On the iTunes playlist right now...

As the taxi should be coming to my door...


I'm so tired, of playing
Playing with this bow and arrow
Gonna give my heart away
Leave it to the other girls to play
For I've been a temptress too long

Just. .

Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be be, a woman
I just wanna be a woman

From this time, unchained
We're all looking at a different picture
Thru this new frame of mind
A thousand flowers could bloom
Move over, and give us some room

Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be ee, a woman
I just wanna be a woman

[INSTRUMENTAL]

So don't you stop, being a man
Just take a little look from our side when you can
Sow a little tenderness
No matter if you cry

Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be ee, a woman
Its all I wanna be is all woman

For this is the beginning of forever and ever

Its time to move over... ...

Apropos. Nite ladies and gents.

-Rich

Fuck the berserkers.

Whale oil beef hooked.

ALl you Irish folk, you know what's what now. Say Hi to Finn McCool if you see him. And have a Red Bull and Ketel One at Ned Devine's on McLean for me. Smeg off to the rest of you. Been a bad night and I need to go back out.

-Rich

More of a mental progress chart than anything

Just writing down where the beloved Jeep is at in her upgrade progression. What's she got that makes her better suited to be off road....Hi-Lift, CB with well-tuned antenna, 3-core radiator, shovel, axe, tuff-ass bumpers with recovery points, recovery straps (1@20' and 1 @30'), engine skid, t-case/tranny skid, armored diff covers, rocker panel armor, sleeved frame rails, gas tank skid (about to be bolted on), Optima red top, heavy duty ground wiring, HO alternator, 700 watt inverter, 3 130 watt Explorer ProComp lights on the bumper, onboard air compressor with 2.5 gallon tank, Garmin Rino 130 GPS..that's about it. Soon to go on is the beloved 4.5" lift from Rubicon Express and Doetsch Tech shocks complete with bar pin elimintors. Got 5 15x8 black rims with 32x11.50 BFG MT's waiting anxiously, too. Now, what about a winch...that's a good solid $500 that I have yet to spend. Maybe a birthday present to myself. Nice little Warn M8000.

OK, on to the meaty stuff. Tomorrow is halfway to St Pat's. So I have to make a stop to see Laura around 6 to celebrate. Then on to another bar or 6. Should be entertaining. Always is. Maybe Jesse will be there. I should be so lucky. But I have to work on Saturday, so I must play in moderation tomorrow night. That can be pretty damned hard. And this weekend is firefighter's weekend here. So I must pay tribute to Bill and Pat at the fallen firefighters' memorial. And George (for you K-Pax!). So that's that. Nice, jam-packed weekend. Talk to you all later. Nite!

I drove down south to heaven....

The song came up on my iTunes list and it's a blast form the past. Thoughts of Amy (old housemate in Hartsdale) and the whole Y2K deal. Unreal, the things that we think and/or fear will happen simply because we are an ignorant species...far too easily satisfied. Speaking of which, Coqui has successfully melded back into Argentina. And if she happens to be reading this (she never comments...hint hint) I hope you siblings are on the road to beating their little illness!

And my old store that I used to manage came up in a search tonight. Aaaah, Mount Kisco. How I miss you sometimes. The 4:30 AM ritual. The turning on of the fireplace. The first shots of espresso, with a smidge of whipped cream. How delightful. That little burst of peace before MetroNorth claimed the rest of my everyday.

OK, had to share that little tidbit of history. Memories!

Nite, kids.

No tears for this goodbye

I got told this weekend to lose someone's number. Huh. Kinda harsh. Well, it happened again. The giver in me is a piece of shit who knows not when to stop. After moving the ex into her dorm for her last 2 blocks of college and buying all kinds of shit with her for her room, and driving all over this great city, she got so pissed at me because I told her I was done talking about something. Basically, I am sick of being held accountable for something that I did while we were dating, over a year ago. I have apologized. I have grown. She dumped me because of it. I have moved, she has been in Park the whole time. Spoiled little bitch. Then she tells me that my childhood trauma was bullshit and it's bullshit that a shrink would attribute some of current dilema tha I am growing out of to my early years. Huh. Isn't that what it's all about?

OK, done ranting. Almost. One more quicky. Went to the damned dentist today and got a checkup. Found a damned dirty cavity and he recommend pulling my wisdom tooth that had grown in just fine. So, that is something dreamy to look forward to.

So I have been daydreaming about traveling. The kind of travel you do when life seems like it has something bettter for you. Just not where you are at. I missed out on Burning Man this year, and it sucks. This year would have been a good one, especially after last year's mess. So, next year. Gonna get tickets as soon as they are available and plan on taking the XJ. She will love it there. I know it. Maybe she'll meet a cute boy Jeep and they can get acquainted.

The CO chapter of NAXJA is meeting in a couple weekends up in Spring Creek , and I am scrambling to get it all put together for the meeting/trail run. Got a spotter already secured. Hope she's cool with being off-camber and hearing nasty-sounding scraping noises. She says she is. We'll see! Another Coloradoan who has never been 'froading. It'll be fun. Need to secure the cooler in the back, too. Last time, we got a little tipsy and the contents decided to present themselves all over the cargo area. Nice.

Hmmm, what's playing? David Grey, soon to follwed by Dashboard Confessionals. Looking for something gentle tonight. Tomorrow? Well, that'll be another story. Not much time for music. Got a little date with a lady from my regular starting point. So I am betting the music will be a little livelier. OK. I gotta go. Time to actually get something done here.

-Rich

Sorry for the lag.

An apology mostly to myself. In this time I have been having this week, I need this place most. But I have used it so little. Since last entry, the world has opened up and swallowed someone dear. My grandfather (Mom's Dad) passed away Tuesday morning, very early. He was my last grandparent, and someone who has gotten close to me since his wife died 5 years ago. We traced my heritage together. He told me terrific war stories of WWII on a sub. We laughed about a lot of our family. We just finally got to know each other as people, not relatives. It has been a good time. It will be a very small ceremony, and I feel OK not flying back East to be there. I spent many hours Tuesday after work making a plaque for him to take with him, wherever he is headed. FedEx'd it out Weds AM and that will be that. The wake was today, the funeral tomorrow. The world will be a different place without him, and my Mother is not having a good time at all. There is no silver lining. Nothing to sigh relief about. I feel her pain. I wish it away. Until it finds a place to go instead of sitting in her heart, I just feel bad. Helpless. My worst fear:being helpless.

So I ran and ran and ran tonight. Kicked my own ass on the trail. My gut hurts from it. My calves are mad at me. My nasal passages are so clear it hurts to breathe through them. I love it. Took my mind of what it has been dealing with a lot. I needed that.

So here's a question from another blog...do you really think people (guys, in this instance) are generally in better shape in their 20's or 30's? Now, I am used to not being the "norm". Like there is one. But in my 20's, I was in college. And I moved out on my own and began to pay all my loans and bills by myself. So sure, I started with a little beer gut. And then went to starvation in order to make my own ends meet. But late 20's brought loan repayment and beginning to actually make my own groove. Back up to a respectable weight, running a steel shop, making tolerable money and enjoying the outdoors doing it, and exercising like mad. Mountain biking, skiing, running, skating, anything outdoors. This winter I will even don a snowboard for the first time. So that's that. I am in WAY better shape now. I was never far out of shape, but I am in good shape now. I hope I am not the exception. Life is already too short and unpredictable for one to squander it away being a wreck. That's my 2 pennies.

OK, my brief entry has swelled, and I feel better now. So to my grandfather...I hope you found what you thought you would. I miss you already.

And to everyone else, good night and be well.

Plans are made...

Hitting a nice trail next weekend. The Jeep will love me! A friend from another trip and some local folks (literally, down the street) and a couple from Denver will be tackling Chinaman's Gulch for a nice little weekender. Finished my rock sliders, and put a few finishing touches on the t-case/tranny skid. Not sure if I will get Martin's quarter panel guards on in time, but I have hopes. He busted his hump to get them ready, the least I can do is mount them in time for this trip! Should be a fun, possibly damaging time. Now, to find a spotter. Laura wants to go, but isn't sure about the work deal, so I need an alternate. This should be interesting. Gotta find someone willing to crawl around rocks and mud and hold the fate of Ruby in their hands as they are guiding me. Yup. Piece of cake.

Anyway, had a dreamy bucket of Lo Mein today with Beth, which was totally unexpected. Especially after our run at the Garden tonight. We're having a good old time. I can't wait for the other foot to drop.

Talked to Laura and she wants me to stop by Stef's wedding reception tomorrow night. So I penciled that in tomorrow night. Just gotta figure out what to wear. Wanna look dapper and all that, but definitely don't want to stick out. We'll see.

Catalogued my photos, at least most of the digital ones. Coqui's pics from Seattle are amazing. Going out tomorrow to buy some simple frames to put a couple in.

And I have to have to have to burn a CD of some photos for my folks. They have been hounding me, and they deserve it, for sure. So I will get it in the mail for them Tuesday. I just love these huge, days-away to-do lists.

Gonna hit the hay, as tomorrow will be tremendously busy. Gotta wire in the inverter and compressors in the Jeep and mount the armor. And move Beth into her dorm. And go to a reception. And...well, lots of stuff. Talk to you all soon.

-Rich

Waiting for what, again?

Standing at the airport, top of the arrivals ramp. Wondering what the fuck I was doing there. Waiting for Beth. I told her I would pick her up, which I guess is fine. I am just so tired of her and she isn't even here yet. So tonight when she started being her usual self-esteem-less troll, I just stopped and told her I was going out. She tried to get mad, then I told her not to bite the hand that feeds her. She is a guest here and supposedly I am her best friend, so she should treat me more like it.

Boy, if you think she was bothered before I said that...you shoulda seen her after that. But she eventually saw it. And that's good. I just know it didn't change anything. Some people are destined to stay young and with blinders on.

Talked to Laura tonight, and cancelled some plans. Worked out OK for us both, as she was knee deep in baking her best friend's wedding cake. And no end was in sight. So I did what I thought was right and told her the world owed us a night, and made her make plans so she and I both knew neither was a flake. So we have plans to get get Indian food and a few drinks afterwards. Sunday night. Must take a cab, since the CSPD is in the middle of its big DWI crunch, and I will NOT get caught in any part of that mess. My luck? the cabby will be drunk and get stopped.

So in other news, the SETI@home project found potential life out there in the hydrogen spectrum. A signal has been repeated and picked up 3 times at Arecibo, originating from a point in space between Pisces and Aries. Happy days, maybe.

OK, that's all. Hope the world is treating you well. Coqui, hope Argentina is welcoming you home as it should be. Talk to you all soon!

-Rich