It's baaaack.....

Winter, that is.

One thing you learn about living in Colorado is that the borders between the seasons tend to be a little fuzzy. Such is the case this morning as I gaze out my window. Snow, below freezing temperatures. At the beginning of the week it was shirtsleeves and sunglasses. Today it will be winter coat, gloves and boots.

Ah, the joy of it!


A "cool" start to the day.

A lovely view from the mountains just west of the city.

A chilling morning view of downtown Denver.

Catching up...again

Well, it's that time of year again. My sinuses have turned on me and are now dripping like a leaky faucet. The bucket I've hung around my neck seems to be filling up pretty quickly today. I decided to sit the day out from work, although I did work for a couple of hours from home this morning. There's a certain joy that comes from working naked.

The weather around here is adding to the general misery. It's that unsettled time of year when Mother Nature can't decide whether it's winter or spring. So she dishes out a little of both. Rain, snow, rain mixed with snow. And then to throw us all off, she throws in beautiful, sunny days. According to the tourist info, Denver has 300 days of sunshine a year. The next few days will be part of the other 65, I guess.

On to more pressing news.

I've finally committed myself to making my annual trek to visit my parents back in Illinois next month. The air, hotel and car reservations have been made. Time off from work has been locked in. Chosing a time of year to go back is always an issue. Pick the wrong month and you WILL suffer! I've learned that I've become something of a wimp when it comes to heat and humidity. I simply cannot tolerate it. So ultimately it came down to either May or September. Not that either one is without it's share of physical misery. It's a matter of degree, and May seemed to be a good choice.

In the spirit of self-depreciation, it's time to tell the "Brownie Story". In order to maintain journalistic impartiality, Erica was supposed to tell this story, but hasn't. So you're going to get MY version, like it or not. Believe what you will.

I was invited to a staff meeting at work recently. Now I abhor staff meetings, and had, until recently, managed to extricate myself from them. But the boss insisted I be present for this one, and by dangling lunch under my nose, enticed me to hit "Accept" on the meeting request in Outlook. My aversion to these things can be summed up by the picture below.

Lunches for these things are usually ordered in from Jason's Deli. I'm not particulary fond of Jason's, but a free lunch is a free lunch, so I take what I can get. My order is usually the same every time: A BLT on whole wheat, potato salad and a chocolate brownie. Now the brownie doesn't really fit in with my healthy eating habits, and neither does the potato salad, I guess. But it's important to reward yourself now and then. So the brownie stays! I suppose it's because of this need to reward myself that I had a fit when the lunches arrived and my brownie wasn't there! I reported this omission to the department admin, who I guess had had enough of Jason's as well, and she politely replied that if the brownie meant that much to me, I should call Jason's and tell them. I neither had the time or the patience to do that, so I did what anyone else would do in the same situation - I pouted! As with any sad story, this one has a happy ending, however. It turns out that Jason's had screwed up a couple other orders as well, realized they had left out my brownie, and included it in the next delivery run.


So I got my brownie, and peace ruled once again in the kingdon.

The moral to this story? Don't f**k with my brownie!

A quick note about the radio station... A few of you have commented that you've not been able to link to it through Jetcast. You might want to try Shoutcast. I'm listed on there as well. Just type Jaydoggie into the search box, and if the station is broadcasting at the time, it should come up. Shoutcast also offeres a free version of Winamp if you don't have a player with streaming music capability. Good luck!

Okay, I think that about wraps things up for this installment.

One final note: Matt, you're still in my thoughts and prayers. IAHFYB.

-Jaydog

Jaydoggie is on the air!

After a lot of twisting and turning, and trial and error, my internet radio station is finally up and running. Depending on your level of pain tolerance, you're invited to give it a listen. The broadcast hours will be irregular, so if you don't find the station broadcasting, check back again another time.

What can you expect to hear? Just about anything. People who have experienced my musical tastes always walk away in something of a stupor. You might hear jazz, R&B, stories, pop, rock, easy listening, dance/trance, oldies, country, gospel, rap and other things that cannot be categorized.

By now you're screaming at the top of your lungs, "Tell me where I can find this marvel!". Right?

Well, I wish I could give you a permanent link to use, but the URL changes whenever I stop broadcasting, so that obviously won't work. But it's still relatively easy to find.

Go to the Jetcast Directory Listing. If the station is broadcasting, you'll see it listed as Jaydoggie Radio. Just click the LISTEN button, and it should open in Windows Media Player, or other MP3 player.

I'm tough enough to handle the acolades that will undoubtedly come flowing my way! Yeah, right! Drop me a note to let me know what you think.

Jaydog

This is one of those things you just happen to stumble across that makes you go "Hmmmm....".

Too good to pass up...

George W. Bush Elected Pope ... Cardinals Stunned!
Reported by Monsignor Guido Sarducci, S.J., S.T.D., J.C.D.

The almost 120 Cardinals from around the world that gathered to choose a successor in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel were stunned and expressed amazement.

Cardinal Mohoney the Vatican spokesperson had this to say...
"We in the conclave are all shocked. We cast our vote's using these new electronic voting machines. The results overwhelmingly favored George W. Bush over all the Catholic candidates. The last Pope, John Paul, was a superb linguist, fluently speaking 11 languages, this one can't speak fluently in one language. We just don't know what to say."

The White House has announced that Dick Cheney will assume command as President of the world tomorrow morning, when "W' travels to Rome to begin his duties as Pope.

George W. Bush had this to say moments ago as he spoke from the Rose Garden:
"I am honored to be the spiritual lighthouse, and the first War Pope. I promise Evangelical Catho-licks and Prostates alike that I will be embodied in salvation and fair in the performance of my duties.

I am a Unitifier, not a Divide-a-cater. I am obliged to try to save as many lost souls as I can, at least the Devout Wealthy Elite Souls, as it is well known that Heaven is a very select place, indeed, it is more exclusive than even the best of country clubs. It is a members only Heaven. I may have to put a fence around it.

I will perform miracles in a fair and balanced manner. Just as God used to wipe out entire races of people without warning, burning whole towns of perverts, killing off entire nations, and drowning everybody without a ticket to board Noah's Ark, I shall deliver the world from Evil Empires as I unleash the Apocalypse Wrath of Revelations.

I will ensure the Rapture and the Reunion with our beloved deceased family members and with our departed purebred pets. I will not allow those awful Liberal Sissy Homosapiens to marry each other and I will put and end to the Clergy marrying Choirboys.

I will lead the Crusades against all them towel-headed heathens-possessed voodoo-hoodoo barbarians who's Pseudo-religions that don't accept the Lord as the Light of Democracy, and who worship fake, made-up gods.

They shall suffer my Godly Conservative Wrath and I will Destroy them with my Cherubic Armies of Angels and they shall burn for eternity in Hell, because Me and God don't take no prisoners!"

Don't worry...I'll be back!

The weekend is generally when I take some time to post something new to keep you all coming back for more. Not this weekend, it seems. I was just too busy. Doing what, I'm not really sure, since I don't seem to have anything to show for it. Wait! I DO have a large bag of cinnamon rolls from Johnson's Corner! Yummmm! It was a beautiful April weekend here in Colorado, so a road trip was essential. Next weekend we could be under a foot of snow.

So don't fret, possums! I will try to post something interesting later this week. Meanwhile, keep checking back. As my brother is fond of saying, "Watch for the wind and wait...".

Jaydog

A sadness descends...

Please forgive me if I don't launch into the usual rants you've come to expect.

A very dear friend of mine lost his father this past week. And, in spite of of everything I've done to fight it, I'm feeling a bit of his grief and loss.

Here's a short exerpt from the letter of condolence I wrote to Matt:

"Matt, even though I never met your Dad, I've gotten to know you in the past year, and in my mind that's a testimony to what kind of man he was. You are his legacy to the world, Matt - a warm, kind, generous and caring man. We are all poorer as a result of his passing."

Sadness
(Rhapsody Link)



Matt, my heart goes out to you and your family during this time of sadness. You all are in my thoughts and prayers.

Jaydog

Today sucks!

So did yesterday, but that was because it was Monday. Today sucks because it's the day AFTER Monday. And because it's 38 degrees outside (wind chill 27), rain mixed with occasional snow, and wind gusts up to 40 mph. Perhaps Ab Lab this afternoon, and a good, sweaty workout, followed by 2 or 3 hours in the steam room...perhaps THAT will change my outlook.

Otherwise, I see a pattern developing here. My prediction is that the whole week may end up sucking. Let's just wait and see, shall we?

Jaydog

Wait! 600 hits? I don't believe it!

Doing the best I can...

It appears that, despite all of the good intentions, I'm only going to be posting to this thing about once a week. Sorry to disappoint all of my faithful readers, but my time appears to be getting stretched thinner with each passing week. Perhaps there will be calm at some point, but that will likely be the proverbial calm before the storm.

In the meantime, a milestone passed last weekend without my really even noticing it, much less acknowledging it. This little experiement you're reading right now surpassed 500 hits! To me, at least, that's pretty amazing when you consider that when I began this journey, I never imagined that anyone but me would ever read my rantings! Thanks, all of you, for taking the time to not only read all of this drivel, but to comment on what I've said, either on the blog, or through your emails and IM's.

Since I know many of my friends stop by to check up on what I write, I need to mention a few of them by name. It keeps them coming back!

First, two birthdays in the past week should be acknowledged. I do that only because I find it calming to know other people are aging besides just me! So to Chris and Joe....the best of birthday wishes go out to you!

On a more serious note, Matt, I just want you to know that my thoughts and prayers are with you right now. I know you're going through some real challenges. IABHFYB. And to everyone reading right now, just say a quick prayer for Matt and his family. The details are not needed. Just do it for me, okay?

Meanwhile, in other news.... the infamous bicep pic that you've seen posted here has now gone public! I expect the movie offers will come pouring in any day now!

The Terri Shiavo debaucle has come to an end with her death. This was such a polarizing issue, that I am tempted, of course, to toss in my two cents worth. But rather than launch into a long diatribe that would have everyone's eyes rolling back in their heads, let me borrow something I read on one of the chat rooms I frequent.

Living will is the best revenge

By ROBERT FRIEDMAN, St. Petersburg Times

Published March 27, 2005

Like many of you, I have been compelled by recent events to prepare a more detailed advance directive dealing with end-of-life issues. Here's what mine says:

• In the event I lapse into a persistent vegetative state, I want medical authorities to resort to extraordinary means to prolong my hellish semi-existence. Fifteen years wouldn't be long enough for me.
• I want my wife and my parents to compound their misery by engaging in a bitter and protracted feud that depletes their emotions and their bank accounts.
• I want my wife to ruin the rest of her life by maintaining an interminable vigil at my bedside. I'd be really jealous if she waited less than a decade to start dating again or otherwise rebuilding a semblance of a normal life.
• I want my case to be turned into a circus by losers and crackpots from around the country who hope to bring meaning to their empty lives by investing the same transient emotion in me that they once reserved for Laci Peterson, Chandra Levy and that little girl who got stuck in awell.
• I want those crackpots to spread vicious lies about my wife.
• I want to be placed in a hospice where protesters can gather to bring further grief and disruption to the lives of dozens of dying patients and families whose stories are sadder than my own.
• I want the people who attach themselves to my case because of their deep devotion to the sanctity of life to make death threats against any judges, elected officials or health care professionals who disagree with them.
• I want the medical geniuses and philosopher kings who populate the Florida Legislature to ignore me for more than a decade and then turn my case into a forum for weeks of politically calculated bloviation.
• I want total strangers - oily politicians, maudlin news anchors, ersatz friars and all other hangers-on - to start calling me "Bobby," as if they had known me since childhood.
• I'm not insisting on this as part of my directive, but it would be nice if Congress passed a "Bobby's Law" that applied only to me and ignored the medical needs of tens of millions of other Americans without adequate health coverage.
• Even if the "Bobby's Law" idea doesn't work out, I want Congress - especially all those self-described conservatives who claim to believe in "less government and more freedom" - to trample on the decisions of doctors, judges and other experts who actually know something about my case. And I want members of Congress to launch into an extended debate that gives them another excuse to avoid pesky issues such as national security and the economy.
• In particular, I want House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to use my case as an opportunity to divert the country's attention from the mounting political and legal troubles stemming from his slimy misbehavior.
• And I want Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to make a mockery of his Harvard medical degree by misrepresenting the details of my case in ways that might give a boost to his 2008 presidential campaign.
• I want Frist and the rest of the world to judge my medical condition on the basis of a snippet of dated and demeaning videotape that should have remained private.
• Because I think I would retain my sense of humor even in a persistent vegetative state, I'd want President Bush - the same guy who publicly mocked Karla Faye Tucker when signing off on her death warrant as governor of Texas - to claim he was intervening in my case because it is always best "to err on the side of life."
• I want the state Department of Children and Families to step in at the last moment to take responsibility for my well-being, because nothing bad could ever happen to anyone under DCF's care.
• And because Governor Jeb Bush is the smartest and most righteous human being on the face of the Earth, I want any and all of the aforementioned directives to be disregarded if the governor happens to disagree with them. If he says he knows what's best for me, I won't be in any position to argue.

Okay, then. That pretty well sums up how I feel about the issue. Get those Living Wills filled out and signed, my friends! In addition to many online resources, your doctor most likely has the forms available, as well.

Finally, a couple of pictures, which I know you've all come to expect from me.

Hey Joe! You're learning! I'm not sure what...but you're learning!

FINALLY! Something my size!

Jaydog