thursday...

i had a meeting at the airport...as usual i parked in the garage closest to the terminal...in an open area...my meeting was only supposed to last at the most an hour but it ended up taking much longer..

when the meeting was over...i went to my car...it had started to sprinkle but it seemed like i made it to my car just before it really started raining..
as i was walking to my car..i could see a woman a few cars away...she had a child in a stroller...the child looked to be about two years old..
this woman had the stroller completely full of things along with her child..
there was a guitar in a hard shell case...turned upside down and placed in the the space between the handle and the body of the stroller...
the woman also had two huge suitcases...she was unloading all of this from an suv..
i assumed with all that baggage she wasn't alone..
i started my car...turned on the airconditioning...and attempted to call my office to tell them i was on my way back..
i looked out the window...and i saw this woman was alone...she was trying to figure out how to get everything into the terminal by herself...she was obviously struggling....
i opened my window..i asked her if she needed help...she said she did
i told her i needed a minute but i would help her..
after i said this...i could see ..it was starting to really rain ...so turned off my phone...got out of the car and locked my door...
it was after i closed the door to the car..i realized i had left my car keys in the ingnition...
i had locked myself out of the car...

it was already too late to do anything about it...still this woman and her child were out in the rain...so i said i'd deal with it later...
i grabbed her suitcases and we started walking to the terminal...
she thanked me and said she didn't know how she was going to make it to the terminal...she said she was moving home..
i said ..you're moving home?
and you drove here?
what?...are you just leaving your car at the airport?
she said it was her friends car...her friend traveled a lot..and she was coming in this evening and would drive the car home...
we walked...a little further..
and she said..
i'm running from an abusive relationship...what i have here is all i have in the world...but i'm heading home...so i'll be alright..
i said...i know you will be...
let's get you to the ticket counter...
and you'll be on your way...
i walked her to the ticket counter...a ticket agent walked up to her and started to help her...
i turned to leave...i told her again i knew she'd be fine..
she said thank you..
and i walked back to my car..

i was able to get someone to unlock my car...as we stood in the rain...
it didn't take too long...
and i didn't get too wet...

i headed to the office...i encountered a rain storm unlike any i have had to drive in ...for a very long time...
it was the kind of rain where you think you should pull over and wait for it to stop but you realize..if you do there's a good chance someone behind you could easily have trouble seeing and run into you...so you go slow but you keep moving...

halfway back to the office...
the rain stopped...and the sun came out...

i guess...
sometimes...life is about perspective...
if my meeting didn't run so long...i wouldn't have been there to help this woman...
it was only a small gesture...and surely someone else would have helped her..
if i didn't stop to help her..
i wouldn't have locked my keys in my car..
if i didn't lock my keys in the car...chances are...
i might have been back at the office before it really started raining...
then again..
things could have turned out much differently...
and i don't know how..
but they could have...

anyway...i think out of what happened that day
the thing is..
i think about the girls ...and my grandchildren..
and i hope..
someday..if they need any kind of help..
i hope..
someone will stop and help no matter how small..
or large the help needed...

this mornings music...
epic hero....end of the line...

"she takes the westbound train
searching for the claifornia sky
with 8 bucks in her pocket
and a suitcase full of dreams that never die
she breathes real deep and sets her mind
upon the unknown
she cries so hard when she hears
seger on the radio
the world's wide open
her eyes so bright

i know that you see the trees
made of gold
and i'll see the world war in your
eyes unfold
i know that you will be
perfectly fine
when you see your world stop short
of the end of the line

she breathes into the window
draws her name and wipes it with her sleeve
she takes just a moment
to reflect on all the things that made her leave
she laughs while the world is sleeping
through the night
she throws her arms in the air
smiles and says "good-bye"
the worlds wide open
her eyes so bright

i know that you see the trees
made of Gold
and i'll see the world war in your
eyes unfold
i know that you will be
perfectly fine
when you see your world stop short
of the end of the line

i know that you see the trees
made of Gold
and I'll see the world war in your
your eyes unfold
i know that you will be
perfectly fine
when you see your world stop short
of the end of the line..."

consumer product safety warning...

ok i know it's been a while since i have written anything...i still have a lot i keep meaning to write about...it's just taking the time to do it that seems to be a problem...
anyway...
because i think it's important to warn people about things that can be somewhat unsafe..
here's the deal...
mary got me a waterpick...to be exact...it's the "interplak" by conair...
and what you're got to know is..
to not be like me..
read the directions first..
because..of course..
i didn't..
and well...
mary set it up..
i decided to use it..
what i didn't know was...that...well the second you turn it on..
water starts spurting..unless you press the blue button on the handle..
so..
when i turned mine on...unknown to me...it was on the highest setting...
and unfortunately...the water head was pointed so that it spurted ...
directly up my nose...
it wasn't pleasant..at all...

so there you have it..
read the directions first..
and remember to keep your finger on the blue button...

you're welcome..

this afternoons music...
"good man" ...by josh ritter...

"these chords are old but we shake hands,
cause i believe that they're the good guys...
we can use all the help we can,
so many minor chords outside...
i fell in love with the sound,
oh I love to sing along with you...
we got tunes we kicked around some...
we got a bucket that the tunes go through...

babe we both had,
dry spells,
hard times in bad lands...
i'm a good man for ya...
i'm a good man...

last night there was a horse in the road,
i was twisting in the hairpin...
my hands held on my mind let go,
and back to you my heart went skipping...
i found the inside of the road,
thought about the first time that I met you...
all those glances that we stole,
sometimes,
if you want them then you've got to...

babe we both had,
dry spells,
hard times in bad lands..
i'm a good man for ya...
I'm a good man...

they shot a Western south of here,
they had him cornered in a canyon,
and even his horse had disappeared....
they said it got run down by a bad, bad man...
you're not a good shot but I'm worse,
and there's so much where we ain't been yet...
so swing up on this little horse,
the only thing we'll hit is sunset...

babe we both had,
dry spells,
hard times in bad lands...
i'm a good man for ya...
i'm a good man..."

9 volt heart...

i remember...
when i was young...
long before...music was at our fingertips..

my love affair with music started early..
my parents had a transitor radio...
they would let us use it to listen to music...

i remember...
sneaking the radio...to listent to it at night..
i remember...
days when i was home sick from school...
listening all day...

music changed my outlook on the world..
i'd hear a song i liked..
and i could hardly contain my excitement..
i'm still that way...
i listen to both new music and old...
my excitement for both...
never changes..
songs i haven't heard for a while..
songs i just heard...
but i have to hear again ...and again..

i think each of us have music..in our lives..
one way or the other..
some people don't get so excited about the music they hear daily..
in their lives...
for some people...music forms a soundtrack to their days...

i can remember songs playing when things happened...
like on a good friday years ago..
when i was driving down the street...
a car pulled out in front of me...
i couldn't avoid hitting it...
to this day..
everytime i hear ...
fleetwood mac's ...."she's changing me"...
i can't help but think about the moment i knew..
i was going to be in a fairly bad accident...
and there was nothing i could do..
but hope for the best....

i remember...
summer days...in highschool...
lying on my back...in the park..
watching the clouds and soaking life in...
while listening to ....
the youngbloods..."ride the wind"....
by that time i had a cassette player...
so i could record what i liked...
and listen to it over and over and over...

i remember...
the girls singing along to the radio...
as we drove places...

i remember...
music comforting me...
during times of loss...

how...
i can't forget artists like ...
trini lopez, dean martin, nat king cole...
because my parents had their records..
and played their music in our house...
and how...
my parents bought me my first rolling stones record...
how my mother..
took a carload of neighborhood kids..
to see the movie "woodstock"...
and how...
to her horror...
there was nudity...and bad language...
and still...
my parents bought us the soundtrack album..
because they knew..
how much music meant to us....

so this week i was thinking about music..
where it's come from in my life...
where it continues to take me..
and i think back...
to a time when i was very young...
when all i had was this transistor radio..
and this transistor radio was powered by this..
little square 9 volt battery...
which you don't see much of anymore...
and how...
this little squre battery was all that was needed...
to jump start my heart...
to change my mood...
to light up the night...
for comfort..
for joy..
for consolation..
for understanding...

this little square battery...
powering my lifeline..
to a different world..and different feelings...
when all i had to do was click it on..
and let the music start....


todays music...
9 volt heart...dave alvin...

"...his mama said “baby, wait for me in the car,”
and she went lookin’ for his daddy inside a bar
so he sat and let the radio take him far away
listenin’ to xprs and krla.

plastic silver nine-volt heart
you click it on and let the music start
and the radio was his toy
the radio was his toy.

well rachel was twenty and he was seventeen years old
sittin’ in a parked car on a country road
runnin’ his fingers through her long black hair
and the staples singin’ “baby, I’ll take you there.”

plastic silver nine volt heart
you click it on and let the music start
and the radio was his toy
the radio was his toy.

doin’ the dishes long after midnight
talkin’ about the evenin’ news with his wife
the baby wakes up and starts to cry
so they turn the radio on for his lullaby.

plastic silver nine volt heart
you click it on and let the music start
plastic silver nine volt heart
you click it on and let the music start
and the radio was his toy
the radio was his toy.

plastic silver nine volt heart
plastic silver nine volt heart
you click it on and let the music start..."

theo says....

i really, really, really...love the snow
but....



when we get over a foot of snow..
and..
your legs are only about 6 inches long...
and...
you go out for a romp in the snow...
guess which part of your body..
is the most exposed..
and...
freezes first...

music this afternoon....
fountains of wayne...winter valley song...

"...hey sweet annie,
don't take it so bad,
you know the summer's coming soon...
though the interstate is choking under salt and dirty sand,
and it seems the sun is hiding from the moon...

your daddy told you,
when you were a girl,
the kind of things that come to those who wait...
so give it a rest girl,
take a deep breath girl,
and meet me at the bay state tonight...

the snow is coming down,
on our new england town,
and it's been falling all day long...
what else is new,
what could i do,
i wrote a valley winter song,
to play for you..."

tommy...

it was a long time ago...it seems i'm not as good at counting the years...counting the passing time ...as i used to be...
but...
it's been at least 12 years...
when i first started working with richard and leslie...
richard had this friend he called tommy...
for almost everyone else...
he went by tom...but to richard and leslie..
he was tommy...

as close as i could tell...
tommy was richards closest friend outside of famliy...
as you get older..
as you get to know more and more people...
it's hard to say..
"he's one of a kind"...
but upon meeting tommy ...he was clearly one of a kind..
he called everyone "brother"...
and you really got the feeling...
he always meant it...

as much as tommy was an intersting person..
he was also an intersting business person...
tommy owned two companies..
one was an office products company..
and the other was an "ink" company...
tommy's office products company never did seem to do a lot of business..
he never really talked about his "ink" company..
i remember ...
whenever i saw tommy...
i'd ask him how business was going..
he'd tell me..
"not so good"...
as far as i could see...
it didn't seem he sold a lot of office supplies..
as i said....he never talked about his "ink" company..
the perplexing thing about his business was..
i would go to his office..
it was a nice office..
it didn't show any signs of being in tough economic times..
finally after a few years...
i asked richard about tommy's business's...
richard told me...here's what i know...
tommy's office products company isn't where he makes his money..
it's his "ink" company....
the one he never talks about..
richard told me...
as tommy put it..."years ago"...he had this friend..
this friend was a chemist..
this chemist friend...developed a special "ink"..
the friend...didn't know anything about business..
he went to tommy and asked him to help him..
tommy agreed and they became partners...
the thing about this special "ink"...
was...
there was no "ink" quite like it on the market..
it's specific purpose..was for printing on drink cans...
so tommy set out to market the "ink"...
at some point in time...the two of them visited with "coors"...
as tommy told richard...
"they struck a deal"...
and to this day....it is the "ink"...coors uses to print their label..
on cans of coors products...

tommy very seldom talked about the "ink" company...
he used to tell everyone he just sold office supplies..
but in reality...his "ink" company...
made him a very comfortable living..
and..
tommy gave back..

tommy co-founded the "golf for a future" golf tournament..with proceeds to provide scholarships to students at west high in denver...
tommy was always serving on some board..
or with some organization..
working to make his community better..

last thursay..
richard called me in his office..
he told me after a short illness...
tommy had passed away..

i never knew how old tommy was..
it turned out..
he was 62...
i always thought he was much much younger
the way he lived his life..
the way he was always cheerful and welcoming...

anyway...
these last few weeks have been quite a struggle...
susans husband got very sick from his immune system being weakened from the chemotherapy...it was touch and go for a while...but he's getting stronger..
though he's still battling cancer...

susan's husbands struggles....
brings back a lot of memories...
for richard...
and...for the first time...
he came in to my office...
sat down..
and told me the story of the night and morning leslie passed away...
how he was by her side..
how their young son was with his mother..
as she passed away...

in the past few weeks...
things have been a little unsettled...
i've done a lot of listening...
i've done a lot of supporting and praying...
and well...
as near as i could ...
i've held things together at work...

so this week....
losing a friend..
reminds us..
how vunerable we all our..
how fragile life is..
how...
none of us will live on this earth forever...
and ...
how each moment we have while we're here...
is a chance..
to leave a mark..
to leave a memory...
to love..
to share..
to give..
to feel...
to laugh..
to cry..
to sing..
to dance..

and to most importantly...
thank God...


this afternoons music...
needle and thread....sleeping at last...

"when the world welcomes us in,
we’re closer to Heaven than we’ll ever know...
they say this place has changed,
but strip away all of the technology,
and you will see...
that we all are hunters,
hunting for something that will make us okay....

here we lay alone in hospital beds,
tracing life in our heads;
but all that is left,
is that this was our entrance and now it’s our exit,
as we find our way home....

all the blood and all the sweat,
that we invested to be loved...
follows us into our end,
where we begin to understand

that we are made of love,
and all the beauty stemming from it...
we are made of love,
and every fracture caused by the lack of it...

“you were a million years of work,”
said God and his angels, with needle and thread...
they kissed your head and said,
“you’re a good kid and you make us proud,
so just give your best and the rest will come,
and we’ll see you soon.”

all the blood and all the sweat,
that we invested to be loved,
follows us into our end,
where we begin to understand...

that maybe hollywood was right:
when the credits have rolled and the tears have dried,
the answers that we have been dying to find,
are all pieced together and, somehow,
made perfectly mine...

we are made of love,
and all the beauty stemming from it...
we are made of love,
and every fracture caused by the lack of love..."

how can you tell if they glow in the dark if you're wearing pants?

not to long ago....mary and i were in walmart...
mary was shopping and i probably was roaming...
anyway...
i was walking along minding my own business...
when i saw this display in the middle of the main aisle..
from far away...
it had brightly colored glow in the dark colored product..
i thought..
oh that's intersting...
i should see what all the color's about...
so...
i went to check it out...

you can imagine my suprise..
and my thought process..
as i realized..
the glow in the dark product on this display...
turned out to be...
panty liners...

because i'm not a woman...
i'm not positive why there is a market for...
colorful glow in the dark panty liners...
so...the best i can figure...
is if you have a need for panty liners..
you might as well be wearing ones..
that have colors that can cheer you up....

this afternoons music...
0 + s......permanant scar....

"....what kind of wound,
leaves a permanant scar,
on a beautiful heart...."

sometimes pointing out the obvious is all you can do...

so today one of our account managers called to tell me that an employee had lost her paycheck...
so the conversation went like this...

him: e------ sanchez lost her paycheck

me: oh that's not good, how do you spell her name?

him: s..a..n..c..h..e..z

me: i know how to spell sanchez..i'm mexican...what mexican doesn't know how to spell sanchez...what i don't know is how to spell her first name...

him: oh...

today's music
dwight yoakam & buck owens...streets of bakersfield..

happy valentines day....2009...

sometimes...
the oddest things make me smile...

....there's probably a convention in town....

we live in loveland...
it's by no means a big city...
while it's not a small town...there are aspects of living here...that certainly remind you of living in a small town...
one of those things is a fairly appearant lack of diversity...
because of this...
you tend to notice changes in the diversity of the population as they happen daily...
so when mary came home from work a few nights ago..
and mentioned ...
she was seeing more and more black people lately...
i said......

todays music...
the fray...never say never...

"...some things we don't talk about,
better do without...
just hold a smile...
we're falling in and out of love,
the same damn problem...
together all the while,
you can never say never...

when we don't know why...
time and time again,
younger now then we were before...
don't let me go,
don't let me go...."

i took one for the fuzzy part of our team...

it was a saturday...and because mary works saturday...
it was just me and the dog...
well...theo decided he needed to go out..
i wasn't dressed yet...
so i threw on some jeans, a shirt, hat and shoes and i took him out...
we were were only out for a few minutes when i saw this boy walking a dog...
the dog looked like sort of a cross between a pit bull and a short haired lab...for the sake of this...we'll just call it a plab...
anyway...
they boy looked to be about 10 years old..
he and the plab were about a half a block away when the plab saw us...
immediately he started our way..
dragging the boy behind him..
when he was about 30 yards from us...
theo noticed the dog...
theo turned and barked....
and then realized....his bark had absolutely no effect on the plab...
so theo did the only thing a self respecting small ball of fur could do..
he ran...
but he couldn't run far...because of course he was on a leash...
while theo turned to run...
the plab decided to run even faster...
it was then ...
the boy let go of the leash he had the plab on...
i reached down to pick theo up...
when i got him up...
the plab was on us...
i turned away to keep him from biting theo..
and of course...
instead the plab bit me..in the finger...
before the dog could come at us again...
i kicked at it..
and it backed down..

luckily...the mother of the boy who was walking the dog was not far away...
so she called the dog...
and the dog went to her...

the short story is..
the dog wasn't even the boys ... he was walking it for a neighbor..
so me...
i ended up in urgent care...
i didn't need stitches...
but of course i got a tetnus shot..
and medication that made me sick for a week...

that was a week ago...
my finger has almost healed..
and i'm finished with the medication...
the plab is still on quarantine for another 3 days..
i'm pretty sure i've not got rabies...
which is a good thing..

life is weird..
i mean if i hadn't protected theo.....the plab would have probably killed him...
and if mary had been walking theo...
who knows how she might have been hurt...
so it's actually a good thing it was me...
but here's the thing...
this really has everything to do with this ...
and nothing at all..
i've thought about this before...
but this made it so much more clear..
sometimes when you get medication..
you actually stop and think...
ok...is what will happen to me worse than the side effects of taking this medication...
i mean what i was taking...is a form of amoxicillin...specific to prevent or treat bacteria or infection casued by dog bites or other similar things....
the possible side effects include... or problems associated with this drugs can be...
diaherra, white patches in the mouth or on the tongue, stomach pain, gas, loss of appetite, dark urine, clay looking stools...and the list goes on...
now it's clear to me..
that rather than die of infection...i'm willing to risk these things..
but..
it got me thinking
what other drugs do people take...
that have side effects...that well...
are a delicate balance between curing what ails them and suffering through something nearly as bad...
take ambien...for instance..people take it for insomnia..
so..if you take ambien...it can cause drowsiness...fair enough because what else would you expect from a drug that you take for insomina...
but it also can cause memory loss...
people taking ambien...have claimed to not remember...driving, having sex....eating, making phone calls...
so in other words...you were really awake...but..you just don't remember what you did...so you think you were asleep...
which brings us to viagra...
i know what you might be thinking...but no..i don't need or take viagra...still i looked up the side effects and they are...
dizziness, drowsiness, fainting, blurred vision...
these things can happen befor sex...not after...pay attention here..
the risk of heart attack or stroke...so bascially you could die during sex...which if you ask most guys they will tell you isn't entirely a bad way to go...
and viagra can cause you to see things in a shade of blue similar to the color of the pill itself...

so basically you take viagra to be able to have sex..
there is a possiblity you could pass out before sex..or stroke out and die during...

isn't medical science wonderful?...

today's music...
garfunkel and oates...(kate micucci and riki linhome)
kind of quirky...but catchy...

rather than share the lyrics...and the title
this is one it's better to hear...