Random Thoughts

Your Wednesday is my Friday

It was 1980.   The sound of music of the time was changing, and apparently Alice Cooper wanted to be a part of it.   He made an album called Flush the fashion, and It remember when I came out and I kinda dug it back then, and apparently now.       He went back to his original formula soon thereafter, but this methinks is a pretty good song.

Listened to it on the drive home tonight.   It hit the spot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwp_uabo3E0

 

 

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Unbroken

Went to see Unbroken tonight with my brother & his wife, my wife, and my future son in law and my daughter.   It looked like a good flick, and my brother had read the book.

I knew that Angelina Jolie directed it, and knew barely anything about the story.   Bla bla bla… I honestly can barely give a shit about Angelina Jolie, and I really don’t think too much of Hollywood.  I watched it, and was almost critical of a true story.    The shit that I normally really love and am inspired by.    I suspected an angle, or that Jolie had cheapened it by being on the tabloids so much.    I was more excited that my brother got sick of having his chair kicked by a dude in an almost empty theater, and that he turned and called him on it, and that I was ready to help out if he didn’t go find another seat (which he did).

We drove home, a few exits away and come home and was still a bit bugged by it all.     Felt like I was missing something.    I was.   The real life story of Louis Zamperini is way more compelling.   These are the guys of the greatest generation, and Louis was one of the greats.

 

Good call Angelina.   I think I respect you just a little bit more, in the way that I have come to respect guys like Tom Hanks, who have done similar tributes.     Worth seeing I think.   The real story needs no hype, and is better than the movie.     Great men do great things all the time, and a man with strength of character wins the day.       I’ll watch this one again.

 

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Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World then and now

My mom turned me onto this movie when I was a kid, and its always been a favorite.   I’ve watched it a lot over the years.    A good, funny road trip movie.    I would have enjoyed the 60’s I think, and its a shot back in time.   Spencer Tracy, Jonathan Winters, Buddy Hackett, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Jimmy Durante, Mickey Rooney…. Thurston Howell the III from gilligans island….  it was a who’s who of comedy back in the day.   Hell, the 3 stooges had a cameo in it.   It still cracks me up.

Here it is, back then, and now.    Some of those roads look pretty cool to me.   Might be a fun road trip.

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Happy New Year

From me and mine to you and yours:  May your 2015 be better than your 2014, or 1988, or 2001.   Whatever those “years” may be for you.

I’m optimistic about the future.   There comes a point, that it seems like all your shit in life accumulates and becomes a lesson that you’ve learned, and then it becomes a springboard to better things.    After a few years of digging out, I feel like shit is starting to shape up and I like where it’s going.   Fruit is starting to bear.   I like being older, and a bit wiser.    My old man was a pilot, and he used to say “there’s nothing more useless than the runway behind you”.

Oh hell, just have a happy new year!

 

MrZip66

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Winter is finally here

Its bound to happen, at least up here.    Maybe I’m in denial, because I haven’t covered the bike yet and hooked up the battery tender for the winter.   Christmas morning, it finally came.    We might get a break and and maybe I can ride it later.   Yeah, I’m probably in denial.

My only concession I’ll give winter is I do love plowing snow.   I don’t know why.   There’s something therapeutic about pushing snow around, at least behind a set of handle bars.     I put a snow plow behind the 4 wheeler a few years ago, and its kind of fun clearing neighbors driveways, the kids way to the bus stop, and the streets.    I seem to end up with plates of cookies on the doorstep, and an occasional six pack of beer when I do it.   Thats not why I do it though, I just like doing it.   I’m Like Forrest Gump  mowing lawns, I figger.   Beer and cookies are just a bonus 🙂

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The snow mule. She does the job.

 

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Bay Circle is cleaner than the city is gonna make it. Check out the tracers on the snow flakes. Thats just my phone camera. And no, I haven’t done acid since the early 80s.    Plowing snow is a cheap substitute for the open road on a Harley, but it works in a pinch.

Bought me a car for Christmas.  A Dodge Dart.   I guess I’ll always be a mopar guy.    She gets 40 mpg highway on a 4 banger, and has some cool little tech features that I was a sucker for.     Shopped around and did some haggling, and brought her home.   Life is good.

2014-12-29 20.57.47

 

 

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Begin the day with a friendly voice

My youngest woke me up at 4 AM this morning.    She’s 11, and to be honest I’m not quite sure if she’s dismissed the idea of Santa Claus.    She’s a pretty bright kid with a pretty good bullshit detector, but on this one I’m not sure.   Maybe she’s just playing her odds, and I can respect that.   Missus Zip thinks so.

Last night we ate some killer Clam Chowder, played card games, watched 24 hours of the Christmas story in the background, Stuffed some stockings, enjoyed each others company and wrapped some last minute presents.   Hard to beat.

We had a good Christmas.   Maybe the last, with the family all together.   My oldest daughter is getting married, and her fiance crashed here and woke up with us.   It was kinda nice, to be honest.     Everyone got what they wanted I think and seemed  happy.

But now I’m over it.   I’m ready for work and life to go on.   That may be premature, given today is still the 25th, but I’m ready.   I bought a car on Christmas eve and my wife didn’t even get mad at me.    Thats rewarding bad behavior I feel.    I’m going to run with it.

I love the Holidays.

 

 

 

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Looking forward to Christmas Eve

Honestly, not too many holidays fire me up.   The 4th of July and Christmas eve maybe.      I know some people who get fired up about everything from Arbor day to Valentines day but most of those seem a bit commercial and mostly dumb.   I can appreciate a good tree, and I’ve always loved my wife, so what the fuck.     Groundhog day is also kind of cool, but mostly because I like Bill Murray Movies.

I’m looking forward to Christmas Eve.   The older I get, the better it seems to me.

I remember building trampolines incorrectly in the dark in the freezing cold.   Assembling bikes with Chinese instructions, when I really don’t read instructions to begin with.   Not sleeping all night, because I was more excited to get my kids what they’d asked for than they were.    Having a daughter wake me up at midnight, because she swore she heard Santa come already, and we were good to go (yeah, I woke us all up and folded pretty hard on that one).   The day off.   Family stopping by.    Big baskets of whatever on the counter, from people who just wanted to reach out.

It’s just a good night.   My family is getting older now, my oldest daughter is engaged to be married to a stud of a guy and things are starting to change.    Really, in a good way.  The others are starting to find their way in life, and its cool to see.    You work at marriage and a family for a lotta  years to get to this point, and I do appreciate that.   Some people don’t get an un-interrupted chance chance at that, and it’s not lost on me.

Christmas eve dinner is a sacred deal at our house. Usually a ham, that green bean casserole with the crunchy onion dealios on top, our best china (with the real fancy “dixie” logo on the bottom sometimes) and the family is together and enjoying each others company.   Maybe a bottle of wine with the missus.   All with 24 hours of a Christmas story playing in the background (thanks TBS).

I do love Christmas Eve.   I think my kids do too.

 

Merry Christmas to you biker pricks out there!

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Its’s here. Have a happy holiday

May you prepare for the ones closest to you, and may you have a Merry Christmas this year.    Ready or not, here it comes.

Somewhere in November, I smoked 10 pounds of really good cheese for a few hours, wrapped em  to mellow for a month, and I just bought 5 pounds of raw almonds yesterday.   The Almonds will roast in my dutch oven  and go in the smoker the day after.   My oldest is baking cookies, and we’ll wrap it up and give it to those most important to us.

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I gotta admit, I do love Christmas.    Merry Christmas!

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