The Bosque

We spent 3 years together...it's the longest I've ever owned one car. Well, Rhoda and I had Putt-putt the entire time we were together, but that was actually her car, so that doesn't really count. Anyway...











I didn't plan to own Malibu Barbie...it was a "gift" from my parents. I think I tried to get rid of her at least 3 times...maybe 4. I don't quite remember. And she cost me a small fortune in warranty repairs...$100 a pop every time something was fucked up on it.

3 years...10 states...64,000 miles...lots of days and nights delivering totally unhealthy food to the residents of South City...lots of sitting on Interstate 70 in rush hour. I paid the car note on time every month and tried to take care good of her, in spite of all the driving and hell I put it through. In the end, I have no ill will towards Malibu Barbie...I love her dearly.

I don't know where she's off to...I suspect she'll go to an auto auction and be sold off to a small-time dealer. Hopefully, she'll give her next owner little trouble.

I totally broke down when I said goodbye today...shit, I'm starting to tear it up now thinking about it.

So, what am I driving now? That's for tomorrow, kids.

I came up with a new quote last night, after watching a power-drunk manager in action:

"Those in power can only retain power by sharing their power regularly."

Just make sure to use my proper name when you quote me. :)

From NBC Sports: Hours before the Dallas Mavericks' biggest game of the year, forward Josh Howard went on the radio Friday to talk about something else — his fondness for marijuana.

It was quite a follow-up to teammate Jerry Stackhouse calling opposing coach Byron Scott "a sucker in my book" on local airwaves.

Howard's comments are more serious because marijuana use is illegal and eligible for punishment from the NBA. It's a topic he's addressed before, but never so publicly, so close to tipping off such an important game, the Mavericks down 0-2 in their first-round series against the New Orleans Hornets.

"Most of the players in the league use marijuana and I have and do partake in smoking weed in the offseason sometimes," Howard told The Michael Irvin Show on the local ESPN affiliate. "I mean, that's my personal choice and my personal opinion, but I don't think that's stopping me from doing my job."

From Ronnie James Dio's website:

After weeks of speculation, Live Nation has put together a killer package that is bound to go down as the heavy metal event of 2008 - Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell, Motorhead, and Testament will be touring together for the first time.

Dubbed ‘The Metal Masters Tour,’ the sixteen date U.S. trek kicks off August 6th at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, New Jersey.

Judas Priest will be supporting their epic concept album, ‘Nostradamus,’ which will arrive on June 17th via Epic Records, and tells the tale of the renowned 16th century prophet. A few tracks from ‘Nostradamus’ will make their in-concert debut on ‘The Metal Masters Tour,’ but the majority of Priest’s set list will include some of metal’s all-time classics, as well as fan favorites that span the quintet’s entire career. Without a doubt, this will be one of Priest’s most powerful sets ever. As a ‘sneak peak treat’ to fans starved for a musical taster, the first cut off the new album will make its world premiere debut as exclusive free MP3 download starting today exclusively at www.livenation.com/judaspriest.

Heaven & Hell will be supporting the release of The Rules Of Hell, a five-CD boxed set available on July 22nd from Rhino Records which features re-mastered versions of all four Dio-era Black Sabbath albums (‘Heaven and Hell,’ ‘Mob Rules,’ ‘Live Evil,’ and ‘Dehumanizer’) in a deluxe package with new liner notes.

Perennial road rats Motorhead will be touring strictly for the love of it, offering a fan favorites set spanning more than three decades worth of molar-rattling metal. Motorhead’s last album was 2006’s ‘Kiss of Death’ (released via Sanctuary Records), their 19th studio set of their long and highly influential career. A new album is currently in the works as well, which is currently being recorded at their old pal Dave Grohl’s studio with a August release date targeted. Lemmy blairs out, "Here it comes everybody, the test of your Metalness in 2008 and the years to come! Come one come all and be abused!"

Rounding out the line-up will be legendary thrash metal titans Testament, whose new album, ‘The Formation of Damnation,’ (April 29th,) displays Testament as the quintessential modern heavy metal band, whose experience and accumulated skill allows them to attack with reserves of anger, energy and finesse that make them more powerful than ever. Lead singer Chuck Billy says, “Uniting these bands is the heavy metal event of generations. We are so proud to be a part of it.”

Although all four bands may represent different subgenres of heavy metal, all four have one thing in common – they have stuck to their stylistic guns through thick and thin, and have remained true to the metal form. And soon, band and fan will be united as one on ‘The Metal Masters Tour.’

“As ever, we look forward to screaming out loud with our metal maniac fans when we hit the road,” enthuses Priest singer, Rob Halford. “Thank you once again for your devotion and support. The Priest is back!”

This tour will be limited to fifteen very special engagements, and Citi cardmembers will have pre-sale access to tickets through Citi's Private Pass® Program, available to all Citi cardmembers at www.privatepass.citi.com.

Metal maniacs seeking the ultimate concert experience can access unique VIP ticket and fan experience packages that offer premium seats, meet & greets, pre-concert parties and more brought to you by the band's official websites, www.judaspriest.com and www.heavenandhelllive.com. VIP packages for the first events will be on sale by 10 a.m eastern time on Friday, April 25th. Also, not all VIP packages are the same, so be sure to pick the right one that suits you best.

Tickets go on sale to the public beginning this weekend at www.livenation.com.

See the official web sites for continually updated tour information and on-sale dates.

The dates are as follows:
Wed 06-Aug-08 Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ – PUBLIC ON SALE APRIL 26, 10 am
Thu 07-Aug-08 Nissan Pavilion, Bristow, VA – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Sat 09-Aug-08 PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ – PUBLIC ON SALE APRIL 26, 10 am
Sun 10-Aug-08 Nikon at Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY – PUBLIC ON SALE APRIL 26, 10 am
Wed 13-Aug-08 Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto, ON – PUBLIC ON SALE APRIL 25, 10 am
Sat 16-Aug-08 Post Gazette Pavilion, Pittsburgh, PA – PUBLIC ON SALE APRIL 25, 10 am
Mon 18-Aug-08 DTE Energy Music Theatre, Detroit, MI – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Tue 19-Aug-08 First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Chicago, IL – PUBLIC ON SALE APRIL 25, 5 pm
Fri 22-Aug-08 Superpages.com Amphitheatre, Dallas, TX – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Sat 23-Aug-08 Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Houston, TX – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Sun 24-Aug-08 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, San Antonio, TX – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Wed 27-Aug-08 Journal Pavilion, Albuquerque, NM – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Thu 28-Aug-08 Cricket Wireless Pavilion, Phoenix, AZ – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Sat 30-Aug-08 Glen Helen Pavilion, San Bernardino, CA – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Sun 31-Aug-08 Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA – PUBLIC ON SALE APRIL 27, 10 am

Looks like a roadtrip to Chi-town may be in the plans in August...

The car wash where I take the cars was passing these fliers out last week...interesting:

From WTHR-TV, Indianapolis: IMPD is searching for a suspect who shot a pregnant bank teller during a robbery at the Huntington Bank near the corner of 21st and Post on the east side Tuesday morning.

The following story is being reprinted in full due to its short length.

From Fox News: A South Carolina pastor says he wasn’t trying to be political when he posted a sign in front of his church linking Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Usama bin Laden.

Pastor Roger Byrd told WYFF-TV that he just wanted to make people think when he put the sign reading "Obama, Osama — humm, are they brothers" in front of the Jonesville Church of God on Thursday.

Obama attends Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Fifteen percent of respondents to a recent Associated Press-Yahoo News poll said they thought the Illinois senator was a Muslim.

Byrd says he won’t take the sign down. He says his congregation voted unanimously Sunday to keep it up.

Jonesville is a town of about 1,000 people in northwestern South Carolina near the North Carolina line.

Here's a photo of the sign (courtesy of Fox and the AP):



You may remember my original village idiot story.

(Courtesy of AllPosters.com)

...break out the Nomecam!!!

*ahem*

The Wabash Valley Seismic Zone (part of the New Madrid Seismic Zone, 130 miles east of St. Louis) gave us a 5.2 rumbler early this morning, around 4:30am. It didn't last long, and didn't cause any major damage or injury. This particular zone also produced a small quake 21 years ago.

We had an aftershock a couple of hours ago. I didn't feel it, but witnessed it, as it shook our bookshelf here in the living room.

From my time in St. Louis, I can recall the temblors we've had on one hand: 1983, 1987, 1990...I can't recall anything since then. But one of these days, the New Madrid is finally going to raise up like it did 200 years ago and kick our asses here in St. Louis.

You can all go back to your normal lives now...don't listen to too much of the squawking. :)

Gas is currently $3.499 a gallon at the QT down the street from our apartment. I don't think I've ever seen gas that expensive before, except when we were in Vancouver in October ($3.87 a gallon).

$3.50 a gallon is horribly expensive here, given our cost of living. Maybe it's a good thing I haven't been delivering so much recently.

So I started having back and leg problems last week...

I've been doing a lot of dishes due to lack of deliveries and other work. I'm not against doing dishes--for a bit, anyway. But I just can't stand there for a significant amount of time and do that sort of work. I'm just not in the shape that I should be in, and by the time I left work last Thursday night, I was limping.

I told the boss the next day that me doing dishes was not such a good idea--he told me it was temporary and that I should just do the best that I can.

Well, I tried to do the best I can. I didn't want to disappoint the peeps, so I probably did more than I should have. And now, I'm sidelined until Monday and start physical therapy shortly thereafter.

I apparently didn't tear or sprain anything, but it hurts like hell. X-rays revealed mild arthritis down there, but no breaks. Thank God.

Based on the lack of deliveries and my injury, I suggested to one of the bosses that he just call me when deliveries start to pick up. I'm supposed to call him back Monday...we'll see how that goes.

I've had the back issues for a while, and this injury is on me. But the deliveries just aren't coming right now, and I can't do manual labor like I used to...not to mention that shit is just monotonous as hell and drives me nuts. I'll probably put in some hours at Pizza Shit next week for easy money.

No firm decisions yet...I guess I just need to rest this weekend. Did I mention that I'm also battling a nasty cold?

From Fox News: Seven middle-aged Spanish moms who posed for a tongue-in-cheek erotic calendar — a fundraiser for their children's tiny, rural school — are now saddled with debt and 5,000 unwanted copies.

One of the photos shows the mothers with Christmas tinsel as their only garb — no private parts on view. Other goofy poses include a shotgun-toting mom wearing only a fox pelt kneeling on a table, and another with a mother covering her body with a red umbrella on a picnic table.

Click on the link, and I think you'll see why this really didn't sell well.

The following story is being reprinted in full due to its short length.

From last Wednesday's Post-Dispatch: Prosecutors are not expected to file charges against a Missouri man who fatally shot his wife while he was trying to install a satellite TV system in their home.

Henry County investigators ruled that Patsy Long's March 22 death was accidental. Her husband, Ronald Long, fired his .22 caliber pistol from inside their Deepwater home after he couldn't punch a hole through the exterior wall using other means.

The sheriff's office said the 34-year-old woman was hit in the chest by the second of two shots.

Henry County Prosecuting Attorney Richard Shields said his office does not expect to press charges.

Deepwater, MO is a small town in Henry County, about 90 minutes southwest of Kansas City.

The following stories are being reprinted due to the short lifespan of newspaper stories.

From yesterday's Post-Dispatch: Police had no explanation for why a gunman approached a mail carrier on his rounds Monday afternoon, shot him and fled.

Terry Marcrum, 44, was in critical but stable condition at a hospital. He was wounded in the back of the head and in the right shoulder about 2 p.m. at the corner of Potomac Street and Spring Avenue, officials said.

The crime did not appear to be a robbery, police said, and they were exploring other motives. Marcrum was roundly described as friendly and well-liked on his South Grand neighborhood route.

He was able to talk with investigators at the scene and provided a description of the attacker, police Lt. Adrienne Bergh said.

Marcrum, an 18-year employee of the U.S. Postal Service, was in uniform gathering mail from his personal car when a young man approached with a silver revolver, Bergh said. The gunman fired and ran.

Mail carriers on some routes use their own cars, explained Dan Taylor, of the Postal Inspection Service.

Odis Buckley, who has lived in the neighborhood for about six years, said Marcrum is a friendly man who often chats with residents along the route about the weather and issues of the day. Buckley was puzzled why anyone would want to hurt him.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Buckley said. "He had no enemies."

Alderman Jennifer Florida, whose 15th Ward includes the Spring and Potomac intersection, said, "Everyone knows Terry."

Crime has been down 16 percent across the board the past year in her ward, Florida said, and residents are active in neighborhood crime watch groups.

But she said it's hard to feel better about crime statistics when something like this happens.

Marcrum works from the Gravois Center Post Office in St. Louis, where colleagues say he's been assigned for more than 10 years.

Keith Gentry, president of Letter Carriers Union Branch 343, in St. Louis, said members were uneasy at the news. After finishing their shifts, some headed to the hospital to be with Marcrum's family.

It was worse "not knowing the circumstances," Gentry said. "Was this a random act or a robbery? They're all apprehensive. Especially those who work close to that particular area."

Taylor said the last shooting involving a letter carrier in St. Louis was seven years ago.

Bill Lister, a vice president of the union, said, "Just being out on the street and doing your job, you can get caught in this type of situation."

He said Monday's shooting is especially troubling "because we don't know if the carrier was targeted."

And from Saturday's paper: A man was found shot to death inside his apartment in the 5200 block of Louisiana Avenue this morning, police said.

His body was discovered about 11:45 a.m. and homicide detectives are investigating.

No further information was available.

South City has gotten more violent in recent years, as socioeconomics and demographics have changed. It's a shame...things were starting to get rough when I left in '99, but the changes in the 6 years I was gone were shocking to me.

But some of the rougher areas when I left are really nice now, like Tower Grove Heights and Lafayette Square. With city living in vogue now, I think there's a real chance to prevent South City from winding up like North City...though North City is starting to rise from the ashes as well.

From Fox News, 2/16/2008: Ickes predicted Clinton and Obama would run "neck and neck" in the remaining states and that there would be a "minuscule amount of difference" between the two in pledged delegates.

But he said superdelegates — who "have a sense of what it takes to get elected" — would determine the outcome and side in larger numbers for Clinton.

Even though averages of head-to-head polls on RealClearPolitics.com show Obama beating presumptive GOP nominee John McCain in a general election and Clinton losing, the Clinton camp is stressing the electability argument.

Ickes said superdelegates must "exercise their best judgment" about who can win the White House.

From Fox News, 4/13/2008: Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee would not respond to the report, but repeated a common refrain from the campaign.

"This is an incredibly close race and there are still millions of voters who haven’t cast ballots yet. We think every voter should have a chance to have their voice heard," he said.

Which is it, Senator Clinton? The power of the people, or the power of the powerful? You can't have it both ways.

The following article is being posted in its entirety due to its short length.

From MSNBC: So much for the curse. The New York Yankees have ended a construction worker’s attempt to jinx its new stadium with a buried Boston Red Sox jersey.

Team officials watched on Sunday as construction workers removed the jersey, with slugger David Ortiz’ name on it, from 2 feet of concrete in a service corridor of the stadium that’s under construction.

The team says a construction worker — who is a Red Sox fan — recently buried the jersey there while on the job. Two other supervisors found the tattered shirt on Saturday.

The Yankees plan to donate the jersey to charity, and may pursue a lawsuit against the construction worker.

The Cardinals have a rivalry with the Cubs...at the end of the day, both sides kick back and have a couple of beers. The Red Sox and the Yankees have a fight-to-the-death hatred for each other...both sides break the beer bottles over each other at the end of the day.

In the last 18 months or so, I've done 3 moves: moving into the apartment that April and I now share, helping our friend move on extremely short notice in December and helping April's uncles move yesterday.

My move wasn't too bad, because I didn't have a lot of stuff. Tim and I did it in about 8 hours. Our other friend was a tough one because it was on a day's notice and she was fleeing a shithead boyfriend. Nothing was packed, and it took 10 of us all day to clear the place out.

Yesterday's move wasn't too terribly bad overall. April's uncles had everything packed up for the most part, and they didn't have a lot of furniture. However, they moved from a first-floor apartment with no steps to the second-floor of a four-family flat with a fuckton of steep stairs. It took 6 of us about 6 hours to do it, but we were all in incredible pain afterwards. I fell asleep at 9:30 last night, but have been up since 3:30 this morning...because of my back.

Right now, my body ain't built for moving shit...each of the moves has been brutal on my back and my legs. My brother has been a fucking beast in each of the moves--I don't know how fucked up things would have been if he had not been involved in all 3. But his back ain't so great either. And April is pretty much in the same boat as me.

Rhoda and I hired movers when we moved from DC to Philadelphia and again when we moved to Germantown in '04. The move to Philly cost like $900; the move across town was about $400. And let me tell you, that was some money well-spent! It was nice to not have to worry about trying to move so much shit. The biggest problem I had in both of those moves was having everything packed--I wound up transporting a lot of crap on my own due to laziness, procrastination and poor planning.

(But I made up for that when Rhoda and I split in '05. I pretty much had both our shit packed up about a week ahead of Tim and Doug coming out to help move it all.)

Right now, it looks like April and I will be at our place until the end of '09. I don't see us being in a strong position to purchase a house at the end of this year unless my job situation dramatically improves. But when we do move, we're totally hiring movers. I'm getting too old to do this kind of shit anymore.

From the BBC: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to ease transport gridlock in Manhattan with a congestion charge has been blocked by the state's assembly.

The scheme would have charged most drivers $8 to enter the city's centre between 0600 and 1800 on weekdays.

New York will now forfeit a $354m federal grant intended to kick-start the initiative, which aimed to persuade drivers to use public transport.

The c-charge has been in existence in London for 5 years now. I've never been there, but apparently, there is a fuckton of traffic and the charge has helped reduce it. And I know there was talk about implementing a similar setup in Toronto shortly after it was initiated in London.

I could see such a system being beneficial in NYC, but I'm not sure it would really work. After all, the bridges in NYC are hella expensive as it is, and that doesn't seem to stop people from using cars...and it's not like people there don't use public transit. And have you seen the condition of some toll roads and bridges, particularly the PA Turnpike? Or the old McKinley Bridge here in St. Louis?

I'm all for making our cities cleaner, but I don't like government taking more money than they already do...especially when I don't think we'll get what we really pay for.

From Fox News: Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton Saturday strengthened her pitch to allow disputed primaries in Michigan and Florida to be counted in the nominating contest, noting the vote totals had been officially recognized in each state.

"Some say their votes should be ignored and the popular vote in Michigan and Florida should be discounted. Well, I have a different view," Clinton said at a rally here. "The popular vote in Florida and Michigan has already been counted. It was determined by election results, it was certified by election officials in each state, it's been officially tallied by the secretary of state in each state, and the question is whether those 2.3 million Democrats will be honored and their delegates seated by the Democratic party."

Both the Michigan and Florida primaries were essentially nullified after they were moved into January in violation of national Democratic party rules. The party voted to strip both states of their delegates and all the candidates, including Clinton and rival Barack Obama, signed a pledge not to campaign in either state.

I think Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama, said it best:

"Senator Clinton herself said these contests 'didn’t count for anything.' But now that it serves her own political self-interest, she’s trying to change the rules and count the results of contests where she and every other candidate pledged not to campaign," Burton said. "In Michigan, Senator Obama wasn’t even on the ballot. Our focus should now be on seating the Michigan and Florida delegations in a fair manner."

I'll be the first to admit that I didn't pay much attention to what happened after the DNC stripped these two states of their delegates. If this had happened in Missouri, I would have been on the phone or online with my legislators, begging them to change the date to something more agreeable. But these states chose to go ahead with their primaries. And 2.3 million voters (out of 28 million people in both states) decided to go and vote anyway, knowing that their votes didn't count for shit. Based on this, I'm assuming that Democratic voters in these states figured either choice was a good one, and will cast their vote for the nominee in November.

She really thinks she's the bee's knees, doesn't she?

So, I wound up working at the restaurant today...by accident actually.

Yesterday, I went up and learned the POS system. I was just going to play around with it and get to know it. Somehow, it turned into me trying to break the system and reporting what I found wrong with it.

Last night, I drew up a map with our originally-planned delivery area. I wanted to discuss the delivery area with the GM and the owner's wife, because I was concerned about some of the places we would be going.

(Ya know, she's not listed as an owner, but essentially, she is...and I don't like referring to her as the owner's wife. Especially when there are actually 3 owners--the chef and two partners. Hence, I will refer to her affectionately from now on as the Boss Lady.)

So anyway, stopping by the restaurant today to talk about the delivery area turned into me going to pick up 12 cases of Fitz's soda, recommending and drawing up the delivery area for the restaurant and helping put together the to-go counter.

It was cool...I felt I was really part of the team today. I hope it stays that way. And it looks like the hours situation may be fixed as well...I'm hopeful.

This is a message the band got from the person that apparently books shows at the Creepy Crawl, a local music venue here in town:

Hey guys, I've got some available dates for you guys at the Creepy Crawl if your up for playing any of these shows:

Fri. April 4 (early show)
Fri. April 11
Sat. April 12
Fri. April 18
Sat. April 25
Fri. April 26

You'd have to try and sell tix and leave off a $70 deposit when you pick them up.
Tix sell for $7 and you keep your sales from the first 10 tickets to make your deposit back and then make $4. 50 a ticket after that.
If you'd like any of these dates, please let me know.

Thanks,
Kelsey/JP Concerts

I replied:

I don't think we'll be playing any shows until at least the summer, but at least we know how it works down there. We'll be sure to consider you guys when we starting playing out.

Thanks,
Terry B

This is the most recent message they sent us:

Hey guys, I've got some available dates for you guys at the Creepy Crawl if your up for playing any of these shows:

Fri. April 11
Fri. April 18
Sat. April 25
Fri. April 26
Fri. May 2
Fri. May 9
Sat. May 10

You'd have to try and sell tix and leave off a $70 deposit when you pick them up.
Tix sell for $7 and you keep your sales from the first 10 tickets to make your deposit back and then make $4. 50 a ticket after that.
If you'd like any of these dates, please let me know.

Thanks,
Kelsey/JP Concerts

Yeah...I don't think we'll be playing there. Besides, I hear the new place is not as cool as the old one.

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So today, I was supposed to go for POS training...again. And we wound up not having it...again. Today it was because the system is hosed, and they have to bring people up from Florida to fix it. The restaurant's opening has now been pushed back to Sunday. And while I will not be working there Sunday, I will be there on Monday.

The owner and I chatted today...he offered me $7 per hour plus tips, which is only slightly less than what I make now at Pizza Shit. I'll still only be working 21 hours a week for now, but that could change depending on business. And I can moonlight over at Pizza Shit...there's always somebody there wanting a night off.

On a serious note, the people running this place are obviously a bit scatterbrained right now. But they were totally cool with me through this whole thing, and I have to give them props for essentially solving this issue.