Me and my daughter at our last gig.

I have an appointment in Williamsburg this evening. I always love the drive. Williamsburg is such a pretty place (If you know where to look). I get out there about every 2 months.

I have to watch my Brother’s dog (A beagle) Thursday - Saturday night. I don’t HAVE to but I always say yes unless I’m going out of town. If he isn’t careful, I’ll bring her home and keep her.

I have SO MUCH work to finish a vacant rental property. I have to have it ready by mid August. I had to replace drywall in the bedroom, I had to replace 2 windows, 2 window sills, a roof, replace the carpets and kitchen floor covering and paint the entire thing both inside and out (I have already painted the exterior). I should have most of the dirty work completed by this weekend. I may have the paint finished by the middle of next week. Somehow, I suspect I will be replacing a fixture or two as well. This is the last of my houses that required “standardization” since my tenant moved out.

I have a guitar student. Long story short, this young lady was once a soccer player (I coached her a few years ago) but she has torn her ACL twice and her miniscus once. Anyhow, I have inheireted a guitar student. The upside? She has “The gift”. I already have her playing whole songs and doing bar chords in a month and a half. Almost time for scales and theory. If she sticks with it she is going to be REALLY GOOD. Bonus? I don’t charge. Double Bonus? Sometimes lessons last for well over an hour and a half.

Nurse ratchet has been selling old books on Amazon. What a Pain in the neck for small change.

I’m on a diet. No worries. Getting in fighting shape is no problem once I put my mind to it. I should weigh 185. I’m at 200….Easy fix.

I would love to skip out and go surfing or at least ride a boogie board today.

Not going to happen today.

My mind is all over the place.

Peace be with you,

Bobby

Looking down over the valley on the drive to the house. July 10, 2010 Watch your step it is a LONG way down with no guard rail.

First pic is Luray Caverns. Pretty interesting cave if you ask me.

Lets see…

We left town early on Friday. I always love driving to the mountains. We stopped into town (Stanardsville) which is really NOTHING. Thank science there is a grocery store and a small Mexican owned Italian restaurant. Anyhow that little place makes the best cheese fries in the entire world.

Since we haven’t been to the house since March we had a little cleaning to do. I sure as hell had a lot of lawn work to do. I think I have to rebuild the deck as it is starting to get rotten. Anyhow, we finally settled in and had a pretty nice evening.

We NEVER make many plans when we are in the mountain. I got it in my silly brain that I wanted to see Luray Caverns. Uh, Can you say Tourist Trap? Oh sure it was very unique but honestly paying 23.00 for admission was over the top. Anyhow, we went into Luray and had dinner afterwards at the Artisian which was pretty good.

The 4 wheelin’ on the mountains is always exciting. You never know what you will hit or if you are going to fall. I love 4 wheelin’. I can’t help it. I think I like mountain 4 wheelin’ better than the sand. Sand is very simple once you observe a few common sense rules.

We came back home in time to see Spain score the winning goal and then we walked up to the clubhouse for a concert. I guess I went to bed around 12:30.

Nurse Ratchet and I have committed to going to the mountain about every 3 weeks. I love the beach of course but changing the scenery is always a great way to relieve stress.

Next stop? The beach! The sunset last night was amazing.

Peace be with you,

Bobby

Ferry To Ocracoke

Ramp 49

Fort Wool

Hmmm…

My posts are so sporadic any longer. I remember when it was a ritual for me to post every morning on Journalspace. I actually loved that format.

I’ll do bullet points.

1) Last weekend we had a live band in the neighborhood. This is a “First Friday” ritual.

2) Saturday? We had a parade (I drove my golf cart in the parade) we also had breakfast for all the residents. We then hopped on a boat and watched my buddy get married at Fort Wool. It has been deserted forever. Gorgeous day

That was the neatest wedding ever. A 15 year engagement is an awful long time.

2) We drove to Cape Hatteras on Sunday. Ramp 49 (The Village of Frisco) is possibly the calmest place on Hatteras Island and we could see 10 -12 feet into the water. Nurse ratchet saw a sandshark in the water and didn’t freak out. She said it simply swam away. (It was a pup and only about 3 feet in length). We hung out with my Sister and Brother-in-law.

3) We all hopped on the Ferry on Monday morning and went to Ocracoke Island. Absolutely gorgeous. This is one of my favorite places on the planet.

4) Back home by Tuesday morning.

5) We Going to the Shenandoah this weekend. I rarely if ever go to our mountain house in the Summer. Greene county is loaded with Black Bears so we should be in for a treat.

6) We have a concert Sunday evening in our Neighborhood at 6pm so I have to be home in time for it. We have art shows, music and activities all of the time. I live in a retarded place.

Summer is my favorite season without a doubt. I could live like this forever.

Peace be with you,

Bobby

Ramp 27 Cape Hatteras June 27th 2010.

“Its a violent pornography, choking chicks and sodomy, the kind of s**t you get on your TV” - System of a Down.

Brought to you by the same people that gave you Jesus Christ.

Brought to you by the same people that give you CNN & Fox News.

Brought to you by the same people that give you reality TV.

Brought to you by the same people that bring you Obama, Bush, Clinton and Nixon.

Somebody save us. Save us from YOU!!!!

There…got that out of my system….*whew* I think it is fair to say I am sick of the television.

I think that sums it up nicely.

Peace be with you,

Bobby

Brought to you by the insane world.

Long story short.

My daughter called me in hysterics Thursday night about a cop pursuing a fox behind our house @ 9:45pm. Mind you this is one of two documented fox families that reside in our neighborhood.

I told Kelly  that the officer was probably observing the fox like all of the other residents in the neighborhood.

She was emphatic that the officer had more dubious thoughts.  Seven minutes later Kelly calls me back to report that the fox had been killed by the officer and the officer was still on the scene with the dead body.

I arrive on the scene about 5 minutes later from my meeting and find the officer in his vehicle parked next to the body.  We begin to approach the cop car and the officer leaves with his lights still off.

I RAN after the car and got the Patrol car number. The cop noticed this, turned left then made a U-turn in an effort to pursue me. I ran back to my house and sure enough he was down my back alley looking for me.

Long story short, I fired off a letter with all of the details to the captain of the precinct, the mayor and The Office of Professional Standards as well as our neighborhood patrol captain. I also made numerous calls to the non-emergency police hotline. I called some other very high ranking city/state officials and unfortunately our conversations have to be off the record due to our personal friendships. I’m sure they made calls however.

I also called our city environmentalist and immediately brought him to the scene of the crime (He lives 3 houses down from me)  We took several photos of the fox and moved the body so the cop would not be able to come back and dispose of the evidence.

Fast Forward.

The Captain,  Lieutenant, Forensics, Animal Control etc were on my front porch @ 8:30 am the next morning to interview me and my daughter about the incident. We took them to the scene and described it in full detail. The City Environmentalist was there to corroborate our story.

Fact - There was no complaint registered about a rabid fox in our neighborhood.  The officer acted unilaterally.

Fact - The fox died of a blunt trauma force to the head.

Fact - My pics show this clearly.

Fact - The officer was the only one on the scene before during and after the demise of the fox.

Fact - There has not been reported case of a rabid fox in our city since 2007.

Fact - It is illegal to cause unnecessary suffering to an animal.

I don’t know what is to become of this incident but I know we have a crazy cop and a massive internal investigation. We have corresponded over the course of the week and weekend.

I’ll leave you with this thought.

Our lives begin to end when we become silent about things that matter.

Peace be with you,

Bobby

The Inner Circle: Stupidity

My backyard taken June 20th 2010.

I don’t know where this post is headed. I’m sure glad I’m not freezing to death.

It is going to be 102 degrees with very high humidity today. Perhaps I’ll skip running outdoors. The most I can handle is 95 degrees and even that is pushing it.

I did manage to go swimming yesterday evening between 5-7pm. Hot tip. Don’t do it. This is prime time for Sharks. Thank science it was slightly overcast as this makes the dinner bell ring even sooner.

I’m a dumbass without question. DUMB ASS. You know you are having way too much fun when the shore fishermen are reeling in sharks and you continue to swim and or surf. No, they weren’t catching sharks from shore yesterday. All anyone was catching was either Spot or Croaker.

They are building 10 homes (More to come as they develop the streets in phases) in the section behind my house for one of those “Home Fairs” where everyone pays admission to view these bloody places. The fair will happen in October. Believe it or not all of the houses are sold….Anyhow, the road directly behind my house is ALL SAND and is awaiting to be paved. I have been on it several times a week and am here to report that I have only been to the tire shop twice in the last 2 weeks to have roofing nails removed from my FJ and my golf cart tires. GDSOB roofing nails.

I love 4 wheelin’. Really I do. I get a little nervous when someone says “Watch this” however…last time my sister said that, she put my golf cart in a ditch, tore out the front windshield and made all the passengers bang their heads on the roof of the cart. No bueno! Of course there was plenty of spilled beer all over the cart too. Lots of Upi’s too. What are UPI’s you ask? Unidentified Party Injuries

Nothing sucks worse than waiting around to have your tire patched. Don’t even think about having a flat plugged. You’ll spin the plugs right out of your tires. Get it patched. Trust your bartender on this one.

Watch out for the GD Alligators.

Peace be with you,

Bobby

The path to my backyard June 2010.

Oh wow, our 23rd Anniversary will be here on June 27th. I better go out and get some presents PRONTO!

What the hell do you get a lady that already has everything? Jewelry? She has that out the wazoo already.

I’ll think of something nice. Flowers, dinner and perhaps a couples massage or something. Ahhhh, I’m not much for rolling around in a spa getting all these weird treatments. I’d rather be doing something outdoors. I always try to adhere to “man code” you know? Maybe I’ll take her for a bike trail ride and pack a nice picnic for the end of the ride…of course I’ll get her a gift or two.

We are having a party this afternoon with my girls (now young ladies) soccer team. I’m sure that will be crazy. I’ll bring a couple of soccer balls, a cooler full of drinks and we will sit around and talk about the past and the future. Who knows, maybe a soccer game will break out…

Most of them are either going away to Virginia Tech or UVA. The others received athletic scholarships (For different sports) to ODU and The university of Miami. We have one more year in the u17/19 division and then who knows what happens after that?
I remember them in the u-12 division.

I got up and mowed my grass at 7:30 this morning. Normally, I’m not “that a**hole” who does such a thing but since we have so much construction in the neighborhood I figured nobody was sleeping.

How hot is it today? Africa hot. The humidity is rather thick.

My neighborhood? Party out of bounds from here till October.

I love it.

Peace be with you,
Bobby

We won the sandsoccer tournament for the second year in a row. Last weekend ROCKED!!!

In five games we conceded 2 goals while scoring 19. That statistic is a bit skewed as we won 2-1 in the semi’s and 1-0 in the finals.

Summer is here. Tonight we are going to a “Boxed Wine” party. Holy moly. Not a snob will be on site.

Tomorrow I am going to a party at my Sister’s house. We are celebrating Father’s day. I expect to be on the beach both Saturday and Sunday.

The summer is upon us. Life is grand!!!

Peace be with you,
Bobby

I went out to the front porch and noticed one of my neighbors left a 12 pack of Sam Adams Octoberfest. The guy hordes the stuff so we can have it during the summer.

Very nice!!!

I found a nail in my truck tire this morning and had to get it patched during lunch. Dammit. To make a long story short I had to pull some kids off a sand/silt road with my truck from a construction site. They got buried up to the axle. They sure were happy to see me. Apparently, so was the nail…

Sandsoccer mode. Big tournament over the weekend. We have our last practice today. We have a championship to defend!! Today we are scrimmaging a boys team. I feel sorry for the boys…We will punish them. No doubt… Actually it will be close; tough competition for our ladies makes them stonger…

I have a tan like you wouldn’t believe. Being on the beach for practices, weekend hangouts and after work is the culprit. In fact, I think I’ll take a run on the beach after practice concludes.

Ronin went surfing this afternoon. Hmmm…Wish I was with her.

My litte Serb went home Saturday. Her grandfather died in January and her family didn’t tell her until she arrived home. I guess they were trying to protect her. I would have told her the minute it happened.

I don’t expect to see Jovana for a very long time.

Peace be with you,

Bobby