RIP Sadie Dog…

OK, I’ve been terrible about updating my blog. I know. I just get so busy that I forget sometimes. I have a lot to write about the last week, but I’ll get to that another day.

Today is a sad day. My wife had the unfortunate task of taking our dog Sadie to her final veterinary visit today. Sadie had been a member of our family since 2001, when we adopted her from a family in New Jersey. We were her third or fourth family, so we were never exactly sure how old she was, but our best guess was that she was 4 years old when we got her. She was a yellow lab, so 14 years was a pretty good run.

She was kind of a pain in the ass from the moment we got her because she didn’t like other dogs and had some serious issues with food aggression. I think she may have been neglected or abused at some point before our family. She also didn’t like dark skinned men or mail carriers. In New Jersey, we had a black mailman that she would go ballistic over if she caught sight of him through the screen door. She was a virulent racist, but I like to think she renounced that viewpoint later in life. That’s what she was doing when she barked at the back door. Sadie was like Alabama Governor George Wallace.

Sadie would also shed everywhere. I think she must have been some kind of mutant strain of Labrador that has twice as much hair as normal and loses it at twice the normal rate. She probably did it on purpose, just because she thought it was funny. There have been clumps of white hair covering every surface in my house for the last 10 years. Her hair has caused ridiculous fits of sneezing, my wife to go to the doctor with a swollen eyeball, and has been responsible for the death of at least 4 vacuum cleaners. I suspect she had a wicked sense of humor.

She was an only dog for 5 years until we got Leia, our chocolate lab. Leia reminded her what it was like to be a puppy again, even though she had started to slow down just a tad. Sadie and I used to wrestle around on the living room floor when we first got her, but she was past that point in her life.  I think she just got fed up with me always being the dominant one. When we got Leia, she was back to being the full fledged Alpha Dog, and I think she craved that power and validation. She was like that guy who hangs out with High School kids just to make sure that someone still thinks he’s cool. Sadie was Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused.

In the last several years, Sadie slowed down a lot. She developed lumps all over her body and her hips really gave her pain. She seemed happy most of the time, though. She was deaf, had problems with her balance, and had trouble standing up, but there was never any doubt that she was the scrappy old lady dog that would bite your fingers off if you tried to take her food away. She was Estelle Getty from The Golden Girls.

I hate it that I am down here in Mexico while my wife and kids have to deal with this on their own. It may not be the end of the world, but it’s certainly the end of an era. I’ll miss her and all of her idiosyncrasies. She was with our family for 10 years, which is nothing to sneeze at. That is, of course, unless you’re sneezing because you have dog hair in your nose. Oh, she would have thought that was just hilarious…

Hola, los surfistas!

Hola, internet! I’m still here, but here is not Iowa for the moment. I’m way down south of the border in the city of Juchitan, Mexico. Sounds exotic, doesn’t it? Hoo-chee-tan. In the state of Oaxaca. Wa-ha-ca. Man, that really does sound exotic! Well, I could lie and say it’s a little known, hidden paradise, but I strive not to mislead you. It’s less than idyllic here. Oh, it’s beautiful in some places and the people seem friendly, but it’s also kind of poor and there seems to be garbage most places that you look. It makes me appreciate even more the standard of living that I’m used to in the Estados Unidos. But how did I get here?

I work for a wind energy company that designs and manufactures large, utility scale wind turbines. This area of Mexico has ridiculously high sustained winds funneling out of the mountains, across the plains and out to sea. My company has 2 wind farms down here and I’m here for a few weeks to assist with technical training for the local maintenance folks. I have never been this deep into Mexico, so I see it as a good opportunity for a new experience.

I flew into Huatulco, Mexico from Houston a few days ago. On the flight down, we passed the tallest peak in Mexico, a volcano called Pico de Orizaba. It was amazing how it dominated everything else around it, and it’s the 3rd highest peak in North America at over 18,000 feet. It was beautiful. We flew above mountain peaks for the rest of the journey, up until we began out descent into Huatulco. For a brief moment looking out the window, I felt like Wile E. Coyote when he runs off the cliff and is suspended in midair before plummeting to the ground. Suddenly the mountains that had been just below us fell away and we were 25,000 feet above the ground as we started to slow down. I love air travel.

I left Iowa with snow on the ground and more than a chill in the air, and arrived on the Pacific coast of Mexico to be greeted with 84 degrees and a breeze. Those that know me are aware of my aversion to hot weather. Well, I was not averse to it in the slightest this time. I’ve been cold all winter and haven’t been able to get used to it. My trip started with the realization that my driver’s license had expired a week previous, so I would be relying on my traveling partner to drive the rental car by himself for the next couple of weeks. I felt like a complete moron, but what could I do? Drink a beer seemed like a reasonable answer. I love beer.

We spent the night in Huatulco, then made a 4 hour drive to Juchitan. We only had to stop at a single Army checkpoint on the way. We found a soldier that spoke a tiny bit of English, so we were able to tell him that we would just stand over there and he was more than welcome to search the car. The checks were cursory at best, so I’m not sure what he was looking for but we apparently didn’t have it. We were on our way!!! I love vehicle searches in foreign countries.

Now I am in the Gran Hotel Santo Domingo in Juchitan. It is a decent hotel, with bottled water available for brushing my teeth. Earlier, I went to the Bodega Aurrera next door to buy some Powerade and juice and cookies. It’s owned by Wal-Mart, so occasionally you find Great Value item on the shelves. Kind of funny. I’m spending the day in, blogging and working, and trying to recover from the sunburn I got yesterday while exploring the beaches around Salina Cruz. The wind speed and direction, coupled with the large hills that rise up right at the waters edge, create these sand dunes that climb the side of the hill and just beg to be climbed. I did that yesterday, and took a swim in the Pacific. It was awesome and refreshing and my skin is paying for it now. I love deciding against sunscreen.

So, that’s it. I’ll be here for another 2 weeks and I’ll try to keep documenting the trip. The food will get it’s own entry. It’s…interesting. I love mystery meat.

Shaving your child’s head because you can…

Kids are cool. You can play with them, teach them things, help them grow up into decent, honest, wealthy adults, and eventually they’ll  put you in a really nice home where they serve you oatmeal whenever you want. Until that day comes though, I’ll be satisfied just to do funny things with them and take pictures for when they’re older and begging me to show their friends what it was like being raised by me. Like this:

Now, you may be wondering how a 5-year old can grow such sweet facial hair. It’s because he takes after his Daddy, as evidenced by this picture, taken by the aforementioned 5-year old:

I’ve spent the last couple of years growing my hair long and I was tired of it. It takes a special kind of fool the cut off all of his hair in Iowa in January. And I am a very special fool indeed. Oh, well, it seems like a good opportunity for some continued father/son bonding/photography time:

Kids are awesome.

 

Albums I’ve been listening to the last few days, and while ruining my son’s chances with the ladies:

James Taylor – Hourglass

The White Stripes – White Blood Cells

Wilco – Sky Blue Sky

Good night, sweet internet. I love you.

Happy New Year!!!!!

2 years ago, I started this blog in the hopes that I could chronicle my rise to stardom. I had just released my debut (and only) record through various online retailers, including iTunes Japan. I know, iTunes Japan!!! Alas, my total record sales made it into the double digits. Stardom was not in the cards for me. I made 4 posts and this blog became internet garbage, left to the cyber-rats and cyber-homeless people.

Fast forward a couple of years and I find myself ringing in a new year with a new resolve to document something about my life and everyday experiences, if only because my vanity was not totally destroyed by all of the music fans in Japan that chose not to buy my record. My goal is to post something every day. It might be a review of a record I’ve been listening to, a film I watched, a rant about the frickin’ snow plows that bury the end of my driveway with snow, or maybe I’ll use this space to post a favorite recipe. I get to choose. I probably won’t post a how-to about knitting or gun cleaning, though. Let’s squash that rumor right now.

Today, in keeping with the spirit of the New Year, I’m posting my resolutions. I resolve the following:

Lose 40 pounds – This may seem like a lot but, as of last night, I weighed 45.2 pounds more than I did when I graduated from basic training. I’m not ginormous, but I don’t want to need my baggy clothes to cover up the results of eating binges and putting off a gym visit until tomorrow. I want women to swoon when I walk in the room. Hell, I’ll even take swooning men too.

Listen to an entire album every day – I love music. I have 85+ gigabytes of music in my iTunes library and I spend more time organizing it than I do actually listening to it. I want to listen in the car, at work, at bedtime, while I’m peeing, or any time that someone isn’t talking to me. This is where the reviews will come from. And if I listen to an entire album while I pee, I’ll be sure to make sure you know. Then I’ll visit a urologist because something is probably very wrong.

Be really good at my job – I just accepted a new position at work that requires me to be extremely organized and take good care of a lot of people that now work for me. I want to succeed in my company, and this is a first giant step toward a potentially lucrative and personally rewarding career.

Get over my fear of possums – Easier said than done, I know. The damned things are just so evil. But 2011 is the year for overcoming fears and, if necessary, wrestling a possum into submission with my bare hands.

So, that’s it. I’m back, I’m self-absorbed, I’m self-deprecating, but I’m a nice guy. You’ll immediately want to take me home to meet your parents, but probably won’t want a second date. But force yourself, OK? I’ll make you laugh and eventually you’ll start thinking of me when you pee.

 

*a side note about the name bookonmarx*

In the mid-1990s, when I first started using the internet and Yahoo! was just a collection of hyperlinks, I was faced with the task of establishing a new email address. I tried every combination of my name that I could think of, to no avail. Then I decided to string together snippets of song lyrics because I was in college and it seemed like a cool, creative thing to do. In Don McLean’s “American Pie”, there’s a line:

“While Lenin wrote a book on Marx…”

I had staked out my very own internet identity. Now that you know, don’t ask me if I’m a Marxist.

 

I’m going to be famous!!!

Well, this weekend was a big one for me.  Last week I did the legwork necessary to get my music released digitally online.  I already had it posted on my MySpace page, but I didn’t really have a way to sell it.  I did a little research and stumbled across Tunecore, a music distributor that deals with iTunes, Amazon, Napster, Rhapsody and several other online music retailers.  For a reasonable fee, they submitted my debut album to a bunch of different stores.  It takes several weeks to get the album live on all of the sites, but I was pleased to find out that it was picked up and went on sale at Amazon.com 2 days ago! 

I’m gonna be on iTunes…

I just spent the last 3 hours getting my first album together for digital distribution.  It takes a while to make sure all of the tracks are uploaded and artwork is taken care of, but I did it.  The thing that sucks is that I have to wait for all of the album information to be processed which could take several weeks.  So hopefully within a month, my worldwide debut album will be online on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, and several other outlets!  I’ll keep posting updates so that you all know, OK?  Cool.

Musings about email…

Today, before I’d even had my first cup of coffee, I was faced with a choice that could potentially damn me forever.  A coworker forwarded me a story about a little boy with a disability that played a baseball game, became a hero after hitting a Grand Slam (with some help from players on both teams), and then died.  Maybe you’ve received the same email.  It was heartwarming and made my eyes water just a little bit as I was reading it.  After reaching the end of the story however, I was presented with two options.  I could either forward the email to everyone I know or just go ahead and delete it.  The choices were framed in a way that implied callousness on my part if I chose to just throw the message in the trash folder or, conversely, assured me I’d be an awesome person (maybe eternal salvation?) if I were to just send it along and brighten anyone’s day that opened their email inbox to find this message waiting for them.

 I sooooooooooo hate that.

     Sending me an email with a joke, picture, or story that I might find interesting is one thing.  I have a very broad sense of humor, and I can appreciate even the dirty or off-color stuff.  And I’m not so masculine that I won’t cry if something is sad or touching.  Not only did I cry when Old Yeller died, but I cried every time Charlie Brown tried to kick the football and missed.  My heart melts when I see children ringing the Salvation Army bell outside of Wal-Mart at Christmas time and the tears of joy well up when I see Angelina Jolie grab the stickshift in ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’.  But don’t try to make me feel bad because I may not want to send the disabled kid story to a bunch of people who may or may not care about it. 

     As I was reading it, I thought about the people I knew who might find it nice to get this nugget of bittersweet communication from me.  Once I reached the guilt trip at the end  though, all thoughts of forwarding the message went out the window.  I…deleted it.  Not only did I delete it, but I then went into my deleted items folder and deleted it again.  I then searched my computer for any hidden, temporary files that might have the text of that story in it, but since I really don’t know that much about computers, I didn’t know where to look.  But if I had found it, I would have deleted it a third time. I even briefly considered erasing my hard drive just to make sure the thing was really gone, but decided against it since I have a lot of pictures of Angelina Jolie work stored there.  Callous?  Yeah, probably, but I’m callous of my own free will.  I’ve got enough guilt that I don’t need any more emailed to me.  Now if you’ve got some nice pictures of Ms. Jolie, please feel free to send them my way.  I promise they won’t be deleted.

-          Timmy