♫ ♫ ♫ I still really miss the "Summer of '69"; those were the best days of my life. ♫ ♫ ♫
summer of '69
friday, may 15th, 2009
everyone remembers "those special days", in their life; everyone. Their first love, their first rock concert, first sock-hop, first hot rod, first sweetheart, their marriage, the birth of their first child... there are so many "firsts", it's impossible to list all that's in your mind and hearts. I can only know for sure what's in mine. 40 years later.
I was a junior at Drake University, in Des Moines (IA), majoring in Advertising & Marketing, heading towards a B.A., riding the hippie 'wave-crest' of rock concerts — Wadena, Woodstock, Altamont, Procul Harum, Country Joe & The Fish, Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Beatles at Candlestick Park (SF) — regularly-emceeing concerts for The Music Factory, at the Vet's Auditorium in Des Moines, squiring-around adoring, gorgeous 'groupie' women on each arm in between announcing Grand Funk Railroad, The Who, Little Rascals, CSN&Y, Johnny & Edgar Winter, Jethro Tull and scores more whom I can't remember, anymore. I had women, sex, drugs and rock 'n roll galore. I was a "stud" and I was "in demand", bigtime. Pretty heady stuff, for an 19-year old kid.
I drove a "tricked-out", brand-new 1969 Navy Blue VW Beetle, white vinyl, a manual sunroof, with a 1600 Super-S Porsche engine, over-sized rubber and 3" dual exhausts, which blew-off many of the local muscle cars. It had a top-of-the-line Craig cassette stereo w/ 10 speakers, 6 of which were on 30ft cables and could be quickly moved from the car's interior to a lawn/park setting for my "friends" to enjoy which we were gently-tripping and playing frisbee, or simply suntanning, basking in the "music-de-jour".
I fell in love with innocent, young, voluptuous blond-hair-to-her-knees, Lorra "Mom" Moore and then later the more sophisticated, urbane, well-educated, Drake 2hd-year grad-student Cheryl "Sunshine" Ray, with her own TV Show, "Floppy", in the same Summer. I lost track of Lorra when she went to Webster College in Missouri; Cheryl contacted and visited me a few years ago, and it was a disaster. Here was our schedule, while she was here. I didn't know she was living with a 'boyfriend' back in Denver, at the time, and that she would lie to him to come out here to see "of there was anything let between us", before throwing our ancient, but ultra-passionate relationship "under the bus", and go home to her liberal teaching friends. She was a teacher with tenure and seniority in the Denver School System, and wanted me to sell my (then) $7-10mm GC&N, and move back with her. Huh? No thanks. What it truly proved to me is that ***you can never go home, again***. If she'd lie to him, then she'd lie to me, and I couldn't take it. Relationship over before it re-began, IMO. I sent her packing 2 days early. I'd still like to see Lorra, one last time... but I probably "not go home there, either". Too much time and water under those bridges.
By 1970-1971, VietNam was rapidly-heading towards all of us, as we were just finishing-up college, careers, thoughts of marriage, children, Little League and Scouting with our sons and daughters. It would tear this Nation asunder, as the commie/socialist/leftists did all they could to destroy America from within.
1969 was a fleeting and flickering period in this Nation's brief history, which I cherish for so many reasons, that I can't even begin to enumerate in this entry. I would take me several tens-of-hours to tell you all about it. And perhaps someday, when we are older and grayer, and if you have the interest, I will do so, over a glass of 30-year old, single malt, sipping Scotch. Until then, 99.7% of it remains locked away in my brain and heart, where it should stay, IMO.
Around The Garden Center™.
Friday was a very hectic day, from the 7am start to the 5pm finish. I'd been up to almost 1am the previous night, installing Win-7 RC on a partitioned drive in my condo 1Tb (terrabyte) HD, with a 1Tb (terrabyte) WDC back-up. The 'dual boot mgr' allows me to choose which O/S I wish to use, and I'm spending a lot of time with Win-7, trying to get many apps to work correctly. Absolutely fascinating O/S, IMO. I was off Thursday, and had a 3-4" pile of billing, estimates etc etc to get through, plus payroll for my 11 (down from 18 last year) employees. That put me into a 'less-than-good-mood', right away, as I thought either Dad or Jennifer would be able to handle those niggling items. I was wrong; they needed my immediate attention, and they got it. Jeff & I still didn't get the LinkSys Router working, so we'll try a new one at a late date. Win-7 is a real "dream o/s" and 2-3x better than Win-XP Pro, so far.
Saturday was even more hectic, with over 100 customers through and 5-digit sales, with Dad, Jan, Tyler & I working. Jennifer's back in on Sunday, and although Jan does a competent job, "she just isn't Jennifer". I'm come to appreciate her more and more in the 5 years she's been with me, and if she weren't such a damned good horticulturist & greenhouse/nursery manager, I'd make her my general manager, and consider opening a second location. I wish I could clone her. (Just kidding, Dave!) Anyway, I barely made it home, got a coldpak on my back, took 2-100mg Gabapentin, shaved, showered, watched Jericho's "Patriots and Tyrants", and got to sleep around 11pm.
As far as I'm concerned, www.gdnctr.com v4.0 isn't going to happen. That project's officially moribund. I'm just going to keep v3.0 as is, for now.
I was up at 6:30am Sunday, to feed the cats, logon to check the news and weather, and went back to sleep for a few hours. GC&N traffic was light, but steady, as compared to Saturday's "mad house", and we breezed through it in 5hrs. I created 2 new LSCP jobs for James to begin working on, made some sales, emptied garbage, got Chinese Dim Sum for lunch with Lee, Dad & Jennifer, and called Mom to wish her Happy Mother's Day. By 3pm, my back was hurting badly enough, I just wanted to go home, and get an icepak on it, eat some Aspirin, and lie down. And I did.
I re-watched the latest "24" "4am-5am", and then "Jericho's" "Four Hour Horsemen", "Federal Response", "Rogue River" and "Why We Fight". Enough for tonite; time for sleep.
By Tuesday, gas prices rose a very sharp 19¢ in just 2 days, with Unleaded Regular (87oct) now at $2.25, Unleaded Premium (89oct) now at $2.35/gal, and Unleaded Super Premium (92oct) at $2.55/gal, with Diesel also rising to $2.65/gal. Sure, the "driving season" is upon us, but this is going to mean near $3/gal gas before mid-Summer, I'm betting. BS, it has nothing to do with rising crude oil prices; Caffertys an alcoholic idiot. But we all knew that, didn't we?
Wednesday was a very busy day for jobs' billing, new estimates, CraigsList people contacting me for potential new positions (thanks, Seth for the help) and a few interviews. I was deluged w/ email responses, but only a few panned-out. Mark from J&M Systems arrived at 2pm, and worked on our front-counter, POS (point-of-sale) Synchronics network until 7pm, fixing all kinds of problems. Both Mark & his lovely bride, JoAnn are an integral part of my company and GC&N Family, and without them and their expertise, we'd be lost. I personally highly-value their friendship, BTW.
It was nice having Thursday off, though I know what kind of a "buzz-saw" I'm going to be stepping into on Friday morning, when I return to work. I was up at 6am to water and feed the condo cats, and went back to sleep until 11am. Anyway, I had a half-zillion errands to run, food shopping to do, hardware to purchase, and stop-by and see Mom, since I didn't get there on Mother's Day, due to my back's new L-5 Sciatica Pain, from my latest fall changing recessed ceiling light bulbs. No, I'm not going back to the Spine Center for anymore epidural shots; I'll just put up with it as best I can. The non-narcotic Gabapentin med helps.
Our condo association's "handyman", Dennis, was by Thursday afternoon to clean my front pole light, but it was so brittle inside and started falling apart, that I decided just to buy a new one from Home Depot, and have him do a clean install. The original light was 19yrs old, the plastic inside the lamp was disintegrating, and the 3 tiny lightbulbs were almost impossible to find. He found a nice unit for $200 with 3 'long-life fluorescent' bulbs, and had it installed in 30mins.
Jeff stopped by Thursday evening, to do some more tweaks on "Win 7 RC1" O/S, now dual-booting on my home RAID 0 machine. He also brought another router along, since the one he'd tried to install last week, crapped-out.
Things Which Make Your Head Explode™.
The Brits have banned Michael Savage from the UK? On May 5, the Home Office published the list, contained in the document "Home Office name [sic] promoters of hate excluded from the United Kingdom," on its official Web site. The sixteenth and last name on the list was "Michael Alan Weiner (also known as Michael Savage)." The Home Office described Savage as a: "Controversial daily radio host. Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence." The shit-for-brains lunatic, Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary, has obviously not listened to Savage's shows.
The same thing happened to me, in the local YDR ("York Daily Record") blog, "The Exchange > The Front Porch - the news in your neighborhood and beyond > Dallastown/Red Lion area": "KKK ACTIVITY". Moi? Me? A KKK-supporter? Read through the thread, and then my detailed, literate response to the 3 assholes who libeled me with hate and KKK activity. I tear them apart! It's 9 long pages of posts, but my reply rips my accusers new assholes, and my lovely customer, TropicalFox, steps-up-to-the-plate, for me. Thanks, Sandra.
A 30% increase in firearms sales in April 2009 v April 2008? Well, I wonder why that is?
Some People Just Need Killing™.
Subhuman, fat, faggot filth needs killing, IMO. Cross my path, AIDS-riddled, homo-trash, Perez Hilton and I'll drop you like a 50lb sack of faggot shit, in a heartbeat, *untermensch*! Miss California, Carrie Prejean pisses on your rotting carcass, punk. I'd happily put a .45cal through your rotting, hate-filled head, skunk-boy!
What Does 200 Calories Look Like?
It's a rude awakening to go from six slices of luscious, green honeydew to two slim tumblers of Coke (no ice). And yet, both clock in at 200 calories. According to this photographic parade from WiseGEEK, four Tootsie Pops, 17 Gummy Bears, and a pour of Bailey's Irish Cream also meet the calorie criteria. Why 200? It's a "tangible volume" that yields a pretty—and understandable—picture. It also makes for quite a gastronomic lineup. This may be the first time that a bowl of low-fat strawberry yogurt posed next to one of canned chili con carne, although I can't be sure of that. Some of the usual suspects of the high-calorie lifestyle make an appearance: Jack in the Box stands in for more than one entry. A heap of Smarties looks almost innocent. Whether the gallery will succeed at making you think differently about the quantities on your plate, I can't say. But it sure made me admire the ample proportions of that gorgeous, whole avocado. What a looker.
