Crossroads

Jeez - life's a funny thing. I look at where I've been, and where I am now... and wonder how in the hell I got here. I go to church from time to time. I don't drink much anymore. The pizza and wings last night are leaving me seriously motivated to start a diet - I can't eat this shit anymore! Groan! My guts and asshole are on fire. But other than this self inflicted torture, things are alright.

Financially I have gone into 'prepper mode'. I don't spend money the way I used to. If I can I want to live on my wife's income and bank mine for our retirement. I was buying silver before and now I think I am going to buy some gold as well. I'm watching the world going nuts out there; I go to the bank and it's all 3rd world vibrants running my branch now ... and outside of my family and church I don't trust anyone anymore. I will have stocks of gold, silver, brass and lead and if the time comes - all will be used with extreme prejudice, HAR HAR HAR!

Spring is setting in for sure round here now. Most of the snow is gone and the ice left on the lakes is more slush than ice. It'll be gone in a couple days and the bugs will come out. The geese n' ducks are back and I don't wear long johns on Dawg Patrol anymore. Macey The Monster is getting old too... I've shortened our walks for her because the long ones just tire her out too much. Mort doesn't care one way or the other as long as he can get out to pee on everything and make a nuisance of himself. The Dawgs are shedding as they always do in spring, and the floor is always covered in muddy paw prints and there's hair everywhere no matter how much we clean.

Last night I pulled Big Red out of the shed. As usual, he fired up on the first press of the starter button and rumbled to life like a champ. The last time I even looked at the bike was 6 months ago when I put it away. I went for a ride in the country with Flapz and M.

Get off my lawn you little shits!!!

I laugh at those two. Middle aged old farts? With piped Harleys? I dunno how they stand the racket or why. We were out in the beautiful backroad countryside - and those two goddamned rattle traps just shattered any serenity there might have been. But they love their bikes. M is a new rider, and she  rides like a boss too. Flapz rode up front with his ape-hangered abortion, M rode in the middle and I brought up the rear on Big Red. I rode back far enough so that I didn't have to listen to the pipes and could hear my elevator music on the stereo! :) We stopped to visit Flapz' sister - she and her husband just bought a 3,000 ft. palace on three acres of heaven out in the country. If the world is indeed a rat race, these folks are winning it with their heavy metal and country estates. Some people see stuff like this and think of the trappings of wealth and status. All I see is debt... but that is the curmudgeon in me talking, I guess.

During the winter I was promising myself a spring road trip on the bike to go up north. Half way between Aaaadmontin and Fort MacMuck is a farm with an oil patch monument of sorts that I have dubbed "Filthie's Fencerow". Every fence post for about a half mile along the property has a hard hat nailed on it. Guys who left or retired from the beshitted tar sands and the roughneck culture left their lids on those fence posts. Perhaps it was a way of saying "I was here..." as they were on their way out. Faced with the prospect now... I actually want to keep my hard hat for some reason - I dunno why. It just sits in a box downstairs with my millions of business cards, and junk from my old job. I'm conflicted - I was happy to put my old employers in the rear view mirror ... but putting my lid up on that fencerow may be a milestone I am not quite ready to pass for some reason. Perhaps that is the senile curmudgeon in me at work! HAR!

So it's 3:30am and I am sitting here on a warm spring night, riding out a major case of heartburn, inflamed bung, indigestion, raging chronic back pain and insomnia ... but I'm doing alright. I am at a crossroads in life and I have options at this point and I thank my Maker for them. All I gotta do is decide how to make the best of them and things'll look after themselves, I guess. If I can make it down for a nap tonight, I'll wake up, take my dawgs out, and keep chugging with the weekend.

As usual, thanks for stopping by, and have yaselves a great weekend. Cheers.