An Act Of Love

SHADOW aka The Goob, May 1989 to August 23, 2006.

The last few days he was really, really slowing down and was having more moments where he seemed to not be all there. So while it was difficult and heartbreaking today, those things, as well as knowing about the tumors, made it easier to have the right mind set and do the right thing...an act of love. He will be missed more than anyone can know.

I will always have the memories, including those I wrote about last week but also, looking at that picture of him sleeping on my stepdaughter's feet with his legs hanging down...he had one extra toe on one foot and two extra on the other.

Beer Fridge!

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me...well, Friday was. Last night my wife and I and daughter and stepdaughter went to eat at Longhorn's, where I made a pig of myself, topped off with a 16 ounce t-bone smothered in a butter and red wine sauce, topped with french fried onions (excellent) and washed down with a Bass Ale. The Mrs then said we need to go to the big orange box store, where I got to pick out my birthday present...my very own beer fridge!
While we're on the topic of beer, I believe I've found a new favorite lager, replace Samuel Adams Boston Lager...that lager would be JW Dundee's Amber Lager, which among other places comes in a 12 pack that also includes a pale ale, a pale bock and a honey brown lager.
The Amber Lager is in my opionion extraordinary. It has all the favor of the Boston Lager but a tad smoother, and the flavor is to me a less harsh. It's hard to describe something that you find perhaps more flavorful yet smoother, but that's how I would describe this beer compared to the Sammie. The Pale Ale is the best I've tried...again, more flavorful, yet as smooth as the most popular pale ales.
To contrast those two, I find the pale bock and honey brown to be a little disappointing. Around these parts the Honey Brown has an excellent reputation, but I just realized it's a lager and not an ale. So what is a honey brown lager or what makes a lager honey brown (aside from honey obviously)? I was looking forward to a robust brown ale with a hint of honey; what I got was a smooth lager. It's certainly more tasteful than traditional American lagers; but given how good the amber lager and pale ale were, I expected more.
The Pale Bock? I realize it's a pale bock rather than a standard bock, but dare I say I expected it to be bock-ier than it was. I know a bock is a lager but it tastes to me like a standard lager instead of a bock. I was bracing my taste buds for an attack of flavor that didn't come.
Anyway, if you like a robust lager and or pale ale, I couldn't more highly recommend these two offerings from JW Dundee by High Falls Brewing in Rochester, NY.
beer JW Dundee pale ale brewing bock lager barley hops beer fridge

Shadow

Forgive me but this is very hard to write, even for someone who's lost human loved ones and made the most difficult decision one can make three times. I almost didn't bring him back from the vet today.
I'll back up and tell you that everyone who's ever met this cat and spent any time with him all say the same thing...that he's the smartest and best behaved cat they've seen...more personality than any 3 put together. When he was young, I could get him to chase me around the house just playing. I used to throw a tennis ball to the landing of the top of the stairs and he'd go up and knock it down to me, then wait until I threw it again. I taught him not to lick around me (I know but it's a peeve of mine, no pet intended). He still starts to and then sees me near him, and I'll give him that look and he'll go somewhere else and lick. I used to play rough with him, and he'd give it back in spades. He'd rear up on his hind legs and howl at you the more you cuffed him around; and if you weren't quick and careful, he'd take a piece out of you...the sharpest teeth I've ever seen. If in playing with you things weren't fair and he wasn't getting his licks in and you walked away, he'd run up behind you and bite you in the ankles. He'll give you kisses if you ask him, even though most of his young life he was very independent and didn't care about attention. You knew when you talked to him that he was listening, and always meowed when you asked if he was a good boy.
Shadow turned 17 in May. He's been my best friend for those 17 years, through a lot of very difficult times. The vet said today that what I thought to be a cateract in his eye is actually a tumor but that it may not be a problem. While she's saying that she's examining his abdomen, where she found a large tumor in his bladder...nothing to be done there. She immediately recommended he be put down. Even though I sensed it coming when I arrived, the big old Zebster blubbered like a boy. She asked how his appetite was and whether he was drinking. I said that he was. So we decided that next Wednesday would not be too long to wait, to give everyone a chance to say goodbye, plus that's my next day off that they can do it.
I should tell you why I took him in. He's just been sick lately...throwing up on a regular basis, sometimes not for a few days but sometimes more than once a day. He weighed in at 9 pounds this morning, down about 3 from recent years and 6 when he was younger. You can't tell from the pic but he's long and big cat. His hips have been arthritic for the last couple of years; there's what I thought was a cateract, and within the last few days he's been having problems peeing. He'd go once and pee just a little, then walk around kind of crying and then try again. I knew he was old and wasn't going to be with us forever, and I wasn't going to be that kind of pet owner that spends tons of money trying to save an old animal; but since he's been sick, I just wanted to assure myself that he didn't have something that could be easily rectified.
Well, this has been cathartic actually, remembering the many good years we've had. Expect a blubber post next Wednesday.
Check out Shel's Place soon for a surprise.

Breadman update

Well, that first full day out I got home at 8 pm. So a 16 1/2 hour day. Friday was more like 14 and Saturday, since I had to run a different errand, got me home around 2. So a lucky 10 hour day!!!

This week won't be so bad because I'm running a much more local route and I'm helping a guy who's just coming back but on light duty. So I'm doing most of the lifting but we're still faster than me alone. I got to work this morning at 2 and got home at 2:45. Woo hoo, only 12 hours!!! He has a follow-up doc appt tomorrow. So I'll be doing about a 1/3 of it myself.

Got to watch the Nascar race at Watkins Glen...one of the better races there in a while, I thought. Kevin Harvick's showing his strength on all kinds of tracks. Unfortunately for me Kasey and Kyle lost top 15 runs in the last handful of laps due to other people's issues and they lost lots of positions. But I had Robbie Gordon in the fantasy league. So I'm still in first!

I'm taking Shadow to the vet on Wednesday, and I'll post an update about that after the visit.

First Day

Got a call from my boss last night at 7:30 saying I could start today, and only at 6a.m. at that. It's the usual day off for the guys but no one volunteered for the overtime to do what they call recalls, which is restocking our product on grocery store shelves from product that's already delievered. So I went out with the boss today and did that, and helped put out some other fires.
Tomorrow won't be so kind...I'll be helping out on my old route, which starts 2 hours from the "barn." So I'll start at 3:30 in the morning and probably won't get home until 7 pm, if I'm lucky.
So I'm sitting here having a cold Geary's and thanking everyone for the well-wishes they've left on my blogs.

Even though Jeff Gordon finished 16th at the Brickyard, I'm still holding on to a very slight lead in the fantasy league.

Geary's Pale Ale

The first reaction I had and have when drinking this ale is "My, that's nice and aley!" It has a full mouth of flavor with really no aftertaste. I find this pale ale to be better than any other pale ale that I've tried thus far. As I say, it's robust but not overbearing in my opinion, especially if you prefer ales as I do. It's a pleasure to find a strong ale that you want to drink time and again.
I'm sure I could do a better job of searching but I was unable to find a website for D.L. Geary Brewing but I did find this website MaineBeers.com. Also, as I usually do with beer reviews, this is what information there is on the label: "Geary's Pale Ale is hand crafted in Maine with traditional British brewing methods, using only custom-malted British barley, American hops and pure Maine water." So what's not to like? It's brewed in Portland, Maine with Maine water; it's a very, very good ale and has a lobster on the label. Enjoy!

Job search update: Just this afternoon I got the call from hell, as it were. IBC/Nissen wants me back and I've agreed to go back. At this point it'll be as a spare/jumper, which I would prefer over some of the far-flung routes like the one I had before, working upwards of 70 hours a week with no two days in a row off. So the blogging will take a serious hit as a result; but the job pays very well, especially for this part of the country. At this point it looks like I'll start Thursday morning. I'll update when I know more.
beer Geary's pale ale brewering work Maine barley hops

A blown motor and a hard wreck

The Brickyard 400, while one of my favorite races to watch and the second most important race of the season, was a disappointing one for my favorite drivers. When Kyle Petty, 26th, finishes well ahead of my other two favorites, you know it was a tough day. I was optimistic that with Bobby Labonte's prowess at this track and the steady gains of the 43 team we'd see a good result, but in large part the 43 struggled the whole race and then blew a motor late and finished 40th.
Then there's Kasey Kahne, who has struggled of late and needed a good run; and this seemed to be the track to get it at. His prior two races there resulted in a 4th and a 2nd. Well, maybe next year. They were chasing the set-up on the 9 all day but were running in the top 10 on the last lap, when either he spun out or got tapped from behind and almost knocked down the outside wall. He hit it nearly head on and the rear of the car came right up off the track. I think the tire falling on his show car in that commercial was less violent that this wreck. Thankfully, he walked away from it. Therefore, this week's kudo goes to the safety of those cars.
My fantasy pick for this race didn't fare much better. Four-time Brickyard winner Jeff Gordon had a bolt come loose on the front suspension early in the race that cost him 4 laps, which he did manage to make up; but because this race was relatively caution free, he wasn't able to get all those laps back early enough to be a factor, though he did finish 16th. But in a fantasy league where you only get to pick each driver once throughout the season, getting a 16th from Jeff Gordon is gonna hurt.
Oh, the winner? Jimmy Johnson, who dominated late and won easily. This team is amazing in how they bounce back from adversity and seemingly always finish well. This weekend it was a tire going down early, which relegated them to the back. So while Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards were the cars to beat early on, it was the 48 that was the best at the end. Will this be the year they win the Championship? We'll see. They'd be the prohibitive favorite in years past, but with the Chase format anyone can get screwed and anyone who limps into the Chase can be the Champion. You're thinking I sound like I don't like the Chase format? Well, you'd be very much right, but that's a blog for another day. I will say this much right now: Watch out for Jeff Gordon if he makes the Chase. He's managing to stay in the top 10 while using up his bad luck.
Jimmy Johnson Jeff Gordon Petty Brickyard Indianapolis Kahne Labonte Nascar Chase

Sports & Concert Bragathon

These are pictures of my ticket stub scrapbook. Some of these tickets go back to the 70's when I went to Fenway with my grandparents, which was a very big deal for a poor kid from Maine. What I thought I'd do is point out some of my most treasured ticket stubs, meaning the most "important" or personal events I attended, and invite all the other sports and music fanatics out there to list the ones they're most proud of.
Some of my favorites are events that my brother and I attended as parts of roadtrips. So in large part they'd fall into the personal category...seeing the Rolling Stones together in Montreal in 1989. We went on a roadtrip in 1998 to see a ballgame at Tiger Stadium during its last year and at Maple Leaf Garden in Toronto for the same reason. Along the way we stopped at the Rock N Roll HOF in Cleveland, we ate at the HardRock inside SkyDome (no games that weekend there unfortunately), went up in the CN Tower and stopped at Niagra Falls on the way back. Another trip along the same vein was to Montreal to see one of the very last games at the Montreal Forum. Another roadtrip was in February of 2001 to the Daytona 500. As it turned out that 500 was historic in that it's the one that Dale Earnhardt was killed in. On that trip we also saw a Magic game in Orlando and went to the Kennedy Space Center. Spending a weekend in Charlotte at the infield of the 600 with a bunch of my message board friends was definitely a highlight and worthy of a blog itself one day.
Taking my daughters to their first concert, Big N Rich, in NH; their first Celtic and Red Sox games as well as their first local stockcar race in Unity and first Nascar race at NHIS are very high on the list.
I'm also proud of the many venues I've seen sporting events at that no longer exist; such as, Memorial Stadium in Baltimore where I saw the Colts and Orioles several times, Riverside Speedway in CA, where I saw several Nascar races, including the last one there in '88; the places mentioned above, as well as the Salt Palace in SLC for a Jazz game in '87.
From a historic standpoint I would include attending the Patriots vs. LA Raiders playoff game at the LA Coliseum in 1986, which the Pats won on their way to the Super Bowl...the first team to win 3 road games to get there. A game at Anaheim Stadium on July 27, 1986 in which two 300 game winners faced each other for the first time in decades, Tom Seaver and Don Sutton. Curt Schilling's 200th win earlier this year at Fenway to name a few.
And a few personal favorites such as Bruce Springsteen at the Cap Center in August of 1984, Bob Seger at Merriweather Post Pavilion in 1983, John Mellencamp at the SD Sports Arena in 1988 as well as The Ballpark in OOB, Maine in 1994; Bob Dylan at Sammis Pavilion in '88. Hey Robbie, Harry Anderson at La Paloma in Encinitas in May of '86. Obviously there's many more to bore you with but I won't. Please return the favor.

sports concerts ticket stubs scrapbook roadtrip