The musings of a madman...

       For the sake of moving this along... The weeks between December 17rd and February 7st was one of the most trying periods of my life and involved not one but THREE visits to the hospital, once through the ER. The months since have been a minefield of minding how I live and follow-up visits. If you know, you know... If you don't, well you get it.      The way my off time goes at my full time job, I am allotted 248 hours a year of off time in one bank for use for both vacation and sick time. I am allowed to roll over up to 40 hours at the end of the year, and that is a wise thing to have banked on some just-in-case shit. 18 years with the company, I've always had at least 25-30 hours to roll as a cushion until my allotment begins to build back up. This time, however, that late-year hospital stay set fire to nearly ALL of my leave time and I approached January with only like two hours. Because of this, I've spent the first half of this year S...

       Y'know, maybe I have been chasing the wrong things... I'm damn good at cutting grass. I'd like to think I'm a decent writer. The raise I've recently been served notice of at my full time job suggests that the person in charge of me is pleased with how I perform during bill paying hours. My daughters and grandbaby are ENAMORED with me, as is basically every dog I ever met.      But again, maybe I'm going about it all wrong. I've cultivated these abilities based on things that I was already serviceable at. I mean, I've unwillingly participated in a few criminal investigations into things that I may or not have been personally involved in, but I don't claim that. This all comes down to a phonecall I received last Saturday... Me: "Hello?" Them: "Phlip, what's up man?" Me: "Trying to keep it in the road, y'know... Sticky side down" Them: "Huh?" Me: "Enough smalltalk, get to it." Them:...

  I've been doing this all wrong...      It has occurred to me that everyone who has come to me -- be it as Phillip, Moe or Phlip -- for advice over the last few years has received whatever nonsense I could come up with on the spot. No thought was given to resolutions or even task-based problem solving, just "how can I make this person's situation as entertaining as possible for me?" The results have been documented in the pages of this very website if you've been around a while. Needless to say, a time was had.      But again I've been carrying this all wrong. Perhaps, perhaps maybe I've been seeding my own bad karma in seeking my own enjoyment in the situations of others and some of my outcomes have shown this. But what do I do about it?      I decided a few weeks ago that it was time for a change... But hold up a second... I have invested literally SO MUCH time into developing my thought processes to offer up anything rese...