freggin weekends

Man, I think I need a day off from my days off. Saturday was pure hell at work. It wasn't busy enough, we had 2 fights, had to kick out another dude for destroying some bar property, my bartender had to go to the hospital for 14 stitches after splitting his hand open on glass, which left us short handed behind the bar during the busiest part of the night, our drawers were short fifty bucks and then we had to take care of a special cleaning project at the end of the night. Very pissy, pissy, pissy! I get home finally at 5am, crash out for a few hours and then wake up at 10 for a busy day of football and drinking.

Wake up, start laundry, hit the store for a few things, head back watch football. Laura comes over to party. We tear it up for a bit, then Chris shows up after he gets off work. Chris tells me of the botched birthday plans he had going on that were in the works til my girlfriend and I ended things. Shit happens I guess. We're still gonna go and do something, just now it may be more limited.

Drea comes by and we talked about some things that needed sorting out. Needless to say, things are cool again. Tried to play Laura's new game I gave her as a birthday present, win lose or draw, which plugs right into the TV and you play with a etch a sketch stylus to draw. Didn't really work out so well. Great concept though.

Drank way to much. Not that I was wasted at any point of the night, just a long day causing a big dehydration problem. I even gave myself a hangover in the middle of drinking around 10pm. Popped some aspirin and slowed down after that.

Need to take a day off from my day off...ugh, now I get to go into work tonight like this...happy day.

The Chonie Bandit

I completely forgot about this weird coincidence happening lately at Casa Demelo. It's confusing and borderline disturbing and I just don't know what the hell is up with it.
About a month and a half ago I was out toiling in the backyard mowing the weeds down in 115 degree heat. I finish the lawn and go around the side of the house to trim up the bush next to the fenced in dog run. From a distance I see what looks like some crumpled up trash in the corner. I head over to pick up the paper and to my surprise it isn't paper, but really a pair of white large boys' (ages 10-14) boxer briefs with a soccer print pattern on them. Ok, gross.
I go get a stick and gingerly pick it up and place it in the trash. Strange yes, but oh well.
Fast forward now to two weeks ago. I'm out mowing the hot jungles of my cursed 1/4 lot lawn and what the hell do I see in the dog run area again? In the same spot??!!
I spy with my little eye, a piece of clothing that rests on the nutsacks of young guys! WTF???!!!
This time its a pair of maroon boxer briefs laying in the dirt. Now the wheels of insane thoughts go through my head.
Ok, is it some kid who is having issues pissing or crapping his pants and it too embarrassed about it so he ditches the evidence? No, these chonies weren't shit covered.
Is there any kids that age living in the neighbor's houses? No? I have a 17 yr old next door, a 8 year old I think, and a pair of girls back across the way. So nobody would fit in these.
Someone drying clothes outdoors and the wind picks it up and blows it away? And blows it into the exact same place? Rare chance.
A drunken guest playing a prank on me while we're all getting drunk at the house? I don't hang out with dudes that small.
Some random dude coming by needing to stroke it in someone's backyard? Disturbing. And why would they leave their chonies behind?
I dunno, I'm stumped. Tell you what though, if I find another pair back there again, I'm gonna go out and buy one of those $120 hunter/wildlife motion sensor cameras and place it back there to catch some sick fucker in the act before it starts to drive me insane.

Ball rolling

For me to get a day off really isn't a day off. Working in a bar with a semi-set schedule, your days off tend to be strange ones, let alone two days off back to back, so getting a day off is another way of saying..."Ok, you have a day off from THIS job, but we all know you'll still be working on other things at home".
Can't state it any better than that one folks. Anyways, Mr. Productivity came into play today and I got the ball rolling on a few important things. First, I sent out the proper forms to my HOA to apply and await approval for the bid to paint the house. This should be about a two week wait for approval and then once I contact the painting co., another month to begin work. I hope to have the house painted by the Christmas party.
Mowed the lovely yard today...'nuff said...ugh.....
After Papi busted the last of the patio chairs that were not reslung last summer the last time he was over, I hauled the 3 chairs down to the patio store and got them fixed. In two weeks I should have a basically brand new set of chairs that will hopefully hold up for another 5 years of abuse.
Wrote out and mailed $1000 worth of bills, investments and other crap out today. Ahh the endorphin rush of being able to work for and pay off large bills. Unfortunately it also drains out my play money bin...That's ok though, with no new bills and things paid off, it all gets put into the kiddy for whatever will be in store for my special day next month..hee hee!
Headed out to Wally-world and got some cheap display frames for some Hawaiian art I got on Ebay recently, and then went out to Borders in Mesa and got $50 worth of bargain books and cool stuff.
Came home, mounted the artwork, got space cleared out off the hallway wall for them and some other project I am working on...speaking of- it is impossible to find a cheap over the counter poster frame for a size 50 x 32. Biggest I found in stores or even on the NET was 48 x 62. I can get a custom order one for like..$120. Screw that noise! I'll make due with something once this project gets going.
Did laundry, cleaned the office, trash, played with Jenny, cleaned out the fridge, watched My Name is Earl, Aaron from next door came over and we shot the shit for 20 minutes.
Oh yeah, got tickets to the Glendale Air Show and started a very, very small amount of Xmass shopping (don't knock it! The stores are already getting ready, and there is nothing wrong with getting it out of the way when I can...so start naming what you all want fools! I waste no time.)
Yes, the AMAZING power of 64 oz of black tar coffee!!! The plus side is that its only 9pm posting this and I still have time to go out if I should choose to or find anyone to go out with.
Peace out!

Lone Wolf

I did something last night that I haven't done in a very, very long time. I felt like doing my own thing and decided to head out on my own last night. As I'm making this decision, Whitney, one of my old co-workers from the good old Vine days gives me a ring and invites me out to...of all the places...my work for goldfish racing. Dammit!! I just spent 13 of the past 24 hours there! I tell them I'll meet up with them there. I head on up there and hang out with Aundi and Jen, two other regulars, for a spell. Turns out there were a lot of peeps up there that I ran into. Pete was there getting sauced, Jack and Rhino walked in, Grant was occupying his usual bar stool, Bridgette popped in to say hello, our rep Marissa was pushing corona products, Paulie was on door, Greg's friend Neil was hanging out and Chuey was hosting the show. Social butterfly hour it is then.
I'm having a great time, trying to pace myself on a relatively empty stomach, which isn't helping. Hanging out with the girls and shootin the shit with Jen while Aundi is drunkenly inhaling a hamburger, we touch on some interesting topics and have a really cool chat about how people's personalities at their jobs sometimes do and do not carry over into their personal lives.
Whitney shows up with her boyfriend, her friend and her boyfriend. Haven't seen her in a long time! She looks happy finally and that's a good thing. I was expecting the rest of the Vine crew to show up too. I guess T-Bone and Katie have settled down a bit and are more than likely understandably tied down with the new baby. Big E is of course working, and the rest of the crew is not present.
I go make the rounds and say hello to everyone in the bar, hang out at the front door and chat for a bit, Whitney comes up to me a few times to ask advice on goldfish names for the race. I advise Thundercunt for the first race and Pirate Hooker for race number two.
Aundi and Jen decide to leave, its bedtime and they have to be up early. We say goodbye, they split and then I start chatting with Neil and Pauli. Talking business, what should be good ideas for the bar, what next steps may be, guns, the midget, how slow its been lately, guy shit.
I grab some chips and salsa to try and slow the deluge of vodka redbulls in my gullet and it helped a small amount.
I need to slow down...I head up to the south side of the bar where Grant, Jeb and Buddy's girlfriend Lindsay are having a conversation on religion. Oh boy...Here I was thinking it could get ugly, but no, The three of us actually had a really, really good chat. The more I talk with Grant, as a bartender serving him, or as a fellow customer, the more I see that he's a pretty fucking cool dude.
We're talking as I'm sucking down 2 glasses of iced tea. I sober up quite a bit as the iced tea and chips deluge overflowed the vodka river in my system. Awesome.
I head back to the front door and resume sipping on a vodka redbull and hang more with Neil and Paul. I find out how he knows Greg so well, a little bit of family info and general chit-chat. I mention that I'm still hungry and offer to buy the crew sandwiches from the Philly company across the street. Nobody really takes me up on the offer...until Neil and I return with grub. I got Neil a cheesesteak, gave Pauli half of mine and gave Rebecca a turkey sub. Tasty treats and a gut full of sobering grease, I pay my tab at the bar and head out before last call.
Whitney and her friends decide to leave too. We say goodbye and she planted the seed for me to visit the old crew in the back of my head by saying that they all miss me. It's nice to hear that! So,on the way home, I drive down to Tempe for nostalgic value and stop in my old pain in my side of a old job and visit Big E. E's cool, nothing new per say except that finally, after YEARS of shit falling apart, the owners dump $30000 in flat screens, sound systems and new registers to make things somewhat workable again. I talk with E til about 2:10, maybe drank 1/4 of my beer and then split. Headed home, grabbed a quick nosh on a snack, pounded some juice, grabbed a liter of water for the bedside and crashed out on the bed. Which I have to say, since going out last weekend and buying $200 worth of new down pillows and a featherbed top for my mattress, my passing out time has dropped from like 10 minutes to about 30 seconds...awesome.
All in all, a great freggin night! Good times with Great people!

Lone Ranger

That proverbial horse has walked into my life once again. Needless to say, he's always ready to go and is just waiting for me to get back on the horse again.
Last week my girlfriend and I ended a 8 month relationship. I suppose it ended as good as it could have. No harsh words were said, as if I had any to say to her anyways. The hardest part of it is going to be spending time apart from someone I consider a really close friend to me. I know it is for the best though, as time is needed to heal. Still though, it's going to be a rough time talking to my friends, who are also OUR friends and not hanging out in a solid group.
I think an even harder part will be that sometime down the road, when the time rises, one of us will start to be in another relationship. That may be a little rough. Hopefully by then things will be relatively back to normalcy and it will be accepted as friendly as friends can get.
When it comes time to ride that horse again, I suppose I'll deal with it when it comes. In the meantime I think I'll just continue doing my thing. I may chose to concentrate on things that I have seems to be neglecting for a while, that may be centering on myself for a bit, or re-bolstering the friends I have, and expanding into some new ones.
I think now would be a good time to buy that surfboard I've wanted, head out to the beach with my trusty sidekick Miss Jenny Jones, paddle out into the fetch and just sit for a spell.

A hui hou kakou Aloha `oe
Until we meet again, farewell to you.

9-14-2006 is not a fun day.

I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged.
Their feathers are just too bright.
And when they fly away,
the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice.
Still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone.
-Red, from The Shawshank Redemption

Remember

Killzone

Friday was the start of the early fall dove season in Arizona, so Chris and I shuffled off to the scorched wilderness of southern Arizona, just south of Florence. The early season means that you could only hunt from 6am to noon, unlike the late season in December when you can go all day. Probably a good thing since it stays over 100 degrees well into October.
After closing on Friday night, Chris and I left on a preliminary scouting day Saturday morning at 9 after 3 hours of sleep to see what we were working with. We hit our hunting area around 11 and hiked around for an hour sweating our asses off in a good amount of gear.
We technically had an hour to hunt in, so Chris did manage to bag one bird. He did it in a grisly fashion as well. I care not to go into details...
We leave there after deciding that we'd come back on Sunday for an actual hunt day starting at 6am.
On the way home we hit a hole in the wall bar called Yolanda's on the south side of nowhere, Florence. A pink adobe building with trucks and bikes parked out front, we were thinking we'd walk into a roach infested pit. Turns out, it was 100 % clean, cheap, nice and cool and friendly. All locals inside of course at 1pm Florence time. We grab a damn icy beer and order up two hamburgers. Tasty treats! A hodgepodge of Dwight Yoakum and AC/DC mixed up on the jukebox could be heard as you take in the visual elements of autographed dollar bills stapled to 90% of the ceiling and support posts. A nice charity run event poster is by the front door entitled Hot Hogs for dogs, a bike rally where in the proceeds all go to the local humane society. Bikers have hearts too.
We get home, degear and rest a little before I have to head in to work. I close the bar, get home at 330am, and am supposed to meet Chris at home for a 530am departure time. No sleep for me. Chris shows up and we leave. I juice up on a mug of coffee and a couple cans of rockstar.
It had been raining ALL the previous night over the entire valley. I mean it really dumped some water down. We got the the hunt area, which the day before was completely dry, now had in some places about 6-12 inches of standing water and mud up the butthole. This is why Chris drove today. No way could my ranger get even 1/4 way down the main road. We saw a pair of trucks have to turn around as they came to another truck which was bumper deep embedded in the mud pit and either needed a tow or to wait til it dried out to get out. We do some insanely serious mud-doggin on the way to the killzones. Chris loses control once after hitting a waterhole too fast and fishtails and pinballs off of not 1, not 2, but three cholla trees, like the one pictured in the above photo. Not just glancing them either...full on in the middle of the trees. Chris now has battle damage. After laughing our asses off, we get to a good spot where we see dove, Chris takes two steps out of his jeep and barely has time to load a round before getting his first kill of the day. This repeats from our 7am arrival time til about 11am. We hiked most of that time, through washes, treelines, open desert, you name it, we went through it. Worked up a serious sweat, and definitely earned our meals for the night. At days end we each came home with 3 birds each, plus the one from Saturday.
Another successful hunt this year in the books. We headed home, de-geared, took a needed nap, prepped the dove to eat and had a tasty dinner with friends that night. Needless to say I slept like a freggin rock last night.