Another shitty year? Seems that way. I've been on a tirade ever since the first of the year came by and things have gone downhill ever since. I kept breaking the damn half inch bolt on the Berkline rocker recliner for the 8th time and in a rage threw it back against the steps and broke the backing. So now, next week I should have a brand new Lazy Boy in its place. Sure hope it lasts longer than the Berkline. Four years of spending 500 dollars on a rocker recliner is unacceptable. I've been pissed off at the Anamosa Furniture Mart ever since i bought it in 2006. They said it would last a while. Six months later the first bolt broke and ever since I've been replacing them every five months. Is it asking too much to have a rocking recliner that I can rock with while jamming out to my tunes on a Sunday night? It seems that way.
I haven't commented on the Dubuque bargain hunt of a couple weeks ago but the only thing I can tell you is that on the way to Plattville, Discount Discs, their record store closed sometime ago, I came across an empty building where it used to be at. One less record store to go to now, and it looks like Richard Branson may be right by saying most if not all music stores will be gone in 2020.
The state of music today is bleak. Radio plays the overplayed, the music mags tout the tuneless and whatever passes on top forty is autotuned to hell. Even Slash says he can't get into the new bands but then again his last album wasn't that great anyway, he's been on autopilot since Use Your Illusion 1 and 2. But I do like Velvet Revolver's last album Libertard.
The last week I've been playing my own tribute to Ronnie James Dio by playing some of his albums with Rainbow, Black Sabbath and his band. Yesterday, Paul Gray, the bass player for the hometown boys Slipknot was found dead in his motel room. He was 38. Hard to believe that Slipknot has been around 10 plus years. We're all getting old. Some sooner before their time it seems. I'm surprised I haven't had a heart attack the way I go off the deep end.
I am my own worst person and it shows in my dreams. Always seems like I'm getting fired at work in those dreams. Don't know why I keep having them, I think I'm doing okay at work but then again I get this them vs me mentality. Funny how we all got along together, taking breaks to play UNO or Sorry but we don't do that anymore. I get caught up in the video game of Bejeweled and it's a meth habit to me, once i start i can't stop and i get into trouble. Steve, our senior can put up with me at times but Bill, the other senior has such a bad attitude on things that nobody wants to go to him for help. He's a good guy at times but I think once he and his wife had his son, he seemed to change, seems to be a bit more bitter than myself. Hard to believe that one. Still think of him as a work brother but sometimes brothers don't get along very well. Sometimes you hate them. And so it goes.
There are two things in my things to do this summer. One is spending time up in Michigan with Nicole for a week and meeting her relatives. Grandma really wants to meet me for some reason. So it's up to Hale and Frankenmuth. Haven't been to Frankenmuth since 1975. Kinda curious to go up there and see if Carling still owns that Brewery we went to. The other is going out to Arizona in late August, a farewell to Hastings and to the music shops that I loved going to when I was in Arizona. Has nothing to do with the immgration bill folks, I go there simply of the fact it's cheaper to fly there than anywhere else. And I know the places i used to go to. Would love to spend time visiting my guitar buddy Dennis Lancaster but if he'd rather hang with his boys, it's not my way to bother him. I did talk to him last year during the 10 days of AZ trip but he was too tired to do anything after working an all nighter as a pilot so I let him be. If there's bitterness between the lines, it's not intended. Spend time with you children as much as you can but getting together with an old friend is going to be few and far between. I love arizona, still do even in their state of affairs but as I approach fifty, it's getting to the point that I won't be able to do the things that I used to do, it was evident when I was out there that too much walking and not enough water led to back spams that lasted the rest of the trip.
I have a perverse fascination with Hastings in the high country. They're like FYE, you hate them for outrageous prices on their used stuff but if you look hard enough in the cutouts, you'll find some undiscovered bargains for 2, 3 dollars. I was very pissed when they closed the Ames store which gave no reason for me to travel to Ames/Des Moines anymore but the last time I went out to the Arizona stores, especially the Flagstaff store, I managed to find more than I could bargain for. But i really want to return the high country and make it out to Kingman and Lake Havasau City and Bullhead City. I've been out there so many times in the last decade that I do feel it's like a home away from home for me. It's just a shame that I can't live out there, I'd love to have a house overlooking the Colorado River in B.H City. I'll even settle for a place on old Route 66 on Andy Devine.
Yes Hastings Entertainment is the evil empire like FYE is the evil empire but i know what I look for when I go into these stores and nothing excites me than finding something out of the ordinary. But the age of the CD is over and maybe so, but there's still enough CDs out there to discover the forgotten and the obscure. And every trip I end up finding the things I was looking for and more. And I'm sure I will on this trip too. As well as Michigan with Nicole too.
And maybe then I'll be more happier. Right now, it seems that we're back in the shit gutter again and I just got a note from the IRS about a problem with my tax form. And I need to replace this damn computer chair. You can only duct tape it so much..........................
