Guard Dog

I had a long talk with my nephew today. I feel bad for that poor guy. He had a college scholarship to play baseball but gave it up when he was drafted by the Astros. And he wasn't even a high draft pick, they took him in the 22nd round or something like that so his chances of advancing were pretty slim. Anyway he played two years in the minors before they released him. He never got past rookie ball in Greeneville. So he tried playing for an Indy league team in Las Cruces but that didn't work. So now he's working in Target part time and taking classes at a community college. He was thinking about joining the Marine Corps and wanted to talk to me about it. I told him it was the smartest thing he could do. Well, joining the military at least. I asked him why he wanted the Marines and he really didn't have an answer. I told him to check out the other services first before making a decision. The Marines are not an easy branch to be in. It's small, promotions are slow, life is... more difficult than the other branches. You have to have a high BS tolerance to succeed there. It's a game, and you have to play it. And you have to want it. You have to want to be there or you will be miserable. Anyway he asked a lot of questions that were all related to Boot Camp. I told him not to worry about that. Half of what he heard isn't true. It's not much fun but it's only three months long. I said to him he'd be in the Corps for at least three years and nine months after that, he had best find out what that is like. Best advice I could give anyway. I couldn't imagine being 21 with no money, no education beyond HS and few prospects.

Rays are in real trouble if they don't break out of this free fall real quick. The Sox are not going to oblige us by starting to suck. They've lost six of the last eight and the last five straight.

RIP Tarna, such sad news. We've lost a few great people here recently.

That's still a heck of a lot better than a tour group though. You should have them out to Colorado next time. There's no castles but you can always take them drone hunting!

Finished up the installation in Louisville this week. The airport authority is happy. The city is happy, their managing company is happy, my partners are happy and I just got home so I'm happy. Just a happy day all around! Now I'm going to catch a few Z's then watch the Rays/Dodgers game tonight. Then tomorrow I'm going fishing during the day and out with the GF at night. It's gonna be a great weekend! Life is good y'all!

I don't know about that Bruce. The liberal black man might well give rise to the libertarian right in the US and if it does you will see the US become much less interventionist in foreign policy. I don't know if that is a good thing to you but I think it is absolutely necessary. I've always wondered what the real reason for the Iraq invasion was. I've often speculated that is was to secure a stable platform on Iran's western border to compliment Afghanistan to the east. That was if war with Iran ever became needed they would be surrounded by enemies. That kind of tactical disadvantage might have been enough to keep them in line without fighting. But if that was the objective I'd say it was pretty well botched. But then again I think I might be giving the Bush admin too much credit. I don't think they were capable of that level of thinking.

Very cool! Looks like it was a great trip. You guys were just exploring at your own pace?

So you are taking Tri-Rail to Metro-Rail? Then a bus? So you are coming from somewhere in either Broward or Palm Beach to Dade and since you have two bus hookups you must be going somewhere out west. FIU maybe? MDCC seems less likely. Not UM you are not snooty enough. Am I close? You Sir must enjoy pain though. That is a hell of a commute using public transportation. But traffic is SFL is so bad that it's misery either way. 2/3 of Florida's 18 million people crammed into four counties of which 50% of the land is everglades. Nice place to visit but you don't want to live there! By the way folks, he wasn't kidding about being happy he wasn't shot. Miami is like Chicago south in that respect.

Nice win today to take 2 of 3 from the Giants. It's gonna be an interesting day tomorrow once MLB drops the hammer.

Remember Tale, Hemingway did his best work when he was three sheets in the wind. Joyce & Poe too.

Just woke up. GF still asleep. Time for coffee & breakfast and of course say good morning to you folks.

Damn those Red Sox. Apparently they didn't get the message they were supposed to be rebuilding this year! Big win in extras last night for the Rays. Will Myers is awesome.

Damn the Giants & Bumgarnder. He looked like he was going to get rocked in the first few innings then shut the Rays down afterwards. We'll get 'em tonight!

It's overcast today. GF is coming over soon. Sounds like a good day to just sit on the couch and watch Netflix.

Now playing the Falskar Mod for Skyrim. The REALLY did a great job with this. If you still have Skyrim check this out: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/37994/

Thanks! I never knew this was available. It took some poking and prodding (I had to change my screen res before launching) but I got it working. It some ways this game really was before it's time (Daggerfall) but it also makes you realize what a quantum leap they did in Morrowind. Cool stuff.

Wow... just wow! Does this mean Arena & Daggerfall will work with a modern OS? If so I will buy this. http://www.bethblog.com/2013/08/01/the-complete-elder-scrolls-collection-comes-to-pc-this-september/

I hope I don't lose too many more. After all the drinking I did in my younger years I might be only a cell or two away from being a talking monkey. Sometimes I think my dog might be smarter than I am.

I thought it was pretty good all the way up to and past the New Capirca part in season 3. It really jumped the shark after that. It's like they were out of ideas.

Mugabe pays off the right people in the AU from what I've read. But the truth of the matter is, even if he didn't the AU, like every other international organization, is not about solving problems but maintaining the status quo. If they thought the Zanu party would respect a fair election and peaceably leave power they might be more inclined to intercede politically. But they would rather have a dictator than civil war.

Things were pretty quiet at the trade deadline. Except for the Peavy deal not much happened.

Thanks for the kind words everyone! It's not a done deal yet but I am confident how she will answer when I ask. I met her a few years ago. I was in a bad car accident and ended up with a few broken bones. She was a nurse in the office I did PT in, but not one that worked with me. I asked her out and things just went from there. We dated for almost 11 months until we just drifted apart. There were a lot of reasons for that, mainly me though. My first marriage did not end well. Neither did hers actually but she had put that behind her and I hadn't I guess. I was carrying around all this bitterness for my ex-wife and was just totally against the idea of getting re-married. So I tended to run off women I dated long enough for things to get serious. My ex called me a year ago to tell me she was getting remarried. We spoke for a long time and I wished her all the best and I think that was when I finally put down that load I didn't even realize I had been carrying. Stephanie reached out to me last month I think just to say Hi and I took her to dinner and we ended up spending the weekend together and have sort of picked up where we left off. It might be too soon to ask but now I KNOW I want to and I think she wants me to and hopefully the combination of Hawai'i and a nice ring will help settle any doubts she might have. Plus doing it like this might preempt any expectations she might have. I WANT this to sweep her off her feet. I want this to be a surprise. She is a lot like me in many ways. Divorced, no kids, independent, and very self confident. Plus she is sexy as hell! A winning combination. I have been looking around for rings. I was looking at Tiffany's actually but it seems they really only make solitaire rings. There is something about that little blue box though.

Hopefully the second time will be the charm!

I knew you would come around to my suggestion, Vegas Baby yeah !!!! I love Vegas and it's only a seven hour drive away but I've done that to death!

Thanks for the advice everyone. It's all taken care of now. I booked a villa for seven days at the Weke Road Estate resort in Kuai, Hawai'i. I wanted either Kuai or Molikai because they are off the beaten path but I figured one day we'd take the plane over to Oahu to go shopping and hang out at Waikiki. I picked a US destination because I didn't want there to be any snags or hang ups. This has to go perfectly, plus I don't know if she has a passport and I don't know don't know how to ask without giving anything away. I already asked her to take some time off work for a little get away. She doesn't know where though. That's going to be a surprise. I'll tell her a few days before we go so she knows what to pack but I've taken care of everything else. But that's not the only surprise though. If all goes well I'm going to propose on this trip so wish me luck!