Category Archives: The Basics

My friends Mark and Barry live in LA.  They own and operate L.A. Outback,  a small business importing and selling didgeridoos as well as other Australian instruments and artifacts.  Mark and I used to play in a band together many years ago and to Mark’s credit, he actually put up with me as a roommate for a while before I met Ray.  I can’t say enough good things about these guys.

Several years back, I visited Mark and Barry in LA.  They had recently befriended a dog that they named Dingo.  Now, I’m not really much of a pet person and dogs tend not to be high on my list of animals (because, in my humble opinion, people don’t discipline their dogs very well and not everyone likes some yappy/barky thing jumping all over them–but I digress).  Anyway, Dingo was not like a dog at all.  He was a person.  I adored him instantly.  Every once in a while, you come across a dog with a remarkable disposition and Dingo had it.  This dog literally expressed human-like facial expressions and just…hung out with us.  I adored him and I could tell that he had become “one of the boys” to Mark and Barry.  Dingo was very lucky to have such doting parents.

Over the years, Dingo has had his share of doggy mishaps.  He had to have some surgery on his knees (I guess dogs have knees–who knew?) and he even survived a rattlesnake bite–which trumps my black widow experience.  The other day I was talking to Mark on the phone and I could hear in his voice that, even though he said he was fine, something was eating at him.  Dingo had been diagnosed with canine lymphoma.

That even got me choked up–hell, I’m getting all teary-eyed writing this.

Mark had just returned from taking Dingo in for treatment.  I could tell that this was going to be a difficult journey.  I just wanted to transport myself through the phone lines and give my friends big bear hugs because I know how much Dingo means to them.  Barry had said, “It’s not like it just one of our dogs or a dog that you have but is kind of difficult but you take care of anyway.  It’s a family member and almost everyone who shops at our establishment knows who he is.”

Mark emailed me the other day.  Dingo has decided to blog about his journey through canine lymphoma.  I have added his site, Our Buddy Dingo to my blogroll.  I encourage you to read it.  I’m also going to ask a big favor of anyone reading this right now; please close your eyes and say a little prayer for our buddy Dingo and while you’re at it, put in a good word for Mark and Barry.  It doesn’t matter what belief system you subscribe to, just send my friends some good vibes.  Dingo is the coolest dog I have ever met.  When you read his blog, you’ll totally know what I’m talking about.

I believe in the power of collective positive thinking.  Let’s all try to help Dingo get throught this.

I’m sorry blog.  I’ve been cheating on you.  I’ve got this thing on the side with a site called Facebook.  At least you’re hearing it from me and not from someone in town.  Please try to understand.  It’s just that lately, I don’t really have anything worthwhile to say to you.  Facebook makes it so much easier to post random little expressions as opposed to taking the time to compose my thoughts into actual paragraphs.  With my schedule and your being so demanding with my time, I just had to go to a site that understood my needs.   Please don’t cry.  This isn’t easy for me either.   Hey, at least only my “friends” can see my posts.  It’s not like I’m flaunting this affair around town…no, please, I want people to keep reading you.  I need you.

When I was growing up, my mother had a plaque in the kitchen that read “The Hurrier I Go, The Behinder I Get.”  I never understood what that meant until I got older.   As you age, you begin to slow down.  Then a friend or family member dies and there is a harsh slap-in-the-face reminder that time is ticking away so you try to go faster.  It’s like speedballing.  No wonder it killed Belushi.

I want to compose music, write that screenplay, go to the gym more often, learn Italian…but my fucking job keeps getting in the way.

Holy shit!  I can’t believe I just typed that!

I love my job.   I love that I have a job…but I hate the passage of time occurring right before my eyes when I have so much more to do.  With the losses Ray and I have experienced these past few years,  I feel like I’m running as fast as I can hearing the Grim Reaper’s sickle swooshing right behind my head.  When Brooke died at forty-seven, it was like he got a chunk of my hair.

I got word yesterday that a woman I knew casually at work passed away from a brain tumor.  My first thought was, “Did she ever get to all the things she wanted to?”  Probably not.  The whole thing is kind of amplified by Brooke’s death.  I know she didn’t get to do everything she wanted because that’s all we talked about–the myriad things we wanted to experience before we died.

The key thing I guess, is to keep on going.  Stop focusing on time itself and keep practicing my guitar.  Keep going to the gym.  Keep trying to figure out how to get the music out of my head and into a song that I can share with others.  I’d rather people remember me as someone who died trying instead of someone who sat around thinking about it.

I got bit by a black widow spider about two weeks ago.  I didn’t see the spider but I saw this on my leg a couple of days after the intense pain started (see photo).  I was beyond sick.  The pain was almost unbearable.  Felt like I was a dishrag being rung out.  Missed an entire week of work. I still feel like shit.

This past weekend when I was starting to feel almost human again, Ray and I decided it was time for a little Spring cleaning in the garage.  We moved things around, shop vac’d and sprayed the hell out of the place.  My karaoke machine is set up out there.  I was organizing the discs and straightening things up when Ray suggested we have some karaoke fun later in the evening.

It was a blast.  Ray decided to sing Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” (Stop children what’s that sound…). He did a good job of it so I encouraged him to sing it again.  This Saturday is karaoke night in Old Bisbee and Ray decided he was going to practice the song for the event.

Last night, we were home practicing our karaoke songs and Ray broke out “For What It’s Worth” and started singing.

“There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind”

I heard that lyric and realized, just like in the 60’s, we’re going through turbulent times with, well, everything.  Wars, recession, gay marriage, drugs, abortion, religion, global warming, etc.  Face it folks, the times they are a-changin’. (Thank you Bob Dylan.)  There’s only one problem.

No one is speaking their mind.

Where are the protest songs?  Where’s the movement?  The unity?  Even Neil-fucking-Young was recently quoted saying  “I think that the time when music could change the world is past. I think it would be very naive to think that in this day and age.”  Neil Young who wrote Ohio!!

Like the spider venom coursing through my veins, the psyche of mankind has become poisoned by the venom of complacency.  Everybody knows what’s going on but no one is doing anything about it. 

“…stop, children, what’s that sound
Has anyone seen my iPod around?”

And I am just as complacent as the next person.  My only contribution to the “movement” is to observe and blog about it.  It may be something but it’s not much. 

That being said, Mr. Young did say something quite profound.  “I think the world today is a different place, and that it’s time for science and physics and spirituality to make a difference in this world and to try to save the planet.”

The world is different and it’s changing at an accelerated rate.  We need to let go of our old ideals and embrace new ones.  The money we gave to the US auto makers should have been allotted to developing electric cars.  Legalizing marijuana will stop the US/Mexico drug problems, ease up the overcrowded jails and make a profitable product.  Hemp is an amazing bi-product!  Solar panels, wind farms, recycling plants will ween us off oil and clear the air.  Just think, if the U.S. put as much money into making a more efficient solar collector instead of fighting a war on terror (how in the fuck do you fight a war on an emotion?!?), we’d create new jobs and a highly exportable product!  Educate kids on birth control, and not only will abortion rates drop, so will the amount of unwanted children being raised in fucked up situations where they grow up to be completely messed up adults that just reproduce and start the cycle all over again. 

Oh man, I could go on and on but I won’t.  I’m not saying that my rant is 100 percent accurate.  I’m not the expert.  But I do know one thing.  We all know it really…

This isn’t working.

For What It’s Worth
Buffalo Springfield
[audio:For_What_its_Worth.mp3]

Most all of where we live used to be ranching land that’s been sectioned off into parcels for home sale.  There is a little stretch on our street still used for grazing.  Yesterday on our way home from work, one of the cows got out and was wandering up and down the road.  There were a few big old trucks and weathered ranchers blocking the area trying to get the cow back into the field.  The poor thing was quite confused and all the other cows on the other side of the barbed-wire fence were running back and forth excitedly.

Have you ever seen a cow run?

There were two trucks on either side of the road driving up slowly and a man with a stick waving his arms wildly making noise to herd the cow back through the gate.  Up ahead were a few other trucks and what looked like a horse trailer parked off to the side with some other ranchers standing around blocking the area.

At one point a man on a four-wheel ATV drove through the center of the two slow moving trucks making it impossible for the cow to turn around.  All the other cows were getting worked up into a frenzy.  I swear it was like a scene from Babe.  In my head I could hear the other cows yelling, “Run back through the gate Mable! Run back over here!”

She must have heard them because she finally ran back through the gate into the field joining the other cows while a ranch hand shut the gate.  You could see the smiles on the rancher’s faces.  I was quite a scene.

The trucks cleared out of the way and Ray drove through, leading the line of cars that had backed up behind us.  That was our traffic jam on our evening commute.

I love living here.

Last night Ray and I drove up to our friend Terry’s place to attend her Full Moon Gathering.  There were several people we’d never met before as well as some friends we had not seen for quite some time.  

The wine was flowing and the food was cooking.  It was a really nice time and the moon was beautiful–one of those nights where I remember why I love Arizona.  It’s good to get out and do something mid-week.  Kinda breaks the monotony of the regular work week.  We were glad to be part of the celebration.  I just wished we could have stayed longer.  

I took my new camera and shot a gazillion photos.  Of course low lighting and movement were obstacles I had to work with.  I just hate using a flash!  

Here is a slide show:

You can go directly to my Flickr account to get high-rez photos by clicking here.