SUMMERLAND

WISH EVERYTHING WAS EVERCLEAR

... the thought came to me to call this post "Summerland" reading about the travels in Nutwood Junction.  It happens to be a way cool song by Everclear, off their "Sparkle and Fade" release.  And that cd always makes me think of Pecan Sandie.

We used to ride out, listening to that cd, talking about riding out I-40 from start to finish.  We also used to talk about doing Route 66, just because.  Wanted to walk with her in the Grand Canyon.  The more we would talk, the more things she wanted to share with me, and that actually made me nervous.  The only time people had acted like she did with me, just off the rip accepting me without making the odd, rude comment, was to set me up and pull the rug from under me, sorta like "Carrie" at the prom.

AKA sometimes tries to get into me as well.  She will come up with ideas and activities that she knows I have an interest in, and she will want to do them with me.  She also has mapped some of my general habits, such as getting up early almost each and every day.  She  called me Saturday at 7 a.m., knowing that if I wasn't ready for the day, at the very least, I would be fully awake.  She asked if I would accompany her to show a property to a man, and she felt uncomfortable going alone (the 'yes' was out before I thought to ask who went with her before I came back to Detroit).

It was a nice house in the University District around Detroit Mercy.  The cat brought his preggers wife (like AKA didn't know he was looking for a place for his family), the I went with her to run a couple of her errands.

There was some big garage sale running down US12, and she is well aware (as was Pecan Sandie) of my weakness for them and resale shops.  She asked what I was doing, if I had any plans.  I told her that I didn't, but nothing was in mind that made me want to leave the house.  So she took me home, and I haven't heard from her yet this week.

Pecan Sandie used to do the same thing.  Catch me up early in the morening on a weekend, and figure a way into my day.  Once she was in, she wouldn't let go, even going home for a 'splash shower' and racing back across the small town we were in North Carolina, so she could hang with me for the duration of the day.

KT & LEXXIE

Less than a year apart.  Nixxie and I tried to be boyfriend and girlfriend, but it didn't take.  We still 'bumped uglies' for a bit before that got old, but not before I had knocked her up.

As we went our seperate ways before she found out, I was out in the world single.  I ran into Sandie at the mall I was working at.  Saw her out in a food court and talked her into lunch with me.  We'd make arrangement for a more offical date later that evening.

After a month of our dating, Nixxie came back around, and brought us both up to speed with her situation.  When Nixxie left, I turned to Sandie and let her know why I was going back and forth to Detroit as often as I did, and that I was set to go again soon...

I talked to AKA on a dare of sorts.  The soiree that I met her at, with all the semi-snobby class of moderately successful college graduates, brought something not cool out in me. I told my BFF that I was going to pick up one of the 'think they are, but they're not' girls.   AKA was a queen bee of that hive, but I didn't know or care.  I was being a rake ... other girls would call it 'being an a-hole', but whatever.  I did what I can do.

In both women I sense ways to exploit their emotions, their hearts.  Not just because I WAS an a-hole, but because they put up such flimsy (to me) facades.  It seemed to me, if you were serious about protecting yourself, you would have come up something a little better than the Manginot Line as defensive fortifications.

Anywho, single mothers aren't the only ones demonized by the single mother phenomenon.  The cats that take part, while not anywhere near as intense, are marked just as permanent.  I have always tried not to duck and dodge when I was faced with a budding relationship, I have always left an open door for someone to go back out of with no remorse or questions.  See, I do want to be a part of my girl's lives, and they would have to come on board with that.

Nixxie knew what she was getting into.  And now, so did Pecan Sandie, who wanted to go with me on my next trip to see Skye in Detroit!

As I started to get to know AKA, I sent out feelers before I told her about the now 'trio' I had become a part of.  I would not have taken offense if she dropped me like a hot potato, but what she did, confused me.  She let on that she could never marry someone who had children, as she surmised that the children's needs would always mean more, or should mean more to the guy.  She was too jealous of that emotion for that.

Fine.  But she kept in contact with me, without saying anything about my situation or how it affected our relationship.  Me, I took her at what she said ... those are words you don't have to say twice to be understood.

OLYMPIC BOXING

I just haven't been as enthralled by the Olympics as I was when I was younger.  I lost contact with them back in '88 and I don't really bother with them, summer or winter.

Did happen to watch some of the boxing the other day, and came away non too impressed.  Amateur boxing in the US is as different as American basketball is to the rest of the world.  One of the largest difference comes with the world sending MEN to fight BOYS.  I remember going to South America to get it handed to me by a Cuban ... who looked like he could have been my FATHER (so NOT an overstatement).

As with gymnastics, the subjective scoring of boxing has made for much contreversey.  It has switched to a system of computerized scoring, where the 5 judges sit with red and blue buttons, and 3 judges have to press within a second of each other for a punch to register as a 'point'.

What a load of crap.  A lot of body punches don't get counted.  And what if one judge decides he just isn't going to press the blue button tonight?  Or if his dominant finger isn't set up for the cat who is winning the bout?

Even Micheal Phelps is annoying.  Not even watching the Games, he is all I hear about.  How many thousand of atheletes are there?  There aren't any more compelling stories?  The men's gymnasts getting the bronze after losing the top two competitors should have be worthy of more press ...

... but that's me.

Baseball note ... the Tigers threw Gary Sheffield under the bus ... would have helped to get the manager, Jim Leyland who is a Sheffield backer a heads up at the very least.  Judging by the interview he gave when asked about Sheff being on waivers (baseball is complicated ... this was a ploy to see if he has trade value), his reaction said that he wasn't in on that meeting ... a few bleeps and a storm off the camera sorta left that impression ...

... lastly, Raven over at "Raven's Lament" is in need of support.  Give her some, won't you?