Well I Am Awake (01/06/13)

Well I have been awake for about a half hour or so and am sipping on my first cup of coffee. I'm addicted to my weekend java with Kahlua now. It is yum. I made it through the night sleeping. Cool beans!

I saw a quick headline that the NHL may be back with a possible 48 game season after negotiating throughout the night. You know what I don't care. I'm pretty sure that I am not the only hockey fan that thinks that now.

While there are many that will be welcoming them back with open arms like the people whose livelihoods depended on games being played like arena staff and businesses near the hockey rinks as well as some die-hard fans; I won't be one of them anytime soon. The owners and players can take as I politely as I can say a flying eff. My days of supporting a league spending my hard earned dollars purchasing a pair of tickets for $150, $8 beers and $6 hot dogs has ended.

The only good thing for me in all of this on a personal level is that perhaps now when I go to a sports bar for a meal and a couple of brews, perhaps a TV screen or two will have a hockey game going that I can periodically look at in between bites of food. I will be slightly more interested in the hockey game than I ever will be watching any level of basketball pro or not or some Mediocrity Bowl that we have been subjected to on ESPN for the last three weeks. Like I really care what happens between two six and six teams who last played a real football game five weeks ago. There was such a bowl game on TV early yesterday afternoon. It was like whatever, who cares and I hope that the Food Channel has something decent on.

I'm glad to say that H was in good enough shape to go back to work this morning for 7am. I offered the young man a ride but he begged off saying that he needed to ride his bike to get some exercise in. Yes I swear it is true that he is my blood relative and son. Even if he talks about physical activity and means it we are related. LOL.

On a completely different note, I have ten games of Words With Friends going on either on Facebook or on my "not so smart" phone and I must be playing with the world's slowest players ever. I am almost tempted to use the remind button but then I think my phone will explode if I do so.

I need to read the little book that I got with my "not so smart" phone. I don't know to delete text messages. I don't know how to get rid of thirty or so apps that I will never ever use. Most importantly I have the find that flaming lighter app so that I am prepared for the next time while I am attending a live concert and a favorite power ballad starts playing. I will then be able flick my cellphone app on and sway. If I ever do that lightning will strike me and cause irreversible brain cell damage. It would have the same effect on me as would listening to more than five minutes of Hannity, Krauthammer, O'Reilly, Susteren and all the other flaming dips on the pretend news station.

Now onto something way more pleasant. I am listening to Robin Trower's "Too Rolling Stoned" from the classic 1974 release "Bridge of Sighs". Some white men, usually British it seems, are just destined to play the blues. Robin Trower is no doubt one of them.

It's time for coffee kahlua number two. Peace out!

What I Did Today? (01/05/13)

Okay let's start by answering the blog title question by paraphrasing the late great Edwin Starr from way back in 1970 and say "absolutely nothing".

As I mentioned I was up at the ungodly hour of 4am or so and reheating the chicken noodle soup that I made for H the night before. After a couple bowls of that and reading some more MLB stories, I went back to bed to finish up my 2nd book of the week which was Brad Thor's "Final Black" which was a good read except for the preachy right wing asides from one of the novel's protagonists. Those parts kind of went blah. blah. blah whatever.

I have couple more books left from my recent Barnes & Noble discount table purchasing free for all. I guess I will be reading one of those on my next nocturnal readathon. I have the darn red squiggly lines under the last word of the last sentence. Look I put in hyphens and it's still red squiggly lined so I am just going to leave it as it is. Spell-checking gawds be damned! LOL.

Back to my doing nothing today. So I finished the book and went back to sleep around 630iah and woke back up at 10am. You get the feeling that when your day starts this way it's pretty effing likely that not much will be accomplished.

One my customers yesterday told me to check out a couple of videos on YouTube. Dave S. from Winnipeg referred me to the full versions of the Kennedy Center Honors for Led Zeppelin and for Buddy Guy tributes. I'm really glad that he did so.

Let's start with the tribute to the greatest rock band ever Led Zeppelin. From the get go this tribute was great with Jack Black's opening monologue that showed how much of fan he is of the band. What makes a tribute come across as honest and sincere is sensing the vibes of the speakers, presenters and performers. Starting off with Jack Black leading into the Foo Fighters leading to Kid Rock to Lenny Kravitz to Jason Bonham with the Wilson sisters. You could see, feel and hear the sincerity in their homages to Zep. Seeing Dave Grohl back behind the drum kit reminds you of the late John Bonham or if not him it sure as heck looks like Gonzo from Sesame Street was playing the drums. Then seeing the drummer of the Foos, Taylor Hawkins doing his best Grohl as a frontman singing the classic "Rock 'n' Roll" and having the time of his life doing so. Then Kid Rock doing "Ramble On" and then Lenny Kravitz doing "Whole Lotta Love". You can sense the honor these guys felt doing Zep's material in front of Plant, Jones and Page. Then the finale with Jason Bonham getting behind the kit just like his late Dad in Zep's glory years and the amazing Wilson sisters from Heart that have been Zep-heads forever it seems coming together with a tight, tight band, string section as well as a horn section and to top it off a full-fledged choir performing the epic "Stairway To Heaven" as it was their song to begin with in the first place. The camera flashes back and forth from this spiritual performance to the members of Zep that you can see are greatly touched by this amazing from the bopping heads of Jones and Page to the tears in the eyes of Plant. Simply amazing!

I then looked up the Buddy Guy tribute and was floored by the words and music. Can it get any better to start off an homage with the voice and presence of Morgan Freeman? I think not. That man and that voice can sell ice to Eskimos or swampland to gullible hicks like me. The words, the phrasing and the inflections in Freeman's voice touch a chord. Tracey Chapman then performed a Buddy Guy version of what we normally refer to Elvis' "Hound Dog". That segued into amazing performances with Jimmie Vaughan, Gary Clark Jr., Jeff Beck, oh my goodness Beth Hart and the inimitable flame-haired Bonnie Raitt. I singled out Beth Hart there because though I have heard the name before I had never heard her sing. All I can is OMG! What a talent! I immediately searched YouTube and have added at least 5 tracks to my favorites list. Check out her performance from Rockpalast 2011 called "Sister Heroine". It touched my heart and that's off the first listen. There aren't many songs that do that.

Next time I speak to Dave S., I'll have to thank him for turning me onto these performances. They'll be played often on this desktop as I type more of these blogs or search the internet.

So as is often the case when I get onto YouTube several hours go by before I come up for air. LOL. What started with the Guy & Zep tributes ended up with watching performances from Beth Hart, Joe Bonamassa, Zappa Plays Zappa, Styx with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra, Steelers Wheel, Buffalo Springfield, Joss Stone, Roger Hodgson and Joe Walsh. Well there went the afternoon.

Now it's time for supper. I think it is a sandwich type of night. I was going to go crazy with a spaghetti sauce but that will be done tomorrow.

Peace out!

Already Thursday aka Almost Friday (01/03/12)

If I wait 24 minutes or so I can change the title of the blog to "it is Friday" or some variation of that.

In keeping with a 2012 tradition, I fell asleep earlier on the couch and slept for almost three hours there before waking up because the darn thing is just too short for me. That is another continuation of 2012 behavior where I am doing the same thing expecting a different result. Ha!

Actually the reason I woke up is that I heard H coughing like crazy. No matter how old your child gets, they are still your babies even at 21 years and 6 ft. 3 or 4 inches and all-knowing. LOL. I don't have anything for coughs in the house except Hall's lozenges which are affording him some comfort. Everything else I have seems to be sinus, drippy nose and sneezing related.

I did have to give him a hard time about going outside on the back deck and having a cigarette with his buddy M who was over for a while. As a reformed smoker I am giving him a hard time as if I never had a cigarette when I was under the weather. Yeah right. Just an example of the old do as I say and not as I did theorem of parenthood. LOL. Yes I am poking fun at that parenting skill of mine.

So earlier tonight I had some chicken souvlakis with some of the remaining Greek-style chicken that I had as leftovers in the fridge. Okay they were Greek-style chicken with tomatoes, red onions, shredded lettuce, feta cheese and tzatziki sauce but in large whole wheat tortillas as I ran out of pita bread so I guess I had Greek chicken tortillas. They were yummy!

So for Greenville today it was cold enough outside for me to go to Costco and drop another $150 or so on vast quantities of Fat Tires, Red Bull, Tortilla Chips, etc etc and leave it in the car for a few hours as it was near freezing. Yep I was out there wearing my usual short sleeve shirt as I am watching these female fashion plates with their jackets with what I hope is fake fur as if all of sudden we are in the Arctic. I hate those jackets or coats. It's weird that I eat meat but I draw the line at wearing an animals fur.

I'm sure that is hypocritical on my part but I am not ready to become a vegan anytime soon. It's like having a tofu burger that tastes like hamburger, well eff it I will have the real thing anyways before I have bean curd and pretend that it is a real burger! Okay mini rant there. LOL.

Uh oh I better post it as it is now moments away from being Friday.

Peace out!

What Day Is It? (01/02/13)

Okay what day is it today? I know it is the 2nd day of the year but it seems as we get older it just gets harder to keep track of the days of the week around holiday season. It's like hmm yesterday was let me think and the weekend is coming up umm eventually.

It's even weirder here as the elementary, middle school and high school kids went back today. I guess I have to come to the conclusion after being here for 13+ years that "Jour De L'An" is not a big thing here like it was back in Montreal.

In my long ago youth and my not so long ago 30s and 40s the first day of the year was a huge extended family day. We (the 3-4 Schlewing-Miller kids) would get dragged around to grandparent homes, aunt's and uncle's homes and to my godfather "Mon Oncle Pit" for meal after meal and dessert after dessert.

We would be eating roast turkey, roast pork, "tortiere" (meat pie), "pattes de cochons" (pig's feet or knuckles) and I think there were even vegetables around from time to time but they never really found on this carnivore's plate.

There would be like 30-40 Schlewings, Millers, Gagnons, Champagnes, Soucys, Dumontiers, Boules, etc etc all crowded into these little flats that my relatives rented in places like Verdun, Lasalle, St-Henri and Point St-Charles. For the longest time I thought that all of my aunts and uncles had two or three names for their first names. They were all Ma Tante Denise, Ma Tante Exilda, Ma Tante Pauline, Ma Tante Therese, Ma Tante Simone, the aforementioned Mon Oncle Pit, Mon Oncle Rolland, Mon Oncle Georges, Mon Oncle Hubert, etc. etc. Every year we would hear the same things. My goodness look how much you have grown. It was hilarious!

To say that we were not very rich would not be an understatement. LOL. Like the good Catholics that our Moms were there were always four and five kids in each of these branches of the family. Hard to set aside money when the hand-me downs start having to be replaced by new clothes after being sewed over and over.

I remember the thrill that me and my cousins would have at this time of the year because we would actually get name brand soft drinks in the individual bottles rather than the generic store brand bottles that immediately lost their fizz as soon as they were opened. We were able to have Coca Cola in that funky little 6.5 oz bottle, or Pepsi in that tall wavy or swirly bottle or 7-Up in their unique green bottles.

While all the women would be in the kitchen warming up food, preparing more food and doing endless rounds of dishes (remember this was the 70s, it was different then) my Mom the rebel along with Ma Tante Madeleine (her brother Rolland's wife) would be hanging out with the men drinking fancy brandy and cognacs in these ornate little glasses that would not be out place at a church's altar when they go through that ornate ritual stuff that they do.

The men and male cousins of drinking age would all be in the den or TV room drinking some real fancy liquors. No beer was to be found on "Jour De L'An". That was a day for Courvoisier, aged Scotch or Whiskeys, the finest Canadian Club products and some weird aperitifs that us kids would try to sneak drinks from if the older people weren't watching. I know now that everyone was aware of what Marc, Sylvain, Christian and Claude were up to. We weren't fooling anyone. LOL.

Needless to say we wouldn't be getting home too early on New Year's Day. There was no way in heck that anything of value would be done on the day after "Jour De L'An" in the province of Quebec.

I miss that. I think that's why I had a tough time this holiday season. It was completely devoid of any tradition whatsoever in Schlewing's World. I know that I can't go and re-create the old days. Too many people have left us onto their next journey whatever that may be. I know that going forward I'm going to do my darndest to start some new tradition.

Oh and it's Wednesday! LOL.

First One (01/01/13)

Well here's to my first blog of 2013 as I toast myself with coffee with just a wee bit of Kahlua. It is a holiday after all! Therefore no preaching at me allowed as if that would influence this stubborn man any. Not hemoglobin likely! These days I am more apt to listen to doctors than anyone else anyways.

That is my way to segue into what I want to accomplish in 2013. This is sort of my New Year's resolution I guess though I have never been one to make what many see as empty promises which is what New Year's resolutions typically end up being within a week or two if that. LOL.

So as I was saying I started listening to doctors three years ago in March when I heeded their warnings and quit smoking and truly I didn't have an issue at all doing that.

So when I went to get my annual physical a few months ago when it was time to update my medical records for insurance purposes the main issue at hand now is my high blood pressure. While some it is work related due to my almost non-existent time management skills; I believe most of it is related to the weight gain since quitting smoking. I laughingly refer to my quitting smoking as 60 pounds ago as opposed to almost 3 years ago.

While some ex-smokers miss the habit, I truly don't. I hate the smell of it. It is the ultimate reminder why I am glad that I stopped. It just reeks. I didn't realize how much until my sense of smell returned I guess.

Case in point from yesterday when I picked H up at the airport yesterday afternoon after his being away for 10 days or so and he just finished one while waiting for me to pick him up. He sat down in the front seat and it was like I missed you, glad you are back and "open the effing window please". LOL.

But I digress back to this blood pressure thing. The doctor prescribed me a low dose medication which needed to be upped as the results for the first 30 days weren't where they needed to be. So now I am taking a bigger dose of medicine so the doctor has done her part.

Now I need to do my part which is eat a bit healthier. I am referring to you my chips with sea salt. I need to get out and about and that doesn't mean checking out every restaurant bar that has some unique beers on tap. It probably means some exercise and getting sweaty somewhat. Yuck! LOL. It means not using LePage way of counting things. It means actually taking in less calories than those being spent. That is a combo of fruits, veggies and light beer. Ha just kidding about light beer. Why bother drinking swill? Let's exchange that light beer comment with a less sedentary life style.

So my goal for this year is to reduce my BP as I still want to be around when I make my last monthly mortgage payment in June 2039!

Peace out.

PS I am listening to Pete Townsend's version of the Canned Heat classic "On The Road Again" on Deep Tracks. Cool version. Had to slip in my music thing as I usaully do here. LOL.

A Little Bit Chilly (12/30/12)

So just after 7am Sunday morning and it's a little bit chilly in the house. Perhaps typing at my desktop in a tshirt and briefs is the reason. LOL. I could just put on a pair of jeans I guess and stop whining.

Listening to my "Deep Tracks" station online and they just played Styx "Castle Walls" from their 1977 album "The Grand Illusion". I love this station. On a typical station if they played this album at all; this would be the 5th choice as a track to play on the turntable. You've got "Grand Illusion", "Fooling Yourself", "Come Sail Away" and "Miss America" that all would typically get airplay before "Castle Walls".

Every time I typed about a band's or an artist's output I refer to albums or records. I am such a dinosaur. LOL. I am pretty darn sure that I will never own an Ipod or download a music to my phone. I listen to albums and I sure as heck don't want to be listening to them in silence on earphones likely at a volume level that is causing permanent damage to my hearing.

How many of today's artists come out with a full disc of music of which we know of or hear more than maybe a couple of cuts? Aside from some country artists like perhaps Taylor Swift there aren't very many at all. I mean take a look at the top 50 on the "album" charts at the back page of any recent Rolling Stone issue and you will likely understand what I mean. If you don't, you're just insane! LOL.

Now the station is playing "The Song Is Over" from The Who's 1971 classic album "Who's Next". That album had a total of nine songs and seven of them get airplay and "The Song Is Over" might be the seventh track that does and it is still an amazing and memorable song.

Okay I gave in to common sense and put jeans on to get my next cup of coffee. It's just too darn cold in the house to flouncing around in briefs. "Le spectacle est fini". HaHa!

So in today's math lesson we will use the example of Maine's Republican governor Paul LePage on how not to do things. Last year he took a page out of the idiotic tax cut pledge from the TP platform which just goes to show that these dips never learn to count past 21 which means using fingers, toes and their you know whats. So one year later they have $400,000,000 less revenue over the next two years. Yes that is eight zeroes after the four.

So last week LePage ordered $35,500,000 in immediate spending cuts including one-third of them from the education budget. So the year before this neanderthal took over, Maine ranked 21st as far as education standards. Now it's 27th. If this keeps up they can be come down to our levels here in SC where we are ranked last in the nation.

Here's another simple math truth taking out the zeroes. If you have $400 less revenue or income if you are spending everything you make. How the eff does cutting $35.50 in spending balance your budget. Aren't you short $364.50? Guess what happens next? I am pretty sure it won't be dealing with LePage's actions in nepotism. It will likely be affecting the true middle class and those people are not bringing home $250,000 a year.

Just another shining example of idiocy in action as brought to you by TP policy. Bravo!

I just thought of it. The Styx album title is a perfect match for Lapage's economic policy.

Geez I have to shave. This is driving me nuts. I have really gotten to the point that I have more hair on or near my chin than I have on my face and it is itchy. I also need to get some brekky in. I think I may spoil myself this morning and have breakfast out somewhere.

That's it for now. Peace out!

Sun Is Out (12/29/12)

So the sun has decided to come back and make in an appearance over the city of Simpsonville. It sure is nice to see it out even though it isn't all that warm out there. I just made my way to the kitchen to grab a beverage (LOL) and I looked outside through the mini-window next to the front door and I saw some glorious rays. For the last couple of weeks, sightings of the sun have been few to say the least. I especially notice it at work as I am maybe 15 feet from a huge panoramic view and all I have been seeing is grey and blackish skies and clouds. Ugh. Not exactly uplifting.

I need to get past this ennui that I feel these days. Spending Christmas alone was not a smart move on my part. I should have gone south and find some beach that I could have spent a couple of peaceful days in what I call my happy place. Salt water and I are one. It is the pisces in me. LOL.

Uh oh Houston we have a problem. I just took a sip of my RJ Rocker's Patriot Pale and set the bottle down and it fizzed up and we have a fizz field over my computer table. Time to get a paper towel. Okay all cleaned up!

So this isn't a Schlewing's World blog if I don't include the music that I am listening to right now as I type this. I have Peter Gabriel's "Secret World" concert that was taped in Modena, Italy in November 1993 that is playing on the DVD player on my desktop. Peter Gabriel is an artist! Simply amazing. This show is incredible. The songs, the musicianship, the choreography and Paula Cole. I think I am infatuated with Paula Cole. Ha. Now the world knows that Paula Cole is aces in my book. She has that thing.

Okay back to the present. I have to prep some chicken breasts that I want to have Greek-style but I will have to make a grocery store run and get some lemons. I'm out of lemons. You can't have Greek-style chicken without lemons. It just can't be done. So I am going to get some lemons and solve today's major issue in Schlewing's World.

After that I am going to fire up the work laptop and try to get my year-end targets.

That's it for now. Peace Out!

Made It Through The Night

Well that was a pleasant change of pace for me. I actually made it through the night without waking and staying up a for a couple of hours like I normally do. I remember waking up and checking the time and thinking to myself that I need to sleep more and went back to sleep. Nice. Perhaps it was my reward for being rather productive yesterday. Hmm. Perhaps.

So here I am at just after 6am on Christmas morning having my first of a few coffees hoping to jump start my day somewhat. I have the dishwasher going and will have to pull the towels out of the dryer and fold 'em all up. I did five loads of laundry yesterday. That's unheard of in Schlewing World! Call up the descendants of the McWhirters as I need to be noted in the next version of their books. Smiles.

I'm going to spoil myself with a big homemade breakfast this morning. I do believe I have all the fixings except I am about to run out of half and half. Ugh 2% for my coffee. I may have to spike it when I get to that point. Ha!

I have to find my wood glue. I need to fix a dresser drawer. I really need to go through my clothes in the closet and get rid of some of it. I am running out of room. Gawd I am a hoarder. I don't think I will ever get back into a 34 waist size. Who am I kidding? LOL. No one!

I have some Christmas calls to make this morning. I am looking forward to those. I have to make a better effort in the coming year on that. I carry my independent streak a little to extremes sometimes.

I need coffee number two. Peace out.

Being Kind Of Productive!

Okay I don't usually write two of these within hours but I am amazing myself with how productive I have been so far today. Let me preface that with the productivity bar not being set that high. This is me that we are talking about after all. Mr. Let's Wait Before Doing Something aka Mr. Procrastination! LOL.

You know it may be that Kahlua that I put into two of my coffees this morning that gave me that extra get up and go go.

So here we about 4 or so hours after I got up and I have accomplished this so far. Three loads of laundry washed. Well the 3rd is on its' last cycle. A load of whites waiting to be folded. Pretty darn sure that I'll have to do that given that Jynx the Cat looks at clothes as a place to lay her plumpness down on and not a thing to help fold. Ha!

I even took a shower today. Cleanliness is important!

I did my Greene's run and now have some additional reds, ambers, ales and pales in my eventually to be depleted collection of spirits. As far as I know I have two places that I can go and get some decent priced and good tasting beers as well as decent enough lower priced reds. Greene's near the mall or Total Wines at the Shops at Greenridge. Let it be said that both of these choices are not places that you want to be near to on the last shopping day before Christmas if you have the lack of patience that I have for drivers in the Upstate. There were a few colorful words that escaped my lips as I was listening to Walter Rossi's "All The Best" on my CD player. I get stressed for nothing behind the wheel. My flipping out will do nothing to change the scenario except to raise my blood pressure which is not a good thing.

As usual I have "Deep Tracks" going and I just had to put on mute because they decided to play the deranged one's "Free For All". Up until a couple of years ago I could handle his music. Now that I know too much of his politics, it's instant ignore! Good thing that it is a short song.

Okay back to pleasant things like what I also have accomplished today so far today. I stopped at Food Lion to pick up a few things as mentioned earlier.

Here's the list of what I bought:
Cajun Andouille Sausage
Neptune Salad (crab and shrimp)
Green Cucumbers
Iceberg Lettuce (the Romaine didn't look too hot)
Jumbo Red Onions
Hothouse Tomatoes
Crumbled Feta Cheese
Hard Salami

It looks like I am planning on making some finger foods or snacks at some point today or tomorrow. I sure hope those sausage are good. I had the sampler plate at Mac's Speed Shop a couple of nights ago and andouille and kielbasa are rapidly becoming my go to snack food. I'm going to have to find a place here where I can pick up fresh and locally made sausage. I'll check Whole Foods or that other specialty food place out to source my fix for tastiness.

Okay the dryer just stopped. Now I have two loads to fold and one to transfer and another load to start.

Go Go Marc!

Critical Mass

Well I am waiting for my coffee to brew and bopping along to The Honeydrippers "Rockin At Midnight". You know I appreciate that song more now than I did back then. It's a sure sign that I am getting older. I love the "rhythm and blues" feel to the song with the horns blaring away in the background.

The reason why this blog is titled "critical mass" is because I have reached the point where I don't have a single pair of underwear that is clean and I don't have a single white T left either. I have piles in my bedroom. I always have piles in my bedroom but today I have more piles than I usually do.

I do believe that today is going to be known forever more as "Clean-Up Marc's Bedroom Day". The gravity of the situation signifies the need to commemorate this day. I just need the caffeine to kick in so that my energy level gets there and I have to hide from myself David Baldacci's "Hell's Corner" which I started to read this past weekend in between naps. I know myself. If I grab that book and head to the couch; that's it the rest of the morning or afternoon will be a total write-off.

I think I need to thrown in a grocery run to grab a couple of things and may have to make a Greene's run to pick up some reds, ambers and pales. I have to make some sort of dish with the hot Italian sausage that have defrosted in the fridge. I wonder if Food Lion carries rapini.

On coffee number two now as David Bowie is singing about the "Jean Genie". I have the heard this song tons since its' release way back in '72 and I still have no idea what the heck he is singing about on this track. It bops though! Interestingly when it was originally released in the UK, the B side was "Ziggy Stardust". Wow. Imagine that just those two songs would blast away most of the pablum that is on the charts today.

I have an app on my phone called "Song Pop" that I play more often than not with random people around the world and I typically ace the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, the hard rock, the hair band, the one-hit wonders categories but when someone choose today's hits as the challenge I just want to give up on the game right away rather than guess the song title or artist for the auto-tune drivel that passes up as music these days.

Okay that's it for now.