Random Thought of the Day

The one thing I'd really like to know is: What the hell is that inside a blister?!

Random Thought of the Day

Pat hasn't been writing shit lately.

Random Thought of the Day

The only good thing about early winter: Extra pockets.

Conversation of the Month

Mom stands at a kitchen island pouring pasta onto a serving platter. Pat hovers nearby, trying to stay out of the way.

Mom: "The Abt guy was out today."

Pat: "Oh really? What'd he say?"

Dad enters the kitchen and sits down at the table.

Dad: "It's $600 to have the advanced technician come out and reprogram it."

Me: "600 bucks?! What?!"

Mom walks over to the table, puts the pasta down, and sits.

Mom: "It's completely messed up. Grandpa started hitting buttons, and he doesn't remember what he did."

Pat walks over to the table and pours a Diet Coke into a glass of ice.

Pat: "Okay, why the hell did you leave grandpa with the remote anyway? Just turn on Fox News, turn the volume up all the way, and hide the remote. I haven't seen him change the channel in five years."

Dad begins putting pasta onto three plates.

Dad: "It happened so fast. We were watching the Bears game. I went out to the garage at halftime to smoke a cigar, and about five seconds later your mother came outside and said, 'Grandpa broke the f'ing television.' Who knows what he did? Eighty-nine year olds and technology are not a good mix."

Pat: "Unreal. [beat] So are you gonna cough up, or why don't you just make him pay for it? He won't care."

Dad: "Well, it works but exactly not like it used to."

Mom, covering her face: "I'm never gonna figure out how to work it."

Me: "I thought the guy was here? If he can't fix it completely, what did he do to make it work a little bit?"

Dad: "Well, you've got to hit the power button and point it at the t.v., and then you point the remote down and hit a different button on the side, then you point it back at the t.v. and hit the power button again, and then it turns on."

Me: "You're kidding me, right?"

Dad: "Unfortunately, no."

Me: "No, I mean, You're kidding that you're not going to pay $600 to fix your $10,000 entertainment system operate like a $10,000 entertainment system?"

Dad, squiriming: "600 bucks is a lot of money."

Me: "Dad, be serious here. The outfit you just changed into for lounging after work is worth more than that."

Dad: "Yeah, but at least Grandpa can't break my clothes."

Mom, laughing through a bite of bread: "Yeah, but ya never know!"

GD-Related Random Thought

Came to way too late, called the Bike Shop to make sure I didn't need to come in, continued sleeping off my hangover from the last night's show, picked up Sheehan at his girlfriend's house, grabbed a big lunch at Sarkis, took Sheehan home, had a cat nap on my parents' couch, called to make sure Page was on his way, took a two-minute shower, picked up my girlfriend Amy, sneaked my thirteen year-old brother into the back of Page's van when my parents weren't looking, ditched the car at Navy Pier, walked through Grant Park, entered Deadland, partied hard in spite of Page's prohibitionist girlfriend, ignored rumors that this tour would be the last, entered the gates over the old pedestrian bridge on the south side of Soldier Field, climbed the never-ending rows of seats way up into the southwest corner, danced danced danced to the thundering grooves, got the tingles when the band left the stage, smiled when Jimi Hendrix's "The Star Spangled Banner" came over the p.a., primal-screamed when the fireworks started exploding, and wished I had a camera to take a picture of it.

So goes my tale of the last Grateful Dead show.

Random Thought of the Day

I just found out that it's Columbus Day about 10 minutes ago, much too late to break out my models of the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Damn!

Absence

I would like to apologize with great sincerity for my absence the last couple weeks. An easily distracted personality, plus the rapid passage of time, has resulted in this lack of good posts. I've written several entries, but mainly they are crap.

It should come as no surprise that the baseball playoffs are a nearly all-consuming affair in my life. I've watched about 80% of the games and listened to the remainder on ESPN Radio. The greatest thing about baseball is that you will never stop learning new things about the game if you are open to them. Example: Jim Leyland moves the bottom of the order to the top, and the Tigres suddenly start winning ball games. Counter-example: Joe Torre replaced Gary Sheffield with Bernie Williams, and the wheels go flying off the bus. I love it. I can't get enough of it. I wish all of these series could go to the last game, just so the games could go on as long as possible. Alas, there have been a couple of sweeps and it doesn't look like any of the division series will go to 5 games. There's always hope for the championships and the World Series, I suppose, but somewhere deep down, I feel robbed. I AM that Cubs fan in the Tommy Lasorda "I Live For This" ads. Sigh.

Moving on, I hope to polish and rework these awaiting posts at some point, and I'd like to get around to publishing my final thoughts about the Cubs season, but I want to be a little removed from it. I still haven't re-adjusted to getting the regular impulse to jump on the El at around 12:50 or 6:30, pencil and iPod in hand.

Another distraction: At the recommendation of FoJ, I bought a 100GB external hard drive, so I've been downloading shows like a madman for the last couple weeks. I've also been busy doing a bunch of other stuff as well, though at the moment I cannot seem to recall what, or how so many little things could possibly take up so much time and involve so much running around.

So, again, I'd like to apologize for being negligent in writing lately. I'll be back soon; nothing to worry about. Ciao.

Inside Line

A brief outline of the Pruitt story. These chapter titles aren't necessarily set in stone, but they're probably pretty close to the finished product.

I. Cattle Calls

II. Pratum Terra

III. A Grand Affair

[trees-buffalo transition]

IV. The Ropes

V. Of Wine and Honey

VI. Forks In The Road

[towers-sisters transition]

VII. August Zupec

VIII. Sound and Structure

IX. Transitive Axis

Random Thought Of The Day

I really wish that, just for once, a cab driver would tell me, "No, that's actually not a good tip for a $6.65 ride. Let me give you ten dollars back and let's call it even." It would save me the effort of having to utter, "I need those extra two bucks for pizza," or some other useless drivel, issued only to settle the conscience attached to and part of my savagely curt, borderline passed out, battling hallucinations, reeking like Grey Goose and smoke, not-needing-the-extra-dollar-nearly-as-much-as-this-broke-immigrant-living-with-six-kids-and-his-old-lady-in-a-one-bedroom-in-east-rogers-park, combatively sarcastic, insanely imbibed, and effective-with-words-like-a-hot-knife-through-butter muthafarkin' a-hole of a dysfunctional personality.

Hoo-ah!