:: My Reality ::

:: Friday, February 07, 2003 ::

Yay!! Photos are here: My ugly mug, the wife. the kids, the pets. We'll start of with me and my sisters Dashound:

And now the rest of the Loves:

Bringing up the rear is the much loved Roadkill

:: Tom 6:49 PM [+] ::
...

Another Day

Waking up, stiff, foggy
A feeling like I have the flu
I focus on the mirror
And start another day without you

Late for work, Traffic is hell
I park the car
I ride the elevator to my cell
Turn on my computer
The usual fits and starts
Another day without you so far.

Lunch time should be fun time
Food and folks and such
My plate is soon empty like the jokes
I hurry back to my office
I don’t know why the rush
No phone calls no messages for us

The afternoon stretches on I eek out some work
My boss says “nicely done” He doesn’t know about the hurt
I lock the door, turn off the lights with the afternoon closing in
A day without you ends.
A night without you starts
all over again.

:: Tom 10:09 AM [+] ::
...

Harold’s Club:

I had just met K. at the Dancing Bear on Folly Beach, near Charleston, SC. She was a waitress there. We had spent some time together over one weekend and knew there was mutual interest. The next weekend I came down from Columbia and asked her out for a real date. That Saturday I picked her up at her work (she was a waitress at a Greek Gyro place on King Street). I was dressed in my cream white suit with a long sleeve, button down sunshine/school bus yellow shirt that was almost orange! I topped it off with a matching yellow orange fedora! I looked like a goddam pimp! She dressed in a white cotton peasant dress.

I had heard of this supper club where they had live music, on Highway 17 toward Savannah. We drove out there in my white Pinto. The club was overgrown with trees, moss and ivy with circular drive around a non-running fountain. The feeling was out of "Hotel California." We parked and went in side. There was not a couple under sixty in the entire joint! Everyone was dressed in tuxes and formal wear, seated around the edge of a slightly raised dance floor. The steaks truly were grand and the wine a bloody table red. We were finishing the steaks when the curtain opened and a twelve piece orchestra blasted “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” swingtime.The room erupted with old folks dancing and carrying on. Karen introduced me to the Jitterbug at which she was quite adept. Mostly I hung on for dear life!
The band was great and so was the company. A couple of the oldsters asked K. to dance and gave her all she could handle.

After K. and I were married we regularly went dancing and always had fun.

:: Tom 9:56 AM [+] ::
...

I keep forgetting the pix. Damn, I want to post those. Photos make a site much more interesting.

My boss is out today. I had a long talk with her yesterday. We've got big problems with the position that I've been asked to help out on. "There are poblems here and I want them fixed!" So I am rededicating my self to help this situation.

"I'm Gonna' Be Rich" update: No progress on the book. Just not enough time to work on it. It's going to take more research than I can do right now.
Haven't written any songs since 'Crossing Over,' a metaphysical excursion into Life After Death:

Moments like photographs are spread
Circling, spiraling, touching edge to edge.
If you look you'll see them clear,
There is no death to fear.

I have another one, but no tune yet. Don't know if I can capture it with music. My Ex thought it was a good one and Dale from LA said it made him "wistful," whatever the hell that means. It's a portrait of several friends whose lives are illuminated by a series of eventful parties over a span of 30 years. "The ghost of parties past" is a terrible septor whose burden we all carry. And as soon as I get my ass in gear I will post snippets of these on my blog. Yea, Yea, Yea...Photos, Music...Yea, Sure. Any time now.

Wearing: Jeans and a navy buttondown with bold yellow and red stripes.

Listening to: My daughter's voice mail, as I leave a message for her to get in touch. Cole, Where are you!

:: Tom 9:26 AM [+] ::
...

Here's some more insight into the illegal gambling operation at the local convenience store: Today I was there when the guy came to collect the money from the machines. I've seen this before and it's always enlightening. He's a little rotund man, in his 50's, maybe Turkish or Greek in origin. He goes from machine to machine (there are three at this particular store which is average for most convenience stores in the area), emptying out the bills (mostly $20's) and punches up totals on the video screen. He's taking about $2500 from each machine and stuffing the wads of $20's in a brown paper bag and writing down the numbers from the screen. He then closes the machine, clears it, and goes to the next one. He's collecting $7500 per week from this store in his brown paper bag. The little man (maybe he's the literal 'Bag Man') makes a collection run of 10 stores, each with 3 machines. Say, can you do this math?: 30X$7500X52= $1,070,000. Figure how much goes in payoffs to winners, $70,000?! Yea, that's right a mil' a year profit. And you don't think some cops are being paid off here? And you don't think that there's some organized crime going on here? This is a big town, hundreds of these little stores, most with video machines of one kind or another. One stretch last March through May, I lost $7000 in these machines!!! It's a horrible addiction. Don't want anyone's sympathy just a realization of the staggering amount of money that's involved here. And how do these individuals report this income to the IRS? Ha! I'd like to see that Form 1040!

Blogging is addictive too. Given nothing to do at my job, I choose to Blog. I was caught up in this site for an hour!

:: Tom 1:48 PM [+] ::
...

BETH

I noticed a pair of creamy lips
Hair and eyes done just so
Red flashed from her fingertips
as she walked down the stairs real slow

"Either you're late or I'm early
I've been dolled up since nine"
She draped her shawl across a bare shoulder
and suspended the passage of time

It was 1940, Cairo or Fez
The Hotel Durant'
Let's go out in the Garden, she says
There are spies in the restaurant

She crooked a leg behind mine
I could feel the silk
Her fragrance was amertine
She moved in for the kill

"I thought about you all day"
She pushed my hat back from my forhead
and kissed me with those dreamy lips
Our affair was turning torrid.

Wait, I think I hear someone
She said and moved away
Suddenly a gunshot
Her body began to sway

She died in my arms right there
Beautuful in death
Although it's been 20 years
I still remember Beth

:: Tom 8:00 PM [+] ::
...

Blew it pretty bad with a fellow blogger, called her an angry white middle aged male, when she was actually a witty thirty's female with a wicked pen which may be used to make minced poop of moi. Oh well, in some cases good Blogs are gender neutral and I never know the sex of the author, which I think is kind of a tribute. So Friend of Paul (He's not really dead, is he?), again, I apologize!

Helped out on the 'other duties as assigned' this AM, but nothing meaningful. I've yet to see the instance where I can make a difference, but that just might take some time.

Ooops, almost forgot, Wearing: Dark grey wool blend slacks which are too short (High Water Warning, Flood's a comin') and light green Chaps button down which is a size too big!

Listening: To Good Mountain Music

Kinds of Sites I Like: Ones which make me laugh. Ones that make me think about my/our journey on this earth. Ones with graphics, either pix or cartoons. Ones with interesting links (Gina's Blog, She Came in Through the Bathroom Window). Blogs like mine where you follow a person's day to day existence including the minutia that makes up their life, getting to know the person, like a friend (Like will Caitlan quit Grad School at MIT, go back to the West Coast, marry Patrick and become a Bakery Chef?).

:: Tom 2:49 PM [+] ::
...

Early at the Library tonight. Wearing: Same slacks, but small blue check button down short sleeve shirt instead of black tee, instead of blue faux suede shirt. That's three shirts in one day.

Saw my Therapist today, she's sweet, tells me how far I've come, but I still have real life problems to lick, like gambling. I've been to Gamblers Announymous a few times and didn't like it at all. Bunch of crummy ole' people sitting around talking about how gambling has ruined their lives. The thing about any 12 step program is, however, they work. It's just the group setting I don't like. Talked to the Therapist about the independent minded Self who dwells within and calls me names and how I got the goods on the dirtwad sob and anytime he starts in on me, I hit him with the reality of how he ruined my life twice already and although he was trying to do it again, it wasn't going to happen this time. If I've learned anything it's not to listen to injured and diseased piece of putrid fruit (we kid around a lot) that has coalessed into it's own personality and tried to make my life miserable. Sorry, I'm too strong this time around...ain't gonna happen.

Mood: Full of strength and confidence

Well, got to go...got to go pee pee.

:: Tom 5:48 PM [+] ::
...

Wearing: Grey Old Navy cotton slacks, Blue-grey microfiber faux suede shirt. I've done this combination before and it's not good. The colors are too close together but not a match. I have a black tee here in the office (I often change clothes the way I change personalities) that will look ok.

Lost: $300 at the convenience store on Sunday, but had won $350 on Saturday (hit the Red Sevens) so net winnings of $50.

Listening: To WAPE, Jacksonville, FL...don't ask me how.

The day started with my new duties. I had handled the load all alone on Friday and only one piddley mistake. Boss is satisfied that I'm in that swing.

Columbia Tragedy on Saturday hit hard. So sad for the families. Lots of Bloggers are paying their respects this weekend. I remember the Challenger Disaster, where I was at that moment. Of course, 9/11. Even Kennedy and even saw Oswald shot on national TV on a Sunday morning when I was playing hookey from Sunday School, I was 17 yrs. old. So many national tragedies.

Wife and kids doing well. Puppie that wife calls 'Sniffles,' I call 'Princess.' She's a Chow for sure, little wrinkled up face, square stance, curled up tail, red coloring.

Library tonight, will blog more then.

:: Tom 9:23 AM [+] ::
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