Cynical eyes and expectations

Of the many memes going around the internet, this one stuck out in my head.

“Know the rules, so you may break them properly.” That little gem is attributed to the Dali llama.

The reason that saying is on my mind is that I might be about to break a rule that I set out a few weeks back.

We mistakenly try and measure our successes against our peers. Are we doing better than our cousins or neighbors? It used to be called 'keeping up with the Jones', and it's bullshit. 

Two years ago I went to a funeral. That wasn't the hard part. What I dreaded the most was seeing how well my cousins were doing in comparison to me. I felt I was barely scraping by, one mistake away from total ruin. Surely my family was going to pour salt in the wound about me being the low man out, the poorest family member. Here's what I discovered: One cousin had a really bad divorce. Another was basically squatting in a house, fixing it up in exchange for rent. A cousin younger than myself had lost all his teeth due to poor eating habits.

We keep comparing our bloopers with everyone else's highlight reels. Its not fair to ourselves to do that. Two songs from the group Styx come to mind. The first one is 'Grand Illusion'. The second one is 'Fooling yourself'.

Don't be fooled by the radio. The TV or the magazines.

They'll show you photographs

 of how your life should be,

When it's all someone else's fantasy.

My highlight reel would look something like this:

Wrote a book

Owns a house

Paid off a credit card

Has a healthy family

A strong marriage

Still in pretty good health.

My blooper reel would be something like this:

Just one step ahead of foreclosure

Dead end job

Half of my paycheck goes toward paying off creditors.

Frequently can't make ends meet.

If we get bogged down in the details, we can't see the progress we're making. Some of my friends, who I think have it all together are no better off than I am.

Which brings me to the second song I mentioned.

Get up!

Get back on your feet!

You're the one they can't beat,

and you know it.

Come on, let's see what you've got.

Just take your best shot and don't blow it.

Tommy Shaw knew what he was talking about when he wrote that.

My friend Nick, whom I envy a little, is a fantastic chef and is teaching a culinary arts program at a high school. He's shaping (warping) young minds in ways he can't begin to imagine, and I'm not talking about cooking. His outlook and attitude in how he treats others is going to have an impact on these kids. He may not remember them in 20 years, but they will remember him forever.

Now, Nick has a blooper reel, just like we all do. But we don't see it. Unless you are living in that person's skin, no one sees all the blemishes you make in life.

If Nick is reading this, I want to tell him I'm proud to be his friend. No matter how many times he gets knocked down by life, he always gets back up. Nick is brave, kind and thoughtful of others.

Now I can't mention one brother without saying something about the other.

I have referred to Robert Fedick and Nick Sandora as my brothers many times. I used their last names to illustrate a point. Although not related by blood, my bond with these two men runs very deep. If Nick was in trouble, I'd drop everything to be by his side. If someone were giving Bob grief, I'd help him dispose of the body.

I admire and at the same time, am in awe of Bob's ability to make computers do his bidding. Putting on the best poker face I've seen, Bob can be a rock in a very bad storm. Once in a while he'll let me know he has problems just like the rest of us normal folks do. Guess what? Everyone has the same problems and the same successes. If we let the problems run our lives, we can be miserable. Facing those same problems, they suddenly appear smaller. They are the bullies we've all faced in one way or another while growing up. And just like all bullies, they can't stand up to you when you face them.

Nick: Grab that problem that is pushing you around. Shake it until it's head comes off. Slap it around a bit if necessary.

Bob: Remind some jerkface that computers control the world... and you control the computers. I've long suspected you are a member of Anonymous. Time to put something 'colorful' on Westboro Baptist's homepage.

As for myself: I'm going to go get a publisher.       

Fiesta

Once a year, Downtown San Antonio is turned into a block party. Music, food, drink, carnival rides and somewhere down the line there is a parade. It's a whole week long thing.
Let's see... the oyster bake happened over the weekend. Nothing says party like Cajun style food, beer and some music.

Oyster bake 2012

 This is someone I don't know, but it looks like they're having fun. It's a party!
I should put up something to show what we did.

Not an evil Pikachu

  That's Stephanie with a blow up pinata donkey. I just tell you what's going on, I don't explain them.

Theo is blowing up... nevermind, you don't want to know

 So while everyone else in the city is getting over priced beer and questionable food, we here at Lowe's are eating questionable food and can't find any beer.
No beer? Life sucks!
I will try to be at the parade later this week. It's called the battle of flowers parade. Every time we go, we have a good time. This year I can't forget the sunscreen... and I can't forget my lawn chair. Or my hat. Or the beer. Perhaps I'll even post pictures.
  

Stranger to change

Today didn't start like I wanted things to happen. Some times I feel like I slipped into an alternate dimension while I slept. 
When I wake up, things look the same but with one or two crucial differences that can throw the whole thing out of whack.
Try as I might to roll with the punches, I'm still getting banged around. My oldest had a fever and might have Strep. My wife made breakfast before heading off to work. (Not a bad thing, but unusual.) When I wasn't looking, the Chimearacon staff decided Gary and I would be the best choices for drawing guests to the convention. Not that I'm disagreeing with them, but I have no idea what I'm doing!
So I sat down and banged out two letters inviting these people down to our little slice of Texas. I won't tell you who, but the responses were favorable. Now if I only knew when the con was going to be held. The staff agreed on May because two years ago it was held on Easter weekend. Bad timing. Folks off with family can't come to the con. The one we just had was too close to spring break. People wanted to come, but didn't have the money. Seems like a no-win situation. No one is to blame here. I just didn't know I'd hit two home runs the first time out.
I'm waiting to hear from our glorious leaders about nailing down a weekend. Did I jump the gun a little? Maybe I did. The quick responses did surprise me. Like I told you, I have no clue what I'm doing. And no, I didn't get any writing done. The letters don't count.
  

A day off

This isn't my usual day off request, but I'm going to ask anyway. I've been working my fingers to the bone and my back isn't very happy with me. Atempts have been made every day to do some serious writing. Unfortunately I haven't been that prolific. Getting one page done on my lunch break is a major accomplishment. Personally I consider getting six pages written a good day. On the weekdays I'm falling asleep in front of my computer screen. I'll suddenly startle myself awake only to see a line of ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss across the screen. That's gotta stop. So Saturday I'm going to sit down and have a long writing session. We'll see where that leads. Most of the time I get into a groove and some really creative stuff starts flowing... and then it's time to go back to work.
Some of you have asked how my dog, Pepper, is doing. He's growing very fast. Can out run all of us and has chewed through several walking training leashes. He's smart enough to wriggle out of them if we don't put them on securely enough. Maybe I should have named him Houdini...

Look at those feet

He's got a chew toy in his mouth

 

Greetings and guidelines

So I started passing out my business cards yesterday and I thought it would be a good time to tell folks what I will and won't do.
I will tell you about some of the oddball things that are going on in my life. These are what I call blog worthy. Sometimes they'll include pictures. In the past I've described the blind man riding a mechanical bull and shown you what a cracked steel I-beam looks like. If I find myself saying, 'There's something you don't see every day.', it will make it's way here.

What I won't do:
While my friends are cool and really a kick to be around, I will try not to put their name in the narrative. This just gives them a little privacy. I know, privacy and the internet shouldn't be in the same sentence...
Trashing people isn't cool. By the same token, if someone is a dick to me, I'll call it like I see it. There have been times when I've been a dick to others, but I've been working on trying not be the person(s) you love to hate.

People aren't always assholes all the time. They can be insensitive jerks, but have room for improvement. Most of my friends have redeeming qualities, but I don't agree with their politics or morals. I don't have to hang around these folks all the time. Some times the crazy rubs off.
 

The blame game and other happenings

Tried to post this earlier, but life intervened. Before we get started, I'd just like to send my heartfelt prayers to the victims in the Boston Marathon bombing. To the person or people responsible for this awful tragedy, you just pissed a lot of folks off.

On to business:
My cards came in today. Thanks to my buddy, Bob who clued me in to Vistaprint.

Just this side of snarky

    As soon as I got in to work, one of my friends came up and said; 'Did you see it? The top of the baler is busted.'
By that he meant the cardboard baler. A large machine with a hydraulic press we use to band cardboard boxes together for recycling. But the 'top' is broken? I had no idea what he could be referring to.

At first glance it looks normal

 But lets get a close up, shall we? Upon first seeing it, I thought I was in a bad Micheal Bay movie. The first words out of my bosses mouth: Did you do that? My response was "It wasn't like that when I left Friday night." By questioning various people, we narrowed the time down to after 6 PM on Friday and before noon on Saturday. Now the only thing strong enough to crack a steel I beam is the press sitting on top of the baler. Now instead of saying Holy crap on a cracker, I'm going to say Holy cracked girders! It's my new catch phrase.

That's a steel girder

A cracked steel girder

Good times, bad times

I'm writing this from my slightly over heated house. My air conditioner broke a few days ago. The kids had school while my wife and I worked. This left the dog at home during the day. Now, the good news. It's not that hot in Texas... yet. Wait a week, we'll hit the high temps soon enough. Between the fans and some strategically placed curtains, we can keep things from getting out of hand. If it got any hotter, I'd have the dog stay outside with a water dish. Actually during the summer it isn't a bad idea to get a kiddie pool so the dog can keep cool.
Carol will be getting paid in a few days and we know some people who can fix our AC. So it will work out in a day or three.
With the days averaging 75 to 80 degrees F ( 23 to 28 C for my Norwegian,German and Russian viewers. By the way, thanks for tuning in.) I took the day off to do a little fishing. Perfect weather for it and a good excuse to get out of the house. Besides, all the daughters are PMS'ing. Mom along with them too. All their cycles lined up. So I did the only sane thing: to save their lives, I went fishing. If I had to stay in the house with four bitchy females, I'd kill them.
This way everybody lives. I call that a win/win scenario.
Tomorrow I'll clean out the garage and take another crack at fixing our leaky shower. Somehow or another I wanted to have time to write a story that has been kicking around in my head. Well... there are two ideas I wrote down. One is a creepy short. The other one is a short about Daniel and Charlotte where our Scottish lass gets to rescue Daniel. If the D & C story turns out well enough, I might find a way to incorporate that into the next book.
 I'm going to have to find a phrase that describes my heroes. Time traveling sleuths? Monster hunting detectives? (Larry Corriea has that corner of the genre all wrapped up.) 
Nineteenth century nightstalkers? That deals with the time period and what they go after.
The absinthe detectives? Steam punk overtures combined with crime fighting.
I'll throw the floor open to you guys. If you can come up with a good suggestion for what I should call Daniel and Charlotte, leave it in the comment box. If I use it, I'll credit you in the next book.