of financial security such that I won’t be petrified of retiring poor (like I do now).

7. To be in love again.

8. To use and listen often to an I-pod. (at the present time, I’m too poor).

8 things I often say:

1. “That’s so ‘gomer’ “ Gomer meaning something that’s backwards or poorly done or stupid.
2. “like” For example, I could say, “Like it’s so strange to say ‘like’ so much. You’d think I was like a Valley Girl.
3. I swear a lot so we won’t list those words, but I must confess that I do swear in front of my kids. (so much for being a good father?)
4. "I love that song."
5. "I need to get that CD."
6. "Why is she so tough on me??"
7. "This place is a mess…..& it’s partially my fault."
8. "I’m so happy to have my Chevy Cavalier back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

8 Things I've recently read/currently reading:

1. My beloved issues of The New Yorker.
2. A lot of medical bills and records for my job (part of my job is finding out how bad my clients are hurt in their respective car accidents).
3. State of Denial by Bob Woodward.
4. The Chicago Tribune and The Red Eye.

That’s definitely enough reading for one man, thank you, very much.

8 things I could listen to over and over:

1. The White Stripes (Currently, I am literally listening over and over again to DeStijl, White Blood Cells and Elephant.)
2. Led Zeppelin
3. Rolling Stones
4. Nirvana
5. “All Day and All of the Night” by the Kinks. That opening guitar riff is one of the most ferocious, the most righteous, most awe inspiring guitar riff EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
6. Nine Inch Nails (playing this band loud is a great way to vent anger)
7. Reggae
8. Certain songs by John Lennon which are wonderful to get stoned to (& they are “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “I’m the Walrus”, “#9 Dream”, “Baby You’re a Rich Man” “Cry Baby Cry” “Julia” “Sun King”) now, of course, I don’t listen to this group of songs over and over because I get stoned maybe once or twice a year. Yes, & I do it in a secluded spot & someone else is watching my kids, far, far away.

9. The Violent Femmes first album.

8 things that attract me to my best friends:

1. When they actually like me. Being appreciated and sincerely praised is a pretty nice feeling.
2. A good sense of humor.

3. A CALM PERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!
4. Tolerance - we can be different if we respect our differences.

5. An effective and sometimes creative problem solver.
6. Shared interests and passions. (If I fell in love with a woman who loved History, was a liberal and loved the same rock n roll I did, I would worship the ground she walked on morning, noon and night!!!!!!)
7. Someone who loves my kids.
8. A great lover.

sometimes it's better not to do anything

As I noted before, the only problem with my car is that the thief stripped off the ignition guard. However, there's no problem putting the key into the ignition and turning the car on. Since I've learned it's important to make the car safer, I have gotten a steering wheel club and have the doors locked 100% of the time when no one is in the car.

The steering wheel club (for example, THE CLUB) basically sticks out so far that the club bangs into the windshield and stops the steering wheel from turning or it hits the part between passenger and driver so it stops the steering wheel from turning right.

I mention all this because I had an insurance adjustor come out and assess what's wrong with the car. His estimate said that the ignition needs to be replaced, the locks and cardoor handles need to be replaced. That I totally disagree with they only want the door locks replaced because if they change the ignition than they necessarily will change the carkey. If they change the carkey, they figure they better change the door locks so the carkey can, not only turn on the ignition, but open the car doors (like it can now). But that's total NONSENSE! If I have a key to open doors, a different key to turn the ignition and it would safe me over $300, then I would gladly do that than pay over $600 for changing the ignition and change the locks.

• So today, I go to the repair place that the insurance company directed me to. I said, "you can replace the ignition but I don't want you to change the locks or the rear cardoor handles" (why that has to be replaced remains a mystery)
• The manager said, "No, we have to do what the insurance adjustor's estimate says, we have to do everything".
• "Well, no, you're not going to do anything if that's the case", I replied. She said she understood and we ended the encounter amicably but it seems silly that they feel that they have to tak orders from the insurance company when I'm paying 100% of the repair bill.
• So, I have decided that since the car is working just as it did before it was stolen (except that the area around the ignition is not as uglier), then I will not take it anywhere. The cost of the car being stolen then will be around $40 which was the cost of taking a cab out to where the thief left it over at 11365 S. Western Ave. in Chicago. Yes, I am really lucky and got off very lightly for having my car stolen.

another funny conversation at work

In the following blog, I had to use bullet points because I can't get line breaks from using just the "ENTER" key. If you know of a less awkward way to create a line break, pleeeze let me know!

• I work at a personal injury law firm. Many of our clients are injured in car accidents in the Chicago area and in the northern 1/2 of Illinois.
  Here’s a conversation between my boss, Whitney, and me:
• W: Vince, are you working on the Arriaga discovery? (Discovery is fact-finding work done before a trial).
• Me: Yes, I know we got a 201k letter in that.
• W: Yeah, we received another bill.
• Me: Ok, can I get it?
• W: Yeah, it’s on my desk, don’t lose it.
  
• Don't lose it? What an insult! I walked into her office laughing. Maybe it should upset me but if that’s her attitude, I figure it’s her problem not mine. I just don’t care. She can get another clerk. Yesterday, I had another lawyer that had a crisis with getting a large group of documents to the opposing attorney. Who was going to solve his crises? ME!!!!! He was nearly apologizing that I had to do it because I'm not assigned to do his work.
• In a way, I'm kind of proud of myself because that type of remark would have really upset me a year ago or even 6 months ago. But now I say, "the hell with her"
• HA! HA! HA!

strange, interesting conversation

There's a woman who works at our law firm but in a different department. Today is payday. When I went to the bank and deposited my check, this woman (who I don't know that well at all) came up to me and gave me $40.

She said, "Vince, can you give this to Claribel? I am not going back to the law firm today."
I said, "Ok. I'm surprised and a little honored that you would trust me."
She replied, "I know where you work!" (basically a veiled threat if I don't give Claribel her $40)

Still surprised

When I get in my car now, I'm just like, "Wow, I'm driving my car again! I didn't think I'd see my Cavalier again, and I'm driving it!!" I really am not taking my car for granted. The adjustor confirmed what I suspected, and that is the only damage the car suffered was the problem with the ignition. This should cost about $300some which is a far, far, cry from spending $7,000 on another car. Now, I'm going to go to Pep Boys and buy the Club. The Club keeps a thief from steering the car if they try stealing it. They used to have a deal that they would pay you $500 if someone ever stole your car and foiled the Club. I hope they still have that deal. I feel the need for more protection.

I was talking about car thefts to other people on the train today, and one of them said their father was going into the store and made the mistake of leaving the engine running. Anyway, a guy who just committed armed robbery jumped into his car and left. Luckily, they found the car the next day.

somethings to think about

Did anyone catch the irony on the Google ad that accompanies my blog? I write about theft and they advertise for insurance. I think that's kind of funny.

Apparently, there's a very ancient Chinese curse that says, "May you live in interesting times." Now, on the face of it, living during interesting times would seem good (who would want to live in "boring times"??).

But it really is a curse, because difficult circumstances (like a car theft and the bizaar events accompanying it) are very interesting, but still unfortunate.

You could probably think of a lot of instances where something very interesting happened to you, but it wasn't necessarily "a good thing".

very, very strange (but that's ok)

I have my car.

Yeah, it surprises the hell out of me too. Circumstances are very strange. So, let's do this chronologically.

• Saturday - car is stolen. The thief strips the ignition guard off the car.
• Saturday night - the thief drives the car to 13165 S. Western Ave. The thief leaves a new packet (& it's still in the plastic wrap) Mentos on the floor of the car. He also has 2 other 1/2 eaten packs of candy. The thief really loves candy.

He gets out of the car and leaves the flashing lights on. He parks the car at an apartment for the elderly. (they even have a "Caution, elderly crossing at the intersection") An elderly lady, sees the flashing lights and calls the police. No one turns off the flashing lights and so the battery is run down.

• Later Saturday night - The police come out and then call me that they found the car at 113 St. & Western AVe. Later they call a tow truck.

• Sunday - the tow truck driver goes to where my car is. But he drives to the FRONT of the apartment bldg., he doesn't go to the back of the apt. building; therefore, he doesn't see the car. So he reports back that the car has been re-stolen.
• Saturday through Thursday - my car remains parked at the back of the elderly apartment building undisturbed.

• Thursday - The same elderly lady who called the police the first time, calls the police again and asks, "What are you going to do with that vehicle that has been here since Saturday?!?" The police have an officer come out, and he calls me at work to tell me that they found the car. This time they give me a specific address and they make clear that the car is in the BACK of the apt., not the FRONT! I am warned that I must inform the police in Oak Forest that my car is no longer stolen. If I don't let them know, the car will still be considered stolen. I was told that if the police stop me, I will be taken out of my car at gunpoint!
• Thursday afternoon - after getting the news from the police, I immediately go and get the car. I don't want anybody to get the car, tell me something false about the car as they did before, or mess up the car in any way. I spend nearly $40 on a taxi ride from the Loop part of Chicago to the very southern part of Chicago. (The next post will be about the very green taxi driver who drove me there). Lo and behold, I am reunited with my car!!! Before, I see it I refuse to assume I'll find it, because I don't want to get my hopes up.

To my disappointment, all 4 doors of the car are unlocked. The cop puts a report in the front of my car. The car doesn't start. I'm afraid the car will need to be towed and I'll have to spend more money.

I have a nice talk with the very helpful elderly lady. She tells me the whole story. I call AAA and get my car restarted. It feels so good and so odd to be driving my car. "Odd" because I never thought I'd see the car again!!!!!!!!!

• I go to the Oak Forest police station and show them that the car is no longer stolen. The policeman inspecting the car is someone I know who lives in my condo complex.
• My kids share my joy when they see my car. We eat the thief's Mentos. Remember, he never opened the pack up or even took it out of the plastic.

Many questions come from this:

• why didn't the thieves strip the car for parts and make a bunch of money off of it? I ask this because that's what car thieves usually do. I was told by the Oak Forest policeman that he was merely trying to get to Chicago and he figured stealing my car was the best way to do that. (Isn't there easier ways to get to Chicago than stealing a car??!?)
• Why didn't the police try and solve this theft and call me earlier than Thursday to tell me where the car was??

I am perplexed at these very strange circumstances, but very happy and very thankful. I dodged the very unhappy prospect of spending more than $7,000 on another car.

& it keeps getting worse..............

Most of yesterday, I spent trying to figure out how to get my car out of the car impoundment center run by the Chicago Police Dept. There were scads of documents to get: my car's registration papers, the title, papers I didn't even have. They said I could find out the status of the car if I gave 1 of 2 pieces of information: the license plate number or the last 6 numbers of the VIN # (for those who don't know, every single car that is produced, gets a VIN # imbedded into the car near the windshield and that's away to track the car, in general, and sometimes catch car thiefs, in particular).

When I gave the impoundment center my license plate, they said "No, there's no car here under that license plate number". So finally, I got the VIN #. Then the truth came out,

"oh sir, we were supposed to get that car but it never came. You see the police called for a tow truck to get the car on Saturday. When the tow truck came on Sunday (AFTER OVER 12 DAMN HOURS!!!), the car was not there. We suggest that you file a report with the police because the car is likely re-stolen."

Then, a called several places who gave me "The run around" about doing another report. Finally, I talked to a Chicago police officer that knew what he was doing. He said that since the car was never released from the impoundment the car's status was never changed on the central computer. The car is still considered "Stolen", so what's the point of filing another report?

Everybody who I tell this to never, ever heard of a car being re-stolen. Yeah, I didn't either! It blows everyone away. Even the police in Oak Forest P. D. were shocked when I told them the outcome.

So today, the insurance adjustor took my recorded statement over the phone. I mailed the Proof of Loss papers. The adjustor told me over the phone (she's in Oklahoma) that I would get compensated in about 2 weeks.

& what would happen if I found the car after it was declared permanently missing? I would sell it. That's assuming that it would not be able to be fixed or it would cost way over $1,200 to fix it. Then.....I would live happily ever after..............NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it's bad again

I was so happy on Friday, February 22. I was seriously thinking about putting a mark on my calendar to indicate what a great day it was. Well, if I had done that, I would have had to put a mark on the next day, February 23, to indicate what a bad day it was.
I spent all of the day inside and rested because it was the weekend, I was off, I had nowhere to go and I stayed up late reading about 150 pages of the Clapton book I bought.

I didn't go outside until 6 pm. Ted was sick, Maribeth was watching him, so I volunteered to go the grocery store. Yet, I soon discovered as I was walking with Andy, my son, there was a very large problem. My car was not in the place where I parked. I checked the surrounding area (in utter disbelief, but it was not there either. So, I went back in the condo and told Maribeth and called the police. They got the information, and then I went to the grocery store and got the large number of things on her list. It took an hour.

I walked around the grocery store in a state of shock. Part of this whole problem was that I parked my car Friday night at 7 pm. & I didn't discover it had been stolen until the next day, about 22 hours later. So the theif had nearly an entire day's headstart to take the car whereever. It could be in another state by now! More likely, it's someplace getting stripped down and the theif is probably selling the car for parts rather than the total vehicle in 1 piece.

When I called the insurance company and made my claim, the intake woman was very sympathetic, very kind (my insurance is with Farmers Insurance). She observed, "You sound so sad, so defeated." Yes, that's a pretty accurrate portrayal.

What hurts the worst was that I was happy Friday, because I got money for my tax refund. If I pay the deductible for the loss of my car it will be $500. Therefore, over 70% of the refund would be used for replacing my damn CAR!!!!!
If the car is never found, I will get a check and have to go get another car which is also a shame because I had less than a year to pay this car off. This is yet another in a very, very long series of financial setbacks, and I'm not liking it at all, DAMNIT!
UPDATE:
The car was found by the Chicago Police Dept. Ironically, they found it an hour or 2 after I discovered it was stolen. The police dept. left a message with us, but Maribeth did not check her messages until late in the afternoon today. By the time, I discovered my car was robbed, the thieves were already done with it. It was found on the Southside of Chicago. It is undriveable because the car was hotwired and they had to cut into the steering column (I don't know exactly how hotwiring is done, but I'm guessing, basically). They hotwired it to start the car without keys and drive away from where I had it parked.
Now it's a matter of talking to my insurance claim adjustor, being directed as to which place will fix my car, paying the $500 deductible while the insurance pays the rest. Therefore if the total bill is $900, I'll pay $500 and the insurance will pay $400. If the bill is $1,600, I pay $500, the insurance pays $1,100. All sorts of questions come up. Where am I going to come up with $500? How long will it take to fix the car? Will the car ever be the same again? I very rarely needed to get the car repaired for anything will that be the case now after the thieves had fucked it up??
Part of the story is revealed while there is a lot left open. Like who the hell stole my damn car??????!!!???

Reading a very good book

I am a close follower of rock music and the blues and of course a longtime fan of Eric Clapton. I love his virtuosity as a guitar player (even though there's been times that he wanted to steer clear of that).

I like what he stands for insofar as he's been so down, so much so in his addiction to heroin, then alcohol, then cigarettes and he's beaten them all. He overcame the death of his only son, & finally, he has founded the Crossroads Centre to help drug addicts.

I ready his 330-page book in a few nights. The book wasn't great or outstanding (I wish that he had written more about Cream, how he came up with the songs, more about being and working with Jack Bruce), but it was still a very good book!

He is very vivid about the women in his life and the self-defeating addictions that he employed that doomed his relationships, espcially the relationship with Patti Boyd Harrison (the one who inspired many of his songs including "Layla", "Wonderful Tonight" "Your Friends are Tearing Us Apart" (which is from the August album which is pictured above) .

He is also very graphic in how he beat his addictions, and how he used the Lord to help overcome such terrible demons. From the 80s to 2007, I considered RUSH my favorite band. Of all the bands I have ever seen, I have seen Rush, by far the most, probably 5 or 6 times. I loved their intelligent lyrics, awesome guitar sound and have considered them a great group. Yet toward the end of last year, something was telling me that they really shouldn't be my favorite group. One reason was their last 2 CDs weren't that great. But the really big reason was that I liked the lyricist, Neil Peart's views against authoritarianism and opposition to dictatorship, but I became increasingly "turned off" to his atheistic views. There was something inside me saying that my favorite band shouldn't really be with one who is so open about their atheistic beliefs.

It took me awhile, but then it became obvious that Eric Clapton and his music was an obvious choice for being my "favorite". Further, Clapton has clearly shown that he is a big believer in God/Jesus, tho' like all of us he has strayed off the straight and narrow.

I also liked the book because of its happy ending. Currently, Eric is happily married and has 4 daughters (and an adult daughter by a different woman). If you like Eric Clapton, his music, I would definitely recommend reading his autobiography pictured above.

doing so much better

A few days ago, I was bemoaning my bad financial shape. It's still not that great, but I got a nice big lift this morning. I got my tax refund for over $800. Time to pay down some credit cards, steer way clear of overdrafts and maybe, just maybe something good will come out of this !!

Lunesta and the butterfly

Last fall, there seemed to be a lot of stress that I was going through, and I couldn't sleep. Taking over-the-counter medicine didn't really help that much. So, I went to my psychiatrist, and he prescribed me Lunesta. Lunesta is pretty effective, and I was able to sleep better.

There was 1 side effect my doctor didn't tell me until the next appointment.

"Vince, you're not taking that Lunesta everyday, are you? You could get addicted", he casually noted.

"Oh", I replied, "Well, I won't take it everyday now".

Which brings me to the butterfly. The company who makes Lunesta (whatever rich pharmaceutical corporation that is) has a big, BIG advertising budget. So when the Lunesta commercial comes on, you hear this soothing music with a butterfly shown above, symbolizing Lunesta, that swooshes around and spreads beautiful stars that puts everyone to sleep. OOPS, THERE'S ONE CATCH!

Do you see the butterfly on that person's nose as it gently puts them to sleep????? That's in the commercial. They don't show you the part where the butterfly climbs into their mouth, onto their tongue and takes a big dump. This brings me to Lunesta's other side effect.

When you take Lunesta, you get a metallic taste in your mouth. The sleep is great, but when you drink something like coffee, tea, milk (especially milk!!!), you don't taste milk or your desired beverage, you taste metal. It's kind of like licking a metal I-beam (not that I have ever done that!).

The good news is that I'm not addicted to Lunesta. How could I be with that tricky butterfly doing something bad on my tongue? So if you see any butterflies speading stars or looking like the ones in the picture KEEP YOUR MOUTH CLOSED!! (hee, hee)

Punched & down

I was paid on Tuesday. It was even a decent sized check with overtime money on there. The money is all spent. I wrote the amount of my check and then started deducting the bills from the deposit. A minute or 2 into all of the bill paying my balance got lower and lower, and I started breathing harder and harder, feeling very tense. THEN THUD! My balance was below zero(0) after the last bill was paid.

It was a thud all right, and I walked around like I was punched in the stomach. It seemed like all of the cost cutting wasn't worth it, nor was the hard work, and working at the law firm extra so I could get overtime pay. I know that I'm wrong writing that because if I hadn't earned overtime (or didn't even work at all) or didn't cut costs, things would be much worse. Yet, I live in a tony suburb where most of the residents are making more than I am and have nice houses. I still live in my small 2 bedroom condo with 3 kids. Then when I go to work 75% of the people do better than I.
However, walking to the train station and seeing all the homeless people begging money so I feel better, but still.................
After balancing the checkbook, all the energy I had left. I walked in one speed-SLOW. I felt like something was taken out of me, and it really hurt. There was no spring in my step as I usually feel pretty enthused when I work. I felt no optimism. The checkbook has been this way since I had to pay almost $1,000 in only a few months for 2 dental bills. & every effort was made to get the dental discount, pay on installments, and still it "blew up" my checking account. Things are slightly better, but there is still over $124 to pay yet. This whole ordeal made Christmas nerve-wracking, and I wasn't sure how we were going to get the money for gas going $200 miles to my parents place in Wisconsin. We had to go because Maribeth and I arrange 1 Christmas at her family, 1 Christmas with my family up in Wisconsin.
Things have been slightly better but the progress is slow and glacial. There's no guarantee that something could happen that would wipe out all the progress. I have checked out books that deal with debt management and they tell me things I already know (spend less). I have cut costs but the budget fight is a constant fight that has no end in sight....................

Difference between editing and censoring

J

One who blogs should not want to write a blog that exploits others or makes others look like idiots. I couldn’t imagine doing that. However, I am not going to be **“Mother Hen’d” into writing a vanilla blog devoid of homelife topics. After all, how much can the 26 ++readers take of US politics?? Especially when they get news, radio, TV and yes, the Web that has tons of politics in this very political year like 2008.
So, when 1 of the 26 readers confronts me with ideas of censorship when I think about her and her reaction while I write the blog, then I feel like I’ve done enough to protect her. I’m not going to be pushed around and censored. It’s not even like she’s my only reader or even my most loyal reader.

While the content of the blog was modified last month, there will be no more restricting subject matters or photos. If I can ride the Metra train to downtown Chicago (going to work in -1oF weather) and hear about a group of women, also riding on the train, loudly speak of autoeroticism in a pet cockatiel, then what’s so bad about what’s been written on this innocent blog so far????????????? It’s reasonable to say NO to anymore limits.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

** I couldn’t help but notice that there was a blog entitled “Mother Hen…” so to the writer of that blog, no offense to yours. When I think of Mother Hen, I define it as "openly domineering another". I understand that there are other definitions and other contexts of the term Mother Hen (as a verb).
++Lo & behold, the readership is growing from the 17 it was at the start of the year!! Oh and by the way, I love Jimmy Page's guitarwork (as noted previously in this blog), so in the midst of this consternation, I wanted to put some happy pictures on there. The other 2 pictures do not need anymore introduction as you dear readers already know them :)

Going to Wisconsin again

We went to see my parents in Wisconsin. It's a 200 mi. trip. We went tobaganning again. The picture is when the kids fell asleep in the car. We thought it made a nice "Kodak moment". The only little problem was that Brianna suffered a few abrasions below her left eye when she fell off the tobaggan and hit the snow with her face.

Otherwise we had a good time. They love visiting their grandparents. & of course, my parents love having them around (except when they make too much noise. Most 80 yr. olds don't enjoy loud noises from kids).

This morning in Wisconsin was -10 F. We got back to Oak Forest, IL at 8 pm; it's farther south (and a little warmer), and it was 0 F. It really sucks when it's so cold.

If anyone remembers The Who, the picture reminds of that picture of the band on the cover of their album The Kids Are Alright. & thank God, they are all right.

One other note, Maribeth's cellphone camera is far superior to mine. I'll have to use it more often because the one I have is a blurry mess.

he's human after all.......

The winning catch in the end zone in the last minute of the Super Bowl was made by none other than Plaxico Buress. You may recall that I called him a $%&(*&^% in one of my January posts. I didn't like Mr. Buress for awhile, and during the game, my son, Ted counted the number of times the Patriots defenders hit Buress hard.

Well, we know that he caught the pass easily, and Ted, my son, knowing that the game was over yelled "NOOOOOO!" and started keening and sobbing.

Then I saw something amazing in Plaxico Buress. Instead, of jumping around and gloating, jumping around and taunting the sidelines (as the jerk did against the Packers) this is what Plaxico Buress did: he knelt down & cried.

He didn't gloat when interviewed in the newspapers. He cried in the locker room too. So, seeing all this and reading it in the paper, I have changed my mind about Mr. Buress. He is human, after all. Then there's a more compelling reason:


one of the more important axioms in the Western World: it's hard to criticize success!!

don't be a MOTHER HEN!

I have 2 roles at the venerable Goldstein law firm that I work at. One is to be a paralegal which is basically doing whatever a lawyer can do, EXCEPT question witnesses at trial and depositions and I can't sign **Pleadings, **Motions or **Discovery.
The other is being the teacher to the law clerks. I work with them pretty closely the 1st week they are at the law firm, and after a week, they are on their own except for questions they may have about the work.
One of the clerks that is in her 9th or 10th day, was speaking to a client who suffered a car accident. The client was suspicious and didn't have caller ID, and so they gave her a very hard time. She handled the situation very well.

There were about 4 things that I wanted to tell her to make her phone call better.

But I only told her 1 of the things, the most important one.
There is such a thing as over-teaching and over-talking. I had just wrote her a long memo about another file we have. So, I am picking and choosing. The most important point is this: experience is the best teacher.
So no "too much talking, over teaching" & no mother henning the clerks!!!!


__________________________
**& remember this is a very user friendly blog complete with 21 readers {& I know who you are :) } So if you were curious about these 3 legal terms, I'll be more than happy to define them.

Super Bowl not happy for Ted

Well another one of my son's favorite teams is the New England Patriots. ("They have the greatest QB, no QB had as good a season as Tom Brady had!!!!", he's fond of saying. )

Poor, poor Teddy, he didn't just cry, he howled. His favorite team scores a dramatic touch down that puts them ahead 14-10, with 2 or 3 minutes to go. Yet, the Giants pulled it out in even more dramatic fashion. They score a touchdown with less than 60 seconds left and win 17-14.

The Patriots coach made a terrible decision not to try and score 3 points in the last half of the game, and it cost them dearly. If the Patriots had gotten the 3 points, the game ends at 17-17 and they go into Overtime. But no, he messed up BADLY.

The Patriots did not protect the quarterback, Tom Brady. This picture shows Tom Brady (he has the blue uniform) getting hit by the champion N.Y. Giants (in white uniforms) and slammed into the ground. He was driven to the ground by the Giants 5 times during the game which is a lot of times for such a good team as the Patriots. THE PATRIOTS WENT INTO THE GAME 18 wins, 0 LOSSES. Yesterday, their first loss of the season denied them the championship!!

youth, change, hope for warmth

It's been a long winter. Long nights.....short days, it's not always about how cold it is. The setting before 5 pm. is the worst part of winter to me. Global warming has made it so that we have had far fewer subzero days in the 90s and 00s than we had in the 70s and 80s. When I shave my beard, the prediction is that there will be warmer weather in 4 weeks. Not quite as bold as the famous groundhog yesterday (I don't know if other nations besides USA, observe Groundhog Day).

As, I did in the 80s and the 90s (starting in about 1985) I grow a beard in the winter and shave in the hopes of warmer weather and guaranteed long days!

The beard is marginally warmer. What I have always said was the 2 minutes I save shaving is spent on scraping snow off the car when I drive to the train station. I hate waking up early in the morning, the 1st 2 hours of the day are the most awkward, and the key is to get stronger as the day goes on (until about 9pm, anyway).

So, here's to a new look....... In a semi-new year...............

Different picture w/ beard on during the XMAS holiday. From upper left going clockwise, Me, Andy, Ted, my nephew Phil and Brianna.

"**a man HAS GOT TO KNOW his limitations"

**THE TITLE CAME FROM A MOVIE!! I'm not Plagiarizing; therefore, I am crediting the screenwriter(s) of 1 of the Dirty Harry movies from the 70s. It was one of the last line of the movie when a corrupt police chief was trying to turn the police force into a bunch of nasty, funky stormtroopers. Clint EAstwood's character, Harry Callahan, of course fights them and wins.

I'm a man who is about 1/2 way through 40 and 50. About the same age as Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf. (Great book, you need to read it). I already did my mid life crisis, and no longer "slenderly know thyself" (credit to SHAKESPEARE, I won't plagiarize him either, $5 mailed to the person who knows that play)

So it's funny how my thought process has changed from my 20s. When I saw a woman who was attractive, back in the 1980s, it would brighten my whole afternoon. First, I imagined what she really looked like, then how we would get to know each other, maybe where we'd get married, and the nice conversations we had and other, certain experiences. pretty soon it was about 8pm!!

I could recognize an attractive woman, right away. Now let's fast forward 20 yrs. First, in your 40s, your carnal drive isn't nearly as strong as it used to be. Then it takes longer to recognize that someone is actually really attractive, and it doesn't register until I notice

Anyway, there is a well-established psychology that says that when one finds out that one is suffering a terminal illness, they go through certain stages; I believe they are about 4-7 stages and they go from shock, anger, grief, __________, __________, __________ to acceptance/resignation. Well, now when I see or work with a beautiful woman, my mind goes through 3 stages, happiness, chagrin, consolation.

Happiness – Instead of the happy glow that would take me several hours through the afternoon like it used to when I was 24, the happiness stage lasts only about 20 min. I’m so self-effacing now that I don’t even recognize an attractive woman until she starts speaking to me first.

Chagrin – Then I realize that the woman would severely reproach me because 1 of 2 situations would occur. She’s either much younger than me or in a different socio group (meaning? Too different mindset, too Republican, different class, someone I can’t relate too) I just don’t HAVE IT ANYMORE!

Consolation - I have an attractive, smart, driven domestic partner at home. At least, I have smart kids that look up to me. Then the one thing that hasn’t changed at all is the burning heat of conscience. I only “funkily carnal” before 1992 and in early 06’. In fact I always was bitten hard by the tiger’s teeth of conscience and never was seriously tempted with someone else from 92-2002 and after Nov., 2006. I dominated by God (and rightly so)!


Sometimes, guys and gals often wonder (starting in their 30s, “do I still ‘have it’???) I realize the answer is a resounding NO. I’m 44, just lost 30 lbs, but have about 30,40 lbs left to lose. I think about when I was separatetd/divorced in Midlothian an on the dating website Christian Mingle a/k/a http://www.relationships.com/ I was on there from Dec., 2005 to Nov. 2006 and in that whole time had one meaningful relationship. Was rejected far more than hearing the word “yes/ok”. & yes, I was on my best behavior, too!

Then I get a compliment out of nowhere and ask myself the “it” question again. Last October, I received a complement that absolutely shocks me. We had a clerk by the name of John from Arkansas. Like the other law clerks, he was in his mid 20s going to law school. He started in spring of 2007 and stopped in the fall of 2007. So we had a modest party at this swank hotel, 1st floor bar. WE were simply talking, John & I, and all of the sudden he says something like, “You’re so strong, you could throw me around like a rag doll.” & it wasn’t true; here he is a guy in his 20s just as big as I and ………..well………I am from the farm. ……………I still stay strong…Mr. Bender’s 1st password to me was “strong”……...the only time Maribeth overestimates me is my fighting ability………..NO, I STILL doubt I could take John in a fight. Maybe close but who the hell cares, anyhow???

I’m not George Clooney. Therefore, it’s Happiness -- Chagrin -- Consolation for me.

another bad languistic trend in our dear nation(UGH!)

One of my favorite websites http://www.tolerance.org/ is listed on the right on my blog as one my favorite website. If you read this sad, unfortunate excerpt of something going on in the Redneck area of the South, then you should pay a visit to Southern Poverty Law Center a/k/a http://www.tolerance.org/ as well.

Southern racists adopt "Canadian" as a euphemism for "black"
Posted by Cory Doctorow, January 27, 2008 12:10 AM permalink


The Canadian National Post looks on with mild horror as American linguists report on the growing trend in the American south to use "Canadian" as a masking euphemism for black people, so that white racists can say socially inappropriate things without tipping listeners off about the cancer in their souls.
Last August, a blogger in Cincinnati going by the name CincyBlurg reported that a black friend from the southeastern U.S. had recently discovered that she was being called a Canadian. "She told me a story of when she was working in a shop in the South and she overheard some of her customers complaining that they were always waited on by a Canadian at that place. She didn't understand what they were talking about and assumed they must be talking about someone else," the blogger wrote.

"After this happened several times with different patrons, she mentioned it to one of her co-workers. He told her that ‘Canadian' was the new derogatory term that racist Southerners were using to describe persons they would have previously referred to [with the N-word.]"
A similar case in Kansas City was reported last year on a Listserv, or electronic mailing list, used by linguistics experts. A University of Kansas linguist said that a waitress friend reported that "fellow workers used to use a name for inner-city families that were known to not leave a tip: Canadians. ‘Hey, we have a table of Canadians.... They're all yours.' "
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emphasis added by VPJS
sad, sad, sad..............................

Changes in BOTH rules and content

Well there have been some recent developments that have changed the content of this blog.

Saturday morning, I noted on my blog that there were 17 readers. There have been some more. It started out innocently enough on Saturday night when I couldn’t sleep. Instead of sleeping, I was working on my blog, getting a few advertisers. If one advertises on this blog, you make money. No one wants their blog to be merely a billboard for someone else, as we have something to say. Still, in this day and age when times are definitely not easy (& you know that just as much as I) advertising could help with a bill or 2.

Anyway, on Saturday, I was working very late into the night. That bothered Maribeth because if I couldn’t sleep, it would be hard to go to church the next morning (which it was), she was even concerned I wouldn’t go to church (but I did).

Since Maribeth was wondering what the heck was going on, I told her I was setting up some advertising. I had told Maribeth about this blog way back in 2005, but she did not remember that because it was a very brief conversation. We were still apart, still divorced. Suddenly, on Sunday she was very interested in the blog.

With her interest came rules that she set for the blog.
1. No pictures of her.
2. No post that could remotely embarrass her, and I was to not even post about her except with her express consent.
That was reasonable; she said, “I don’t want people at work knowing all about my business outside of Loyola.”
Ok, so I did some deleting. There was a post earlier this month about my sympathy for Maribeth working at a tough place like Loyola Univ. Medical Ctr. She and her co-workers go through a lot, and so out of concern and sympathy, I wrote about her, her background, how we met. THAT POST ALONG WITH PICTURE – Deleted. The post in 2005 where I was upset at her when I carryied an air conditioner, and she said something I didn’t like – Deleted (we were apart then anyway). The post about my humor and regard for the person who bought us a microwave at the law firm – deleted.


If there is a post that’s going to cause a fight – DELETED. I’ve fought enough, Maribeth and I have had her fill of arguments so posts have to be removed to keep the peace. The only exceptions are in the November and December,2006 posts when I talk about getting back together. I can't and I won't delete those because they were a pretty important event for everyone involved - me, Maribeth, obviously our 3 kids. & the picture of her is staying too because she looks fine. (sorry, Maribeth, hope you don't get all upset about the December, 06 posts)

Why didn’t I ask her before when I posted? Why do I have to delete now? The opinion goes: “Maybe I just shouldn’t have posted in the first place”.
I wanted artistic freedom or more specifically “writer’s freedom”. I had something to say of interest, and so I said it. I received response from those posts so they couldn’t have been too boring and ignorable. If I talk about the mundane, I’ll get even fewer responses. I guess maybe I can ask her about some of the deleted posts and then if it’s ok, I’ll put them back on.

I said there were 17 people who read this blog. There are now over 20 and one of those 20 readers is very important, and I have to make adjustments. That’s all there is to it. Maribeth also wants to write on this blog, and we all can look forward to that.

& don’t worry there are still a lot of past posts that are interesting. When I met Patti way back in spring of 2006, you can still see the argument I had with one several of the readers who thought it was a bad idea. I still don’t regret meeting Patti. That was just part of life. Maribeth doesn’t regret some of the men she met and spent time with. We were separated from Jan., 2003 to Nov., 2006; we acted accordingly.

Revisions

This website is under some changes. More to come later..................

It's been very cold in Illinois, and as you all know, we live 25 miles SW of Chicago. If I'm not mistaken, 25 miles would be about 50 km.

At any rate, I figured this picture of my 2nd son, Ted and his neighbor would make us all think of a warmer time.

A week later, the Packers lose

Ok, first the pictures, this is about Ted, so he is the boy to the right of Santa, and in the 2nd picture is the boy in the white t-shirt. Today, at 5:30 pm.....it looked so hopeful. Packers are at home. They are favored to win by most of the experts (bookies said by 7). Favre doesn't play well, the defense doesn't play that great, and Plaxico Buress of the other team (N Y. Giants) lights up the Packer secondary for over 200 yards. Green Bay Packers are beaten by Giants 23-20. Giants are going to go to the Super Bowl and get their ass whipped by the New England Patriots. Why do I think the Patriots are going to win? Because their QB, Tom Brady has had an astounding season, one of the top 5 seasons a QB has ever had. They have few, if any, weaknesses, and they have many, many strengths.

This is not good. There are 2 things that kind of console me. No one thought the Packers were going to play in the NFC Championship back on Labor Day, September, 2007. Then the Packers win 13 games, only lose 3 and win last week, before losing their 4th game this week.

Secondly, my 2nd son looooooovvvess football. He was born in Chicago and roots for the Bears. But since the Bears are gone from the playoffs and are sitting in warmer climate, Ted Schauf, my dear 9-yr. old son, is rooting very hard for the Packers. Why? because his lucky father (lucky to have such a great son) was born in Wisconsin, lived there the 1st 26 years of his life and has roooooted for the Green Bay Packers since 1972!!! (& how many of you were even born before 1972, lol).

So, the Giants field goal kicker kicks the ball through the goal posts and helps beat the Packers 23-20, and my son stands there and cries and cries. I'm so busy consoling Teddy that I don't even feel bad for myself. I hug him a long time. I love my son. He's a great kid, and I'm a lucky father.

It was still a good season. I don't like the way it ended. I don't like that Plaxico Buress getting over 200 yards and taunting and chiding the Packers sideline and being an asshole poor sport. & anybody who complains about Brett Favre having a bad game can go straight to hell because the Packers would never have even made the playoffs if Favre didn't have the great season he had!

Because Buress really is an asshole, and he's going to get his but whipped with all the rest of his teammates. & if the New York Giants win the Super Bowl, I'll walk from Chicago to New York City in the winter because the improbability of that act matches the improbability of NY Giants beating a team, the New England Patriots, who have 18 wins 0 losses team. Really, I will walk all 800 miles (or is it 900?? I know it isn't 1,000 miles)

Uuuhhhhh, maybe not, if the GIants shock the 100s of millions of people watching the Super Bowl, I won't walk 800some miles to NY in shock because..................I can't afford to miss work, unless some reader out there pays for my lost wages and sponsors me. Really, I mean it...................Anyway, I'm reallly glad Ted feels better.

PACKERS WIN! GO PACK! I'M HAPPY!

I want anyone who has given this Blog a read with just the slightest ounce of wishing the Green Bay Packer football team well to make a comment on this post. IF you do, I'll be forever in your debt. For real. The Green Bay Packers helped start the NFL with a team from Chicago, New York, Washington D.C. and a few other teams in the 1920s. That's a team that's been around for over 80 years, "brothers and sisters"! The fans who support the Green Bay Packers are over a million strong (not an exaggeration) and are part of PackersNation. (that's like another famous franchise in baseball, Boston Red Socks; fans call themselves RedSocksNation, or is it RedSox Nation? whatever). Amel, if you're reading this, you and your husband have automatically been given honorary status as members of PackersNation for as long or as short a time as you want (hehe, lol).

It's Saturday 3:45 pm. PackersNation is very sad. Their mighty Packers are down 0-14. Some of them (I won't lie, I'm an honest man, I was one of them) are screaming for Ryan Grant to get the hell off the football field. He fumbled twice, the Seattle Seahawks (the team the Packers played today) took 2 fumbles in for 2 touchdowns and the Packers were very down. He goes on to have the game of his life and runs 201 yards.
See #4 up there in that picture? 37 yr. old guy is the leader of the team. He's too old to get overly excited, too experienced to be down, and too awesome not to play well. He leads the Packers to score 21 points and his team is never ever down again as they go on to win 42-20.
I am happy as a lark and flying just as high!!

THE BLUES, Part 2 of 2, The Legend of Robert Johnson

II. The Legend of Robert Johnson (born 1911, died 1938) Rolling Stone magazine valued Robert Johnson enough to make him (in the “Best 100 Guitarists” issue of last year or so) the 5th best guitarist ever. I disagree with his high ranking because Johnson did not live long enough (dying in the 1930s) to play electric guitar. He could not explore the nuances of electric guitar with it’s various sounds as Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townsend (of The WHO), Alex Lifeson (of Rush), and of course, Keith Richards (of the Rolling Stones) had the gift, opportunity, talent and vision to do. I would rank Mr. Johnson 12th best ; a very good singer and a masterful guitarist, it still is only speculation what Johnson could have done with an electric guitar, wa-wa pedal and the numerous guitar pedals that color the sound of the guitar that were available to the guitar legends by the end of the 1960s. One of Johnson’s famous songs is “Crossroads Blues”, and it was covered by Cream, featuring Eric Clapton on lead guitar and lead vocal. After the song was made, the legend among the jealous, simple and judgmental ones was that Robert Johnson went to a crossroad/intersection, met Satan, let Satan tune his guitar and sold his soul to him. IN return, Satan supposedly granted him the gift of playing guitar masterfully and writing, recording great songs. The legend of Johnson selling his soul to learn to play guitar is said to have taken place in either an intersection of Rosedale or an intersection in Clarksdale, (both cities/towns in Mississippi). Feel the jealousy! You can almost hear the neighbors (both Black and White neighbors) wondering why Robert Johnson didn’t work at the factory or stay home on the farm like others who lived near him. “What the hell is he doing with that guitar??? Respectable people don’t go out and play in Blue in clubs and juke joints!” These neighbors during the Jim Crow 1920s and 30s likely looked down about him with even more cutting and judgmental criticism. “That fool doesn’t play guitar nearly as well as my cousin Andy, and you don’t see Andy hotfootin’ ‘round town. Andy is smart enough to work at the barber shop! And how many times did you see that boy in church? Not a once these last few months! Robert be makin’ eyes at that hoochie, Mary, and be messin’ with her after he done playin’ that fool guitar. They both have as much aim in life as a feather!!” It’s not bad to be revulsed by sins of another, in fact, that’s good. Yet, when one is so openly condemnatory, as a few or even some of Johnson’s neighbors were, it falls into the “judge other and you will be judged as well” type of action. Yet, like so many instances, rumor and sensationalism are not really what happened when Robert Johnson made “Crossroads Blues” Wikipedia tells the true story of what the song “Crossroads” is about. “While the legend of Robert Johnson selling his soul to the Devil is fascinating and evocative, the song itself plainly describes the very real, harrowing situation feared by Johnson and other Blacks in the Deep South in the early 20th century. Historian Leon Litwack has suggested that the song refers to the common fear felt by blacks who were discovered alone after dark. As late as 1930s in parts of the South, the well-known expression (from redneck sheriffs, KKK members and other racists) , “Nigger don’t let the sun go down on you here!!” was according to Litwack “understood and vigorously enforced”. In an era when lynchings were still common, Johnson was likely singing about the desperation of finding his way home from an unfamiliar place as quickly as possible because, as the song says, “the sun goin’ down, boy/dark goin’ catch me here”. This interpretation also makes sense of the closing line “You can run/tell my friend poor Willie Brown/that I’m standing at the crossroads' as Johnson’s appeal for help from a real-life fellow musician.”[1] So many, many times, TOO MANY TIMES, too many people are simple and stupid enough to go for the sensational (that’s why the National Enquirer sells so well, makes so much money and pisses me off!) Obviously, a Black man afraid of being lynched is much more humdrum and boring to some and not worth gossiping to the next door neighbor compared to telling same neighbor that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil, and as a result that’s why he was a sensational guitarist. After some research, there are some signs that Johnson himself may have acquiesced to the rumor as well. This is a shame, because he also wrote and sang a song like “Hellhound on My Trail” covered fear of the Devil. With a rough and tumble life with so many hazards, signs of the Devil, amid all the misfortune in his life, were prevalent. Playing the Blues, not making much money doing so, "seeing" the occasional woman, traveling and worrying over lack of money are shown in his lyrics in the song “Crossroads Blues” (just Google: lyrics & “Robert Johnson” and “song”), Robert Johnson in the mid-1930s was recognized enough that certain executives arranged to record his songs and great talent. He cast an enormous influence over rock and roll and has even been nicknamed “The Grandfather of Rock n Roll”. 30 years later, he influenced Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Peter Gabriel and many, many artists over the years. He made the songs that united (and continue to unit) Blacks, Whites and other races alike, just as good and great Blues music does!! Then, there’s the sad, obscure death of Robert Johnson. With poor healthcare in the Jim Crow era, Johnson didn’t go to the hospital and with an unknown cause (neither Johnson nor anyone could determine or help treat Johnson in the last 3 days before his death), Johnson died a slow painful death. Dead at the age of 27 he dies at the same age as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) and Brian Jones (the founder of the Rolling Stones and rhythm guitarist). As noted in Wikipedia, “There are a number of accounts and theories regarding the events preceding Johnson's death. One of these is that one evening Johnson began flirting with a woman at a dance. One version of this rumor says she was the wife of the juke joint owner who unknowingly provided Johnson with a bottle of poisoned whiskey from her husband, while another suggests she was a married woman he had been secretly seeing. Researcher Mack McCormick claims to have interviewed Johnson's alleged poisoner in the 1970s, and obtained a tacit admission of guilt from the man. When Johnson was offered an open bottle of whiskey, his friend and fellow blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson[2] knocked the bottle out of his hand, informing him that he should never drink from an offered bottle that has already been opened. Johnson allegedly said, "don't ever knock a bottle out of my hand". Soon after, he was offered another open bottle of whiskey and accepted it, and it was that bottle that was laced with strychnine. Johnson is reported to have started to feel ill into the evening after drinking from the bottle and had to be helped back to his room in the early morning hours. Over the next three days, his condition steadily worsened and witnesses reported that he died in a convulsive state of severe pain - symptoms which are consistent with strychnine poisoning. Strychnine was readily available at the time as it was a common pesticide, and although it is a very bitter-tasting substance it is extremely toxic, and a small quantity dissolved in a harsh-tasting solution such as whiskey could possibly have gone unnoticed, but (over a period of days due to the reduced dosage) still produced the symptoms and eventual death that Johnson experienced.” (emphasis added by blog author). Robert Johsnon never had the chance to witness how appreciated and valued his music was until Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Rolling Stones and other musicians herein illuminated his music 30 years later. ____________________________ [1] http://www.wikipedia.org/ “Robert Johnson” (musician) [2] Sonny Boy Williamson lived considerably longer, naturally had a more prolific career and was seen in person by Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant (as discussed in the book Hammer of the Gods). The book even goes as far as to say that Plant got so close that he stole Williamson’s harmonica.

Picture of Robert Johnson (below) was taken in 1935 when he was 24. The picture was one of the few authentic pictures of this legend.

Please note: for some inexplicable reason, I could not eliminate the space between the text below and Robert Johnson's picture.

The BLUES, part 1 of 2

The BLUES

I. Music with Suspicion - The Blues
A. Good singing, good song
B. Blues inspiration
C. The Flood
II. Companion story, "The Legend of Robert Johnson"

I. Music with Suspicion - The Blues

A. "Good Singing, Good Song"
When I grew up, there were some very clear opinions expressed about what a good song was (especially from older brothers even moreso than Kathi). A good song had a nice, upbeat, decent melody. A good song had a good singer with a good voice (like Karen Carpenter or Paul McCartney). A good song absolutely did NOT have screaming in it or riff-drenched, wailing guitars.
So are the underlined principles in the above paragraph true? That’s difficult to say because no 2 musical tastes are alike. Each is unique. Even with 2 people with similar taste, you will find one who likes a certain song better than another. That makes judging music somewhat relative and not so absolute.
However, the underlined principles in the 1st paragraph are supported by popular demand. After all, it was the Beatles and not Sonic Youth (Seattle band of the 90s) who make (yes, that’s present tense "make" because Beatles CDs are bought every day some place on planet Earth) tens of millions of dollars and were better known. People of Chicago can crow all they want about Smashing Pumpkins (a very good group that originated in Chicago and Joliet) but did they sell as well as the Rolling Stones? For every 1 person who loves the anger-laced, distorted guitar- driven song by the Pumpkins called "Bodies" (& that includes me), you will undoubtedly find 50 people who will like "Yesterday" by the Beatles. "Yesterday" is also a sad song, but a far more palatable and popular song than "Bodies".
While my political views changed away from most of my family in 1982, my musical tastes were very similar to my family’s before 1988. In the summer of 1988, I fell in love with Led Zeppelin thanks to a great roommate from Minnesota named Mike.
It is indisputable that the roots of Led Zeppelin are from the Blues. While this rock band was classified as Heavy Metal, heavy metal has been defined as "Blues on steroids". Like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin were inspired by the Blues.
The Blues is about emotion. If someone screams during a song, it’s to reflect anguish, pain. The sad singer’s point comes across as clear as sterile water. Sometimes the Blues is a music of emotion, rather than a music filled with artful tunefulness. Like a good movie that mirrors the reality rather than the "Leave It to Beaver" sugarcoating, the Blues offers you an unvarnished look at life. & life can be difficult.
B. "Blues Inspiration"
The inspiration of the Blues is pretty clear. Certain themes are very recurrent in Blues, and they are
a. man upset that his "woman (or as they sing "wimins") is cheatin’ on him or vice versa man cheating on woman, and the anguish that results.
b. being "messed around" and "double dealed" at work
c. being poor
d. Floods
e. Drinking
f. Getting no justice in Court
g. death
Of course, there’s Blues songs with other themes but that covers about 65% of the Blues. That’s not a criticism!! The Blues is amazing, beginning with the 1st song composed beginning in 1903, all the way to musicians in the present who take a mere handful of themes to make so many awesome songs! So much hurt, pain, and, in general, downtrodden conditions, and therein springs beautiful, empathetic and sometimes even inspirational music vanquishing all the negativity!
Here’s a great example. Before 1975, Robert Plant, singer/songwriter heard and bought the Blues song "Jesus, Make Up My Dying Bed"; that song is old, written 1929-30, composed by "Blind Willie" Johnson. It must have been an artful song, because Robert Plant and the other members of the band reworked the song and came up with "In My Time of Dying" which was released in 1975 from the album Physical Graffiti.
"In My Time of Dying" is nothing short of a Christian song sung with a tragic beauty behind compelling guitars and drumming. It’s a song inspired possibly a 27 year old suddenly confronted with his own death and then making excuses. Now, when you read the lyrics and you are older than say, 32, you must cast off your viewpoint, because 50 year olds, 40 yr. olds and even many 30 yr. olds, thinks far differently than a 27 year old, especially about death. If we don’t understand nor empathize, we find an immature, superficial song. After all, he prays to Jesus, "You can deliver me Lord; I only wanted to have some fun!" But, we all have seen 20somethings confronted with a bad situation. After all, we lived in our 20s and had bad things happen to us during those times. With sons, daughters, nephews and nieces that we personally know, it really shouldn’t be that hard to imagine the desperation, even the minimizing of his guilt in the lyrics found in the Coda section .
Just one awesome song, and there’s so many more songs that pull one away from his problems, hurt and gives perspective. Yet, the Blues isn’t for everyone. It depicts the rough, raw, painful lives lead. See the companion story "The Legend of Robert Johnson" for how one man lived and died by the Blues in the next post before Jan. 12.
C. THE FLOOD
During the Jim Crow era, during 1927, when farmers in the US were already suffering horribly financially well before the Great Depression. The Great Flood of Mississippi savagely struck farmers, townspeople, Blacks and Whites in this tough, hardscrabble reagion. 13,000 people were forced to evacuate and over 1,000 died. Led Zeppelin and in particular, Robert Plant heard the song "When the Levee Breaks". Reworking the song, the band put it on Led Zeppelin IV, Back in 1927, when God decided to make Mississippi flood, it was like the song sadly sang, "Cryin won’t help ya, prayin’ won’t do you no good".
It’s common knowledge that the Mississippi River makes much of the farmland in the state of Mississippi low, flat and prone to flooding. It’s equally valid that sharecropping Blacks bought or tilled land most prone to flooding while their richer White farming counterpart owned better land, less prone to flooding. The Mississippi Flood of 1927 was inspiration to the Blues song "When the Levee Breaks" by the married couple Memphis Minnie and Kansas City McCoy. During the Great Depression, crop insurance was certainly not as commonplace for either White or Black farmers. Many, many farmers were hit by the Depression far sooner than the 1929 Stock Market Crash. Farmers succeeded with burgeoning prices during World War One; yet, those same crop prices crashed brutally in the beginning of the 1920s. The lyrics ache with the desperation of that relentless rain. The lyrics touch on the mass exodus that millions of Blacks (living in the nasty South) moving to the North during the Jim Crow era, moving mostly to Chicago, as well as Northern cities like Springfield, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis and of course, Detroit.
"Going to Chicago, going to Chicago/Sorry, but I can’t take you!" - lyrics from "When the Levee Breaks"
Fathers and mothers (mostly mothers) had to make the agonizing choice of which one of the 5 or so children to bring up North and which one to leave with "Uncle Bob". "When the Levee Breaks" touches briefly on a person being left back in Mississippi to sort out the destruction and carnage left by the massive flood (and thereafter, hopefully finding solace in the many Baptist churches come Sunday). Clearly, there were big families in the South as there were in the North. Just as clearly, with so little money, some Black families couldn’t move North all at once. It happened, and it happened often!
Later in the aftermath, Blacks suffered insult to injury as they were forced at gunpoint to rebuild the levees ruined during the Great Flood of 1927. That’s just one of many cruelties inflicted on that race in the South during the Jim Crow era.
I advise any reader interested in the lyrics cited herein just Google the lyrics of "In My Time of Dying" and "When the Levee Breaks". Good lyrics, compelling lyrics and even better to listen to.