2005-06-12

another week in the can

well....what to say about this last week....it's been 7 days long? a true enough statement, but not what one might call ground-breaking commentary. hmmm.

guess i should back up to last weekend first, since i haven't posted on it yet. so....Friday night Loren was here, but since i can't really remember anything about what we did i'll leave it at that. Saturday night i went to a place in Snohomish called Mardini's, a little bar with an area clear of tables set aside for dancing. i was sitting here eating ice cream and reading my book (yes, i know, a simply thrilling Saturday evening for an outgoing, charming, reasonably-good-looking, fairly interesting guy like me) when my phone rang. on the other end was a great girl who invited me out for a little dancing. i used to be up for dancing at the drop of the hat, but that was a long time ago. it's not that i don't like dancing, or can't dance- i used to be pretty smooth- but my dancing bone must have atrophied from lack of use. regardless, this lady is something pretty special, so i wasn't about to pass up the chance to go out, dancing or no. we had a few drinks, but evidently it'll take a more than a few to get me on a dance floor. kinda kickin' myself for it now, i could certainly have had those drinks hehehe. i suppose it's sort of an unwritten rule not to write about people without letting them know about it, so i'll let her remain nameless for now. suffice it to say she's flat gorgeous, and clearly very bright, and great company, not to mention a great dancer, and i had a great time hangin' out with her. at this point i don't know if she enjoyed my company as much as i enjoyed hers, but i'd like to think she did (i'm not wholely unappealing), and that i'll have cause to write more about her later. in the meantime.....

worked really early all week this week. i'm actually pretty used to getting up at 4am at this point. i've always been pretty much a night owl, and i'm still probably not getting enough sleep during the week, but at least i've been getting something out of all this time. hearing some live music (from a decent band at the aforementioned hole-in-the-wall) was enough to inspire more guitar playing than i've been putting in lately. i really miss playing in a band. Loren's getting older, maybe it's time to start looking seriously for some people to jam with again. playing with the guys from work (last job- see previous posts) was all fine and good, but it wasn't a steady thing and didn't have a real purpose. there wasn't any give and take and not much in the way of artistic expression goin' on, it was more like a few guys makin' some noise, and blowin' off some steam after work. not an overly musical thing, more of a social one. that's not what i'm looking for- i'd like to play something meaningful, something that requires some concerted creativity on the part of all involved, something that's about creating a new thing that didn't exist before. the more i think about it, the more i realize how unique my old band situation was. it's not everyone that has the opportunity to play with a bunch of gifted musicians who were good friends before playing together. especially my friend Pat- we're like brothers, and playing music with him for 10 years, spending time together working at becoming more accomplished musicians, regardless of any potential commercial success of our projects, was a rare opportunity that i don't see happening again. now i guess the best i can hope for is to hook up with some guys that have something to offer, and try to bring something to the table myself. wonder what Dean's doin' these days....always liked to play with Dean....

work this last week was just....work. smooth for the most part. a little OT, but not much. paid bills. did chores. waited for Loren to come for the weekend. i did manage to fire the opening shots in the War of the Backyard....should've taken some pictures before i chopped it all down. it was pretty much the worst i've ever let it get. there's really no actual grass left to speak of back there, it's all weeds. a roto-tiller is probably the only answer at this point. and i still have to get the concrete footings for the old swing-set out of the ground. and get some gravel down for the dog run. to find the ground again, i broke out the lawnmower, but starting it up it made some really awesome metallic clangs, and i found a piece i'll call a "blade mount" (a pot metal piece that must have held the blade steady in relation to its spindle) in two pieces- end of lawnmower, at least for now. i don't think you can weld up pot metal....though i can prob'ly rig something. but that was not to be in the current battle. realizing that my good gas-powered weedwhacker's guard was broken, i tried out the old electric one that i inherited with the town-house when i bought it, which still has about 3/4 of a guard left. it did an incredibly dismal but steady job, and made a small dent in the 45 minutes before the electric motor started smoking. exasperated by this point, i threw caution to the wind and broke out the gas powered one anyway. did great for the five minutes it took to throw some unidentified vegetable matter into my right eye, convincing me to go back inside and break out some safety glasses. pretty uneventful after that, i got about 90% of the ground exposed before running out of line. i suppose "uneventful" is a relative term though; if you asked the scores of flayed slugs i'm sure they'd have a different opinion. i was truly become the maker of slug death....it wasn't pretty. chowder seems to appreciate the effort, which i suppose makes it all worthwhile.

it turned out on Thursday that Loren coming for the weekend was not to be- his mom's sister was in town, and they decided to head out to Ocean Shores for the weekend. Loren got to make the decision to go with them or come here, but regretted choosing to go with them the next day.

before that regret surfaced, it looked like i'd have nothing but free time for the weekend, so i gave the aforementioned Great Gal a call to see if she'd like to do something. her weekend looked busy. [sigh]. i'm not altogether naive, and i realize most people, even busy ones, will make time for someone special, so i kinda took it as a hint, but you never know. it's easy to jump to conclusions when you're disappointed, so i'm not going there either. i'll leave it at: the ball's in her court now, and i'll know soon enough what's up with that.

Loren, in the meantime, feeling the full weight of his regret, gave his mother a really hard time about wanting to come home, to the point of being rude to both her and his aunt, and got in a significant amount of trouble. from his mother's explanation it sounded like he deserved it, but Loren says at the outset of the whole idea for the trip he was afraid his mom would get angry with him, or that he'd hurt her feelings, if he said he didn't want to go with them. i told him he should have levelled with her before they left, and let his mom's reaction be what it was. you have to be honest with people when they ask you to make decisions based on what you want- and let the cards fall where they will. eventually she'd had enough, and decided to bring him back. they got stopped up by some bad evening traffic in Tacoma, so they decided to hole up for the night in a hotel. Loren called me wanting me to come get him, but at 6:30 at night that'd be a 3+hr round trip; not a bright move, considering she was coming back this way the next day anyway. i tried to let him down relatively easily (he understood when i told him the time involved), and made him apologize to his mom.

by afternoon yesterday, Loren was here, and we took care of some minor chores, played a board game by the simple rules, and figured out the advanced ones for the next time we play. fun game, it's called Heroscape. one of the great things about bein' a dad (of a son) is getting to do all the kid stuff over again. if i was 12 i think Loren and i would be best buds. he called his grandparents (my folks) and thanked 'em for the hoverdisk (not the exact one pictured in my post concerning his birthday party, but another, smaller one). they called back a while later and invited us out for dinner, willing to make the drive up here. we took 'em up on it, so Saturday night was dinner at La Hacienda- carne asada for me- yum. Loren managed to spill his pop TWICE, and once more with an assist from me. i have no excuses for myself, but for him i'm going to chalk it up to pre-teen awkwardness coming on (oh no!). no real harm done, and dinner was great. thanks guys! love mexican food. then we headed home for a little coffee before Mom and Dad left, and Loren and i continued our exploration of the first season of Deep Space Nine (old Star Trek show, for those who live under a rock). after Loren crashed out i jammed my guitar until all hours of the morning (neighbors be damned! no, i'm kidding....can't crank it up when Loren's sleepin'....although that didn't stop me the rest of the week). before i knew it, it was WayTooDamnLate O'Clock and i finally hit the sack.

today i slept late (really really late) and i took Loren over to his mom's to get his school stuff, since he was planning on spending the night and had work to make up from when his mother took him out of school for the last two days of the week (@#$*@#@#!!!!). ok, so we got the work and brought it home, but it wasn't the right stuff- and he doesn't have the right stuff and no idea where it is. DBL-GROWLZ. Loren's mom wanted to come and use my computer to type some stuff up for Phoenix (school work of his, which he was having a hard time doing since he cut the hell out of his thumb with a knife today, and her computer wasn't working anyway). Loren's "B" in health class is likely about to drop to a C+. TRIPLEGROWLZ. i'm annoyed with the whole thing. next year i'm getting him his school stuff and working out a system with him before his mama does. organization (believe it or not) is a stronger point for me than it is for her. don't laugh too hard Mom. (she's grinning right now).

Phoenix was going to get to see a movie he wanted to see (The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl) and Loren's been wanting to see it too, so he decided to take the opportunity to go too, the prospect of getting up at 3am to get out to his mom's before i go to work at WayTooDamnEarly O'Clock affecting that decision to some extent. so, since the schedule's been effectively switched anyway (the plan is he'll be here all weekend next weekend) he went home with his mom when she left. fifteen minutes later i was glued to game 2 of the NBA finals. the Spurs pounded the Pistons- it wasn't ever really close. i was rooting for the Pistons, i just want to see a 7 game series, whoever wins.

back to work tomorrow. vacation's coming- looking forward to that. Loren's out of school for the summer soon- hope i get to lift his punishment.

suppose that's it for now; i'm up-to-the-minute. guess i'll read for awhile. PEACE

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