Daily Update: Dinner with my Brother
Last night we went to have dinner with my brother. We had a great time. Went to Mission Valley and had dinner at Gordon Biersch. Very good food. I didn’t have a beer, though I really wanted one. We brought along one of my favorite daughter’s friends. It was a great time. I haven’t seen my brother since the service we had for my father in Minnesota so it’s been about a year and a half. He’s still quite bald and I didn’t pass up the opportunity to point out I still have a full head of hair.
He shared a great story about his daughter that I will share another time, it’ll take a little writing to get the details, but it’s pretty funny. Well, now it’s funny. I’m sure at the time mom and dad weren’t too happy.
We also made a call back to his house and talked with his kids. They’re 3 and 6 so it’s always fun to talk to them on the phone. We all even said hello to his wife. They all miss daddy. He heads back home today.
Back to more about how JR got to where he is today.
Sean, his girl, and I had moved to San Diego. We planned on hitting it big as a band. We had just gotten our taxes back so we had a little bit of money and arrived in town knowing no one and having no where to stay. We rented a hotel for a week while we looked for a place to live. We wound up there for two weeks. It was awful. One bed so I slept on the floor. Each day we got a paper and looked for two things; jobs and apartments. Both were in short supply.
We eventually found a place that gave us a month to month contract. No one else wanted to give us a place to live because we didn’t have jobs and we couldn’t get jobs with no call back number because we didn’t have a place to live. It was vicious.
First, last, and deposit ate up a lot of the money we’d brought with us, but once we had a phone, it was only a matter of time before we all found jobs. This was the early 90s so no cell phones and no internet. It made doing things the old fashioned way a way of life.
Sean and I had gotten telemarketer jobs and his girl got another phone related job. We all had paychecks. Well, for a couple of weeks. The first place we had jobs basically stole all the money they’d brought in for some contest. We were thankful for paychecks and cashed them as quickly as possible. We even got to see the business on the news as police tried to locate the owners.
We both got jobs again as telemarketers. Those also fell through, but for different reasons. Finally we went to all the temp agencies. That was a grueling task and we both worked a number of odd jobs (yes, I’ve been a ditch digger) until we got regular work on the night shift at a plastic injection molding factory.
Steady work was finally achieved. Just in time because being flat broke and not making a car payment meant I no longer had a car to drive. The plus side, I didn’t have to make a car payment or insurance payment. The downside, the three of us only had one car.
But beyond that, we were able to start getting the band together. The gas station across the street where we lived became our little hang out. We got to know all the attendants. It turned out that one guy there was a guitar player/singer and had a drummer and was looking for another guitar player and bassist. We were in and Defective formed that day.
The drummer was in college (the only one of us) and he lived in a frat house. That became our practice pad until enough complaints came in from the neighbors. Then we found a person with a garage that’d been soundproofed that he rented out as practice space.
We practiced two or three times a week and once we thought we were ready, made a really bad demo tape (I’m still trying to run down a copy) and I got a copy of the Reader and started looking at where to play.
Over the course of the next three years we played anywhere we could. We played everywhere in San Diego we could. Dreamstreet, Brick by Brick, the Cashbah, Soma, and places that aren’t even around any more. We also played a lot of parties. For the most part we were a punk band, but we also played other songs like Helmet’s big hit Unsung.
This is where headbutting started. I wanted to play more than just three chord punk songs and when we did play songs that I or Sean had written, people really got into the music. This didn’t sit well with the singer who felt he should be writing/singing. It got to the point where he would argue every gig about the song list making sure we’d eliminate any songs I’d written.
I left the band. The singer begged me to come back. I wasn’t going to until we got a call from Soma to play the main stage. We’d played the basement several times, and they were calling US! I re-joined Defective. We fought and argued over the song list right up until we went on stage. We were back stage while Blink played (now Blink 182). We took the stage and only played what the singer wanted to sing. We didn’t play one of my songs and I was quite pissed.
The next two bands, Sprung Monkey and Lucy’s Fur Coat finished out the night. It was great to play in front of nearly 1000 people. But I couldn’t stand the lead singer’s attitude. I told him so and said enough was enough. if he didn’t want to sing songs I wrote, then there was no point in my staying with the band.
That was Defective’s last gig.
Tomorrow it’s life After Defective.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: My Brother is in town.
I’m not sure if I’ll get my 2000 words done today. I did yesterday and it felt great. I’ll do my best and we’ll see how it goes.
Why? You might ask.
My brother is in town. We’re going to have dinner tonight. He had dinner with his boss and co-workers last night. I haven’t seen my brother since my father’s funeral. Inexcusable, I know, but times are tight. It’s sad, I know.
As I said, I did get my 2000 words in yesterday despite finding an addictive Tower Defense game. I won’t tell you the name because I don’t want you to get sucked in like I did. Lost a couple hours to that game. It was a good distraction, but distractions are distracting and I need to get back to focusing on my overall goal this year.
Putting down a couple thousand words per day has been good for the annual goal, though. I’m now better than 3 days ahead of my annual goal. If I stay on track, I’ll be way ahead. I like the sounds of that as vacations will happen later in the year ad I doubt I’ll write nearly as much during those times. It’s exciting to be two months into the year and still on target with most of my goals.
You may have noticed that Kance Encounter hasn’t dropped yet. Yes. I’m sorry about that. I’ve been writing far less fiction than intended and I do plan on getting it out there. Work on My Teacher is a Zombie was so much fun, that I may target this as my set of shorts for the year. I’ll have to bug Dan Dan the Art Man and see if he’s up for the challenge.
Yesterday I talked about my time in the Navy. A couple things I didn’t mention. In Jr. High I played drums in band. In High School I played drums in A band. My two best friends, Jeff Fahnstock and Sean McCoy and I had a three piece band called S.C.R.O.G. Inc and eventually we had a drummer Eric (I forget his last name). I continued with the drums until I got out of the Navy.
When I had to move from Florida to Colorado, I had to take a couple trips. They were long. They sucked. It was boring. Eastern Texas is beautiful. West Texas is 700 miles of nothing to look at and I went off the road more than once in my little car due to falling asleep.
When I was stationed in Seal Beach, Sean and Jeff were roommates in Long Beach (just North of Seal Beach) and we jammed a few times, but Jeff had his band and Sean practiced a lot. When I got out of the Navy, Jeff was still in Long Beach, but I didn’t want to go back. Sean had moved back to Durango, CO. I didn’t want to move back in with mom or dad. I didn’t want to go back to Durango either, but I didn’t have many options. I called Sean and the move happened.
Living in Durango as an adult is far different than as a student. As a student there isn’t anything to do except drink and get in trouble. As an adult, there isn’t anything to do except drink and get in trouble. The Navy taught me how to drink. Oh did it teach me how to drink. Me and alcohol never really mixed and it wasn’t until much later in life that I discovered this. But I digress.
Sean and I formed a band in Durango. I had sold my chrome and black drums for a sweet 5 string bass and bass stack. Sean helped me learn how to play bass and things progressed from there. I wasn’t great, but I got by. Mostly following along with the guitar.
When I got out of the Navy, I got a severance check. After taxes, that didn’t last long. I had to get not one, but two jobs. My first was working at the Humane Society. The other was working at a gas station on the outskirts of town. Both had their ups and downs. I love animals. I hated having to deal with what we did when we became overcrowded. I loved sitting and reading and taking money as a cashier. I hated working the second job because we closed up late. But these are the things you have to do to get by sometimes.
After a year in Durango, Sean and I packed up. We needed to move on. We wanted to be musicians, but there was little to no music scene in Durango. The only time any music scene happened was when our friend Jeff showed up for a visit. This is a long story. Perhaps I’ll tell that story tomorrow. It was a lot of fun.
We tried to decide where to move. The Grunge scene was just starting to break out of Seattle so we decided that going there was a bad idea. Any band that was going to make it had made it. Los Angeles/Long Beach we both decided wasn’t where we wanted to go. It was overcrowded with so many bands, we’d never get noticed. We decided to head down the coast to San Diego. We packed up all of our belongings, he packed up his girlfriend (my girlfriend could not leave town given her situation and it was sad to leave her) and we headed to where dreams and fortune would be ours.
Tomorrow, San Diego!
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: I’m awake and feeling great!
Last night’s writing session was filled with awesome. I had put a note in the last written chapter of To Fall From the Sky <!—Insert more here —> and last night I finished off that chapter, wrote the next chapter, and started another. I write short chapters. Makes the book punchier and it will feel like it’s moving faster if the viewpoint keeps shifting. That’s my personal opinion.
I wrote 2200 words last night and a majority of that was new fiction. I had thought I would be too tired, too mentally exhausted. I almost didn’t write and I was going to just veg out and watch TV, but decided to instead play a level of angry birds, and though. Why am I doing this? And jumped in and started editing the previous chapter because it sucked and then dove in feet first once I had an ah-ha moment while going through some of the older material.
It just happens like that some times. I used to sit down and eat an orange or two and for whatever reason, I began to associate the smell of oranges with sitting and writing and pretty soon a glass of OJ would have me firing on all cylinders.
That’s changed. Now I can sit and just start typing. Like this post, for example. I’ve been doing the daily posts for two months now and they’ve become easier and easier to write. It’s like getting up and stretching. I just do it and I try not to think too hard about it.
I mentioned yesterday that I’d mention how I got here today. Well, I’m not going to start too long ago. I’ll skip the childhood back in the woods (though there are many fun stories from those days).
My brother had joined the Navy. According to him, it was the best thing since sliced bread, so rather than head off to school, I decided to go into the Navy as well. I had scored very high on the ASVAB (finishing all sections long before the timer dinged) and with a 98% I pretty much could decide to do whatever I wanted to do. I did not qualify for a Top Secret clearance due to some trouble as a teen (I won’t go into that here, but it was teenage stupidity) but I did qualify for a secret clearance. That got me in as an Electronic Warfare Technician.
The title sounded like fun. I did my ‘A’ school and had to memorize a lot of codes, configurations, and I knew a lot about missiles of the 80s as well as ships of the 80s. For the most part my job was passive detection.
When I finished my school, I took it because I became E4 out of ‘A’ school, the Navy decided they now had too many EW Petty Officers and sent my class and the class before me (we graduated a class a week) to security duty. The class ahead of mine went to Fallbrook and my class went to Seal Beach. The Navy had gotten rid of the Marines who had been performing the security duty and put us in there.
It was a job. I learned to shoot a lot of different guns (my dad had already taught me how to shoot) and I took some basic courses to help me gain some college credits. All in all I didn’t like the lifestyle of the Navy. The most fun I had was being the drummer in a band during ‘C’ School. Speaking of ‘C’ school.
After nearly 3 years doing security duty, I went back to ‘C’ school . I loved going to school.
*note: I’m a test taker. I take tests in record time.
Each week we had a quiz and 15-30 minutes to take the 10 question quiz, but the instructor gave us as much time as was needed. I would finish in about 10 minutes and be on break until the rest of the class finished. Normally that was around lunch break or 4 hours later. This frustrated me to no end. On test days we could go home after we finished so I was normally back in the barraks watching Star Trek reruns after an hour or two while the rest of the class would come back almost at the end of class time.
I completed my ‘C’ school with one of the highest grades the school had even seen. 98.9%. One person in my class had done slightly better. I graduated. The other person did not. Here’s why.
They had cameras in all the classrooms. They had one camera on me, and one on the instructor. They were convinced that I was cheating because I did my tests so fast. We had a stack of manuals to look everything up in and all you had to do was learn which manual to look certain diagrams up in. To me it was a breeze as was the actual troubleshooting.
They never caught me cheating, but what they did discover was the person with the highest scores in the class sat directly in front of the instructor. So when he would grade my quiz or test, the other person was marking the correct answers, then just looking them up. He was given a BCD. Bad Conduct Discharge (or Big Chicken Dinner) and left the Navy with a dishonorable discharge. Me, well, again they decided they had too many EW Petty Officers. Upon completion of school we were given a choice. Leave the Navy with 4 years under our belts, or carry on for the remaining two of our contract. I chose to get out. Like I said, just wasn’t my lifestyle.
As I mentioned, many of my friends came and went. It was sad to see them go and I’ve never been good about keeping touch with all the guys from Seal Beach or from Cory Station. I always wondering what happened to all my friends who were married by 20 and some having kids. I’m guessing some became lifers. I did have contact with one guy who played guitar and sang in the band I played drums in. He now does landscaping and is still married to the girl he met in Florida. I think that’s awesome.
My remaining time I spent working in the commissary checking IDs. I had 2 months to go for my four years and then it was time to go home.
More on this story tomorrow.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Volleyball and Groceryshopping
My favorite daughter had another tournament today. They played well, but lost the first two matches. They rallied back and won the final match despite the line judges and refs being against them. It was nice to see them so happy after the win.
The family went to Bj’s Brewery and Eatery afterwards. I had an awesome pot roast sandwich. Oh yum. The wife and kid had burgers.
After we got back to our neighborhood we did some shopping and put the groceries away.
It’s been a long day.
Writing: Last night I stayed up as late as I dared to get in my 2000 words. I’m glad I didn’t stay up later as I slept past the alarm and woke up 30 minutes after we should have gotten up. We still got ready in short order. As for those 2000 words, I was able to complete work on my special project and I even added a few words to Golden West. It felt so good to hit my daily goal.
I had a lot of distractions over the past couple days and I don’t expect that to change over the next couple of days. My brother will be in town tomorrow and Tuesday. I’ll be heading downtown to visit with him while I can. It’ll most likely be He and I one day and the Family the next day. We’ll see how it goes.
Regardless of distractions, I have a goal and I’m going to do my best to stick to it.
Next week I’m going to post little stories about how I got to where I am today. I hope it’s a fun journey for you. I know it’ll be interesting to write it all out. I haven’t written an in depth vision of where I was so many years ago and how I got to where I am today. I’ll make notes of where to fill in gaps later. Should be a fun journey. If I bore you to tears, just let me know.
Right now I need to knock out some fiction. So…
Until tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Oil Change.
I own two large vehicles. A chevy tahoe and a dodge Ram. I don’t drive a lot so gas prices never really bothered me. The confuse the hell out of me though. I’ve watched them go up steadily over the years and never understood why.
I know about supply and demand. I get that. But we’re dependent on and artificial supply problem. Gas companies seem to use any excuse to raise prices and it’s not fair.
Prices before the war in Iraq were below $2 and were for a very long time. The war had no real impact on supply but oil and gas companies used it as an excuse to more than double the price then post record high profits. I just don’t know why more people aren’t outraged about this.
Perhaps a lot of people are like me. You don’t think about it until you are at the pump or like now when you get an oil change.
The cost of gas is crazy. The cost an oil change not so much. The prices has gone up over the years but is has more to do with the services they offer as you can still find cheap oil changes. There is competition for your business.
Back to gas stations, if one raises its price everyone raises their prices. Almost as if they’re all colluding to pull one over on the general public. Again I don’t understand why there isn’t more outrage about this.
Personally I’d like to see more alternate fuel vehicles developed as I am not sold on battery powered cars. I mean what are they going to do with all those batteries in a few years when they need to be replaced?
On a lighter note my favorite daughter is taking a Pre SAT test today. She’ll be there for a couple hours and I’m doing the oil change / car wash. Figures I could make use of a little quite time and do my daily blog post.
Yesterday was a good day for writing. I was only 136 words shy of my 2000 word goal. Let’s see how close I can get today.
Until tomorrow!
Woowoo!
Unorthodox Writing Tips 17: Turn the TV on!
I won’t lie. There are times when I just love so sit and watch television. I did so tonight while I ate dinner. I watched the Big Bang Theory (still the funniest show on television), Two and a Half Men (I don’t know why I still watch this show), and The Soup (gotta watch this show). Then I sat and watched VH1 Behind the Music remastered: Ted Nugent.
Now I know I need to be writing. I get that. But there are times when watching a little quality television will help you. Personally I can feel my brains being sucked out the side of my head during certain shows that I won’t name here, but there are some good shows on. What do I look for in a shows? I’m glad you asked.
I love to watch the Big Bang Theory for several reasons. One being a major geek I love to see all the references they drop in there. Sure, that’s fun, but the interaction between the characters on the show is so natural that I’ve often said “Oh! That reminds of <insert person’s name here>.” To me that’s what makes a great show when you can relate to the characters and see bits of yourself or your friends in there and to see interaction that flows naturally instead of looking rehearsed and forced.
Two and a Half Men used to be really funny. Why? Because the main character was Charlie who basically played a caricature (ok, not really) of himself. This made the show really funny because you could see Charlie Sheen doing something like that. I’m sorry, but without Charlie Sheen the show just isn’t as funny because Ashton’s character isn’t real enough to be funny.
There are some reality shows I like to watch. One on tonight is Gold Rush. This show I like because I like most of the people on the show. I’ve been able to tell when they’ve had to reshoot a scene and there have been times when you can tell people are hamming it up for the camera, but there are a lot of times when people are just themselves. This is true for some reality shows, not all.
Even beyond that, I love to watch a good documentary. There is so much information and it’s interesting to see differing viewpoints on how something happens.It doesn’t matter if it’s about the pyramids of Egypt, China, Ancient Aliens, How it’s Made, I love a good documentary now and again. Just to fill my head with information on a wide variety of topics.
I’ve watched all the Metallica documentary videos (a couple times each) and there were many issues reported in the news and speculation as to what went down or how it went down, but to see it actually happen on camera is great. To see people who are held up as stars act like regular people at one moment and like a super start the next really broke down what the members of the band were about.
So where am I going with watching television? It’s a way to be voyeuristic and see how people interact with each other. To see what are they wearing, what’s in the background, how do they hold themselves, all the things I’ve been talking about here for weeks you can do watching television. You can combine all that people watching into a good viewing.
Don’t just watch the story playing out before you. Think ahead. Where are they going with that joke? Did you see that prop they were about to use before the used it? On the reality show, does it look like they waited for the camera to show up before they took care of something or did it look natural? How do the characters on the show hold up to your expectations?
Apply something you see in a television show into your writing. Perhaps write a reality short story where you show a scene, then have the characters talk about it after the fact as to how they really felt versus how they acted in the moment. Write a short story based on an episode of a show you watched and write an alternate ending. Create a new world and drop in someone you saw that you thought was interesting and see how they react to the world you created. Take a speech pattern of a charter and see how your character sounds in your head talking like that.
There are many exercises you can apply to your television viewing. Don’t just veg out and watch things happen. Think ahead while you watch. Store all that in your brain and see when you need to write a scene and you’re stuck, draw from that wealth of knowledge in your head and bring that scene to life.
Until Next Time!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Really Universe? Knock it off.
Yesterday I had grand plans. I knew I had a release, but I had everything ready to go. I knew my favorite daughter had practice, but due to my having a release, the wife was going to take her. I was going to write during my lunch, take a couple of breaks, perhaps even knock out a few words during the release.
Sigh.
I did get a few hundred words out yesterday, but I should have know better. I got everyone up at 6am. I don’t start until 7am so I figured I had an hour to do some quick blog reading and get at it. My favorite daughter wanted breakfast. It smelled so good that once I was done, the wife wanted breakfast. My writing time disappeared and I had about 50 words written.
I thought I would be able to take breaks from work, but for the most part it was consumed by phone calls, preparing for the release, and general work ‘stuff’. I didn’t think this was such a big deal.
I went and got my favorite daughter from school, came back to the house, and started typing. I about 100 words in and my brother called. He’ll be in town next week so it’ll be great to see him. I have a great story to tell about my niece, so I’ll need to ask permission. It’s really cute.
Hung up the phone after a great conversation and typed about 100 words (probably less) and the wife called asking what we were going to do for dinner. I headed out to subway (we need to go grocery shopping) and came back, ate, and it was release time. We started early. I thought “This is great!” Files got pushed out at 5pm my time. Normally this is closer to 6pm. I got in there and realized nothing was working. It was throwing errors like the files hadn’t gone out. I had neglected to inform the person moving the files of the new directory. <grumble>
Once I was able to get in and start testing (after over an hour delay), I realized that I didn’t have admin rights to the database. The client hadn’t set me up properly. Testing stopped pretty quickly as I tried to get a hold of the people in charge of the database (and also the customer for the web app I’d built.) They didn’t come on until 7pm. That’s when testing really began and we ran into one minor issue, but still testing needed to be done. I finally finished around 8pm with my testing and correcting that one smallish issue and then started helping someone else with testing. I have a xoom tablet so I was able to help in development and testing, but once everything moved to production there was a different issue.
<Double sigh>
Around 8:45pm I needed to go and get the daughter from practice. Fortunately the release finished in time and I went to get the kid. We made a pit stop on the way home and were back at the house by 9:25pm. I started writing and I swear I wasn’t 10 words in and the wife needed help with something for her work. I helped her with what she needed and by 10:20 I had a headache the size of Texas. Something told me we were in for bad weather. I wrote a couple more words, but it was just too painful to keep going. I took my good sinus medicine and went to bed.
Today was very similar, but without a release, volleyball practice, or needing to help anyone with anything. It was just a running stream of everything else that needed to take priority.
This weekend my favorite daughter will be taking Freshman SATs (practice for next year) and has volleyball practice in the afternoon. I will write as much as I can during that time. Sunday is tournament day so it’ll be up early and off to Temecula once again. The girls are performing well so it should be interesting to watch them play.
I’ve still got recording to do, editing, and a number of other things. I need to write up an Unorthodox Writing Tips (I’ll do that next). But I need to produce words. I’m still slightly ahead of schedule for the year, but I wanted to do 2000 words per day for Lent. Missed that yesterday so I need to get back on track.
Speaking of getting back on track.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Minor technical difficulties
There is a slight delay with getting the music for the Action Pack Podcast. Those responsible have been sacked. We have replaced the music you would have heard with the sounds of llamas grazing on the open plains.
But seriously, the person I had asked to do the music has been overly busy and I completely understand. I will be putting in temporary music until such a time as we get official music. This will not delay the release of the podcast. The first episode will have slightly different music to those first downloaders.
Yesterday I intended to write 2000 words and I did. I struggled for the last few words and it was like pulling teeth as I had a small headache, I was tired, and I just wasn’t feeling it as much, but I worked through and I re-read it this morning. It’s still good. Needs a little spit and polish, but I’m liking it. I should be able to finish up that story today. My goal for Lent is to not only cut out my massive sugar intake, but to also write 2000 words a day. Beyond that I also intend to work on fiction every day during Lent as well. Some days so far this year I had only written blog posts so I was hitting my goal, but I wasn’t creating new fiction.
So if I stick to my goal, the next 40 days will bring 80,000 words and most of that will be new fiction as I’ll be typing up shorter blog posts.
One thing I did was re-do my word count spread sheet. I’m a geek, what can I say? I love to mess around with spread sheets. I’ve added some color coding so I can see where I have a bad day, where I have a good day, and where I have a day I expect. I also added a graph.
But all of that was procrastination because I wasn’t “feeling it”. This is something I’ve had to overcome and realize that even if I’m not “feeling it” I still need to write. Once I got going it flowed a little better until it got closer and closer to 10PM (my bedtime) and I felt like I was just trying to get any words out. Hopefully today will be different.
Why?
Well, I’ll be taking a break in the middle of the day as I have a release for work tonight so I’ll try and get my 2000 words written during that time so I’ll be ready for tonight’s release.
Speaking of tonight’s release…
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: No Thank You, I don’t drink coffee.
When I was in the Navy, I drank coffee like a fish drinks water. Wait a minute, do fish actually drink water? Anyway, I drank a lot of coffee. I did my schooling at night, I did evening security duty, and I did more night school before getting out. I drank more coffee than I’m sure is healthy, but I was young and on the go so it didn’t bother me.
As I got older, I lost my taste for coffee. To be honest, the smell of it makes me gag a little. I’ll go into a Starbucks, but the smell is gross.
To be honest, I don’t even like hot beverages. I don’t like my soup if it’s too hot. I prefer my food and drinks warm to hot (tepid), but not scalding. I can’t drink hot tea, but I love iced tea. I like apple cider, but only after it’s had time to cool down.
This avoidance of coffee has put me in some awkward situations that I never thought would be awkward. Someone will offer me a cup of coffee, I’ll politely decline, and they’ll look at me like I’ve grown a few extra heads “You don’t drink coffee?” Hey, I’m naturally hyper already. Trust me, you don’t want to see me on coffee. Some days I feel like everyone drinks coffee except for me. It’s weird.
That being said. I gave up coffee for Lent. Should be an easy 40 days.
No, seriously, I’m not overly religions, but I find Lent a fun challenge. For my 40 days I’ll be upping the ante. I’ll be increasing the number of words I’m producing. So between now and the time Peter Cotton tail comes hopping down the trail, I’m going to attempt 2000 words a day at a minimum. I know I can do this, I just haven’t been applying myself. So watch those little counters there on the right and let’s see if I can make them hop, bounce, and spring forward.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: My Brother
First an update about the lost boy who returned home:
Apparently there was a party. A text message was spread throughout the kid’s school and many went to this party (those that didn’t had deleted the message). A kid named Diego (not sure if that’s his real name or not) has parents who was known drug dealers. The police had been told about the boy’s parent’s party and that Diego’s phone had last been used in that area. When they showed up at Deigo’s home, they were turned away and not allowed to enter the house because they police didn’t have a search warrant. Now I’ve met the boy who’d gotten lost. He’s a good kid so for him to go to a party like this was out of the ordinary.
So the boy went to this party. He was found late Saturday night/Early Sunday morning at a bus stop with a woman obviously under the influence of something. The boy was distressed and said he had to get the woman on a bus and help her get home. He did not appear to be under the influence of anything and is now back at home and surely under the mercy of his parents. Thankfully is was just a teenager being a stupid teenager and not something more severe.
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Since I didn’t write much yesterday, thought I’d say a little something about my older brother.
My brother joined the Navy out of high school. The following year, after hearing from him how great it was, I also joined. I did my time and got out. The regimented lifestyle wasn’t for me.
My brother, on the other hand, excelled in the Navy. There was a point he thought about getting out because his rate was so full he was having a difficult time advancing, but after a conversation with my mom, he decided to stick it out and finish out his 20 years of service (only a few years away at the time).
It makes me proud that he was able to do this.Not only did he retire, but he retired with a chest full of medals many which I recognize and know they weren’t easy to get, but I’m unsure of exactly what all he was award for.
He spent a great deal of time deployed and overseas. That’s all part of being in the Navy. I got out just as the first Gulf War was brewing and my brother was already there on his second or third tour. He was mostly on the west coast and Japan, though he did one tour on the East coast. A majority of his time was spent on carriers and he retired two of the oldest in the fleet. It was his time in Japan that he met his wife. He did his final tour of duty out of Washington where he now resides.
Growing up he and I did a lot of things together and I’m sure once I got older I had a little resentment for him. He and his friends were always out doing their thing and I got left behind a lot. When I did come along, I was the one that got picked on to no end so it was almost more fun to stay at home alone. He was always the outgoing one, and I the more shy.
I guess now that I’ve gotten older, I miss my brother a lot as once he joined the Navy, we didn’t spend much time together or really even talk much. He rescued me in San Diego. I was broke, no car, starving musician, and he was stationed here. We became roommates and I went back to school. When he left, he left me his car. I took over the payments and things started looking up for me. Sure it was a long hard road out of the ditch I’d dug for myself, but if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be where I am now.
My brother, deep down, it a great guy. He sometimes opens his mouth and you wouldn’t think so, but all in all his heart is in the right place. I think he and I became much closer when my father passed away. It was at that time I really realized that life is too short to hold a grudge. I’ m not even sure why I had a grudge against my brother in the first place. Maybe I hated the fact that I joined the Navy, but that was my choice and not his. I just know that I didn’t allow my relationship with my brother be all it could and it’s likely fault on both our parts.
Regardless of how things were between us, things are far better now. I do miss my niece and nephew as well as my sister-in-law, but I set roots in San Diego and have no intention of moving. I found my paradise. I just need to get up there to his neck of the woods and visit one day soon.
Jon, if you’re reading this. I love you bro!
And that’s all I have to say about that.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
J.R. Murdock 