Rest in Peace, George Carlin.

One of the most intelligent, articulate, entertaining, thought-provoking comics for the last six decades is gone. George Carlin was one of my inspirations for writing, questioning what I read, questioning what I hear, and an aid in helping me think for myself in a universe full of zombies and drones. I ignored walking pneumonia to see him at the Maine Center for the Arts in 2003, which was my first and only chance to see the legend live. I had joked that we better see him now before he dies, considering how many heart attacks he had already endured (three at the time I think). I had hoped in the next year or two I would get out to Las Vegas to see him at a real show with a packed house.

I must say I knew this day would probably come, and very few entertainers, sports stars, or other famous people passing away impact me much, but this one stings a little bit. I was a big Carlin fan, and he helped shape my personality and my self-confidence in a lot of ways. He was a mentor to a lot of comics I'm sure, but he was also an influential person for regular guys like me.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Carlin. In an age where unoriginal joke thieves and talentless hacks like Dane Cook and Carlos Mencia dot the landscape and people get to "win" reality shows to get a contract handed to them rather than put in the work like you did for so many years, I hope you are not forgotten.

Thank you sir, for entertaining me and millions of others, and maybe in some small way, changing our lives through laughter. Your legend will never die.

Y'know, if the Sox win the World Series again and the 49ers find some way to climb out of their spinning vortex of suck to win the Super Bowl, this will be the greatest sports year of my life.

Happy Birthday bcoolie!

The great Harvey Korman, dead at age 81.

One of my father's favorites, and mine as well.

Tonight, Dusty and I went to Fenway Park to see the Red Sox play the Kansas City Royals. This was my 26th visit to America's Most Beloved Ballpark and the 12 consecutive year I've made it down despite the increase in gas and ticket prices that have me saying "This might be the year I can't go" in January. Somehow I manage.

Anyway, it was blustery to say the least with the winds gusting above 40 mph and the temps dropped pretty quick once we got there. I'm glad I brought my hooded sweatshirt into the park otherwise I would've been screwed. I was clad in my usual 2005-era Russell Athletic Manny Ramirez alternate jersey and Dusty wore her Curt Schilling road jersey with the World Series 2007 patch.

We had great seats in Pavilion Box Section 4. I've sat in the Pavilion the last 3 games I've gone to and I have to tell ya, the sightlines are the best in the park. Those guys in the Monster Seats are suckers.

We had no idea we were going to watch history tonight, but that's what happened. Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester pitched a no-hitter. This is the same Jon Lester who overcame non-Hodgkins Lymphoma during last year's off-season and came back to pitch and WIN game 4 of the 2007 World Series and clinch the title for the Sox.

I realized toward the end of the 5th he hadn't given up a hit. Then after the 7th I texted my brother and told him he might want to turn on the game. Soon after, the buzz started around the stadium. The bundled-up Fenway crowd began to realize they might be watching history here. By the top of the 8th the crowd was cheering every strike loud and every Royals out even louder.

When Lester struck out the final batter the whole place went batshit. I mean, I've been to plenty of Red Sox victories, but the sonic boom of unrestrained joy that came out of our crowd tonight was like nothing I've ever been a part of. The only other time I can imagine you would hear it is if the Sox won a World Series at home.

It's moments like these that make the four hour drives and thousands of dollars I must have spent on tickets, parking and food over the years worth it. It's the reason I'm a sports fan. To say I've seen a no-hitter in person is something I'll remember for the rest of my life.

So I picked up Grand Theft Auto IV for my XBOX 360 today.

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Man, I've been enjoying the crap out of playoff hockey. My Red Wings are 1 game away from dispatching Colorado and going to the Western Conference finals (sorry Eric). It looks like we're gonna get Dallas as they're a win away from taking care of San Jose I hate the Philadelphia Felons and the Montreal Canadiens equally so it's tough to pick a winner there, probably the Habs since they're an Original Six team and the Flyers are DIRTY.

Philly has the upper hand in that series though. Pittsburgh is up 3-0 on the NY Rangers and despite a really hot crowd at MSG tonight, the Rangers can't get it done and have looked totally outmatched by Sid the Kid, Evgeni Malkin, and the rest of the Penguins.

The NBA playoffs have been harder to enjoy. I don't really care about the teams other than the Celtics, and the way they've played the last two games against Atlanta it's been pretty forgettable. This was supposed to be a sweep, but I guess that's why they play the games. The C's better step up or else they could end up like the Seattle Sonics in the 1993-4 playoffs. A #1 seed losing to Dikembe Mutombo and the #8 seed upstart Denver Nuggets.

Like KG said "Anything less than a championship [this season] is a failure."

I drove up to Houlton to see Jeff Dunham on Saturday night. Dusty, Justina, Drew and Paul went with me. We went to what was SUPPOSED to be the 8:30pm show but it was an hour late as the first show got started late too. The town only staffed like 3 cops to handle traffic and logistical control for a 2500 person-per-show event.

The late show HAD to be better than the first one. Jeff Dunham is great live and he interacted with the audience very well. Quite a bit of his show was improvised which sets the good comics from the great ones. He did some bits from the "Spark of Insanity" DVD, but also some new material for an upcoming Christmas Special (the idea of doing Christmas material in April was not lost on Jeff). The opening act was Brian Haner, also known as "Guitar Guy". Opening acts usually suck but this guy was awesome. I also learned he is the father if the lead guitarist for Avenged Sevenfold. I'm not much of an A7X fan but I can see where his kid gets the guitar skills from. Guitar Guy can shred.

Anyway, even though my mom is from Caribou we rarely drive up to Aroostook County very often. Everyone had a good time and the drive back was fine even though there were a million deer on each side of the highway just taunting me. Yes, we did take my Trailblazer, so I was a little apprehensive running the gauntlet. Fortunately the ride home went without incident.

I'm going to e-mail Jeff Dunham and see if he'll consider Bangor or Orono as a stop next time he comes up here. The Auditorium is a piece of shit but it can't possibly be as bad as the one in Houlton. What a dump.

Monday, May 19 I'm making my first trip to Fenway of the season. Dusty and I have pavilion seats to see the Sox against KC.
Wednesday, July 23 The Usual Suspects will be visiting Yankee Stadium to watch those shitters play the Minnesota Twins.

The weather is getting better. I hope to get out of the house and get active a little bit here and there. Working a largely sentient job I feel like a lazy slob. I'm constantly tired and I've been fighting off the same cold off and on since January really. Once the nights are warmer Dusty and I are going to walk the track behind my house after dinner just to get moving and be healthier. The batting cages open pretty soon also, so I'm looking forward to that. Although at this point I'd be surprised if I could hit 30 mph pitches, let alone 80-90 mph heat like I used to. I'd like to join a men's league softball team this year, but my schedule makes that impossible, so I guess the cages will have to do.

Ah well. Today was a good day. I caught up on some sleep, watched the Sox and Red Wings win with Drew and basically sat on my ass and played XBox to close out the evening. I wish I could get my voice 100% but it's still pretty hoarse which is frustrating. Otherwise, I've had a pretty fun and restful weekend and I'm ready to go for Monday.

Thanks for reading my crap. See ya.

-S

Before....



After...



For those who care about that sort of thing, the bottom line came to almost $4300.00. Maine Collision Center did a hell of a job. For my local readers, don't even think about going someplace else if you need accident work done.

My bro Drew and I also installed my new on-glass antenna for SIRIUS Satellite Radio today. We didn't want to put the external back on and have the magnet ruin the new paint.

Because my deductible was substantially smaller than anticipated, I also replaced the factory speakers with four Boston Acoustics SX65's. These were basically a drop-in replacement, although Drew did have to get creative with installation a little bit as Crutchfield's master sheet was full of FAIL. The sound quality over the factory paper speakers is night and day. The lack of clarity in my stereo (especially highs like acoustic guitars and drum cymbals) was the one thing that nagged me about this truck when I bought it, but for around $200 we made it perfect.

I have no plans or desire to build a $4000 monster system like the one in the old Gizmobile. These speakers do well on their own and when you damn kids and your Honda Civics are buzzing around town with your fart can exhaust pipes and mushy, distorted, shitty Rockford Fosgate gear, I assure you if I've got the volume on 40, you will hear me coming.

Hope everyone's having a good week. I am now.

See ya

-S

I dropped the truck off at Maine Collision Center tonight. John (the owner) is a hell of a guy and has done work for me in the past (installing the spoiler on the old Grand Prix, fixed my mom's Honda after Drew's accident many years ago). He estimates it's about a 30 hour job and that the damage isn't too bad all things considered.

The sad thing is if JC Auto didn't have a two week wait I probably wouldn't have called him because I'm an idiot. I told him "I should've just called you first." He says "Don't worry we won't hold it against you." They do great work and I should've just called him on Monday to begin with.

My insurance provides rental coverage. My adjuster set up a reservation with Hertz for me yesterday. My rental is a silver 2008 Mercury Grand Marquis. It is a giant, V8-powered old-man land-yacht. It's all leather and it's like driving a couch, but it's a pretty boring ride. The sound system is great, but it's kinda strange listening to punk rock CD's while driving this senior citizen conveyance to work.

I mean, the controls to adjust the power seat are not on the seat itself, but on the door. Probably because they assume most people who drive these cars are too frail to bend over to use the seat controls.

Apparently I got a "Premium" class rental for basically compact price, and being a big dude I appreciate that. Ah well, it's comfortable and a good car for temporary transportation, but I'll be happy when I get my Trailblazer back.

I'll have "after" photos when it comes back. Knowing the quality of work MCC does I'm sure it'll be fantastic.

...I just hope it doesn't take too long.

...and on top of all that I woke up this morning with a sore throat and stuffy nose so now I'm sick. If you need me I'll be in the kitchen with my head in the oven.

*sigh*

We're home from the Hockey East Tournament.

The weekend was great until about 1:00am this morning.

Paul, Dusty and I were driving back from Boston and I switched with Dusty in Kennebunk so I could rest a little since I had basically driven all weekend.

Right around mile marker 137 on I-95, a Dodge Ram pickup truck passed us and a deer stepped out onto the highway. He swerved and missed it.

Dusty did not.

My Trailblazer is wrecked. The passenger side front is all jacked up. I drove it home and it appears to be running OK so my hope is the damage is largely cosmetic.

She feels awful about the whole thing but I don't think I would've been able to avoid it either. I'm just glad everybody made it through ok.

I'm bummed out about my ride but thankful the deer was the only living casualty. The guy in the Dodge Ram came back to check on us and when the State Trooper came he asked if I wanted to keep the deer. I declined so the other guy took it. Only in Maine... sheesh...

We got home around 3:30am and I called Farmers and filed my claim. The adjuster will call me Monday morning.

I'll post pics once daylight arrives.

I'm already not feeling well today and this did nothing to improve my sunny disposition.

So I decided that instead of using tax return money to take a vacation this year we would use it to do a few more improvements on the house. I replaced the front door and sided it 3 years ago, but the back door and frame are warped and the lockset is bad, plus we need new screen doors because the front doesn't have one and the back one had the glass blow out during a particularly windy rainstorm this fall. I figured we'd use the money to pay down on my credit card and pay for 2 storm doors and 1 entrance door for the back and get that all replaced.

As Lee Corso would say, NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND.

In 2002 I replaced the 50 year old furnace that was in this house with a brand spanking new boiler, water heater and everything. It cost me 5 grand and replaced an old cast-iron-over-copper all-in-one boiler which was the most inefficient piece of crap in the world. The furnace finally died for good one day so I didn't really have a choice.

Usually once a year this brand new furnace will develop ice in the main fuel line and refuse to fire. A safety kicks in when the jets jam up so kerosene fumes don't penetrate into the house and turn my kitchen into a deck. It would make renovating the kitchen much easier if we just blew it up, but I digress. Anyhow, I usually have to call my furnace guy to come jet the ice out of the line and it's fine for the rest of the season. Some of it he says is that I run the fuel tank too low before filling, which I learned not to do after a couple of visits, but the line continued to develop condensation and freeze.

The furnace quit again last night with nearly a full tank of kero in it. The furnace guy came today and fixed the problem again, but he said what we're really going to have to do is replace the tank. The fuel tank is outside and to prevent it gumming up the system I use straight kerosene instead of an oil mix. The new tank will be horizontal and installed a little further away from the lip of the roof so ice and snow won't fall on it. We're going to have to do this in the summer when the tank is close to empty.

Estimated cost? $1500.

Shit.

So much for saving a little money this year. I'm glad I didn't book any travel plans for Dusty and I.

It's been a busy couple of weeks. El Trabajo is going well and I really feel like I'm hitting a stride professionally. I don't know what that means for my distant future, but the immediate benefit is I still get paid for doing what I enjoy.

Our 2008 Ballpark trip has been finalized after much discussion. We've put if off long enough, but seeing as it is the final season for historic Yankee Stadium, the Usual Suspects will be visiting New York on July 23 to see the Bums from the Bronx play the Minnesota Twins in a 1:05 afternoon tilt. I managed to come across 5 decent tickets for $25 each and I didn't have to buy them from the New York Yankees website, therefore keeping myself off any Yankee mailing lists that MLB.com may share my information with (and they do).

As baseball fans there is a historic significance to visiting The House That Ruth Built before it's replaced with an impressive, $1 billion retro-meets-modern cathedral on opening day, 2009. Although we are Red Sox fans through and through, we are also baseball fans, and can appreciate what Yankee Stadium means to our national pastime. I look forward to visiting Monument Park and seeing the plaques of all the great players before taking my seat in the upper tier and quietly rooting for the Twins so that I am not stabbed by some loud-mouthed meathead named Vinny.

Memo to those of you who have never been: Mets fans are cool as hell. We went to Shea 2 years ago and they hate Yankee fans as much as we do. Nice people.

This visit will be our seventh different ballpark together. It will be my ninth personally. Also, after this game I will have been to every American League East ballpark. The others will just be missing Tampa from that division (Sorry, we'll go again, I promise).

So far I have been to Boston (25 Games), Baltimore, Toronto (2 Games), Tampa Bay (2 Games), Montreal (before they moved to DC), New York (Mets), Philadelphia, San Diego (2 Games).

We hope that 2009 will be our largest ballpark trip yet. We want to cross three names off the list: US Cellular Field in Chicago (White Sox), Wrigley Field in Chicago (Cubs) and 90 miles up the road, Miller Park in Milwaukee (Brewers). It will take some thought, some planning, and some money, but I think it's doable. We'll see.

I'll still probably get to Fenway at least once this year, despite the fact the team raised ticket prices again, and their ticketing system is a joke, plus they openly endorse scalping by advertising for ticket agencies on NESN programming. For all the money they're bringing in on tickets and gear that the "Die-Hard since 2004" crowd is buying, we should be able to get a new stadium, or at least some comfortable seats.

Anyway that's all I've got. Later.

It's been an interesting week or so and maybe I'll post about it later when I have some time.

However....

To the hard-working Americans working for Maine's campaigns for Obama and Hillary:

I respect and appreciate your passion, fervor and hard work for the person you believe in. That said, check your records. I've been registered with the Republican party since I was 17 years old. Calling me seven times in the last day and a half to remind me where the location of the Democratic caucus is might be viewed as a wasted effort since I'm not going to vote for either lame-duck candidate you're offering up this year.

What, was Joe Lieberman busy? At least he's a respectable member of the party. You couldn't find two better people than a rookie Senator who gives stirring speeches but has less than a full term in office and no record to speak of, and a former First Lady who cries on command and preaches change when she's just an extension of the previous 8 year regime under her husband?

Since Mitt Romney dropped out I've had a chance to read a few things and I really didn't like what I saw. Some people didn't vote for him for the sole reason that he's a Mormon. As far as I'm concerned that's just as bad as not voting for Hillary because she's a woman or not voting for Obama because he's black. I believe, and will continue to believe, that Romney was the GOP's best shot at a winner, and I'm disappointed at some of my fellow Americans who voted for an anti-woman, fundamentalist nut in Mike Huckabee and an American Hero who's been left on the shelf past his freshness date in John McCain simply because Romney chooses to have a different invisible man belief system than they do. Other than our current Commander in Chief (some people would argue), when was the last time a sitting President of the United States involved his religion to a degree that it significantly influenced legislation? Can you think of any recently? I can't.

I hope the GOP has the sense to sell a McCain/Romney presidential ticket. I'm not optimistic though.

Oh and a memo to Berkeley, California. Just secede already. You're embarrassing us.

I've never contributed financially to a campaign before, but I just threw $50.00 behind a guy I truly believe can and should run this country.

I won't claim credit for thinking of this as my brother contributed first but I thought I'd match it. I can't believe all of these prominent Republicans endorsing McCain, who has established an air of "I'm a war hero so therefore I am above criticism. Vote for me or go fuck yourself."

I was a fan of the guy until he started telling bold face lies the night before the Florida primary before Romney had a chance to defend himself. That's bush league. You don't throw your own party under the bus. Ronald Reagan is on a golf course somewhere with a disapproving frown on his face.

Congratulations New Hampshire on getting out and voting today. It was in the mid-50's in New England and you had no excuse not to get out there and vote for your guy.

Just so there's no confusion, here's my voting record. I am registered Republican but don't consider myself conservative. I am centrist or moderate on most issues. Don't confuse the two as many others do.

1996: Ross Perot (Ind-TX) (Lost to incumbent Bill Clinton)
2000: George W. Bush (R-TX) (Voted 2000 Maine Primary for John McCain)
2004: George W. Bush (R-TX) (If Joe Lieberman had won the Democratic nomination over John Kerry I may have voted differently)

I voted for our state Governor in 2002, who is a Democrat. I did not vote for his re-election in 2006 because though I know and respect him personally, he's been ineffective as Governor, to say the least.

American Hero John McCain delivered a stirring victory speech tonight after another impressive NH victory (he also won NH in 2000) and if he does end up getting the Republican nod over Mitt Romney (who is my choice for the GOP nomination), I would be overjoyed to call him my President. Come to think of it, a McCain & Romney President and VP ticket wouldn't be half bad. I just wish he was 62 years old instead of 72 years old. Regardless of his age, he is one tough son of a bitch.

It's time for Rudy and everyone's Crazy Uncle Hero Ron Paul to drop out and pick sides. I think Paul might take a run as an independent, if nothing else because he has shitloads of cash to spend, but Rudy is basically done. I respect all he's done for his country and in NYC, but if you don't have the female vote, you've got nothing, and he'll never have it due to the messy and very public end to his first marriage. Many women I know give a facial expression of one who has smelled something very unpleasant at the mere mention of Rudy Giuliani's name.

As far as the Democrats are concerned, the faster Obama destroys Hillary the better. They've all been preaching the "Agents of Change" mantra but Hillary in office would just be Bill Clinton Term #3. She's already going back to old friends to help her campaign, so what kind of change can we expect? I think Obama is the Democrat's only realistic shot, and even then It don't think it will be enough.

I don't think the Dems have a shot at the White House with the three top-tier candidates they're offering, but I do think Obama earning the nomination would set a very important and historic precedence. I don't know if 2008 is his year, but I do believe he will be President one day. I might even vote for him, but not this year.

Al Gore could announce today and probably win the Democrat nomination and the rest of the whole damn thing, and that frightens the hell out of me. Stay away, Al Gore, stay away.