like the song says...like some forgotten dream

we still go visit mom every day. for me, it's getting more like these lyrics: "we don't talk much more" "she sits and stares" "what's new?" "like some forgotten dream" "nothing, what's with you?" "nothing much to do."



i guess that's why i take awol with me. that mutt has it down. in his own way he goes to every single person and says, "helloooo in there...hello."

i keep trying not to blog because i don't like to whine. at least not publicly. but the truth is it's been a trying few weeks, i guess. now that i have a relatively positive mom anecdote...i still feel the need to get it right, to put it in context, to be honest in the telling.

so maybe i'll just copy and paste a few "mom reports".

no. the family has already read those emails and responded. and this blog is essentially for them, anyway. no. i need to come up with a reason. some sort of universal truth, some epiphany to make it worthy, a literary device (a gouge... hahahhahahahha.)
i'm thinking of a deciduous tree. could that work? both the cause (mom's well-being) and the effect (my reluctance to write about her) are cyclical. deciduous.

yes. i'll work on that.

until we meet again... Read more!

the good, the bad and the ugly

from today's news:

the good -
whether you like barack obama or not, i hope you will appreciate this story about his mother's character as revealed through her life's work. she's the good guy in this world of ours.

the bad -
this is actually mostly good news. i only call it "the bad" because it seems unconscionable to me that it took so damn long. it seems bad to me that industry; for reasons of either greed, ignorance, misplaced loyalty or all of the above, allowed themselves to go bankrupt, become 60% government owned and worst of all, create Massive unemployment and chaos while the technology now "suddenly in place" has really been damn near in place for decades.

the ugly -
in case you don't click and read the news stories here (highlighted in red), i'll tell you a bit more about this one. last week the courts awarded the recording industry a $675,000 judgement against a man for downloading and sharing 30 (thirty!) songs online.

now that's UGLY. in my opinion, i think the rule should read as follows: if a record label or artist has already made a million bucks, all their stuff is fair game for anyone savvy enough to share it for free. end of soapbox.

for more rant...

i'm pretty sure the following is all three, the good, bad and ugly , and includes TWOD (the word of the day). the word irredentist is new to me and can be found in the last sentence of the above article.

OH! & one more good!...
i gave away the last of awol's pups today.
the brown one with the paul newman eyes, the one most like awol now has a new home with one of the aides who works on mom's alzheimer unit. she will bring him to work with her. and THAT is a very very good good thing.

(i have pics, but i can't upload them on my connection, but i will as soon as i am able.)

Read more!

free haircuts

i heard it was 108 here today. hah! take this, you dickhead weather man, you...

haircut

did you click on the pics to view the videos? did they make you want one of my free haircuts? if so, be forewarned - i only know how to give one kind, but it's very, very cool. Read more!

free food

speaking of free food, check out the fun we had today...


the news was on at mom's when i was there yesterday or i would never have known about this, but it seems today is cow appreciation day. (that's according to fast food restaurant, chick-fil-a, the guys with the funny *eat more chiken* ads.)
this was the deal: dress up like a cow, head to toe, and receive a free, full meal; just wear a cow hat or whatever and receive a free sandwich.

informed that i could get a free sandwich just for acting up a little, and... well, what do YOU think???

note: the following link to a web album will be replaced with on-site pics when i get to a connection that will allow me to upload to blogger. (my home connection is sooo lame.) in the meantime, check these pictures out.

terri had the most creative idea. she had me cut some holes in an old, white, rally, t-shirt and wore it over a black t-shirt for the "cow look." then she painted a black circle around one eye, painted big red lips on herself, put her hair in pig tails for "cow ears" and voila!

i'm pretty sure chick-fil-a should hire her for their next ad campaign.
(she had another really funny idea, but i'm not allowed to talk about it... and i deleted those pics, anyway.)

me, i strung an old cow skull i happened to have lying around and wore it as a necklace.

and awol?...he just went as himself, of course. (black spots on white dog = fake cow in my book.)



now you may be asking yourself, "did they buy that shit?"

they sure did = 3 free sandwiches and a whole lotta fun.
hahahahahahahaha, i bet you thought we'd get 2 sandwiches at best.

(so did we.)

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happy father's day, AWOL

gigi and awol had puppies a week ago today. that would make this awol's 1st father's day. videos of the pups after the cut...

i have no idea what rupert is really talkin' about in this 12 second video, but it sounds like he's talkin' about the puppies. ahahahahahahaha



here's another short flick of larry, curly and moe. they kinda look like mole rats, don't they?



Read more!

is there a doctor in the house?

awol got banned from the dining room during meals at vickery towers. i've been expecting it. stupid health regs...

going to visit at the end of their lunch time had been my habit for the past few months. i'd take awol with me a couple of times a week and all the old folks really like him.

so i changed up the routine today and took the dog with me to their morning activity. it was awesome. much better chance for everyone to get to pet him and all. several of the people really came out their shells interacting with him and the aides dug it because we were there keeping people occupied while they did the tedious task of getting everyone from their rooms.
i might have to change his name again. how does Dr. Awol sound? ahahahahaha.

(((calling doctor awol...doctor awol to the 4th floor, please.)))

no camera with me today, but maybe tomorrow i'll post some pictures. Read more!

a mom update and some cool miscellaneous stuff...

mom's doing great. she never got sore or achy from the fall. isn't that weird? and her face bruises are healing nicely. she never once even remembered the fall or the hospital visit. that's normal. she claims to remember the ambulance ride, but i have my doubts. i think she remembers us talking about it. you know, like when you "remember" early childhood memories, but really you're remembering photos of them?

i took the camera over to get a shot of her and the dog together, but the battery was dead. doh! maybe tomorrow. in the meantime...

...here's a picture of awol and his girlfriend, gigi, on my bed.


more miscellaneous crap:

this video may not interest you all that much, but it appeals to me because i have actually used all but the 1st technique to manipulate large limestone blocks. (i've never moved a barn, though.)



and i think this is very, very cool. “You’ve done a great job with the dirt. But what about the water?”, dr. sylvia earle. (check out the video in the article. dr. earle rocks!)

after the camera battery charges i'll take some pics of some of the greatest road kill in months, but for now it's just more doggy-love.

both of 'em ready for the POUNCE!

"sheeit...who you think yer callin' a dick licker? dawg, have you even seen my girlfriend??? she is sooo Hot." (((pant, pant, pant.)))



update:
add this to the misc schitt (thanks, terri.)


i think i must live upstairs to some of their cousins... The Fuckin' Schitts.

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lost and found

and lost again. and found again...

a friend found him in the middle of a busy street a few blocks away back in november. i adopted him the day or 2 before christmas. he's had several names since then: tabu, killah, wishbone, benjamin franklin, metro...

after i'd had him (as metro) for a couple of weeks he disappeared for 3 days. and he's obviously still awol from at least 1 somebody else, so that's his name. AWOL.

awol's a master paper shredder (witness him laying in his handiwork above). he's housebroken (usually) and he's a sniffer extraordinaire. i'd say he's mostly beagle with the eyes and ears of a chihuahua. it's the beagle in him that makes him go awol. 

he swears he's not doing it on purpose. says he's just 'following his nose.' doing his job as best he can.

which reminds me. he's also a a dick licker. (eew, shame on you. his, not mine.) a friend says he does it "because he can."

i think she's right.


here he is xmas day with the lovely josephine and her entourage.




his hand prints in the freshly laid cement scratchcoat of my in-progress shower floor. yes, i said *hand* prints. he likes to walk on his hind legs, so i figure my dog, unlike yours, has 2 legs and 2 arms.


it may be hard to see, but that's his beagle nose print in the same cement.


he's never without that dorky harness since he came back and always on leash when we go out. but i've spiffed it up with black marks-a-lot tiger stripes, and his name and phone # with a note saying, "for a good time, call me at..."

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