Frantic Friday : The melting snow edition.... (NSFW)

Last night the weather in Bedrock, took a massive change for the better. Temperatures with two digits AND a + symbol in front of them, seem to be making a return to thermometers in the area. Seeing +12 C, (54 F) on my own thermometer this morning, caused me to run giddy through the cave, as I realized that I could dress in something other than a Parka and Mucklucks for the first time in quite a while. Let's face it, Bedrocks been under a minimum of a foot of snow, since about the middle of October! Even for a good Canadian boy in the country, that's an awful lot of Winter!

So on this Frantic Friday we attempt to melt a little of that snow. As we decide what to wear to work, based on the rising temperatures.

I knew it was going to be a warm one today, as I had some real issues trying to get me a little sleep in the heat of the night. The covers felt so heavy and hot, all night.


Despite that lack of sleep, I was enthused about the warming trend and decided that today, I'd have to wear something light and airy!


I wanted something that would let my skin really breathe, rather than suffocate it in all of the Winter garb of the last few months.


Now at first, I found all of this new warmth exhausting,


but I was able to keep my wits about me, and remember that I was still going to have to go in to work! That meant, I had to at least try to look professional.


I needed to appear somewhat dressy and business like but deep down inside, I just wanted to be comfy!


I know, I know! It's not usually a "guy" thing to worry this much about clothes for the day job and Riggs and Recess will tell you, I'm certainly no Fuel!


But it feels like the first day of Spring when the temperatures start to get into double digits, and snow can be seen turning into puddles at the end of the driveway. So I took the time to make the right decision! My first choice ended up being just a touch too casual, according to Peb's,


so I ended up going with old faithful! Nothing makes me any more comfortable, than roaming around in some well broken in Boots!


Now I'm all set!

It was even a great trip down to the Quarry this morning! It seems that this warming trend has made a few of the other commuting morons, sit back, relax and stay home to enjoy the day! Good on them I say! I probably should have done the same myself. But somebody has to do the grunt work around here and if I keep myself busy, the day just may fly by despite itself.

I think I'll have lunch outside and maybe even a couple of breaks out there too! It's actually so nice outside right now, I think I'll treat The Deathmobile™ to a little wash after work.


There's this spot just down the road, where the wash attendants don't leave anything behind at all.


Once they get started doing the job, it's really quite the procedure.


I hope you're all in as good a mood as I am today!

It's just amazing, what a little sun and warm air can do for a kid! I may even stop on the way home and get me a little :


Vanilla Ice Cream.

Oh come on! What were you thinking?

Silly blogger!!!!

;)

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

Who said "JUST" Truckin'....

Since today's Truckin' day, I thought I'd share a couple of shots from our trip last weekend. The scenery will always be the one thing Truckin' around the continent has, on flying over it!

We saw all kinds of weather as we drove in both directions on the trip, but I loved the feeling at about 3000 feet in the mountains when we were quite literally, driving just underneath the clouds.


It was grey and rainy as we entered one of the tunnels that makes it's way through the mountains of West Virginia. (or maybe PA?) :)


But... coming out the other side! We ran into a huge snow storm.


It was a great trek indeed!

Peb's and I had a pretty good laugh too, as we realized we didn't turn on the radio or plug in a CD the entire 14 hours home! Good conversation with your best friend, sure can make the time fly by!

Now on to....

March 2009, Vol. 8, Issue 3

The latest issue of Truckin'...

1. Lubbock's Own: Larry "the Laugher" Larson by Johnny Hughes
Large Mouth Maude Larson once beat a Hockley County man half to death at the Cotton Club with a bowling pin because she thought he stole her comb. Later, she found it in her purse, like all women do. She didn't feel a bit bad. The world-class bitch... More

2. A Good Beginning by Milton T. Burton
He bills himself as my best friend, but he's not. My best friend was a Kentucky farm boy who died in screaming agony in the Mekong Delta forty years earlier. But even aristocrats like to name-drop occasionally, and mine has been a good name to drop since not long after I came to the New York financial world out of a Cleveland blue color neighborhood by way of Vietnam decades ago... More

3. Happy Valentine's Day Tamara Johnson by Dave Peterson
I moved behind the door to investigate and possibly kill someone. I figured I was ready. The deadbolt lock was sprung with a soft – click. I heard keys jangling, a girl's voice laughing, and then the handle turned. I leveled the revolver and pulled the hammer back... More

4. Hunter Wellington by Betty Underground
Her comfort in her own skin surpasses societies modesty boundaries. It is just how she is. Most people come home from work and take off their shoes. She doesn't stop there, she takes off her pants and pulls her bra off through the sleeves of her t-shirt. Discarding them on the floor of the entrance. She prefers the freedom, and cares less about what others might think... More

5. Monroe by Paul McGuire
Monroe sat at the end of the bar on the last stool. He always did. He never left. The octogenarian arrived five minutes before O'Looney's opened and had to be carried out every night when one of his grandkids stopped by to pick him up... More


What a Long Strange Trip It's Been...
From the Editor's Laptop:

Welcome back to a "it's almost Spring" edition of Truckin'. I hope some of these stories bring a smile to your face or inspire you. This issue features the Truckin' debut of Milton T. Burton, a published author, who was generous enough to share a short story titled A Good Beginning. We also have another gem from Johnny Hughes who shared a story about a Lubbock, Texas legend. Betty Underground contributed a sultry and erotica tale for you with Hunter Wellington. Dave Peterson is back with a Valentine's Day story. And I wrote a piece of fiction titled Monroe inspired by James Joyce.

Please spread the word about Truckin' by any means necessary. You will increase your karma tenfold by turning on your friends and family about your favorite stories. The writers write for free so they only compensation they get is the knowledge that people are digging their blood work.

And as always, please let me know if anyone is interested in being added to the mailing list or perhaps you are interested in writing for a future issue? We'd love to see what you've been working on.

Before I go, I have to sincerely thank the writers for exposing the soul to the world. Thanks for taking this leap of faith with me.

Be good,
McG

"No man is more hopelessly enslaved, than he who falsely believes that he is free." - Goethe

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

The band of brudders....

The feelings sometimes get difficult to describe, only because of how fast and strong they come upon me at the time. It's been a running joke for several years now, that I don't have any brothers born into my family. What I do have however are quite a few adopted brudders, I somehow manage to pick up along my random way.

This past Mastadon weekend, I was lucky enough to have run into three of those brudders.

One of those brudders is The Doc. We actually met face-to-face for the first time, back at Al's bash. The Doc was walking up the street about 50 feet or so from The Pub, when that feeling of total recognition came to me. It was as clear to me as if it was my own family member walking towards me. "I know who that is" I blurted out for the entire street to hear. Peb's told me that night, that this one moment will always be etched into her memory. Two grown men, (physically anyways!) had never apparently been happier to see one another in her opinion, and I have to concur from my perspective.

The Doc is like my little brudder. I've worried about him, worried for him and generally tried to watch out for him from afar as best I could. It's not that he needs me doing any of this, it's just that family like bond, that makes me want to have everything in his life go as perfectly for my little brudder as it can. Mess with him, you'll be messing with me too!

Like any big brudder though, I'm also so very proud of him. For long time readers here, I know you'll remember this for certain. For those of you that are fairly new here, you should read THIS and be proud of my little brudder too!

I think Peb's expression says it all in this pic, but if you need her words as well, "There's really not much better," she says, "than being the meat in a good brudder sammich!"


One of my udder brudders from a different mudder made it to Mastadonia too! One of my big brudders. The big brudder that has kept the fun in everything we do together, no matter what! I have a really hard time thinking of anyone I laugh out loud around as much, as I do with this big brudder.

I first met Falstaff in person, back at the blogger gathering in December of '07. He and his lovely wife were there, for most of the Tao of Luck episode. We also got to spend a little time together, back at Al's bash in September.

You should know I'm also really proud of this big brudder too! I can't begin to tell you how happy I was, to be able to tell him in person how cool it is that he is doing this!

The third in the series of brudders that refused to evolve for an entire weekend, was the hippie of the family. There would be far too many links to go through, if I took the time to put down some of the crap that Al and I have gone through together. But as far as brudders go, Al is the man! I'm really proud of him for several reason right now too! The fourth in a series of BBT's he's put together for our little community of rag-tag and mottled poker bloggers, should be enough on it's own I know. But I'm actually more proud of him for this little journey he is currently on. Like my udder brudder Riggs puts it, YOU ARE THE MAN!

So to the brudders that I had the chance to get together with for six hours of this past weekend, I say Cheers one more time. Thanks for being such a special part of my band of brudders!



My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

Stop me if you've 'herd' this one....

Two and a quarter years ago or so, I started typing a few thoughts down about Poker, Life and damn near anything else that rattled through the vast expanse of space between these two rather perfectly sized ears. I did it, because someone got me hooked on reading a blog. Well actually that's a lie! He got me hooked on reading at three separate places, but all because of the one blog. The one blog that he introduced me to in the first place by saying, "It's one of the best there is out there."

Up For Poker and the G-Vegas boy's, always had that lost boy's in never-never land appeal about it to me. I mean, they had to be real folk and there was a style attributable to each of the writers that contributed material, but there was also the clandestine Poker games in warehouses and such. Folks getting robbed, (by both sides of the law IMHO!) and games being raided all across the area. And through all that, the writing was always first rate. Stories would draw me in to the web they'd weave, always making me wait so very eagerly for the next update to hit the pages of Up For Poker.

"They have to be real I know, but these lost boy's can really spin a yarn about life." I'd tell all that would listen. "Someday no matter what it takes, I'm going to get my azz down there and find me that never-never land of theirs."

There have been get togethers in Vegas and Phoenixville, where I've been fortunate enough to get to spend a little bit of time with two of those lost boy's from G-Vegas. Each and every time I do, I seem to take away BY FAR the better part of the deal. They get my ramblings and ten-thousand questions from someone that wants to delve a hell of a lot deeper into what goes on in their heads, and I get their answers, some stories and a friendship. A friendship that I'll never let myself take for granted.

From Up For Poker, I found BadBlood and Otis. All totalled, our 'in the flesh face-to-face' meetings, would probably constitute about an eight hour workday with a couple of time and a half hours, for very bad behaviour. Yet, they are friends I would go to battle with. In some way's, more so than friends I have had my entire life! Why? Because that's exactly how they make me feel! Not in so many words, (and I do not expect that!) nore in any action or posturing at the sign of any trouble either. But simply as friends should always do, by acting in a manner one can become very accustomed to. By treating others as they would like to be treated themselves. Now having said that, "treating" can definitely take on several different meanings and so it should. 'Spice' should never be lacking in any relationship either and with these two around, "something" can and will probably always happen as well.

Sometime Saturday night during our six hours of Mastadonia, Otis and BadBlood culled Pebbles and I away from the herd. With deft skill and synergy, they whisked the two of us away to a little spot across the street and up the road just a touch. We were going to have Dinner, and it would be just the four of us. Dinner would be on them, they'd hear nothing of anything different! The four of us would engage in conversation and laughs. We'd sit there and tell each other a little more about who we were and why. We'd let everyone at that table, a little deeper into the realm of the blogger we portray. But even more importantly, we'd show just a touch more about the person behind the blogger and start a process along a path that I'm positive, will only improve with aging.
Once again I have to say, I came out the real winner! I tripled up actually, as I also got to see Peb's doing what she does and being herself in this situation. You just have to love her more and more, knowing that she took the "free pass" and a "night out with the boy's" to an entirely new level on this trip, considering it was our 5th. wedding anniversary as well that night.

The dirty Martini slipped past my lips without a lot of effort. It was a drink I had known I was going to have, since the moment I hit send on the response to the invitation from BadBlood. I just didn't know it was going to be at that table on that night, with both BadBlood and Otis in Downtown G-Vegas. Crazy I know, but you know that feeling you get when you picture how things are all going to come together and if they don't go that way, you get a little disappointed? I pictured hoisting the dirty Martini's at the end of some bar, with ten to twelve yelling and whooping bloggers all hoisting the beverage of their choice along side. It would've been great and something along the lines of drinks I've shared with other friends along the way for certain. But I can tell you this. There was nothing disappointing at all about enjoying that drink with just the three of us there, during our Dinner conversation up the road. In fact I can't wait to do it all over again, but definitely on my tab this time!

Thanks for everything from the sushi to the laughs, the conversation to the drinks and absolutely everything else in between boy's. I can't really begin to tell you how much I appreciate everything you did.

Also during this little run down to G-Vegas, I was once again treated to the finest evidence available in the blogosphere today, that there is one undeniable fact that always remains a constant in our world.

Bloggers marry up!

Meeting Mrs. Blood was so much more than just a pleasant little surprise. It was a treat that I wish could have gone on for so much longer than it did. This meeting was the one real casualty of our six hour trip. But that will be rectified at our next get together, as I'm calling out Mrs. B. and Mrs. O. to join us for our next dinner in G-Vegas.

If you've got it in your heart to help a gal out, Mrs. Blood is also walking for an excellent cause in the near future and is fairly close to reaching her donation goal. Like I said, it's an excellent cause, (I love boobs OK!) and if someone that stops by here would care to help her out just a little, I'd be very appreciative of you support! If you're like me and you love boobs too, you can find Mrs. Bloods page HERE.

There will be more tomorrow.
I'm honestly still a little in awe of how much I was able to soak in, during just six short hours in G-Vegas!

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

If you ask me, I'd do that 28/6.... 24/7....

Yes! I drove 14 hours down and 14 hours back, to spend a little quality time with friends in G-Vegas. With six hours to get together, shoot the shit and sling a few beers and Glenlivet's back as we went, let me tell you something! For this crowd.... I'd drive 28 hrs. round trip ANYTIME I was EVER privileged enough for them to friggin' ask me to do so.

Yeah.... we had about six hours total in us, after the drive down AND knowing we had a 14 hour straight trip back up the next day. We did manage about 5 hours sleep total after all, from the point of departure to the commencing of libation and jubilation at The Westin.

I'll tell you what though.... If I had just 34 hours left on this ole' flying rock, I don't know that I'd want them to be too much different from the 34 hours I just spent, getting in and out of G-Vegas!

You may want or expect an epic Bam-Bam post of debauchery and mayhem gone awry from this trip, but I'm sorry to say kids, it's just not going to happen. Oh we did our thing make no mistake! But this six hours held meaning, that even I don't think I can do the proper justice to at this point in time.

Vegas is HUGE and all of our gatherings out there, always seem to make me look back and reflect on my losses. NOT monetary losses mind you, but the missed opportunities with those that I wanted to get a little personal time with. Take the 2007 Winter gathering as an example extraordinaire! I never got to meet Iggy or Schaubs, and I spent WAY too little time with BadBlood and the beautiful Katidude for certain.

I've said it and I mean it, AL's BASH is THE bomb! Getting a little time to one-on-one with the who's who in our messed up little world! Then throw in the kick-azz party he puts on for us, and you've got the makings of Poker blogger mecca! Long live the BASH!

Having said all that....

Deciding to drive 14 hrs. one-way to G-Vegas for a few drinks and a little conversation with a group of "like-minded" (all apologies offered for the insult right here, right now!) individuals that give a crap that you did so in all sorts of weather, through one Province and seven States! It pays back ten-fold in every element you could ever expect.

Peb's and I had a little two on one time with Al. (get THAT shite out of yer' head's right now, you Donkeys!) We discussed all things important to each other and when all was said and done, I remembered once again why AlCantHang may just be one of the single greatest persons on this God's green Earth. The guy just friggin' gets it! I seriously hope I can figure out a way, to weasel myself into the AlCantHang "Key West" experience! I'd really like to be enjoying a puff off a fine Cuban Cigar, while sitting out back on the deck and wondering what we were going to get ourselves into next my friend. I think I'd have to belly up to the bar for that little challenge indeed.

This weekend, I was finally fortunate enough to meet the "vertically challenged" Ignatious and The Boy Genius. We spent not nearly enough time getting to know a little about each other but, (Bonus code IGGY dammit!) I swear we tried! Actually, I feel incredibly lucky that I finally had the chance to get together with both of these wanna' be Bedrockians. (read : just about as cool as me, so they MAY be OK!) There was our round table chat for just over an hour, attended by Al, Iggy, B.G., Peb's and myself. This is where stories were told and laughter abounded. No hustle and bustle off to the next location. No worries at all in fact, about where or why we had to be at any given time down the road. Just some quality time with each other, spent teaching, listening and learning, about who and why we each are, the way we are today.

Iggy was the real surprise for me, but I hear most everyone says that upon their first meeting with "The Blogfather." No wonder really! He exudes such a powerful presence, despite his small stature! I actually took a great shot of Iggy! In this picture, he's got everyones attention as he makes his way around the bar.


I'm told it may be only the third "offically approved" Iggy Pic on the webernets today. Real feather in the cap material, if you ask me!

Despite our initial G-Vegas visit being cut to right on six hours, there's lot's more to come in the following few days.

Tomorrow I hope to share a couple more pictures and stories, from a few hours at a bar with some really good friends. Maybe we'll cover 3000 mile man-hugs from a brudder, or 150 mile man-hugs, from a friend whose been known to wear a skirt on a few occasions.

Perhaps the next day, we can talk about Dirty Martini's and a Sushi dinner with some pretty exceptional hosts!

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....