Throwback Thursday Windmill Herald Edition

During high school, I worked at the Windmill Herald, which was the go to local paper for all your community news in lovely Batavia, Il. I followed in the footsteps of my good friends Sean and Matt, both of whom had moved on to greener pastures career wise and weed wise. I kid, I kid...we were good, clean, decent kids, just trying to make a few bucks so we could afford some small luxuries in life. 

The Windmill Herald was owned and operated by the infamous Arlene Nick. She was a good woman, who cared more about that community than most of the residents combined. She certainly cared way more than I did, but that's not really saying much. When I was hired to be part of the newspaper production, she told me that I was the worst paper carrier she had ever had. I was flattered. It wasn't my fault that stupid route had like 130 houses on it and that there was an elementary school right next door to where I lived, which had a big garbage dumpster. Anyway, she gave me a second chance and she probably did the same for many other people. Her Kudos and Quips column was a must read for all  those who wanted to stay in the know. Rest in Peace, Arlene! You were taken way too soon, but you gave it your all while you were still here, so kudos to you! 

Arlene also provided me the opportunity to write my own article in the paper every now and again. As you can read below, I was just as brilliant back then as I am now. That woman had a keen sense for finding amazing talent. 

I also had the pleasure of working for Mark Foley, who radiated calmness and steadfastness, especially in the heat of the deadline. Mark never had a poor word to say about anyone, especially me, his favorite employee. Well, favorite besides  Eric Jones, who kept us laughing just about all the time. Or at least he tried to keep us laughing. Eric is a master at drawing caricatures and quite a few of those ended up in the newspaper over the years. 

It was a good couple years of working at the Herald. Many good times were had. Here are a few artifacts from those years. 

Wednesday Warblings about the Weekend

I just googled the definition of warbling, and I was thankful to know that it was sort of what I had imagined, so feel free to know that I am writing this blog in a quavering sort of manner. Feel free to read it in the same manner and I'll make sure to proofread it in that same manner as well. That's just how I do things...quavering and wavering and shaking all over just like The Who sang way back in the day before half of them were dead.

So I had a hell of a weekend. I'm sure you had the same, but I'm going to tell you about mine, whereas I may never know about yours, which is fine, but a bit disappointing, as there's nothing I like to hear more about than your weekend. Perhaps next time.

Friday night was spent at work. I put in a solid 12 hours on the job that day and night, which was fine, as I had nothing going on, and to be honest, the weekends don't mean as much to me as they used to. I just head home and take care of whatever needs taking care of...usually petting Maxine and going to sleep which isn't such a bad thing. So I was late at work running a HP TurboJet printer, which is one of the oddest looking printers I've ever seen. It looks like a rounded personal printer, except at about 200 times the size of a personal printer. Let's see if I can find a picture...

Ehh...I found a couple pictures, but none which were worthy of the meaning I meant to convey, so look it up for yourself if you're so inclined.

Saturday I arrived at work at 8:15 am, worked for five hours. Had some printing issues, which I could not resolve, so I left around 1pm to go buy some jeans and some shoes. I stand all day at work and need more support for my archless feet than my current shoes were providing. Got back at work around 3:30 pm, as the person who knows how to run that machine was going to be there, so he helped me get it back up and running correctly. Worked another five and a half hours and headed back home. Stayed up late 'til 11pm or so and then hit the hay pretty hard.

Didn't bother setting an alarm as it was soon to be Sunday morning and I thought it would be nice to sleep in for one morning that week. Woke up at 6:26 am. Oddly enough, I was pretty damned happy it was that early and I was ready to get on with my day. I'm still getting used to being a morning person, but I like it quite a bit. My fun night times have taken quite a beating, but I don't mind. It's nice to wake up ready for a new day as opposed to still regretting the last night. So here's what I took care of on Sunday... and perhaps this isn't much to all of you productive folk, but my productivity domination is still in it's infancy stages, so cut me some slack. Actually don't. I don't need your slack. I'm doing just fine without your sympathy slack.

Post Cubs tickets on CL for May 2nd. Still for sale if you're interested. I'll cut you some slack on the price.

Read a faux interview my friend Chris is working on.

Responded to a few emails I had neglected. I know...not too difficult, but I'm good at putting off communication.

Set my lineups for my fantasy baseball teams.

Go shopping for groceries.

Laundry. Washed it all...bedding included. Dried it all as well. Impressive I know. Put it all away as well.

Cleaned all the dishes and cleaned the sink area.

Read Bob's musical and critiqued it for him. I had nothing to add. He did a fine job writing it.

Decluttered some picture frames and some jeans and some shoes (I miss you my two favorite pairs of Converse, but I was never going to wear you again).

Removed the food from my shelves and put it on a different shelf in my room. Now the heat from the sun doesn't continually bake the food as it's sitting there, plus it's just a bit easier to access and it makes my shelves look less cluttered.

Went for a run, which was pretty damn long and felt pretty damned good, until it was all over and then I realized that's why my back was hurting, but whatever. A little back pain never hurt anyone. That's a total lie.

Mopped the living room.

Organized the loft area in my room and cleaned it.

Completely cleaned my room. Vacuumed the floor. Cleaned all the wires from my stereo and tied them up so they weren't out and about having an awesome time. Sorry wires. Cleaned my desk...it's spotless. That's always the hardest thing for me to clean in my room. Mopped the floor, except for all the parts that I just scrubbed with my hands while down on my knees...doing the dirty work that I usually pay my lesser self to take care of. Washed some of the walls. Washed the radiator. Washed the windows. Basically cleaned everything I could. My room has only been this clean twice before, but it's never looked quite this good, so I did good or well, whichever you prefer. :)

Before I could get to cleaning my room though, I decided to finish a project I had started a couple weeks earlier.

I've been collecting picture frames from God's Closet since I moved into this place and I never did anything with them, except collect them. I had good intentions, just never followed through on those intentions, which is a ridiculous waste.

I've also collected some artwork over the years, which I've never done anything with, which is also a ridiculous waste.

I also have an eleven foot tall wall, which is painted green and which has nothing on it.

What I'm saying is that this is like the first time peanut butter and chocolate decided to bang each other.

So many, many hours later, this is what happened. I'm pretty happy with the results. It makes for a much nicer, more creative living space. I didn't know how to hang much of anything on a wall before, but I did a pretty damned good job, if I do say so myself...and that's why I gave myself such a solid pat on the back.

I had a vision for all those crappy frames that were beaten up and deemed worthless enough for folks to give them away for nothing. Some folks may have questioned my mental state over the past couple years, as I kept collecting them time and time again, but perhaps now that the vision has become reality, they can understand why I was doing it. Or perhaps not. It makes no difference to me. I'm happy with it. Quite content actually. Happy as a lark, whatever the hell a lark is.

I dominated this past Sunday. And sorry to ruin what's supposed to be a day of rest, Jesus...but you're up on that wall, right where you belong....below the true king. The King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. So it was a good day. It's amazing what you can do when you set your mind to it and stop fucking around. There's also a photo in there of Rob Halford and K.K. Downing of Judas Priest, which I've had in the same frame since I was in 4th grade I think? Why do I mention that? Because you've got another thing comin'!

One life I'm gonna live it up

I'm takin' flight said I'll never get enough.

Stand tall I'm young and kinda proud

I'm on the top as long as the music's loud.

If you think I'll sit around as the world goes by

You're thinking like a fool 'cause it's a case of do or die.

Out there is a fortune waitin' to be had

If you think I'll let it go you're mad

You've got another thing comin'. 

Monday Night Musings

I just keep getting more and more clever with these post names. Or perhaps I'm just getting older and the synapses aren't quite firing quite as quickly.

I am getting old. My back has been hurting for almost a month now. Middle of the back. Not sure why it started. Not sure why it hasn't stopped. I've never had consistent back pain in my life, but now it's here and I'm going to need to do something about it. Fortunately I have an appointment with a new doctor next week. I'll ask her about it and perhaps she can give me some advice or refer me to someone who can. I blame it on the 15-20 pounds or so that I've lost in the last couple months. That fat belly of mine was keeping my spine in a beautiful state of equilibrium and I messed it all up with the not eating and then the transition to very healthy eating. I'm almost down to my wrestling weight. I'm not sure what that weight was, since I was never a wrestler, but I'm pretty sure I'm close to it. I did watch that one movie about wrestling though and I used to watch wrestling on TV back in the 80's. Also, I was invited to some sort of pudding wrestling match somewhere not too long ago, so that probably counts.

I didn't go.

I don't know that any of those things count for much at all.

After a small burst of blogging earlier this month, I've taken a break if you haven't noticed. Not that I planned on taking a break, or even wanted to take a break, but I had to do what I had to do and what I've had to do is get my body and mind in a better place. I've done a pretty good job at it so far and I've been quite productive for a good while now. I really don't understand how some folks get all the things done that they get done. They have the same 24 hours a day I have. I'm getting there. Just need to figure out the correct balance and continue to focus on the things that need to be done, and that I want to do, and not the things that would be fun to do, but are just counterproductive to the goal. Staying focused has never been an easy thing for me to do, but I'm working on it and I'm doing it more often than I have in a long time. There is no attraction without action, according to the information I've immersed myself in for the past couple months. Stay the course, focus and you'll receive whatever it is you want to receive. Or go way off course, as long as you're taking action and that's part of your plan.

Speaking of action, I took the action to go grab the space heater for my room after work today. I had gotten rid of it a week or so ago, as I figured I wouldn't be needing it anymore. That's what blankets are for, but I was wrong. My body is less blubberous these days and this sudden change in temperature has rendered my blanket theory to be quite premature and inaccurate. This Spring has been pretty decent so far, but I'm ready for some warmer temps. I suppose we're all ready for that, except for my brother Dan, who finally returned from his 8 month journey. I'm sure he had his fill of warmth and is happy to be back somewhere with winds that bite and cold that seeps through every layer. Probably not, but welcome back, "Daniel my brother...you are older than me do you still feel the pain of the scars that won't heal?"

Nothing better than scars that don't heal, but I'm glad you're back home. Well almost home, as he's still out in Batavia, but that's close enough I suppose.

Well time to go make my healthy lunch and breakfast for tomorrow! It's a half hour past my bedtime. Guess I'm not as old as I thought.

For He is Risen!

And He's probably headed over to Wrigley for opening day. I'll let you know if I run into Him. Have yourselves a wonderful Easter. Hope you and your families are enjoying this beautiful Spring day. Wish I could give all of you one of these Jesus puzzles, as there's nothing better than putting a Jesus puzzle together with the family on the day Jesus rose from the dead. But alas, I only have this one, which is officially for sale, so make me an offer if you're interested, and I know you are interested.

Go Cubs!

Throwback Thursday Concert Edition

Many of you probably don't know this, but I have quite an affinity for old school heavy metal music. I owe it all to my brothers Mark and Dan. Mark used to buy me concert tickets when I was just a wee little lad living all the way out in Batavia. I probably didn't even have a paper route yet, so I certainly couldn't afford the exorbitant ticket prices of the 1980's. As for Dan, well Dan lived his life for music and metal (still does), and he always shared that passion with his younger sibling.

This is my ticket stub for the Ozzy Osbourne show at the UIC Pavilion on Saturday, April 5, 1986. I ran out of fingers and toes to count on, but it looks like it was about 29 years ago. That's a long time ago. Not long enough ago that I can't remember Metallica opening up during their Master of Puppets tour and completely putting Ozzy to shame. Nothing against Ozzy, but this was his tour supporting The Ultimate Sin album, and that's just not going to go down as one of his finest creative musical periods. Master of Puppets on the other hand...well I'm sure you already know how good that album turned out to be. Needless to say, at the time, heavy metal was my life.




















Not only was I into heavy metal music at the time, but with that metal territory comes responsibility, so I was also deeply involved with the occult and doing what I could to please my master, the supreme being of the 1980's, Satan! Bringing hellfire and damnation down on society were the only goals I ever conjured up for myself back in those days and I lived my life to bring those goals to fruition. As part of my plan, I kept tabs on any and all hints of Satan manifesting his will on the public, by reading the local papers. I poured over the Windmill News and the Beacon-News for signs of doom. All seemed to be going as planned until one day when I flipped the page to the comic section and saw this...

And then, just like Calvin, my whole being and purpose in life came crashing to a halt, much like Vince Neil's car. I no longer knew what to believe in, which is a pretty powerful realization for a sixth grader. I did my best to cling to the music, but I was empty inside without Satan as my guide. I threw out my metal spiked leather wrist bands. I burned my custom built codpieces. I gave up the fast cars and the faster women. I sobered up, became an altar boy, turned away from the dark side and dedicated my life to searching for the answers as to why I was placed upon this giant, revolving hunk of matter we like to call Earth.

I haven't found all of the answers yet, but I'm getting closer and I will find them, that's for certain. We all have to evolve my friends. I managed to evolve beyond Satan's grasp and I've learned to evolve beyond just listening to heavy metal music. It took a long time, but I did it...

Which is why I'll be heading to the beautiful Riviera Theatre Friday night to go see Belle & Sebastian. This will be the third time I've seen them and the one constant at all of those shows is my good friend Jody. He's about 80x the music nerd I am and he knows a good band when he hears one. Joining us will be his lovely wife, Sally, and my good friend Nicole. We shall, most definitely, have a wonderful time listening to one of the greatest bands I've had the pleasure of listening to over the past ten years or so. And it's going to be even more awesome, because my friend Skid has upgraded us, free of charge, into the VIP seating area! That Skid is one damn fine human being! Good things happen to us when we expect them to happen.

This show is also a lesson in the power of giving. Many years back, I let someone borrow some Donovan albums, as they were working on learning some different acoustic music. I barely knew this person, as he was neighbors with an ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-girlfriend. In exchange, he recommended I borrow a five EP set by some band called Belle & Sebastian. Little did I know that I'd soon embrace that band just like I did Donovan. Now they are both on constant rotation and will forever be on constant rotation until my wandering days are over.

Go see a live show. It'll make you feel better. I guarantee it!

April Fools!

There's no blog today. I totally tricked you, didn't I? Pretty funny, huh?

Actually it's not at all funny and I'm sorry I did this to you. It's not funny to be made a fool. I had my April Fools joke played on me a couple weeks ago and by golly it was quite a doozy! It was even more surprising because it wasn't played on April 1st. The element of surprise was strong with this prank. Well done my friend, well done.

Oh well. Stick me in the corner and slap a dunce cap on my noggin.

We all need a kick in the pants sometimes.

Speaking of pants, mine are feeling a bit baggy these days. Too many apples and oranges being consumed. Not enough pizza and hot dogs and chinese food. I did just eat a delicious leftover taco bowl though. Perfectly sated and stuffed, I am.

Speaking of stuffed, have you gone to the Old Country Buffet lately? Man oh man do they have the best sliced beef and gravy! It's simply to die for.

Speaking of dying, winter seems to be doing just that, at least for one day. I saw my first wasp of the spring today, while sitting outside. It accidentally flew into my hand while going about it's waspy business, then landed on the sidewalk where it proceeded to walk around for a bit before taking off again. I don't know what it was actually doing on the sidewalk.

Speaking of sidewalks, my legs are still feeling the constant impact of said sidewalks after my run this evening. No complaints here though, as it felt pretty good. It took me a while to focus, but once I did, I set my mind on cruise control and effortlessly glided through a decent portion of Bridgeport. That is until I ran out of gas. But there was more in the tank this time than the last, so that's progress.

Speaking of progress, there's progress to be made in life, so go get to it.

Ha, sucker! Fooled you again, as this is an actual blog. No lie. It is. Tricked you like I got tricked by that hooker with the bible in her hand that I gave a ride to back when I used to have a car. She was standing outside of a church. How the hell was I supposed to know she was looking for more than scriptures?

Sorry I tricked you. I'll go right back to the corner soon, but not before I apologize by giving you this picture of a cat in a suitcase. Maxine's the best cat!