Family Time Spent the evening over in Lilburn with Brian (my cousin) and Kelly (his GF). This was our nearly annual Christmas get together. This year I brought along National Lampoons’ Christmas Vacation. For me, this is tradition. I don’t know when I began watching this each and every year, but eventually I had to…

Making it Happen Well, I’ve spent enough time talking about the possibilities of the New Year. I just registered for a writing class that’s part of Emory’s Lifetime Learning program, i.e. continuing education. I waffled back and forth. There were a couple of classes in which I was interested. I was going to choose a…

Here’s a paradox. I took a day off work today to get my first annual physical. I had a very detailed check-up last year, but it was in response to being sick. I observed at the time that I never went to the doctor unless I didn’t feel well, and my doctor suggested it was…

It’s been a long year of travel mixed with some consternation. I have left the borders of my own country twice already in 2004. I had always dreamed of travel but it somehow always seemed out of reach. I’m not sure if I placed it out of reach or if it truly was. After my…

Growing Old Is Hard To Do A long week for me. I began it by going to see Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers at Smith’s Olde Bar Monday night. I stayed out much too late, but it’s rare that I do these things, so I guess I deserve some slack. I had a great time…

Childhood I’ve been reflecting on childhood in the small town versus what it must be today in a place like Atlanta. I guess all things are relative to what you experienced. If you had asked me as a teenager if I would ever look back on life in a small town as something positive, I…

Long weekend. I spent much of it working on my yard. I think the beds in front of my house look much better at least. For the most part, it would have been a good if tiring weekend, but Monday evening, my Mom called me to inform me that her car was stolen. It was…

Another weekend is here and I’m being so lazy. I woke up at 8:30am and all I’ve done is read the paper and a little hand pruning of my garden. I need to finish cleaning the house. I’m in the midst of refinancing my house (of course after all the best deals have passed by)….

Spent the weekend with the folks for Mother’s day and so that I could retrieve my cats. Took Friday off, so had a three day weekend with them. Worked on painting the trim on the back of the house. It’s looking good for a house in the realm of 100 years. By the end of…

“Remember your childhood and pass it on…” For around three years, I’ve been hearing about Herobear and the Kid. This story was written and drawn by Mike Kunkel, an animator who from an early age had the itch to draw. Although he chose to scratch this itch first as an animator, this personal project has…

The Con has Come and Gone I thought I would give a blow-by-blow account of Atlanta Comicon 2004, but you’ll have to settle for an after-the-fact and perhaps sketchy accounting. …but only after I load the dryer, which was what I came up here for half an hour ago…. Okay, and after that episode of…

Nicest thing said to me in awhile Yesterday as I was getting ready to head over to Atlanta Comicon (more to come on that after it’s over), the neighbor’s grandkid, who I’d guess is right about to hit his teen years or just has, asked me if I was a college student…. Now, I’m guessing…

Real Work Speaking of overheard conversations, here’s one from yesterday that I was outside of and found rather interesting. Co-workers were complaining about the recently published salary of our CEO and the other officers. They are, needless to say, many times that of the peon workers. And they were upset about it in the wake…

Weight Watchers Zealots For over an hour this morning, I listened to co-workers behind me preaching the gospel of weight watchers to another co-worker. I don’t believe that I will ever understand the fanaticism that some people feel about a life style that works for them, be it religious or otherwise. I’ve been on an…

The Month that was just too much I hope that this isn’t any kind of portent for my trip to London next week. The week prior one friend was dealing with the loss of her home and belongings by fire. I went home and spent some quality time with the parents and dropped off my…

Belated Condolences What a week… I haven’t had the energy to post or the ability to form a coherent sentence. Sunday was a restful day for me. I did laundry and I pulled out the can of paint that I had for my guest room/office. I’m taking the slow and easy approach to painting it….

Footnote Very cool news that last night’s concert at Smith’s Olde Bar for RCPM was indeed sold out!!!! YAYYYY!!! Good news for the band!

Ah Sweeeetttttt Met up with Brian & Kelly and saw Hellboy! Very awesome movie! Totally enjoyed it. Awesome work by the director and actors in understanding the source material and the characters they were playing. Really a very entertaining two hours! We also got to survey the movie and I gave it the highest marks…

Am I nuts? I’ve felt better today – no achy-achy-side, so what do I do when I finally get moving enough to consider myself actually awake? I go out and whack away at my scuppernong vines. I need to do a little more with them, but they were beginning to bud. You only get fruit…

You’re Getting Very Sleepy… Had my doctor’s appointment on Thursday. It is a pulled muscle that’s causing the pain in my side. They’re muscle spasms and can be brought on by something as minor as breathing. Yay!! I’m glad it’s nothing more serious, but I’ll be glad for it getting better. He prescribed an anti-inflammatory…

Time Marches On Had to skip my morning treadmill torture today. I’ve had a catch or something in my side for two days. Today, I felt it on awakening, an almost stab-like sensation on my right side right about the bottom of the rib cage. Another one hit in the shower. Where the first few…

File this one under: You know you’re getting old when: You go to work and spend the first two hours of the day wondering whether or not you turned off the heating pad that you were using to doctor your aching foot. And then you finally leave work and take an abbreviated lunch just that…

Whoever catalogues the Radio Stations for Windows Media Player needs to be shot. This morning, running behind and tired of listening to the same couple of albums saved as MP3’s on my hard drive, I decided to tune into some net radio during my morning jaunt on the tread mill. I picked an alternative rock…

First post of the New Year! Had a nice Christmas at home with the family. Spent a full week with my parents. I think that may be the first time since I moved to Atlanta 6 years ago. Every trip home that was very long usually included a trip to see other family… Still, it…

Much to report here at my oft-neglected BLOG. First last night – Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers came through again! I think that makes 4 or 5 times that I’ve seen them at Smiths Olde Bar. I took my digital camera, so I will post some pictures sooner or later (hopefully sooner, but I’m going…

Thanksgiving Cactus Almost two years ago, I visited my now-late grandmother at Christmas. While there, she gave me cuttings from two of her cacti. She told me one was a Thanksgiving and the other a Christmas cactus – the main difference being when they would bloom. Neither of them bloomed last year. This past January,…

Today would have been Granny’s 93 birthday. Last year my Dad and I went to see her a couple of days before her birthday since it was on a weekday, as this year. That’s the last time I really had a conversation with her. When I saw her on Christmas Eve, she was in ICU….

Nice weekend at home. I finished painting the trim on the front of the house and painted half of the porch floor. Also reglazed all of the windows I could reach (the ones behind fixed storm windows (if they even need it) will have to wait until I pull down the storms to paint those…

There’s so much I could say about the year to date. The highs, the lows – unfortunately more of the latter. Beginning with the loss of my grandmother in January and continuing with my mom’s multiple surgeries for a broken ankle in Feb, it’s been quite a year. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t…

It’s been over a week since we laid Granny to rest at Macedonia next to a grandfather that none of us grandchildren knew. She outlived him by almost 40 years, time enough to see all her grandchildren born and raised into adulthood and for the beginnings of another generation to creep in. But to me,…

It happened today in the late afternoon in South Alabama. My grandmother passed away. Intellectually, I can face it. Emotionally, I don’t think I’ll totally believe it until I’m at the funeral. I find it so hard to imagine never speaking to her again. It was hard watching even from my distance, the slow loss…

I haven’t written lately. I haven’t known what to say. On top of my own all-too-natural questioning of the universe and my place in it, I’ve been dealing at a long distance with feelings over my grandmother’s deteriorating physical condition. Everytime I talk to someone about it, I seem determined to tell them she’s 92…

About a week ago, Jonathan Harris, better known as Dr. Smith from Lost in Space, one of my favorite shows of childhood, passed away. It actually took a couple of days for the news to break, which is additionally sad. I was numb for about two days after I heard the news. It was like…

Have to post the lyrics to this song. Sung by Mark Wills (I know scary – country music, me??) and written by (according to my info) Chris Dubois and David Lee. Everytime I hear this song, I’m taken back to those long ago childhood years. They retreat further into the past every day. Saw Star…

Been feeling a little lighter the last day or so. That’s a positive thing at least! Friday night we went to a cornfield maze in Canton, GA. It was interesting, tho I felt like I was mostly just fumbling around in the dark. Ironically the same day, one of my managers sent out an e-mail…