that the new job is going to work out in my favor. So far, I am running in the negative thanks to 4.00 a gallon gasoline and 70-100 miles a night run distance. We shall see once I get paid if I will keep it or run for the hills. On top of this, I am getting no sleep and everyone in the house is staying a bit on the grumpy side… since they have been graciously helping me… and getting no sleep either.

I don’t work “for” the newspaper… I am a contract carrier and as such, I can use whomever I please to help run the route. To get done faster, we have been splitting the route and both of my men have been working it. The boy reads directions and box numbers out to the Hubs and they run one side of the expressway and I run the other. Their side is mostly right off the road… and mine runs out in the boonies… and partially into another county. I found subdivisions that I had no idea existed and I have lived here for the last 15 years. Several are the mega dollar hoods… with mansions and the mini me versions right along side them.

Temps have been in the 90′s and with us being extremely broke… we have not turned on the air yet. UGH… have you ever tried to sleep while your skin slowly roasts?  I know sweating is good for the body to get rid of toxins… and I swear I must be running on pure blood… cuz the only time I am not sweating is when I am out in the cool night air running papers.

I am hoping that something breaks in a good way in the money dept soon… so the worries will let up on these tired old shoulders. Not sure how much more stress this old body can take.

Hopefully next time I will have something more positive to convey to my one reader… (Hey Sally!)

Til then… hasta manana

as to how long I have been away this time. I feel bad. Honest.

Status Update: Still unemployed, but looking.

I have not been feeling all that great and so I missed a last minute decision to go to Florida to watch the shuttle launch. The boys left Friday to go see it and it was scrubbed twice. They are debating on whether to just come home, or to time it so they can see it if and when it goes today. Darn weather scrubbed it yesterday. I have not checked the weather updates today. I guess I should and let them know.

I have gotten hooked on a twitter game, SpyMaster, while I have sat idle. Yesterday a gang attack by another mob broke me of it. I found that the system was flawed and when I mentioned it, they hit me hard. There is a huge conflict of interest in the place that you can go complain about the said flaws… those people also play the game. One cannot, by any means, be objective or subjective if they play. Especially if they are affiliated with the gang that you are complaining about.

One of their “supposed” rules is that you cannot use multiple accounts to gain advantages. I have proof that this gang has several multiple accounts, because all of those accounts have attacked me at the same time. Soooo, while I was “dead”, I logged out. That keeps me from them and them from me until I chose to log in again. I may or may not do that, but it will be down the road a bit. (At least you won’t have to see my rants about them for a while on Twitter! )

Welp, this post window is driving me crazy. it keeps popping back up to the top for some reason… so I will cut this short. Like I said, not much new… and I know – I owe you pics of the pup. Coming soon to a blog near you!

Well, ok. I have to admit that I have been busy, but that is no excuse. What has really been happening is that I have been hiding. Yes, hiding. Hiding from my friends, responsibilities and, most of all, emotional attachments. I don’t want to go into details, but, suffice it to say that I have some things that I have to work through and I am glad of two things… 1. That I have friends that accept that I run off and ignore the world when I have issues to deal with, and 2. That my subconscious will force me to pick the right movies to trigger the memories/ideas that I need to deal with my issues. I could delve deep into the sinkhole that I call a mind, but the demons and devils that would come to light would cause me no end of trouble (and would give nightmares to some). I am simply grateful that there are people that care enough to both understand and nag.

Yes, I did get the job that I wanted, and I have been working at it for two months, now. The good news is that I am making OK money and I get a full benefits package. The better news is that I am challenged every single day, and I get to continue to support the US Army, even though I am retired (I AM actually retired, now. My first day as a civilian was December 1st). The bad news is that all of the little things that bothered me while I was active duty are magnified at this level. In case you are wondering, I hate both internal politics and egos, and I am dealing with both daily.

On a bad note, the gentleman that interviewed me for the job (and that I worked with) passed away about two months ago, and I have been doing his job. If (and that is a rather large IF) I get his job I will get a substantial raise to do the job that I am doing now. We will see…
I haven’t forgotten you all, I am simply avoiding my emotions, and that means that I don’t write much because I tend to look inside when I write. Please forgive my absence and know that, when I can deal with it all, you will be the audience for a long rant…

Carlo

P. S. Phoenix, “Phenomena”

I just have been under some stress the last few weeks, and these days I tend to crawl under a rock, instead of letting it bother me… which means of course, that I don’t write much… or call anyone for that matter. I feel like I might catch someone at the wrong time… and in my mothers case… she has changed her number so much lately, that I didn’t have the right one for a couple of days.

I get chastised for not writing e-mails… but somehow that seems impersonal and it is hard to get the intended feelings correct. To put it in as few words as possible, I have been just a little depressed. It is the same ole SS, DD and it grates on me at times. I don’t want to be a whiner here… and I try my best to keep things upbeat, so when I get down… I hide.

Anywhooo, the kid made it through his ISS with flying colors. He didn’t do all the school work that he was supposed to do, but I only received one complaint on that and that came from his reading teacher. (He deems that less important than say math or science.) The other kid is back in school AND back on the bus, but apparently has been told under no circumstances is he to start more trouble… and this comes from not only the school staff, but also from a few of my sons, ummm… searching for right word here… “tougher” friends. Yea, we will just leave it at that, m-kay?

We just went through… and sorta still are going through a pricing change at work and that has kept me busier than a bee in a flower patch. We have certain customers that have been given extensions on the increase and I have had to keep my head on somewhat straight to make sure I don’t mess up when I am invoicing them. I also had to put in some extra hours to help with that AND to make the hours I lost when I had to leave early to pick up the kid at school. So I worked on the weekend last week and that kept me away from here and family as well, in more ways than one.

Another thing I did to to fill my “I got nothing but whine” time… is read. I heard a lot about this series, and I had already read one of her other novels and LOVED it… so I treated myself to these:

The twilight Saga… all four novels! I didn’t buy the box set, but, I read all 4 books NOVELS in 5 days! I could not put them down! This had to be a first for me and I cried, laughed and just fell in love with these books. I also ordered the movie guide and the soundtrack to be delivered upon release and I am planning a small party of people to go with me when the movie is released to the theaters. Yes, I was impressed.

In other news: My orchid is still in bloom and here is the 5th bloom that came out:

Also, my water lily bloomed, so here is 2 pics of that for your viewing enjoyment:

It now has 2 blooms on it, but I have not taken any pics yet…

Well, this is as much as I can dish for one sitting… more to come later!

Well, I have to say that one of my last major stressors has dissipated. I have been offered the job that I wanted, working as a civilian on my local Army installation.

Basically, I have had a really good job hunting experience. You see, was offered three job interviews and I was offered three jobs. I know that this is not typical, but I guess that I am simply good with people.

However (comma), back to the main subject, I know that I will be working in the next few weeks, and I can continue to pay my bills! So, I am very, VERY pleased…

Carlo

This was written during Friday evening, 8/22/08.
I have been preparing for today for the last 16 years. I am glad that it is here, and I am glad that I am able to explain it to you, yet I am still nervous about the changes in my life. You see, I retired today (actually, I won’t retire until the end of November, but that is administrative and bureaucratic nonsense; effectively, I am retired NOW) and I don’t know how to take it. I am overjoyed and nervous; happy and scared all at the same time.

I have never handled change well, and this is the sixth largest change of my life (three marriages / divorces and two children rank above it). I now have to figure out what I am going to do for my next career before I get too far along without a job…

Carlo

Tattoo’s are not as painful as I was led to believe…

I had worked myself up into a near nervous frensy before I even arrived at the shop, but it was all for naught. I had to stop several times on the way there to put my nervous stomach to rest… and to buy something to drink because by the time I left the house I was already thirsty. Dry mouth and shaky nerves do not mix, lol.

We arrived and I filled out the “I promise not to sue you and neither will my family should I croak” papers. Brian, my tat artist came out with his finished product and we discussed it for a bit. I decided it was too big and needed it shrunk some more… he did and brought it back and I approved it. While he transferred it over to the paper that sticks the ink to your skin… I went out to smoke and calm down some more.

Brian came out to join us and when he finished his smoke, he asked me if I was ready… I said “I guess…” My son was with me and he was all agog over how calm I appeared on the outside. Brian let the kid stand outside the booth while he did the tat, which was pretty cool on his part.

Brian then cleaned my arm up thoroughly and started. I was braced for pain… with my muscles clenched… and presto, chango… not much pain at all! (It feels more like a sunburn than anything else I can relate it to.) I relaxed and let him do his thing. We stopped once for a break to let me get a drink and then it was done. It took a total of 1.5 hours to complete, including the break.

These guys are great artists and their shop is clean with a relaxing atmosphere. They have major patience… I asked a ton of questions and all were answered. I tried to not distract him while he worked but I had to know what this was and what that was. All the tools he used were new and very sterile. I would recommend this shop to anyone who might be in the area.

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The Reveal:

I hope you like… and ignore my fat arm… it comes attached. (I will try to get a clearer picture once I find batteries for my regular camera… this was taken with my T-Mobile Dash Smart Phone)

Now I can cross something off my bucket list!

Electric Art Tattoo in Marietta, GA – Their My Space Page: http://www.myspace.com/tattoorichiega

The small list below just became much shorter today. # 2 is no longer an issue and with that gone, #4 is no longer necessary. 

As many have guessed my bucket list accomplishment is a tattoo. 1.5 days and I will be walking into the tat parlor with nerves enough for ten. Since my blog host has gone AWOL and I cannot up load anything… I will try to give you a mental picture of what it will look like. Picture if you will:

An aging bronze dragon in flight breathing out his last bit of magic. His wings are spread above his head and his head is turned upward. His last blast of fire breathes life into his progeny… a female phoenix. Of course she is aflame as she is born from his flames, and is in flight as well.

I hope that gives you a clue into the tat I had specially designed for this phoenix… it is both of my personalities built into one and has much significance to me and another certain special person. I will take pics after it is done… and will try to post… that is if my blog host tech support magically reappears to do the repairs I requested 10 days ago (not that I am anxious about it or anything like that… lol).

Stay tuned, more drama is sure to come…

Women are going to be the death of me. I say that because I know way too many women that I care about that drive me crazy. I say that because I know way too many women that I want to get to know that have “issues” that they can’t get past. I say that because I know way too many women that don’t want the man they picked, they want the man they can “make him into.”

None of this really makes sense to me. You see, I am a simple guy. I mean what I say and I accept how things are. I cannot control anyone except me, so I don’t waste my time trying. Yet, I keep meeting people (men do it, too, they just aren’t as subtle) that seem to think that they can control others. Let me clue you in, people, you can’t control whether your hair falls out and you are trying to control a person with free will? Morons…

I am a parent, yet I don’t believe that I can control my kids. They deserve to have me teach them how to make decisions (good or bad), then live with the consequences. We all know that there are consequences in life, so we have to be willing to accept them. There is an old saying: “You can do anything you want as long as you are willing to accept the consequences.” That is a true statement. I can kill someone as long as I am willing to go to jail or die in a death penalty state.

Consequences… Now there is a word. You see, I got out of a bad marriage three years ago, and it took me 18 months to work through my own issues with what she put me through. That’s OK, though, because I wasn’t out there taking all of my anger and frustration out on other women that didn’t deserve it. Unfortunately, I keep meeting women that believe that I deserve to be treated like crap because of what some other guy did to them… I know that I carry emotional baggage and scars around with me, but I don’t try to blame people that I didn’t know for them. I feel that I deserve that same courtesy.

Doesn’t it all come back to treat others as you would like to be treated?

Carlo

**I would have written this sooner, but I wanted to give this justice and this was one of those that held my emotions too tight to write it properly. The third death in my lifetime that was not related that made me cry. The other two were John Wayne and Elvis Presley… yea, I know, I’m weird that way.

Growing up in the early 70′s was interesting to say the least. My high school years were spent experimenting with many new and wonderful things. Flower power was fading, but Jimi and Janis were still a part of our lives. Heavy Metal bands were becoming the new rage, disco techs were finding their niche and experimenting with pot was the thing to do. I was a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll, and a lot into music. The Beatles still were going strong in my part of the world and I did my best to keep up with all of them.

About that time another phenom was hitting the vinyls… comedy. If you didn’t live near a big city, you didn’t get exposure to great comedy… the no holds barred kind, unless you went to the movies. Cheech & Chong and Richard Pryor held most of that niche. Up In Smoke being one of the best that comes to mind. If you didn’t have the spare cash to see a movie, then you bought the record. I remember my copy of Up In Smoke came with a huge rolling paper in the album. The teenagers of my time loved it.

This brings to mind one of the times best… George Carlin. This man almost single handedly changed my views of the world and pretty much started the change in what could and could not be said on TV. He made people think while making them roll with laughter. His views were always controversial and and his humor always struck a cord with someone. I idolized this man.

George… your humor and wit will always be with me and the millions whom you made laugh. You will be sorely missed. Rest in peace, Dude… rest in peace.

You can read more about George

here

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7 dirty words

The Ten Commandments