AS I'm writing this, I'm checking out the "GHOST HUNTER'S LIVE CAM" At the Stanley Hotel this Halloween night...MAN! So far I've seen Two Floating Orbs in two different rooms! I'm freaking out....What a way to spend a Halloween! I have personally been experienced to some freaky stuff in my 45 years on this blue marble, but man, this is really freaky. I just wish I had somebody here to share it with...Wife is asleep, my buddy is not answering his phone...DAMN IT!...

This is soooo cool....I'll finish this when the night is over...see ya when I see ya...



Maybe....

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FOLKS!

Unfortunately, being that everything is packed, I won't be doing much this year, so you all have a safe, and happy trick or treat trek this time out...not too much candy in one night...

And remember...Not everything that goes BUMP! in the night, is just the house settling......BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Down the road a piece.....

That used to be a favorite saying of my wife's father..

Where ya going Don?...He'd tell em "Down the Road apiece..." Of course that meant somewhere totally different. We never know where we're going, really, do we?

If you'd have asked me 16 years ago, "Rich...are you buying a house?" I'd most likely would have said, "Yeah, right...I'm not THAT responsible..." then would have laughed it off and went back to the party.

Now, here I am, married and eleven days away from moving into my own freaking home...It's still unbelievable. Hell, sixteen years ago I was a heartbeat away from packing my bags, dropping out of my then life, and moving to Alaska. I'd had enough here. Here being California. I figured it couldn't be any worse, and I had a friend that could get me a job on the pipeline...Then one night, I went with a buddy to a place called "SHOUT!" and when I walked in, I saw this woman with these unbelievably beautiful green eyes...well, lets just say I forgot about Alaska, and four months later I proposed. A year later we were married.

It's been a while...we've had some hard times. We don't have any kids...not for lack of trying, just never happened...Then an 11 year stretch with a disability that I don't want to go into...lets just say it had me doing the house husband bit...a lost license...some lost loved ones...and now here we are. I finally got my license back, I got back into the workforce, and now we are doing something that we should have done 14 years ago....Buy that damn house.

So yeah, me, the wife, and the boys...

are getting ready to make the big move to Goodyear, Arizona. We got a nice little place that's big enough for us...just us. My only heartache, is that I wish that my mother could have lived long enough to see the place...Somehow, I know that she is...but its not the same. Your boy has a place of his own now mom...I know its somewhere farther than California, but you know me, I always have to be the one who breaks the mold...

Where we going?

Home.

Keeping in the Halloween vein, I thought I'd write a little of what I know about this subject...The dead, well, actually the Living dead. That's right folks, Zombies! The walking, snacking, eat your relatives cause they don't give a rat's ass, they're dead, re-animated corpses.

Now I know there have been numerous movies, comics, and books written about these walk bags of worm infested used to be family and friends, but Max Brooks writes a very tongue in cheek guide to staying alive when it comes to dealing with the walking brain eaters.

Now your classic living dead, according to George Romero(father of the genre, in my book), were re-animated due to some accident of radiation by a satellite that fell to earth. Seems the recently deceased woke up and they woke up hungry. Well hey, stands to reason. They been cooling their heels in a box for a few hours, I'd be hungry too...can't say much for their choice of entries, personally, I'd go for a pizza but that's just me. Anyhow, with Romero's walking dead, ya have to destroy the brain. Kill the brain, kill the monster. Simple.

Others took it to the extreme..basically, the damn things were already dead..what's going to kill something that's already dead? So you burn em, bash em, electrocute em, just blow the crap out of em...I've seen just about every sort of "Zombie" movie there is, and it all comes down to the same conclusion...Kill the brain, kill the monster. So the head has to go.

But could you? Could you destroy the re-animated corpse of a loved one? A wife, husband, son, daughter, brother, sister, friend?

A moral question...when do they stop being the loved one, and become the enemy?

Personally, I'd say the minute they try to make you the blue plate special. As hard as it may be, Survival is the question here. You have to ask yourself...Self, do I live, or lay down and die? Horribly.

As much as I would hate myself, I'm not suicidal. I'd choose life.

I pose the question to all....Would you choose life/survival...or the alternative?

Decide.

" Even a man who say's his prayer's at night,

and is pure of heart...

May become a Wolf, when the wolfs bane blooms

and the autumn moon is bright..."

Yeah, that little diddy was made up for Universals "The Wolf Man" staring Lon Chaney Jr. as the fateful Lawrence Talbot who get bit by a wolf( Bela-Dracula-Lugosi) while trying to save a girl in the Myst shrouded woods.

A werewolf (also lycanthrope or wolf man) in folklore and mythology is a person who shape shifts into a wolf, either purposely, by using magic, or after being placed under a curse. The medieval chronicler Gervase of Tilbury associated the transformation with the appearance of the full moon, but this concept was rarely associated with the werewolf until the idea was picked up by modern fiction writers. Most modern fiction agrees that a werewolf can be killed if shot by a silver bullet, although this was not a feature of folk legends. Werewolves are sometimes held to become vampires after death.

This is the definition according to Wiki....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf

I was watching this today, and got to thinking...What does this have to say about us all? In the literal sense of the word, it's saying that no matter what, all men are dogs...Hell, we knew that already. But, if you look deeper into the phrase, it's saying that no matter how good we try to think we are, all men are capable of despicable deeds. That we, like the beast of legend and myth, can do to others that which we thought of ourselves wholly incapable of doing. All we need is a push.

Say, for instance, a full moon.

so many films, books, myths, legends, stories and so on have been written about a man becoming a beast. France has a legend, The beast of Le Gavan, a Wolf so huge, that it terrorized the country side for years. Finally Brought down by a Silver bullet used by a Knight.

There have been tales of men believing themselves to be wolves...the affliction is called "Lycanthropy" This is documented as a very true and mental illness.

Unfortunately, this caused superstitious locals to put a major dent in the wolf population, and also maligned the wolves reputation, as a vicious killer.

Why am I writing about this? Well, cause it's almost Halloween for one...also, because when it comes to movie monsters, I have a soft spot for ol' Fur-face.

Wolfies Top Five Werewolf associated movie picks

#1- Wolfen -Albert Finny, Diana Vinnora, and the late Gregory Hines...Excellent movie not exactly Werewolves, but very creepy, and gets you where it needs to...A+

#2- An American Werewolf in London - David Naughton, Jenny Augutter....Probably one of the best man to beast transformation scenes ever in picture history, without CGI....The movie is a hoot!

#3- The Wolf Man- Lon Chaney Jr. , Evelyn Ankers, Ralph Bellamy, Claude Raines, Maria Ouspenskaya, Bela Lugosi- the Original Universal classic...see this one with popcorn!

#4- Gingersnaps- Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle...Two sisters, an outpost in the Canadian wilderness, and a pack of werewolves...OH MY!

#5- The Company of Wolves- Angela Lansbury, David Warner, Sarah Patterson...Several Twisted re-telling of the Little Red Riding Hood story get a gory wolf and werewolf spin in this 1985 horror jaunt. Its creepy, and very very well done...

A favorite mention goes out to an original movie that was on the Sci-fi network, Called 'Dog Soldiers" About an English special forces team on a Scottish isle, with a pack of Werewolves...This one was pretty good..if you can find it on DVD, get it.

Enjoy...

So....Halloween is coming...

Yes, it's that time of year. No Annie, not for Daylight savings...god I hate changing that clock back and forth....It's Halloween! Wolfie's time to howl! The ghost and goblins come out to play. It used to be about candy, oh the candy...But now its sooooo much more. There are parties to be had, costumes to be made. Decorations and folks to be SCARED!

That's right, I'm all about the fright factor. I love that rush! From the horror movies, to the documentaries...I watch em all. AMC has "Monster FEST X" the tenth anniversary of Monster fest and to celebrate they are showing the whole gamut of the Halloween franchise... From the original shocker to the lame sequels that followed...One was great..two, OK...but come on..they got bad from then on.

AMC gave me my own idea for a movie fest on Halloween. I started collecting horror movies, from "B-movies" to classics, to recent gore blasts.

Last year it was "Classics Fest", This year, its "Zombie Fest 2006" The living dead will be visiting Arizona, via the DVD...

I'm also going to watch whatever specials I can about haunted places...freak myself out...Why?

BECAUSE IT'S HALLOWEEN! Seriously, this is time of year to freak yourself...watch some spooky stuff...get the popcorn, dress up, hell, throw a party. Just have fun. If you have kids, make sure to get them out to trick that treat...lots of safe places nowadays....but just let them have fun.

Have your own movie fest...get some schlocky movies....really bad ones from the fifties...Like "ATTACK OF THE KILLER SHREWS" or "THE WASP WOMAN!" mix em with some real good ones, like "DAWN OF THE DEAD" "LAND OF THE DEAD" "The HAUNTING"(the original), Dracula(take your pick) Or any Universal Classic....And have a blast!

I'm just saying, have some fun...it doesn't have to be scary, scary...Halloween can be a really good time...if you want it to be.

And if you can't get the movies...There's always the AMC Channel on cable....

Peace.

Look into the eyes of the bear and despair.......

There was something sad about that bear...I saw it there and had to snap a photo. Was it a discarded child's toy, or left behind for the next days refuse? Does it symbolize a lost childhood, dreams forgotten...a past left behind. A nightmare or two.

Look into those vacant eyes. Do you see your life ebbing away? Or do you see a hope in the distant future. A light that shines its way onto your path. Giving you that spring that all say is ever eternal. Can you look past the hopelessness and see anything that resembles truth?

Or is it just a that what it is...an empty, lifeless, toy.

Actually, it's my dog Bruno's favorite plaything....his teddy. He likes to rip out the eyes...don't know why, he just does. You go and try to figure out the meaning behind the antics of a 138 pound dog....

Me, I think I'll let the dog do what he wants with it...it's his toy after all.

Moving...

I've done the packing,boxing, shoving things into a truck, trunk, back seat, van, whatever...If it could convey property from one point to another, I've used it to move my ass from point 'A' to point 'B'.

I've done it eight times...one time in the span of an hour, I moved the contents of an entire apartment, my wife's stuff and mine, out of her mother's house, under duress mind you, to my sisters garage! Now that was a move.

There were times that I felt, truly felt like a damn gypsy of old. Not that I have anything against Gypsies, mind you, it's just that after a while, you get tired of all the moving around, and you want to put down roots. Is that too much to ask?

So why am I moving now? Because now I have the chance to put down those roots. So it just happens to be in another state. At least this time, I'm not paying some other clowns rent/house payment. This time, I'm the clown whose house is getting paid...and as the day grows nearer, its starting to feel pretty damn exciting. I'm spending my days packing and boxing stuff. I'm doing it right, labeling boxes, not making them too heavy. After fifteen years together, you'd think we'd have a lot more stuff. Funny thing is, we really don't.

Thursday, we go sign the final loan docs....Monday, escrow closes, and we pick up the keys. Yeah, its getting antsy.

I think I'll start on the bedroom tomorrow.

Off The beaten Path...

Well, lets see...I've seen the movie "Kingdom of Heaven" 31 times...why?

A: Is it because I'm obsessive?

B: I like Movies about history?

C: Swords, blood, violence...Horses?

D: Knights, The Crusades, Lost causes?

If you said a probable combination of all four, you're probably right. I do have an obsessive need to see certain movies I like repeatedly. Some films I can quote line for line...The wife thinks I'm insane. haha!

I was a history major in college, and I did a paper on the Crusades, got a 'C'...but thats besides the point. Medievil history has always been a big thing with me. Hence, my sword and weapon collection. The blood, violence, and horses...hey, I'm a guy...'nuff said.

Lost causes...always been a champion of them. Guess thats why I got involved in customer service...explains my last job. Trying to help people, even though my company couldn't give a rats ass. All they cared about was the money.

You want to talk movie collections....I'm packing and realized, one box was not going to do the job. Try four bins, and one box. and I'm talking those Rubbermaid bins..the big ones...I think I have close to 400 movies...thats not counting the ones I recorded...thats Video and DVD. DVD's alone filled one bin and a box.

why, you may ask? I like movies...I see a movie at the theatre, and I'm like "That's going in the collection." I have enough horror movies that I have my annual "Halloween Horror Fest!" Last year it was Classics....Frankenstein, The Wolfman, Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Phantom of the Opera (original silent version with Lon Chaney,Sr.) . This year, well, because of the move, it's gonna be late. but I'm thinking Zombie fest 2006...I've got all the Romero's, plus a few of the wannabe's...hey, I get some munchies...the boys (my dogs) and I'm good to go...

And who know's, I might even watch Kingdom of Heaven for the 32nd time...Yes, I have the DVD...see the I've watched it 31 times on cable. NOW THAT'S OBESSIVE.

But, you see, its not that I have nothing to do...it's that I chose to go on that path.

I do lots of other stuff. This is just one of the things I do.

Like, this blog.

Take some time to go off the path that is supposed to be your life. Do something that others might see as obsessive, nuts, wacky, or to use a term dear to a new friend of mine, Wonky...and do what makes you happy.

Life's to damn short to spend it in the fast lane speeding by.

I DID IT!

what did I do?...

Vote Republican?....HAHAHAHAH! No.

Sell my car?....Hell No!

Date a supermodel....HA! I wish...Be real...


No..I QUIT!..Well Truth be told, I did that two weeks ago, but my last day was thursday. I went in, did my day, and that was that. No pomp..no special lunch...no cake..hell the boss even forgot to put my paper work in...Bitch was too busy with her own personal BS! dumb broad...I'm sorry, but I know more about her damn kid, than I wanna know, ok! I'm just glad the freakin day is over with. TALK ABOUT LIBERATING! MAN! Was that great. I basically said, "well it's been real..But I gotta go...See YA!"

Then what followed was the most relaxing drive home I've had in a long time. Now, its just a flight to Phoenix, sign the final loan docs, pick up the keys the following week, and then come November 10th..I'm ARIZONA BOUND!

Yeah....I'm good.

5 1/2 hours and a wake-up....

Yeah, the day is here...that day I make the last "40 mile ride" to the hell hole...tomorrow, is my last day at work. Am I sad? NO! "he says resounding"...hahahaha! If anything I feel quite relieved.
A co-worker stopped me today and said "I'm so jealous of you."
"Why?" I asked her.
"Because, you won't have to put up with this daily bullshit, anymore..."

I thought about that all day. You know I've had my share of jobs, wantabe careers, and even my own business, and you know what I've come to find out?
There's always bullshit.
What you put up with, and what you decide to take are two different things.

The bullshit you put up with...Traffic, rude people, assholes, dipstick co-workers, bosses....that's stuff you can manage, let role off your back like the perverbial duck in water.

The bullshit you decide to take...Bosses who dump on you daily, being passed over for promotions, passed up raises, being lied to, manipulated, cheated....You can decide to take that and lay down, letting the steamroller run right over your pathetic ass. Or you can say "Fuck it! I've had it...you can take this job and stick it where the sun don't shine, ya lousy bastards, I may need money, but I don't need it this bad."

"I QUIT!"

Or, in a more civilized way....tender your letter of resignation. Which is civilized man's way of saying...BITE ME!

and getting two weeks pay in the process...lol!

Hey, might as well get something out of the deal, right?

So I will get up in the morning...get showered, dressed, properly coffeed'd(don't leave the house without coffee) and take that 40 mile drive to work.

whether I behave myself tomorrow...well, that's a whole 'nother story....

Hey, I can't be expected to good, all the time..... ;-)

What the hell is wrong with people??

I was getting ready for work today, had the tv on, listening for the traffic reports. I heard a helocopter flying around outside, sounded close. I looked outside, it looked to be in the general direction of my local Ralph's Supermarket. "ok", I thought, "they tried to rob Ralph's again."
Ok, no big..I go back to what I'm doing, when I hear this breaking news story...This guy had just called the cops, reporting that his wife was dead, that he killed her. Cop show up and find her in the bedroom of their apartment, stabbed to death. Their kids were in the next room...they wittnessed the whole thing!
Now the kicker...It was the Apartments right across the street from the Ralphs market. I was like, Damn!
I pass those apartments everyday. To see something like this happen, damn..and in front of his kids! The guy had walked to a park, about a block away, and called the police. Think he was feeling a bit guilty?
What the hell's wrong with people?

A man walks into an Amish school...a nightmare insues....

A man creates a nightmare for his family...

Have we all lost our senses, or is this just a bit of that which is called life. The sad, sick part that we spend so much time trying to block out.
Have we desensitised ourselves to violence that we don't recognize when others are crying out for help?

Have we forgotten how to help?

Or have we gotten to damn hung up with being Politically Correct, that we're afraid to lend a helping hand to those who need it...want it...so desparately are crying out for it...that we turn a blind eye till its too damn late.

We can't keep doing this to ourselves people...we just can't. Or pretty soon, there won't be any one left to piss off.
Or piss on...

My watch went through the washer...

I have a pocket watch, it was the first gift my wife ever gave me. A christmas gift. Usually she checks my pockets before she puts my pants in the wash, and I normally have a chain attatched. but the chain recently broke, and I've been toting the watch in the fifth pocket of my jeans...you know, that convienent little one that no one ever uses. Yeah, well it fits just right.

Anywho...I heard this awful banging coming from the garage. Thought the dogs got into something.
I went out there, went to the dryer, and there was the cover to my watch! I looked further..and there was the watch...My heart sank.
Then my wife says "just give it to me, I'll buy you a new one...." then she said.."oh, I'll just get it fixed"...no big deal.
I wasn't mad at her....but it did hurt..This was the first christmas gift she ever gave me. It means something to me. It's irreplaceable. And she says, I'll buy you a new one...WTF!

I don't place a lot of value on material things...but this is something different. At least I thought it was.

Broken or not...It'll cost too much to repair, but there's no way in hell I'm getting rid of it...
don't know if you understand or not....It just means that much to me.

They Saved SORRIES POOP!


Ok, her name might not be Sorry..it's slurry, surry, shirley, whatever...but damn, WHAT THE HELL POSSESSED THEM TO BRONZE THE KIDS SHIT! COME ON!

Shoes! ok...Socks! yeah, seen it....Even seen the first clothes....BUT POOP? DUDE! How sick do you have to be? Not to mention what this is going to do to that kid when she grows up.
"Hey, I hear your dad has your shit on a shingle....FOR REAL!"

Man, the therapy bills alone are gonna break the fokker.

I mean, what do you say to this clown at the meetings? Even Travolta's gotta say "Man, I did Battlefield Earth, but that's like WAY out there...even for us.."

I can see it on the Mantle at home...And like, they have to eat with that thing in the living room.
Ya know holidays are screwed.

I can see someone get hold of it and try to sell it on ebay...HAHAHAHA! How the hell are you going to authenticate that? AND DID YOU SEE THE SIZE OF IT? What the hell are they feeding the kid? Big Macs?

Of course if you haven't figured it out by now, I'm talking about the infamous Bronzing of one Surie Cruise's Poop...I'm sorry, sur....Your daddy did you wrong..

JMHO...