Just watched Fight Club – one of the worst movies I have ever seen.  I can’t believe we wasted over 2 hours of kid-less time on this piece of you-know-what.

The people who voted (yes, all 357,160 of them) for this on imdb.com to give it an 8.8 out of 10 and made it #16 of their top 250 movies of all time should be ashamed – makes me hesitate to be advised by any of their ratings in the future.

I am not going to waste any more of my time writing or thinking about this movie.

I really don’t care what the calendar says, as I’ve stated before I look for my own signs of spring. I’ve been waiting and waiting for the final signs of spring to occur and today I saw the last one. I saw ducks swimming around in flooded fields of NW Ohio. Not in a pond, river or lake, but in a place that corn or soybeans will be planted in a few short weeks. What could say spring more than the quack of a duck?

Well, I’ve heard the call of the frogs from the creeks, ponds and swamps of the area. I’ve seen the buzzards circling over the highways and fields. Possums and skunks seem to have more time to move about. Buds are starting to appear on some trees. There have been a few crocuses blooming. And of course I’ve seen the first snake of the spring. What could say spring more than the hiss of a snake?

OH yeah, I saw a robin…

I know that continuing to think about something does not make it approach faster, but if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a zillion times!  I HATE WAItINg!  I think the audition went fine… better than fine since I did get to read the script twice.  There were only three of us at the audition (enough for a cast but there was another round today and one tomorrow… UGH!) After the very quick table read-through audition, I did get to sit in a rehearsal for Curious Savage which goes up next weekend.  Break a leg Mare, Trav, and the rest of the cast!  I was pleased to see Mr. Potter’s secretary on stage again with a meatier role.  I will be in the audience either a week from tonight or next Sunday… depending upon when we get back from the cathedral on Saturday.

Last night’s evening wrapped with a long overdue game night.  Overdue because I was sick for the last one.  And I got to assist in moving a television… not a huge undertaking but big enough.  C and I got both the tv and stand back in their proper spot and a picture with sound came on so…

Now, I think I will read a bit of The Goblet of Fire before Taylhis catches up with me.  I forgot to ask how many pages “plowing through it” means. 😉  Of course, with any luck, she will catch up with me before I get to Order of the Phoenix.

Sadly it is only temporary. Continued from a previous post…

The mailbox I have it a hollow plastic post attached to a piece of steel angle iron driven into the ground. Usually, this time of year, I just have to remove the plastic post and re-drive the angle iron. Packing the area with stone is alway helpful. The freeze and thaw cycles, plus the push from the snow plows just seem to loosen up the area and the mailbox. Always a spring chore, but usually one that doesn’t take too long.

Not this year. The angle iron was bent at about a 40 degree angle. The plastic post was split 1/4 of the way up. So I had to get a new post. I bought the same kind, so that I could keep my current mailbox. And then I found out the bad news. The angle iron was replaced with a wooden stake. The bolt used to attach it was replace with 4 wood screws. The tools needed list on the outside of the box did not include the drill needed to start the holes for the wood screws or the necessity of both phillips and flat head screw drivers. Hmmm. I have other things to do today, so some of this would have to wait.

I drove the wooden stake in the ground (note self— get a bigger post) and then I attached the old post and mail box with a couple of the wood screws. I’ll be back out there the next nice day to drive in a new wood post (treated lumber maybe) and the new mailbox holding plastic post.

Didn’t I just have a discussion with friends on buying things that didn’t contain the proper tool list? Oh well it should hold up through Monday’s mail.

Didn’t we just have a (winter!) week of 50°F plus weather, culminating in two days over 60)?  Oh well, that’s Chicago for you! 😮

Derek’s post on driving sports cars around the car lots made me remember my years of wanting a sports car myself.

Back in my youth, I think that was yesterday, I wanted to own a Corvette. Not just any Corvette, but one of the original Stingrays. I liked the 1963 Split Window model, but any of them through 1967 were fine for me. I would have done almost anything to get one of these cars. (almost…)

Then, as luck would have it, in the summer of 1978, I was able to purchase my very first car. It was a 1964 Corvette Stingray. A friend of mine (work associate??) was getting rid of his old Corvette and was selling it cheap. My first reaction when I heard the price was disbelief, and then the question came up: “WHY???”. It seems that he had a bit of trouble with the car. One was really high insurance cost, and another was that he lost his license after getting too many speeding tickets. He could not drive the car. The third and most important thing was that, while getting his last speeding ticket, he blew up the engine. Yes, I did say blow up. Pieces of it went through the front hood. Now at that time, I had a ’66 Chevy Impala. The small block V8 in that car was a perfect fit for the engine compartment of the ’63 ‘Vette. Not the same displacement, but it would power the car until I could get another engine.

Money paid, we had to wait until Monday to transfer the title, and for me to get a trailer to tow the beast home.. All was right with the world until that next Monday. The look on my friend’s face said a lot. Somehow the deal just wasn’t going to happen. He gave me back all my cash and told me a very sad story. That weekend, he was in his barn fixing up the holes the engine pieces put in the hood. He had said he was going to do some of this, so it wasn’t unexpected. Through some stroke of ill luck, or spontaneous combustion of chemical soaked rags, his barn and all of the things inside burnt to a crisp. The only thing left from the Corvette was a twisted frame and some remains of the wheels. Since his barn was still insured, he thought he could get some money from the twisted Vette wreck. So he gave me my cash and I lost my first chance at owning/driving a Corvette Stingray.

Later that summer, I did purchase another ’66 Impala in hopes that I could get enough good parts from the two of them to make one decent looking car. That never happened, but that is another story….

I finally did own a ‘Vette. Shortly after College, I went out and bought my first ‘Brand NEW’ car. It was a ‘Vette. Unfortunately, it was not a Corvette, but a Chevette….

So, today I am auditioning for what will surely be a most challenging play! Miracles is a very dramatic play focusing on a father, his teenage daughter, and her teacher.  After reading the script (Twice) which was so kindly provided to me by the director, I thought it very thought-provoking but with a few moments of lightheartedness so as not to make it totally heavy.  There is even a bit of singing  and dancing (not too much dancing… of course if I’m cast that could be one of those light moments, right?!).

Hopefully when the play is presented in May, a huge crowd turns out.  Small dramas generally are not big crowd magnets but sometimes they are the most rewarding for both performer and audience.   I think it is well written and the subject is very touching.  And who say challenging can’t be fun as well?

I think I spelled that right.  This job of mine allows me to drive all sorts of interesting vehicles.  Before this, I had never driven a Mercedes, BMW, ‘Vette, Mustang, or Lamborghini.  Wait, I still haven’t driven a Lamborghini.  Oh, well.  I haven’t driven a Jaguar either, but our company serves two Jaguar dealers, so you never know…  Today it was a Porsche.  It must have been a low-end Porsche because the dealer was trying to sell it, a 2002 Boxter, for just 16 grand, though they might change the price because they removed it from the windshield while I was there.  In any event, it really doesn’t matter what cars I drive since I don’t really get to drive them as they are meant to be driven.  If I were to drive them that way through their parking lot, or take them out onto the street, I would shortly be out of a job… 😉

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But how about that training I mentioned?  Well, the Florida team hired someone from around here, and so he started training here.  Normal training takes several weeks, but he’s to go to Florida next week, so we’re trying to cram as much info and practice into him as we can in the few short weeks he has.  He has actually been doing a pretty good job learning.  Though it doesn’t help him to have to miss days like today due to another job, like today.  Too bad- he missed out on the Porsche…  😯

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I started him off on the handheld a week ago, though another trainer gave him the rundown on it first.  I was actually the first one who he followed around, and on his first day of training I did teach him the basics of the job, but then I worked from home for the next two days so he went with someone else- the one who trained me in fact.  So back to the handheld- he did make mistakes, but surprisingly not a lot.  When he last went with me Monday, I only had to correct a couple of things.  He has really picked up on the photography too.  At this point he essentially does one of the jobs (handheld or camera), I then look over his work and let him know what he missed.  Then I do the other part.  All he is going to miss is the practice, practice, practice I went through before getting my first store.  But still, he should do well in Florida, though it is yet an emerging market so I hope he can find other work too to sustain him in the meantime.  If not, well the warm season is starting and the town is on the coast, so…

It seems like every winter I need to fix the mailbox. The force of the plowed snow seems to bend it backwards and loosen the very stone it is set in. I realize that I could have gotten one that needed a 4×4 post to set it up, but I settled for one that allowed a spike to be driven into the ground. For a couple of years it worked too. But after it got pushed back during one heavy snow fall, it was never the same.

I guess I should see if there are any new improvements to the mailbox selection. I’m not really set on getting one that needs a big post. I’ve seen too many of those not move and have the whole mailbox destroyed by the plowed snow. Hmm… This year, I think I will just get a fencepost and drive it into the ground next to my old box. I can then attach my mailbox to this new post. It may not last forever, but maybe it will last until next winter. I guess I really need to wait until the ground is completely thawed out don’t I. That is good news, one less thing I have to worry about today. 😉

Well, baseball season is almost upon us finally, and I’m really starting to get the itch – not that I’ll be able to watch many games anyway since when we’re actually home to watch tv it’s dominated by Noggin and the Disney Channel…  but I can dream, right?

So the other day, I did a search on youtube.com for “Cubs baseball” so I could give my son an early taste of what he’ll hopefully enjoy watching with me all summer.  I found a gem of a song by Steve Goodman, a grammy-winning artist who passed away from leukemia at the age of 36.  Mr. Goodman was a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan his entire life, and sadly, his favorite team never made it to the playoffs during his lifetime.  They appeared in the World Series in 1945, 3 years before Goodman was born, and then they clinched the Eastern Division title for the National League in 1984 – securing a place in the post-season just 4 days after Steve Goodman passed away.

I always knew about Steve Goodman from the awesome song, “Go Cubs Go”, a song they play at Wrigley Field after every Cubs win.  I seem to remember hearing the song over the intercom at the end of a school day one year when I was growing up – principal must have been a Cubs fan…

But anyway, in addition to “Go Cubs Go”, Goodman penned and performed other musical works of art; some about the Cubs, some about Chicago, and some about neither.  Here is the one I found today and enjoyed, however bittersweet its title and message “A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request”.  I chose to post this version of it, rather than the one that shows Steve Goodman singing it on the rooftops of Wrigley – that’s just too sad.

And just so that this post doesn’t end on a down note, here is the old favorite “Go Cubs Go” – let’s hope this is the year the Cubs make Steve Goodman proud!

CUBS OPENING DAY – 17 DAYS, SOME ODD HOURS – GO CUBBIES!!!