Quest for Cognizance

Sometimes, on the way home from work, you get a run of songs during shuffle play on the .mp3 player that just needs to be posted:

1. Your Song - Elton John
2. Yer So Bad - Tom Petty
3. Why Can't I Be You - The Cure
4. Tom Sawyer (live) - Rush
5. Three Imaginary Boys - The Cure
6. Dig it Deep - The Candyskins
7. You Are Here - The Candyskins
8. Two Sisters - Fiction Plane (the boy does sound like Sting...)
9. Whistling in the Dark - They Might Be Giants
10. Untogether - Belly

Two weeks later and I've just today been allowed to start calling people back to work starting next week.

On this day one year ago it was 76F.

We have a forecast for a possible 1 inch of snow tomorrow night.

Thank you very much Mother Nature. I'll just go back to twiddling my thumbs...

I'm back to work on Monday.

Despite the cabin fever, and the permanent imprint of my ass embedded in the far left cushion of our couch, getting up and getting things going is always a bit of a struggle. Making the necessary phone calls to see who's coming back to work, arranging interviews and equipment demos, contacting old members and outings, etc.... Can't wait!

After four months of doing nothing but eat, sleep, and (proudly) take care of Max, it's a little tough getting my butt up off the couch and into 'work' mode.

Looking at the little guy sitting here beside me, I've three days left and I can already feel the separation anxiety kicking in.

Last night we went to see Lewis Black for my father-in-law's belated (and belated again) birthday.

I had seen a few of Mr. Black's performances on comedy central and had come to believe I was sufficiently prepared for an hour or so of his exasperatedly 'pissed-off' behavior.

What I wasn't prepared for was the 'lead-ups' to his foul-mouthed, spit-ridden, I'm-having-a-heart-attack exasperations. The man is a master craftsman of epic proportions. The way he can reel a crowd in and let it out over and over and finally set it up for the perfect fall was nothing short of comic genius.

The act was solid top to bottom to the point my own stomach, cheeks, and throat ached from exertion for hours afterward.

The photo on the left is the view from our seats, although it seems further away than it really was. The photo on the right is in reference to a reference made by Mr. Black during one of his tirades. We thought he was joking. (Thanks Dick)

Back in the mid-'90's my younger sister left Michigan to attend college in Indiana. Somehow, in a round-a-about way, while there she became a huge Green Bay Packers fan. At the time, this revelation came as a surprise to me for a couple of reasons.

One: I hadn't even known my sister was even vaguely interested in football.

Two: Green Bay...? She was born and raised in Michigan, had been living in Indiana for a couple of years, and now she's a Green Bay fan...?

However the story goes my sister had become a very tenaciously defensive and loyal fan. She never lacked for little known details of the lives of people like Don Beebe, Reggie White, and of course Brett Favre.

Besides a storied career in the NFL with accomplishments like leading the Pack to a Superbowl win in 1996 and just recently by-passing Dan Marino in career passing yards, attempts, pass completions, touchdown passes and wins as a starting quarter back, Farve also is quite well known for his humbleness, hospitality, and willingness to help others.

Oh, and by the way, he also merely came in second in consecutive games started with 253.

Over the years I became a fan just like millions of others. I have my sister to thank for the introduction.

Happy retirement.

There are always going to be people you forget about until, sadly, you hear they're gone.

Thanks to a very high recommendation from my old buddy Ryan, I've just finished the Pulitzer Prize winning 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay'. What a great freakin' story.

I have spent most of my adult reading life under the assumption good books are relative to the readers taste. While I still mostly agree with that statement, every once in awhile you get a hold of a book where not only the story, but the writing itself just grabs you and won't let go. Usually it's an author you've never read with a style that might take a couple of chapters to get used to, but when you finally finish the tale, you're left with this incredible, almost palpably empty feeling of 'wow.' Having wanted to finish the book so badly with 100 pages to go, you now feel a little bit disappointed you rushed to the end.

I've always been a voracious reader and before meeting my wife I'd consume anywhere from ten to fourteen books a year. I'm one of those people who can't just go to bed by turning off the lamp, closing my eyes, picking my nose and voila!- talking with the sandman. Sometimes it took just a couple of pages before my forehead landed between the pages of an open book, sometimes an hour or two.

Nowadays I'm lucky if I even turn the page once before dozing off to sweet oblivion. At this pace it has taken me most of this winter to read 'Kavalier and Clay'. Because this pace seems to be about all I've been able to muster over the last couple of years, I've recently decided to make whatever reading time I might get before nodding off count for something a little bit more than it has been.

This is my goal: Read as many Pulitzer Prize winning authors in a row as feasibly possible.

Now, we're talking fiction here. I completely understand and admire every single writer to be nominated and/or have won the prize (and the thousands who haven't), no matter the subject or content - but to try and keep my eyes open for any period of time with any genre other than fiction would be fruitless at best. No offence intended to the many talented journalists, columnists, biographers, speech writers, and others who base their careers on any one or all of these areas. My brain just doesn't like to work that way, particularly when hitting the sack.

The last paragraph doesn't mean I don't have an appetite for what's going on the world via all my bookmarked Internet news sites. Just ask my wife. Every night there's the inevitable "Did you here about this... honey?"

Since 1917 there has been a Pulitzer given every year in the 'Fiction' (pre-1948 'Novel') category except for in 1920, '41, '46, '54, '57, '64, '71, '74, and '77.

That's a lot of reading. Would love to have some recommendations...

As for now I'm following 'Kavalier and Clay' up with John Updike's 'Rabbit , Run', the first in a series of four in which two have won Pulitzers.

We'll see how long being a "book-snob" lasts.