If I were king of the forest...what? I can't say that...

The last day of 2011

They say time flies and you don’t really get until you are older and the days merge to weeks and weeks to months before you know it.

Still just as much time has gone by 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 525,600minutes I know the last bit because of the musical Rent, but the point is whether you are 6, 16 or 60 you had the same amount of time.

Usually when you are in those in between 16 and 60 days there is a ton of stuff to do and the more stuff there is to do the fast time seems to go by because we have something to occupy your time.

Like for instance some days when I’m at work time seems to go by so slowly not because I have nothing to do, I just don’t always enjoy what I’m doing.

When I’m at home playing kill’em all dead video games the current one is Battlefield 3 and it is Bad Ass and I’ll admit I do more of the dying than the killing in most games time seems to slip by rather rapidly. Which is odd because the few times I’ve really been shot at seems to be forever, different story.

I’ve made a few new friends this year, and I won’t say lost a few friends but a few people I don’t have contact with any longer. I need to start a second jones calendar because that one is getting up there. You know a general jones not a specific jones.

The one jones is 3594 days and is not likely to get reset to zero … well ever… not likely doesn’t mean won’t ever but the temperature in hell is likely to be zero before the chance of that improves at all.

All in all I would say that 2011 was a pretty good year. Doodle got a new car, Stunt boy started high school, We all went to Cali to celebrate some family stuff, and lots of every day joys occurred every single day.

They say if you set your expectations low enough you’ll never be disappointed.
But what is wrong with some low expectations
If my significant other gives me a hug or kiss it’s going to be a good day
If you don’t have a significant other and have kids, if my kids tell me they love me it’s a good day
If you have friends and they talk to you or see how you are doing it’s going to be a good day or it was a good day if you do the daily summery of your day in your head.

I read things and it seems to be that we all set ourselves up to be disappointed or to fail because our expectations are too high or are unreasonable. That isn’t to say you should settle for good enough and striving for better is a good thing. So long as it isn’t an obsession.

We all have these ideas of perfection and how we want our lives to be but really how often are things ever really perfect or exactly how we want them to be. Sometimes by looking at the big picture we forget that to get there are a million little things that have to happen first and the million little things are important.

I could be more specific about a few of them or give an example or three but we all know what we don’t like about our lives and we know what to do to change our lives. Sometimes we really choose not to change our lives or we see what it takes to change what is happening and say it’s not worth it or that is not possible now.

The not possible now is sometimes the part of the equation that people outside looking in at the life they are giving a critical review fail to see. It’s easy to say that if someone has a failed they did something to cause that failure.

If you want to buy a new thing and the new thing costs so much money and you can only save so much money at a time it take x number of pay periods to figure out how long you have to wait to get said thing And you thought math wasn’t important in school. However today, getting said thing, not possible also not impossible just not happening today probably not tomorrow either. Perhaps someday but it is a building process.

You don’t have the perfect relationship started after one date.
You aren’t going to drop ten pounds after the first week of diet and exercise
You aren’t going to be the BAMF in the forest the first day you play a video game.

I don’t make resolutions at this time of year because, change what you don’t like everyday or at least start that change everyday. I lost drawing over the years, something I do for me and I enjoy it, I’m not the best artist in the world and I’m sure if I offered it up for pubic review it would be completely torn apart as lacking this, or it lacks depth, or the theme is too simplistic. I know all of those things and I say them in my head after I draw anything and I quit drawing. I started up again a while ago not sure when but I draw something nearly everyday.

I quit writing a while ago and if you scroll through the blog you’ll see the big gaps when I have lost track of doing this thing I like to do too. But I started doing this again as well. You know what you like to do and you know what brings you joy. Do those things.

You know what you don’t like about you or your job or your life. Change them don’t wait for the big calendar flip day to do it just start little by little. The next thing you know it will be 3 years 4 months and 20 days since you quit smoking or what ever it is that you changed. I haven’t been keeping track of that since I quit and had to figure it out just now.

Be you, and damn the H8rs

Happy Calendar Flip day to all of you all out there in the world who use the Julian calendar for those of you who don’t and there are those who don’t, hey how you doing today hope you have a good day too.

And if you have a Mayan Calendar fear you now have 353 days before the world ends, have a nice day.


Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday

Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy.

Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,





PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don

PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Recapping

No I'm not putting cheap tires on my car.

I sort of dropped out of blogging for a year completely nearly two if you count how unproductive 2007 was in the blogging bit.

So I'm going back and doing a recap for each month from December 2007 until December 2008.

So scan back if you want to read them. They will be brief drive by style entries of the major things going on during that time frame.

I'll also being doing a recap of the major significant event in that time too, being fair and telling my life the good, the bad and the not so good. Even when I'm the one on the low road running and being stupid.

I'm trying to move thing from my other blog to this one as a means to edit my horrid spelling and correct mis-wordings of things but not the content.

the other blog is intact in it's entire form at http://invisibledon.diaryland.com you are more than welcome to visit. It is complete with photos not necessarily of yours truly but some and of a certain swimwear model whom if you know I would like to correspond.

So fingers crossed on that one.

To my friend in DC who is fearing for his life from the falling white death AKA snow the letter went out today so you may have an ID - KotB bumper sticker by the weekend. I know it's almost too exciting. Almost

Have a wonderful day, evening, happy hour and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,

May 2008

May 2008

May continues about the same as April

Nothing terribly exciting but I’m sure there were days that were grand and things which were not so grand

I did get a call from Doodle one day
Hey dad can I get a tattoo
No, I really think you should wait until you are 18 and you don’t need my permission.

The conversation was longer than that but that was the main point.

Peacemaker was taker her to get the tattoo while she was on the phone with me.

Remember how she just showed up at my door in April. Yeah well she just kept showing up or asking me to her place.
Why I kept going or letting her in

1. I’m in love with her
2. I’m always happy to see her

We talk about getting the suicide pill for quitting smoking and sometime in May we start walking every day.

Did I mention that I love her and the way wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me.

Stunt boy finishes his last full month of elementary school

Work is work and getting less crazy but not really.

May ends and the pool opens.



Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,

April 2008

April 2008

So March ended with me not being in a relationship anymore.

Then out of the blue she shows up at the door and open it because
1. I’m in love with her
2. I’m happy to see her
3. I want to be friends if we can’t be together but I’m scared of that too.
4. I’m also not very smart

So I answer the door and she throws herself on me, wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me.

I’m confused but I don’t ask I just go with the moment. I think I finally asked what was going on a few days later. Which she never answered.

Doodle never called about the tattoo. She did call and asked what I thought about a car though. I said I didn’t think she needed one and that I didn’t have the money to help anyone pay for one for her.

Without getting too much into it but finances are tight. Like they are for everyone else. So I’m not feeling picked on that way just trying to keep my head above water.

Stunt boy and I are getting along he doesn’t have anything this month but he had been busy for Jan, Feb and March and he is happy.

I had been having lunch with Stunt boy about every other week from all of his elementary school years and that was coming to an end. Partly because he was ending elementary school and partly because he was socializing more with his friend and not wanting to have his dad there. We were having our last matches of lunch time thumb wrestling matches. Which he wins - he has a wriggly thumb

Work is work and getting less crazy but not really.

April ends



Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,

March 2008

March 2008

Most of the month of march went well it really did. Then at the end of the month She said things are over out of the blue. I took it well enough but tried to understand it and didn’t want things to end.

Stunt boy and I were getting along well - he had his OotM competition and his team lost but they did do very well in the competition. CPG and doodle did come to the event but were late and did not arrive in time to see him perform. CPG played it off as she had seen the whole thing even thought she got there right as it was ending She did the same thing when doodle was in a play in the 6th grade. Missed the whole thing and pretended to have made it to the play. I didn’t say anything to Stunt-boy and let her tell her lies to him because ultimately it would hurt him more and CPG will still keep doing the same thing.

Doodle ignored me at the OotM event and didn’t even speak to me in person. This was I because she wants to get a tattoo. Doodle is still living in West by god and still not talking to me, doesn’t answer my phone calls. She did send me an e-mail asking about getting a tattoo at 16. I advised the following:


We've already talked about this before and you know I'm not against them because I have them. However, this is a life time thing and it is very expensive to get them taken off and 10 times more painful than getting a tattoo. Who you are today is not going to be who you are at 25 or older. By that I mean what you like and find appealing will change over time too and seeing a tattoo on your body every day has to be something you aren't going to get sick of or wish you had not have gotten in the first place. I just don't want you to make a decision now that you will regret a few years down the road. Ultimately it is your body and it's your choice what you want to put on it or not. There is no hurry to get a tattoo, they've been doing them for several thousand years and are not likely to stop doing them any time soon. I think the where you get it is important especially as you are not 18 yet.

I want to think about this some more before a say yes or no. I would tell anyone regardless of their age to wait it out a while and see if it is really something you like and want to have on your body forever and too really think about what it means to you to have a tattoo and that particular design because it is forever. Also think about the nose ring, I know you had some problems with it but you also said you got tired of it too. That was an easy fix, just take it out and it's done. However this isn't the same. You can't just take a tattoo off when you are tired of it. I'm not preaching I want you to think about it and let me know how you feel about why you want the tattoo.

I love you and will listen to you and what you have to say about this. Hope everything else is going well.

Love always,

dad


She never responded back to the e-mail or called during the month nor did she answer the phone calls made and as already stated didn’t talk to me in the middle of the month when she was here.

The bright side is that she did at least come with my mother to see her brother. My mother was also very nearly late for the performance. They, CPG, Doodle, the beta unit, all left as the OotM after the play is waiting for grades and doing a Q and A bit so it’s a lot of sitting around and waiting and boring stuff. However, for stunt boy it’s partly boring partly nervous energy waiting for your turn to come up and while not a lot of action is exciting. I can put myself in his shoes and be there for him. I have tried to be there for both of my kids things 100% of the time.

I have missed a lot of doodle things in West Virginia however I drove to three football games to watch her cheer she talked to me at two of them. One I was late for but I sat in the rain with the handful of others watching her it was an away game for her team so I drove three hours to the game to drive three hours back that night.

I wish I could be there for everything it kills me that I miss what I do miss.

March ends



Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,

February 2008

February 2008

As I’m writing I know things that I didn’t know then and I’m trying to keep them out of the entries so they may seem a bit bland compared to others as they are not from the moment when I was in them.


Work was getting a bit better but not great. Better as in new people were being hired but not a lot

Spent Valentines day with someone who really wanted to be with me that day. It was a great day.

I bought something for her, which I think she liked but not as much as I hoped she would like it. I got it at a local shop and was made by an area artisan/craft person. So the store didn’t have fancy boxes. Which was very cool because I like to make my own cards now and gifts when I can. I’m not talented enough to make jewelry but I was able to decorate the box and I think she liked that more than the contents.

Doodle is living in West by god and came down here close to her b-day. She wanted Ski boots. So I’m taking her and we get into an argument she gets out of my moving car. Which is frustrating, and dangerous. So she gets back into the car. Refuses to speak to me, calls CPG on the phone, tells her I’m being an ass and just holds the phone open so anything that is said can be heard by CPG. I don’t say anything, my relationship with my daughter has in one year gone from close to non-existent an no reason has been given.

Stunt boy was at CPG’s for the Doodle thing

We are getting along well at this time and he has practice every week for OotM so he is busy with that and I help him every night he is here with his lines.

I ended up buying the ski boots in hopes that this might repair the relationship some and Doodle could use them to ski and get a job she wanted in the Ski Wee program. So trying to see the silver lining in all of this, she is actually finally motivate to start working and learning the value of money and that is a good thing. I don’t actually see any of her grades but everyone says she is passing everything. So continue to make my calls which go unanswered and send letters which I don’t know are even read.



Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,

January 2008

January 2008

Woke up New Years day in the arms or more to the point someone in my arms.

Work was still crazy and getting crazier by the day near the end of the month I came close to a melt down getting 8 new cases in one day and having already gotten 10 that week.
Was in the relationship with S and that was going well
But I should have took notice to the comment then that they didn’t feel sorry for me and it bothered me but I blew it off and explained that everyone has bad days and with the way things had been at work bad days of being stressed to the max were in abundance.

At least I wasn’t pulling a rolling stone song every day and twice as much when I was having a bad day. You learn to cope without chemical assistance. And just because I don’t run around screaming and flinging papers around demanding that things get done by other people. I mentally keep things in and develop a plan of action and calmly try to achieve them. However, trying to build a house of cards in an earthquake you are going to say sometimes, you know it’s just too much I want to quit and you can take the job and shove it up your (blankity –Beep) so there.

Sorry I’m not Zen like in my composure all of the time or respond in the chicken with it’s head-cut off running around that some many other co-workers were doing. I could roll on about certain stressors adding to my having a really bad day and making a comment to a person I was in a relationship with who I saw as someone who could be turned to in a time to just listen – good god this sucks – nope. She based her lack of empathy on a single comment from a co-worker who at that point in a year and half had talked to me once, never been to my cubicle, every effort I made to attempt to get to know this co-worker was rebuffed and each conversation attempt walked away from by this person. So sure that person’s evaluation of my work performance must be spot on.

I don’t know how many times I sat and listened to every little bemoaning trivial problem she had and listened supportively, offered advice when appropriate and kept a distance when I needed to as in it’s not my place to be there in the middle of this problem. Oh and I know I hate myself for being a doormat so I know I need to speak up but that is a different issue.

This is degenerating into a much bigger thing which I’ll write about later in other January news.

Stunt-boy was doing well in school
Doodle was in still in Westbygod living at the asylum with the beta unit and from the sporadic reports I got was doing well.

Mouse was doing well and I had two dogs as well. It even snowed one day, I think.

Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,

December 2007

December 2007

It was cold and things at work were very stressful most of the positions in the units were open and people were leaving in droves. In under 18 months 19 people had left or moved out of the unit. Leaving on average for over a 12 month period 3.5 investigators for over 100 complaints a month.

Doodle is living with her grandmother still and seems to be doing well but is having some ups and downs with the new school and people she shouldn’t be having problems with at all.

Stunt-boy is enjoying the last year of elementary school. Somehow convince S to go to the holiday performance - He does really well. CPG is late arriving to the performance. What can I say there.

Doodle came in and spent the night before Christmas here it was nice to have her here in the house again. She did show off a bit for S and I think try to intimidate her some.
I cooked a very nice dinner for which S was late but nervous about having a formal thing with my mother, stunt boy whom she was comfortable and doodle my teen daughter whom she had not met yet and we have been dating at this point since September.

Things go well enough for the holidays stressful as always but not over the top.

S came over between X-mas and news years after my family had gone and we had our private Christmas together. It was nice to be with someone again for the holidays.

We, S and I, spent new years eve at her friends apartment until the ball dropped and then went up stairs to her apartment for the first part of 2008.

I’m writing all of this a year later and knowing things about now that I didn’t know then make it a bit hard to be gentle so if it all seems a bit out of the ordinary for me it is out of the ordinary for me. I had slowed down a lot on my writing in 2007 and wrote nearly nothing in 2008. So now I’m trying not to let a lot of important things slip out of my head. So I will end up with some brief things in here about the year and the events. Mostly one per month and try to keep pace to get something up every day.

So that was December 2007
Get up go to work come home rinse repeat.
I still smoked over a pack a day at this point and should have had a caffeine IV but still opt for the oral consumption.