Friday, December 31, 2010

One last post.............

I have time for one last post of the year before starting a hopefully better new one. Normally I don't make resolutions or anything like that but this year I hope that my family can leave behind the bad luck with illness and sickness and money problems and have more prosperity. I know that there are people out there who have had much worse luck than I but there are a lot also who have had much better. I'm thankful for all we have and all we've experienced but I really want to try and better myself and my family. It's about moving forward instead of running in place, growing instead of being stagnant, learning instead of keeping that status quo. I hope everything goes well for everyone out there and that the new year will bring you happiness and health.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Hammerbox

Due to a technical glitch with my Ipod I had no podcasts to listen to tonight while at work and instead listened only to music which is becoming a rare thing for me. I left it on shuffle for the most part until a song by the band Hammerbox came on and I ended up listening to all of their songs from their album Numb which was released in 1993. Hammerbox formed in Seattle somewhere around 1989 to 1990 and got lumped in with the so called "grunge" bands of that era. They called it quits in 1994 which just goes to show that in the music business it's not always enough to have good songs, a fantastic singer who has a powerful voice (Carrie Akre) and quality musicians. You also need to have luck and a good deal of it. Unfortunately Hammerbox didn't have enough and never followed up what I call an unsung album that was a favorite of mine for a long time. So now I look back and remember the short lived brilliance of Hammerbox.



Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Dude, Where Have You Been?

I'm just now starting to get back into the swing of posting on my blog and while I have a plethora of ideas to write about there still is the little matter of finding enough time to write about them. It hasn't been easy for me the last few months but things are starting to look up. Basically what happened is that my wife has been out of work for the past few months due to a Baker's Cyst in her calf. Normally when I would get home from work she and our son would be asleep and that was my time to get on the computer and write. Since she hasn't been working I would come home and most nights she would be on the computer and I'd get up the next day and either her or our son would be on the computer. My online time has been very limited.

At first her problem was mis-diagnosed by a Nurse Practitioner (last time we allow one of them to see either of us) which set her back two weeks from getting real treatment. Once the doctor figured out what was wrong he sent her to a specialist to get an evaluation. The specialist wanted to get an MRI of her knee and to try and aspirate the cyst which didn't work. It seems it wasn't liquidy enough and was instead more like a thick syrup which was unusual as was it's location. Normally these cysts are behind the knee but sometimes push down between the calf muscles and descend. As I said aspirating the cyst did not work so the next step was surgery which was compounded by the MRI showing that there were several small meniscus tears that required an arthroscopy to be done as well as cutting into the back of the calf to remove the cyst.

Fast forward a few weeks and my wife has been going to her physical therapy and has been strengthening her leg. Only now my she is convinced she's feeling the same thing and that her leg is developing another cyst which I pray isn't true. We've been struggling to make it financially and the only thing that has saved us is that we've been getting food and household items from our church and that my mother has been paying for our son Johnny's pre-school tuition combined with my wife's mother sending clothes for her him and helping out in other ways. If it weren't for that help and the overtime that I've been able to get at work I think we would have lost our house by now.

A few weeks back my wife's cousin came for to visit us with her soon to be one year old daughter. Now it has been a bit of a strain on our already delicate situation but we have the space and it's been nice to have them in the house. Plus there was a very good reason for them to visit us for this perhaps indefinite stay but since it's highly personal I won't go into now, Perhaps in a future post about what kind of a man doesn't mind not being around for his only child's birthday, Christmas, etc. At any rate, I was overjoyed to receive a bonus from my employer and with that and some overtime I bought a brand spanking new Dell laptop with which I am posting on this very blog at this very moment. Okay it's also thanks to the WiFi at work (I'm off the clock) but this has made me very happy and I can't wait to really get some writing done once my wife starts working again and I can cut back on the overtime.

I know that as long as we keep plugging away and do what we know is right in our hearts that it will all work out eventually. You just got to persevere and have a little faith.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Christmas and Heavy Metal....How Could Anything Go Wrong?

Here's a little something that combines Christmas, Heavy Metal and comedy which is the way I like it. Sure, you can have your stuffy Christmas music that bores you to tears or you can try something a little................different this year.







Friday, December 10, 2010

New Music From The Cars and Duran Duran

I've been away for awhile but am now back thanks to a bonus check from my job and plenty of overtime. How does that help you say? Wouldn't that actually take more time away from me? Not since the extra money and a great deal allowed me to purchase a new laptop. That makes it a bit clearer doesn't it?

So anyway here I am on break at work typing madly away hoping to finish this quickly but I have to talk briefly about some new music news. The Cars have released a second clip of a song that will be on their new future album that we do not know the name of. Suffice to say I am extremely excited to be hearing this new music from them. The Cars are one of the top bands/artists on my concert wish list that I never got to see play live. So if they decide to follow up the album with a tour I will do whatever I have to in order to see them live. Here's the clip from their new song "Sad Song."



And now for another 80s band that is going to put out new music comes the song "All You Need Is Now." Duran Duran continues to plug away and is also planning a new release for next year. Once the chorus kicks in it sounds very much like classic Duran Duran. Overall I like a few Duran Duran songs but love a bunch of The Cars songs so they are my preferred band at this moment. Anyway, here's the DD song: