I want to start a band that has a continuously changing line up on a monthly basis. So, if the band starts out as a four piece, one person has to find a replacement then quit after a month. Then another person has to find their replacement and then quit after a month and so on so the line up always changes until the band just becomes it's own entity with no leader.  

Who's in?

All I can say is that if you haven't heard Great Phone Calls by Neil Hamburger, your sides are way overdue for a good splitting.  

My friend palyed me the album back around 1990 and I remeber just howling through the whole thing.  I've often thought of of it through the years and while shopping on Amazon I found it and ordered it.  The CD arrived this morning and WOW it's got legs. 
It's aged well! 

IT'S!
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Hamburger!!!

I love home.

Normally I have this to say about my job - I work for my job as hard as it works for me.  Meaning, I put in the time and in return I get to go on tour, take way more vacation days than I probably should get and also get profit sharing and holiday bonus pay, that kind of stuff.  The best part of my job is that I get to leave it at work, I'm totally free after 4 PM to get back to my life of bands and house projects.  But yesterday was a killer at work, streams of emails pummeling my brain, impatient attorneys, software crashes and slow networks completely drained my psychic imagery and when I got home an hour later than normal, I plopped in front of the TV at 6:30 and stayed there until 9:30 when I when to bed, about two hours earlier than normal.   I remember thinking – “Is this what other people do at my office?  Work all day and then come home to TV? Is this why they’re so miserable?”  I feel like when I used to drink and I’d wake up the next morning feeling guilty about some stupid thing I did the night before.  Instead of watching Man vs. Nature (I’ve got a big man-crush on Bear Grylls) I could have:

Practiced snare drum rudiments

Answered emails

Worked on my basement floor

Tuned my drums

Cleaned the kitchen

Meditated

Practiced guitar

I kind of feel like disconnecting the TV tonight, The Nurse and I both have talked about unplugging it and putting it away and only taking it our when my folks come to visit.  We have a monitor/dvd/vhs setup in our bedroom for movies if we feel so inclined.  I really can’t do the “Put a sheet over the TV deal” because I’d just take the sheet off, watch TV and then never put it back on. 

Do you guys do the sheet thing?  No TV thing?  Or just let yourself indulge in the warm glow? 

Without reading it, I think my horoscope would suggest stopping beating myself up.  I’ve been really hard on myself at work lately; it seems to go in waves.  Any time some small thing goes wrong with a project I was a part of I immediately assume that part I worked on was what went wrong.  To make matters worse, when I find out it was someone else’s fault I feel glad it wasn’t my fault, but get annoyed at them because what they did reflects on all of us in my department, so in essence, it doesn’t matter who fucked up, we ALL fucked up.  So, I guess I’m being overly critical and judgmental of myself and others, and probably a little paranoid.  

On a positive spin, 

I have great teeth

It was only a matter of time before I missed a day, but whatever, I have a good excuse, I finished my floor last night.  Well, I finished what I have laid out so far, I still have about another 300 sq feet to go.  

My father taught me how to tile the last time he was out here.  When I was a kid we used to work on projects on our house all the time, he was always building something on it, adding to it, there was never a time when he wasn't involved in some kind of project on our house and he made sure to put me to work as well.  I think that may be one of the reasons why I don't particulaly enjoy doing work on our house, but like most things I just need to get started on it and then I find my groove.  This tiling job is one of the funnest projects I've worked on.  I think a lot about my father when I'm down there working, wondering what went through his head when he worked on his projects.  A guy can get a lot of thinking done when he's alone in a basement with nothing but ceramic tile, fresh thin-set, and a grout bag.  

In December The Nurse and I will celebrate our two year anniversary of living in the bought our house together.  Since then I've spent what ever extra time I have polishing our little two bedroom turd.  The project I've been working on since this summer is installing a ceramic tile floor in our basement.  I'm about half finished, about 300 square feet so far.  Today I grouted the tiles I had laid and I have to say I find the entire act of tiling very meditative, it's a lot of work, but after I saw how the floor looked once the grout was cleaned I was really proud of my accomplishment.  It looks great.  Pictures  to follow sometime soon.  I'm sore and full of a warm dinner I shared with friends earlier this evening.  After a year and a half of sobriety I still kind of get uncomfortable when I'm at a social gathering and everyone is laughing and I'm just kind of sitting there with my water, engaged and entertained, but not to the point of laughter.  I find now that it takes a lot to muster a full laugh out of me, but when I do, it feels like I'm gurgling sunshine, it just resonates.  

I think I listened to The Psychedelic Sound of the 13th Floor Elevators like four times today.  Splash 1 and Don't Fall Down both remind me of The Nurse.  If her and I were together when that album first came out, I'm sure we would have conceived our LSD love child to one of those songs. 

Have you seen You're Gonna Miss Me?

I had a psychic argument with an ex-girlfriend and an ex-best friend while making a salad for dinner.  I think I won.