I’ve decided call it quits.

Thanks all for reading….

Eric

too bad there is no other player in the area to take recieve the throw in

I was chastised yesterday by the Cat woman/nurse in my life that I had been negligent in my blogging responsibilities, so here are some observations from the last few weeks

–The commute: This year my kids are split between 2 campii. Most mornings of the week my girls are picked up at the house and delivered to their school by one of the teachers. The only cost to me is that I need to take a second passenger to school with my son. No problem. In the afternoon, I pick up both first graders and deliver them to the camps across town….that is when the fun begins.

The drive up Mollison is like that scene from the “French Connection.” It’s about a mile and a half, but if you are in the wrong lanes at the wrong time the trip can take 15 minutes. I’ve pretty much figured out what lanes at what time to travel in.

Literally:

Right lane: ¼ mile

Left Lane: 500 feet

Right lane: to the signal

Left lane: to the next signal avoid the right lane because people are picking up kids at another school…turning right and waiting for kids walking home from a third school and using the crosswalk. You get stuck in the right lane here you’re stuck for 3 or 4 lights

Right lane: before you get to the Arco. About 300 feet if you’re in the left under the overpass, you’re screwed with traffic trying to get on the freeway and people trying to get by the people trying to get on the freeway. This is dicey as well there is a lot of foot traffic here and 2 freeway onramps to contend with

Left lane: before Broadway…another busy right turn/crosswalk intersection.

From here it’s about a half mile to Bradley.

A quick right turn and you have to deal wither left turn into the school lot. The rub here is that other families come from the other direction. This is also congested by the traffic coming out of the other end of the pickup line.

The whole thing takes about 25 minutes from campus to campus and home again. It’s a pain, but it is the price of going to a great school. In 3 years all my kids will be on one campus anyway so there is a hope.

–observations while on campus: This school has students from 4th-10^th grade.  You have all types of students from the gangly teenager to the pimply kid with a peach fuzz moustache. My favorite observation is seeing how badly the girls apply eye makeup. It looks like they all went to the same beauty school. Lots of eyeliner

–Job Hunt: I’ve applied for a few jobs around town. To date, they all seem happy to take my app., but really, they’re not hiring right now. I wonder if there is anything left in my truest fund…probably not. Meanwhile I’m working on a few instruments in the garage. I’m hoping to sell them in the weeks ahead. I’d better do something or look busy. All the open projects are closed now and all that’s left is to paint the outside of the house. It looks like there are brushes and rollers in my future.

–Tour of the old digs: last week I took the off the shelf tour at Taylor Guitars. A friend of a friend was in town and wanted to see the factory, and I agreed to go along.

I arrived early and hung out with some old friends back in the mill. The scary part is that there these people are still doing and acting the same way that they were 10 years ago. The one thing that was very different was that there was a slower pace. About half of the guitars are Hecho en Mexico now, and the hurried hum of a busy factory was missing. It was kind of sad to see a robot buffing guitars and machines dormant. The factory has a larger footprint now so this makes sense to me.

I took the tour and was still impressed by the product that is made within the walls every day. One observation that I made years ago to a friend was that Bob just happens to make guitars. I think that he is probably more proud of the factory that makes the guitars than the guitars themselves. Would it be as impressive or cool if it were Taylor Clock Radios? I will say that I’ve seen a computer chip making facility and it is just as impressive, but still not as cool.

–Return on Investment: You hear a lot about R.O. I. in business, but this is a n investment in something completely different. I must say that one of the best investments we’ve made in the last 2 years in one in out marriage. Next weekend we are celebrating our 18^th wedding anniversary. Things are better now than ever have been. We are communicating better than ever and remaining “present” in the process. I’ve not had to put a cork on anger so much as I’ve learned how to deal with it in a different way other than blowing my top. Personally I have some issues that I’m dealing with but as they come to the surface, I’m learning about how to deal and move on with life.

a big do nothing day today…well for the most part. Church in the morning followed by a mountain of folding laundry and a quick trip to Sea World.

This week I’m looking forward to things like:

Cleaning the garage — needs to be done again. with the bulk of the home improvement done, I need to dig down to the floor and put some stuff away. looking at the general storage in the place. there are a lot of improvements that can be made.

Painting the rest of the fence – I need to finish a project from last summer. I had my kids paint the first half of the fence for the dog run. now it’s time to tie this one up as well.

Planting some Flowers – The front landscaping is pretty minimal. With a drought here in the desert, I let the front grass fie over the summer while letting the back yard thrive. This year I think we’ll do some low water plants that hopefully do well…theupshot is that there may be an El Nino this season. rain may be on the way

Watching When Harry mer Sally – Tonight we are watching this favorite of ours. I tried to rent it from Blockbuster a few months ago, but they told me that they no longer carried it. It wa only at 2 locations in the San Diego area. this movie night brought to us by our friends.

Birthday parties galore – This weekend started the long series of friend and family birthdays that are hitting our pocketbook. we are literally booked thru mid October not counting the inevitable pop-up birthday at school.

Upcoming wedding anniversary – in a few weeks we will be celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary. Not a bad ride I must say. some bumps her and there, but overall… I’m still likin it…I’m still lovin her.

Trading services — A friend of ours is a vocal teacher. today we talked about trading voice lessons for Blondie for guitar lessons for the voice teacher. I’ve never taught guitar to anyone, but could probably come up with something.

more tomorrow

- Soccer season started today…the first loss of my son’s career went along with it. I dont want to complain, but the ref was a parent from the other team, and he was coaching from the field. he also did not call any… I mean ANY bad throw-ins against the other team…there were about 5 by my count. he also did not know the lay out or the penalty box leaving each goalie to handle the ball in the smaller goalie box. at least he was fair on that account. My team had a bye today. next week we play a team with at solid coach that I respect…I hope to wipe up the field next saturday afternoon

- The interior of the house is finally done.really it only took two years. in that time we painted the house, tiled a couple of floors, removed the popcorn texture from the ceilings, put down laminate and. this was the long list. there is still a few other things we want to get done, but they are one day projects. next in line the exterior of the house. fresh paint, some new landscaping….things like that.

- School is in…for about three weeks now. the girls are settling into the new campus, and my son has made the adjustment to going all day long in first grade. I havent done anything in the garden yet, but with hopefully cooler weather ahead, we’ll get some winter veggies in the ground in the near future.

- Feeding the hungry. the school changed lunch suppliers this year. the jury is still out on this company. the food..although it is supposed to be good for you doesnt taste good to you. my kids are not crazy about the new menu. with the change, the free and reduced lunch option for low income families was tossed out the window. the principal said tha it would cost between $25 and $30 thousand a year to keep this option going. for this the School council stepped in and bought makings for sandwiches and other snacks for the kids that dont have a healthy lunch to eat. the only requirement is that the kids are hungry.

- New computer: I’m liking the new laptop. I think i’ve gotten used to the new keyboard but not the mouse. I think we need to get a wireless setup for mousing. it’s the HP artist Edition loaded with music editing/composing along with several Corel programs. I reloaded the desktop computer and set it up in the girls room…no internet, but plenty of homework opportunities.

- I applied for two jos this week. the first at Carls Jr on a wim. I happened to be getting lunch at the time…the other at a home center that is not either on the big two national chains. I applied for a lumber handling  job. something that I spent many years doing at the conglomerate guitar company.

-  I stopped loosing weight. Honestly, I having been trying at it the last few weeks. I’ve still cut out the sugar and soda, but  I’ve been atttending parties and get togethers where I’ve partaken a little more than I should have….Tomorrow is a new day. current weight… 200 lbs

- I’ m playing in a band now. I auditioned last week, and I guess they liked me. Palying rhythm is the place where i’m comfortable, and I seemed to fit in just fine. I think my overall feel is a little harder thn the rest ofthe band, but I can tone it down a little. the band “Remedy 4 Life” is a n outreach that started at Sonrise church in Santee. you can read more about the band here.

I finally got all the tile cut and in place today. it seems like I’ve been cutting tile for as long as I can remember.

Next up grout and baseboards. I see the light at the end of the tunnel..and I think that there is a bathroom that needs…you guessed it..more tile

• I’m looking forward to soccer practice tonight. The team is coming together well. Tonight slalom dribbling with a cross and shot drills. I’m a better coach then I was last year, so I’m hoping for a better outcome than last year…but I don’t want to speak to soon. There is a lot of season to go.
• Getting the kids up earlier and earlier this week in prep for school next week. Blondie is not doing so well. Starting Monday we need to be up, fed, dressed and out the door by 7:30 am. The first day will go well…Tuesday will be the test
• I’m digging playlist.com. I’m playing my 80’s mix right now. Bryan Adams “This Time” currently. Next up Find your way back…Starship
• I’ve been reading about Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and Jonny Ringo the last few days. Not real literature, but internet stuff. Interesting group dynamic with bullets included. When we go to Colorado next May we may have to go to Doc Holliday’s grave.
• I spent 90 minutes begging and pleading with the kids…well, just the girls to decide in a back pack. The boy wants the Star Wars Clone Wars BP, but the girls can not be satisfied. One can’t decide between two patterns on the same bag, and the other doesn’t like anything that she sees. I’m turning this one over to their mother.
• I really want a coke right now, but I’m drinking iced tea w/o sugar. Will the cravings ever stop? That’s not to say that I’ve stopped drinking coke all together. I have maybe 2 week.
• As I’m `typing I’m finding that I’m using the space bar less and less causing runonwordslikethisone. It may be that the space bar is not working…probably a sunflower seed stuck under there.
• Nervous day ahead. Work force reductions coming in my wife’s department. We went in this morning and painted lambs blood over her office door.
• Im startingtothink that it’sthespacebar malfunctioning

Posted in Misc. Tagged: Addiction, AYSO, Back to School, Blogging, Coka-Cola, Doc Holliday, Life, Playlist.com, Soccer, Wyatt Earp ]]> http://erichasissues.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/tuesday-morning-shorts/feed/ 0 eric has issues http://erichasissues.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/monday-morning-bullets-3/ http://erichasissues.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/monday-morning-bullets-3/#comments Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:55:21 +0000 eric has issues http://erichasissues.wordpress.com/?p=1502 ]]>

Here’s a little recap

• Low key weekend. some action around the house. this is the last week before school starts. the kids still have no back packs yet, but the rest is taken care of. I found out yesterday that I have enough street cred to get the kids teacher assignments before the parent orientation on Wednesday night.
• I met with a guy tat was a former Elvis impersonator. he wants to put together a 50’s thing in two weeks. I may play if I can learn the 30 songs required. when he left, I had his guitar stay behind. A yard sale Ibanez. I played it, and then made a few adjustments. it plays much better now, and he’s happy with it.
• Things that need to be fixed: the lawn mower wont start. the wagon has a cracked tail light, broken rear hatch piston thing and a cracked manifold. cracked tail light is being taken care of today…manifold. A week or two, and I have to figure out a way to cut the back lawn.
• Had an awakening this weekend in class. even though I knew it before, it never really hit me. The epiphany: “Change is not about perfection” in the past I would have taken any set back in an attempt to change as a failure. it hit me when Dr Keith Olsen said the above quote. When I went thru therapy a few years ago I was of the mindset that it was not working because I did not see an immediate change, and was a regular at backsliding. that coupled with my wife’s weekly question: “are you fixed yet?” my answer now a days…”I’m workin on it”
• I like Squeeze. Listening to “Black Coffee in Bed”
• idling at 10 pounds lost. I had a coke on Friday night when we watched a movie…that and popcorn and a bowl of ice cream last night. Ok so I’m not on a diet. however I probably have cut 10 lbs of sugar out of my diet a week for the last 2+ weeks. I am finding out that a glass of cold water goees along way to quinching thirst.
• I picked up my Squire Strat yesterday  to noodle around and realized that that guitar is 24 years old. it still plays great even after a handful of paint jobs, new pickups, and many, many little mods I’ve done over the years. this guitar and I go way back. It was my main axe for 14 years.

I’ve been mulling over topics to write about, and came up empty. I’ve actually gone thru and read some of the old posts from this blog and still…nothin.

so here are some headlines:

• I weigh 9 pounds less than 2 weeks ago just by drinking less coke and more water…along withe a little exercise.
• I really want a coke right now
• yesterday I showed 5 girls how to kick a soccer ball accurately without looking at said ball… and they got it.
• Thinking seriously about resigning my position on the School Site Council.
• I’ve got n 80# pumpkin sitting next to my front door.
• My daughter said something to me hat really made me sit up and take stock of my life.
• 10 days till school starts.
• I’ve registered with some temp companies. I really should get a part time job
• I’ve got half a green fence in my back yard
• I haven’t seriously played guitar in 4 months.
• I’ve got 12 cans of french cut green beans in my pantry…Why? I always buy fresh
• I’ve been thinking about old friends lately.
• my daughter gets her braces off today. only to be re-braced in a few years. Too bad only one treatment per lifetime is covered.
• this week I ate almost an entire watermelon in one day
• camping was fun. We should do it more often
• The Cedar Glen Malt Shop: A place you will probably never dine at, but should.
• Lake Arrowhead is a community that can not survive on millionaires alone.
• Saw Rio, A Duran Duran cover band…musically good, vocally not so much.