It’s been a trying week for me. The company I work for is struggling under the heavy weight of the Global aluminum giant that owns us, and is at the mercy of their whims as they prepare to sell us. The result has been yet another round of lay-offs. I see people carrying boxes full of their personal affects as they walk out the door, wondering how to tell their families, wondering how to face tomorrow, and wondering what to do next. I see their empty desks, and the unfinished work that needs to be done. I see my pictures, and the things that make this desk my own, and pray that I’m not destined to suffer the same fate. I try to figure out in advance how I would break the news, how I would face tomorrow, what I would do next..........

Three day weekend comin up and I'm pretty stoked about it. This week last year, I was in the unfortunate position of driving into the path of a spoiled, speeding, teenaged, stop-sign running idiot who totalled my truck and messed up my body. This year, I'm just plain ol' hangin out with the family and enjoyin life, probably gettin some more work done around the house. Oh yeah....the band has a gig. That's gonna be fun. I've got some itchy fingers, and the only cure is my giant bass strings.
A weird vision of concrete retaining walls keeps popping into my brain for no good reason. I have no plans to build any, but the step by step process keeps looping over and over.....grading the slope....building the forms.....hanging the rebar....mixing, pouring, finishing, backfilling..... Wussup widdat?

This weekend I did nothing. My brother and niece came to visit, and while the cousins tried to find common ground in the vast expanses that separate the realities of 5 and 10 year olds, my brother and I indulged in post-ironic follies, as if to re-affirm that we are inside and everyone else is outside. We drank beer and stared at the flames that consumed accumulated shop scraps, fallen branches and junk mail; the unwanted refuse that clutters the corners of our homes, lives and minds................Then we watched Kung Pow.

Before I went to sleep last night, I watched the moon pass into the earths shadow and turn a bloody red. As I walked out the front door before sunrise this morning, lightning was crashing all around me. It wasn’t raining yet, but it was warm, muggy, and loud. I jumped in my freshly washed truck and got about 2 miles from home when the first bucket hit the windshield. There was too much flashing, I couldn’t keep my eyes focused.... the windshield wipers were inadequate to clear the deluge. I was worrying about hail, when just ahead, a tree crashed down in the road and the radio cut out. I though I was gonna die. I didn’t. But it was a long scary-ass drive to work through a very crappy and intense storm.