01 October 2006

A great vacation. I'm home from a warm and toasty North Carolina to a cold and rainy New York. After I landed in Raleigh, I had lunch with Becky for the first time and learned a lot about her. We've been online friends for a while. I then headed down east to see the in-laws and dinner and then to Ray and Tommy's house. A mix up with my luggage was finally settled about 11pm that night.

I spent the next day with Ray and Tommy and the Railroad Museum. Biscuitville and Smithfields BBQ were close by. The next morning I spent in Charlotte, always looking to see how much it's changed. The whole light rail thing mesmerizes me. It's then off to Mom and Dad's house for the next several days. My dad's doing OK but it's always a little discouraging to watch my dad get confused over things we just talked about. However, we did talk a lot about his past, things I didn't know about. My mom handles it well 75% of the time. We took a road trip to my dad's home place, which is now under Lake Norman as well as to the Hickory area. I got to see my brother and his family as well as old friends from the past. It's good to see how well my brother and kids are doing after his divorce. Three visits to different BBQ joints last week. I left there and it was off for David, K&W, Krispy Kreme, and a tour of Winston-Salem. I kind of like Winston Salem.

Monday morning in Charlotte was spent driving around looking at light rail construction and here's a question too. When we moved up to New York, there was an 8 to 10 cent difference in the price of gas. Now there is a 25 cent difference between here and Charlotte and 40 cents between here and the outlying areas of Charlotte. Why???

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07 October 2006

The cold has arrived, sort of. I thought I might lose my plants last night but they survived, tonight may be a different story. I've decided to set up an area in the basement with a shop light to keep the big plants under during the winter. We took a road trip to Connecticut today. The leaves are definitely starting to change.

Looking at brighter news, Elliott Spitzer is a definite shoe in for governor barring any sex scandal or something crazy like that. He's very pro gay marriage and it's even part of his agenda. Still an uphill battle but we're farther up the hill now.

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14 October 2006

If your man wants a fur pimp coat, Burlington Coat Factory is the place to get it. After a day of searching, they did have the new coat I was looking for.

The last two mornings, I was sure, all my flowers would be yesterday's news but they're still around. It's been nice and sunny the last few days as Buffalo was getting socked with two feet of snow and almost 400,000 homes without power due to the trees still having leaves. We don't really get a lot lake effect snow here thank God. The mountains catch most of it before it gets here. If we do get some, I'll have a new cat to shovel it in.

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16 October 2006

I hate Paris Hilton with a passion. So much, that when I heard she had a song out, I promised whatever happened, I would never listen to it or watch the video. For the past couple of months, I've done OK, going along with my life just like everything was normal. Then yesterday, while spinning channels on the tube, I ran across the top 20 count down and stopped. After a few songs, along came the Paris Hilton song. I like it....OK, OK, I love it and the video, too. God help me, it's playing in the corner of the screen right now. Maybe there's no hope.

Today, Matt Dillon v. Matt Damon...

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18 October 2006

You go Chris Rock's Mom, but only because I hate Cracker Barrel. If you're going to make accusations against somebody for discrimination, it better be for more than sitting around at a restaurant for an hour before getting waited on. We've been out many times and had to ask to get waited on because we were overlooked. No business is perfect. It wasn't because we are gay or white or ugly or any other reason. It was because the wait staff mixed up their stations or nobody told them we need to be waited on. And why would you sit around for an hour before you said anything about not being waited on anyway? The fact that Al Sharpton is involved just makes it that much more suspicious. Al Sharpton or Cracker Barrel, who do I despise worse?

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19 October 2006

Usually I try not to talk politics, especially at work, because somebody's just going to get upset. I was talking with this guy yesterday and he said I'd make a horrible Republican. I said I'll take that as a complement. He knows I'm gay but was very 'surprised' by it. In fact he has 'no problem' with it and even considers me a 'pal'. He then continues to tell me about his beliefs, I.E., 'homosexuality is a sin bullshit' and how he's an alcoholic and that's a sin too, everybody sins. I told him he chose to drink, I didn't choose to be gay. We rambled on and I left. I was pissed off for an hour and decided it wasn't worth it.

I replaced my headlights in my truck today, a task I've never done in almost twelve years. With every other car I've had, you only had to replace the bulb itself. My truck required me to replace the whole lamp. The problem, you have to take off the grill and the turn signals. My problem comes from the "Day of Two Wrecks" back in 1999 or 2000. My bumper is rammed into my grill making impossible to get off. It took me an hour to do a ten minute job but that's the story of my life.

Back to the first story. On the way home, I was looking for some news on the AM station and there was a guy on the radio who believed the reason gay people want to marry is because it would be mandatory for companies to provide the same benefits as to straight people and therefore ==Get This== gay people could marry homeless people with AIDS so they would have coverage and this would put the healthcare industry out of business. I swear that's what he said.

Most homeless people ARE hot, now that I think about it.

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21 October 2006

My mom was in the hospital about a week ago but has been out since last weekend. It was nothing major, just an infection in the colon of some sort. My brother called today and told me she was in the hospital again, this time with an irregular heartbeat. They're scheduled tomorrow to shock her heart back into rhythm. She actually sounded pretty good but I asked her how dad was doing and she said he was mixed up. When I talked to my dad, it was the normal conversation but I asked how long mom has been in the hospital today, he said, about a week. My dad couldn't stay by himself if something happens to my mom. She knows that, I know that, he doesn't know that.

You gotta like it when you hear the boss is saying good things about you behind your back.

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23 October 2006

Duncan had to have emergency surgery tonight but he's doing just fine. He had to have his appendix out and he'll be coming home tomorrow afternoon hopefully. It's strange how you worry about your loved ones more than yourself when your in the same position. My mom is also due to come home tomorrow from her hospital stay, also doing well.

And might Jack Black be one of the funniest persons ever?

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24 October 2006

Duncan's home and doing fine. He's on a liquid diet for today only so I went to the store to pick up some stuff. I wrote off soups a long time ago after a soup burn-out but as I was perusing the soup section today, I picked up a few. It's gonna be a long cold winter, I may as well be doing the soup at the same time. Thank God Duncan is home safe...and my mom is home safe, too.

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29 October 2006

QUOTE: "We cannot afford to be cautious, because you don't change the world by whispering." May 30, 2006, Eliot Spitzer at the state Democratic Convention. This is why I love this man, I guess this is why so many people love him. I can't wait to vote on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

Michael is here this weekend. He and Duncan are watching wrestling and I think they have about 25 DVDs to watch. The funniest part is really watching them watch as they crank out stupid jokes and sarcastic remarks. I may be able to get some Mexican food out of the deal tonight though.

The wind, she is a blowing...but no damage in this neck of the woods as far as I know it.

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30 October 2006

It's late and I've gotten into the Halloween candy. That's probably not good.

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