tomorrow may rain so i'll follow the sun

well hello and hi to y'all.
we had a burst of heat up here and boyyyy was it fine! it felt like july for 3 straight days and i drove around in the countryside a bit west of here with my windows down playing lovely sparkling summer music and grinning ear to ear. decided to take a drive to minneapolis this summer and i am quite looking forward to that and finally getting to milwaukee! fonzie bronze statue! mostly excited for the road. the speed. the green of this country. and dairy queen, duh.

paid off my credit card debt today and i feel free! so excellent to not have that looming like my own personal grey cloud raining negative signs on me all the time. i went ahead and paid all my outstanding bills as well. a nice tax return will give you that power. now i am free to think of my future plans without taking into account all the money i owe someone else.

toying around with the idea of selling shaved ice. i bought an ice shaver but it seems to be a piece of crap so i just ordered another one on amazon. going to try this one tomorrow with the actual ice disks instead of just regular ice cubes, if it still sucks i'm returning it. expect nice treats from me all summer. nummmmm.

i am planting lots of lovely green things daily. i need to start putting my seedlings outside during the days to get them used to real live nature instead of my laundry room. trial and error is a funny way to play this game, but its the only way. of course i read stuff about gardens here and there, but i think its best to trust my inner grower in this case and see what happens. the land still isn't ready for transplanting so i might just grow giant pumpkins in pots all summer (no, this wont really happen). i also planted all different kinds of shrubs, perennials, and annuals in the beds outside my front door. looking forward to seeing what happens there as well. living in green-land sure has its perks and lately, with my self-imposed moving date in sight, i am having pre-regrets about leaving the country. can i really live in harmony with sidewalks again? everywhere i look i see green and its like lavender ice cream for my soul. i wish i could find the happy medium. or a husband. BOTH! please both.

about now i am thinking it is time to read a bit of cheever (oh, sweet dear cheever) and enjoy the bliss that is my bed. fyi, everyone is invited to my piece of green. just give a holler.

the sun will always shine where you stand

here's something i don't understand:
its illegal to euthanize a person, even though they can communicate in a language we understand that they may want to end their life, but is completely legal and widely practiced to euthanize an animal who cannot communicate in the formal sense with humans.

i'm not really sure which side of this i think is worse. i'm pretty gutted my cat was put to sleep today, and, if it was really necessary that this happen, that i wasn't there to see him out of life. he is now buried in the garden in a cardboard coffin. we planted two yellow lily plants on top of him. i keep thinking about him all dead and curled up inside a weird box and its making me so sick. what a good dude. bless his little still heart.

warm as saxophones and honey in the sun for you

and i ain't got no time to kill on your dime

wrap up your thoughts in ribbons and bows

lately i live in a viscous dream.
lolling languidly through weighted air
lapping up and relishing the taste of this wide grey sky; the trees with their infinite bony extremeties thrust towards some secret goal that always rests just out of reach.

thank ya maysles

what do you think now?

curly bob?

a few thoughts:










hm?

the great albany bowl-crawl part 3 - town 'n country lanes

well well! its been but a short time since our last bowling excursion, but this week is a busy week so we decided to go on monday so we wouldn't lose a week.

this week brought us through the countryside of voorheesville, down western ave into uncharted territory to town 'n country lanes in altamont, ny!



not too bad from the outside. we went in, paid for our shoes ($1.50 - cheapest yet!) got placed on lane 7 and set out to find the perfect bowling balls, which were easy to find!



headed to the bar for some beer. decided on blue moon ($3.50) pretty sure no one round those parts even knows what blue moon is because it was definitely old and skunkz. bummer. started our games. for a few frames i bowled with a johnny bravo engraved navy bowling ball, but it wasn't heavy enough, so i switched to plain green 'smart house ball' and it did a much better job. here are the scores from our first two games. interspersed with a few lane shots.









headed to the snack bar for some fries ($2.50) they were pretty delicious. snack bar was average. here is christine posing next to the swivel stools.



decided to play one last game because the bowling vibes were with us. it was a pretty disgraceful one for me but christine fared fairly well.



wound down, returned shoes, paid for our games ($2.90 each), and drove away down western ave into the wilderness of new scotland.







now, this experience managed to leave barely any impression on us, other than i am fairly sure i saw someone i graduated from h.s. with bowling a few lanes down but was too chicken to shout his name or act like any sort of grown-up person at all. the whole thing wasn't good or bad. it was almost like a non-time! i did enjoy driving there because you get to use the backroads and i remember so many things about them from my childhood. let's get to the ratings!

price: 4
equipment: 4
snack bar: 2
bar: 3
character: 2
overall: 3

little bit of love and some affection keep me moving in the right direction

i am positively DYING






Kingsford Goes to the Beach - video powered by Metacafe

the great albany bowl-crawl part 2 - redwood lanes

wow! what a fun night!
tonight christine and i really wanted to get fish fry from bob and ron's on central ave, so we found a bowling alley on central that wasn't the played out sunset lanes, and decided to make a night out of it.

first a picture of where we had dinner/dinner:





okay. with those gems out of the way (and full bellies) we headed down central ave past colonie center to redwood lanes, in albany, which is actually located on nicholas ave, but, unlike olympic lanes, was very easy to find. basically it was love at first sight.



went in and paid for shoes ($2.50) shoes seemed to be sort of iffy, some not broken in at all, some were broken in too much. took in the scene. commented on how much we loved the interior.



went off in search of bowling balls and beer, in that order.



when i found the USA ball i knew, KNEW, that i would return many many many times to redwood lanes. ball selection was here and there, most were either too light or too heavy. ended up with a row of 8 pounders. headed to the bar for a pint. i got a coors light and christine got a bud, $2.50 each. back to the lane to start our game (funny coincidence: we've been placed on lane 12 both times so far)

bowling at redwood lanes is quite a pleasure. the ball return is the above ground manual type, and the fan that dries your hands has a button to turn it off and on, and was very strong and effective. A+!



first game was a warmup at best with a final score of 76 to 95 with christine in the lead. second game i stared using some positive brain power and extreme focusing methods (or i got drunk off one coors light) and ended up bowling the best game of my life. here are some action shots of christine and i, and then the shot of the final scores of game two.







143!!!!!!!!! i can't believe it! it was AWESOME. although to achieve it i had to abandon the USA ball :( settled our tab at the register and each game was $3.50 so we each owed 7 bucks. more than olympic lanes but worth it. plus they have dollar games on monday and tuesday nights from 9-midnight. i will be back!

because of dinner we didn't end up eating at the snack bar, but i did snap a picture for document's sake, and i also took another one of the pro shop on site.





other bowlers were definitely regulars and were very friendly. we seemed to be in the middle of the space, to our left were older bowlers, and to our right were younger metal-head types who were blaring slayer on the juke ALL night. a fine time for all.

let's get to the ratings, i decided to add another category, equipment, to the mix, because i believe this to be a very important factor. this includes: shoes, balls, lanes, mechanical stuff, etc.

price: 3 (it was more than olympic lanes by $ .50 but i don't think this is enough of a hike to deduct 1 full point)
equipment: 4
snackbar: 2
bar: 4
character: 5
overall: 3.6

next week i believe we will be visiting a TWO STORY bowling alley in scotia, ny. stay tuned!

i called to you, but i used another name

been sitting on the couch so long my butt hurts!
adding up my entire accordion file's receipt contents, month by month, category by category, and it was bulging!

i haven't worked out the totals against the money i made, but i am fairly certain i made out in the negative negative negative.

let's talk about that word: negative.
i've heard many a person use this word to describe me, or my actions, or my words, or my what-have-you, and i would love to say something to these people at this time. this is my airing of my dirty laundry, this is my sailor's lament.
whatever i am, let it be known that i am aware (i like to say 'hyper-aware') of every thing that i am, expressly my faults, as i am constantly trying to make myself a better person. oft i wonder why it is that these people, these nay-sayers, are the pot to my kettle. look before you leap people! practice what you preach! don't look a gift horse in the mouth! and please, (oh please) never carry all of your eggs in one basket!


now that that's all squared away: i smell like a fountain of girl! i have a new affirmation i brain-whisper to my sweet self as i lay me down to sleep: "you are wonderful and you will be something great" this is actually an addendum to my previous affirmation which is far too private for blog longings. i will say here that i have excellent credentials and many a yea-sayer has said the very same thing.

the time is coming (again, again, it always comes again) for the windows to be open and the music to be loud(er). this will apply to everything everywhere. once i learn to two-step the plan will be (mostly) complete and i will be able to draw a smile with my finger in the air always.

i've lost my sentimental steam. let's wind down with some moody skies to compliment my moody brood.









ttfn.