Bride and I, an example – of what I am not sure.

The other day on Facebook a friend I went to high school with said “Maybe you should write a book to help young people starting at in marriage. You two have a very good example for couples to learn from.” I was honored that someone I have not seen since high school would say such a thing about me. Although I am pretty sure I do not have a book in me trying to get out I thought, I can write I blog about it. So here I am, at the keyboard pecking away. Not sure this will be able to be a stream of conscienceness, as my blogs usually are. When one ponders what makes a great marriage it is complicated and I had to ponder this blog for a couple of days before I started writing it. I suspect if I were to write a book about helping young people starting in marriage it would be a short book, it is really not that complicated the way I see it. I won’t say it is easy but it is not complicated. I think I will write this blog in chapters, kinda like I was writing a book.

Chapter 1 – Be best friends and treat each other like best friends treat each other.

Sounds easy enough huh? It has to mean something, those are not just words. It has to be backed up with actions. How often do you yell at your best friend? I have seen married couples who holler and swear at each other in a hateful, vehement way, it makes me sad. That kind of behavior erodes the love and it becomes “ok” to disrespect your spouse – that is NOT ACCEPTABLE under any set of circumstances. That is NOT OK and one should NEVER start doing it because it is the beginning of the end. Folks also respect their best friends, we respect them and their opinions, even if they do not fall into perfect alignment with our own opinions. I can not think of anything that would make me disrespect my best friend, I am not saying that there are not differences of opinion at all. What would the world be like if everyone had the same opinion? If there are any BIG things that are deal breakers for ya, probe that area when you are dating and if they can not be resolved – move on to someone else, do it long before you have kids and alimony payments. Just be nice to each other, in every way you can think of to be nice.

Chapter 2 – life is a bitch, get ready for it.

We must take the hardships that life deals to us and learn from the struggles. We then have to use that wisdom to shore up who you are, individually and more importantly together. Remember you will not be the same person in 5 years, and you will be different again 5 years after that. Want to know a secret, your spouse will not be the same either (Refer to chapter 1). I am not saying here that life is all bad, actually just the opposite. We try to look at things for what they are, not what we want them to be. Things that happen to us or around us are COMPLETELY out of our control, we like to think they are in our control but I have found that 99.99999% are not. Our reaction to the natural ebb of flow of the world around us is what makes those events good or bad, not the events themselves. Hang on and realize, the ride is underway and you might as well enjoy it because it is not stopping for any of your petty bullshit. The only thing you have is each other so hold each other, look into their eyes and tell em you love em, and mean it.

Chapter 3 – Never go to bed mad, nothing, NOTHING is worth that.

Over the 22 years Bride and I have been together I can count the arguments we have had on three fingers, they were not even what could be called fights. When we first moved in together we would have a bitch session every day. Not a knock down drag out or anything like that but simply telling each other the idiosyncratic behaviors that bothered us. Things like leaving the lid off the toothpaste to leaving the lid up. After a couple of months of that we were able to go a couple of days between sessions, and now after 22 years we still do it. Seems silly now but it fostered our ability to have honest and non-confrontational communication with each other. We talked about the small silly little things so nothing ever got so big that it became a monster that needed tamed. We just don’t have anything that reaches that level, we have talked it out long before then. Sometimes we would agree, sometimes we would agree to disagree and that is OK. NEVER look at an argument or disagreement from the perspective of “winning”, trust me when you approach a relationship with that attitude it will never last, you have to be on the same team.

Chapter 4 – realize that you are an individual - you do not need to have all the same interests and likes.

Everyone is a unique individual and it is not fair to expect someone to change who they are to accommodate the other one. I am not sure if two more different people than Bride I could be found. We are each our own strong individual in our own right and then we are also a strong team at the same time. It has been fun to grow as a person by myself over time but it has been more fun to grow as a team, together. Like any team there are strengths and weaknesses and like any team you find out where your strengths and weaknesses are and you learn where your teammates strengths and weaknesses are. Once that is known you grow to cover each other, to temper those strengths and to shore up those weaknesses. It almost becomes an automatic over time and there is no better feeling in the world than to cover your teammate when they need help or to be covered yourself when you need help. You also don’t have to do everything together, and I would highly recommend having some separate hobbies. I am not saying that these activities be off limits to the spouse, Bride even acts as a helper when I am wrenching on cars. Not sure how to say it exactly but just have things you do by yourself or with others and let your spouse have the same.

Chapter 5 – don’t sweat the small stuff, oh and by the way – it is all small stuff.

Again this sounds so simple to me but it is often overlooked, with tragic results. We have a saying, what will this matter in 5 minutes, 10 days or 15 years, the old 5, 10, 15 rule if you will. Most things you may want to get your panties in a bunch about really don’t matter, not even in 5 minutes let alone 10 days and we have had nothing was so important that it would have an impact in 15 years. This kind of ties back to chapter 3 but is a bit different. The small stuff is all the things that could, if combined, turn into an argument. The small stuff is to be dismissed as non-important, small stuff can not be allowed to raise to a higher level than say, a pesky fly. If the small stuff is allowed to fester and turn into more than small stuff, a big bomb of small stuff, the results can be catastrophic. Why, because you will no longer know what you are arguing about, there is not one thing, it is a list of things that are so tangled and confused you will never be able to sort them out. A bunch of small stuff will have turned into a big pile of stinky shit that winds up covering everything and everybody. Remember most ALL THINGS are really small stuff, will it matter in 5 minutes, will it matter in 10 days, and will it matter in 15 years. I think not, unless you want it to, for your own sake, don’t want it to.



Chapter 6 - For you guys, do the boy jobs.

We have, over the years, split the household responsibilities into Boy work and Girl work. It really just kind of worked out to a mostly traditional arrangement with Bride doing the bulk of the inside work and me doing the bulk of the outside work. We tradeoff sometimes but mostly it is Boy work and Girl work. Now there are some jobs that we share doing and that is fine too. I could not imagine sitting inside watching the game if Bride were outside schleping the mower around the yard and trimming the hedges. I know couples that do that, I am not sure why but that is what “works” for them, or least it appears. I was at the gas station the other day and the man sat comfortably in the SUV driver’s seat while his Bride got out and pumped gas, I was shocked. I keep the all the cars filled with gas at our house and would NEVER, EVER consider having Bride pump the gas with me sitting in the car – that is a boy job. It is the same with toting the trash to the curb, boy work. Cleaning the pool, boy work as is painting and most home repairs - all boy work in our house. You have to find your list of girl work and boy work but boys, hoist your Bride up a pedestal and do the dirty messy jobs for her, if for no other reason than so she won’t have to do them. (refer to chapter 1)

Well who knows, there seems to be more in there about this, another blog may be coming soon

Separation makes the heart grow fonder - my ass!!

It has been better than a couple of weeks since Bride went out to Texas and over a week since I was in Vegas. Seems it has just really started getting hard for me to think about not seeing Bride when I get home from work. I guess the first few days were cool, house to myself and all of that male machoness. Then I went to Vegas and was busier than a one legged man at an ass kicking contest, with an arthritic knee by the way and I did not have time for it to sink in. When I first got back I was busier than a one armed paper hanger, one who suffers with tennis elbow no less, so it still had not really sunk in. Now as I sit around that house and there is no Bride and I am sad. There is no one to tell about how my day was and I am not getting to hear how her day was. It is a routine we have and evidently I have taken it for granted because I really miss that first sight of her when I walk in and my heart still leaps. All I have now are the critters. Don’t get me wrong, I love them all but they are not bride.

I think Bride and I have the best marriage on the planet, I suppose everyone thinks that about their marriage, and I think we communicate very well. It is almost scary that she can anticipate, with a VERY high degree of accuracy, what I will do in almost any situation I find myself. I am pretty in tune with her in the same way. That does not mean we still do not communicate very well with each other, just that we do it not only verbally but using all the other ways as well. I can tell by the sound of her voice if she is happy, sad, upset joyful or freaking out about this or that, Hamster fits we call. Hamster, now there is a funny nickname with a funny story. I will give you the short version. One day while we were dating I was trying to call her Honey and Sam (I nickname from early in her life) well it came out Ham and well, I am sure you can figure out the rest. So she is the Hamster and sometimes when she is pissed, she has Hamster fits. I am laughing even writing about it.

Seems like we have always been together and I can remember Hamster fits as far back as we go together. I love her so much and in so many ways and I know that she loves me in the same way. It is so cool to me that I have found not only my life partner but my soul mate. It is like we were destined to be together, we laugh all the time that “no one else would have either one of us” so at least we got that worked out. We are so different and we are so a like, seems weird to say but it is true. She completes who I am and I complete who she is and I could not imagine my life without her in it.

I think the mix of both of our combined dysfunction is what makes it work. We both have a good number of idiosyncratic behaviors but we know what they are and ya know what – they are just not important to us. We do not have to be alike or like all the same things. That is where I see the slippery slope in some marriages that have ended. Two people are not going to always like the same things and that is OK. I could not imagine us both liking ALL the same things, how crazy would that be. For those who know Bride just imagine for a second her out in the garage laying in a pool of grease with half Jalopy’s transmission laying on her chest while I was attempting to align the clutch plate. Hahaha, I don’t think she would be a very good helper, let alone a mechanic. It makes me laugh just thinking about it. But there are things that Sandy does that I would be just as inept doing. The point is we do our own thing and we do our thing together and it is OK, we are different people. We are different people than we were when we started dating but we grew into our current selves together (however dysfunctional and bizarre as we might be). 

Plus when we are pursuing our individual interests we get a break from being on top of each other, I don’t mean that in a bad way at all. I am just saying as much as I love Bride I could not spend all of my time 24/7 with her, and she most assuredly could not deal with me in chucks of time bigger than 3 hours at a time (ok she could most likely handle more than 3 hours but not much more). A relationship expands and contracts over time, and that is OK. We just have to recognize when the ebb and flow are happening so we can recognize and accept or change what is happening. I miss her, she gets back on Tuesday and find that I can hardly contain myself or think of anything else. I am planning (probably too much as that is my way) our reunion. Funny that she knows me well enough to have anticipated my over complicating things and has a better plan in place that she will, when it is said and done, have convinced me that it was my plan all along.

Our relationship is the most special thing in the world to me, it is so wonderful to be so committed to another that who you are blends into who you are together. There have been many others who can better express themselves and their love via the written word but I do not think any have felt the way I feel about Bride, the “Technicolor Rainbow” and it describes my feelings pretty well.

A life changed, Contorted, warped, painted as a Technicolor rainbow, And spun three hundred and sixty degrees.

You’re a magician, a creator, a vision, an artist.

You recreated me completely, drew me in with your seductive scent.

You smell of the rain, peppermint, and lust.

An aroma which clings to the air I breathe in.

Your embrace is a comfort I had eternally craved, and now I have,Like the warmest of blankets in the coldest of winters.

So warm, so strong.

Together each day will fill in the spaces, and remove all the grey.

Redecorating our lives for a more homely stay.

I’m right where I should be, and it’s all thanks to you, In our castle is where we will stay happy, alive, together at last.

Kiss me, hold me now, my sweet, my angel, a darling Princess.

I am in love.

Amen, I am in love with Bride and that sums it up!!!

Old Friends from my Navy Days - what a blast from the past

I served on two ships and had one shore duty assignment and I spent a lot of time going to different schools. I got to my first ship after a year and half of training, yep Naaaavvvyy Trrrraaaining sir. The first ship was the Spruance Class destroyer USS Stump, named after Admiral Felix Budwell Stump. All the Spru-can’s (as they were called) were named after Admirals. I then had a stint on shore duty in Annapolis Maryland, no not at the Academy. There was a small transmitter site there, Naval Radio Transmitting Facility (NRTF) Annapolis. Gotta love the acronyms. We provided one way communications to submarines in the Atlantic, that was all we were allowed to say about that. After a couple of years there I then got orders to pre-commission (precom) the USS Gettysburg, it was to the latest Aegis Cruiser at the time, CG 64. It was a newer version of the one that shot down the Iranian Airbus back in the 80’s (for those who remember that). Our XO, can’t remember his name, was actually the OPS boss on the USS Vincennes when they shot that plane down.

I got out in 1993 when they were paying folks to go, seemed weird to me that they paid me to stay, with a selective reenlistment bonus (SRB) and then they paid me to go because they did not want me to stay and retire. Some bean counter in some obscure office someplace in Washington figured that if I were to stay to retirement I would end up costing the Government X amount of money and if they paid me off, at some rate lower than that, it will all come out OK and they could save a buck or two. Seems stupid to me but I was going to get out anyway so why not take the money and run. I have kept in touch with a few folks from those days, not many though. With the advent of Facebook the whole phenomenon revolving around that, I have reconnected with a few more friends from those days.

I am Proud of my service in the Navy, I gave a lot and I received a lot. I went in out of high school and I learned some simple things, responsibility, how to work as a team, how to depend on others, I learned how to be a man and a productive member of society. I learned a trade, and it is one I am still plying. I learned that we American’s are a spoiled rotten lot, and that even the most unfortunate of those among us still is better off than most in the world. I got to see incredible things and have amazing adventures. I stared at Michael Angelo’s ceiling and was awed. I traveled through the master piece of Teddy Roosevelt’s sheer will, the Panama Canal. I got to spend time in Rio de Janeiro and for a hillybilly from Millerstown Ohio that was a BIG deal. I was exposed to culture and cultures that I would not have otherwise had the opportunity to have experienced and I grew as a person.

I got to meet some of the brightest and funniest people I know, I also got to meet folks who were walking idiots, some I was amazed could walk upright and breathe, at the same time. That was the dichotomy that was the Navy, the brightest and the best serving right along with folks who might have been given the opportunity to join instead of going to jail by a judge somewhere with a great sense of humor. I was educated, not just in my trade but in the ways of world, the real world not our insulated American lifestyle. I am not in any way knocking our Country, I am living the American Dream as well, I just think by and large we are VERY lucky to have been born here. I am proud to have served and am honored and amazed by those who serve still today.

So, on January 2nd I posted a comment on the USS Gettysburg facebook group page looking for an old friend and recently, April 13th a different friend posted “What's up Smitty. I haven't found Chuck yet.” Well from there it was a facebook stalk on his page as well as friend suggestions from my buddy that lead me to find Dave, a friend whose dog died at our house some time ago. I was weird because just a couple of weeks ago I was telling that story and BAM, a couple of weeks later I find out he has retired and is living right here in Jax. I won’t go into the story about his dog here, that may be a separate blog. So last night I was on my way to the beach to go cruising around and I called him up.

We met at the Navy Exchange on Mayport road, I had forgotten how much the strict hierarchy of the military really bothered me. As I waited I was looking at the reserved parking spots, two for CMC’s (command Master Chiefs) one for the Ombudsman, some for squadron officers – ridiculous I remember thinking. As I was thinking that some snot nosed butter bar makes his way to his brand new car parked right up front like a handicapped spot. Following him was a Senior Chief pushing a buggy of items and he had to go clear across the lot to his old clunker car. It made me mad just watching it, here some NUB (non usable body) ensign, through nothing but being fortunate enough to go to the right college, gets to park up front. While that is happening, a man who has served for many years and risen to E8 has to schlep his buggy to BFE. I got mad just remembering that part of military service.

Anyway we met and went riding down third street down to JTB and we turned around, we stopped at one of the side streets that lead to the beach and went for a walk. It was like it was yesterday, after a few minutes of describing where our lives had taken us over the last 18 years we took up just where we left off all that time ago. That is something that I have not experienced except with friends who have served. There is a camaraderie that is built between folks who serve, I have heard it said and tried to explain it to folks but unless you have been there and have that tee shirt it is hard to understand. I don’t know if it is the shared experiences, hours on end at GQ hollering “Hot Mike” into the sound powered phones or if it is spending so much time together or what but it creates a bond that can not be broken by time or distance.

We had lots of laughs remembering guys the G-burg, some of the great ones and some of the dipshits and some of the just plain weird ones. One guy, his nickname was Dawg and I will use that to protect the stupid, was just one of the most bizarre guys I ever had the pleasure of working with. He was SMART, in a book sense kind of way. He could ace any electronics test placed in front of him but he could not take that book smart and translate it into troubleshooting his way out of a wet paper sack. He was a good resource but not a very good employee to have when your primary responsibility is trouble shoot things and then fix them. He was the only person I ever had to council for BO, no kidding three times I had to give him instruction, exactly and step by agonizing step, how to take and bath and keep clean. That sucked! We also talked about a couple of the E7’s we had in our department and how we would purposely do things just to watch the veins on the side of the forehead start to pop out. Damn we laughed until I was almost crying.

As we walked on the beach I picked up a seashell to remember the experience of reconnecting, it was about this time I think he noticed my left big toe nail painted screaming red. He did not say a word, which I thought was funny, most people don’t for fear of what the answer might be. Hahahahaha, I suppose I will tell him the story someday, maybe. We setup up some plans for the following weekend to come by the house, he remembered Bride makes a kickass Lasagna, but I think we might just have steaks.

Sir Fig Newton Bernard Smith – that is my damned old dog’s official AKC registered name.

Newton, as he known, was born on April 1st 2001 to a breeder in Georgia, he is indeed an April fool’s joke alright. He has grown into a horrible example of what a Boston terrier should be. That matters little to Bride and I because that is THE MOST lovable dog in the world. He is not well behaved, even though he received over 10 weeks of obedience training when he was a puppy. I think what happened was that he spent that time training Bride because she has doted on that dog since we got him. Bride and I were together 12 years before she was able to convince me to get a dog, we were and still are cat people.

We were visiting some friend’s parents and they had a Boston, Cookie was only about 10 pounds, max. Well after a couple of days Cookie kinda grew on me and I think Bride picked up on that. I did say that at that time “it can’t be a “cookie”, it has to be a Newton” from the fig newton commercials that were popular at that time. I later learned of an area outside Boston Massachusetts called Newton, a well to do area no less. Well after the casual conversations about names for a dog the next thing ya know she is working on me about getting a dog like Cookie, only not a Cookie, a Newton. After some pretty heavy lifting on Brides part she convinced me. For me I was looking forward to a tiny little dog getting his ass kicked by the 24 pound cat we had at the time. So sue me, I thought that would be fun to watch, get over it. That is when the hunt started, she wanted a perfect specimen, nothing less than an AKC dog would do. Me, I could care less, mutts will love ya just as much so it really did not matter to me, other than I got scared that we were going to spend of fortune on an “AKC” dog.

Well after searching high and low she found a place in Georgia and her and her friend go trucking up the road to Georgia to look at him. Bride assured me that her friend would not let her get a dog that was not the perfect specimen. Hahahaha, that makes me laugh thinking back on it. Well they get there and this puppy just ran over and jumping into Brides arms, it was over right then and there. All the discussion of getting the perfect dog was gone, he was 8 pounds and 8 weeks old and they bonded immediately. I am pretty sure he could have weighed 20 pounds and she would have brought that little lover puppy home. There was no way her friend could have ever convinced Bride to listen to the very reason bride asked her to tell her. Eight pounds in eight weeks, for a dog that is supposed to be only 12 pounds – yeah right. For those who know Newton you know – he grew to be a 40+ pound Boston Terrier, that was not a typo, forty plus pounds.

Since that day Newton has lead an idyllic life, he has been subjugated by EVERY cat we have had since that time, and there have been 5. Even the brothers’ Darryl, as kittens, subjugated him in just a few minutes. He has never attacked any of them, luckily because his jaw is similar to those of a pit-bull and he could have eaten all of them at any time he really wanted to. As a puppy, before the official registration process, his name grew from just Newton to the long goofy name of Sir Fig Newton Bernard Smith. I thought it would be hilarious that if one of his siblings were to ever go on to greatness in the AKC world that they would have a brother with that name, it sounds kind of regal I think and I like it.

Recently he began to lose a little weight, very gradually but after a while it became noticeable. We have been feeding him weight management from Iams forever, that was more me holding onto the hope that someday he would weigh only 12 pounds. After some trips to the vet’s we found he had pancreatitis, so we had that to deal with. Medications and nearly zero fat allowed in the diet while he was recovering. The doc was not sure if all the blood numbers were accurate as the pancreatitis could be throwing them off. After he recovered from that it was back to see the doc again, the good news was the pancreatitis was OK but the liver function numbers were not great.

More medications and we were going to take a look in a month, when he had finished that line of medication. Well back we go and the numbers were going in the wrong direction. The Doc was not sure what was going on so she wanted to schedule an ultrasound, which we did. Bride went to Texas on vacation and I went to Vegas for work and when I got back I took the boy up to see them again. They do not have the ultrasound machine but a traveling Vet does and he was scheduled to come in and preform the test. I got a call later that afternoon from the Doc, who started in with the results. I stopped her and told her I would come on up and see her.

I knew that is was not good news by the sound of her voice and did not enjoy the ride to her office or the wait in the waiting room. She brought him into the examination room and he was his normally self, jumping around and giving Daddy the love. She got right to it and it was not good news at all. She started out telling me that Newton had stones in his kidney, gall bladder and bladder. She could not tell me how long he had them but she did say that they do not appear to be bothering him. I was giving him the love while she was describing what was going on and it was all I could do not to cry, I knew that was not the worst of it. Newton was amusing looking as his right side and under his belly were shaved, I teased him about being cold.

Then the Doc went on to tell me that he had a mass in his liver that was half the size of his liver. She went on to describe how a biopsy would allow them to determine if it was cancerous. Bride and I had already decided we would never torture one of our pets with kemo and radiation. Then she went on to say that the tumor was inoperable anyway. She told me we were going to keep him on Denamarin, a medication that improves liver function as much as possible. She also went on to tell me that he could be fine with less than one quarter of his liver functioning, I was surprised by that. She also went on to tell me some of the symptoms of when the liver starts to fail and told me that at that point we needed to talk again and make some new choices. Seemed like an odd way to put it, we both knew we were talking about euthanizing our boy.

I am crying right now writing this, just like I was in her office. I dread the day but we refuse to torture our animals to keep them around for us to be happy. This is not new territory for me, I have had to put two cats to sleep that were some of my best friends. It is the hardest thing a pet owner can do and I cried like a baby for days when each of their days came. The Doc did not really give me a timeline, suppose she couldn’t really because who knows how long that tumor had been growing in his liver. She just told me of some of the symptoms to watch out for. That dog has lead an great life and I will cherish all the time I have left with him and I will miss him when he is gone.

Viva, Las Vegas – my stay in Vegas Baby!

So I got out of the airport with relative ease and got a taxi, I learned my lesson on the shuttle bus and decided I would just pay the 15 bucks plus tip. I get to the MGM Grand, the hotel of choice when attending a conference at the MGM Grand convention center. The very first year I went to this conference I stayed at a hotel called the San Remo, it is across the street and was a reasonable place in price and amenity. The next year I was going to book there again and I found that it was now called the Hooter Casino Hotel. Well there was NO WAY I was going to Vegas by myself and staying in the hooter hotel, my Bride would not have approved and I did not even need to ask. I then stayed at the Excalibur one year, wow it looks like it is right across the street. Well it is but that added an additional 20-25 minutes to the walk in each direction. Ever since then I have stayed at the MGM Grand, it is still a 10-15 minute walk from the room to the convention center depending on Casino and Studio Walk traffic.

Day one was pretty uneventful, got a hot dog at a Nathan’s hot dog stand, it was late and I did not want anything heavy. A few minutes planning which sessions I was going to attend and then it was off to bed. Day two started with a breakfast at the Grand Buffet, not bad for 18 bucks but they used to be a lot cheaper. Then off to conference registration and sessions basically all day long. At 6:30pm I was invited to a dinner hosted by PBS at the Sea Blue and I had not been there before. They had invited about 20 of us that were instrumental in testing a new delivery system as a way to thank us for the time we spent helping them. It was FANTASTIC!! It was also open bar, and although I do not drink some of my colleagues were enjoying some pretty expensive drinks and wines – good for them too. I wished for just a bit that I still drank because I could have easily had a few. We wrapped up after 10pm and I crashed, the 3 hour time difference was already kicking my ass.

Day 2 started with me watching the window washers, I wondered how much they made and I wondered if they stayed busy. Seemed to me that the MGM Grand had enough windows to keep a whole team busy cleaning them. On the way to the convention center I followed a family down an escalator, a kid (8 or 9) was facing back up the escalator talking to his parents and when they hit the bottom, he did not even look and landed right on his ass. His parents did not even warn him that the end was near – dumbasses is what I was thinking as I walked around them. The rest of the day was as busy as the first and it was also the day I presented on a panel discussion about combined master control operations in the Florida PBS group. I am not as convinced as some that the economics will work out but we are studying it very hard so we shall see. I was nervous leading up to when I started speaking but then I just get to it, pontificating like I knew what I was talking about. I always feel more pressure speaking to my engineering peers, cant bullshit them like you can some others. Hahaha. I got to reconnect and chat with several guys I only see when I go out there, that was nice. It is always nice to sit around and listen to their problems and realize that we are all facing the same issues. On the way to the convention center I also saw the life guard for the pool, nothing exciting about that huh? Well they were dressed in sweat pants and hoodies.

On the way back to the room to get ready for dinner I came across an amusing site, the door opens and a guy is laying on the floor, apparently passed out. I can’t see but his buddy nudges him with his foot and says lets go. The guy leaps up like he was shocked and bam, out the door they went in a bolt. I get ready for dinner with one of my Great friends Garrett. He was bringing a couple of other guys from his company and we met up at Emeril’s. The first time I tried that place was at Universal in Orlando with my Sister and her husband. We ordered, rib eye’s for all four of us and they came with a celery puree that was magnificent. We had a great time, Terry was in the Air Force and with me in the Navy we told many a funny story from our days in the service of our Great Country. As we were leaving I noticed a family eating dinner, all I will say is that more than one of them had on camouflaged hats and it seemed out of place in Emeril Lagasse's restaurant – I say BAM, and out they go!

On the way back to the room, this is like 8-8:30, I pass a woman who looked like hell, mascara all smeared, hair disheveled and barefooted. She was playing the hell out of a slot machine and yelling at everyone who walked close to her. She wanted more to drink and I assured her I would bring her one right away. I walked away laughing, at her. It makes me laugh to see people smoking inside, in Florida one ca’t smoke inside buildings anymore. Out there, you can pretty much smoke anywhere you want to, along with drinking just about anywhere as well.

Day three was busy and ended on the 64th floor of Mandalay Bay watching the sunset and ya know what, I went ahead and had that drink – Crown and Seven. Then I had another and it felt good, which is why I stopped drinking 20 some years ago. I liked drinking WAY too much and still have one or two per year just to say I did. It was a very nice ending to the busy trip, the plane was leaving at 7am in the morning so I turned in early as I knew the 4am wakeup would come early.

Viva, Las Vegas – the trip out to Vegas Baby!

Well I recently took a trip to Las Vegas, the place that never sleeps and even if it did – it would stay in Vegas. That place is CRAZY!!! That is the only short way to describe the town. I was reminded by many of my friends that Vegas is nothing more than a jumping off point to many other things that are cool. I was reminded of things like, Hoover Dam, Death Valley, Mojave, Red Rock Canyon, the Panamint Range, Bryce Canyon, and a dozen more natural wonders. But for me, I was bogged down with a pretty intense technical conference. Maybe I should not have made it so intense, it was the crop of PBS and NPR engineers getting together to talk about (commiserate) about the state of our stations, the state of funding and the challenges we have keeping things running with no money. I learned a lot and am more optimistic than I was before I went but the same problems still exist.

So this blog is going to cover some things that I observed while I made my way to and from Vegas and some of the things that happened in between. I took notes along the way so I would remember moments in time that I found amusing, inspirational or just curious, I hope you do as well. When I left Jacksonville it was raining to beat the band, I was not looking forward to flying in the heavy rain. Bride told me later that those storms made the national news. The flight was unaffected by them though. As soon as I was inside the airport I went straight for the Cinnabon for a little piece of heaven in a box with a heart attack waiting at the bottom of the box. I love those things but only have one when traveling, any more often and your heart would stop immediately. I sit to enjoy my tasty treat and then make my way to the security checkpoint operated by the TSA. I was, like everyone who goes through, accosted. That process is not too far from the process shown in the Echo Chainsaw advertisement. click here

Once on the other side and safely into the Delta quadrant I realize that I no longer have my neck pillow. Yes I am one of those sissy’s who carry a neck pillow when traveling on the plane, get over it. I immediately remember leaving it on the chair I was sitting in when eating my Cinnabon – DAMN ten bucks down the toilet. Now that stupid Heart attack in a box actually cost me closer to 20 bucks and it was going kill me anyway – what a shame. Instead of leaving the security of the Delta quadrant to retrieve my sissy boy pillow I decided to spend another 10 bucks and buy another one, Cinnabon up to 30 bucks – DAMN! I thing started wondering what became of my pillow, was it seen as an unattended bag, did airport security swoop down like the fictional Jem'Hadar, the shock troops of the powerful Dominion from Deep Space Nine (Star Trek spinoff) and rush the “pillow” to an undisclosed location? Did they decide to blow it up in a precautionary attempt to save humanity? Were they scanning through the surveillance footage of the airport looking for the miscreant who planted a pillow bomb? My flight must have left before the storm troopers descended on gate A8, lucky for me I guess.

So my flight went through Chicago, yes the one booking the flight failed geography, not that there is anything wrong with Chicago but it is not normally considered a layover when flying from Florida to Vegas. No worries though, I thought I would make the best of it and enjoy a couple of slices of Deep Dish pizza while I was whiling away the three hours I had before my next flight took me away from there. I was eating my pizza and I am looking around and I see a woman that looks exactly like Bridget Moynahan, that is the woman who plays Tom Selleck’s daughter in the new CBS hit Blue Bloods. I took a picture with my Crackberry (discreetly) hoping to be able to compare a Google search later on. The camera on a Crackberry leaves a bit to be desired, especially if using the zoom function. I know it was her though. I remember once Bride and I were waiting in a Pittsburgh airport restaurant and we saw the guy who played Greg Brady, Bride asked and she got an 8x10 glossy of Greg Brady signed, “keep it groovy”.

The time spent in Chicago was for the most part uneventful, exactly how you want EVERYTHING to be when you are flying. There were no problems in or with the airport and there were no problems with the airplane. All was right with the world and I slept almost all the way to Vegas. Upon arrival I was reminded how much I dislike the incessant dinging of slot machines that start assaulting immediately upon departing the jet bridge. If you have ever been there you know exactly the sound of which I speak, if you have never been there is no way to describe it, other than awful.

Hard to tell but what do you think?