Ok, the 2 are not mutually exclusive but for the sake of argument I’ll separate them for a minute. What a day at work today. I’ve forgotten that it usually takes me about a month or so to make the transition from redneck land to stick up their ass tourist land. I’m convinced only of 2 things. First, 99% of people have apparently never worked in the service industry and have never learned proper…fuck proper…how bout they have just never learned how to be pleasant people. Second, there are only a FEW select people who should do things themselves and there are only a FEW select things those people should ever attempt to do. No, I’m sorry I am not going to tell you that it’s OK to put deck sealer on your roof becuase it’s cheaper than new shingles! Sorry, dweeb, I’m not willing to guarantee this product is going to work if you are TOO FUCKING LAZY and CHEEP to follow the fucking directions and do the job right.
Dad, you’ll like this: From my childhood there is one lesson you taught me at the top of your lungs over the screaming lawnmower and it was a comment you only ever had to say forcefully to me once (although you repeated it many other times throughout my life in various circumstances): If you AREN’T going to do the job RIGHT, than DON’T do it at all!! Certianly your job as a parent was to instill the value of responsibility for doing something well and having a successful end result. It was not exactly something a kid wanted to hear whilst trying to maneuver an out of control self propelled machine that certainly was bigger than me at top speed through loose sand. You made your point and I learned a lesson, that lesson being: when you cut corners you set yourself up for failure. Academics aside, it is a lesson I took into adulthood by becoming a careful and deliberate person in my professional life. I don’t cut corners, my actions are deliberate and planned, and I am successful. There is a reason for everything I do and for everything I say. It is a value I try to impart on my employees and it is something that I must very carefully, everyday, try to impart on customers who come in to my department. “If you are not going to do it right (you lazy fucking redneck), don’t waste your time, try this product instead, it doesn’t require as much work or preparation (I’d love to watch you fail miserably at your project becuase it’s funny but I really don’t want to listen to you when you come back and bitch at me for selling you something you couldn’t figure out how to use becuase you couldn’t be bothered to read the fucking directions).”
On to Babies. When the hell did the baby market explode and why was I not around to make any money on this? I spent several hours tonight looking at some of the plastic baby items that Sarah is going to be getting (or has already received) for her baby shower. Notice the inserted word “plastic”. You know, the huge metal Tonka Trucks that were just fine when I was a kid, why did they switch to plastic? Why are Lincoln Logs now plastic? What happened to Tinker Toys and Light Bright? Why are there batteries in the Etch-A-Sketch? What the hell is a Diaper Genie? Somewhere between 1974 and 2008, Johnny Jumpup become the “Graco Jumpster in Jungle Jubilation”, a wholly unnecessary sentence to describe a pair of oversize shorts sewn on to a couple long elastic straps that provide hours of entertainment to small children who secretly wish to fly. Well Sarah, that’s what your getting for your shower from me. Check your email, I sent you a note about when you’ll get it.
So now I’m off to bed. Tomorrow is another day in do it yourself land.
will begin in 3 days. I will be making arrangements for a storage unit tomorrow, I called an got pricing today and I am waiting to hear back from Jirar. Things and people will begin to vacate this house soon…the sooner the better.
I don’t post much in the way of political punches on this blog but since it pertains to my life I had to post this. Even talking head Bill O’Reilly can’t get a cohesive answer out of the opponents for gay marriage equality. Good for him for pushing the dingle-berry on his show for a better answer. “Because” just isn’t good enough if you want to outright ban something or write it into the constitution. ESPECIALLY in California where gay marriage is now legal. It’s going to take one hell of an argument to persuade one of the most liberal states in the country to back down from the court’s ruling on this. Watch this video.
3 Pictures for you, spring is a great time to see birds. These were all taken at the parents house on Lake Leelanau. As I get used to my camera, I should be able to get even better pictures.
Purple Martin
Baltimore Oriole
Yellow Finch
More pictures are being uploaded into a new album tonight called PANORAMAS. In it are several panoramic photos that I’ve taken over the past few months. I will continue to add more to that album as I have time.
Hopefully this won’t be a long post. I had to think pretty hard about what I was going to say in this post but I wanted to get something down just to mark the time and date. Today would have marked the 10th Anniversary of my relationship with Jirar. 10 years today we would have been together, 10 years of sharing, of mutual giving and taking, 10 years of what I considered happy times together, certainly some of the best years of my life. In the end, we were 4 months short of actually making it that far together.
I was a bit of an emotional wreck earlier today but then decided that I’d use the opportunity of a significant milestone gone wrong to implement new traditions and changes to my own life. Lots of people might have spent the anniversary of a failed relationship beating themselves up asking why it just didn’t work out. I decided not to do that to myself. Why tear myself down over something that was not my fault? Why should I pretend that I could have done something more? The fact of the matter is that this turn of events in my life was not my fault and I won’t spend my life feeling guilty about it. Yes, it does hurt that I’m in this situation now but I’ll get over it and move on with my life. It’s summer in Leelanau and I have lots of reasons to be happy with my life. I’m a little overwhelmed with what I have to get done this summer but oh well, it will make me a better person.
So, I will mark today as the beginning of a new period in my life rather than the end of one. I will not allow the disappointments of my past control the happiness of my future. I’ve been beaten down but I’ve not been beat (starting to sound like a bad movie here), watch out world….
REALLY stinks!!! My dog however thinks it smells like the greatest perfume ever made!! Today was pretty productive. I went to Plant Masters with mom and we each purchased well over $100 in plants (you know, had I been a straight boy, you might never have even convinced me that Plant Masters was even a “cool” place to shop. Suffice to say, I’m moving out of here in 3 months and I’m still spending money on the landscaping!! Anyhow, I’m also still pretty buzzed up so I’d better quit while I’m ahead!!
I’m a lush for technology. OK, more like I just enjoy spending my money. There were a couple of important items that I lost in the “divorce” so today I went out and purchased them. My paychecks seem to be getting bigger and bigger at the moment so I figured I would take advantage of it before the $4.35/gal gas prices actually started sinking in!! Today I purcahsed a new “all-in-one” printer, scanner, copier at Best Buy. I need to have a printer and I have been looking at the multi function units for quite a while. Today I got the HPC4385 all in one unit and I love it. I’ve spent the last 45 minutes scanning pictures (see below) and it is SOOOOOO much quicker than the hand-me-down scanner I got from dad (thanks though). I also picked up another wireless router since Jirar will be taking the one we have (not much cost involved there).
I’m off now for the long weekend. I have 3 days off!!!! Amazing. Things are getting to crunch time now. I’ve got “the letter” prepared for the landlord and ready to be sent off on the first of June explaining the situation and the fact that I’ll be moving. I’m nearly decided on a storage unit to put all this shit and with the exception of my school loan, I’m nearly debt free (I still have a credit card out there that I’m paying on). Things are looking good for me right now and I’m pretty happy about that. Getting out of this house though is the biggest challenge in front of me. There is just so much to do and I have just so little time to do it. I’ll get there.
I’ll leave you tonight with a picture from my childhood. Sarah, I don’t know what is going through your head here but wow, clearly your son (though me) will have easy access to LOTS of embarrassing pictures of his mother and his grandmother!!!!! Good thing you live in Iowa. You want to bet that by the time he’s 3, he will know how to use a mouse and will know more about technology than you and Brain??? I think I was a senior in high school before I mastered a mouse!! Love ya.
Well it’s been a little while since I’ve written. What can I say, this is the busy season at work right now. OK, I’ve also had the house to myself and have had nothing to bitch about on that front. Anyhow, I was explaining to an old friend today that we’ve made the transition from red-neck-ville to I’m-better-than-you-ville. Believe it or not, I like the second one better than the first. Finally, people shopping who wear all their clothes and who have all their teeth. They snap, whistle, and whip hostilities through the air but at least I can’t smell them coming a mile away!!! I’ll trade arragonce for meth-head stupidity any day. To say the last work has been CRAZY busy. Sad thing is, it’s only 3/4 as busy as it was this time last year. With gas now at a whopping $4.12 a gallon out here in Leelanau, NOBODY is going anywhere unless they have to. I spend a good 1/3 of my day on the phone with people who are price shopping becuase they only want to drive to one place to get their shit. You know, I hate gas prices too but Jesus Christ, I don’t sit at home all day and make phone calls to plan my shopping visits. I don’t know, I, being a good little consumer, just know where to shop and how to shop. Guess that comes from working in retail. Maybe it comes from being gay.
The personal life has been interesting lately. Seems I’ve been the only one lately with his shit together. Whether it’s regarding money or regarding what to do with my life, I got it going on right now and I’m pretty darn happy with my life. I’m not real happy with some of the things that have gone on in the past year but you know what, I’ll survive and I’ll get over my sorrow about some of the things and people I’ve lost and I’ll move on. There is a HUGE difference in how I am dealing with this vs. how I might have dealt with it 10 years ago. I’m a much happier person now than I was then. I’m also much more sure of myself and my position in life. I guess that comes with age. I had my “mid-life” crisis when I was in my early 20’s. I got it out of the way really fucking early. I’m glad too becuase it’s a LOT easier to enjoy life when you are not carrying around so much fucking angst.
OK, that’s it for now. I’ve got to get some other things done tonight. I’ll leave you with another random picture.
You know, before I was in a serious relationship I don’t think I would have really cared that Gay marriage was “banned” in Michigan through the passage of proposal 2 in 2004. Now that I’ve been in a serious relationship and now that the relationship has ended it makes me wonder why I am continuing to live in this state at all. I know why I continue on here but oh my fucking god folks, how fucking ignorant can you all possiably be? Did your crack pipe explode in your face? Did Bubba forget to wash his overalls again?
Already, Lambda Legal, which recently created a “Safety Scale” of states as guidance for convention planners as well as gay couples planning to travel or relocate, put Michigan, once a leader on gay rights, in the worst class.
For those of us who care about Michigan, the damage this court ruling does to the state’s reputation is, to put it mildly, discomforting.
Michigan Sucks. If I had been allowed to get married to Jirar, I would already have the use of the legal system to help us both dissolve our relationship. What if the 2 of us had adopted children? We were together 10 years, it would not have been unusual for a heterosexual couple together that long to have had kids, why not a gay couple? The fact is, Jirar and I had (and continue to have) no legal rights in Michigan. He could walk out on his commitments tomorrow and I would have absolutely NO recourse. He could have the power, gas, phone, and cable shut off here tomorrow and I could do nothing about it since they are all in his name.
Two justices dissented from that May 7 ruling, saying the five-justice majority read too much into the amendment. The dissenters, citing the campaign’s bait-and-switch tactics, issued a warning that should be heard nationwide: “(T)he majority condones and even encourages the use of misleading tactics in ballot campaigns… (I)n the future, organizations may be encouraged to use lies and deception to win over voters or the court. This should be a discomforting thought for us all.”
Not only is this one of the worst states in the county economically, it has also become so corrupt even our justices don’t know what justice is.
Here in Leelanau, there is only 1 sure way to know that spring has arrived. Cherry Blossoms. The sweet cherry trees are in full bloom up here right now and I was fortunate today to have an awesome day off to take some pictures. Be sure to visit the new gallery on leelanauphotography.com for the full spread. I spent the day today driving around Leelanau taking pictures and then the rest of my day at the cottage sitting on the deck enjoying cool breeze of spring.
Got a lot on my mind right now, can’t put much of it on this blog. I’m ready to get out of this house and get on with my life. Amazing how difficult that concept has been lately. Anyhow, stay tuned, I may try to push my landlord to allow me out of my lease early. If not, I’m sure I can tolerate living out here until August but with gas prices now at a new high (it was $4.09 in Maple City today…the highest price in the county) it’s becomming VERY expensive to commute 60 miles a day. I am slowing weeding through shit. In fact, when I’m doing writing this, I’m going to clean out another closet and try to see what I can get rid of. I’ve kept a bunch of things hoping that I could eventually sell them on eBay. Well, that’s just not going to happen. I don’t have time right now to fuck with it. Oh well, someone shopping at Good Will might appreciate getting a good deal of a lot of this crap. One man’s junk is another mans treasure I guess.
Meijer was in the news here today. They were fined something like $189,000 for breaking campaign finance rules set by the state of Michigan. Serves them right. I have a big problem with what Meijer tried to do (influence an election and subsequent recall of a township board that opposed Meijer’s plans to build a new store) and I absolutely agree with the price they are paying for breaking the law. HOWEVER, I also sympathize with Meijer. First, they own the property where they wanted to build a new store in Acme Township (outside of Traverse City). They have for years. Second, this area has clearly demonstrated OVER AND OVER again that another store like Meijer is not only needed but BADLY needed. The Traverse City Meijer is one of the busiest stores in the entire company, the volume they do is crazy! People come to shop at that Meijer from ALL OVER Northern Michigan. Certianly Meijer is IN BUSINESS TO MAKE MONEY and another store would help them achieve that goal. It is the desire and purpose of ALL retail businesses to MAKE MONEY (that is a concept too many people always seem to forget). Acme Township was an ideal location because it was conveniently located on the opposite end of town from the existing Meijer. The problem was that certain factions in the community did not want a big box store to come in a “spoil” the charm of their little community. Never mind that Meijer was bending over backwards to design a store that would “fit in” to the landscape. OK, here is where I have the problem. Acme is a SUBURB of Traverse City. It is not some little village in the middle of nowhere, it nearly bursts at the seams in the summer with a population that easily doubles or triples in size with tourists and summer residents who ALL come here from big cities down state and who ALL shop at Meijer downstate. Acme (along with Traverse City) HORRIBLY under serves it’s residents by preventing business operations that people CLEARLY want (via zoning and exceptionally poor planning). If people hated Meijer so much, why do people travel from ALL OVER NORTHERN MICHIGAN to shop there??????? Here is my suggestion: I think Meijer should shut down their Traverse City operations entirely and pull right on out of here. Their new Petoskey store will serve the area. For a good year or two people will have to shop at Tom’s and Glens (or drive 80 miles north to Petoskey) and people will have to pay substantially more for their groceries than they would have at Meijer. People will get sick of that shit really fast. THEN, Zoning laws will be changed to allow Walmart to move in with their Super Center (since they will play the political game right and kiss lots of ass). Once Walmart is in they will DEVASTATE the Mom and Pop shops that had been doing decent business since Meijer left. People will shop at Walmart since it’s their only option to save money on commodities that they need to have in order to survive. (Come on folks, follow the history of what happens when Walmart comes to town). Tom’s, Glen’s, and Olsen’s and the other tiny stores will all go out of business leaving only Walmart and then Traverse City can become another sleazy, run down, middle American town with nothing to offer but a huge walmart store and a pretty view of the bay. None of the smaller businesses will have any reason to exist since everyone can get what they want from Walmart….DO YOU SEE WHERE I’M GOING WITH THIS??????
Grow the fuck up Acme Township. Why do people in this area kick themselves in the ass over and over??? Get over the fact that GROWTH HAPPENS, in 20 years you WILL have some sort of Super Center in your “little village”. Look, I like the fact that it’s quiet up here but I hate the fact that people are so fucking stubborn. There is growth and then there is SMART GROWTH. Why is the latter so fucking difficult for you all to figure out???? This is why I’m not in Politics. I would offend too many people becuase I am too black and white. This issue is clear cut in my mind and I don’t understand why other people can’t follow the logic. I don’t care about your emotions, I care about your ability to think about things reasonably and deliberately. Here is the question that Acme needs to answer which through this ENTIRE thing they have failed to answer (hell they haven’t even figured out how to ask it yet): If you will not allow Meijer (or whatever other big box store) in to your community than WHO WILL YOU ALLOW AND WHY WILL YOU ALLOW THEM AND NOT OTHERS??? That is the question they have ALL failed to answer. When and IF Acme Township can answer that question they will start on an appropriate SMART GROWTH path. Until then, they will fight many more of these battles.
