The answer is, in fact 42.

Now, if I just knew the fucking question.

If you aren't a Douglas Adams fan, you won't get that.

I fucking hate winter, have I told you that? I really do. It wasn't snowing today, but we had freezing rain, just to make things interesting. There were like 30 accidents in Reno, and around Northern Nevada. This has prompted me to give out with this little gem of wisdom:

Deification and the S.U.V.

Contrary to popular belief, buying a Toyota 4Runner, Ford Explorer, or even a Caddilac Esplanade does not make you a God, nor does it imbue you with any god-like powers.

I don't care if you paid $88,900 for a new Porsche Cayenne and equiped it with the best studded mud and snows available, added chains, and any other acoutremonts you can think of, if you hit a patch of ice while cruising along at 50, 60, hell, even 40 miles per hour, you're gonna spin out, and most likely cause an accident.

Maybe you'll get lucky. Maybe only you will die in said accident. Most of the time tho, there will be more than one vehicle involved, and you could very well end up with someone else's death on your hands. I think these assholes should have to explain to Johhny, or Janey why mommy's dead.

"So sorry honey, but I was just in such a hurry to get to work, and I'm so much more important than anyone else, I just figured it was my right to drive like the asshole I am, disregarding everyone else on the road. It sucks that your mom's dead, but it will make you stronger in the long run."

---

I need to see the fucking sun; soak it up, revel in it. Can you tell? I've been really depressed lately, and this kind of shit (culled from the traffic reports on the radio, and just watching the fucks drive around) just makes it worse.

I'm listening to Hemisphres right now. It's one of Rush's early albums, and I love it. Raw, energized guitar. Outstanding vocals (Geddy's got some voice) great story-type lyrics. Peart's drum work is unrivaled.

Have I mentioned that Rush is my fave band? I've seen them 9 times, and they're even my tatoo.

Guess I'm through ranting for now. See you on the flip side.

T.

Video Keno: 200, T.J.: 0

Well, that's another 10 bucks down the drain.

Poppa got his ss check the other day, and today, he, myself, and a good friend, B, went to the casino and blew a bit. The machines were cranked up tighter'n Tilly.

On a good note tho, the lunch special ( 8oz top sirloin steak sandwich, fries, soup and salad bar, $4.99) was outstanding. The steak was a bit overdone, but then I'm kinda hard to please when it comes to a rare steak. Most chefs, and rightly so, I might add, think that people don't really know what they want.

Take, for example, fried eggs. There are 3 ways of ordering fried eggs. Over easy, over medium, and over hard. The distinction is vital to good eggs.

Over easy means eggs cooked on the bottom, flipped over in the pan, and slid onto a plate, the albumen mostly uncooked on the 'top.'

Over medium means eggs cooked on the bottom, flipped, and cooked on the top, yolks still runny (my fav, btw).

Over hard means yolks broken, cooked top and bottom.

A lot of people will order over easy, thinking that it means yolks unbroken, and then complain because the whites are uncooked.

It's much the same when you order a steak. When I say rare, I mean rare.

Sit it down, give it a stern talking to, and send it my way rare. Or, if you're a cowboy, Knock it's horns off, wipe it's ass, and run it through a warm room rare.

The steak, just a bit less than a good medium rare was outstanding tho, so I can't complain too much.

---

In other news, my mother took me out yesterday and bought me some shoes and socks as the last part of my birthday present. This has put me in a rather unique situation. I'm a guy, you see. I usually have, oh, I don't know....like 1 or 2 pairs of shoes. My daily drivers, and some form of dress shoes. I now have in my posession, 7 pairs of shoes.

That's a record for me, I'm sure of it.

I have to make this short, at least for now. I have, conservatively, 5 loads of laundry to do before I go to bed tonight.

I'm fucking stoked. Can you tell?

Well, time to start the first load,

Peace out,

T.

P.S. in rereading this, i realized that there is a fourth way to order fried eggs, and that is sunny side up. that's the same as over easy, but not 'over'. t.

I think it's Shoshone for 'freeze your balls off'

We get a condition here, and I think I may have discussed it before (and if I have, just bear with me) called Pogonip.

What happens is this: Dense fog (75-100 yds visibility) combines with low to mid teen temperatures, and causes the fog to crystalize on everything. Like frost on steriods.

3 days running we've had this crap. Also makes the roads icy as hell. If there's ice in hell, that is.

Running late sorry for the shortness.

T.

Now short and sweet

I tried to post earlier, but got some internal server error.



Guess you get the abbv. version then.





Work is so much work. I hate big orders (23 extra large pizzas, order placed at 9:05, two hours before we open.)



I wonder if these idiots know that all those skins (naked pizza) are made fresh everyday, and that an order of that magnitude throws my whole day into disarray.



I wonder if they even care. Knowing people, I'm going to say no on both accounts.





I'm feeling a bit cynical of late, can you tell?

Later,

T.

And now, for something completely different....

Dear Jennifer,

I heard Elvis on the radio this morning, and thought of you. That I should think of you is no great thing, as hardly a day goes by that I don't think of you. The fact that it was Elvis is a bit strange, as he doesn't get much air play these days. I was still bouncing around stations, deciding what to listen to, and after The King, some boring commercial sent me to KOZZ.

I don't remember the song, but again, you were there. Next radio change, the same. Every station, every song. Even, surprisingly, the country station. Not that it's surprising that country would put you on my mind, but surprising that I was listening to in on a day when all I could do was think of you, is.

I think I thought about our whole relationship today. From first toast, to the hug I got from you last November. Lost in Golden Gate Park. The Concert. Sleeping on the beach in Mendicino. Yosemite.

I realized something today. I still love you. Not in the we're still really good friends as well as family sense, but really love you. I'm happy for you. He's a really great guy, and you guys have done an outstanding job raising Summer. I can't thank you enough for that.

I'm not sure that we'd still be together, if things hadn't ended as they had, and in that respect, if it had to end the way, and at the time it did so that we could still be friends, for Summer's sake, if not for our own, the I can live with it, but I'll miss you for the rest of my life.


With all my heart, I am forever your,

T.J.

---

I know you'll never read this, and that's probably best, but my new friends will. My girl-posse. Oh, and you James, if you really are reading this. And, dear friends I will ask you this: When next you hear a tale of a broken heart, think, however briefly, of me.

I listened to country music at work all day today

The twangy depressiveness of it meshed perfectly with my mood. I always get this way around birthday time.

Actually, it starts somewhere around Thanksgiving, and runs somewhere until the sun starts to show itself again.

I guess you could call it the winter doldrums, or whatever the current buzzword is for it, but whichever term you use for it, I'm deep in it.

My family is supposed to come over with cake later, and I suppose I may get a gift or two.

Guess that's all for now. Hope all is well with all of you.

T.

Global weather patterns.

I don't know if any of have been monitoring or living through the monster storm that hit the West Coast, but I've just about had my fill of it.

Suse, I know you're in Socal, so you've had some of it, but here in lil ol' Carson City, we got somewhere in the neighborhood of 19 inches of snow.

Reno got hammered tho. They got like 3 and a half, and in some places, 4 feet. Yeah, and the best part is, they have no plows/plow drivers to clean up. There are some streets that haven't been plowed once since the snow flew.

Garbage pickup is like 3 weeks behind.

It's been a total balls up.

We're supposed to get a break from the precip, but it's gonna be fucking cold. Down to single digits in a few days.

The only thing nice I can say about the snow is that it makes Carson City look almost pretty. Most of the time, Carson is a dirty, dusty desert town. The snow hides all that, and gives the eye a break.

As long as you wear shades. Snowblindness is real, and no fun at all.

Work is ok. I want you to all do something for me tho. There is one local business, and a few people that work there that make my life a living hell on a nearly daily basis.

So, join with me if you will, and send silent hate vibes out to these two.

Oh yeah....the worst of all possible things has happened. An rl friend has told me that he's started reading my blog.

Not that it really bothers me, he knows me, and knows that what I say here is pretty much what I'd say anywhere, either in print, or in person.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is the day. Not 40 yet, but one year closer, and now, only one year away. Yes, on that day, 39 years ago, I came into this world.

I'm beat, hungry, and jonzing to read now, so I'm off to devour some more of Wolves of the Calla. It's the 5th of the Gunslinger novels from Stephen King.

Hope all is well with you all. Know that I'm reading you all still, just lagging on comments.

Later,

T.