taxpayer rant and the balloon profiteer

Well, we have a new president.  I have serious mixed feelings about the whole thing since I kind of like him and I kind of don’t.  I also despise the fact that so much tax payer money is being wasted on security for the inaguration.  150 million just on security was a figure I had heard this morning on the radio.  I don’t know the accuracy of that figure, or the truth behind the statement that 10 times the amount is being spent on security for this inaguration than any before.  It is my opinion that while the country is in such a dire state that the lavish parties should go.  If 150 million alone is being spent on security for this one event, how much is being spent on all of the balls,  parties, and concerts.  Who’s paying the bill there as well?  The tax payers I have to assume.  Don’t get me wrong, I believe that we should celebrate our first African American President, but is it worth the hundreds of millions of tax payer dollars? 

I say no.  Not because I didn’t vote for Barack.  But because that money could have been routed to the poor, homeless, unemployed, uninsured, unmedicated, elderly, or handicapped.  Do you know how many people that much money feeds?  I’ll get down off my soapbox now, but i’ll just say that I am ill from seeing and hearing about how wasteful our government is.  Apparently my wife doesn’t feel the same was as I do on this issue. 

(akward silence)

(crickets chirping)

To end this in a not so angry way, I’ll share with you a  funny story that came out of my balloon twisting session www.iloveballoonanimals.com this past Friday night at Nero’s Pizza. 

Around two months ago I was twisting balloons in the bar area of the restaurant and I received a request from a child who wanted a rifle made out of balloons.  Typically I don’t make guns out of balloons for kids, because the last thing I need on my conscience is to get word that my balloon gun was mistaken for a real one and someone got shot because of it.  Not that you could easily mistake a balloon for a gun, but I am good at balloon twisting and from a distance they do look remotely real.  Anywho, since the child’s father was with him and he approved, I began to twist this rifle with scope for the boy.  Ten minutes later I had created something that looked pretty similar to a balloon rifle and the child was amazed with what had become of air and latex right before his very eyes.  At the next table I visited, having seen the rifle created, a request was put in for another one.  So, another 10 minutes later,  a second balloon rifle was born. 

10 minutes is a long time to spend on one creation.  Typically I spend 2-3 minutes per item and move on. 

15 minutes later, a rather large group arrived for a post basketball game party.  The group included 15 children with ages ranging from 7-15.  Well sure enough, the older boys see the rifle that I had made and had to have one.  With a group that size and with the time that Nero’s pays me to entertain (2 hours) I can not afford to spend 10 minutes on a creation for one child in a group of that size or else I will not get to other children waiting.  So, I told him that I do not have time to make the rifle for him since I could see that not only he wanted it but other boys in the group wanted one as well.  The other children got over it pretty quickly, but the oldest boy would not move on even after I made him a huge hillarious balloon hat.  So, after about 30 minutes I finished with all of thie children in this particular group and made my way to the other side of the restaurant. 

When out of the corner of my eye I see the kid who had to have a rifle running around the restaurant holding one of the balloon rifles from earlier.  It was time for me to go and I never found out how he got that balloon rifle…until last friday night.

I walked up to a table of regulars and said hello and asked what the youngsters would like me to make them, and the older boy said “Do you remember the rifle you made for me a few months ago?”  “Yes, I do.” I replied.  Those rifles took me a long time.  “Do you know what happened to mine after you left?” he asked me.  Typically when a child asks me if I know what happened to their balloon after I make it for them, the answer is “It Popped!” So, I said, “It Popped?”  “No, I sold it.” 

“You sold it?”  I asked.

“Yes” as he began to giggle. 

“Who did you sell it to?”

“There was an older kid who wanted one really badly.”

“How much did you sell it to him for?”

“Ten bucks.” 

“So, let me get this straight…I spent 10 minutes twisting you this awesome rifle that you had to have, and you turned it over for ten bucks within an hour of me making it for you?”

“giggles” 

If the kid would have simply said “I’ll give you ten dollars if you make me a rifle” I might have made one for him.

Filed under: Barack Obama, Vote, balloon, bitchy, grouchy, stupid, train wreck

Overwhelmed

That is a good word today.  Overwhelmed.  Not with work, but with church crap and it’s killing me.  Somehow I inherited responsibility on a Pancake Breakfast at our church and I am overly pissed because I don’t give a rat’s ass about it.  It’s not mine.  I’m not doing anything for it.  So, as I did nothing and the event neared, the people who used to run it started a smear campaign making it appear to everyone at our church that I am dropping the ball.  This has passed the funny point because I can’t even attend the event, much less run it.  I have even gone to the extent of telling people I don’t have time.  But no one will do it. 

So, here I sit today trying to work while calling Sam’s club and Jewel osco to order 38 gallons of orange juice and 12 gallons of Milk.  I bet you didn’t think obtaining that many gallons of milk and juice could be a difficult thing, did you.  It shouldn’t be.  But for some reason when you call sam’s club and jewel osco the fine people at the customer service desk forward you to the dairy section where you will either get an elderly man that can’t hear you because he’s on the loud sales floor or you get a stocker who has no authority to handle such a complex transaction.  Thanks to the old guy, my entire sales floor now knows that I am in need ot 38 gallons of juice and 12 gallons of milk.  I have had several coworkers stop by asking me what the hell I’m going to do with 38 gallons of juice.  Why can’t I hit two different grocery stores the morning of without preordering?

What sucks even more about this is if I truly did not do anything about this event and let it fall apart, so would my name and reputation at church.  What a mess.  I am so ready to just move to a church where people have no idea who I am and I can be like a normal person and attend Mass and not have to worry about arriving before and staying for several masses to sell Pancake Breakfast tickets.

On a lighter note, I played video games last night online with strangers for the first time.  I would say it was accidental really.  Having only had the Wii set up for two days now, I am still experimenting with it and clicked on one of the Mario Kart options to which it launched a screen and within 1 minute I was racing with strangers from all over the world.  Three hours later it was midnight and time to put it away.  The last time I was this into a video game system must have been well over 15 years ago and I keep waiting for my mother to come busting in the room and screaming at me to finish my homework.  

I don’t know what it is, but by the time I got home last night, I quickly showered, cooked dinner, did the laundry, did the dishes and looked at my wife as if to say “I did my homework, can I play the Wii now?”  It’s sad that something so funny as the Wii can make me feel like a little kid again.  If I wasn’t so lean on vacation hours with our 10 day Christmas trip to Las Vegas and Phoenix coming up for New Years, I would call in sick and play that thing all freaking day.

Filed under: Church, Cry baby, Wii, asspain, grouchy, peer pressure, wife

stupid birthday thoughts

Wakey, Wakey…one week until my birthday cakey, cakey…(I stole that from My Name is Earl)

I don’t really know how to call these thoughts anything but stupid, but I am really torn about my impending birthday coming up in less than a week. 

Let me preface this story by saying I love birthdays.  I love to celebrate birthdays and I love having birthdays.  I love celebrating my own birthday.  But my issue in life has been this.  I was born on or around Thanksgiving.  I have to describe it as “on or around” since thanksigiving is a different day each year depending on when the fourth Thursday or each year is.  Sometimes my birthday falls on Thanksgiving (2013), sometimes it’s the day after (as it is this year), sometimes it is the weekend after (2010, 2011) and sometimes it is almost a whole week after (2012).  Regardless, the majority of the time my birthday falls during a time when additional celebration outside of the traditional Thanksgiving gatherings just doesn’t happen.  So I am often times left to celebrate all by my lonesome (insert violin music here).  

What usually offsets my lonliness on my birthday is focusing on the materialistic side of things and what I might get.  My wife struggles with my birthday since I never tell her what I want.  I have a hard time telling her what I want when I don’t even know what I want.  I have wanted a Wii for over a year now, and have even had one staring right at me available for purchase but I passed. 

I think I have finally decided that I need more violence in my life so I am going to get an XBox 360 combined with the new Grand Theft Auto.  There is just nothing like popping caps in people’s asses and bitch slapping ho’s  in a video game.  On occasion when I am really stressed out, I will pull out the older Playstation two and play GTA San Adreas just to shoot and kill things.  It’s kind of a stress relief.  And now that the snow has begun to fall and it’s colder than shit out, I have looked back on the spring summer and fall and wondered where the hell it went.  With my regular job, and my balloon business, and all of the travels, I actually had a total of 3 non working non traveling days.  That’s just three complete days where I didn’t have to go sit at a computer desk all day, go to some party and twist balloons, or get on a plane and fly somewhere for an extended amount of time.  So as of right now I have begun decreasing the amount of balloon parties I take and I am going to enjoy some weekends at home and some time off.  I am looking forward to the holidays. 

I’m off to go twist balloons for a few hours this evening and the rest of this weekend will hopefully be filled with all sorts of inebriation.

Filed under: Birthday, drunk, grouchy, wife, work

Get out and vote already!

“Happy Erection Day!”  A least that is how I was greeted this morning as I entered my office building by an oriental gentleman who seemed to be unable to deliver the appropriate “L” sound when needed.  I laughed out loud and looked around to see if anyone else heard what I had, but unfortunately I was on an island all by my lonesome for that brief hysterical moment.  I had flashbacks of the scene in A Christmas Story where they are being serinaded by the oriental staff that kept singing Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra….Ra..Ra..Ra….Ra.. instead of Fa La La La La La…La..La..La…La. 

In honor of election day, I will share this little nugget with you.  The young strapping lad on the right is my grandfather.  The young strapping lad on the left is John McCain.  A few months ago while visiting with my grandfather, he pulled out this picture and asked what I thought about it.  My jaw dropped when I realized that was John McCain shaking the hand of my grandfather.  Pretty cool.  I sat the photo down ont he counter and took out my digital camera and took a snapshot of the photo to preserve it. 

William Cassidy and John McCain

It’s not the best quality, but for a photo of a photo, it looks pretty good.  This photo was taken at a VFW many years ago.  My grandpa thinks it was within the last twenty years and judging by the Bud Light cans of beer they were drinking, I would bet that he is probably spot on.  My grandfather is a pimp with the shaded glasses on. 

I’m digging John McCain’s combover.  My friends that know me know that I am a connoisseur of interesting hair ensembles. 

I don’t know much, but I do know I am a fan of any hair style that calls for a diagram and instructions on how to assemble the hair. 

Or the ever popular and not so rare Mullet:

Hey, watch this!!!

I have no idea what it is, but how people choose to hide their physical insecurity is comical to me. 

This train has flown off the track. Sorry about being all over the road, but my mind is about as focused as an ADHD kid this morning. 

My wife and I got in an argument today about voting.  I simply asked the question “who did you vote for?” and she flew off the handle.  “It’s none of your business…” was a repeated response. 

“Really?”  “None of my business?”  Wow.  I can’t come to grips with how who she is voting for is none of my business, considering that we are partners in life and we should be voting for who we believe will make our country a better place.  Her secrecy really angered me since I don’t believe that secrets go well in a marriage especially if the other spouse knows about the secret.  After 10 minutes of my argument as to why it’s important that we are on the same page about who should be president, she finally agreed, but by that time, I was so annoyed and have no interest in knowing. 

That argument actually made me want to work late this evening.  Wow. 

Happy erection day everyone!!!

Filed under: Vote, grouchy, wife, work , Vote, McCain, wife

Rainman

Last night I brought my wife to tears and I feel just absolutely horrible thinking about it.  Upon my arrival home for what I thought would be a fun evening together, I recommended that we go for a bike ride.  She agreed and off we went. This is the second bike ride that she and I have ever been on, and the 78 degree temp in mid october felt like it was summer.  We had a nice hour long bike ride through the neighborhood, and arrived home in time for me to begin dinner and prepare for Monday Night Football. 

On Mondays I like to cook dinner and have everything finished so we can sit down just before the game begins so I can watch while we eat.  Now I know that isn’t a “quality” dinner time with the wife, which is why I go out of my way to get home from work early so we can either go for a walk or in this instance, a bike ride so stop with the “that’s unhealthy” thoughts already. 

As I walked into the house sweaty, tired, and uncomfortable from riding the bike, I get ready to start preparing dinner.  I decided to cook out on the grill.  With all the windows open in the house, I can stand out on the deck with a large window open so that I can hear and watch the pre monday night football show on ESPN while I cook.  It’s a Win Win.  I cook dinner and get to watch football.  My wife exited the living room as I looked at her and begin singing the Monday Night Football theme.  As I pick up the controller I sing “Are you ready for some football!!!?!!!”  “A Monday Night Party!!!”  My wife has now completely gone out of site. 

So, I turn on the television and see that a movie is on the FX channel since the pre football show isn’t on yet, and I get a blank screen with the message “This channel is not available”.  Weird, I thought since I watch that channel all the time.  Thinking it’s a Directv issue, I decide just to put it on ESPN and wait until the program begins, so I flip it to ESPN and behold, I get the same black screen and message.  I go to the local stations to find that they are working just fine. 

This is where I began to seriously panic.  It wasn’t more than six months ago that my wife cut back on our directv package to save money.  I lost several channels that I watched on a very frequent basis and we fought over it for some time.  I gave in since saving money is in our best interest and I settled for the channels that we do still have which I will admit is a lot.  I also realized that yesterday was Columbus day leaving my wife home all day to pay the bills which means that she was looking for ways to cut more money out of the budget and I am now staring at an hour before kickoff without ESPN, thus leaving me unable to watch Monday NIght Football. 

My wife is in our bedroom. 

“Honey, did you do anything today with Directv to alter our channels in any way?”  I asked this knowing the answer, but hoping she would say “No.” 

“Maybe…why?” she asks back fearful of what is to come. 

She came out to the living room to experience what I believe has to be the most immature embarrasing act of my life.  In between me telling her to get her ass on the phone with Directv and reverse everything she had done and saying that if she didn’t she would see me re-enact violently the scene from rainmain where Dustin Hoffman had a fit over not getting to watch The Peoples Court, I might have said other immature things.  I don’t recall because at one point I had plugged my ears and began screaming while stomping on the floor in front of the television. 

My wife, being a kindergarten teacher, was albe to identify that she was right smack dab in the middle of a six year old breakdown and reatreated back to the bedroom to call Directv.  After five minutes of me slamming cupboards and pots and pans, ESPN appeared on the television screen and my rage began to settle.  Within a good five miutes my behavior had begun flashing through my brain and embarrasment began settling in. 

I think I apologized for my behavior no less than fifty times including one mid prayer before dinner directly to my wife.  If telling God that I am sorry for acting like a five year out loud in front of my wife doesn’t tell her I am truly sorry, then I don’t know what will. 

I don’t know what my issue is, but I know this little incident signifies a bigger issue.  I need help.

Filed under: Addiction, Cry baby, Rain Man, bitchy, grouchy, stupid, train wreck, weird, wife

Weekend fly by

The weekend came and went as it seems to do as I get older.  Friday night was filled with twisting balloons as usual.  Saturday, I indulged in my fantasy football addiction by driving down to Bloomington to partake in the third of five fantasy football drafts scheduled for this year.  As is a tradition when I roll through my old college town, I try and end it on a high note by picking up a LaBamba’s burrito before I hit the road, and I am thankful I did.  It’s same that something so stupid as a burrito makes me happy, but it does. 

On Sunday, we wrapped up my wife’s birthday week celebration with tickets to the Cubs game.  Some firsts happened in my life after the game, and I’m not able to speak of the events yet, but I will be able to soon.  It’s not often that I experience first times in my life for anything and when they do, I don’t really know how to react.  I wish I could elaborate more, but in a few weeks more will come out about it because lately I have been experiencing many firsts. 

I haven’t posted much on here about Facebook, but I am a big fan.  Within the past two months of being on it, I have been reunited with friends that I haven’t seen since the 6th grade.  Since I moved around a ton as a child, gaining new friends and saying goodbye to them was a common event.  Just in my sixth grade year, I managed to go to four different schools.  Even after losing touch with some of my closest friends from high school, face book has brought us together again.  It’s like a chain reaction.  One friend finds  you, and they are linked to other friends, and before you know it, you have 20-30 people that you haven’t spoken with in 15-20 years emailing you.  It’s funny to see how people have turned out over the years.  You know the story…the geek’s are now body builders…and the thin and beautiful are now fat.  It isn’t really that dramatic, but there has been a few surprises sprinkled in my reunions.  One thing I will say for sure is that based on some of my ex girlyfriends online pictures, I am thankful I jumped ship when I did.

Filed under: Cubs, balloon, face book, grouchy, mean, stupid, train wreck, weekend, weird, wife

Confused

That is the general theme of not just today, but mostly this week.  There have been some great debates going on inside my brain, and I only wish that it could be seen by the masses.  It would probably be similar to that channel on TV where they film all of the congressmen and congresswomen as they debate and vote on laws…seriously boring, but something you find yourself watching because nothing else is on. 

I have gone this week from deciding to stick things out with my current employer…to thinking I would quit and just do my sidebusiness…to wanting to go back to school and be a teacher…and after all of that, I still don’t know what the hell I want to do.  Is this a pre mid life crisis?  The only thing I am certain about is the fact that I want to live on a beach somewhere, but making that dream come true is still a good 25 years away. 

The teacher bit is a little cloudy, because that would mean going back to school and at the age of 31, I don’t mind the concept of going back, but it would likely mean doing years of schooling, and potentially not getting to actually begin teaching until around the age of 35.  I know that I would enjoy teaching, particularly acting and art, and even possibly coaching the speech team as well.  The fact that my wife is a teacher and we would both have 3 months off to do whatever we wanted to do during that time is probably the most appealing thing to me.  That and the fact that my paycheck wouldn’t necessarily be decitated by the economy so much.  The more I type, the more I like this option most.  I guess if I start at the age of 35, then that would still give me a good 25 years of teaching before I would retire.   I also can’t help but see all the fun things that my friends get to do during their summer months while I am sitting behind a desk all day. 

I am glad that this week is quickly passing because it definitely wasn’t one of my finer ones.  I think I might just need someone to walk up and slap me across the face in an attempt to snap out of this mental funk I am in like they would do in the movies.  If someone could do this, while screaming the words, “SNAP OUT OF IT!!!” I would feel that the week wasn’t a total waste.  I wouldn’t even be mad…

At this point, it’s hard to be excited about the weekend.  Apparently some group that opposes Scientology is going to be protesting in Millenium park tomorrow from 11-4.  The group is called Anonymous, and it is an internet uprising that I have heard is pretty secretive and downright weird.  The only reason I have any interest is because their protests have been said to be a bit on the unusual side, and I am a fan of the unusual.  I may head down to do some people watching tomorrow if I can get my wife on board, and then we’re off to a surprise birthday party.  I haven’t been to Church in a few weeks since all of this traveling, so I will be happy to get back to God on Sunday.  Maybe my mental state is God’s way of telling me that I should get my ass back in Church.   

A nice little weekend….going to Home Depot…maybe Bed Bath and beyond… who knows…

Filed under: confused, grouchy, stupid, weekend, work

Low hanging flooding

Yawny today.  Last night my Wednesday night softball game didn’t start until 9:45 which meant we didn’t finish until almost 11:00, which didn’t get me home until 11:45.  Toss in a shower, and a late night meal,  and I am about as grouchy this morning as I get. 

I did my calendar yesterday for the Summer.  I laid each day out and put it on paper so that my wife and I can synch our schedules, and the sad truth is that I have only 6 total days between now and August 31st that I don’t something stupid going on.  Now amongst that schedule is a tentative vacation, so I can’t bitch too much.  It may get yanked due to the current state of our economy, however.  A road trip to North Carolina didn’t sound so bad when gas was at 2.95 per gallon, but 4.19 per gallon will hurt when you are talking a 2,200 mile road trip.  I guess we won’t rent the SUV that we do each time we drive to the coast. 

I have two things for today on my mind.

1.  Why am I so bothered by the endless news stories each year about flooding?  I have a hard time finding sympathy for a person on camera asking for help since he was told when he bought his house next to the river that he wouldn’t need flood insurance.  WHO told him he wouldn’t need flood insurance?  Was it his insurance agent?  I doubt it. 

What insurance agent would say:

“Well Jimmy, I know you just bought that house next to the river and I’m gonna recommend earthquake, fire, theft, homeowners, tornado, and alien invasion insurance.” 

“But what about flood insurance?”

“Nope, there hasn’t been a flood in a good 10 years, I see no need for it.” 

Bullshit.  The person who told him it wouldn’t be needed was either Jimmy’s buddy Billybob whom Jimmy rides with on the commute to the plant, or the realtor. 

Every spring, we get rain.  Lots of it.  If you live within walking distance to any large flowing or stagnant body of water, you have to expect at some point in your life you will be dealing with floods. 

2.  Low hanging fruit. 

If you haven’t heard this phrased used yet in corporate america, then you’re missing out!  I would like to punch the guy in the nuts who coined this term in a white collar environment.  Every vendor or manager has this one stashed away in the phrase toolbox only to pull it out during trainings and cheerleading sessions.  It seems as though everything lately can be described as low hanging fruit.  What if I don’t like fruit?  What if I have a phobia of things that hang low?  The next time I hear that phrase I may begin banging my head like a crazy man and run out of the room like a lunatic. 

 

On a side note, I did say yesterday that I bought www.iloveballoonanimals.com.

I was pissed off yesterday when I went online only to find advertisements on my page while it’s being parked, one of which is a local competitor.  I would assume that it’s a pay per click ad, but I don’t like the fact that I bought a site and it leads people to another entertainer in my area.  Go to my site.  Find the link.  Click the shit out of it for all I care.  I am in the process of trying to have it removed from my site with godaddy.  As I type this, it’s quite possible that they hit their prealloted amount since it’s not popping up anymore.  I have to look into this pay per click thing and see if it actually works. 

 

 

Filed under: grouchy, stupid, weird, work

It’s not rocket science

It really isn’t. 

When walking, don’t walk on train tracks. 

When crossing train tracks, don’t cross when a train is coming. 

When living by train tracks, don’t let children young enough to not know what the shiny metal things are play outside without supervision. 

Those seem like obvious rules to some, but lately it appears that the general population needs a refresher. 

For adults, what a stupid way to end your time on earth. 

For children, it’s downright sad because they were never taught better.  If I see another redneck woman on the news crying while re-living the moment that she watched her baby get struck by a train, I am going to go apeshit. 

Or the 5 year old that shot himself in the head because daddy left the loaded gun under a pillow in the bedroom. 

Or the Yankee fan that plows into Redsox fans and kills someone because they mocked their baseball team. 

It’s a sad time.  I need to stop watching and reading the news.   

In another strange series of events, this morning I was awoken by a pack of coyote or wolves or some very loud howling animals.  This may not seem strange to some, but I live in the suburbs of Chicago.  Although they just shot a cougar in the heart of the city.  It was around 4:00am when my wife and I heard howling and barking.  It was straight out of a horror film.  Or if you remember the scene in the movie Stand By Me where the kids are sitting around the fire scared shitless about the howling going on around them.  It was a bit like that except I was safe in the comfort of my own home.    I opened the window and realized that the howling and barking was coming from the woods immediately across the field from our house.  I can add ‘walking through the neighboring woods at 4am’ to my ever growing list of Things I would prefer not to do if a gun is not pointed at me. 

Filed under: Babies, confused, grouchy, pain, train wreck

Owie

Last night kicked off my softball season and I am happy to say that I played well.  Unfortunately, while trying to stretch a stand up double into a triple, I was ordered to slide and I have easily the biggest most painful patch of bloody skin that I have ever had.  I debated with myself for 2 minutes about taking a snapshot of my slide wound, but decided against it.   Click here and some of the images on this page are pretty close to what I am suffering through at this moment.  I have never had to wrap gauze around my leg to cover the wound area and prevent blood from soaking through my dress pants, but that is where I am at today. 

In another interesting weekend story, I was at my Grandparents on my father’s side when a bomb was dropped on me and my wife.  In phone conversations with my father, he had previously inquired about how life is treating me and I answered his question as I answer that question when anyone asks: “Busy”  Upon explanation as to how busy things have been, apparently my father raised judgment that he decided to share with everyone in my family except me. 

Apparently my father is spreading a rumor with all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents that I am neglecting my marriage. 

While in the car on the way to the hotel, my wife and I were surprised when we shared the news that grandma had told each of us seperately that my father believes that I am neglecting her (my wife).  I didn’t think too much about it at the time, but after my wife told me that another family member told her as well, I began to get pretty angry about this stupid rumor. 

This is coming from my father.  If you know me, you have a slight idea how funny that statement is.  If you do not, let me educate you on how much of a joke this is coming from this man.

(note: I do love my father, and we currently have a great relationship after many many years of hate)

What’s funny about my father accusing me of neglect is that he is the man who:

1.  Would drive by all of my T-ball games honking and waving when I was six on his way to one of his 5 nights a week bowling leauges to maintain his membership within club alchy. 

2.  Never once, in my 11 years of playing football did he ever attend a single game.

3. Never attended a single sporting activity, or public speaking competition regardless of being selected as “All State” on two occasions.

4.  Would brag to me on the phone about the son of the woman he was living with and how they just got back from the gym working out together since that kid had just made the varsity football team as a sophomore in high school.  (Said kid is in prison as we speak)

(Wow, I think I should still see a therapist for some unresolved issues that I still have banging around my brain) 

Don’t get me wrong, but this appears to me that the armadillo is telling the turtle that he has too hard a shell.   

My wife laughed pretty hard at the thought of neglect since she is as busy if not more busier than I.  When sharing this news with my mother the following day (they have been divorced since I was six) she blew her top laughing since she saw the irony in his statements as well.   

Before any of you even think that he is sharing concern to make up for his life of regret and hoping that I don’t make the same decisions in life that he made, I say bullshit.  This is still the same man that is retired from the military for almost 10 years now, but chooses to live 1400 miles away from the rest of his family in a trailer park occupied by many illegal aliens, drawing retirement benefits/unemployment continually neglecting the needs of time spent with family even though the only thing keeping him from seeing us on a regular basis is the fact that it’s warmer in Georgia. 

Great stuff, Dad…well played.

 

Filed under: bitchy, dad, grouchy, memories, mobile home, pain, stupid, trailer, train wreck, weekend, weird, wife