Lawn Mower Cupcakes

Since Daniel and I've been mowing Noelle's lawn lately, on Father's Day Noelle & Abby made lawn mower cupcakes.

Gordon Lightfoot

In my previous life a roomie of mine had just about all of Gordon Lightfoot's albums. I heard one of his more famous songs on Sirius the other day and damn it sounded good. Lightfoot was quoted as saying that this was his finest work. I'd have to agree.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was a freight ship which sank in November of 1975 in Lake Superior. The whole crew of 29 men died.

Gordon Lightfoot "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" 1976.

Garden Time

Bloom Dammit

We planted a climbing hydrangea and somebody said it took seven years for the first blooms to appear. I guess it's been seven years since we planted it since we've got our first one. It's about damn time.

I built a lattice triptych for it and it started growing nicely, weaving around the lattice..the foliage consists of dark shiny leaves. It's a nice addition to the garden but you gotta have patience for the blooms.

Justice

The day didn't turn out very well for Thomas Kessinger. He was found guilty of murder, tampering with physical evidence, and abuse of a corpse. He's 68 years old now and he won't be eligible for parole until he's 88. If he serves out his full sentence he'll be let out of prison when he's 92 if he lives that long.

We all had our worries that jury would have reasonable doubt of the murder but thanks to Erin Wright, the lead prosecutor,  her fabulous summation to the jury truly made the difference.

Jessica & Emily...Diane Tanselle's daughters.

 Julia Lane....raised Diane. She's was there all four days of the trial. She'll be 91 this June.

 Larry and Rodney...Diane's brothers. That's no woman, that's my wife.

 Noelle and Rodney

 The Hall of Justice on Jefferson Street.

The Humana Building on left designed by Michael Graves. People have said it looks like a cash register on top of a lego tile.

King Louis the Sixteenth who Louisville is named after. He looks kinda pale to me.

It was mind numbing. They're up to 170 pieces of evidence, every piece of evidence is numbered and the Judge has to give his verbal assent to admit these pieces as official court evidence.

Prosecutor: Judge, I'd like to admit these four photographs into evidence, numbers 141 through 145.

Judge: It's so ordered into evidence.

In the courtroom of my wishes I'd move things on a little faster.

Prosecutor: Judge, I'd like the jurors to see a few pics.

Judge: Cool.

Prosecutor: (Speaking to jurors) As you can see from these pics the defendant grew some pot in his home. As you can see the finished product is some righteous weed. Some of the buds are as big as a large Maglite.

Juror # 8: Duuude.

It was a BIG marijuana growing operation in his home...over 100 plants in various stages of growth, A charcoal scrubbing ventilation system, and grow lights out the butt. He had to have been making some big bucks...but taking big risks. He's been arrested and spent time in prison for this before. You would think he learned a lesson or two.

The final arguments for prosecution and defense are tomorrow and then it will go to the jury to debate.
The charges are:

The murder of Diane Tanselle.
Abuse of a corpse
Hiding evidence
Marijuana grow operation
Persistent Felony Offender

I'm going to the trial tomorrow. Here's is what happened today.

There, I Feel Better Now

This is a ubiquitous Thomas Kinkade painting. Loved by his fans and loathed by critics. He died last April 6th in his sleep.

He swindled many art dealers and was arrested once for urinating on a Disney World statue while drunk, saying "This is for you Walt."

Dry as Dust

I was supposed to go to the murder trial today. It turns out fate has other boring plans for me. Yesterday after mowing our lawn, and then Noelle's, I came home feeling like a sucked lemon. Chills and fever

Wife left for the trial and here I am knocking around the house for the day. I'm aleady bored to tears. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

Firesign Theater

I read in the paper Peter Bergman died. He was the founder of Firesign Theater who I used to listen to a looong time ago, used to have most of their albums.

Show Biz Afterlife

Lying on the couch I flipped to the classic movie channel I've been watching alot of lately. "An American in Paris" was just starting. Ten minutes into it I could feel myself slipping away into unconsiousness as Kelly was dancing around with the French children. I wondered if the stars watched their movies in their old age. I tried to think if Gene Kelly was still amongst the living and dozed off into a Sunday slumber.

"It's a funny feeling watching the living watching me and it's still novel to me. . It's not a bad afterlife especially if you were involved in film. They were running a film I did in '52, An American in Paris. They allow us to re-live ourselves doing films"

"There's some guy lying on a couch wondering if I'm still alive or not, and he's falling asleep. Better be careful buddy, That how I bit the big one...died in my sleep."

I woke up during the dream sequence and Kelly was dancing with Leslie Caron. I could have sworn Gene Kelly was giving me this look from the TV, like he knew me.

Peepers, Teavana, and Nirvana

I could see perfectly well this morning after putting my glasses on. I went to the eye doc to be evaluated for LASIK. A friend of mine who works as a sales rep for an eye care company recommended this doc. They dilated my pupils, measured my corneas, and tested my vision. After speaking with the doc I've decided against it and go back to contact lenses.

I met wife at the local mall and sitting at the corner of Teavana and Soma (where do they get the names of these stores?) I watched the hazy flow of people walking past. I was drinking a cup of Starbucks while eating a chocolate chip cookie. It was almost nirvana. Having your pupils dilated is similar to being tranquilized. You feel as though you're somewhat invisible as though you are a little kid again and when your eyes are closed no one can see you.

Back to LASIK, they slice the outer skin of your cornea, fold it back, and laser your cornea to reshape it. It takes about fifteen minutes and, bada-bing!, your eyes are eighteen years old again. It's not 100 percent risk free and that's the main reason I decided not to go that route. The cost is anywhere between $1,300 and $2,000 per peeper which isn't too bad considering the cost of eyewear and contacts over your lifetime. 

Pins and Needles

It was December I put my hat in the ring for a Network Analyst position at the central office of the Department of Corrections. A secretary in the Information Systems department called me last week and left the message, Call me if you'd like to set up a time for an interview for the Network Analyst position.

I called her the next morning at 8:30 and set up an interview for Wednesday at 1:00. The next day at work this secretary calls me and says she needs to push back the interview 24 hours to Thursday at 1:00. Okay, no problem, I'll be there.

All the while I'm skimming over my MCSE tombs, refamiliarizing myself with DHCP, DNS, MMC,  and all other complex esoteric networking thingies that make a network run.

I get home and a message is on the phone. It's her again leaving a message saying that the interview is postponed until a later date. I call her the next day and ask what's going on. She doesn't know but she'll call me with another date in the near future.

I'm stoked for this interview, I want this job, it's what I've done, it's what I do, it's what I'm good at, it's what I haven't done in over two years since that terrible day I was laid off. On that day I didn't remember driving home.

I found out there's only six or seven other candidates interviewing for this position. I'm gonna get this job...I feel it in my bones. I'm gonna dazzle 'em in this interview...whenever it happens.

Unknown Boy

I guy I know has the first name of UB. I asked him if his first name was Ulysses. He said no and that UB stood for Unknown Boy. He told me the story about his great-grandfather who was a slave in the south and it was fairly common at that time that black boys and girls who were split from their families and sold to another slave owner didn't come with their birth names and the owners simply wrote their names down as UB or UG. His great-grandfather's name was passed down to the UB I know.

Lyrics by William Chatterton Dix "What Child Is This?" set to the tune of "Greensleeves" written in 1580 possibly by King Henry VIII. Performed by the Moody Blues.

We went to Kroger last night so wife could pick up a few last minute things for Christmas. I was sitting in the car waiting and I saw this guy getting out of his car WEARING A HOODY, BOXER SHORTS, AND FLIP-FLOPS! It's 35 degrees outside and he's dressed like it's the middle of Summer.

A little while later this same guy comes walking back out of the grocery store with nothing....he didn't buy a thing.

What's up with that?

Eyeing My Back

She drew a lttle sketch for me, how she would cut it out, holding her pen like a scalpel. I imagined the blade slicing around the iris/scab left over from the biopsy, making it look like the green eye atop a dollar bill pyramid.

She told me to lie on my "tummy" like I was ten years old. I felt the pin pricks for for the numbing medicine. I thought of asking for a shot in my brain, it being election season.

I was a little kid again at my Grandparents pool in Florida, the sun beating down on my shoulders. I remember the rest of the evening being miserable, my back and shoulders had blistered from too much sun. My sister paid the ulimate price from cumulative sunshine.

I was at the doc's a few weeks ago and he stethoscoped my breathing, and said I had a suspicious looking spot on my back. The dermatologist biopsied it and said it wasn't a melanoma but wanted to carve out a perimeter just to be safe. I was suprised how much tissue they took.

It looked like a small uncooked Chicken McNugget.

Drive Home

Driving home from work, listening to the radio and Wilco's "Impossible Germany" came on. It's such a great song, great melody, great guitar solo and it's been awhile since I've heard it. I may have posted the live version a few months ago. This is the studio version. You don't have to listen to it..but I'd advise it.

Wilco "Impossible Germany" 2007.

Peace and Dignity

The peace and dignity of the Commonwealth of Kentucky was served today by the inauguration of our second term governor and therefore I was off work governing inmates that commited crimes against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Wife and I brought our 2011 Christmas Tree home. We decorated. There are three ornaments on it that were from 1931. They're the most ordinary but, I think, the classiest ornaments on the tree.

The Tip of My Tongue

We went to Hailee's Christmas chorus at church. We came early and once inside there were a couple of girls at a piano, one playing and the other singing. The piano tune sounded very familiar. It was driving me crazy trying to think of who it was. When the other girl started singing I knew who it was.


Adele "Someone Like You" 2011.

Let It Roll

I was reading and the TV was on some inane show and then I hear a song in the background that sounded familiar. It hit me...what a strange song to put on this idiot TV show.

Most everyone I knew had this three LP album "All Things Must Pass" by George Harrison. This was the first triple album released by a solo artist and in regards to the album's size, Harrison stated "I didn't have many tunes on Beatles records, so doing an album like "All Things Must Pass" was like going to the bathroom and letting it all out."

George Harrison "Let It Roll" 1970.