Additions and Observations

It's official: we have a new member of the family!

She's a 9 week old Lab/Hound mix that has to be the quietest, gentlest, dog in history! She and The Boy have become inseparable in just two days. He spends all his free time playing with her and wherever he goes, she goes. He sits and she crawls right into his lap . . . seems The Boy makes a wonderful doggie bed (Who knew?) It's all still new for both of them of course but it's really cool to watch them together. The Boy's been really good about taking care of her (so far!) he's been getting up in the middle of the night to take her out, feeding her, training her, etc. For the dog's part, she's been pretty amenable to whatever he wants her to do and we've only had two minor "accidents" in the house so far. She's a really good dog . . .

Overheard an odd conversation while grabbing my lunch today: three landscapers (wearing matching company shirts) were standing nearby chatting on their own lunch break. The first guy says:

"It's illegal, dude! You can't watch porn in your car! If somebody else is drivin' down the road and sees it through your window, they can call the cops and you're busted!"

(Hello! You have my attention now!)

Second guy:

"What? Fuck that, man! If I wanna watch porn, I'm watchin' porn!"

Third guy:

"Well, I can see if you, like: pick up a hitch-hiker . . ."

Second Guy:

"Fuck that! If I'm pickin' some asshole up off the street, they'll watch whatever I damn well wanna watch!"

First guy:

"Yea, but what if they're a kid or somethin'?"

Second Guy:

"Yea, like I'm going around picking up nine-year-old kids! If I'm doin' that dude, we got bigger problems than me watchin' porn in my car!"

Now maybe I'm a little twisted (Okay, a LOT twisted!) but I found that so funny I damn near burst out laughing. I can't say I understand just when and why it's appropriate to pop in "Debbie Does Dallas" into the back of the mini-van, but I had to give Guy #2 points for honesty! Conversations like this fascinate me. I mean: how in the hell do you ever get onto the topic in the first place? Did one of the guys just happen to say: "So, I was sittin' there in the back of my SUV with my pants around my ankles and this cop bangs on the window . . ." The whole unlikeliness of the discussion compltely fascinated me. You can't make this crap up!

Ah well, small things to amuse small minds and all that.

I'm listening to a song right now that I've been hearing a lot lately and I think is great. It's "Unwritten" by Natalie Bedingfield. I don't know if it's the literary allusions in the song or its theme of being able to start fresh at any time . . . but the damn thing inspires me! Can't say I've ever heard of the artist before but I like this a lot. Haven't been able to say that about a new song in quite a while. A sure sign of advancing age: I think all music made in the last ten years sucks. Well, not all but most of it! Too many remakes/resamples and just plain heartless pop crap for me. The only exceptions I can think of off hand are The Black-Eyed Peas (who do the remake/resample schtick too, but they do it REALLY well!) Kid Rock (who just makes me smile) and anything by Seal. Seal has never done a bad piece of music in his career.

New life plan is still rockin' it! Exercising every morning, walking every night, and writing every night. (except weekends - family time, remember?) I'm diggin' the vegetarian scene (though The Boy keeps calling me a "hippie traitior") and feeling great. You know something I noticed this weekend? Had a female relative stop by the house and she's been dieting heavily and has dropped a lot of weight. Her figure has definitely improved but I kept looking at her face, it had a look I know all too well: drawn cheeks, sallow skin, black circles under the eyes . . . generally sickly looking. I've had that face plenty of times. It always happens when you lose weight. Every time I've dropped a good amount of poundage in my life people always ask me if I'm sick. The Wife usually gets nervous and starts telling me to see doctors (and we all know how I feel about those voodoo practitioners!) After she left, I thought: "Hey, nobody's said anything about me looking like crap recently!" and took a look in the mirror. You know why? Cuz I look good (well, ya know: as "good" as my ugly ass is capable of looking!)

Seriously though, I started thinking about it and I've also noticed nobody has said "Hey, you've lost a lot of weight!" to me either. Now, that panicked me for a moment but then I thought about what they have said. General variations of "You look good, man! Been working out?" and things of that nature. I have lost a good bit of weight but I haven't garnered the waif look that usually comes along with it. Now, it could be that it's because I still have a good bit more to lose (which I do!) but I don't think so. I think it's because there was no "diet" involved here. My body's not feeding off itself in starvation. Eating vegetarian has simply changed the way my body works with and stores fat (I'm guessing here - if you're silly enough to take nutritional advice from me, then shame on you!) In any event, it's just an interesting observation. I think I'll take the "You look good . . ." over the other phrase any day.

Well, I guess I've eaten up enough of your day with my ramblings. More tomorrow!

Later!