Love… Dog == God?

I read Pyromaniacs the other day, and happened upon this post that has a video of Slam Poet, Taylor Mali.

Intrigued, I read more about Taylor, found his blog, and burned my two remaining Audible credits on two of his recordings.

Angie wants me to post, and though I’m unable to start into an appropriate meter, I thought I’d share this poem of Taylor’s.

Falling in love is like owning a dog
an epithalamion by Taylor Mali
www.taylormali.com

First of all, it’s a big responsibility,
especially in a city like New York.
So think long and hard before deciding on love.
On the other hand, love gives you a sense of security:
when you’re walking down the street late at night
and you have a leash on love
ain’t no one going to mess with you.
Because crooks and muggers think love is unpredictable.
Who knows what love could do in its own defense?

On cold winter nights, love is warm.
It lies between you and lives and breathes
and makes funny noises.
Love wakes you up all hours of the night with its needs.
It needs to be fed so it will grow and stay healthy.

Love doesn’t like being left alone for long.
But come home and love is always happy to see you.
It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life,
but you can never be mad at love for long.

Is love good all the time? No! No!
Love can be bad. Bad, love, bad! Very bad love.

Love makes messes.
Love leaves you little surprises here and there.
Love needs lots of cleaning up after.
Sometimes you just want to get love fixed.
Sometimes you want to roll up a piece of newspaper
and swat love on the nose,
not so much to cause pain,
just to let love know Don’t you ever do that again!

Sometimes love just wants to go for a nice long walk.
Because love loves exercise.
It runs you around the block and leaves you panting.
It pulls you in several different directions at once,
or winds around and around you
until you’re all wound up and can’t move.

But love makes you meet people wherever you go.
People who have nothing in common but love
stop and talk to each other on the street.

Throw things away and love will bring them back,
again, and again, and again.
But most of all, love needs love, lots of it.
And in return, love loves you and never stops.

It might be better when he speaks it, than when you read it.

Oh boy… what did I get myself into!

I give up. I bit off more than I can chew. I don’t know what I was thinking.

Debily just whupped me in the Seussian Meter Challenge – go read

And basically, I’m deep in the muck

I suck, I suck, I SUCK SUCK SUCK!

Not a rhyme in my head. I’m as good as dead.

But I did watch some shows, and to show how badly I’ve been beaten, 5WoL will be reduced to one word summaries.

Chuck – Tango!

Hereos – Sylar!

Reaper – Bugs!

MNF – Cowboys!

Thats all I got.

UPDATE!

Oh my depravity knows no bounds, even out-Seussed by Matt.

I’ll be in the corner rocking back and forth and sucking my thumb

TV recaps – delayed

Much like Angie’s flight home from California, my weekly TV recaps (my most popular posts that nobody reads) are delayed.

Sunday was hectic, Monday was harried, and I ended up watching MNF, and missed all my normal shows (hopefully still safe on the DVR).  So I’ll have to put the recaps on hold until tonight, maybe the morning.

Much like Angie’s flight, and the non-closing/sealing door that ended up canceling her flight, my work projects might curtail how many shows I can watch, and thus cancel some of the regular shows.   So stay tuned.

Last week was Haiku Week, and I had a lot of fun putting recaps into verse.  This week I’d like to try another twist, and write re-caps in Seussian meter (more properly, anapestic tetrameter) but that might be a tad ambitious for this week.

I still aim to get at least one post up daily.   Also, if your bored with me, you can see what my kids are up to at the is-blogging site.  Updating daily, if not hourly, after school and homework, it seems.

20 seconds left…

I don’t talk enough sport on my blog. I need to change that.

One of the things I do enjoy doing is reading Gregg Easterbrook’s weekly Tuesday Morning Quarterback column that is currently a weekly feature at ESPN’s Page 2. He writes wonderfully about all the games from the previous weekends, and has some long standing rules about how football should be played, the common coaching mistakes that end up costing a game. His style is that football is still a game that should include a running game, don’t get all pass-wacky and defense and clock-management matter. With that said, I think I can predict that Gregg will touch on a few points regarding last nights incredible Cowboys comeback.

If you turned off MNF last night after Tony Romo through his fifth interception, or when T.O. dropped the game-tying two point conversion, or after the last second icing the kicker time out, you probably now know you missed out on one of the more exciting MNF games in recent memory. It was supposed to be common MNF fare (of late) where the dominant team (Dallas 4-0) gets the prime time chance to show off against a much weaker team (Buffalo 1-3). But Buffalo doesn’t get many chances to play their 90s Super Bowl rivals, and the fans were pumped. Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas were on the sidelines. Marv Levy was haunting the coaching booth upstairs. And the Bills came to play. They haunted Tony Romo, who missed an opportunity to sell himself in his contract negotiaions (though Jerry said, his stock went up…yeah, we’ll see Jer.) by plucking his passes out of the air, and running them back for scores. Their special teams lit up the Boy’s suspect return team for another score. The Cowboys were down 8 with less than two minutes left. (Though the defense only gave up a field goal all game… 21 points on INT and Kick returns, yeoouch, that’s a hole). Some how the football gods wanted to bless the Dallas Cowboys.

[update: Here is today’s TMQ, where Gregg says exactly what I’m about to say… only better with more snark…]

]But it wasn’t all the blessings of the gods, the shrewd Bills coach had a chance to seal the deal before the two-minute warning. 3:58 left on the clock, third down and long, Buffalo calls a pass-play. Incomplete. Up eight points, I think run the ball, keep the clock moving, force Dallas to burn a time out, or take another 45 seconds off the clock. That happens we don’t have the on-side kick, maybe not even the potential game-scoring touchdown and two-pointer. Instead the incomplete, stops the clock, and give Dallas almost 4 minutes and 3 timeouts to set up the craziest 20 seconds in football.

But let me also cast a sidelong glance at the Cowboys. Passing on a two-point conversion with the Predator, Marion Barber not even in the backfield??? What? Seriously, get your big men up front, have the tired and demoralized Buffalo front men set up, and shove the ball to Marion who will get into pay-dirt from two yards out with the game on the line. Passing to T.O. who dropped umpteen passes in the game over the top. They deserved having to onside.

The icing call was such the icing on the cake. The Buf coach would have been hailed as genius, even though his fourth quarter play calling kept the Boys in the game. And how great a Folk-lore has been started with the rookie kicker with ice-water in his veins. Not only hitting back to back 5357-yarders, but also changing the hike count on the second kick that induced the Bills offsides, and would have given him a third chance to win the game.

Tony, if you get a signing bonus, make sure you take that Folk kid to dinner.

Fixerated for 1/4 the cost…

For about two months our AC has been living on shaky ground. An aging Condenser Fan motor wasn’t keeping the air moving, and the refrigerant pump would trip off on high pressure. So for about six weeks, I’d go out and push the reset button, to get it going, and then will the fan to start turning. I watched the fan motor slowly die. I’d gotten a quote from Service Masters for $400+ to replace the motor, but didn’t have the money to have them fix that, and really we need a whole new condenser since this one is 20+ years old.

This weekend the motor finally died. It no longer went roundy-roundy with any type of power applied. It was totally frozen, couldn’t even turn the motor by hand.  Since I can’t afford the several hundred dollars it would cost to replace the whole condenser to keep us cool for the next couple weeks, until fall finally comes, I tried to find a replacement motor online. Found a few, but lacked the confidence to really do the replacement myself. After I talked to a friend, Mark, at church on Sunday, and having him confirm my plans, I was much more confident that it could be done.

So yesterday, after I’d picked up Angie from the airport, I called up Mark, and we started searching for the motor. The first couple places we found only sold to licensed contractors (what a messed up racket that is) but Mark was able to track down a hole-in-the-wall little AC replacement parts place in Garland, that had what we needed in stock. Thirty-minute drive into the heart of Garland, to Tolbert Electric Motor Company and we had the motor for 1/4 of the Service Master’s quote. We just had to get fan-blades, since the old blades seemed welded to the shaft. (I say ‘seemed’ for a reason, its called foreshadowing) The helpful guys at Tolbert went back to find comparable blades, and came back with a set that was bent on one blade, then went back to find their whole stock was bent.

This is why the whole experience was great. The three guys in the store made it their personal mission to get my old blades off the old motor. The put the old motor into a vice grip, and with a hammer tried to loosen the blades by striking the shaft. That only drove the shaft through the bottom of the motor housing. So they cut off the shaft, and put it in a pipe-jig they had handy for just this type of thing, and proceeded to hammer away at the shaft — no dice. The blades weren’t moving. So they take it in the back and grind away at the shaft to finally free the blades, and give them to me. The cashier joked that was $119 for the labor, the motor was free. But seriously. You don’t get that kind of service at the big stores. So remember that when you’re looking for repair AC parts, Tolbert goes the extra mile.

30 minute drive back, and 15 minutes of wrench turning had the new motor and blades installed, and we packed up our tools and headed inside, just before the rain hit. A few hours later, the inside temps were 80 degrees and falling, and I went over to Mark’s house to watch MNF. But that, my friends is another story.

is-blogging.com – My decent descent into madness

It could be argued that I should have seen it coming, that what happened isn’t unexpected. I’d agree, but I still went and did it. My tale of woe follows.

It started a few years back, and several blogs ago. I was bitten by the blogging bug, and started the now defunct Gator Bites blog. Then Angie and I started Misplacedkeys where we settled in for a few years. Then we discovered WordPress and moved to separate domains, me here at RC, and Angie started her own blog at SweetBippy. Also we dragged our friends Matt & Debbi into the blogosphere, with Matt starting Blogospeer, and Debbi branching out at Debily this year.

The kids have gotten hints about the whole ‘blogging things’, and are also YouTube nuts. The past few months I’ve fielded the requests of, “I want a BLAAAAGGHH!!!1!” and “When do I get a BLOG!?!” with a flip of the hand, and a dismissive, “We’ll see.”

Those have finally caught up with me, and so I bit the bullet, and installed WordPress MU (MU = Multiple Users) to a new domain – is-blogging.com. Its pretty much what WordPress uses to host blogs at WordPress.com, but with some local controls. I can have Admin rights across all the blogs on the system, and can help their blogs from a common code base, without having to logout/login, run updates across 3 more domains, etc. I thought it would help me save time, and energy. Simple. Turn-Key. What could be easier.

And it was… until the new whines started.

“Dad, I can’t ___________”

“Dad, How do I do _______________”

“Dad I want this header with this picture, make it happen, snap snap!”

Wow, it certainly made Sunday afternoon go by quickly. With a few frustrations all the kiddos have their blogs up at the new domain. And while I have the powah! I can pretty much host anyone else that wants a blog. The caveat, I gotta know you, or my kids have gotta know you. I can’t offer 24/7 tech support, but you can easily start up your web-presence with a quick blog, and nifty is-blogging domain. (If you want your blog to be, say, oregonsnowbird. Start a new blog, and you’ll be able to see your blog at oregonsnowbird.is-blogging.com (after you verify it with an email address).

I had a ball, getting the kids up and running. I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ll create.

Why my garage door stopped working

10-05-07_1514

Before:  This is from 7 years of wear, original cheap rollers, a under-powered spring, misalignment, a mini-van strike, under supported door panels and just general wear and tear.  All the teeth have been totally worn down on the teflon gear.

 

10-05-07_1513

After:  New teflon gear, just look at those sharp teeth.  Also added more support to the door panels, an addition spring (actually replaced the old one and added two new ones).  When finished the door will work, and then we’ll have to clean.  That is for another day, and — NO THERE WILL BE NO PICTURES!!!

Thursday Night Haikus (a catch up)

Survivor

Jean-Robert and James
Marked for death before merge
Good bye to Leslie

The Office

Infinity! Tech!
Gift baskets not included
Tech drowns Michael’s car

House

Hearing with her eyes
Test case for new team hopefuls
Cameron knows House

Pushing Daisies

A new bright delight
Though death and dying are rife
Reair tonight, WATCH!

I’m way behind! a busy week.  To many shows! my DVR keep. 

Will try to watch, as time allows.  While through mounds of clothes, I dutifully plow.