Happy Or Not, It's Halloween

Eyes Like Ashes

Brian was having one of those nights when he just couldn't remember how good he really had it. One of those nights when he was losing sight of all that was good if not absolutely great in his life.

It had happened to him on a few occasions in the distant past, but that had been so long ago he had almost forgotten what it felt like.

Now it was washing over him like a tsunami, and everything he dreaded about life seemed to be coming down on his shoulders all at once.

It was an odd thing, the witches brew of disconnect and damn near alienation he was feeling. After all, he was in a room full of friendly, jovial people. Words were being spoken to him that were fairly innocent, but for whatever reason they created a laser focus on his problems - trivial, minor problems that really, in the long run (and even in the very short run), didn't amount to a hill of beans.

Stuff normal people could shrug off like a sudden cold breeze.

It came to a head when he looked into the eyes of the woman he had come to the party with and saw not the gorgeous mid-winter morning sky blue he had fallen in love with, but dead gray ash.

That was when he knew he had to go. And so he did, with a few "Goodbye, gotta goes" mumbled through clenched teeth.

When Brian got home he quickly undressed and stood naked in the bedroom staring at what passed for a motivational poster on the wall.

He couldn't read the words on the poster clearly though, the words looked liked a blurred jumble.

So after a few minutes he crawled into bed. Getting to sleep was difficult. Thoughts raced through his mind that made zero sense. Emotions seemed to bounce around his brain like a racquetball being served up by Marty Hogan hitting the side wall at 140+.

They suddenly everything seemed to just shut off. All the activity that was going on, keeping him hyper alert and wide awake, just stopped. 

He drifted off to sleep, but not before a few of the words printed on the motivational poster drifted through his mind; 
"...it is only when you lose everything that you are finally free to do anything..."

Slip The Bounds

A Tough Three Hours On I-25 Southbound

The Speed Of Breaking Glass

The 100,000 or so 

Chemical reactions 

That occurred in my brain just a second ago

Did nothing to convince me

That life is nothing more than

A random series of events 

That we all have to dodge our way through

The fact that some are better

Than many, many others

At that specific activity

Reveals the lie behind the claim

That all men are created equal

Dwell

2016 Denver Retro Con

                          The Denver Retro Con got underway at 10:00am Sunday morning

                                             I fell in love with that mug...so I bought it

                                           Probably the most un-PC toy I've ever seen

                   Mid-century modern furniture was well represented at the Denver Retro Con

                                       The very talented artist Brian Cooper & CRB

        Hyperspace provided some great old stand up arcade video games, free to play with admission

                                         Now that's how you make cowboy boots cool

                         Old & young sharing memories and memorabilia at the Denver Retro Con

Babydoll Hat

They Were Alright

She was the perfect girl

Until she got all those tattoos

He hated tattoos

He was the perfect boy

Until he enlisted in the Army

She hated the Military

She had a smile

That made him melt

He made her feel things

She had never felt

There were days though

When she thought

He just had to go

There were some mornings. too 

When he woke up

And just didn't know what to do

They were alright! They were alright!

Just not for each other

They were alright! They were alright!

Just not for each other

You Ain't Nothin' But A Prairie Dog

When All Else Fails Quote Someone Known For Their Great Intellect & Wit

"The Fathers who invented it, if they could return from Hell, would never recognize it. It was conceived as a free government of free men; it has become simply a battle of charlatans for the votes of idiots."

The Sage of Baltimore, Henry Louis Mencken, 09/12/1880 - 01/28/1956, speaking on the topic of democratic government as practiced in the United States of America - around 100 years ago.

The People Were Fun, The Food Was Great

Every been invited to a party where you really don't know anyone, but everyone in attendance is just so over-the-top gregarious it doesn't really matter? 

Sounds incredible, I know, but it happened to me and I still can't get over it. Somewhere between ten to fifteen people came up and introduced themselves to me, and one women even swore she had to know me from somewhere, as I was so familiar and talking to me was so "incredibly comfortable".

After more than an hour of having complete strangers shaking my hand and asking me how life was treating me, I started to get uncomfortable with it - suddenly it began to feel a tad creepy, all of these nice people with too-real-to-be-real warm welcomes and genuine, sincere smiles.

So I did the only thing a sane, rational person would do in a situation like that - I got the hell out of there.

Searching For Humor In the Current State Of Affairs

Envy is an ugly thing, one of the seven deadly sins and all that. I strive not to be envious of anyone (or anything for that matter), but I must confess there is one group of people that I envy almost beyond reason.

Those are the people who have been able to take whatever expectations of proper behavior the world expects from them along with what other people think of them and chuck them both right out the window.

The footloose & fancy-free types are who I'm talking about, the ones who just don't seem to care about anything or anyone. They go about their daily without the encumbrance of obligation to or for anyone but themselves.

Man, that has got to be one great mindset to possess. Hell, with a mindset like that one could achieve just about anything - become a captain of industry or even President of the United States...

Thar's Gold In Dem Durr Trees!

One Short Night In A Bar On The West Side

The big sweet blonde from Minnesota

Was knockin' back Jack mixed with stale diet cola

While the disbarred Lawyer in the ratty plaid blazer

Tried to look oh so inconspicuous 

While he was not so discretely appraising her

Both of them sitting on duct-taped covered bar stools

Both of them trying their best not to look like old fools

Trying to disguise desperation for affection

With something slightly less unseemly

Such as desperation for attention

The clock above the door seemed to shout out the time

Like an alarm alerting the police to a vicious crime

Ten minutes to two, what's a soul to do

"Drink 'em up", said the bartender,

"Goodnight everybody, Buenas noches, adieu"

The two locked eyes for just a bit longer than a second

Looking for a sign, maybe a nod with the right inflection

She smiled, he responded with an eyebrow up

Like synchronized dancers they turned and dipped

Neither wanting to admit to this temporary hookup

The last song on the jukebox faded away

Like the warmth of the sun at the end of the day

He was at her side before she had found her keys

They looked at each other with intent

Knowing that tonight they'd found love (in parenthesis)

A Less Than Definitive Rant On The Topic

Today in Colorado marked the first official celebration of Indigenous Peoples day in Boulder and Denver. 

Which I suppose is all well and good for those who believe that the accident of geography surrounding one's (or one's ancestors) birth has some sort of importance in the grand scheme of things.

Except for the wee fact that, according to the scientific evidence, there is no human population indigenous to North or South America.

The word "Indigenous" refers to things that occur or originate in a specific area by natural means. 

Humans did not occur or originate naturally in either North or South America. They showed up around 15 to 17 thousand years ago, immigrants from far eastern Asia & Europe.

There is quite a bit of indisputable scientific evidence to support that statement.

Being related to people who traveled to North or South America from the continents of Asia or Europe 15,000 or so years ago via a land bridge that no longer exists does not make one "indigenous" - it simply means your ancestors got here first.

Or, as the Canadians put it, being of the First Peoples, a far, far more accurate statement.

The re-interpreting of the word "indigenous" to mean "Pre-Columbian" in North & South America by politically correct Academics does not change scientific facts - it just furthers the ignorance and fuels the divisions. 

Just like everything that people do to create some sort of special identity for themselves. 

If only the Academics would focus their energies on getting the people inhabiting this rock hurtling through space to realize that this rock is all any of us actually have, instead of attempting to make claims for people to be the real "owners" of any one chunk of it due to some sort of dumbass ancestral claim or DNA-linked heritage (note: I was going to use the word "nonsensical" instead of "dumbass", but decided "screw it, I'm going to use a more common term".)

Where your ancestors happened to be born on this very tiny speck of the Cosmos was just a random accident, as was where you were born, and who you were born to.

Celebrating it is a twisted form of vanity and ego. After all, it's not like anyone, anywhere has any say in the matter.

Kindling & Firewood

Every picture of you, every picture of me

Kindling & firewood

Like a million men before me I thought I could hold on to the Past

Maybe bring it back some other day

This time make it last

Sorting out boxes in the garage

 Full of the detritus of you & I

All of it blurred like a desert mirage

Kindling & firewood

Every single reminder of a collapsed romance

Every single proclamation of eternal devotion

All just kindling & firewood

Picture frames laser-inscribed with

Love Is Eternal

The smiling faces on the pictures within

Thrown into the inferno

The cards & letters, notes & hopes

Stop to read a few emotional verses

Then shove the folded papers back into the envelopes

Every picture of you, every picture of me

Kindling & firewood

A cold hard feeling creates a craving for heat

Sitting around the pit on the patio

Pulling little stuffed animals from a box

To fuel the flames that create a comforting glow

There is a maudlin sense of relief

Watching those little pieces of film curl

As the past turns into ash

Kindling & firewood

Every single reminder of a collapsed romance

Every single proclamation of eternal devotion

All just kindling & firewood

Every picture of you, every picture of me
Kindling & firewood

Buffalo Bikers

Now that is one tricked out bike.

Wood Chips & Post Scripts

                                             Two Bears In A Tree by Lueb Popoff 

Two Cats In A Tree by Lueb Popoff

Feels, Man

The Rock this afternoon...or as John would have said it, After. Noon.

It's been 7 years...

...and I still miss the crazy cosmic cowboy.