Pizza, Beer, ‘n Rock and Roll : How I Spent My Summer Vacation

July 8th(Part One) Sitting poolside at the Vermilion, OH Holiday Inn Express and the chlorine is burning my nostrils. All the kids are happily dropping into the 5′ deep water like anvils in a tub of jell-o and they seem to be quite content to do this for the remainder of the day. I’m opting […]

Today’s Headline : ‘Slacker Dad Has Not-So Slacker Daughter’

I was not the best student in high school. Sure I always passed my classes and I never failed, but I did the absolute minimum I needed to do in order to move on to the next level and I never looked back. I didn’t procrastinate. In fact I usually got things done pretty early […]

Corvette ’61

For a time when my dad was between 8 and 15 years old he lived in a small town in Northeast Indiana called Lagrange. That is where his obsession with cars started and where he would become what the car folks call a “gearhead”. The obsession may have started before, but in Lagrange is where […]

Ridiculous Vinyl Purchases : Nostalgia Gets The Best Of Us All

I guess you could say I’ve been on a bit of a nostalgia kick lately. On a trip to my local record store recently I was given access to leaf through an as-yet put out collection of records and see if anything tickled my fancy. Within this “like, totally” 80s dive I located some truly […]

Schoolz Out

School’s out for summer Today is the day every boy and girl anticipates from the time the school year starts: the last day of school. Yes, every day, every piece of homework, every convocation in the gym, every computer lab, and every field trip throughout the year is nothing more than passing time until that […]

Judy

Judy was my mother-in-law. Judy died on May 19th, 2014 in her apartment from complications due to alcoholism and subsequently Cirrhosis of the liver. It was the solitary life for her because that’s what her alcoholism required. She was alone most of the time I’d known her, which was 23 years when she died. When […]

A Life In Albums : Part One

I usually don’t like those list things. You know, where you have to rank things you love which makes other things you love seem as if you love them less. Year end lists are okay, but when you’re talking “TOP 20 MOVIES OF YOUR LIFE” or “TOP 10 BURRITOS I’VE EVER EATEN”, it kind of […]

In Dreams

Dreams can be such humbling things. Even in the most bizarre, awkward ones there’s still some element of truth wrapped into the center of them if you dig hard enough. Strange places with vague similarities to ones from your waking life. Objects that have a visceral importance in a dream turn into something completely different […]

Mind Out of Time and The Lords of Synth

Well I’m back at it full force at work. I’ve left the shackles of recovery nearly behind me. A very good thing, for sure. But now work is a complete cavalcade of insanity. It’s left me little time to write this week which always makes me antsy. “All work and no play, makes John something […]

R.I.P., Christopher Tracy

I begrudgingly became a Prince fan. Why? Well, when you’ve got a best pal that listens only to Prince and you’re hanging out with him nearly every weekend it’s inevitable that the “Purple One” is going to rub off on you. Prior to meeting this best pal in the third grade I can remember hearing […]