Obviously
February 4, 2010 – 8:14 amC_ comes downstairs this morning after readying herself for another day and I say to her, “IF YOU AIN’T GOT NO MONEY TAKE YOUR BROKE ASS HOME!” and she was all like, “I am home.”
Touché.
In the distal future!
January 9, 2010 – 8:33 amI find that there really isn’t a whole lot to say after the holidays. Connections have been made (I haven’t seen you in FOREVER) and talks have been held so really, what else is there to say?
I have two cavities. Each on opposite distal bicuspids on the lower arch. I asked Amy Jo what “distal” meant and she was like, “On the far end”. It was totally the best part of the appointment. I really do like my dental hygienist. We talk a lot about movies (she lets me talk). Anyway – the cavities will be filled in March (the dentist is way booked) in two separate appointments. They don’t like to numb the entire lower jaw since the two cavities are on opposite sides. I look forward to it because Dr. Stewart makes the meanest cocktail of Novocaine. I don’t know what else she puts in it but it sure is fun (although the drive home tends to be problematic).
Photographically, I am looking forward to two things:
1) shooting with Kodalith
2) developing my very own black and white negatives. I have the chemistry.
I’ve pretty much dried up on shooting digital with the exception of C_ flipping her hair around. Those photos generate money for some reason or other. I should get back in the habit of digital photography but it’s just not that exciting. Perhaps I need a new lens.
Other areas of interest include:
1) first shooter video games (shooting Nazis never ever gets old)
2) Wii bowling after dinner with my family (we’re pretty good)
3) my aquarium (something unspeakable happened to one of the mixed fruit tetras and it remains a total mystery – all I found was its spine)
4) cleaning the kitchen (a clean kitchen is essential to good living)
5) thinking about skateboarding
6) thinking about the 80s
7) thinking about summer
All of these are very good things to have and think about. 2010 is looking to be a very good year. In February I will be coming up on 1 year of non-smoking life. It is the best I have felt since the day before I took up smoking. I have my energy back and my mind. It’s like, being a kid again. Sort of. But with responsibilities, that can sometimes suck.
In the distal past...
In keeping with the spirit
December 20, 2009 – 9:49 pmAs I have said before, it appears that a lot of our family photos are from the most wonderful time of the year. Allow me to demonstrate:
Honestly, I don’t even have to try and I am able to find photos like the one posted above tucked away in a book or small box. If you look carefully, you will see the that we are enjoying a fondue. Easily one of the most continued Christmas Eve traditions that is kept at the Wieczorek household. My mom is trying out an electric fondue this year. For a short time we had Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza and later there was a Kentucky Fried Chicken period. We will try different things but it always comes back to the fondue.
Friday night I had the best intentions of going to the Wieczorek Family Christmas party. Another tradition. It used to be held at my Uncle David’s home on Christmas Eve but as extended families continue to disconnect and spread apart they have it earlier in order not to inconvenience anyone. By the time Saturday night turned around I wasn’t feeling it. I opted for “Earth” in high definition. C_ woke me up at midnight. I had fallen asleep on the couch. James Earl Jones is a very heavy tranquilizer.
So today, in order to make up for last night’s lame dismissal of family, we went out to my mom and dad’s place. It’s always such a nice tie. I got the Armada up and sailing on battery power again (touchy bloke). Vacuumed the house with the Dyson (hey, who knew, it’s awesome) Dad showed me how to make a fire in their fireplace. Apparently it involves much more than just throwing some wood in it and striking a match (thanks for showing me how to open the flue, Dad!)
How to start a fire at my parents’ house:
Open flue (pull down vent panel and move lever all the way to the left, tap to the right after fire gets going so it doesn’t burn so quickly)
Log cabin style stack the kindling, placing chunks of starter log underneath various pieces.
Light a piece of newspaper on fire and hold it up to the flue in order to create a draft.
Create draft by opening door to the outside.
Light pieces of starter log, close fireplace doors but don’t latch.
Burn baby burn.
Spaghetti for lunch and then we watched “School of Rock” which is like watching Jack Black do the same joke for two and half hours. Still tho – there’s some good stuff in it. Played the balloon game with Rhen for awhile and then packed up the family truckster. Pulled out of my parents’ driveway -thinking of fondue, snow falling , ready for the coming holiday.
That’s a lot of snow
December 13, 2009 – 8:45 amMore snow than I could ever care for. When I look at all of the snow around me I feel myself separate into two. There’s one of me that somehow falls back into the summer while the other trudges forth into cruel winter. A fanciful thought because of course, we all know that there’s only going forward. Stupid space-time continuum.
The one saving grace of winter is Christmas. I am looking forward to time spent with family and friends. Rhen gets a huge pile of toys and that’s a lot of fun to watch. Nothing beats a child’s excitement for Christmas. Ask any kid – it’s serious stuff. I’ve learned that by the time a kid reaches the age of four that you do not make idle threats of Santa bringing coal because someone didn’t eat his carrots. Once again, Santa is serious stuff. C_ had written to “Santa” on behalf of Rhen this year and in return Rhen received a certificate from Ms. Claus (Santa’s secretary?) that he was, indeed, OFFICIALLY on the “good list”. Rhen showed me the document when I got home from work and I could easily see the relief on his face. It said, “Yep. This Christmas is in the bag. I’ve got it. No worries from here on out.”
I’ve noticed that a lot of our family photos are from Christmas. For example:
I remember this slide. I refused to move from it that night.
And of course, my mom, who works so hard to put together Christmas for us every year. Even the Christmas she made us read bad holiday poetry.
Diggin' Christmas back in the day.
The last time I let someone take a photograph of me wearing sweatpants
December 6, 2009 – 6:10 amThe hat is a dream too. I remember it being a cheap Independent Truck painter’s hat. I like how I have it perched on the top of my head like a crown.
Well, the snow has fallen and the temps are in the 20s. Disgusting winter. I cleaned my bearings and skated in the basement with Rhen for about a half hour. He uses his Razor. The space is tight but doable. I figure once I am desperate enough I will try out an indoor skate park and hang with the 13 year old kids. Fun times.
Burial at sea or the next best thing
November 26, 2009 – 7:07 amLast night I came home to discover that my three Cardinal Tetras were, well, um – power filtered. A full cleaning of the aquarium was the least I could do in hopes of erasing the trauma that my other fish must have suffered. Of course I feel badly about what happened to the Tetras (they were the Jets, perhaps The Sharks had something to do with this?) but that’s what happens when you sleep as a group under the device called THE POWER FILTER.
I also learned that I find the idea of laying a fish to rest in the ground is completely taboo to me. The fish does not wish to return to the Earth. It’s home is in the water. He wishes to return to the ocean (I think). I went as far to tell a co-worker that if you bury a fish in the ground how is he to cross the River Styx and enter into the Underworld? Walk? Also, I’m not sure why the fish afterlife would necessarily default to the Underworld but I really can’t see any harm in it. This is how my mind works.
A fitting tribute:
Haunting yourself
November 22, 2009 – 7:48 amLast night I had the pleasure of speaking with a great friend on the phone. It had been years since we last spoke. Funny how quickly we fell back into our normal cadence of conversation. Like I said, it was great.
Yesterday afternoon I put on my skateboard face and headed downtown. I skate the same line pretty much every time I go out. Down toward the river, pass the hop silos, through the car dealership lot (great deals!) across Huff Street and under the bridge, downtown (haha) and so on. Regardless of which way I take it always ends at the same place. The east building of my old junior high school, with me walking around the building checking to see if any doors are open and looking through dusty cracked windows. The halls are a dream. Wrecked and piled with refuse. All I can think when I look through those windows is if I could just get in there with my camera and tripod.
Abandoned Desk
So the nightmares started last night about the east building. I’ve had a lot of dreams about this building in the last few months but nothing malevolent about it. Really — the dream ended with me speaking to an entity called “The Core”. It wasn’t very nice.
So around I go. I had gained access to the renovated part of the east building a month ago. Devoid of all character. It had been chopped up nicely and efficiently. I want in the back end of the building where the auditorium and gymnasium still exists. The ruined hallways and dusty banisters. The red, white and gray striping on the walls. All those twisting little corridors weaving through the remains of that big beast. I suppose one day they will decide to knock it down and expand their parking lot. You’d think the two drunken letters that I’ve written to the building’s management company would garner some sort of sympathetic response. Just a little bit of the building superintendent’s time, please. For my own personal satisfaction and records.
A response remains to be seen.
Our list, in the middle of the street (now with sound!):
Ziggy Stardust, Seu Jorge
Lost Highway, Hank Williams
River Euphrates, Pixies
Let’s Turn Back The Years, Hank Williams
Good Old World (Waltz), Tom Waits
Mon Coeur Est Penetre D’epouvante, Caruso
The Black Rider, Tom Waits
My Old School, Steely Dan
Yet another post about skateboarding
November 15, 2009 – 9:13 amI fear I will look back at this period of my blog and think to myself, “oh, that was the skateboard phase I went through, huh”. C_ will then mention how I cleaned out the basement to make room to skate during the upcoming winter months. A slight pause of reflection, a sigh, and a drink of coffee – moving on. End scene.
Yesterday I went to Lacrosse to find a Christmas present (YAH CHRISTMAS!) for Rhen. A Pillow Pet to be specific. We had spotted one at the Children Museum last week and Rhen really wanted one. We told him it would be put on his list. So, gotta make good on it.
I really love Lacrosse. It’s downtown is a mix of renovation and failed urban renewal. I like being able to see the buildings I remember as a kid. Unfortunately they put a big ugly jewelry shop where they had a funky split level McDonald’s (an open air sub street level dining area with a walkway above it, so cool). They filled in the dining area. Sigh. There was also a super cool toy store around the corner from it. We’d go there after McDonald’s. The only time we’d go to Lacrosse was for our dentist appointments. Long story, another time. So I have all of these great childhood memories of Lacrosse.
The Pillow Pets in the Children Museum turned out not to be real Pillow Pets but an expensive knock off. No good. I took some photos of downtown Lacrosse. After that I made my way over to the Pro Skate and Snowboard shop. Friendly staff (two dudes) and a nice selection of equipment but I was pretty sure I was only authorized to purchase a Pillow Pet. The Pro has an indoor skate park called “The Coalition” attached to it.
Skate parks weird me out. I spent some time at the Winona skate park earlier that morning. No one was there. I skated the half-pipe for about a half an hour. It’s cool. There’s a spine on it where you could transition over to the other side. No luck on that. Really, my balance is shit. Ramps freak me out a bit because you go from zero to really fast in like, one second. Also, there’s not a lot of time between walls so if you screw up your balance, you’re going to eat it, fast. I don’t have a helmet so that makes me nervous too.
4.8 Skatepark - Winona, MN
Over to the Valley View Mall, a stop at Zumiez (skateboarding stuff!) and The Coach House for one last look for the illusive Pillow Pet. No luck. Fail.
The car did this weird thing in the parking lot that will not be mentioned for fear of it happening again. Everything is A-OK. Right, car? A friendly Samaritan (aren’t all Samaritans friendly?) offered a “kick start” but I declined. I sat in my car for about 5 minutes pondering his usage of the term “kick start” for what I’d call a “jump start” – perhaps a regional difference between Wisconsinites and Minnesotans? The car started up and I quickly made a “let’s get the Hell out of Dodge” exit of Onalaska. I said a much much stronger word aloud in the car but you know, this is a family blog.
I’m getting a new skateboard deck in the mail this week. A Krooked Mark Gonzales deck (the sweatpants one). It’s going to be awesome. I hope it holds off on the snow so I can take it out on the street but no worries, I have this little area in the basement that I can practice tricks during the winter months.