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Well, everyone passed the class. Barrett had a spectacular crash after locking his brakes on an emergency stop practice that resulted in him getting the “Motor Acrobatics” award at class completion. Georgia scored the highest in the class on the final riding exam and got the “Weaving Wonder” award. I received a “Sharp Turn Superstar” award… whatever the hell that is… heh. I took Wednesday off work and the last two days of the week are corp holidays for Thanksgiving. I think my mom, step-dad, and grandmother are all driving here for the holiday even though I won’t be home. I like it when they come visit. I wish it was more often. Today has been a typical conference-call filled Monday. I’m just counting the seconds until COB tomorrow… then it’s 5 days of R&R… much needed R&R.

exhausted

Tomorrow is the last day of the Rider’s Edge course. We all had to be at the course by 6:45 this morning and I didn’t sleep well last night. The morning was filled with back to back exercises that basically meant about 5 hours on the bike. After lunch, I was falling out. We had some course work in the classroom and then a test before I we could leave. I have to be back on site at 6:45 tomorrow and am so exhausted I could coma right this second, but I can’t. A friend from Louisiana, Luke, is driving in for the Saints/Texans NFL game tomorrow at Reliant and I sorta got roped into taking him out on the town since he’s staying at my house tonight. I suppose I really don’t mind being the host and it should be fun… I just wish I wasn’t so fatigued. I would have rather spent my evening quietly relaxing with early bedtime. Georgia and I scored perfectly on the exam and Barrett almost made 100% as well, so they both should be able to get their motorcycle licenses early next week if they pass the practical exam tomorrow. I have every confidence that they will breeze through with flying colors. Georgia did awesome on the course today from start to finish. I’m really proud of her! Barrett did well too after he almost got kicked out for rev’ing his engine and threatening to peel out. He was talking smack all morning, but after he had to focus on what he was doing, he did great. Some weren’t so fortunate. One lady dropped her bike twice before being removed from the field… limping. There were a couple of young men and another woman that all dropped their motorcycles at least once. Barrett told me the youngest kid fell over at least 4 times alone. I suppose it’s to be expected for first time riders or very inexperienced riders. I can’t even remember the first time I rode a motorcycle alone, but I’m sure I had trouble too. Well, Luke should be here in about 30 minutes, so I’m going to chug some caffeine and splash some cold water in my face. My eyes hurt. My back hurts. Barry called and asked me to meet him for beer, so maybe that alone will keep us on the north side and help manage the evening. If we end up going downtown, I may as well not even sleep tonight. Party like a rock star.

pee ess... If you hit the lotto, buy me this please. <3

It’s getting colder! I survived the last couple of days with little sleep and busy days, so I’m looking forward to a light Friday and fun weekend. I started the Rider’s Edge course tonight as a refresher with Georgia and Barrett. It should be a lot of fun as well as informative. Henry went back to the vet this afternoon for some more tummy medicine. He’s off everything (including his vitamins) except his special food until his intestinal inflammation gets better. There is more to write, but my head is bobbing at the keyboard. Bon nuit.



update: the photo is Hyalymenus tarsatus of the Alydidae family (broad headed bugs)… they are ant mimics in 5th instar

Well, maybe not “life”, but Percy saved my sanity. I had a rather hectic day today ending in dinner with 15 of my colleagues from out of town at a nicer-than-average chain cajun/seafood restaurant in The Woodlands. We had the little private wine room and I managed to eat all sorts of stuff that apparently didn’t sit well in my tummy. I woke up several times between midnight and two feeling like throwing up from acid reflux (which I normally don’t get unless I’ve been drinking cheap margarita mix) and thinking it would just go away before finally getting up and downing some of my newly gifted Percy bottle. I feel much better however, I seem to be afflicted with this can’t-get-back-to-sleep syndrome. Ugg. I have a *huge* day tomorrow with my boss in town (who I picked up from the airport tonight), his boss in town (who I will pick up tomorrow morning), a few big meeting around town with them (one of which I will have to present), and no frickin’ sleep. It’s nearly 4:00 and I need to be up in a couple hours… not now! This is just no good at all.

Happy Veteran’s Day and all that jazz. I’m tired. I was fairly busy with work over this last week, but my time outside of work also hasn’t left much room for quality sleep either. It doesn’t help that my back and neck are all jacked up and nothing seems to help. Thursday evening Beth drove in to Houston for a Friday morning interview. She ended up staying until Saturday morning so she could shop a few old favorites while here. It was nice to catch up and see her again. I missed seeing Rob and Tammy last weekend when they were up, so I sent the doggy pack home with Beth that I’d planned on giving Rob before. By Friday night, I already was feeling worn out from going all the time. I had dinner with Beth and Georgia at the Irish pub on the Waterway in The Woodlands… The Goose’s Acre I think it was called. Mmmmmmmn… Guinness on tap. We went to Chi afterwards for cocktails where Barrett and Andy met up with us. Barrett hadn’t stopped drinking since we had a couple Crazy Mexican’s at Cyclone Anaya’s earlier and I was so tired I couldn’t fit the strength to be witty. Saturday morning started with a nice walk at Mercer Arboretum. I drove out to Mancuso to pick up Georgia’s helmet for the safety class next week and then went for an hour deep tissue full body massage, spa pedicure and manicure, eyebrow waxing, and haircut. I ended up skipping the haircut (which I badly need) because the wait was over an hour and I needed to triple-ess before heading out for the evening events. Georgia and I went to Melanie’s house for a quick appearance at her son’s going away shindig (he leaves for Iraq in the Army in 15 days) before the evening’s destination… Mike and Sabrina’s “house warming” party. Before I realized it, it was three aye emm and we were all tipsy and shared sides hurting from laughter. Mike had a Jenga game that had been modified such that every tile had a drinking game item on it… you pull a tile and everyone does what it says. Very, very fun. I didn’t get home until 4:20 aye emm. Today was pretty lazy. I had lunch at Georgia’s parent’s house and Henry played with Tucker (her Boston). I’ve been kicking around some new macro ideas for pano-macro and DoF extension through stacking, so I asked Bob to bring down some specimens to shoot. This shot (above) is 5 separate images stacked to stretch the depth of field. The alignment sucks as does my technique, but it isn’t completely crap for a first attempt. I learned from it and I’ll have to refine my process. The focal plane shift is fractions of a millimeter from shot to shot as the DoF is literally paper thin at this extreme magnification. Who woulda thunk a cute little moth could star in a horror film. I’m tired and eating cheese and beer for dinner. Bedtime is coming real soon and I can’t wait to feel refreshed because this arse is draggin’. Georgia and her mom were the only two people that wished me well on Veteran’s Day… not that I expect it. I understand what service men and women go through and want to send kudos and thanks to all y’all… you know who you are. God bless.

pee ess… you want a good laugh? find me here.

My grandmother died today… my father’s mother. I don’t have much to say at the moment. I have so many fond memories of time spent with Memaw and Pampaw Ted when I was a small boy. I was stationed far away in the Navy when he died and I didn’t come home for his funeral. At the time, I thought it was ok, but I felt horrible for not finding a way to come home. When Papa Doc, my mother’s father, died in 1994, I was in southern Adriatic Sea on the border of the Ionian… nearly 7000 miles from home. I did what it took to get to his funeral… sleepless and tattered, I was there in 2 days. Memaw hasn’t recognized even her own sons in several years. I wanted to take Erin to meet her, but was unsure of facing her without lucidity or recollection of her life before Alzheimers. That never happened before Erin died and I haven’t had the will to make the journey since. When the news came today, it came from my father as disconnected as if he were telling me a storm were coming over the night while we slept. A fact to be taken in and filed away. I know being there for her in these last couple of years would have been difficult for me knowing that I was no different now than the nurse changing her sheets and opening the blinds in her room. Life is hard most of the time… even when you think it’s easy, it’s not. Sometimes I wonder how I seem to get by.

This weekend was nice. I spend most of it out of town. Saturday I went to a small lake house near Livingston on a private lake off the Trinity river. It was peaceful and relaxing. There was a vacant property next door that was rumored to be forclosed and up for auction. It needed a lot of work and was in disrepair from recent hurricanes and tornados, but I am interested in buying it… given the price is right. Maybe a fixer-upper out of town is just what I need to get the fuck away from Houston on a more regular basis. Sunday I was supposed to meet my childhood compadre, Rob, at Reliant Stadium for some ginormous motorcycle manufacturer’s show. He and his wife drove up from Corpus to check it out. When I was near, I called them but couldn’t get through, so the afternoon was spent at the bike rally in Galveston. Good times.

My father caught the camera bug from me the last time I was out to visit him. He picked up a DSLR and a few lenses and started shooting up a storm. He’s still getting the hang of it, but I’m proud of some of his finds on the property. He sent me this little critter last week that posed for him from the tree above his walk. Do you know what it is?

©2007 Jim Bownds

I’ve been hesitant to post because the whole thing is so very emotional for me, but my eldest dog is dead. Eclair spent last week (Monday through Friday) at the veterinary clinic undergoing her first installment (of two) of the heartworm treatment. This is a relatively risky process where they basically poison the patient with an arsenic derivative and keep her at rest and under close observation while it begins to kill the worms. She made it through round one with flying colors and was home the very instant I was allowed to gather her. We spent the weekend together at home and although visibly weak, she was happy to be home and in familiar surroundings. Henry was ecstatic. I had to be in Monroe, LA on Monday morning for meetings with a large client and was not going to be home until Tuesday night. Rather than my mother driving in to pet-sit, Georgia agreed to watch them at her home while I was travelling. I delivered them on Sunday evening due to early morning commitments and they were just fine… they had stayed at her house before. Monday, as I flew away, Georgia had to go to work herself, so she fed them breakfast and went to work. When she got home that evening, my sweet baby Eclair was laying in the backyard of her home dead. There was no way to tell what time in the day she had passed or why, but my suspicion is that she threw a blood clot and had a stroke as the clot lodged somewhere it shouldn’t have. This is said to be the largest risk to heartworm patients undergoing treatment. There are a million what-if’s I have to focus on not dwelling on as I deal with her loss. Should I have been with her so she wasn’t in a relatively strange place? Should I have kept her kenneled or made her lay down as much as possible? Could I have done something to save her? How long would she have happily continued to live if I’d not opt’ed for the treatment? I can’t help think that my attempt to save her live was what shortened it and killed her. I’m all too familiar with this feeling, of course on a much grander scale. Losing the woman you love more than life quickly puts the loss of a pet into perspective. Eclair’s death is still excruciating. The worst part of it all, other than for her, is that Henry loved her so much… she was his friend and companion. Imagining him with her when she was dying and stay there with her lifeless body all or part of the day breaks my heart.

Poor, sweet Georgia called me with the news when she got home. I was finishing a meeting and there was no way I could get home early without renting a car and driving since the last flight out of town was already boarding and I wasn’t even at the airport. I called around to friends I know with a truck looking for assistance to move her body. Georgia’s step dad and friend ended up helping and they took Eclair to my house and placed her in the garage until I got home the next day. I drove straight home from the airport and started digging a grave. The process of digging the hole reminding me of all these childhood memories I’d not thought of since. My grandfather was a veterinarian for over 40 years and would often have me dig graves for pets that people brought in to his clinic for “disposal”. I remember it being so impersonal. This was so painful. Barrett came over to help me dig. The ground was very hard as we’ve not had rain recently and the rocks and tree roots added to the struggle. I made jokes during the process to try and keep from crying… like how pissed my manicurist is going to be when she sees these bruised, splintered hands. An hour and a half later, we were close enough. My neighbor, Bob, and I gently laid her body into the spot and had to reposition her legs to fit properly. When I moved them, her rigored body aspirated air from within her lungs and she made a sighing sound just like she was exhaling while alive. I was a twist of the knife in my heart. After a brief moment of silence above her laying peacefully in that stubborn hole, we carefully replaced the earth above her that had fought so hard with us to be removed. Georgia brought Henry home during the process and he was anxious, so after that last goodbye, we all went inside and tried to make the best of the evening. I miss her. Henry probably doesn’t consciously think about it all the time, but I know he finds things all the time around the house that remind him of her that cause a moment of confusion… just like he did with Erin for so very long. I don’t want him to be alone and it hurts me to think of him lonely when I’m away, so I’ll likely get another dog before the New Year. I just haven’t worked out the details of that just yet.

ps. I hope everyone had a happy Halloween. 

in route to mayhem

Mikey R’s Halloween costume bash was a huge success. I’ve said before that he knows how to throw a party, but this was one for the record books when it came to decorations and what-not. The entire house and yard were packed with festivity… from the spider webs everywhere to the skeletons in the hot tub and monsters hanging in trees to the fog machine smoking the bar up. There was a nice little fire pit and we all sat around telling jokes and sharing libations. Georgia’s priest outfit with the mechanical penis that becomes erect when you squeeze “the balls” was a bigger hit than my pregnant nun, but at least we were pseudo-coordinated. Everyone was in costume and it looked as if they all had put some effort into each disguise. It was a grand time. I don’t think I made it home until almost 4:00 this morning.

me and my partner in crime

Of course, Henry had me up at 7:00 for his breakfast. I feel like I’m getting sick. I wasn’t hung over at all, but I have that pre-cold feeling. I blame lack of rest. Henry is so happy Eclair is home that he spends time with her instead of grunting at me to go play. My plan was to go back to sleep, but I, for whatever reason, am usually unable to make that happen. I did drift off for about 10 minutes, but the phone rang and it was all over. I did some stuff around the house before dressing and hopping on the new bike to meet Ted and Jenny for lunch. We were all attending Avenue Q at the Hobby Center around 2:00 so I picked a spot down in that direction. The show was ok… think Muppets with adult themes. I found myself laugh out loud a few times, but I know I would have enjoyed it much more with a rested head.

going into labor

Houston Texas - Home of the Orange Construction Barrel. WTF is up with all the road closures? As if traffic home wasn’t bad enough, having to take a 30 minute detour due to closing the interstate made it miserable. I wanted to stop at Fry’s on the way and I need some stuff from the store, but by the time I finally got past the block, all I could think about was getting home. Overall, I’ve been completely unproductive today and am exhausted.

loungin’

This is not my original blog post. Once again, this piece of shit publishing system ate my words… evaporated… gone. Even GMail has an applet that auto-saves every few seconds. This hunk-o-shite that I migrated to from the last hunk-o-shite is the touchiest system to date… well, maybe it’s on par with MoveableType. FUCK that pisses me off. The gist of what I wrote (in about one fifth the space and one tenth the detail) was that I had some plans for the weekend and Eclair was coming home tomorrow. I am going to Mike’s costume suaré tomorrow night in Clear Lake as a very pregnan nun. My “date” for the party is my friend Georgia who is going as a priest. We talked about coordinating costumes quite a bit and there were some cool ideas, but I just didn’t want to wear something that I would end up having to explain all night. “Hey mang, what are you supposed to be?” would get excruciatingly old. Ted, Jenny, Miranda, and I are going to Avenue Q on Saturday and I had a Rennesance Festival invite for Sunday, but I’m going to pass this time. It’s really cool, but I have a lot to do this weekend before my trip (business). Eclair gets to come home tomorrow after three pee emm. Henry will be ecstatic, I’m sure. Barrett, Jennifer, and Georgia are coming to my house for Halloween evening to pass out candy. Barrett is dressing as a giant taco this year which will either amuse or completely scare the shit out of the little kids. Georgia and I carved a pumpkin for the event since I have no other Halloween decorations to put out. Not bad for a first “real” attempt, eh? (at the bottom) Anyhoo, I’m really tired. I stayed out way too late last night and was up too early this morning. There was a big get-together at Front Porch Pub for Barrett and some of his ex-coworkers. The weather was really nice, so I drove down and met them after I got off work. Sam showed up on his way home and one thing led to another… late night. We ate somewhere in there at Cyclone Anaya’s with the intent to go to Sammy’s afterwards. The jazz venue was closed, so we cabbed it to Pub Fiction and ended the evening at the bar. I think the buckets of beer, shots, and frozen screwdrivers at FPP were contributors, but the straw that broke the camel’s back was the Crazy Mexican from Cyclone’s. Holy shit that is a strong drink. My entomologist (and good friend) neighbors are heading to the valley tomorrow for the butterfly migration. I wanted to go, but already had RSVP’d the Mike thing and the off broadway deal, so I’m going to get to hear about all the fun later. It’s late and I’m headed to bed. I still can’t believe I lost that post… AGAIN. Seriously, there is just something wrong with that…

official cameraphone documentation

I went to a local Harley dealer to look into their riding safety course and this little number caught my eye, so I bought it. The end. I called and checked on Eclair again today and they tell me she is doing fine. I can pick her up on Friday after 3:00 pee emm. The weather is fabuloso. Sam donated some pre-cut wood yesterday so I could do a chimanea shin-dig on the patio last night. I love hanging out back and sipping on gin and juice around the fire. It seems there was something else I wanted to say, but like many things these days, it eludes me. 

When someone says, ”hey, I’ve got good news and bad news… what do you want first?”, what do you normally say? It’s arbitrary really… assuming you will get both regardless. I found out this morning that I’ll likely get some sort of raise come January. This doesn’t mean much until I actually see it, but it was encouraging to hear “good” news in the wake of such “bad” news this weekend. My sweet baby Éclair was diagnosed with heartworms on Friday. I took the critters in for annual checkups and shots on Thursday morning before my Austin trek. Henry received 3 new meds for his little intestinal issue and a special food for sensitive stomachs (low residue). Friday afternoon, I went back in to deliver a king sized turd from his highness to ship off to the lab and received the news Éclair’s heartworm test returned positive. I drove home and gathered her to have more blood draw to disprove a false positive that night. Saturday, it was confirmed. Both dogs are on Heartgard brand preventative and I can’t think of when they would have been vulnerable unless I somehow missed a month earlier in the year. The vet says she may have thrown up a dose, but I don’t recall her ever being sick. My father told me his dogs are all on Heartgard and he just found out his Fox Terrier, Tiger, has heartworms. I’m not pointing the finger at Heartgard… just accepting that it’s likely not 100% effective… you know, like birth control pills and condoms. Heh. Anyway, the long and the short of it is: Éclair is undergoing a nasty treatment for heartworms as I type this persnickety poop. I delivered her this morning to the vet where she must stay for 7 days. She can come home for 3 weeks and then it all has to be done again… 7 days on site, 3 weeks home. One final visit for a couple of days is required to ensure everything was successful and, if all the labs are clean at that point (2 or so months later), then she gets a clean bill of health. Poor baby. Henry was home alone for some time today while daddy worked far away. He didn’t cry when I left. He only gave me “the look” of abandonment and confusion. When I got home however, he went positively apeshit. I can only assume it is because the realization of his situation sunk in at some point and, although they say animals have little concept of temporal passage, he was lonely for longer than usual. My weekend, other than Éclair’s situation, was pleasant. I went out for dinner and drink with friends on Friday. I attended a bar-b-q cookout on Saturday and the weather was splendid. The clutch work was complete on my motorcycle, so she and I spent some time on the road this weekend. I love the cooler weather. Autumn has always been my favorite season. I’ve been in fairly good spirits even through the low spots. I need to get in the gym or do something to stay active. This desk job and my love affair with Mexican food and whiskey is giving me handles I don’t need in places I don’t want. Other than that, I’m alive. 

I think blog publishing platforms should have a checkmark next to each “publish” button that designates whether the poster was drunk or sober when writing the post. I literally laughed out loud when I saw a GMail notice this morning that a new blog post had been made and I didn’t remember writing anything last night… at all. Maybe it was good we quit early. LMAO. Anyhoo, I’m back home. I stopped and picked up the pups from Georgia’s house on the way and they were soooooo happy to see me. It made me all smiley. The trip was pretty straight forward… drive to Austin after work, get your face rocked off by Chevelle, have a few drinks on 6th, crash on the super-extra-comfy beds they have at the Hilton Garden a block away, drive back in the morning for work. That’s pretty much how it played out with the exception of me requiring a caffeine stop on the way there that led to the highlight of the travel portion of the adventure. There was a tall, lanky dude that vaguely had a Napolian Dynomite look to him on the grassy corner between CiCi’s Pizza and Walmart in Brenham. This is the area you have to drive past to get to the Starbuck’s drive-thru. So, here is the kitch… he was dancing. I don’t mean baby dancing… I mean full on spins and leg kicks and gettin’ his groove on dancing. He was dancing non-stop the entire time we were near. The guy at the coffee shop said he is there everyday… all day… dancing non-stop like a mad man. He danced so much that the circle around him approximately the radius of his spread legs was barren… all dirt without a blade of grass to be found. Every bit of ground outside the circle was plush and green. It was simultaneously the coolest and nerdiest thing I’ve seen in a long time. If you are ever in Brenham, drive out to the Walmart and see if the CiCi’s Pizza dancin’ fool is out there… he rocks.

Barrett is contacting the booking agent for Chevelle to see how much it would cost to book them for our birthday bash this August. I think it’s going to be north of 100 grand, but he thinks it’ll be less. We’ll see. The temp in H-Town is supposed to drop to 59 Fahrenheit tonight. I’m so excited I think a little pee just came out.

At the beginning of the night I felt old. Barrett and I drove after work to Austin to catch Chevelle at Stubb’s. The whole town is absolutely crawling with young college folks attending UT… unfortunately, the female variety are the most noted. I always told Erin… “the best ting about being a dirty old man is that you get dirtier and older by the second”. Anyhoo, despite having a libido that would put most of these little whatchamadoodles in the hospital, I was there for a concert and nothing more… or so I thought. The show was incredible. The Chevelle brothers rocked the house and then some. After the show, we met a bunch (and I mean *a bunch*) of Barrett’s friends on 6th street. They were all much much younger than me but one. By chance, it was his (the peer) birthday tonight. I felt right at home buying him some birthday libations. So, long story short, I thought we were going to hang on 6th and shut the bars down, et al… *cough*… I was oh so wrong. They all cowered and ran home to hide under the covers. I feel robbed. A fantabulous show followed by nothing less than premature ejaculation on the 6th street scene. I guess no one parties like they used to… especially when it’s there all the time to partake. Barrett is passed out in the room and I’m feeling like this trip was built up way more in my mind than it should have been. Even though the concert was RYFOLAMF, I am left feeling like I should have stayed and watched DVR’d shit from my couch. At least my babies are safe and sound at Georgia’s house while I’m away. Tomorrow can’t come fast enough for me to speed home. This trip was less than optimal.

Oh yeah. I forgot. So this week has been as any other… one day succeeds the previous as we rotate around the Sun and the hands on the clock follow the spin on our axis. Such is life… as small or as big as you wish to make it. I spent a quiet weekend away this past and found toes in the sand near the land of my youth with waves crashing around my pale, white ankles and gulls overhead laughing at the breeze. My work is steady and the success comes and goes. I find comfort in whiskey and the sweet hair of my Henry smelling of “flowers, sunshine, and strawberries”. Events come and go and details escape me before I find the energy to write them here. The gist is I still, against all odds, breath and my heart, with great effort, beats. Tomorrow is another day.

The thick smoke found refuge on the surface of her cheek in the wake of gravity propelled teardrops that have forgotten why they were before they reached the overpriced lapel of her jacket designed by someone important last week to everyone who is someone, but currently unknown to all. If words were weapons, his were razor sharp with unerring aim… stopping long enough at each closet’s skeleton to drag them along and courier them straight into her heart. The soft jazz danced in and out of the serene forest surrounding the clearing hosting the battle as it unfolded. Excuses were made to powder noses and heed mother nature’s call by those in proximity to avoid shrapnel and collateral damage. The music didn’t mind the attrition. She gasped for breath, calculating her next move, and he braced himself behind a raised tumbler strengthened by the last drop of single malt rolling across it’s lip to his. No words were further spoken. The skin of her cheek pulled tightly as the wet skin dried beneath the vent above their table. He was gathering his coat and throwing loose bills amidst plates holding their partially eaten meal and tealight candle votives that too no longer remembered why they burned. It was too late for anything but silence. The music played on in the void. She felt everything… she felt nothing.