“Paranoia time”

If you were a metal fan in the 80s then you were quite familiar with “The Big Four”. “The Big Four” meaning Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. My older brother introduced me to Metallica’s Master of Puppets and Megadeth’s Peach Sells…But Who’s Buying? the same summer, summer of 1987. I knew of them, but had […]

I Think I’ve Become ‘Bad John’

I’ve been at my current employer now for almost 24 years. My first day was September 27, 1999. It started in the HR office where I sat and learned about company policy; attendance, vacation time, sick leave, and just general history of the company. Those in that room were myself, the HR specialist, and one […]

Durham’s Magic Fingers

So coming up through middle school and high school as an introverted wannabe guitar shredder is tough business. I could barely strum chords in front of my parents at home, let alone cut heads like Jack Butler in Crossroads in front of my peers. There was a definite “who’s the best?” vibe in high school. […]

Unstuck In Time With Kurt Vonnegut and Glenn Gould

It was 10th grade and I was trying to find something…something that would take me to the next intellectual level. I was a guitarist. Music was my “passion”, I suppose. But hammer-ons, power chords, and prog rock only goes so far. There were parts of my head and heart that were hungry for those sorts […]

Tim Heidecker : High School

I never would have taken Tim Heidecker of Tim and Eric fame to have been such a prolific songwriter, but here we are with his third album in three years. With What The Brokenhearted Do and Fear Of Death, released 2019 and 2020 respectively, Heidecker showed he had a knack for classic singer/songwriter fare. Introspective […]

Gainfully Employed

My son recently started his first job. He’s following in his father’s footsteps as a gainfully employed bag boy at the local supermarket. It’s actually the same supermarket I worked at as a senior in high school. Well, it’s a newer building(the grocery I worked at was recently demolished so the city can put up […]

The Big Quiet

We’re just three weeks from the start of school. Our youngest will be starting his junior year of high school, driving himself every morning in the same mini-van that used to take him to grade school. Our middle child is 18 and she’ll be starting her freshman year of college at Ferris State University. Go […]

Radio

Back in October the family and I took our annual vacation. Typically that falls in June/July, but thanks to the world shutting down in 2020 we decided to get away in late fall. Sure, the pandemic was still running hot and heavy, but our vacation was being spent in a cabin in the woods of […]

High Ability, Low Motivation

I’ve started having those old high school nightmares again. These were the dreams I often had well out of graduating with the class of 1992 with acceptable grades and little interest in looking back. The dreams were of a couple different varieties; can’t remember the combination to my lock, can’t remember how to get to […]

So Many Erotic Nightmares

When I was little I used to tag along with my mom quite a bit. During summer break my brother usually had a friend to hang out with or ball practice to be at, so when my mom wanted to go to my grandma’s or clothes shopping or just out of the damn house I […]