One Man Army

Once upon a time....

There was a bright young aspiring girl, fresh 18 years old. She was only a couple of weeks away from graduating high school, doing her walk across the stage to get her diploma, the whole nine. It was good decisions that got her there in the first place. In that few weeks before her big day at her grad, the girl ended up having unprotected sex with one of her class mates. Low and behold, right before she graduates she finds out she is pregnant. Several months later, she finds out that she isn't just having a baby boy, its baby boy twins, identical. Fast forward the clock a few more months, two new baby boys are brought into the world. At this time the girl is now 19 years old, working as a waitress, and barely able to make ends meet for herself alone. As for the dad of the kids, nowhere to be found. She is high and dry, on her own. Even though it kills her, her only option is to put her two boys up for adoption.

Fast forward 35 years; (------>) The girl from high school isn't much of a girl anymore. She is now 54 years old, has landed herself a successful job, is renting a decently sized house and is in a steady relationship. However there isn't a day that goes by that she can't not think of her two sons, and how guilty she feels for leaving them for adoption instead of being able to take care of them herself. She decides to go out and find both of them, and make peace with them both.

After doing some research, and making a few phone calls, she is able to track down one who moved into a bigger city, and is working as one of the top heart surgeons in the country. She decides to pay him a visit, so she flys to his city and finds the hospital where he works. When she tracks him down, she explains the situation to him and says "I can't beleive how successful you have turned out! I am so proud of you!" and He responds to her by saying "Well, after what happened and all these years, where did you expect I would be?"  She asks him about her other son, and he tells her that he hasn't seen or spoken with him in near 15 years. She decides to embark out to find her other son, and make right by him as well.

On her walk back to her hotel room, the woman comes across a man sitting on a street corner begging for change. When she looks back into his sunken eyes and hollow cheeks, she recognizes his face from the hospital that she was just in, and immediately knows she has found her other son. She tells the man who she is, and how glad she is to have found him after so many years.  The man scoffs at the whole idea, and looks disgusted with his mother. She says to him "Please come with me, I will get you food, and a shower, you can come and stay with me you shouldn't be here like this," and her son looks and reply's "Well after what happened and all these years, where did you expect I would be?"

I have to re-write my Carpentry final practical in a couple of weeks, and while the point of this story is drive for me, let it be drive for everyone else. I once heard, good enough, isn't. I've been knocked down before, time to get the fuck up.

50 Gallon Drum (filler)

I started a blog post.. but I am not quite sure how to end it yet. I might end up scrapping the whole thing and re posting tomorrow so bare with me. In the meantime, many of you may have heard this song, but if you haven't you should listen to it, or at least read the lyrics. Quality.

My idea of heaven, I enjoy the fixing of a flat tire
I like art made of garbage, a little pain is good for you
I don't want everything to be made easy for me
Fast ain't always better than slow you know
A home run every time would start to get boring after a while
I hope I never forget how to bleed
Static fuzz, hiss, it's just the thing sometimes
50 gallon drum, that's what I'm talking about
Give me a hundred bucks to work on your bike
And maybe I'll cut your hair for you while I'm at it
I wanna work, I'm ready, I wanna take my baby dancing
Scary movies on Monday morning, chopping some wood, wind in my tires
Chocolate chip cookies, rain in the window, it's the underneath of Paris
It's New York from the back, Mount Uniacke in the fall
In a moment between heartbeats I'll set fire to the sky
Or cut the devil's throat
I'm three for four with a double and two stolen bases
Having my picture taken with the Amazing Creskin
It's a shiny day and the dogshit smells like strawberries
I found a shoebox filled with viewmaster reels
I don't have to cut my hair or do math ever again if I don't want to
Tell the bounty collectors to kiss my ass
I'm a hunter gatherer surveying the junk yards
Warrior monk with a month long bus pass
Odd job casanova, I write nothing down and keep my clothes in a guitar case
I run with bulls and swim with the pool sharks

Perfection is a place where there are two for one milkshakes on Tuesdays
It's where you can pay for a room with your good looks
The ball parks are always busy and the umpires always make the right call
Everyday is halloween and people use plastic Christmas trees
They fight with their fists and go to drive-in movies
There's no such thing as luck or the dentist and shoes don't hurt your feet
I keep a lighter and dog treats
In my pockets at all times because you never know
I've got a Saint Francis of Assisi keychain
And a wallet made of Corinthian leather
Sometimes I drive all night and listen to talk radio
Sometimes I practice scratching for hours on end
Usually I sit in my window and listen to my tapes, I've got all kinds of tapes
Hugs and kisses, and treats in a bag
In paradise a buck will buy you a comic book, a soda and a candy bar
You can always find a place to park or to hide
The DJs only play originals and the theatres still have silver screens
And Buster Keaton matinees
I'm an outlaw faith healer, with sock monkeys for the kids
I'm the ringmaster-king of the convenience store parking lot
My show is an every man for himself freak fest
Pack a lunch and ask for Johnny Rockwell
Here your favorite pen works forever but memory parallax
It's 70's doing 20's, 50's doing 2000
Everyone's got their own arrow and there ain't no short handled shovels
It's under my pillow, it's tomorrow and the next day

-Buck 65

Happy 2011

This is turning out to be more of a Monday session. I was watching baseball yesterday. So, Osama Bin Laden dead.. how bout that. Did anyone else happen to see the front page as well page one of the Calgary Sun this morning? It actually said "ROT IN HELL" front page news, and I quote from page one "THE BASTARD IS DEAD." Real appropriate. I think I could probably give a crayon to my seven year old niece and get her to write a more sophisticated headline, and she is just learning how to read and write. What a filthy joke, you should be incredibly ashamed of yourself The Calgary Sun at being such a fucking embarrassment in representing our populations general interest. All I can hope for now is that a horrifying war on Pakistan doesn't break out now, and that ignorant white North Americans don't lump them in with the fact that Bin Laden was housed in their country. But that's a story for another day.

Personal congratulations to Jack Layton and the NDP. I didn't vote, I cannot prove my address at the moment, and I probably would have if I had the means. Even though that the Conservatives won a majority, the NDP made history with their landslide of seats, and hopefully one day will win a minority over Stephen Harper and make him sweat. I was also very happy to see both the Liberals and Bloc parties absolutely decimated. If only riding's in Western Canada meant something to the election, rather than padding out the pockets of Conservative fat cats. Oh, and don't forget, for those of you whom voted DIRECTLY for Stephen Harper as he may have well been the leader for your riding depending on your geography, you not only voted in Conservative, but you also voted DIRECTLY for HIM, and HIS bullshit. But abortion sucks anyways right? Wooooo lower taxes!!!!! And more jobs!!!! Seeing is believing though. 

May 2nd though, second day in a row its been nice and sunny, quite a tolerable temperature. As far as I'm concerned, this is my new year. 2011 hasn't really come up Craig so far. In fact, its been an awful start to a year. The winter was cold and miserable, and long. I was diagnosed diabetic, I hated working at SAIT. Pure Math sucks, I wasted $1000 bucks on school I will never use, and my 4th year didn't turn out in my favor. Yep.. so far its sucked, but as a result I am considering it to only be a 7 month year for me. My 2011 started at the turn of the month, so lets make the rest of it a good one. I realize the blog may be spread a bit thin and be a bit weak this week, but I'm Craig Swanberg, more stories AND ANDY ROONEY next week on 60 minutes.. I mean.. Sunday Session. VOTE SATAN!

-CS
PS. Suck My Caucus Stephen Harper.