Human Touch

I really could use some human to human interaction and something fun to do... I am “at home”… Sitting in an apartment in Idaho Falls with three sleeping dogs... They aren't very good at conversation... I need something fun to do and someone to do it with... That is what has been running through my mind for weeks...

In and out of town constantly since the end of November… I semi-bound here until my lease expires the end of August… With where I’m headed still to be determined… I have tried to make the most of my time at “home”… Spending time with my boys, writing as much as possible, editing old blogs in the hope of getting something published, and trying to enjoy at least some of what Idaho Falls offers as “eclectic” culture…

Occasionally heading out to hear some music and have a beer…

When I can find something besides metal… The structured and dominate culture of Idaho Falls has provided a home here for the most rebellious and worst music on earth… If you’re going to rebel… Might as well go big or shut up and go to church… Piercing and tattoos are the badges of rebellion amongst the locals who have grown up fighting the reins of control here…

So its Tuesday night concerts outside at the art museum and of course Wednesday night Alive After 5 for music and some beers…  

The Alive After 5 crowd is usually a bit older, an eclectic mix transplants like me and locals who have lived their lives here in defiance of the prevailing culture… It has provided me ample opportunity to “people watch”… Finding a place to sit or stand amongst the crowd watching and listening… Listening to the music and the din of conversations… Surrounded by noise while watching people talking from a distance to far away to hear their words… Just seeing their lips move as almost in a movie… Their conversations can become anything I choose to imagine…

The inhumane working hours at INL keeps most of my former co-workers from these events… 12hr shift work with an hour drive on both ends of it... Very unhealthily doesn’t lend itself to extracurricular activities to easily…

Surrounded by people, conversation and noise… Yet ever alone… Just like at “home”… Streaming an Oriole game on the internet, surfing Facebook and meaningless dangling internet conversations… Always alone…   

A caveat... It is far better to be alone than with the wrong company... Just because you follow this blog... Don't think you are missed... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6fsILfvlug

Saturday to Saturday

What a week... Riley, my 12 yr old Chocolate Lab and dog poop connoisseur must have mistaken bad poop for good poop last Saturday... Leading two almost three days of refusal to eat with multiple, ample vomits in the house and an equal number of carpet shampoos... 

Noticing a few of my own health concerns yesterday had me at the VA clinic in the afternoon with a "call if it gets worse" diagnosis I was okay with... Til today... 

But first... On our after breakfast hike this morning... JJ, my 10 yr old Black Lab decided that bathing himself in something dead might be a good way to attract Mormon bitches... Covered in the worst smell I have ever smelled... Got him lifted into the tub on our return home, we both ended up with a bath... 

Still having some health concerns... I called the VA  clinic and left a message... I was greeted by the nurse on the return call with this, "Get to the emergency room!!!" Not believing that lead me to stop again at the VA clinic just to be sure... 

EIRMC Emergency... I have had some issues with them before... But today was great... An IV with two rounds of infused antibiotics and something to reduce inflammation... I feel much better... Total time out of my house (doorbell to doorbell) and with a list of things to do as long as the IV tube... 3hrs... Not bad... 

I didn't get everything done on the list... But... At least I'm not living with a "motivational speaker" anymore... She can call it what she likes... I called it nagging... 

Tomorrow morning at 11am (in case any paparazzi care to show up)  I'll be back at EIRMC for a second round of antibiotic infusion... Hopfully that's all it takes... Saturday to Saturday... I need to go on the road again... 

2007 Thoughts From The Road

Came across this today... I was still living in Upstate NY when I wrote this on my first out of state road trip back in August of 2007... Yes... I edited it... See my comments about talk radio... 

So anyway… What goes through a road comics mind or anyone’s mind during all those hours in the car???

My first stop on this trip was to home of my old Navy buddy Gary, in Toledo, Ohio… It’s more than a coincidence that it was Gary and I who made a cross-country trip from San Diego to Maine and back to San Diego in 1982… 31 states and 10,000 miles in 30 days…

Gas was cheaper back then that’s for sure… The camping is easier now though… Now I’m in a hotel room with a king sized bed… Or sleeping in my car... Then I was in a tent with a sleeping bag on the ground!!!…

The radio for one can certainly effect where your mind wanders off to… I can’t stand talk radio any longer… If I wanted to listen to people argue… I would have stayed married… So it’s usually music, a ballgame or just plain quiet time…

Constantly hitting the seek button as stations faded in and out… There must have been at least a half dozen stations or more of Prairie Home Companion yesterday as I reached the edge of Minnesota… Quick change the station!!!

Just kidding…

The Spanish guitar music I found on a classical station took me back in time again to San Diego and trips to Tijuana… Boots clunking on wooden sidewalks like a scene out of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly… I don’t think I will elaborate on that any further… We’ll stop right there on that thought…

The countryside is beautiful here… And it took some hearty people to settle it… Needless to say most of my sightseeing today will most likely be pioneer/western history associated… But as I thought about it yesterday… I remembered some scenes from the movie Monte Irvin… Originally starring Lee Marvin… The remake stars Tom Selleck… Both versions are excellent…

Anyway… Life on the frontier was changing… Fences were starting to be strung… The Prairie was being tamed… Old cowboy Monte was being asked to change along with it… His mind clouded by a bottle of whiskey… He almost considered it… Coming to his senses he refuses and tells the man asking him to change… “I won’t shit on my life!!!”

A cowboy he was and a cowboy he’d stay… Walking away, he drunkenly takes a buckin’ bronco ride through town to break a horse no one else could ride…

As the end of the movie nears… An old friend sitting on a porch in town spots him riding into to town… As a boy plays with a lasso nearby, already enamored with “playing cowboy”… The man on the porch says to him… “See that guy riding in he’s a “real cowboy”, he’ll teach you to throw that rope”…

To which Monte replies to the boy… “He’ll teach you to throw the rope… He’s a real cowboy, too… He just doesn’t remember being one.” (I might be paraphrasing that)

Asked where he had been, Monte replies… “Driving cattle from Mexico to Canada and getting paid for it…”

Why this long dissertation??? Well, a couple of reasons… One night in Chicago as I sat in the bar sipping a bottle of water before the show… Talking to the guy running the show… He introduced me to the kid who would be the MC that night… “This is Steve”, he said, “He’s a Road Comic.”

Smiling to myself yesterday while on the road, I thought… Yes, I drive from New York to North Dakota to tell jokes… And I get paid for it!!!

To my fellow road comics out there… Yes, the business is changing, but let’s not forget who we are… Watch both versions of the movie…

OK, time to giddy up into the shower and get back on the road…

Rollin’!!! Rollin’!!! Rollin’!!!

Keep those wheels rollin’,       

Get ‘em up!!!

Move ‘em out!!!

Rawhide!!!