Yeah Old Man...

Damn Kids

I have a problem... and I'm really tired of beating my head against the wall (that is my teenaged daughter) trying to fix it. Her mother, my ex-wife, has not been there for her. She was (I don't know if she still is) a drug addict, and she lies about anything and everything. I try telling this to my daughter, but she just doesn't hear me, or she hears but just doesn't care.

Now I know it is hard, damn near impossible, to hate your mother. But she should. She should hate her for selling her stuff (and mine) for drugs, she should hate her for not being there when she needs her, hell, she should hate her for not getting my daughter a Christmas gift. It would be one thing if her mother got no gifts for anybody, but her other two kids had a stellar Christmas... her? Well she got from everyone but her mother so she had a good Christmas, but to get nothing from mom and then talk to your siblings and they got stuff from her... I would certainly feel left out.

But that is just one of a long list of shitty things my ex-wife has done. But you can't say much to my teenager. Maybe when she gets older... Maybe. And the problem is she is the spitting image of her mother, and I see many similarities and that is scary as hell. And so she (the teenager) wants to go spend some time with her mother, two weeks to be exact, and I just can't see me doing that... but it really doesn't matter, because she is old enough to decide where she wants to live.

So I guess she goes, but I did give her the ultimatum, that if for whatever reason things go sour while she is down there... she will not go back. We'll see how far that goes, I think something will go wrong in the first day, but that is just me....

I Endorse Letting Go

I have to say or at least I try to say that I'm not worried about my job. But everybody worries about their job, especially when just having a job is something to worry about. I try and try and try to not let it affect me. Because you start to let your imagination run wild. Did they like me? Could I have done this or that better? Maybe I could have worked harder or longer, maybe then I would still be there.

The truth is none of that really matters, at least not that much in my case. It is business, that is all and I shouldn't take it as anything else but that. But it is hard, when you put so much of yourself for so many years, not to take it personally. Still, you know it wasn't because you combed your hair a certain way, or drove a certain car, or any of that. It was and is business.

I continue to put forth my best effort, as a colleague told me... sometimes, you just keep swimming. (a Dori line out of Finding Nemo) And that is what I do, because I can't do anything else. So I just keep swimming, keep smiling, and keep being everything I think that the customer needs or wants... and hopefully at the end of the day, they will recognize that perhaps they want to keep me. Maybe, you just never know... nothing is guaranteed.

Happy 4th Everyone.

I will be holing up at my place, getting ready for the trip to my dad's house. I hope nobody gets stupid with the fireworks. I like them, but they are not very conducive with babies or dogs, and I have both. I hope everyone gets to BBQ or eat them a piece of watermelon or whatever happens around the 4th. Be careful, and remember what we are celebrating.

The Sweet Life

How good is life for an 8-month-old? Judging from these pictures taken at the watermelon festival last week... Pretty damn good.

Classic Film Friday: That Darn Cat

This story is hokey, but the kids seem to love it. It starts with a guy (who is with another and they robbed a bank) and he sees a cat. This is our hero, "DC" or Darn Cat. The guy is a lover of cats and that will be his downfall. So he lets the cat inside and the two crooks are trying to figure out what to do with a hostage.

Meanwhile the hostage puts her watch on the cat... remember, I said it was hokey, the cat's "owner" Patti (Hayley Mills) spots the watch around her cat's neck and goes to the FBI. Zeke Kelso (Dean Jones) gets the assignment of trailing the cat to see if this in fact the hostage they've been searching for.

From there we get laughs as the cat... like any cat, really will not listen to anyone. This movie is classic Disney live action. My wife had reservations about the criminals keeping a hostage, and them repeatedly talking about what they were going to do with the body (once they killed her). I guess with everything that has happened, it is not so cartoony to think about that. But the songbird loved it, and she didn't think twice about the bad guys. Besides, they get what's coming to them anyway.

Young MC: Bust a Move

I was getting ready to go somewhere, not really sure where, and my daughter (the teenager) was coming with me. I told her to "Bust a Move"... or hurry up. She had no idea what I was talking about, so I showed her this:



Now she knows...