Longest. Night. Ever.

On July 4, one of my favorite days of the year, we attended a minor league baseball game in Ft. Worth. I mean, it's the fourth of July. What could be more Americana than baseball, artery-clogging junk food and fireworks?

As we settled into our seats behind home plate, we were joined by a male couple, one of whom was clearly already drunk. He proudly announced that he had already consumed a six pack and was just getting started. For the rest of the night......every inning...... he would head upstairs to empty his bladder, reload with another beer, smoke a cigarette and return. By the third inning, he had reached that special stage of drunkiness where he felt he was the funniest guy on the planet yet all those around him thought he was just obnoxious and loud.

The game went into extra innings -- a total of 13 innings to be exact -- and he was still drinking. His trips up the steps for his regular rounds were becoming more challenging and had reached the point where he had to face-grope everyone on the row to maintain his balance.

By the time the game ended (11 p.m.), a mere five hours after it started, he was beginning to nod off. So, as the rest of the crowd settled in for the fireworks show, the drunk and his partner made their way ever so slowly out to the parking lot and hopefully a safe trip home.

A smattering of applause arose as they climbed the steps for the final time. The fireworks then began and all was right on this July 4th night.

No Shortages of Ass Clowns in my World

Thursday night, I was minding my own business watching Star Trek (ugggh) at the local theatre when some enterprising person thought it would be a great idea to vandalize my car to the tune of $4,300 in order to help themselves to a satellite radio worth $125. Oh, and it is inoperable since they don't have an account that matches the ID on the radio.

I'm not a math wizard, but this sounds like I got the bad end of the deal here.

A Healthy Back For Cheap: Just One Advantage of Our Crappy Economy

You know the economy is in the toilet when your chiropractor is calling you weekly begging you to come in for an adjustment. There was a time when I had to wait days to get in to see her, but now she's calling me at odd hours suggesting all sorts of things I really don't need. It's like Avon only with multiple degrees and a cool table to pop your back on.

Our conversations go like:

Dr.: Hi, this is Dr. SoandSo. You really should come by and let me take a look at your back.

Me: But, my back feels great. Best it's been in years.

Dr.: But only through proper maintenance will it remain that way. I'll put you down for 3 on Friday.

Me: I really don't.......

Dr.: Come on...it'll be great and I'll even throw in 15 minutes of neck traction for free!

Me: I think I'm busy.

Dr.: We have a new masseuse named Helga. You really should stop by and meet her.

Me: (A pause) Ok, you adjust my back, throw in the neck torture and Helga for free and it's a deal.

Dr.: See you Friday.

Angels Among the Bean Dip

It was ten years ago this summer that I had an encounter with an angel. I'm not talking about a good looking woman; I'm talking about a honest to God angel -- in a 7-11, of all places. It's a long story, but here is the Readers Digest version.

I had been unemployed for some time and had just received some terrible news about a possible job. I made it three rounds deep into the interview process and the signals I was getting from the company were all very positive. When the call came telling me that I lost out to another person, I was devastated. I can remember sitting there in a park wondering how I was going to get through the day. Our savings were quickly running out, all my good job leads had been exhausted and I had nothing on the horizon.

I walked to a local 7-11 to buy a Coke and was standing in a long long of customers awaiting my turn to pay. I spotted this little old lady coming into the store, She was very small, had an explosion of curly gray hair sticking out from under a hat, was dressed in very worn clothes but seemed to glow with happiness. Her eyes just seemed to shine. That's the only way I can describe her. There was just an amazing positive aura about her.

She came into the store, walked directly up to me and pressed a card into my hand. She said "you look like you could use this today" and turned and walked out of the store. I stared at her as she walked away and then read the card she had given me. It said: "Help me to remember, Lord, that nothing's going to happen today that you and I can't handle together."

I can't tell you the impact that this encounter had on my life. I am convinced to this day that she was a real angel and it changed my life. Several weeks later I received a call from a company with which I had interviewed months earlier. I was offered the job and I remain employed there today. It is, without a doubt, the best company I've ever worked for.

As I saw all those doors close before me, as I lost out on job after job, I never dreamed that God had a very special place in mind for me, but He did. And, it took that angel to deliver a message of hope to me in the aisles of a 7-11.

Fresh Start

When I first began blogging, five or six years ago on another site, I did so mostly out of curiosity. Then, as more readers signed up to follow my blogs, it became something I looked forward to doing every morning; it was kind of a warm-up for what real work lay ahead of me. But, after a while, it became more like a job. There was the blog to write, photos to update, comments to respond to and e-mail to read and return.

Oh yeah, and I had a real job to do, as well.

So, my output began to decline over time as did the quality of my writing. I went from very funny to kinda funny sometimes to what the hell is he talking about?

Finally, I closed down my old site, took a break and am now ready for a fresh start in a new place. I have no clue what I will write about but I'm sure something will come to mind.