Ending August on a cleaning spree

It only took about 2 hours tops, but this house is CLEAN! My favorite part was absolutely scrubbing the tub to the cleanest it's been in, um, years? Most cathartic way to end one of my favorite months...and, to some degree, summer. I wanted this shit done BEFORE September dawned. But that was a mere fragment of my Monday. It was a good way to start the week and end the month. Went up on the roof for sunset...took TONS of pics. Gloriously soothing up there...upper 60s and generally clear. Love, love, LOVE my roof...never tire of it. And Dipshit NEVER came home!? Silence! The whole day was just GOOD. Knock on wood, may it continue. A fine, FINE way to end my beloved August...have I made that clear? Dear God in heaven, and now I stumble upon FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS on the telly! Thank you, August, for your ample gifts!

*Oh, yeah, and did ya notice how I blogged EVERY SINGLE DAY of the month?! Nice to know I've still got discipline when I focus.

Winding it down...

August, that is. Spectacularly, weatherwise. Today got better by the hour. By 5ish, the skies were deep blue, it was around 80, the humidity was low and a breeze kicked in. And I had a lovely meal outside after mowing some grass. A relaxing night followed. Right now, at 1:30am, it feels like Memorial Day weekends often do...completely invigorating. Ahhh. Can't WAIT to sleep with the windows open tonight.

A funereal day

Cool and rainy on this day when Ted Kennedy was buried and Tropical Storm Danny fizzled into absolutely nothing beyond supplying an extra plume of moisture into an already soaked atmosphere. It all worked just fine for me. I didn't sleep well at ALL, despite being exhausted last night. My restless leg syndrome seemed to have kicked in. No, seriously, I have it...though it seems more like Restless Upper Thigh Syndrome for me.

So I spent most of the late morning and afternoon AND early evening watching Ted's funeral in Boston, procession through DC and burial at Arlington. Somewhere in there, I ran to ShopRite. As I've said many times before, I LOVE watching all the presidents and their wives interact. Fascinating shit. There were many poignant moments. Many AMERICAN moments. I sat there thinking what a shame that, YET again, all the bipartisan goodwill will be shot to hell by Monday morning. No one ever learns. Wouldn't it be great, though, if I was wrong? But there's too many backwards Republicans for me to be wrong.

Anyway, I'm Irish Catholic and love a good funeral...and Teddy's certainly came through for me. Whatever one thought of him, he WAS an icon and this WAS the end of an ER, AH.

Nothing beats cheap, great bar food

Like I had tonight at DP's in the lovely hamlet of Garfield, NJ. I think all the food took the life out of me...only 1am and i'm ready for bed. Could've been the liquor, too. I seriously can't recommend this place more. Great food, great atmosphere and SUPER cheap. Fantastic!!

I'm noticing an autumn hue...

The light. The leaves. The angle of the sun. Yup, I'm really starting to notice it. Literally this week. Super specifically today. A golden color to everything...very subtle. It's dark by 8pm now. And we're already MORE than 2 months past the summer solstice. Crazy, huh? Must...not...dwell...on end of summer. I'm largely OK with it. Hey, you can't DO anything about it. And you can always pretend it's just May when temps are in the 60s or 70s. Christ, it does all go so fast, though....

I NEED WORK!!!!!!

A job. Money. Cash. Income. More money. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am SO. FUCKING. BORED. Of everything. Holy Christ, I gotta make something happen. Fast. Life's slipping away. I keep forgetting i'm not 23 anymore. Which is easy since I look so fantastic....

I think Ted Kennedy was the greatest human who ever lived

I'm having trouble today reconciling the REALITY of this very, VERY flawed man -- also born with a silver spoon in his mouth -- with the absolutely GUSHING praise heaped upon him by EVERYONE.

I KNOW he indeed did do a lot of good. I KNOW he was the brother of two assassinated political icons. I KNOW he had a horrible cancer and is now dead and all the "respect the dead" stuff.

I also know he was a drunk politician, born into privilege and all its favors, who killed a 29-year-old woman 40 years ago this summer.

So I don't know what to think. Though my natural instinct is to be annoyed by all the long faces acting like he was Jesus combined with Mother Teresa. Hell, I didn't even hear anyone on Fox News question all of this...though in a quiet way, maybe they are. You see, Fox is the only cable network who did NOT have wall-to-wall coverage of Kennedy's death.

So, yeah, yet again I feel like i'm alone screaming here. To be sure, I get that it's the end of an era. Really, I do. Though even that's kinda media-spun storytelling, isn't it?

Ted Kennedy is DEAD at 77

It's 2:30am. I was falling asleep, JUST about to go to bed, when a Facebook status update (at about 1:50am) YET again became the source of "breaking news" for me. This Summer of Death just gets more remarkable. By Labor Day, the entire cultural landscape will have changed. And now i'm awake, wanting to stay up and watch coverage like the news junkie I am. Ugh. Er, ah, I must force myself to bed....

12 days left for my "summer reading"

WHAT summer reading, you ask? Wish I knew. But it's a nice idea. Actually, one of Obama's five books to read while he's on Martha's Vineyard is JOHN ADAMS...a book that's been sitting on my night table for EIGHT YEARS. I bought it in July 2001 and am only on like page 40. Oy. I seriously need to get into it. It's very interesting...I just have such a limited attention span. Desperately need to work at getting back in The Zone. JOHN ADAMS, I'm comin for ya!

Dwelling

Not too good of a day. I knew my 2 week -- maybe even THREE weeks? -- run of unbridled enthusiasm and optimism had to hit a wall at some point. I'll do my best to regain footing tomorrow. Can someone just drop like $100,000 in my lap, please? I really don't know how I keep it together sometimes. But I do. And will.

Gary needs money. BADLY.

OK, Oprah and "The Secret" morons...I'm gonna put out into the universe now that I WANT MONEY TO COME MY WAY! THIS week! I want a lucrative job offer...or three. I want my financial worries to cease. And then I'll enjoy the final week of unofficial summer knowing i'm over the hump...and then LIVE IT UP in the gloriously underrated month of September. Yes, that's what I want. Not too much to ask. Hear that, universe?! I'm wishing it...so it BEST happen!

I haven't left the house ALL day!

Damn, I can't recall the last time this happened. Actually, probably not THAT long ago. Long story short is that today was EXACTLY what I needed after about 3 straight weeks of seemingly endless running around. It was rainy, too, so PERFECT conditions. The most productive thing I did all day...the ONLY productive thing...is successfully reigniting the pilot light in the oven. It'd been out since Thursday evening. Never happened to me before. I was all annoyed I'd have to bring in either the landlords or PSE&G. But, nope...I fixed the issue myself. Doing so was my first thought when it went out, but then I panicked and wondered if maybe it was an issue bigger than a pilot light, and if I'd blow up if I tried to do anything. So I endured more than 36 hours of a slight gas smell, aired out the oven, then lit the long ass lighter. Presto! Thank GOD! So, um, yeah. Other than THAT...just sat around playing online. All. Damn. Day. 3:05am now. Back to interacting with others, sadly, tomorrow....

WHEN will Gary ride a motorcycle?

And whose will it be? And where will we ride? As usual, i'm imagining the American Southwest in my head...though the Jersey Shore always makes an evocative alternative. It's funny...I kinda had a Bucket List when I was 16...only in the summer, though. A grand list of Things to Accomplish before I went back to school. I need to get back to that.

The clock has stopped ticking for Don Hewitt

Is that too cliched of a subject line? Oh, well. I shouldn't be glib, as this is a tremendous loss for the news business. SO many people you can't imagine ever dying have done just that recently. Encouraging. Well, he was 86...a decent age...yet it doesn't seem that old anymore. I liked that he had a temper, too. Fist-pounding and profane...the way it should be. He leaves quite a legacy.

Two weeks till September!

I kept thinking that all day today. Pick OY or UGH. Much to accomplish these waning days of unofficial summer. Damn, i'm exhausted and it's only 12:50am. Took some great shots of lightning tonight...my digital camera is getting quite the workout. Hope this one doesn't break like the last one. Holy Christ, my mind is just spinning with plots and things to do...

Runt older Latino with his dukes up!

Another soothing trip into Union City today. ALL I wanted to do was pay my PSE&G bill. I walk in and the line is snaking to the back of the place. Ugh. It was like a half-hour wait in the end. About 10 minutes into it, I hear elevated voices...but they're in SOMEthing other than English, so I don't even pay attention. It's ALL just NOISE to me. Next thing I know, the 60ish short Latino man at the pay counter moves away from it, puts up his fists and starts doing a little boxer's dance. "Security" (meaning a single just-as-old employee) came rushing over as some younger guy held Bouncing Runt back. The place erupted into a brief, giddy chaos. I wish I knew what the hell the issue was. It was pretty amusing, though. I was briefly worried about getting shot; I totally envisioned the nutty runt having a gun. But I survived to tell this tale. At least the long stay inside their office acted as a Cooling Center from the sultry 90-degree air.

A steamy, mid August Sunday

Today just felt perfect. Perfectly middle of summer. Though it's technically more toward the end of summer. Low 90s, sunshine, no rain. ANOTHER walk through woods. Supermarkets. Dinner from the grill. Yuengling. Going crazy with my newest digital camera...taking a dizzying array of self pics around the house. But back to it being the middle of August. Yeah, just seemed so laid back and like summer should be. Finally settling into it. Have I mentioned how much i'm enjoying this month this year? And I hope the second half only gets better. Ah, I hear the crickets chirping as I write this, windows wide open....

A long walk in the woods

That's what I did today. Yet again. This time, though, I wasn't in a rush, so I just walked...and sat...and pondered...and took in the view of "the valley"...and took some pics. I was there almost 5 hours!?! That's a long ass time! Oh, wait, I also talked to the deer...tried to get as close as I comfortably could in order to take some pics. Yeah, it was a relaxing Saturday afternoon and evening. Then I capped it all off with a free McDonald's mocha coffee drink, then a free KFC grilled chicken meal. Mmmmm. Yes, twas a good Saturday. Only 3 more summer Saturdays to go....

The '03 Blackout

Twas today. Does it seem like 6 years? Hmm. I guess it does. I don't know anymore. I'm more bewildered by the day by the games and tricks of Father Time.

Six years later, I hit Monmouth Park with the fam and lost a tiny bit of money. Won 2 races, but not enough overall to cover my losses. Then ate at palm tree-laden restaurant on the beach. Overpriced but lovely. More fish for Gary. A VERY nice day. August continues to delight....

Evil Republicans

My patience with Republicans is at an epic low. And I hate how saying that implies I'm a RAH, RAH! Democrat or ardent Obama supporter. Because i'm neither. But most Republicans are either stupid, hypocrites, liars, closed-minded or full of hate. Or all of the above. And don't even GET me started on the God shit...though that would fall nicely under the category of STUPID. They're obstructionists. They loathe change. They loathe progress. They loathe expanding their minds. They're assholes of the highest caliber.

I didn't waste this much time with DISPOSABLE cameras....

Holy Christ, it's only 1am?! I am exhausted from spending HOURS reading my new digital cam's "booklet"...on CD. Then it was uploading pics from my cam for the better part of an evening. First time i've EVER hooked up a camera to a computer. OK, seriously, almost delusional, i'm so tired. Must. Stop. Now.

*PS, still euphoric over last night's crafty manipulation. GOD, i'm good....

THE END is OFFICIALLY in sight!! And THIS is what I call IRONY....

I don't mean that Dipshit's about to go to bed; he already did, about 2:15am...though the TV stayed loudly on for a good 20 more minutes. No, what I mean is that...well, now that I think about it, I really can't comfortably say it on here, lol. Um, yeah, this is BIG news, though. EPIC. Eh, if you're a friend of mine and reading this, i'll probably tell you before you can ask, so don't worry...it's certainly not gonna be a secret anywhere but in incriminating print. QUITE an August....

2:09am: Assfuck addendum #3

Lights still on. TV blaring Phillies highlights as he periodically excitedly talks out loud to himself. Just left his room AGAIN for God knows what reason. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. It's like he's hopped on crack. EVERY Tuesday night I go through this fucking shit. Can you IMAGINE I had to be up at like 6am?

1:52am Assfuck addendum #2

JUST entered his room after sitting at his laptop in "the spare room" for a bit after his shower...the shower that he refused (as always) to turn the vent on for...then proceeded to (as always) leave the door open after he exits so the OPPRESSIVE steam air WAFTS down the FUCKING hall into MY room...on an 80-degree night when there's little wind and I have no AC. Fucking Dipshit.

I wonder if he'll make ONE last trip to the bathroom? His light's still on....

"Fucking hot"/Assfuck addendum

I think a higher power just read my blog because I've JUST noticed the winds pick up. My sleeping tonight may be saved yet! Also, Dipshit just walked in at 1:05am. Let's see how many trips to the bathroom it takes before he's worn out....

Can it BE fucking hotter in here?

I became so spoiled this summer. And now that it's FINALLY hot, i'm irate. But it's mainly this living room, not my bedroom, thank GOD. Eh, i'm just whining. I mean, back in 2001, when the temp hit 106, I had NO air conditioner in my room and survived. Sure, I was on the verge of heat stroke, but I survived. For YEARS, I didn't put that AC in the window out of sheer laziness and stubbornness. But TODAY wasn't even that hot, that's what gets me...only upper 80s with moderate humidity. Yesterday was in the 90s with torrid humidity. I didn't expect tonight to be worse than last night. Though last night DID have that refreshing "outflow wind" from nearby thunderstorms that cooled it down by some 10 degrees around 9pm. I just need some damn WIND from the north, please!!

Holy hell, does anyone care about this shit?! I'm writing about how hot my apartment is...riveting. AND i'm tired...but I can't go to bed yet because DIPSHIT is -- drumroll -- yet again at a late-night Tuesday hockey game a half-hour from here. I never tire of rolling my eyes and being infuriated over this. Because EVERY Tuesday I seem to be tired...yet have to put up with him till 2am or even later. Tuesday must be my Tired Night. This posting just gets more and more fascinating. Let's make it even more so...I spent TOO much time today reconfiguring my living room to accomodate my dazzling new SURFBOARD coffee table. Crazy how time-consuming this shit was. Ugh. So that's only added to my tiredness. I was even up and at 'em by 9am! So it'd be NICE if ASSFUCK could get the fuck home, take his shower and stop making noise so I can go to bed!!!!!!!!!

Well, that was a lot of writing about not particularly anything interesting. Sorry.

New digital camera!

Well, that only took almost 3 months. The next step will be to actually take it out of the box and use it. I'll do that tomorrow. Too much on my mind now...and it's kinda hot, dammit.

It's still HER house

Went to a party at my aunt's house today. Small fact being my aunt died last November, but it's still her house. Always will be. Her granddaughter lives on the top floor, her daughters next door. My aunt's house is still utilized for social occasions...retaining its traditional Meeting Place status. It was the first party I'd been to there since she died. I kept expecting to look up and see her or hear her. No such luck. It's an excruciating cliche, but her presence could SO be felt. Same piles of food on the dining room table, same singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY, same opening of gifts in the living room. No aunt, though.

Surfboard coffee table!!!!!

One of THE coolest things I've ever purchased. More soon, perhaps a photo, but yet again, i'm putting this entry on ice...pretty damn beat. Not sure how i'm conscious, actually. But all because of an incredibly productive and fun 36 hours. EIGHT straight great August days!!

One week in. One month till Labor Day!?!

OK, today will wrap up August's first week. Pretty satisfying. And a month from today is Labor Day...OY! I really don't have too much more to say right now, as it's early in the day and i'm in a rush, but, again, I wanted to get SOMEthing down so it's recorded that I blogged each day of this month. Yeah, I can be disciplined when I wanna be. I'll get back to this blog and re-work it a bit...hopefully. But the WEEKEND beckons! FIVE weekends left of "summer."

I keep blinking & losing days

Ugh. Wake up, continuous productivity that doesn't seem SO much so by the time my head hits the pillow at day's end, sleep. Repeat. Day in, day out. It's never enough for me. Forever feel i've got a full agenda. But I AM doin a lot of shit lately, so perhaps it's just an increasingly ambitious, occasionally anxiety-ridden cycle. Or maybe I just need to win the lotto and end the excruciating monotony that I do EVERYthing to alleviate. August 6th, 2009...file it away.

Undulating loins

Yeah, that's all I have to say about today. Mainly, I just wanted to get something recorded for "August 5," as part of my plot to write every day of this month. So there. Very likely be editing this at a later time.

PS, the ANONYMOUS comments are back. Yeah, they annoy me.

The zen goes on....

It's 4 for 4 now. Every day of this month has been a good one. Need I repeat for the umpteenth time that August is my month? Gettin worried the other shoe's gonna drop, but tryin to avoid thinkin that way. Today was a day of solitude, meaningful emails, ponies & a llama, a tuna packet/blanched tomato concoction for "lunch" at 5pm, french toast for "dinner" at 11pm...among other little productive things. And it FEELS like SUMMER! It's 76 now at 1:45am with a delightfully stuffy, balmy breeze, the sound of a fast car in the distance as I write this. A classic summer night. I'm very grateful for this day & for life in general. I'm lucky.

Yoga on a cliff

A great Monday. Nothing EPIC happened. Just got a lot done and was in a really, really good mood...perhaps aided by my 3rd trip to Rifle Camp Park in as many weeks for some light hiking and exercising...and yoga. LIGHT yoga, too. I found an awesome new trail with even more spectacular views; reminded me of LA when you're looking down into the city and valley. So it struck me to do some yoga within a few feet of where I could plummet to my death. Solid DROP. I really dig NJ's topography; it's underrated. It IS kinda like LA. So, anyway, the hiking and yoga was beyond soothing...especially as NO ONE else was there and it was gloriously sunny out. Just a lotta good little things today. Happy to be alive. Too cheery for you?

Mourning the Chevy...yet SO not

WOW. My parents' 1989 Chevy Caprice is HISTORY! It's been clunkered for cash.

I knew they were lookin to do this, but the events of the past 72 hours or so have just been too whirlwind to fully process this yet. It occurred to me this week that MAYBE they'd have a new car PRETTY damn soon, within a month maybe. Then I kinda upped the timetable a bit. Then, Thursday night, the AP reported that the Cash for Clunkers deal would likely be shelved THAT NIGHT due to overwhelming turnout...and my mood on the issue went south. THEN, yesterday, everyone involved assured the American public that the program was still a go...at least for this weekend, and hopefully longer. The House even approved 2 billion more dollars. My mood buoyed again. The end COULD be near!

So I get to their house today...and the OTHER car's in the street while the CHEVY is MISSING! Not in the driveway. I spun around and surveyed the entire street. NO sight of it! It was like 6:30pm. I KNEW something was up. Sure enough, I get inside and no one's home. Yup, yup...I started to truly get excited. Then, like a cliched sitcom, the phone rings. The brother. With the news that THEY WENT TO BUY A CAR. !?!?!?!? NEVER did I dream it'd happen this fast. Then again, I've kinda been out of the loop on the whole matter.

This news is more fantastic than I could EVER possibly express. Yet I'm kinda sad and irritated. I didn't get to Say Goodbye. You know me (don't you?)...I'd like to have driven it one last time. Fully inspected it. Taken photos. I say, TAKEN PHOTOS! We got this car in September of 1989! Twenty damn years! That's a long ass time. Vacations. Trips to college. Trips to the shore. SO many things happened with that car. And then it's just brutally SWIPED away from me without notice. Dammit. I'm tempted to seek it out at the dealer's where they traded it in for One Last Gaze. Wouldn't be able to gently stroke it, though. Or sit in it. Ugh. Oh, well. I'm probably being ridiculous, right? Yet not. I never considered myself a Car Guy or someone who attaches emotional meaning to their automobiles, but I guess I am to some extent. Hell, I attach emotion to my underwear. Thank you, 1989 Chevy Caprice that we got when Gloria Estefan's DON'T WANNA LOSE YOU was #1 on the charts...twenty years of (not always glorious) ridership! Rest in clunkered peace.

And now that I've appropriately mourned this gray, 20-year-old monstrous beast with a collapsing ceiling, one stereo speaker that was often static, no CD player, no driver's visor, gears that showed you in the "drive" position even when actually NOT, and so, SO much more (and all that's not even referring to the actual & many DRIVEABILITY issues)...yeah, now that I've mourned all that, I have 3 words.

THANK. FUCKING. CHRIST.