Traffic Jams

Hannah Montana was playing a concert in the American Airlines Arena tonight. I watched the traffic jam preceeding it, from the gym of my high rise. It truly is the best way to watch a traffic jam. Up high and above it, and not being in it. Another good way to watch a traffic jam is when you are driving down the highway at 75 miles an hour, and the traffic jam is in the traffic coming from the opposite way. These are the two best ways to watch a traffic jam. Third place is watching it on T.V. but the worst way, is when you are smack dab in the middle of it. Miami has lots of traffic jam traps. Its actually hard to drive around and not get caught in one. You start judging the traffic jams. Like the one I was in today, it wasnt so bad. I think the slowest I had to go while on the highway was 15 miles an hour and it never really came to a dead stop.... In the short term you accept that as being a "good" traffic jam . It was truly a fine traffic jam that I was in today!

Toasts

The "El Malecon" is a restraunt accross the street that sells breakfast as well as lunch. On the breakfast menu you can get "Toasts". Thats the way it reads on the menu "Toasts" --- I love the extra "s" on that .... It cracks me up

observations from a life that was lost.

* I saw Hunter read for reading's sake alone. He saw me laughing at a comic in the funny pages and asked me what I was laughing about, or Chase did , I dont remember, but instead of telling them, I just had them read the thing. Hunter read the dialogue of a newspaper. It was real reading, and I was there when it happened, and I saw the kid read to find something out, not just because it was part of his homework but because it was something he wanted to do. Not that reading the books he is sent ISN'T reading, its just that this is application.
* I told him I was proud of him, and he told me he knew ... He always says that .. but I can see ,---even though he likes to act all non chalant about it, he loves it when I point out the things he does that make me proud.
* My daughter wanted snacks today, and as I was moving, and had packed away all the good food or didnt have it in the first place, I told her we could walk up to the store to get whatever she wanted. (my car was loaded up and I couldnt drive them because I only had room in the front seat, which would have only held one of them. ----- On the walk , my Daughter HELD MY HAND THE WHOLE TIME, My son mostly held my hand, but he also had important business with his Gameboy so I certainly understand.

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Miami

So here is my new apartment, the views and the stuff. Its home, and I like riding around on that train. I am kind of lonely though without my wife and kids ....

I feel pushed off a cliff

Dont push me off a cliff and then get mad at me for falling through the air!

U-turning a cruise ship

The building I live in has a gym on the 35th floor. It overlooks Miami and the bay. Twice now, while jogging on the treadmill, I have witnessed a cruise ship doing a u-turn in that bay. Either its a U-turn or a Y turn, but its still pretty awesome to see. The guy driving that thing and making that turn knows what he is doing, obviously, they probably practice it in the open sea before trying it in such tight confines of the bay. If the guy overshoots it, he could run into a bridge. Turning a cruise ship around is alot like what I am doing with my life. although I am afraid I am coming closer and closer to hitting the bridge.

something I need, plus another thing I need ....

Mick Jagger said it best when he said: YOU CANT ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT BUT IF YOU TRY SOME TIME YOU JUST MIGHT FIND, YOU CAN GET WHAT YOU NEED... the problem is you may think you need something and get it, then what are you going to do with it? I just got a decent T.V. For free, it was a hand me down from my Dad. He is buying one of those Plasma HD deals for himself and needs the room. My Karma was in tune with this because I just moved into a new apartment in Miami, and the T.V. I have in Gainesville is as big as a battleship. As I am not planning on renting a truck or anything, I figured I would sell that one, or give it away, but regardless I would need a T.V. in Miami so VOILA. --- So now I have a T.V. but Karma wants to mess with me because I have no cable. I just called the cable people and they cant get out to my apartment till Friday the 18th...thats freaking torture... and Yes it will all work itself out but If I would have thought of it I could have called a few weeks ago about the cable I just didnt know they would be so backed up. So yes I needed a T.V. I just thought I needed that, What I needed was a T.v. AND a cable hookup.....

Goodbye Gainesville

Its not just a town to me. Gainesville is my home. I wasn't born there, but I did grow up there. In the Early 80's I moved away to go to college, and then after graduating, I began my young adult life in Miami with a stint in Denver and then back to Gainesville at the end of 1990.
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I live in a little shack in Gainesville:

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Bye little shack:

I used to have a middle class type of house, plus a wife, two kids a dog and a cat. I no longer have the dog, (he died) My cat stayed with my wife. I still have two kids, they just dont live with me anymore.

Bye old house:

It turns out that when two people who live together and count on one another, don't communicate, things can get really ugly. I am not going to blog everything that happened but be assured it was bad. Even though I already lost the house in court. My ex -wife will soon lose it to foreclosure. It didnt have to be this way, and for that I have a lot of resentment. To this day I still dont understand "why" although I have asked that question a million times. I can tell you that I wouldn't have done to her, what she did to me, but this isnt about bashing, and I know I screwed up also. (towards the end, as I saw my life unravelling, so did I) you could say I lost it, and for that I am sad and dissapointed in myself. Its the reason why ultimately I have to leave Gainesville. I lost my job and the replacement job requires my body to live in South -Florida.

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I am trying to deal with a million things right now, missing living in Gainesville is only one of them . Its not even the largest, although it is a corollary to my other problems and directly relates. of course the way I see it, all my problems in life right now are intertwined.

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Everything is so overwhelming. My new job is great for me in terms of the future potential that I see in it. Maybe even better then my old job, who knows? Right now, its not so fruitfull, however. Moving is hard, not just because I will see my kids less. My network of friends is a Gainesville based group. sure I have a friend in Boca and one in Nashville and a few in Arizona, but most of them are in Gainesville. Where am I going to find a softball team that will let me pitch? Who am I going to play golf with? Who is going to drink with me at the bars and tell lies and stuff? I suppose I will make new friends but still.... anyways, Gainesville I have moved away from you before and I have come back. This is how the path has taken me and I will miss you.

More Nuance

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080104/ap_on_en_mu/people_spears
Click on this Britney Spears article and if you can read it, I am a Genius for figuring out how to do that....

Clarification

Here is what I imagine happened. A kid was rollerblading, and a grown up went all grown up on him and busted him. There was probably a sign that said "no bicycling, no roller skating, no skateboarding. " The kid probably pointed out that technically he was in compliance, because he was actually rollerblading, and not rollerskating. His daddy is probably a criminal lawyer that gets bad guys out of jail on technicalities. His Dad probably has lawyer head. (lots of lawyers have there head shaped a certain way and have a certain lawyerly type haircut that I refer to as lawyer head)

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They probably had this particular sign printed up adding the slight nuance of Roller Blading to go along with the "roller Skating" because as we all can be assured, Roller Blading and Roller Skating are clearly two different things. Now there is that new skateboard thing that is like a skateboard, but not a skateboard, where you kind of slalom on it... I dont even know what that thing is called, but there is another loophole for that lawyers kid to take advantage of .. Life is about Nuance, the tiny difference between skating and blading, the little differences between the one foot in bounds of College Football, and the need to get two in when you are talking Pro. Its all in the nuance

A tail of a whale, a humpback whale

This is a humpback whale tale ... and proof I can learn about putting a picture in a blog...

Be careful when you start dancing on emblems.

Of all the Gator Football games I have ever witnessed, I was most sure of the win Two days ago against Michigan. (not counting the Western Carolina's of the world) The Gators could not stop the Wolverines except when Mike Hart would fumble. It goes to show you that what you think you know, you may actually not know at all. Stay Humble and don't start dancing on the emblems ....

Metaphorically thinking

Today at the marriage counselor I told my Wife the following: Don't stab me and then get mad at me for bleeding on the carpet? --- I thought that was pretty funny, and I saw her smile although she tried not to...