Catching up a bit...

It's official. I am TERRIFIED of this blog. So I'm sitting there minding my own business, waiting for my sound system to be set up at Long Beach Veteran's Memorial Stadium, enjoying the warm afternoon sun, the nice breeze, and the sounds of The Academy Drum and Bugle Corps ripping my face off. And up comes Jeff McGinnis, current contra--oh sorry...TUBA coach for Impulse, a volunteer coaching position he's had since the corps was started I believe (THAT is actually AWESOME dedication!!), former director of Brea-Olinda HS (just down the road from my palatial estate in the hills of the Canyon of Carbon), and just all around nice guy. Comes up, shake hands, the old "how ya doin's...boy isn't Academy kicking ass...what's new" back and forth...and then...he drops a bomb.

I REALLY LIKE YOUR BLOG.

DAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMIT.

Someone else found me!!! I don't want people reading this swill! WHAT THE?? But in all seriousness, he paid me some nice compliments and I humbly bow to you and your tuba/contra greatness and say "GET OUTTA HERE...but thanks for reading." Heh!! To think. Someone ENJOYS what I have to say!

Speaking of which, apparently I had a LOT to say. I wrote a review off the top of my head, complete with some rather ridiculous grammatical "creative license" (to say the least) up on Drum Corps Planet. Now, if you're one of my readers that for some reason has no clue what drum corps is, which is fine in and of itself, could you do me a favor and get to know it. Because in about 3 weeks Pasadena is going to be rocked by some of the best drum and bugle corps in the world as they descend upon the Rose Bowl. Anyway--if you'd like to see where I was on Saturday night--go to http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=100870 and read what I had to say. 'Tis better than wasting a perfectly good and obviously WIDELY read blog on my drum corps blatherings.

Outside of the fact that there has been this consistent "behind the scenes" hole in my heart because of the loss of Dixie, I have been rather busy. Getting set up for 7 schools to write for, a possible 8th coming on line soon, in the middle of correcting one drill I already wrote, writing an opener for someone else, and having a great time!!! NO REALLY. I am. My computer program called Pyware is just amazing. Allows me to think differently about drill design. Maybe that means I'll actually get GOOD at it. Doubtful. But I'll try by George...

But yes, the hole in my heart has been there. LURKING in the back of mind. I really do appreciate the fact that people--like my dad for instance--don't give a crap about dogs. If they die, move on. Buy another one. But dog's have feelings and personalities and quirks and what not, and I don't know. I don't want to HUMANIZE so much a dog to the point of being stupid about it, but on the other hand, you look at the picture I posted of that big ass lug of a dog on my lap...and it's CLEAR she's a happy camper. She had a ton of other special "things" about her--like her penchant for turning into the dog you all hear about on the news, but only when in my passenger seat driving on the freeway past an 18 wheeler. Apparently she must have been a small car in a previous life because she would SERIOUSLY freak out at 18 wheelers. Not bobcat trucks. Not pickups. Not even those little reefer half truck dealy bobs. No....18 wheelers. FREAK dog. Her hair would stand up, she'd snarl and spit and growl and stamp her feet and bark...then I'd use my "outdoor voice" (cough cough) and tell her to KNOCK IT OFFFFFFFFF YA FREAK!!!!" And she'd stop and look over her shoulder at me as if to say, "But dude, I just protected you from the large mass of rubber and metal hurtling itself down this road!! KMA!!!" Hahahaha...ahhhhhhhhhhhhh...that dog. She killed me sometimes. And BOY could she rough house. We'd have wrestling matches and she was NOT shy and letting me know where the teeth in the family were, so to speak. And she LOVED grabbing a towel and trying to pull it from me, and then I'd let her "win" and she shake the ever-loving CRAP out of the towel...and then I'd try to grab it back and she'd try to scare me off by doing the low "grrrrrrrrrrrrrr" that rumbled more than anything. Ahhhh those were the times. Or the time I'm trying to announce a Winter Guard International "Friendship Cup" marching band show at RCC several years ago, only to get a call from The Warden saying that Dixie had just eaten an ENTIRE bowl of Hershey Kisses...complete with FOIL!!! Knowing chocolate is poison to dogs, I told Nyleen to get her to the hospital. Well the fat bitch...sorry...I mean my dog was so overweight that the doctor said, "Well, the chocolate won't hurt her, but be ready to pull foil out of her ass!"

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh you did NOT just say "Pull foil out of her ass did you?" The Warden was none-too-pleased to be a dog owner.

And yeah.

We pulled foil out of her ass for a week after that incident. Idiot dog.

What else to report on!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH yes. Before ALL of this went down, I got a phone call from ANOTHER voice from my past. Ended up talking to him for about an hour. And it was really great to hear from him--another reader of this blog--HOW I know not--but he found it. Anyway, Eric Dirksen, who may have been responsible more than anyone else in my life besides John Formia to get me interested in public safety as a career versus what I thought God had put me on this earth for and that was band directing. Eric went to PHS but was a year ahead of me. He went on to PCC, and was part of their Cadet Program for the Police Department. He kept encouraging me to apply as a cadet which I finally did in February of 1985 and got picked up. Worked there for the next two years, and eventually was promoted up a couple of levels and ended up being the Cadet Program Coordinator. I was pretty proud of myself for that accomplishment. Then I left on my final tour with VK and I never returned, opting instead to head off to Cal State Long Beach and get my damn teaching credential. Things in life have a way of happening in such a way that make no sense sometimes WHEN they happen, but in retrospect, you're happy that it did.

Someday I'll share with you the serendipity of how I got picked up by Orange County Fire Authority, and how that all played out. VERY interesting--because there's like simultaneous OTHER stories that go right along with it. Later though.

I need to get out of here, which I now will encourage YOU to do. But first--here's a pic of Saturday night. And that would be me on the track at the 5o yd line--and you're looking at the Kingsmen Alumni Corps which ABSOLUTELY set Veteran's Stadium ON FREAKIN' FIRE Saturday night. Enjoy...and then...GET OUTTA HERE!!!!!

That would be me, the red and tan speck, holding the paper--that was my script. Cool?

Good. Once again...GET OUTTA HERE.