A hero has died.

No one stands out more in my memories of age 9 - 13 more than Evel Kenievel. He was Superman brought to life. He had the super hero costume complete with cape.And THAT hair! He wore a damn helmet and still had a do that wouldn't quit.

He defined swagger. He looked at each stunt with as much fear as a normal man would look at walking off the curb. He spoke plainly and straightforward. He was also damned good looking. I had no real understanding of it at that age, but something in me knew he got all the girls because of the way he acted.

As I got older and learned more about him and how he lived his life I admired him more. Yes, he was flawed and yes, he made mistakes. But, he stood right up for each decision he made in his life; good or bad, and said to the world, "Fuck you if you don't like it." I like the fact he too a bat to the knees of the guy who wrote an unauthorized biography filled with nothing but lies. I like the fact he hired limos for all of the guys getting out of jail the same day he did to take them home.

This guy was chutzpah defined.

Thinking of Evel brings back other good memories from that time. In the 6th grade my friend, Al McCall and I were avid Evel fans. We watched every jump on ABC's Wide World of Sports. We has September 8, 1974 marked on our calendars from the moment the Snake River jump was announced. I can still picture myself planted in front of the TV watching the jump while playing with my Ideal Evel Kenievel "gyro-energizer" stunt motorcycle.

These wimps in the X-Games owe everything they have to Evel. As they make piles of cash from winnings and product endorsements for simply flipping a dirt bike 20 feet in the air they are riding on the back of a giant who hurtled himself 10 times that distance and speed.

All they while they yelling, "Party on, dood!"

Before each jump Robert Craig Kenievel would tell us to believe in ourselves and believe on our dreams.

Gee...which sounds better to you?

Food for thought about the writers strike.

The reason I haven't posted for quiet some time is, honestly, not that much has been going on.

Until today.....

I got a call from KC, the guy who runs the sound studio where I have been doing all my voice over jobs for the DAVE School. He had an outside job for which he thought I would be prefect. It is for a water taxi/tour boat business in the Virgin Islands. It has a pirate theme to it and for some odd reason when KC thought of pirates he thought of me!

This water taxi will ferry tourists around the Virgin Islands in an open boat decked out with all kinds of pirate artwork. As they go around there will hear sounds of pirates, battles and a scripted story will tour them around the area.

We had tried for the last week to work out a time which fit into my work schedule and with the holiday happening as well things didn't fall into place until this morning. To me it was a perfect sign of how much this means to me. I left an email for my boss telling her I wouldn't be in to work until late in the afternoon and would make up my hours. While almost any day I get ready for work at Shawshank I am dragging myself every step of the way; for this job I was up at 5:15 and out of the house and hour later for the 90 minuet drive to the studio. I even made it there before KC.

For almost two hours we created a world of pirate noises. From an evil pirate captain, to a drunk singing pirate on the dock, background people and 10 minuets of nothing but "Arrrggggggghhh's" and pirate laughter. And that's what it was, creating something. We tossed ideas around, twisted voices around and created a world to surround this water taxi.

I was in heaven.

And I got paid for it as well!!!!!!

I had gotten up before the sun, driven almost 200 miles round trip within 6 hours and still gone to my job at Shawshank...all to be able to do this recording session. When KC first offered my the job he couldn't get over the fact I was willing to do all this. I simply said to him, "Look, it's a job and I'm hungry for the work. This is what I want to do and if you're offering me a paid gig; I'm there." No, it's not the kind of job that is going to really build my resume but I have just proven to my first producer outside of the DAVE School my dedication to the work and maybe someday a casting director from Nickelodeon or Dreamworks will ask him about my work ethic and at least he'll be able to say, "Yeah, that crazy bastard will do anything for a job!"

It's something Billy West said the time he and I got to talk. He spoke about how some people are overwhelmed by the volume of work he has and the variety and number of jobs. He said, "There's never a job that isn't worthy. If someone is willing to pay for your talent and you're able to go there and create something, then it's worth it. It's always about the work."

That's what today was.

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

Gee, is that a shock?!

Again, this year I went all out. First was a party this past weekend. We had 15 people here; most from my Trek club and two friends from Tampa. As I said to them, "My friend's house is yours!"

We had a great time with food, costume contest, a showing of "Monster House" and lots of friendly conversation. For decoration we had come up with the idea of floating Jack O'Lanterns in the pool. It worked out so well. My son John and the neighbor's daughter did the carving and we put glow sticks in them for light. There were two of them that sunk down below the water with just the stems sticking out, but, because they had the glow sticks in them, they continues to glow under the water!I wore my "Planet of the Apes" makeup which meant another yearly shaving of the beard.

Here is a link for photos from the party.

Since I had already shaved off the beard, I decided to put that to good use since Halloween itself was a work day. Here is how I went to work today!

As you can see, I was well within dress code and was allowed to stay in my outfit all day. The jokes flew all day of course. It is getting harder and harder to top myself each year. I'll probably need all year to come up with something.

I can just hardly wait for the damned beard to grow back in!!!!!!!

Well, here's something that hasn't happened in quite a long time.

I was sitting watching TV earlier tonight when the phone rang; it was Julie. No, that wasn't what I was talking about. As the conversation went along she asked what I was doing for the evening and wanted to know if she could take me up on an offer for dinner.

Up[ until now, due to work schedules, her kids, illness and more we have been doing little more than lunch together almost every day. While that isn't a bad thing, of course, it is little more than a rushed 30 minuets trying to digest and talk at the same time. No the best way to get to know each other.

I had occasionally made suggestions and we would have tentative plans but something would seem to come up. And just like I worried how much my son might have been drifting apart from me I also worried that things might never really take off with Julie. All those worries flew out the door the moment I got that call.

Well, the worries went out the door and panic took over!

We agreed on dinner and she ended up having to bring two of her daughters with her; oh, good....the kid test! I hung up the phone and raced through shower, shave and finding something to wear. I think I was ready within 8 minuets when it took her almost an hour to arrive. She had Olivia her 18 month old Gerber Baby of a child and Nicki, her 5 year old clone. A 2 foot tall carbon copy of her mother, she played the shy child, hiding behind her mother every step of the way into the house. The minuet she saw my Spongebob Squarepants throw pillow and all of the stuffed animals and doll house in the girl's room she was apparently sold on me.

We went to the local Carraba's when I continued to win Nicki over. The waitress gave her a pile of pizza dough to play with and we spent the evening making all kinds animals but somehow making nothing but animal's butts. She laughed out loud at using the word and with the twinkle in her eye a child gets when they can get away with something a little "bad" with the approval of an adult. Yes, I seemed to have won her over.

Julie, on the other hand turned red each time her daughter said the word "butt". My 16 year old parenting skills might have earned me some points with her as well.

Time will tell.

Something else that hasn't happened in a while was the first kiss. There's this wonderful moment in Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" :

ALVY
Hey, listen, listen.

ANNIE
What?

ALVY
Gimme a kiss.

ANNIE
Really?

ALVY
Yeah, why not, because we're just gonna
go home later, right?

ANNIE
Yeah.

ALVY
And-and uh, there's gonna be all that
tension. You know, we never kissed before
and I'll never know when to make the right
move or anything. So we'll kiss now we'll
get it over with and then we'll go eat. Okay?

ANNIE
Oh, all right.

ALVY
And we'll digest our food better.

ANNIE
Okay.


ALVY
Okay?

ANNIE
Yeah.

They kiss.

ALVY
So now we can digest our food.


I had something in mind to say. Not quite as clever as Woody Allen, but still, I thought, cute and humorous enough to break the tension of the moment. Or, so I thought.

What happened? Well, let's just say it may need a re-write. We talked about it a little and I hope there will be a chance to have a do-over for that moment. We both agreed it had been a while since we've dated and that may have led to some nervousness on both our sides.

Again, time will tell.

I can tell I am NEVER going to grow up.

On Tuesday I rushed to the store to buy Kid Rock's newest CD "Rock and Roll Jesus". One of the cuts on it is "So Hott". It is a heavy rock flavored song that kicks off with a thumping drum intro, rolls into screaming guitar and lyrics that are juvenile and sexist.

I sat there in my car with the music blaring as loud as I could make it. The speakers crackled as the sound overwhelmed them. The rear view mirror shook in rhythm and my seat vibrated with each hit of the drums. Kid's voice screamed and I'm sure I saw someone in the lane next to me sneering at me the same way I find myself doing at ghetto wannabe's with their bass boxes the size of Connecticut. This time, though, it was me being the noise nuisance.....and I didn't care.

The driving strength and raw quality of the song energized me. I felt adrenalin in my blood like I hadn't in a long time; and then, I remembered. Kid Rock had tapped into a memory from when I was a hormonal teenager listening to Kiss' "Flaming Youth". It was a little know track buried on the 2nd side of "Destroyer" that was released as a single but only got to #73 on the charts in 1976. To me, though, it was an anthem. It was as close to pubescent rebellion I had gotten at 14. Every time I had some disagreement with my parents I would close the door to my room and put "Destroyer" on the record player dropping the arm on "Flaming Youth". Whatever my seething anger aimed at my parents was channeled through that song.

My parents think I'm crazy and they hate the things I do
I'm stupid and I'm lazy, man, if they only knew
How flaming youth will set the world on fire

As I sat there in my SUV with Kid Rock shaking my car the each side on every side of me, I felt that same adrenalin I felt back in the small bedroom with the light blue walls covered in Star Trek and Kristy McNichol posters. In some posts I have bemoaned the fact that I am not in the same position in life that others my age are. As I sat there swinging my shoulder length hair to such a ridiculous song it didn't matter to me. I was alive and a piece of music had revived a primal reaction. There are some in my life who haven't had a primal reaction in years. I felt sorry for them and reveled in what I was feeling.

On a side note, "Rock and Roll Jesus" is easily Kid Rock's best work. There is classic rock, hip hop, country and heavy metal all mixed together proving that this guy is a real artist. To see how far he has come from scratching beats in Detroit clubs to such a well rounded musician is amazing. If this doesn't get an Grammy there is something wrong in the universe.

If you'll excuse me I'm going to go driving around in the car listening to the CD an annoying as many people as possible.

I apparently have a new addiction.

Chlorine.

I can't stay out of the pool. I have been in almost every day since moving in. Even on days when it rains I try to get some time in the pool. The weather here in Florida does make this easy as day time temperature is still in the 90's. However, the times when it rains more than one day in a row the water temperature does chill of a little.

But still I go in.

I have taken some days to lounging in the jacuzzi with a cigar. I use an old SPAM tin as an ash tray. If balanced just right it floats upright in the water.

I have learned to look before getting in the pool. After all; this is Florida. I went to get in the Jacuzzi recently and there was a small land crab sitting at the bottom. After some careful manuvering hand skimmer I had lifted him out of the water and tossed him over the hedge in to the canal. I'm sure he was pissed off. Not as pissed off as he had been if I hadn't noticed him before sitting down in the Jacuzzi!

Julie says she is expecting to see my hair turn blonde any day now. Another friend at work was kind enough to point out that "the grey hairs don't turn color like that any more!"

My son even had the last word about the pool recently in a conversation that brings into question the odd of his reaching his 17th birthday. He was supposed to come up here this past weekend but had to cancel at the last moment due to ROTC obligations. Since it was school related I was the understanding father but took advantage of the opportunity to bust his chops.

He took advantage of the conversation to prove genetics.

ME: That's OK. I'll just stay here this weekend and relax in the pool.

JOHN: I have a pool, too.

ME: Mine is bigger.

JOHN: Yeah, but I have friend to go in mine with me!

My only consolation is that he is so much like me it must drive him mother nuts!

So...what do I do in my spare time?



Used to be a time when I would come home from work and unwind with an episode of General Hospital. Now, weather permitting, I don't even get to GH until after a good dunk in the pool! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh........

This weekend hasn't been good for pool time as we have had a lot of rain come through the area. That makes most of the water cold rain water and no sunlight to warn the water makes for quite a chilly swim. Not as if that has stopped me much!

Believe it or not, I was even upset at the nasty weather this weekend which stopped me from mowing the lawn again. Yes.....I WANTED TO mow the lawn.

There goes my father laughing at me again. You'd think he'd get tired of that!

I that every time I go to Orlando I come back talking about some sort of epiphany I have. Well...tonight is no different. Tonight I met one of my heroes. I met a guy I wish I were. I guy I want to be. I met voice actor Billy West.



Billy does about a million voices, most notably Fry on "Futurama" and Ren from "Ren and Stimpy". He had done work on the latest project at The DAVE School. (More on that later) As we waited to get into the theater I was introduced to Billy, gave a basic fanboy response and then said, "I think I have the same genetic defect you do because I want to do what you do!" He smiled, laughed and then dove into a 10 minuet dissertation on just the defect. We spoke the same language; and it only got better as he talked about the greats of today he works with; Rob Paulson, Maurice LaMarche and others. Google the names if they don;t ring any bells. For Billy and me, we were talking about some of the most creative and talented people on the planet. And it was just him and me. My idol, Dawes Butler, dies almost 20 years ago, but if I had had the opportunity to meet him I am sure it would have felt much as it did as I sat there talking shop with Billy West. He was attentive, funny and, most importantly, encouraging of my interest in getting into voice acting.

To add to this whole thing, the graduating class project I was there to see was a mock episode of "Tofu, The Vegan Zombie". This is the project which my friend at the DAVE School is trying to sell to Nickelodeon.



To see the characters come to life along with a killer theme song was just another adrenalin boost to the evening. The possibilities for this seem even clearer and clearer. I know not to get my hopes up as there are hundreds of pilots pitched every day but the energy and momentum building on this seems too good. A toy of Tofu will be in the stores by November and there are negotiations brewing for a comic book. The next step is a trailer for the show which will include my character. More on that as work progresses. Tofu may be coming to a TV near you soon!



Last night was the prefect counterpoint to the funk I've been in over work at Shawshank recently. Billy talked about sitting across the table from people with absolutely no ideas in their head and then being around and working with people who had some of the most imaginative ideas possible only made me think of Shawshank. Each time I pass my hand through the hand scan time clock I mutter, "Nickoledeon". With every mindless business email I get I whisper, "Tofu". While it doesn't make it easier to suffer through a day there it does give me hope for the day I can finally shake off the mausoleum dust of that place off of me and do what I am feeling more and more that I was meant to do.

The sound you hear is my father laughing!

I have just finished mowing the lawn. I have not mowed a lawn since somewhere in the 1970's. Granted, it was a little easier with Jason's self-propelled mower. Although, we didn't have the 30 degree sloped swails in my yard or the 90 degree heat either! I figure it's a fair trade for staying here rent free.

Yes, the one thing that made up for it all was being able to drop on the pool as soon as I was done.

The reason I'm doing this is one of the other bits of news that has happened since my move.

Julie.

She is a 27 year old single mom who works in my office. A few weeks ago we started talking and I finally got up the never to offer my phone number which she happily took. We have gone out to lunch once so far and she is supposed to come over for a swim sometime today.

It's very early on and only something very casual at this point but I still had to make the place presentable to make an impression. Speaking of which....I have some dusting to do.

DAMN! There goes my father laughing again!!!!!

Today is something of a significant day for me.

#1 I am officially no longer residing in my trailer in Jensen Beach.

#2 It was ten years ago I started working at my current job.

The reason I have not blogged in so long is that I have finished moving into my friend Jason's house. My landlord made me stick to a strict 30 day notice for moving so I was paid on the rent until today. I had spent 6 years and 15 days in that trailer. As I took a last look around I had memories flood back. The Christmas mornings with my son, friends visiting, evacuating from the hurricanes...yes, as usual, I got nostalgic. OK, so I won't miss the water damage from the hurricanes, the cockroaches or the occasional ignorant neighbors. Overall, it was a nice place to be and, if necessary, is on my list of possibilities when my stay here is done.

My son, to prove his genetic link, walked in to the house with the last box, set it down, looked around the living room as big as the old trailer and said, "Nah! Dad, let's take all the stuff back. This place ain't good enough!"

To further prove the genetics, I had the opportunity to meet his girlfriend, Sara. I shook her hand and said to her, "You let yourself be seen in public with him?!"

She turned to him and said, "Why does everyone say that to me?!"

She is very pretty and they seem to have a really nice relationship going. They have been dating for almost 6 months; a lifetime at 16.

I had a hell of a time with the phone company during the move. They didn't get the service transferred when they said they would and left me without a phone over the Labor Day weekend. They also left me without DSL. Even though I had DSL and Jason had DSL because of the limited availability of nodes in the area as soon as both of our services were moved I was effectively put at the back of the line of a waiting list. So, I now have DSL with a local cable provider and am about to switch my regular phone over to Vonage and tell Bell South to kiss off.

I have made the place my own by putting put my pictures and nick nacks. I have spent time in the pool every day. The house is about 5 times the size of my trailer and I thing I spent an hour my first night here just walking back from one end of the house to another. I called Jason after my first night here and told him that I had already decided he can't move back!

My 10th anniversary with my company is a little bitter sweet. It is nice to have been somewhere for so long but with the way the company had changed its not the celebration I had thought it should be. I had my annual review right on the day of my review and there were subtleties in there that proved my point.

In the same breath that I am praised for always offering suggestions on improving my job I am berated for taking too much time in making those suggestions and taking away from my production time. "We want you to make suggestion but we don't want you to take the time to do it!" There was a time when I really enjoyed my job and I'm not sure I can say that anymore. As I looked through my past evaluations I can see that I did the best when there was an element of training involved. So, in an effort to try to salvage my career there, I will continue to steer myself towards the training department.

Of course, I will keep on hoping for Nickelodeon to come though!!!!!!!

Speaking of which, I am headed up to Orlando again Wednesday for another DAVE School graduation. This will give me the opportunity to hound the people working on the series they are pitching to Nick. Also, I will have the opportunity to rub elbows with someone who is doing what I want to do, Billy West. He did the voice of Ren on "Ren and Stimpy", Bender on "Futurama" and about a thousand others. I am dying to have the chance to pick his brain about breaking into this kind of work.

For now, though....back to the pool!

Last night was another wonderful night and I'm still exhausted. I was the co-host for our company talent show. This was the 5th annual show and my friend, Kenny and I were the emcees. It was an amazing night.

Occasionally there have been acts that were just slightly on the lame side, but this year was exceptional. We had musical acts and each one of them were right on the money. There was a sax player who had the house in the palm of his hands. There were two comedians including one guy who was less than perfect last year but hit every joke perfectly and had timing and pacing that had the audience laughing all the way through. I did help him a little by tightening up with writing but the material is only half of the ability; he was really funny!

I had my moment, not only as co-host but in a mini-set by myself at the beginning of the second half of the show. After the intermission I came out and told some of my older material that a lot of the audience had never heard before and it all worked as well as it did five years ago. The best moment of the night was when I led the audience in the Spongebob theme song. Last year I had tried to get them to do our monitor statement in unison and it was luke warm. Funny, but still didn't work as well as I had wanted. This time I came out and talked about how I had wanted to sing a song myself but had not been able to get the music together but if anyone had ever seen my desk at work they would know what song I had settled on.

With that I did a perfect Clancy Brown/Mr. Crabs impression yelling out, "Are ya' ready, kids?!"

And the audience immediately screamed back, "Aye, aye, captain!"

I swear almost 95% of the audience was singing along in perfect unison!!!

IT WAS GREAT!!!!!

Between traveling through two time zones over the weekend, working and then rehearsal and the show I was spent by the end of the show. We didn't get out until 10:30PM and I don't think anyone had noticed that the show had ended up at almost 3 hours.

I am looking forward to plenty of sleep!

Karma is such a wonderful thing.

When I returned to work today I went to where I had just moved my desk as part of our department's move to a different part of our building. When I got to what I remember being my cubicle only to be met by a completely empty desk. My first assumption was that they had decided to move me around again while I was gone and simply lugged all of my crap for me. Standard procedure when someone is away on vacation.

I went into the office of my department head and asked, "OK, I give up; where's my stuff?"

She looked me straight in the eye and said, "We'll give you your work for the day....and then we'll talk."

This, apparently, was the moment when all the blood left my face because she immediately said, :Come here, let me show you." She led me to an empty office where all of my belongings had been hidden. She had a big shit eating grin on her face for successfully playing her part.

Yes, I had fallen for it; hook, line and sinker.

As my heart began working again I immediately put together a hit list of possible suspects. My first choice, the girl to whom I had done the newspaper wrapping gag, denied any part in it. She had been "invited to the party" but found out too late.

"PARTY"?!!!!! This had been a group effort apparently and it was all masterminded by my "friend", Crystal. When she heard how well it had played out she walked around for the remained of the day with a smug grin on her face. She would occasionally stop my and giggle or, at lunch, just look at me with a self satisfied smile that she had beaten the master.

Of course, this only means that now it's my turn again!

The next few posts are done after the fact as I've had a very busy week and a half since getting back from Denver.

WOW! Denver! What a beautiful city. My flight there was hassle free and I got in early enough to do some sight seeing. The best difference from Florida was that while it was 93 degrees I was able to be outside without sweating my ass off. There is a pedestrian mall right outside of the hotel and I spent the afternoon walking around and taking the free bus from one end to the other.

Friday was the ECAB meeting. For those not Starfleet affiliated, this is the annual board meeting of our organization. It is a mix of tedium, procedure and bullshit. This year was highlighted by some old business involving some nasty politics and personality conflicts within the organization. You would think that an organization based on such a forward thinking concept as Star Trek would be devoid of childish personalities, backstabbing and just plain idiocy. At times, it seems to run rampant. Luckily, I was able to help broker a deal on one of the problems and, unfortunately, had the other problem slip between my fingers due to a number of factors all hitting at the same time.

I have been in Starfleet international since 1986 or 1987 and have seen all matter of butt-headed goings on. I have seen people steal from the organization. I have seen two faced liars in positions of responsibility. I have seen and endured some of the most frustrating and immature people pretending to be more important than they really are.

In the same breath....I have made some of my best friends in Fleet. I have done some good works. I have been to interesting places. I have met the actors I watched as a kid and made close friends with some of them. Fleet may even be the doorway to the career of I have always dreamed.

I have stayed with it for all these reasons and more. It is more than a devotion of my appreciation of a TV show. There is a heap of political bullshit happening now in the organization; it's part of the beast. Now, that it is election season, it is simply piled a little higher than usual. The organization will survive and probably proser. There are indications that many more people are getting more and more tired of some of this bullshit and are trying to make changes in the nuts and bolts of the organization in order to save it.

Wow.....how did I get on THAT soapbox?!

The rest of the weekend was OK. There were some organization and planning problems with the conference itself but I was able to have enough fun, meet enough people and drink enough alcohol to make up for the bad parts.

This weekend I am headed off to Denver Colorado for the annual Starfleet International Confrence. Yes, it's a geek fest! Yes, it's an excuse to drink. It is also our annual Board of Directors meeting mandated because we are a non-profit organization. The rest of it is just a perk.

My return to Florida on Sunday will be the start of some major changes around here; the biggest is that I am moving.

My friend Jason, who is soon to elevated to the level of "saint" is married to an unbelievably patient woman who works as a cardiac ultrasound technician. This is a VERY high paying job which is in great demand. So much so that there is a whole network of these techs who travel around the country working months at a time from hospital to hospital. Each job pays extremly well along with living expenses, food stipends and travel money. While they are doing this they have to maintain a permanant home residence; that's where I come in.

For the next year they will travel the country and I will be caretaker of their 4 bedroom, 2 bath, pool and jacuzzi home rent free!!!!! This little move will allow me to catch up on a number of bills and debt and also save a bundle of money which should put me in a better living situation.

Not that Sunny Acres has been all that bad. Come September 1, the day I am supposed to move, it will be 6 years exactly that I have lived here. In that time I have locked my door only when going away for an extended period of time. I have made some friends and I have had as close to a home as I have had since moving here. It is a relatively quiet neighborhood and the people around me are good.

The landlord is another matter. But, I'll save that part of the story for another post since I have to go pack for Denver.

There have been no blogs in a while? My son was here for a week....what do you expect?

It was a great week. Before he got here I had been obsessing, in the deep dark recesses of my mind, that he had turned ultra-teenager and simply didn't want to be around me any more. That was completely dispelled. Each day was so natural and easy between us, as if he lived here all the time. We had discussions about trivial matters, TV, movies but also had deep discussions about his future and family.

Part of this discussion was that he had an interest in becoming a police officer. I swear the picture of my father in the living room smiled more when he said that. Ya' see, it's genetic. His grandfather was a cop, his aunt was a cop, his godfather was a cop, I worked for my police department for 5 years and his step father is a cop. His step dad didn't seem too supportive of the idea and I will admit that it threw me for a moment. I talked over with his the good and bad of the job but reminded him that, ultimately, the decision was his.

I talked to him a little about parental expectations. How, no matter how hard we fight not to be our parents that is exactly who we end up being. That we see that little infant in a diaper and imagine him addressing a joint session of congress or curing cancer even before he is able to control his own bladder. I told him how excited I was when he was looking into animation or cartoon work; imagining him designing a cartoon or computer game and he doing voices for it. But I again reminded him that it is his life and no one else's.

I felt very Ward Cleaver when it was over.

The best part of this whole weekend was that I began to feel that I was no longer talking to my "child" but to a man. We talked on an even level and it was an exchange of ideas and emotions. I used to enjoy walking along the river near here with him on my shoulders. We would debate who was the better superhero, Superman or Batman. When that was done we would invent superheroes of our own making; mixing and matching superpowers and imagining what Super Dog Man would look like. I miss those days but I am so happy and proud of the man who sat beside me this weekend and told me where he sees his life headed.

Ward Cleaver never had it so good!

The Boy is here!

Well, ok.....to call him "The Boy" seems sillier and sillier as he is getting older. Now taller than me and sprouting a pubescent attempt at a goatee he hardly fits the title of "boy".

But since he is mine.....I'll keep using the title!

My friend Jason drove me down to pick him up and then we went to see "The Simpsons Movie". It was pretty good; I'm sure it would have been much better if it had been written years ago when they first started talking about a big screen adaptation, but it was funny. Technically, it was amazing. Crisper and clearer than we have ever seen them before and in the wide view of the movie screen it seemed as if you were driving along with them as the rode the streets of Springfield.

Afterwards we had dinner and then Jason let me borrow the car for the remainder of the weekend. It has given John and me chances for long talks. I asked 1,001 questions about his girlfriend and marveled at his reactions as he answered each one. He smiled at the mention of her name and his eyes laughed as he thought one story about her after another. It is amazing to see those emotions coming from him.I kept coming up with question after question because I was enjoying watching him answering them as much as I was enjoying learning more about the girl who had caused such emotions.

My son's visit this week has been delayed by a day due to his mother's health. She is having some major thyroid issues and John helps out watching his younger brother and sister. What a good boy!

This extra day has given me the opportunity to stage a fantastic practical joke on a friend of mine at work. Theresa is on vacation somewhere in South America. In the days and weeks leading up to her vacation we were treated to an almost daily countdown to her departure. I decided to make sure her return to work was just a memorable and wrapped her desk in newspaper.



EVERYTHING on her desk; telephone, radio, keyboard and wrist support...



Even all the little knick-knacks.



As I sat there , after I clocked out mind you, and was just about to finish having only some manuals and her chair to cover; corporate stupidity hit. I was approached by a supervisor from my department who brought a message from the manager of my friends department; I was being asked to stop where I was. I had anticipated some reaction from management which is why I did not completely wrap her computer; I did not want to be accused to creating a fire hazard or damaging company equipment. I have no idea exactly what the manager's complaint was and decided to play nice and go along with the request. This was going to have its desired affect anyway.

This is, of course, another example of the corporate head being so far up its own ass. I did this not only to bust chops on a friend but as a morale boost for other workers; to bring a little smile and laughter into Shawshank. We are so hammered into walking in, clocking in, logging in and not having interaction with co-workers that everyone needs to be reminded that there are other people around them.

The Eaton Car Mojo continues!

Last night I had dinner at my friend Jason's. After dinner we piled into his car to take me home. We stopped for a moment to get something at a convenience store; a quick stop and back on the road. We weren't on the road more than a few hundered feet when he starts tugging at the wheel.

The car had died!

It lost all power and the dash was lit with all kinds of warning lights.

"I didn't do anything!" I said putting my hands up.

We rolled to a stop in a driveway to get out of traffic. Jason tried over and over again to start the car but there simply was no power there at all. In the summer warmth, even at 8PM, the car began to turn into a sauna and his 3 year old little girl in the back seat began getting antsy. He called his wife and eventually we switched off cars, AAA was called and the car went off to the garage.

When the mechanic called the next day even he was amazed at the cause of the problem. There is a switch on the fuel pump which feeds fuel into the fuel line. This little switch was broken and was, as the mechanic described it, ready to fall off. It very rarely happens and the entire garage staff had no explination as to what caused it to break.

Of course, the mechanic had never met ME!

Today my son turned 16. That was the last year that I had with my father. As John passes this year I will be in virgin territory. There are experiences I never had with my father that I will have with my son. And I am looking forward to each and every one of them.

I try to think back 29 years ago to what my father and I were to each other when I was 16. While I spent every day with my father and there was little he didn't do or let me have because of his health we were distant. In one of my journals back then I had written of how I would spend hours away from home just to avoid being around him. His stroke had affected his personality. While I can't recall specifics at the time I can clearly remember the hours I would spend sitting at school between the last bell of the day and chorus rehearsal. I would sit by my locker either reading or doing my homework all in an effort to avoid being at home alone with my father.

From about 10 years of age on my father and I always shook hands good night. I don't remember who's idea it was but I can clearly remember the first time it happened. I suddenly felt grown up. Kissing was for babies; I was a "young man" now and as I took my fathers hand for the first time I felt as grown up as he was. But that was the extend of a physical display of affection I ever got from my father. I can't remember him ever hugging or kissing me.

Don't get me wrong; I love my father and miss him every day. He still affects my life almost three decades later. Someone once said that the thing they remember most about my father was how his big, loud laugh would fill a room. Almost immediaetly I made a conscious effort to alter the way I would laugh and to this day take a moment to make sure I'm putting the right amount of effort into a laugh and drop my voice down an octave before even a snicker leaves my lips.

I use these experiences as a guide to my relationship with my son. I end every phone conversation with him with the words, "I love you". When he is here, or when I drop him off, I always hug and kiss him. I can't do alot for him financially right now, but I try to make up for that emotionally. I guess, after all, that's the more important anyway.

I never drove my father anywhere. I never cooked for my father. I never bought my father a bourbon. I never watched my father dance at my wedding. I never introduced my father to his grandson. I look forward to my son wiping out each one of those statements.