I'm Done For Awhile

I'm sorry to those who check here with any frequency looking for new posts. I just don't have it in me these days.

A few years ago my father was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He had been getting treatments and even had a surgery last year in an effort to fight it. After last year's procedure it looked like things were going well. Hell, he was out on the golf course quite a bit this past spring/summer. A few weeks ago his condition took a very bad turn as we found out his cancer had become very aggressive and had spread. My Dad died last week. It's been a difficult thing for me to deal with.

On top of that, I've been diagnosed with a medical condition which will require me to visit a neurologist in about an hour.

With everything that has been going on, and will be going on, I don't think that I'll be able to keep up with posting here. Maybe someday I'll resurrect it, but I just don't know.

Thanks to everyone (Lisa and Kim) that have been supportive. I really do appreciate it.

Happy Holidays to everyone.

P.

"Waited For The Day When, You Came Out From Beneath All That Weight...

...I tried to lift it, but it seems I got there too late."

- from Buffalo Tom's "I'm Allowed." Very good, very underrated, and slightly old (10+ years ago) song.

So I managed to make it though my weekend from hell. This was my day shift weekend. I know everyone's heard me bitching before about how much I don't like working the day shift. Yeah, nothing's changed. I still dread getting up at 3:30 in the morning to go to work. Three days in a row of it damn near kills me. But I've only got to do it again on Wednesday and Thursday and then I get a break from it for a few weeks. Now I'm enjoying a couple nice days off with little to do (well, except for tonight when I'm working an off-duty security gig for a few hours). I'll probably spend the better part of tomorrow getting things cleaned up around the house. It's amazing how quickly this place seems to fall into shambles. You think Murphy would lift a paw or two to help out, but noooooooooo. Thanks buddy. Good looking out.

Lisa, I'm right there with you. I was at the home opener when the Caps blanked the Hurricanes and then it started to go downhill. Some sloppy play going on, and I'm not digging it. But, if they have to play shitty, I'd rather they just go ahead and get it out of their systems now and have their acts together by the end of the year. Blow a couple games early on in the season and go on a tear. That would work for me. Of course, if we were working with a roster that was 100%, that might help. Between Semin being out in the begining, then Poti, now Clark. Ugh. I'm hoping that Clark won't be out too long, but that was a vicious one-timer he took to the melon. If I were on the receiving end of an AO slap shot, I'd probably be six feet under right about now. So, anyway, get it together guys.

I'm really not sure when the next game I'm going to is. I might look into going to the Caps/Flyers game on the 2nd. I'm off work that day, so I might be able to drag myself down there.

OK, I have a vote in favor of me launching "protectandsmirk.com." I'll continue to look into how/when that might happen. Right now, I think I'll geek around with the software I've got here on my Mac that's supposed to be good for building web pages and see what it looks like. If I think I can put something halfway decent together, I'll go for it. But I don't want to do anything half-assed. Anyone who knows me knows that I like to do things full-on-assed.

That's it for today kids. I need to go grab a quick lunch and play with Murphy for a bit to wear his wound-up ass down. See you on the flip side.

"Something's In The Air Tonight...

....the sky's alive with a burning light. You can mark my words, somthing's 'bout to break."

From Mat Kearney's "Nothing Left To Lose"

I think I may have set a new record. And one that I'm not particularly proud of. Not only have I not posted in almost 2 months, but I haven't so much as looked at this, or any other blog that I used to with any degree of frequency.

Wow, what the hell have I been doing with my time? Well, a few things actually. First, I resolved that I didn't want to spend the kind of time behind that computer that I had been. Nothing makes my ass grow wide like sitting here for hours, slugging back coffee and whatever kind of snack I can muster. So my time in at the computer isn't what it used to be. And my ass looks great, thanks. Second, I've been toying around with the idea of getting away from this blogspot nonsense and actually establishing my own joint, a la protectandsmirk.com. I had already been inspired to have my own site by others I know that maintain their blogs on their own space (winks at Lisa). And speaking of Lisa, I just looked at your site for the first time in awhile, and I have to tell you that I totally dig the new look. Very bad ass, my friend. In addition to the computer-related nonsense, I've just been working a lot. I want to buy a house and since property here in Montgomery County is ridiculously expensive, I need to get some more greenbacks together.

Anyhow, I don't know if I'm going to go through with making up my own website, but the idea isn't totally dead in the water. I'm tinkering around with some things on my new Mac here (which, BTW, is excellent for that kind of thing), and I'll see what I might be able to work up.

Switching gears, what's going on with my Capitals? I went to the home opener and had a great time watching the Hurricanes get shut out. They were playing great in the first three games, then something went horribly, horribly wrong. Snap out of the funk, guys. And that's all I'm going to say on that topic.

This past Friday marked the six month anniversary of when I brought Murphy home. It's only been 6 months? Wow, it feels like I've had him forever. He's simply the coolest. We're gearing up for his third birthday next month. I guess I can let him celebrate his doggie milestone with a sip of lager. Since, you know, a 3 year old dog = a 21 year old human. Actually, I'll have the lager for him. If you saw him drink, you'd understand. I love you buddy, but would it kill you to get at least 50% of the liquid in your mouth instead of 80% of it on the floor?

Well, that will be it for today folks. It's around 4:30 AM and I'm heading back to bed for awhile. I don't know what possessed me to get up in the middle of the night to begin with, but at least I seized the opportunity to write a little sumthin' sumthin' on this thing.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't say "Nice Job!" to Hockey Kim for her standing in on Lisa's blog. Well done, amigo.

"I'm Not A Savior, So Do Me A Favor...."

"..... stop in and see me sometime." - From "Beautiful Ways" by the Pat McGee Band.

I chose this song lyric because I just saw PMB in Dewey Beach this past Friday. What an incredible show. I can't say enough good things about that band. You have to check them out. iTunes users can find a great live album available. Highly recommended.

Anyway, muchos gracias to Kim and Lisa for their swell comments. I'll keep this thing on life support a bit longer and see if it pulls through.

I created a page for my good buddy Murphy on dogster.com. The link is on the sidebar. Just click on his wonderful picture and you'll go to his little corner of the internet. It's so strange to me to think that I've only had him for 4 months now. Seems like I've had him forever. No disrespect to other dog owners out there, but I really have the coolest dog in the world.

I start my day shift rotation tomorrow. Ugh. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but allow me to reiterate. I HATE day shift. I'm not that much of a morning person, and waking up at 3:30 AM to be at work by 5 just sucks. Fortunately, I only have to do it 7 days out of the month, so I guess it could be worse. But those who know me know that I prefer to keep vampire hours.

Well, this post is going to be brief since I need to get a few more things down around the hacienda before I throw myself into bed at an ungodly early hour.

Again, thanks for the words of encouragement folks, and I'll see what I can do to keep things lively around here.

"Due To Lack of Interest, Tomorrow is Cancelled....."

"....let the clocks be reset, and the pendulums held." - from the Kaiser Chiefs' "Ruby."

I will be the first one to admit that, as bloggers go, I suck. It's been, what, a month, since my last post? Probably longer. There are times when I really wish that I had the discipline to sit down here every day and write something. Problem is, I don't always have anything terribly interesting to say. Or, at least I don't think I do.

Anyway, here's another round, of brining things up to speed.

I did have some things going on recently which would've prohibited me from really doing much in the way of regular updates here. I decided around a week or so ago that I was going to revert back to my roots. I bought a new iMac last week. The first computer I ever bought myself (eons ago, it seems) was an Apple. I loved it. Reliable, easy to use, etc. But, back in the 90's, I ran into the same glitch that many other people did. File compatibility just wasn't there. So many people were Windows users and when someone would hand me a disk with a Windows-based file on it, I was screwed. Unless I bought (what, at the time was) an expensive software package, my Mac couldn't open any of those files. So I was, more or less, forced to switch to a Windows machine. Well, these days, that just isn't the case. I can plug in flash drives that contain MS Word files and I can open and edit them very easily on my new Mac. And it didn't require a ton of extra, expensive software. Dig it. Plus, the switch made sense since I have an iPod and an iPhone which get used on a VERY regular basis. It is true what they say, Macs are much easier.

So I spent several days working on the file migration from my Dell to my Mac. Having a few thousand songs, plus photos, plus video, plus other files can take awhile to get from Point A to Point B. But I got everything I need right here in front of me on this smokin' new machine. It took me a few days to get reacquainted with the Mac OS. My computer obviously came with the newest version, OS X. I think when I had a Mac before, it was OS 7.2 or something like that. So it's a bit different from what I remember, but very cool nonetheless.

Went up to Frederick. MD a couple nights ago to see a triple bill of Collective Soul, Live and Counting Crows. What a good show. The weather was awesome, the beer was cold and the music kicked ass. Next week I'll be in Dewey Beach, DE to see the Pat McGee Band play. It's been about a year since I've seen them and it's always a good show. And, of course, I'll be at the beach, so it's win/win.

So here's a big, fat, "I'm Sorry" to anyone who has been checking in here with any frequency, looking for new material. I wish I could do better than I do. Maybe I sell myself short as a writer, but I don't always feel like I've got much to say. If I go another month like this without posting anything, I think I'm just gonna shut this thing down. We'll see how it goes.

"I Ain't Wasting No More Time on What You Did, Or What You Didn't"

Today's song lyric comes from Emerson Hart's "If You're Gonna Leave." Most people don't recognize his name, but this guy has been making incredible music for years. Emerson is the former frontman for the band Tonic, who, of course, made the uber-rock song "If You Could Only See" in mid-90's. If you only know Tonic from that song, do yourself a favor and pick up some CD's. "Lemon Parade," which contains the aforementioned track, is an amazing record. Their follow-up, "Sugar," is kick ass. The title song is one of the best songs I've ever heard, along with "Waltz With Me." Their third, "Head On Straight," was Grammy-nominated for the song "Take Me As I Am," which, again, is incredible. I've seen Tonic play live once, around 12 years or so ago, and it was amazing. I'm looking forward to seeing Emerson tour behind his new record.

Speaking of music, I have a couple concerts lined up over the next couple of months. A triple-bill of Counting Crows, Collective Soul and Live will be playing up in Frederick next month. I'm looking forward to that. I've seen Counting Crows and Live before and they put on a good show. My old band used to cover a Collective Soul song (come to think of it, we covered songs from all of those bands), so I know I'll have a good time. Late next month it's the Pat McGee Band playing at the Bottle & Cork in Dewey Beach, DE. I haven't been out that way in awhile and I'm missing it. The Bottle & Cork is a cool place to see a band play live, and the Pat McGee Band just rocks. I can't wait.

In addition to the music stuff coming up, I also have a comedy show coming up on the 18th, which promises to be a great time. Frank Caliendo at the DC Improv. If you don't know who Frank is, you're missing out. He does an ass-load of impressions and he does them all VERY well. He's the only guy I know who can imitate John Madden and then go right into Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Rome and Scooby Doo. Usually, after the shows at the Improv, you can meet the comedians in the lobby to get autographs, etc. I'm looking forward to meeting Frank.

So it seems I have some cool stuff coming up, but not really much happening now. I just finished working the weekend and I'm enjoying a day off. I have a court appearance tomorrow morning, then I work again on Wednesday and Thursday. I'm looking forward to having this weekend off. Should be a good time.

Ciao!

Forgive The Urgency, But Hurry Up And Wait

"Look After You" - the Fray

I figured I'd throw a line from one of their songs on here today as I just saw their show last week up in Columbia. Good time. The Fray really puts on a good show and I'm happy I went, despite the fact that I had a cold for most of last week. Hell, a few $9 beers at the pavillion will make you forget all about illness.

So NHL free agency began on Sunday. And lots of players landing on new teams. I was surprised to see some, not so surprised about others. I really didn't expect that Drury AND Briere would have left Buffalo. I figured one or the other, but not both. The Rangers did well to sign Drury and Scott Gomez from New Jersey. But I still hate that team. Let's talk about Washington's moves....

The first two to be announced were Tom Poti and Viktor Kozlov. Both are decent pick ups. I was more jazzed with picking up Poti, since everyone knows that the Caps are really hurting for blue line help, than I was about Kozlov. Kozlov is good, but not stellar. But I really didn't expect to see Washington bring in any superstar names. I think they'll definitely be good additions to the roster.

Now, I couldn't be happier about the signing of Michael Nylander to a 4 year deal. I liked him when he played here before and I hated to see him go in the trade to Boston a few years back. I was hoping that we'd pick a playmaking center during the off season and damn if the front office didn't grant my wish! Although today I read that the Edmonton Oilers are upset over Nylander signing in Washington because, according to Edmonton, they felt they already had a deal in place to add him to their club. A complaint was filed with the league and I forsee some kind of legal action behind this. If this somehow works out that Nylander's contract with the Capitals is void and he has to report to Edmonton, I'm gonna be pissed. I guess we'll have to wait and see how this plays out.

I don't really have much in the way of a wish list in terms of "I'd like to see the Caps pick up (fill in high profile name here)." Sure, there were some big names hitting the free agent market this year, but I really didn't expect that we'd land the likes of Gomez, Drury, Kariya, etc. If nothing else, I'm realistic. I had only hoped that the management would land some hard working players that would add some experience to what's been a pretty young team for the past couple of years. And they seemed to have done that. I hope they don't just look good on paper when October rolls around.

So I caved in to all the hype last week. Friday night I wandered out to the Apple store up in Columbia and picked up an iPhone. Let me tell you folks, believe the hype. This is one of the coolest things I've ever bought. I was already an AT&T customer, so it was easy to just go get one and have the service switched from my old phone to the new one. I know some people who have Verizon and Sprint phones that wanted the iPhone, but couldn't get out of their existing contracts without paying out the ass. What a drag. I can say that despite how much I love this thing, I still don't know that I would've camped out and waited in insanely long lines when they went on sale at 6PM like so many people did. I went to the Apple store shortly after 9 that night, walked right in, swaggered up to the counter and bought one without any hassle. I only had to wait the 10 or 15 seconds it took for my credit card to be approved. Screw waiting!

Anyhow, time to go out and play some ball with Murphy who's been patiently waiting here for Dad to finish typing. I hope everyone has a good 4th of July. Adios muchachos!