2006: The Year in Review

Wow!!! Another year almost gone.  I swear they go quicker the older one gets.  This was my first official year living in my newly adopted State of Tennessee (I've already addressed this with humorous resulting comments in an earlier post).  So far most of my year was spent on various house projects.  Tile in the Master Bath, digging the Once and Future Pond (which is still a shallow hole in the ground), redoing the fence (still needs finishing), stripping wallpaper and painting (painted the living room, hall and part of the dining room) and that's it.  Wow....I'm truly a Homeowner.  Locally the housing development and retail center that were being built when we moved in is about done.  The retail, Providence Marketplace, has all of it's big anchor stores finished and opened.  The areas with the smaller stores are done, but all of the tenants have yet to move in.  There's about 25% of them in and open for business.  The restaurants that are there are all open now, so there is a choice other than Cracker Barrel, Ruby Tuesday or (Gaaahhhh!!!!) Waffle House.  We have Chik-Fil-A (I still haven't been), Wendy's, Red Robin (yay!!!), O'Charleys and Logans.  The housing portion is mostly done too.  We drove through there the other day and most of the neighborhoods are filled with residents.  All of these improvements have run some of the Rednecks out of town....darn.  There was a bar called "The Country Pub" which had the same 4 pickups parked outside of it all the time.  It's closed now.  The Music City Star, a commuter railway, stops in our City now on it's way to Nashville.  All these improvements make me glad we moved where we did.  All the Suburban sprawl makes me feel at home.  Statewide we had one of the nastiest Senate Races.  Both sides stooping to negative campaign ads just to make the other look the fool.  Nationwide the voters revolted and put the Democrats in power.  I guess even the staunchest Republicans couldn't stomach another year of a bunch of parrots.  Personally my relationship with my Step Kids has grown more solid.  My oldest has wonderful things to say about me; thank you Amanda.  My boy has become a good friend and I've become someone he can talk to.  My youngest is still my pal, even though she is 12 and her Mom and StepDad embarrass her now.  Cat and I have gotten into a wonderful routine in our lives, and we love it.  It's nice to be able to just sit with someone and talk about anything and nothing. My Grandson is getting bigger every day.  He's such a nut at 3.  My folks back home are doing good too.  Dad will be 68 come March, and the Doctors say he's as healthy as a horse.....makes me feel better.  Mom's doing well too.  Sis changed careers and is much happier and has less stress in her life than she did before.  My friends are doing great too.  Brian and Chrissy moved back to San Jose from Hawaii and Bri is going for his Phd in psychology.  Mike and Anne had their first child in August.  The GOG, as the Discourser likes to put it, is doing good too.  Except for Zeb who after only a month or two of marriage got a crappy surprise when he went home; the new wife took her crap and left leaving a lawyer bearing papers in her place.  Zeb seems to be doing okay though.  Jamie and Liz got married finally.  We always knew they would.  Duff is up in Oregon attending college trying to make something of his life...good for you Duff.  The GOG is still rolling dice every now and again, and I miss them.  Ah well.  The outlook for the new year seems to be on the upswing.  Cat is shooting for getting her Real Estate license soon and when we are able, we will be planning a trip out to Cali....I'll let you all know when I'm coming.

Movie Reviews

Time for the latest movie reviews.

1. Eragon.  A real good movie.  Lots of fun, and now my Step-Daughter and Wife want a pet Dragon.

2. Wickerman.  A cross between M. Night Shamalamadingdongs The Village, an Amazon Village, and a Lesbian Ren Faire.  I thought it was supposed to be a supernatural whodunit mystery thing.   Nope.  Don't bother it's just to odd, and not good odd but makes no sense odd.

3. Jet Li's Fearless.  Supposedly his last Martial Arts movie.  Real good.  Lots of action and Asian Mysticism.  Kind of a Hamletesque ending.  It's awesome watching Jet Li match his Wushu style against: bare knuckle boxing, saber fencing, English Pike, and a Samurai.  Great scene where he fights the Samurai with a three piece rod vs. a Katana.

 

We also rented "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Miami Vice".  From everything I've read about Little Miss Sunshine it's supposed to be good odd and very funny.  Miami Vice I will go into with low expectations......I like Jamie Foxx...he's gotten to be a good dramatic actor.

Christmas

Well Christmas is over.  We had a good one this year.  Cathy, Liv and I opened our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve morning then went to my In-Laws for dinner and to celebrate the season.  On Christmas Day, Liv's donor of genetic material was scheduled to have her for the day, plus the coming week because she is off of school.  We had a good Day all in all.  Liv was happy and excited as usual.  I understand now why my Folks never cared that we gave them anything at all for Christmas.  It's the joy of watching your Child's eyes light up as they open each gift and their stockings as well.  We got Liv so many stocking stuffers, she had to have two stockings this year!!  My Grandson was the funniest though.  He is three and he kept asking "Can I open my presents now?"  Even though he had been told that he had to wait for everyone to get there and until dinner was done.  His response to this "I don't want to wait."  He got more cars and trucks...just what he needs!!!  We got him some books and a set of magnetic building blocks....there are circles and straight posts that connect via magnet to each other......very cool.  The one gift I got for Cathy that I hoped would spark her creative side more did.  I got her a set of acrylic paints....she's very happy because now she can paint anywhere (as opposed to oil paints where you have to have a studio or paint outdoors because the fumes will kill you and everyone else around you.  I've seen a couple of her paintings and she is good.  I want to see more though.  I know it relaxes her and takes her mind off of the day's stressors.   Besides, we need some artwork to go over the mantel. 

So Long Joe we will miss you.

Joe Barbera has died at 95. The second half of Hanna-Barbera group that brought us some of the best cartoons in the world. The Flintsones, Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear...the list goes on. We will miss you Joe.

High School Sports

I love sports as much as the next person, but don't believe that they should have such a high priority in our lives as they do.  Take some small Towns in this fine country of ours for example:  High School Football is THE biggest deal in these towns.   It's HUGE and everyone makes a big deal over it.  Why????  I can see if your kid is on the team, but half the time the people that crowd the stands don't have any kids.  What's the draw???  It's a bunch of teenagers playing football for Christ sake....big freaking deal!!!!  Sports is so popular, that some schools instead of cutting sports programs, cut the Arts and other such things that will actually help the Children later on it life when they get into the real world.   God forbid we cut the football team....let's get rid of the band.  Let's get rid of the drama class (which can help Children who go into the business world with public speaking, etc).  Unless you are phenomenal, being good at sports in High School gets you no where in the real world.  You don't hear "hey let's hire Billy for VP because he was the QB at is High School."  Sorry doesn't happen.  Out here in Tennessee it's a big deal.  I still don't get it.  I guess it's hard for me to see the importance coming from the San Francisco Bay Area.  We had 4-5 High Schools all within a few miles of each other.  Honestly,  no one cared.  And how can you care when you have the 49ers, the Raiders, the Giants, A's, Sharks, and the Warriors all within an hour from each other. 

 

 

 

Airsoft Whiners

As some of you may know, I am involved in a sport/hobby called Airsoft. We run around in camo with realistic looking bb guns shooting at each other. Kind of like playing "guns" when I was a kid except that our "guns" cost a lot more. I play at a field in Lebanon, TN called the Bad Karma Airsoft Field which is owned and operated by the Bad Karma Airsoft Team. A bunch of nice guys who are all honorable players; alot like the people I used to play with back home whenever Roundhouse had its "invite" only version of the public games they used to run. These guns are accurate up to a point. The bb's weigh anywhere from .20 grams to .25 grams and are made of plastic. They may travel at speeds up to 400 feet per second or more, but being made of plastic and weighing nothing they are subject to wind and other conditions. Our games are normally played without referees of any kind; it's the "honor" system. If you are hit, it is upon you to indicate you are struck by yelling hit, putting a red rag on your head, and either waiting for a "medic" or getting up and walking to a "respawn" point. At said "respawn" you are only there for 5 minutes then you can get back into the game. Unfortunately like in most sports (cough cough Baseball) you have cheaters. This is not a game you play for points or trophies, it is played for fun. There is a competitive aspect to the game, ie getting your mission completed, but it's generally considered okay if you really don't compete all that hard. Missions may include: search and destroy/rescue, base defense/offense, holding waypoints, etc. As you can see, competitive yes, but easy to be overtaken, shut out, etc, etc. Lately we have been having a few whiners on the field. At the all day game we had in September, I went off on the entire group of people in the one compound where a massive and intensive firefight was taking place. These guns have a motor that drives a piston in them. When one has them up to ones ear, as in the standard firing position for a rifle, then it is hard to hear someone you've just struck with a bb say in a normal tone of voice "hit". These people usually end up bitching and whining saying things like "Stop f**king hitting me I'm hit already!!". I know I usually scream "HIT!!!!" over and over again several times while waving my red rag above my head. The visual cue is what usually gets my opponent to stop shooting me. I heard so much of it I just had to tell the whiners to STFU!!!!! There are times you swear you hit somebody, but because of the above mentioned elements that affect bb flight, you are totally off target. Then there are times where you watch bbs bounce off of someone's goggles and they just ignore them. Not feeling the hit is also a common factor in not calling one's self out. BB's hurt less than paintballs and lose a lot of their kinetic energy over distances. You may be able to hit someone with your gun from 200 feet away, but when it gets to them it has slowed down considerably. Ah well, it's still a fun sport in spite of the whiny idiots we have to deal with.

The new addition has died

Yep, basically after two weeks the little Hamster Flara died. Kind of pisses me off. I mean I know they don't live very long, but 2 years as opposed to two weeks!!!! Apparently according to this Hamster Fanciers website hamsterific.com the bedding we bought from PetSmart may have killed her. I'm going to go visit PetSmart and ream them a new one. We will be burying the tiny critter in the yard.