Midway Hawkers

All right, its been a while, I know.

Been pretty busy, new role at work, summer time activities, and what not.

I'm going to try to write this one on the fly, as I go about my day, using my cellular telephone, so if it seems random or incomplete in parts, that's just the he way it is. My brain works that way, why not my blog?

Actually, I don't know if it will work, jump in go for the ride, won't you?

I was looking at my vacation pics yesterday, good times. Went to Toronto with my family with the singular purpose of seeing the best band in the universe, Rush, in their hometown. An awesome trip, an awesome show, and an awesome family. They stood by me while I did everything that I wanted to do, never a complaint or a disagreement as to where to eat, or what to do. I even managed to do a few side trips like a morning hike along the Niagara river, and a visit to a place I was hearing about in song since I was a teenager, the much sought after " Lakeside Park"

 Midway hawkers, saying "try your luck with me"

 We went to a butterfly conservatory, I gotta wash my hair more.

 Ate breakfast inside a fling saucer.

 Really had wished I packed my kayak.

 "Smoking on the pier" I don't smoke, but if I did, this where I would do it.

 What trip to Canada is complete with out a souvenir? I think I'll keep her.

 Here's my dog, partaking of some of my souvenir! She does enjoy a good cocktail now and again.

This is one of the many awesome moments of the concert. So. Freaking. Awesome.

And now a few gratuitous dog pics

This is Char chair

Aerial shot if Zola and Gizmo

Char Dabis and Stella Dabis

(Check em out on Facebook, they each have their own pages)

This is my friend, JP, jumping into the lake, the life jacket I can understand, but not the "karate chop" hands?

This is Patrick. He just got back from selfie school.

Freedom doesn't ring so much anymore, been t it was cool to spend a day in the city of brotherly love

This is Patrick's other child, Harper. Those are my feet, and one of someone else's, I think.

A Philly institution

Went and saw an MLS game,( that's soccer), good times.

Parting shot, me and the Sauce recreating a scene from 10 years ago, last time we were at niagra falls. If you have never been there, check it out, kinda touristy, but awe inspiring.

And it made me want to pee.

A lot.

I gotta go to work now, make some people some food or something.

Sign up for updates, and Put a comment in the box, so I know you were here. Please.

Pretty please.

Pistolgrip out.

Day hikes and Haikus

So one day a few weeks ago I was giving my son a ride to school, and I saw the same windmills in the distance that I have seen for the last five years or so. Thats when I made the decision.I was going to touch one today. a windmill that is.

I had no idea how to get there, nor any idea of the adventure that was to come. Not a huge epic adventure, not life altering, not faith building, and not awe inspiring. at least not to anyone but me.

After I dropped The Sauce at school,  I headed toward my destiny of windmills and nirvana. As I stopped to put some fuel in my vehicle I asked the person at the pump next to me " Hey, How do I get to the windmills?" as the saying goes, ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. "that way, go up the mountain" was my answer, so I did. I had a little help from modern technology, namely google earth, but I found my way going uphill, rather quickly. and steeply.

I turned down a road that I thought was the way but it turned out to be a dead end. or so I thought. as I turned around in one of the two structures on this road, a person came out to see what was going on, so, in the interest of not pissing anyone off, I exited my vehicle, and told them I was just turning around, they seemed okay with it, then someone else exited the house and said hello, I in turn said hello, and we began a nice conversation. I asked how to get the windmills, yet again, a stupid question, I just dont learn when it comes to these things." up the mountain", they said.

the one person asked why I was going up there,they said they do a lot of walking, and running up there, and that is was very nice. they then asked if I wanted to see the view from their deck.

STOP. I know what your thinking, IS HE NUTS?

well, yes, I kinda am. But these people seemed real nice and I got a good vibe from them, so what the hell? whats the worst that could happen? well the worst that could happen probably involves duct tape, vaseline, and several years of therapy. I'm not opposed to two of those items, ill let you decide which two. but none of that happened, so cool. right?

now, back to the story. I saw an awesome view from a deck stretching out of the side of a mountain, in the distance there was a helicopter, slowly moving towards us. one of my hosts commented that they wondered who it was. I thought this was a little odd, we are in Wyoming the county, not Wyoming the state. people use cars, and bicycles, and walk to places, not take helicopters. as it turns out one of my hosts was a former pilot, and he said he might know them. RIIIIght, I thought, how wrong I was. So this Brand new helicopter, about the size of a bus came close enough to me where I could see the passengers face, I could feel the wind from the propeller, and could barely hear anything but the roar of the engines. I felt like Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H*. or Frank "Ferret Face" Burns, whatever.

after conversing a little it was discovered that I went to high school with one of them, albeit a few years difference, but we know  alot of the same people. like it is in disney, a small world, after all.(insert song here)

Very, very, very cool, indeed. on the side of a mountain, with a good amount of the county spread out before me.

after that, I thanked my hosts, and took my leave, up the mountain, with some directions and advice.

The only thing I regret, was not having my phone/camera/twitter/facebook machine., but I will forever remember the feeling, which is much more powerful than any picture.

I continued on my journey, up the mountain. From here I am going to let the pictures do the work of a thousand words, maybe more. With some observations and explanations thrown in, because I sometimes have a hard time keeping my mouth shut, or my fingers still.

A side note: I dropped off The Sauce at 8am was back at my car at noon. I did a lot of hiking, thinking, exercising, thinking some more, and sweating. oh yeah, I smiled a lot too. In true shiny things fashion, I just kind of went wherever my feet and my mind took me. Im surprised I didn't get lost. So was my wife, and She knows me better than I know myself.

I came upon this early on, it strikes me as odd that the environmentalist in me is okay with it, It provides clean energy, its not hurting anyone, just don't screw with it. That bitch will f*** you up.

this made me think of Bon Scott, and what his grave site should look like.

I walked up on this, then I remembered it from my high school years. It is called the Forkston Fire Tower.We used to go up there and cause trouble, usually after dark, usually with persons of the opposite gender. when I was younger it was the pretty much the coolest/highest place you could see from a distance. In fact, I used to look at it every morning, while I waited for the bus. There is a fence around it now, I texted a friend of mine who lives far away, in a very flat place, a picture, And I think he thought it was kinda cool too. (insert previous song here, too). I love the internet, and all its proclivity for interconnectedness.

alas, one must put up barriers, to keep one self intact. (insert bass riff here) (Rush reference, more to come on that subject, in a future blog)

as I walked away, pensively, I came upon this. An old stucture, probably one of the first before the windmills, I would like to live there.

this is what looks like the shop that maintains these behemoths. oddly, not a soul in sight, middle of the week 9am or so. not hat I am complaining, I would be suspicious if there were a lot of activity. it was very peaceful up there, only the sound of the windmills, like a train in the distance.

here at the base of one, unbelievably tall, and huge, and solid. about 20 feet around, solid steel and concrete. they give the impression thay go under ground for miles, straight down.

again at the base, this second pic is close up of the warning on it. I laughed out loud at the sparky, mean, electricity demon poking the person with his lightning bolt arm. And it tells you what to do if you find it open. besides run away, because that electric demon is inside.

This is the part of the day when I realized I probably should not be here.

I put my hand on it(the windmill, that is), stood there for a second, celebrated the accomplishment, texted my son, and moved on. wishing he was here with me, next time, Sauce, next time.

so I walked off into the wood, saw a few neat things, an old sign that said Bear Wallow. I picked up the pace a little, I am a little scared of bears.

then I found myself back here, it was like seeing an old friend, that you didn't get the chance to talk to the first time you ran into them, so you decided to spend some "quality time" with them, reminiscing.

I was a little upset with the whole fence thing, so I did something about it, because you only get a second chance once.

a quick look around, and then I became a criminal, seriously, it was the only time I trespassed all day, I couldn't resist, and I am not going to say it didn't feel wrong, and a little scary, Adrenaline took over. I love Adtrenaline, I dont get enough of it these days, something I have to do something about, but responsibly, I do have a life, after all.

when I got near the top, I recalled being a teenager up there one day, and the ranger was there. after he got all official and told us about it, explained its purpose, he took me up to the top, into the box like structure, I barley remember it because I was so scared, but remember the feeling, Thats why I was here today. when I got to the top, it was locked,

 DENIED!

a quick selfie ( man that sounds queer) and I am outta there! my knees are shaking so bad I feel like i'm being electrocuted.

the trip down was scarier than up!

Good bye, old friend. likely you will not be this accessible again, glad I had time to visit with you.

then in the middle of the woods, I saw this stucture, curious, I got closer and went around it.

glad to see somebody, is doing it right.

this is the view from the Captains Chair.

 I found this about a mile away, totally inaccessible, had to be there for 20 years or more. sad, it was probably someones dream getaway, now its just a trashed old meth lab. (probably)

some final pics and thoughts, if you have read this far.

I had a awesome day, met some great new friends, saw some pretty neat stuff, all in all, great day! we should all be this lucky to get out in nature and think, some times about nothing, sometimes about everything. The point is, in my opinion, that you are thinking, and enjoying the thoughts.

now, as promised, a haiku

Haikus are easy

but sometimes they don't make sense

refrigerator

pistolgrip out

In Defense of Dogs

aaaaand we're back!
hello everyone, Its been a while, I know. Sorry 'bout that, but I got STD. otherwise known as Shit To Do.
I am gonna write a little more this week, not only does give me a little creative outlet, but also a stress reliever, and a pretty darn good way to connect with some great people. So, if your reading this, do me a favor, share it with people. I know your not computer illiterate, after all, you are here, just right click and share to crackbook or twatter or myspace or whatever social disease you enjoy. Or you can highlight that long list of words and slashes and dots up top, copy and paste to your own blog or page and guess what? were connected! Ain't the interweb great! once you've seen this page enter your email into that box on the right and you will get notified when it gets new again. I promise you wont get useless stupid stuff, unless you consider this useless stupid stuff, then you will, I promise.

now onto the topic du jour,( that means with ice cream, or is that ala mode?)

Dogs
I love dogs, all dogs. short ones, long ones, hairless ones, fat ones, even annoying dogs have there own charisma, except when  they are being annoying. My wife and I have had a few dogs, I think we, like a lot of people, tried out our parenting skills on a dog before our son was born. Unfortunately our parenting skills did not progress as quickly as we would have hoped, when we graduated from dog to human.
What I mean is, you  raise a child the same way you raise a puppy, but puppies become dogs, and then they stop learning for a while, not learning anything. hence the old standby, "cant teach an old dog new tricks" adage. its true. because an old dog doesn't have to learn new tricks, He is still going to get fed, bathed, cleaned up after, rewarded, no matter what he does. Humans on the other hand, have to learn new tricks, or else they wont get a new cell phone. If I could teach the youth of today that lesson, I'd be a freaking millionaire. Fortunately, Our son is pretty smart, and likes to learn new tricks. It took us a little while to figure that out, I guess we are old dogs.

We currently have two dogs, How we ended up with two, I have no idea. it just happened.
The first one we got when our son was young, probably two or so. I remember the transformation my son had the absolute instant we got him. amazing. such power a dog has, and he probably doesn't even know it. or maybe they do. He turned from a needful post infant toddler into a little boy. instantly.
The second one we got about a year and a half ago, a female dog, a Bitch as it were. she is a totally different personality, set in her ways, selective hearing and over the top spoiled brat attitude. she snores like a drunken sailor, and if she had the gift of speech, she would talk like one too. I could tell. And she melts my heart everytime I look at her big brown beagle eyes. Its like watching Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstien, you cant not laugh.

I guess what I am getting towards is that dogs have a way all their own. They can be pets, companions, helpers, protectors, and life mentors. If we could all have a little dog in us, we would be a lot better off. Unless, of course, your in a third world country, and you call that dinner.

Thats all for today,
Pistolgrip Out

Touching The Puppet Head

I wanna talk about some stupid things. and some not so stupid things
These are the dumb things I gotta do, or to quote one of my favorite musical groups,
They Might Be Giants,
put your hand inside the puppet head.

As I go about my day touching the puppet head, going through the motions, I look forward to the moments which are uniquely mine. Sometimes they happen at breakneck speed, sometimes I have to coax them out of their shell. Usually they are there, right in front of me.

I am teaching one of my dogs sign language, because she is older, and I fear she has gone deaf, or at least gotten more selective in what she hears. She is a beagle, so we may never know the truth, as beagles pretty much do whatever they damn well please. Its not really sign language, more of a silly nonsensical gesture with my hands that means "time go out". and I look pretty silly doing it. all I really want is for her not to piss on the carpet. Pee smells.

I listen to the same band almost every day on my way to work. It is Rush, the best band in the universe. I don't listen to the same song, because that would be weird. I find their music influential and inspirational. I have followed them for my entire listening life, that is since being a teenager, when music means something different to every one. When I was in high school and college, I listened to a lot of music, I guess I still do, but it shaped me in ways I cant understand. there are songlines I travel, which take me to places only I know how to get to,

I have recently decided to take charge of my health, both physically and mentally. I don't drink nearly as much as I want to, I exercise more than I feel I should, and have given up all foods which are good and tasty. And I drink so much water, that I practically have to do it in the bathroom. Why, WHY!!, Ill tell you why, guilt, thats why. Its a powerful motivator, just ask any criminal. I feel guilty that I have had so much fun up until now, I had better start paying for it. Is that normal? I think it is. I have a coach, albeit I have never met her, except a phone conversation. She seems like a very nice person. She keeps tabs on me via a bracelet I wear, And an app I use on my phone. She texts me almost daily. She tells me what to eat, what to drink, and how to do it. I am not even married to her, and she may be a stalker.The silly part is, I asked for this. its kinda weird, I know, but so far she has been a great motivator, its almost better she hasn't met me face to face, she might rethink her decisions.

I do all these things because I feel it is right to. There is a reward to all of them, Health, Wealth and Happiness will ensue. I just gotta figure out when I want it to happen.

Do the dumb things I gotta do, touch the puppet head

If you dont believe me, watch the video below. (copy and paste it into your browser)

https://youtu.be/U24OvWVdVwA

Pistolgrip Out

oh, yeah, I almost forgot, post a comment below, so I know I am not talking to myself.