Wow, these are actually coming fast and furious these days.

We went out to a friends house on Friday night. JD and JoAnn had some folks over, and we had a real nice time lounging on their deck at chez Placitas. Beautiful weather, especially after sunset. Ah, New Mexico. So nice and cool at around 6,500' asl. Good conversation, and interesting take from people that either own their own businesses or are principles in large firms. One of the guys there owns the #27 Eclipse jet.

Which brings me to the point of this post. I'm wondering what happened that I didn't push more to get that golden egg. I never had the big idea that would make my fortune, and apparently never had the drive at work to really try to climb the corporate ladder. (I'm writing about not climbing the ladder while I'm blogging.) We've had some success and are most definitely able to make money and live a pretty good life, but the pursuit of wealth never really took over. I'd like to say we (Beth and I) have made other things in our life a priority, but for right now, both of us are pretty sedentary.

We used to travel a lot, but that kind of went away while Beth went on her walkabout. Maybe we can recapture the excitement and desire to pack up some bags and take a trip. Shit, we can't even get around to taking a weekend trip to San Diego to go see Joseph. I'm going to push hard to try to make a trip to Brooklyn to see Matthew a reality.

My birthday came and went with little fanfare this year. That's absolutely OK with me, as I would like to be in as much denial as possible about getting older.

I'm feeling less than hopeful about the coming Presidential election. The forces of darkness and oppression have tuned their message well, and I'm certain that Obama will be whittled down to nothing by the time the election rolls around. Grampy McSame is a crazy old man suffering from a severe case of PTSD, but he may become the next President. Nothing changes, really. Yet another old white man presenting himself as the person that can lead our sick society in the direction where everyone can thrive. I guess that means we will all be able to go shopping, just like W told us to do every time something went wrong these last eight years.

One a more interesting note, here's the latest picture of the Chaiten volcano. Keeping up with the eruptions have been a lot of fun, as I have stumbled on a bunch of great world-wide volcano resources.

Be strong.

Peace.

So back to work after the long weekend. Damn, I need more than three days off in a row. One of the best things my old boss Harry Kringler said was that a person really needs at least two weeks off. One to unwind, and the second to actually vacation without thinking about work. The trouble is, I don't want to spend the entire two weeks hanging around the house, so maybe I'll have to work out a week off and a week traveling.

I've got to figure out how to get off the gaming cycle. Maybe I'll try to cancel my COH account and get a refund. I enjoy the game, but having the second game available where I don't need to have team mates on makes it way to easy to while away countless hours jumping around Paragon City or the Rouge Isles. I don't play on many teams, so it's mostly a solo effort. OK, I'm going to do it.

I kind of blew off Tim and Jen this weekend. Both Beth and I need to get over and see the new nino, so hopefully we can get this done this week. Hell, the way we procrastinate, he'll be graduating from high school before we drop bye with his baby gifts.

Our house is still a total disaster. Beth's stuff is strewn through every room. I tried to throw away a piece of shit plastic container that got retrieved from the trash. We're never going to make any progress if we can't get rid of anything. Now, honestly, Beth has shown great fortitude in getting rid of junk, it just has to be at a time and place of her choosing. Go Beth, Go!!

OK, I'm being really nice. No complaints, no worries.

Peace. Work for a change in this country, and the world. Yes, we can.

Greetings. The process continues, with the meetings multiplying, the designs ever changing, and productivity levels resembling the spikes in my blood pressure. Ah, work.

I'm surprised that my friends over at the Initial Firm haven't figured out how to use a very productive individual yet. Hang in there bud, hopefully you can keep your head down long enough to stay employed. Maybe just maybe someone can figure out a way to work you into a project in which you can shine. The rest of the crew over there, with some very notable exceptions (hell, everyone mostly), should wonder if it's worth sticking around a foundering, if not sinking, barge.

Summer sucks. It's hot, the wife complains even more, and the house smells a lot like dogs. Big surprise, since we now are up to four canines-in-residence. The two elder pooches (Lila & Bob) are really no problem, and spend a lot of time asleep and lounging. They deserve it. The two young punks (Iris & August) are into EVERYTHING!! Nothing is safe. They chewed the tongues out of both my rare and valuable Osiris D3's. They are about to totally ruin the leather cushion on the living room couch. I have no idea where my rolling gloves have gone. No roll of toilet paper is safe. And, August is still only about 60% housebroken. Little jerk. I'm home for three days in a row this long weekend so I guess I'm going to "dog" him all weekend and kick his little spotted ass when I see him sneak off to shit or pee. Little jerk.

I've somehow become very addicted to talk radio. The main station at work is the local Air America station. I laugh at the morning show. I sort of listen to the noon show, the blow hard Ed Schultz. I really like to listen to the afternoon show, Tom Hartmann. But once these shows end at 4 PM, I usually turn everything off or sometimes sneak over to the local KKOB crapfest Jim Villanuci show.

I must resist the urge to listen to this local call in show. The station itself runs all the nationally syndicated right-wing sound machines, so its listener base is clearly made up of all those conservative wacko's that somehow believe Limbutt and Slant Head are sources of fact. All these listeners are poised by their phones waiting to call the local show in order to affirm the host's assertions about typical right-wing talking points. Liberal judges? Check. Gun rights? Affirmative. Liberals going after "our" hard earned dollars? Absolutely. To the host's credit, he does not easily tolerate the religious nuts that call, and has a pretty strong stance on overall freedom of choice when it comes to abortion. But he also fulfills the role required to allow his listeners to spew crap just to hear their voices on the radio in order to maintain ratings. What a waste. No real discussions, just blah blah blah at all time.

Anyway, back to it.

Here we go, confusion reigns.

Have a safe 4th of July. Work for better times in this country, and don't believe what you hear from the noise machine.

Peace.