Fastest July Ever

I can think back to the events of the past 30 days and remember each one as if it were the day before. July was hot. July was fun. I spent a lot of time in my car and none of the hours seemed slow. The soon-to-be-completed weekend was slower than usual and it still blew by. What happened to July?


I've always wanted to see a pie cool on the windowsill. There's something about the car on the sidewalk that makes the moment all the more genuine.


A quick swing up to Mt. Horeb, WI featuring witnessing my brother and sister-in-law handle a toddler and a newborn. They seemed to be having one hell of a time. The 2 year old seeks attention. The newborn requires more.


The triangle is completed by an eastern shot to the hometown. I give you a sterile, nostalgia-shot for the hometown folks. Coming in from the west on a state highway, the hometown gives you the water tower welcome. I think there are about six of these greetings.

Other

Chicago to Milwaukee on an early Sunday evening took about thirty minutes less than usual. State Route 41 from Libertyville back to Interstate 94 is the way to get around the bottlenecks...I think.

The heat is back. Yay.

For some reason, I've been keeping a cleaner house because of the kitten. Sometimes the thing forces me to clean an area that needed it anyway. I didn't see this one coming.

I told my parents about the aforementioned kitten. My mother expressed concern that I could be allergic. My father rolled his eyes as if I were crazy. Then my mother said that he used to have a cat name Tia. Awww...he misses his cat. Cat Blog.

I could use a scoop of ice cream right now.

The Lady and I watched 2/3rds of the first Godfather movie. I had never seen it in its entirety before. There's an episode of The Simpsons where Moe breaks down the story for Maggie. It gave me a good idea of what to expect.

Go.

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Routine

My weeks have either been work intensive while the nights have been quiet or work has been quiet and my nights have been intensive. Occasionally, both work and freetime will be intense. I sense that will happen in the next few weeks. I'm not complaining, but the last time work was busy and life was busier, I got the flu. Maybe this time around the exact opposite will happen.

Some dude was walking around my quiet neighborhood while hashing out his differences with his girlfriend via the telephone. From what I gathered, he threatened to go over there and take all his shit home. A lap later, he was talking about the time he went to the hospital with her. Something tells me they're gonna be all right.

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Burgertime

Once in a while the golden arches will offer their hamburgers at a cut-rate price. According to the talking stick-figure on TV, hamburgers were to be forty-nine cents today. I always ask myself if they're just unloading surplus beef patties on days like these yet I have no choice but to patronize the establishment. As usual on days like this, the neighborhood restaurant was way more crowded than usual. We stand in line and pretend that we don't want to be there or we at least claim to not be regular diners. Everybody seemed to be discussing: the number of burgers they were going to purchase, how many burgers their husbands would probably order, what else will they order with the burgers. It seems that McDonald's brought out the folks who normally don't eat there on a regular basis. They probably made a lot of money. Way to bribe the customers, Ronald. Four burgers can't be wrong.

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The Bite

Around 4pm today, I felt something piercing my head. A few minutes of soreness and confusion followed. Did I hit my head recently? Was I bit by something during the camping trip without me noticing until today? Did a spider come down from the ceiling and bite my head at work? Did somebody knock me silly and steal my letter opener?

My speech and motor cooridination are still intact. It was probably nothing.

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Wrong Turns, Left Turns, Camp Turns, Sky Turns...

Twelve people agreed to join each other in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Forest for a weekend of swimming, sitting, drinking, relaxing. By one o'clock Friday afternoon, the course of the weekend was forever changed and the twelve people got to enjoy an adventure of wrong turns, scrambling for campsites, sunshine, thunderstorms, rocks, and the satisfaction of knowing that they got to avoid the 100+ degree weather back home for a few days.

This being the weekend:

Friday -

After a mad scramble to find a campsite before it was too late, we enjoyed the beach in Luddington, MI.


Humans doing different things in unison.


More pictures of the sun.

Saturday -


Ninety minutes north of Luddington and a day later, we shot beer cans into the lake by way of the 'winger'. The gentleman in the foreground is contemplating his twenty minute swim to the island.


The gentleman in the foreground is doing the same thing as pictured above.


Above the sand dunes hung a fiberglass ceiling.


Smores

A good time was had by all.

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Gone Camping



Hopefully this weekend will come close to last year's excursion (pictured above). That weekend was like 'what' and 'woah' put together...Whaaaaaah.

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How Dark Was It?



I've recently relocated cubes and during the approach of a humid storm, I got a taste of what four in the afternoon is like in the middle of January...view wise. I took a look at the street and people were running for cover. That would have been a fun thing to do on a day like this. This makes the fourth rain since May.

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Haywire

The trains ran slower than usual today. Something was amiss in the subway system, so one main train route was re-routed to an already busy above-ground line. Hmmm...I wonder which line got the shaft in this deal. Things like these are expected, so I'm not complaining. I had a crossword puzzle to keep me occupied as well as a woman who kept reaching in her back pocket to scratch her ass in front of my face, another woman who let out impatient sighs, and a dude blasting nu-metal and hip-hop from his headphones. Of all the days to take a break from listening to the mp3 player...

The air in my apartment feels very dry these days. Perhaps the A/C is being used too liberally...

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Drought


I got less than seven hours of sleep Wednesday and Thursday night. On Friday, I had to endure a walking tour of the downtown area for the job. The experience was hot and underwhelming like the city view from a dinner club. The city looks a bit thirsty.

Boots II





Due to popular demand, Boots makes another appearance. This kitten won over hearts at the clinic. The Vet assistant apologized for taking too long passing Boots around the staff.

This will not be a cat blog.

Brain

- My friend Eric of May or May Not gave a formal farewell to friends and wellwishers the other night. It's sad to see him go, but the man will make a name for himself writing musicals. The lady's good friend Ann...who threatened me when I first met the Lady, also bid a formal farewell to the city last night.

Up until this summer everybody seemed to migrate towards this city. I'm noticing that people are starting to shuffle around the county. What a difference three years makes.

- The new adaptation of Willy Wonka was entertaining. Very visual. Very visual. Children in the theater managed to pay attention the entire time and I laughed at parts nobody else seemed to find funny. The movie was as much for adults as it was
for children. I could have lived without the weekend crowd at Navy Pier.

Time to do nothing for a while.

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This Evening



I'm either playing a small role in, or am good friends with four out of the five acts.

Be there.

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Boots


This is the new roomate. Growing up, the family never let us have pets. They claimed an allergy, but they're also germophobic. I've always thought it was nice to have pets around the house, so I decided to go against what I was raised to do. I saved one from my friends' backyard and hopefully we'll get along just fine.

I managed to get him to fall asleep on my lap a few times. He even let me give him a flea bath...until it was time to rinse. I hope I rinsed him enough. I have one more horrible thing (vet) to do to him and we should be a-okay...

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Waits

Time has been at a premium lately and it is summer. As a result, I'm getting less for the dollar at the gym. When I first signed up, I had a feeling this would happen. The gym gave me three "free" months when I signed up, so I guess it evens out...or not. Rest assured, I made my second visit of the month to the gym today and saw the same set of regulars (the 7-day freaks) I saw back in November.

I tried to calculate the the amount of time they probably spend at the gym each day.

Skipping the routine doesn't sound so bad anymore...

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Classic Midwestern Weekend


The dinner at home series continues with this attempt at lasagna. It turned out meatier than expected and a bit more dry. Since it was prepared with an insane amount of garlic, I could do no wrong.


Flowing pitchers = slower than usual Sunday.

- The Lady and I passed through a fund-raising yard sale yesterday. The goods were entertaining, especially the amount of lamps up for grabs at one end of the sale. The mason jars were on the other end. There was also a 10-foot stretch where you could smell nothing but 'old basement'. I should hit these more often.

- There's a coffeshop on Barteau and Lincoln Ave. in Chicago that serves good smoothies, coffees, pamphlets, etc. The only catch is that every order takes about five minutes to complete...and that's if you're first in line.

- Today completes a pretty hectic two-week span. Laying low sounds like a good option for the next ten.

Listen to Sergio Mendes

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Term

So I'm having the type of morning that seems to afflict my siblings and I more often than I hear. It's probably a common affliction that people tend to keep quiet while we tend to be more open about it. That's why I deem it appropriate to talk about. So this morning I suffered the consequences of eating a cheesy frozen pizza. I refuse to learn my lesson when it comes to frozen cheese and other various dairy products. The attacks typically occur around the 3am hour. However this episode started as soon as I woke up to get ready for work. That meant losing access to a bathroom for about 40 minutes while sitting on a sometimes crowded, sometimes stuffy train.

During the herky-jerky train ride, my mind bounced between the discomfort and the puzzle. Somewhere in there I came up with the phrase: "The Number Two train is running 'express'." I thought it was a funny phrase at the time, but now I'm starting to reconsider. I must have been loopy this morning.

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Dateline: 4th of July Weekend.

While America's sons are fighting the good fight overseas, a bunch of people congregated in suburban Detroit to celebrate all things freedom. As illustrated:


Toss a bag, sip a beer. Toss a bag, sip a beer. Toss a bag, survey the pool area, toss a bag, do some math. Repeat.


Winston played the role of lifeguard.


The after-dinner activity featured hillside Whiffle Ball. Much physical comedy ensued.

- Both legs of the roadtrip averaged about five hours. I'm not sure when the hellish traffic occurred, but we managed to avoid it long enough to spend thirty minutes at Kentucky Fried Chicken without losing a beat.

- Since our car reached city limits, I've been hearing a steady stream of firework reports. Why don't they give us July 5th as a working holiday?

Big Hawaiian.

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