Jay’s Neighborhood

I often stare at the people passing by.
But they can’t see me through my window shades.
Just like I’m not even there...
– Oingo Boingo, Private Life

One of the things about living at the end of a relatively secluded cul-de-sac is that your front window doubles as a viewfinder into a counter-cultural microcosm. You get a front row viewing of some of the most taboo things people do outside of homes and hotels. You are afforded this entertainment because when it comes to committing clandestine acts, there’s no shortage of people who think a dead-end street is as private as their own basement or bedroom. You’d think the reduction of potential escape routes to only one might be a glaring deterrent – even rats are keen to that point – but no. Evidently, some people actually have less common sense than laboratory rodents. Well, okay, I guess that’s not entirely fair; maybe rats would be more steadfast in blind-alley situations if they had cars with tinted windows, but whatever.

Hot Boxin’

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve watched high school kids pull up in a Jetta/Accord/Ranger and commence to blazing up a fat bowl of the chronic right there in plain sight. I’m most often treated to this at around 11am on those weekdays when I’m working from home. I sometimes wonder if the Scheduling Imps at the high school office deliberately give all the stoners first lunch, though that seems rather problematic considering the school has only so many vending machines.

I’m often tempted to dig out a laser pointer and really mess with their heads but more often then not, the potheads will only stay long enough to hit the pipe a few times and then they’re gone. Lunch break is short and I imagine they still have to hit the 7-Eleven for Funyuns and Red Bull. You know, due to the school’s vending machine availability problem.

Liquid Lunch

Much less frequent is the rusted out one-ton with the two dopey painters who somehow find their mid-day sustenance in 24 ounces of Budweiser and half a dozen filterless Camels. You can tell they’ve been doing this gig a while; they have all the telltale signs. Their middle and index fingers look like jaundiced, overcooked hot dogs. The deep cracks in their leathern faces speak to lives every bit as damaging but nowhere near as entertaining as those of Keith Richards and Lou Reed. Their coughs are quite obviously chronic, as are their facial petechiae and overall sweaty appearance.

Liquid Lunchers hang out a tad longer than the stoners if for no other reason than they are required to hit the 7-Eleven before coming here due to the simple fact Budweiser is undrinkable unless ice cold.

Junk Dumpers

Occasionally, some overalled grease monkey will try and dump the carcass of the latest piece-of-shit jalopy he’s gutted and stripped of all usable parts. One guy actually took the time to set the dead minivan he was ditching up on blocks so he could take the wheels. The neat thing about that particular incident is that I easily recognized the meticulous individual as the guy from two blocks over who runs a side business fixing lawnmowers in his garage. He was a bit surprised, I think, to see me at his door. He told me putting it there was only temporary and that he'd had every intention to come back and get it in a few says. Goober had obviously forgotten he’d removed all the damn wheels, but he wasn’t really giving me any resistance, so I decided it would be dickish of me to point out the holes in his story.

I don’t really get why people just dump cars. Last time I checked, most wrecking yards will come out and pick up the things if you’re just getting rid of them. Seems to me dumping them on a secluded street is just making extra work for everyone and putting yourself out there to be censured on your own front doorstep. Hell, people less civilized than me would more likely ignite some dog shit on your doorstep and call the junkyard themselves.

Exhibitionist Fornicators

You see them on sitcoms all the time. You know, those randy sex addicts who get the most aroused when they do it in public and are known to spontaneously pull into a quiet cul-de-sac and start getting it on right there in the parked car?

Yeah, those people don’t actually exist.

I've been a Treo user for about 4 years.

When the iPhone came out I will admit I was intrigued. My sister bought one and after 5 minutes playing with it I knew it wasn't for me. No buttons, slow ass internet. Sure it was a sexy phone. But functional? NO. (at least not in my opinion.) Plus I really didn't want to leave Sprint who I've been with for over 12 years.

I upgraded from a Treo 650 to a Treo 700 about two years ago when they first came out. I LOVED the Palm operating system and had spent a LOT of money on 3rd party software to use with my phone. Then the dreaded reset loop of death happened about 3 weeks ago. The phone was Kaput.

Thankfully I have insurance. This means that if my phone breaks for any reason Sprint replaces it at no charge to me. Since they didn't carry the Treo 700P anymore and couldn't get a refurbished one, I was given a Treo 700WX with the Windows Mobile 5 Operating System.

At first I was really miffed. What about all of my 3rd party software?

Well..I got by without it. Windows Mobile is a BEAUTIFUL Operating System. Way more "techie" looking than Palm.  I was a happy camper. I got a BRAND SPANKING NEW Treo 700WX for FREE. YAY!

Fast forward two weeks to Monday. Sprint released the NEW Palm Treo 800W.

Palm Treo 800W

So Alex came home with us last night. He's still little confused and stressed, but he's starting to settle in. He had a couple of "accidents" last night--a poop right after we got him home, and he was trying to "mark" things. Probably due to stress as much as anything. We corrected him firmly each time, and have been praising him when he does his business outside. He tried to mark once in the house this morning, but hasn't had any accidents since, so I'm hoping he's slowly starting to get the idea that he only gets to go outside.

On the plus side, he slept quietly in his crate all night--he cried and scratched for maybe a minute when we put him in, then curled up and went to sleep and didn't bother us until Hector got up. We put his crate right next to Hector's bed--that seems to clam him right down, he likes being near Hector at all times. And today he was going into his crate all by himself (we leave the door open when we're home) to nap, so I think he's starting to feel safe in there.

Hector seems to like having him around, and he's good at establishing boundaries (like when Alex tried to mount him--Hector gave him what for in no uncertain terms.)  And we left him crated alone when we went out for about 30 minutes today and he seemed fine. He has hardly eaten anything, but again that's probably due to stress. The cats ignore him, and he gives them a wide berth.

He was only neutered last week, so I'm confident a lot of the stud-related behaviour (marking, humping) will disappear soon. I am worried about his little ticker. A Grade 4 murmur is quite severe. Every so often I get second thoughts--like, this is a lot to have gotten ourselves into. But he's a lovely little dog, and is trying hard to please and understand what we want from him. He's smart, too--we should be able to train him to sit. We introduced him to stairs for the first time last night, and he figured it out right away--as soon as he saw Hector going up and down, he just followed. Now you'd think he's been climbing stairs his whole life!

Big and little

Since I came and updated here...Geez..

Where does the time go??

So what have I been up to??

Big changes...MAJOR Changes...

I quit smoking, AND I quit drinking. It will be 4 weeks on Tuesday since I had a drink OR a smoke.

I quit cold turkey.

I started RUNNING!! I'm doing a Couch to 5 K running program. (and I LOVE IT!!)

I am starting the 4th week of a Body For Life Challenge on Monday. Since starting the challenge 3 weeks ago I have dropped 17 pounds. (AND lost more than 3 inches off of my waist!)

Life is AWESOME. So awesome that I've just been so damn happy, and busy working on myself and my family that I haven't had time to come here and update. (I'm so sorry for that too.)

The kids are out of school still so we are spending a LOT of days snuggled up watching movies, or out in the pool, or out in nature when we can tolerate the heat.

The twins had their 9th birthday and Austin had his 11th since I blogged last. I'm still in shock that my boys are all that old..

What else..hmm.. That's about it.

I'm doing a Body For Life only blog on Wordpress.  The platform over there is nice, but not as cool as Vox, so I wish I had done it here, but oh well..too late. The link is out on too many sites now to change it.

I SWEAR I will get better at updating here...things have just been SO CRAZY this past month...you know...

I have so much I want to write about and I'm just going to have to make myself sit down and write it.

Well...we just got The Spiderwick Chronicles on DVD so the kids are bugging me to make popcorn and come watch it with them..

I'll be back soon!! (I PROMISE!!)

Don't pay for expensive online storage systems.  Instead, take advantage of gmail's hundreds of megabytes of storage just for you, and mail yourself files.

Really.

I do it, and I'm still only using 0% of my storage space.

What's the closest thing you have to a time machine?
Submitted by Verisimilitude.

I call it "a clock".

Well, what else could this question mean?

eek Three

Monday, July 14th, 2008

Today's sets: 15-12-12-10-max(I did 16!)

Oh My god. Today was everything I'd imagined it would be: Really Tough. I did it, but barely. Made sure to stretch good so I'll be ready for Wednesday.

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

Push Up 2

Today's sets: 16-14-12-12max (I did 15!)

See Monday, re: Tough.

Friday, July 18th, 2008
Today's sets: 20-14-14-12-max (I did 16!)

After the first set, I didn't know how I would be able to get through the other sets. The rest were shaky, but I got thought it. I surprise myself sometimes.

TGIF, two days of rest, coming up.

What's the closest thing you have to a time machine?
Submitted by Verisimilitude.

Two things, both fueled by imagination and memory:
Music.  Always.  Listening to a song or an artist can take me back to where I was when it meant something to me, or when I first heard it.  Who I was with, what I was feeling, what I was doing, the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful.  It transports me, and there's too many examples to even share.  Music is such an important part of my life that I can't even begin to describe how fundamentally and primally it affects me.

Smells. especially plants and food.  I often tell the story of the boxwoods that lined the back steps to my Aunt Kay and Uncle Bill's house.  Personally, boxwoods smell like cat pee to me, but as soon as I smell them (and, interestingly, not cat pee), I'm transported back to those steps and that backyard.  Other smells that can do that - the mixture of creosote and fried foods takes me back to the Ocean City, NJ Boardwalk, back bay takes me to Crisfield, MD.  Pine takes me to the Cascades.  Cooked crab also takes me to Crisfield.  A specific chocolate mousse smell takes me to the Tuckahoe Inn.  Grilled flank steak takes me to Judy & Carl's house.  So many smells, instant transport.