Category Archives: The Basics

On Monday, I woke up with a slight irritation in my throat.  I thought I might have slept with my mouth open as I sometimes do when my nose gets plugged from all the Arizona dust. 

As the day progressed, I started to feel worse.  The next day, I went into work.  I felt bad, but not bad enough and I could isolate myself in my office as not to infect others.  By Wednesday morning, I was immobile.  My hair hurt.  Sore throat, chills, headache but no coughing or sneezing.  I’m sure I was just bubbling with an infectious aura.  I stayed home. 

I’m starting to feel better but I still lack energy (as illustrated by Parker Kitty in the photo). 

I was all ready to hit the world this week.  A new year.  Holidays are over.  Back to work!  Go! Go! Go! Then I crashed.

The key–for me at least–to getting over something fast is NyQuil induced comas.  Stay in bed and sleep as much as you can.  Speaking of sleep, that sounds like a great idea.

Nap time…

A couple of weeks ago, there was a little tiny lizard climbing up the curtains in the guest room.  I was in a hurry to leave so I just left it there.  Growing up in the hills of Southern California has made me kind of blasé when it comes to critters.  Lizards, snakes and tarantulas don’t bother me at all—on the other hand, out of work actors, Mormons on bicycles and Sarah Palin send an icy chill up my spine.

I forgot about the lizard until this weekend when we were taking the Winter Solstice tree down.  Mr. Lizard was in the corner behind the tree.  I should have caught the little guy and moved him outside as it appeared he had starved to death (lord knows our fat lazy cat had nothing to do with its demise).  My heart sank.  Here we were enjoying the holiday by overindulging with food and spirits while the little creature lay there as its life slowly came to an end.  I felt terrible.

It’s one thing to run over a creature on the highway.  I’ve done it many times.  They dart out on the road while you’re going 65 MPH.  Sorry critter, if it’s a choice between saving you at the expense of risking my own life as well as the lives of my passengers, I’m going to win every time–not to mention that your death is fairly immediate as opposed to laying there on the floor shriveling up while some asshole with a martini is sitting right next to you chowing down yet another handfull of holiday cookies. 

Most people wouldn’t care. “It’s just a stupid lizard” they’d say.  “Something would have eaten it if it were outside anyway.”

In that case, they’re right.  I can’t control what happens outside in the lizard world but…this was inside my world.

Oh my.  I overdid it last night.  Happy New Year!  Let’s have a mighty fine 2009. 

Ray and I went into Old Bisbee for the night.  I remember everything pretty much up until about 11:14 PM, then it gets kind of fuzzy.  I just remember looking at my watch and seeing that I was still up partying at around 3 AM. 

I so turned into a pumpkin racing down Brewery Gulch as if the magic spell was going to wear off at any given moment. 

Ray, on the other hand, was smart and crawled into bed shortly after 12.  He’s good that way. 

We went on a five mile hike today.  I was so NOT in the mood but once I got moving and felt the toxic sweat oozing from my pores, I knew I had to keep going. 

Speaking of going, I’m going to bed.  Right. Now.

I do have one little last holiday thing to say:

I am fond of the people in my life.  I may not always answer the phone or send you a Christmas card, but I think about you all the time.  I am grateful for my close friends as well as the people I have met through my blog or in other social situations either online or in person. 

Here’s to life!

Ray and I have a 32 mile round-trip commute to work.  To my urban friends, that may sound ghastly but actually it’s 65 MPH on the highway with a two stop signs.  On these short winter days, we are occasionally treated to a spectacular sunset.  I just happened to have my little camera with me for this one.

I’ve learned how to quickly override my point and shoot into manual settings to achieve the look I want but I miss having a fast *lense and a good camera. 

I’m really itching to get another professional camera.  I just can’t afford it right now.  I suppose I could have asked Santa for one but…it’s weird, I just don’t need it.  Don’t get me wrong, I want it but I already have a camera that works (it just doesn’t work as well).  I want to start posting more photos on my blog and I’d also like to create some more fun little videos.  The photos and videos I do on here are from my little digital camera so the quality is marginal.  So for now, the whole implementation of multimedia on my blog is going to be from a Lo-Fi perspective which just adds to the charm…I guess.

I’m not feeling very Christmas-like this year.  My niece just texted me asking what I got for Christmas.  I told her that I didn’t get anything and that I didn’t give anything either.  I think she was kind of flabbergasted at the prospect of not celebrating Christmas with presents.  The funny thing is; I’m not missing out–I already have everything a man could possibly want.  Besides, look at the photo!  That’s my commute home!  I live in a beautiful place with a devastatingly handsome man who actually loves me and my little idiosyncrasies.  I can cover my bills and put a teeny bit of income into a retirement plan, the cat gets fed, loved and cared for and I sleep eight hours a night.  I eat great food (thanks to Ray who feeds me very well),  ride a bitchen motorcycle, have sex on a regular basis (even if I am alone sometimes) and sing karaoke in my garage whenever the hell I want.  I like my job, boss and co-workers (most of them).  I’m healthy, work out regularly and even though I’m 43, I don’t look a day over 42.  Do I have a lot of things and make tons of money?  No.  What I do have is gratitude and that makes me very, very happy. 

I do not gauge a man’s wealth by money.  I measure it by the quality of his life and in that regard, I’m the richest man on the planet.  I got what I wanted for Christmas.  I live it every day. 

To my tens of readers: Happy whatever-it-is-you-celebrate!  Let’s all try to pool our collective energies together for a positive healthy happy New Year!! 

It’s all good.

*Ray was telling me that I misspelled lense in this post but according to Wikipedia, the obsolescent spelling lense is sometimes seen, but Merriam-Webster’s medical dictionary is the only major dictionary that considers this to be correct.  Who knew?

December 21st has come and gone.  From here on out, the days will start to get longer and warmer (unless you’re in Chicago where it doesn’t get warm until June).

Ray and I celebrated this momentous occasion by sitting in the afternoon sun drinking Maker’s Mark Manhattans–they taste just like Christmas!

It’s not that it gets too cold here (as evidenced by Ray wearing shorts), it’s just that it’s pitch black when you wake up and the sun is pretty much down for the day by the time you get off work.  Now summer is on the way.  We made it past the hump!  Usually by mid February, you can tell the days are getting longer.  I can’t wait!!!

 Below is my interpretive winter solstice sun dance.  I am worshiping the sunset on the shortest day of the year.  What it really shows is just how much of a dork I am.  I added the cloud effects and music with my computer.  I usually do a much better job but I don’t have the right kind of video camera and time was not on my side.  It’s cheesy but what would you expect from me?

A while back I blogged about the results of my skin cancer screening I had done at work.  On Wednesday, Ray took me up to Tucson to have MOHS surgery performed on my nose.  (Now I have a MOHS nose?)  The procedure took several hours. 

The surgery itself was fairly easy and the handsome doctor who did it was excellent–like extraordinarily excellent.  He even called my home that night to make sure I was OK.  He called, not a nurse but the doc himself!  OMG, A good-looking thoughtful smart compassionate medical professional. That just doesn’t happen anymore!

The good news is that Dr. Huether removed all the cancer.  The bad news was having skin grafted from my ear to the side of my nose leaving me with a bandage that I have to wear for two weeks (the ear bandage comes off tonight).  One half of me thinks about the overall discomfort and how stupid I’m going to look at the upcoming holiday parties I promised to attend this year.  The other half thinks that I should shut the fuck up and be thankful that this is my one and only brush with cancer (so far, knock wood).  

While I was wincing at the pain (and thought) of having needles stuck into my face and pieces sliced off to be taken to a lab or sewn on somewhere else, I was quickly humbled by the fact that some of my friends and family have gone though much, much worse with chemo and real surgery.  Some of them have died.  I’m a lucky S.O.B.

I have had basal cell carcinoma which, in the case of skin cancer, is the one you want.  It’s slow growing and easy to remove.  Sunscreen and hats from now on…sunscreen and hats…