Captain's Log, 20100531 0355 hours.

Slithering around early this morning or very late this night, ever the case may be, I tried to gather some inspiration for today's entry. I concluded nothing more than to write exactly what I thought about, change. As we all know change is very hard for most of us, but if its one thing that my job has taught me it's that things can go from hunky dory to complete and utter shitstorm in a matter of milliseconds. I've had to learn a multitude of other things in the same breath but adaptation seems to be the one thing that rings useful most times. So many changes have come for me since the last time that I mustered the stamina to throw the only two cents that I have in to the blogging community. I learned that making someone that you care about happy can bring such a sense of accomplishment. The lovely young lady that I wrote about a few weeks ago and I are still, "Talking," and I've never in my life felt the sense of fullness of heart that I feel when I hear that sweet voice telling me all about her day. The day doesn't seem complete without telling her that I hope she has sweet dreams.

These past 2 weekends have been quite the workout for the liver. Last weekend I had the opportunity to partake in the First Annual Dirty South Tour with my brother-in-law and his younger brother who is still a year my senior. The weekend started on Thursday with a round of captain's choice golf at the Longwood University course in a little dot on the map known as Farmville. (No not the Farmville on Facebook, stay with me here folks.) After our early morning outing we had quite a little jaunt down to Greensboro North Carolina, for a little single A baseball action at Grasshopper Park, downtown. Luckily it just so happened to be dollar beer night, and ever luckyER after a 6 dollar ticket all I had left was a fist full of singles. This park was amazing as it had a bar in the outfield which is right up my alley as I'm not so much in to baseball as a rule. After the game the three of us decided to head even further down in downtown. Who's idea it was to get in a vehicle with 3 of the most random girls that we could have picked I still dont know but in any event we ended up at Natty Greens which just so happens to have some amazing craft beers. Early Friday morning it was time for a quick ride out to Charlotte for another 18 holes at Rocky Ridge just beside Charlotte Motor Speedway. (formerly known as Lowes Motor Sweedway) 18 holes later and a few PBRs deeper it was time for a little NASCAR Campingworld Truck Series at the illustrious Charlotte Motor Speedway but not before 2 bottles of Orange Jubilee MD 20/20 and an 8 piece meal from Bojangles. There happened to be quite the rain delay giving plenty of time for a few of our other buddies from Georgia and Richmond to catch up and make it to the race. The race was eventually run around midnight, I dont remember who won..... guess that ol' Mad Dog got a hold of me. Saturday seemed to be a day of recuperation for the night ahead at The Madhouse otherwise known as Bowman Gray Stadium located in downtown Winston-Salem near the campus of Winston-Salem Sate University. This too was an evening of debauchery and fried bologna sandwiches. We returned to the north that Sunday. It was the most fun I think I've ever had over the course of 4 days. The weekend was totally worth working the 7 days straight of 12 hour night shifts in order to make it happen.

This weekend was a bit more low key but fun never the less. Friday night I decided to treat myself for a night on the town, all by my lonesome. I always end up meeting people no matter where I go, whether or not I want to. I started the night around 9ish at Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint the home of the famous Jack Brown's Elvis Burger and the 100 Notch Club. Then on to Finnigan's Cove a dive bar if there ever was one. Go for the $1.50 Jello Shots, 6 dollar 7 and 7's, and smokey atmosphere. Stay for the Crab Dip and Mini Corn Dogs located on the late night menu. It became apparent to me after about 3 drinks and a rather interesting conversation with one of the most regular of the regulars at this place that I oughta' be going as she proceeded to vomit violently into her purse and scream about how Jesus, himself got her off of heroine. Just a short hop up the street sits Dave's Downtown Taverna, a Harrisonburg Institution. I decided to make that my next destination. Stayed for a quick pint of Smithwicks and met some boys from out in, "The Branch." We had quite the banter about, "Peanuts," which I guess must mean moonshine, as they swiftly corrected me when I said something about White Lightning. I ended the night right where I began. I caught the late night shuttle from my apartment complex back to my little slice of heaven. Saturday, Mom and I went to the 10th Annual Valleyfest at Massanutten hosted by the Harrisonburg Chamber of Commerce, A collaborative effort of wine and beer vendors and enthusiasts from all over the country. Saturday night was spent with some very new, dear friends across town. My current love interest was in attendance, and I was able to spend some very much needed quality time with just her. I spent Sunday sleeping off the night before and engaging in casual chit-chat with my beauty queen.

These past few weeks where I have been incommunicado have been the best in recent memory. It's really too bad that this week will consist of 5 days of 12 hour shifts full of vehicle pursuits, structure fires and no doubt, with the holiday today there will be some backyard domestic, disorderly brawls involving spatulas, shotgun weddings, brats and tongs. But it sure will make for some interesting fun reading/writing.

Have a wonderful week and try to put me out of work by not doing anything too stupid.....tell your friends too.

-Dontcallmeradio

A Little Worse For Ware, But I'm Wearing It Well.

So recently I decided that I was going to take a trip to Ireland in July. I've never been to Europe and am pretty excited about the idea of taking a trip with just me and a backpack full of just the essentials across, what seems to me to be, the world. I'm glad that I was able to realize the potential for this little jaunt across the Pond before I am 35 with a wife and kids. Although I am much more mature and well versed in the world than most people my age, I still think I should enjoy my youth and take these trips that I wont want to take or wont be able to take in the next 5-10 years. Chock everything up to life experience, because if I've taught you, or myself anything its that life experience matters more than anything.

Yet another 8 hour shift almost down and then one night left of the work week. If there is one thing to be learned tonight it's that you should learn who has your back, I'm very fortunate that my entire shift looks out for one another and that nobody on my shift can go 12 hours without learning something new. I had the privilege of teaching my shift a little something tonight. The word Swum. They swore to me that there was no such thing as the word swum, I was able to prove them wrong. Swum is the past participle of swim. Who says you need a college degree to be smart? You only need to be an ass to be a smart ass. Or at least I do.


-Dontcallmeradio

A New Man

Isn't it funny how something that seems so insignificant can just brighten up a week that just wont die? Well I had one of those Eureka! moments today, when I was cleaning out my car. Its amazing to me how easy it is to make myself happy, a clean car, haircut and a few dollars in my pocket to squander. That's really all I would ever need or want for that matter.

I started my day relatively late today, around 4:45, which used to make for a rather counterproductive day, but recently I'm taking the small victories over the full day ventures of things to be done. I find that if I can make things as simple as I can for just one mediocre task per day and do it very well that the satisfaction is amplified ten fold in the long run, instead of spending a whole day doing something and being completely wiped out at the end of it. Today that was my car. Tomorrow will be sleep and tomorrow night will be work. Following the same pattern for the rest of the weekend. 2 short days off on Monday and Tuesday at which time I will most likely kick the living situation solutions into a very high gear and trying to find out how much I owe on my car so that I can remedy that situation as well. All in all this has been a rather productive few days off. I hosted a bunch of folks last night for some brews and music in the living room. Consequently there was a girl that found my kitchen absolutely unusable, and disgusting. She decided to pretty much clean the whole thing top to bottom, and as I woke up this morning I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had been done.


This weekend will undoubtedly be one of the longest of the year, the chitlin's will be headed home to wherever they hail from and the city will be left to yet again overhaul the damages sustained from yet another school year. There is something very eerie about the way things are when there's no students here in the Summer. Traffic seems to flow normally instead of looking like the street department didn't plan for a city that is twice the population, like is most times found in the Winter and Fall months. It is quite a nice break having the city's population decrease by half this time of year though. It seems like there are more things to do for the people that call this place home that may be, "hidden," from the people that take a giant dump on it when they are in school.


-Dontcallmeradio