Ok, so what's new?

Lots of things, actually. My daughter Michelle is now engaged to be married to her boyfriend Brett. They got engaged this past New Years Eve. She is happy and doing well, which of course makes me happy.

My grandson Gregory will be 3 on May 2nd this year. I wish I got to see them more often. I wish Texas was closer. I wish I had more hair. I wish I had more money. I wish Frank Zappa was still alive. I wish for an end to world peace. I wish to be, or not to be...

Sorry, got caught up in a wish-a-rama. I wish I didn't wish so much.

But I digress.

I'm living in Palm Harbor now. It's been exactly a year since I moved in to my current home. Working out very well, except I wish I lived closer to my friends in St. Pete.

There I go wishing again. Gonna wish my life away if I'm not careful.

James Dean moved back from Texas to Florida this past week. Maybe we'll put the band back together now that we have a bass player again. We need to talk about all that soon.

Still working at Tech Assist (www.toolsthatwork.com). Hit my 3 year mark in February. I didn't get a raise this year, but I adjusted my chair up a few inches so it feels like I did.

Well, I'm going to stop right there for now. I'm starting to bore myself.

I'll try and do better next time.

• Moved from Nunda, NY, to Dansville, NY the weekend before Christmas last year.

• Christmas was ok, got sick over New Years, that sucked.

• Hit a big ass pothole in my car and ruined the right from rim. Drove around on a little donut tire for a few months. Just couldn't afford a new rim and 2 new front tires (needed those too). Finally got that all straightend out though.

• Got involved in doomed relationship with a girl from work around Christmas time. She will remain nameless.

  Screw that, her name is Anna. It started off with a bang, was screwed up for a while, got better, almost ended up living with her, suddenly everything went south, and it took me months to finally end it. Lets just say that having your own personal stalker is not as glamorous as they make it look on TV. All better now though.

• Here's one for the books...

  I found out I have a half-sister that I never new existed. Without going into any details, let's just say that after 37 years (give or take) she was able to track down her mother (my mother) and that broke the story wide open. Her name is Kathleen, and she's just fantastic. I couldn't be happier to find this all out. She's a musician (plays guitar/keys/sings) which obviously gives us some common ground, and just a beautiful person. She's recently married, currently lives in Colorado, planning to move to the Carolina's later this summer. Hopefully soon after that we'll be able to meet in person for the first time. Very much looking forward to that day. Hi Kat!

• Quit my day job this past Monday. Decided that 2 years in NY state was enough for me. So I'm selling off everything that won't fit in my car and heading back to Florida the 1st of August. Yes folks, I am going home. Hopefully, I'll be able to regroup when I get back down there and things will improve for me.

  It hasn't been all bad living up here, but I've had my share of bad luck along the way. More in two years, than in 10 years before. I should have seen the writing on the wall when I got a speeding ticket the day I arrived here 2 years ago. It hasn't gotten much better since then. There's a lot I'll miss about NY state, but more that I'll be glad to be rid of.

  I'm looking forward to seeing all my friends and getting back to where I know my way around and feel comfortable. It can't be any worse than what I've been living with up here.

There's a lot I've left out, but most of it is either bad/sad/mad news, so I won't bore anyone with that.

I have some website work in the hopper while I'm sweating in my little apartment (no AC!!!) before I leave, so that will help feed me.

I'll try and update more often in the future, even though nobody ever reads it but me.

Peace & love and good happiness stuff.

Oh yeah, Happy 4th of July to everyone!

Where to begin...

Big news! It looks like I will be staying in New York indefinitely. Which is a total 180 from what I was planning on doing up until yesterday. As many (1) of you may or may not know, I was planning on heading back to sunny Fla. pretty quikly. Have an "Everything that won't fit in my car, MUST GO!" sale, and bail out of NY state before the winter set completely in.

That isn't going to happen.

My plan now, is to move from Nunda to Dansville, where I work, so I don't have to drive the "Hill of Doom" between here and there. It's not fun. In fact, it's impossible for me to do in my car if there's snow/ice on the roads. I've tried. Just recently, I made two attempts and both ended in failure. The first try left me stuck on the side of the road next to someone else that was stuck in a ditch on the other side of the road. I stopped on my own. The other guy stopped because the end of the ditch got in his way. Luckily the guy had a cel phone that actually worked so I could call my brother and have him come get me. I left my car there until later that morning and finally made it to work about 3 hours late.

The second attempt involved more uncontrollable spinning (see Land of Inconvenience for more on this phenomenon) of an automobile. This time mine. Luckily, I stayed on the road. I was just facing the way I came instead of the way I was going. I got the hint and headed back down the HoD, and took the long way to work. I was only 30 minutes late that day.

I know what your saying to yourself right now. You're saying, "Now I know why he decided to stay up there. He's just having too much damn fun playing in the snow, to want to go back to Florida where there isn't any snow."

While I can't deny that the rush of adrenaline you get when the rear end of your car decides it want's to lead the way, is very similar to the kind of rush you get on a thrill ride at Universal Studios. I don't really enjoy that kind of thing at 6:00am in the morning while I'm trying to drink my coffee on the way to work. I guess if you're a thrill seeker and plan for it, you could have some fun. I must be getting old, because I just don't enjoy a good car crash like I used to. Never grow up and never get old.

It looks like we're going to get pounded with snow this weekend. It's been snowing since last night and there are Winter Storm Warnings for Sunday afternoon/evening. That should make my trip to work on Monday better than an E ticket at Disney World (back when they had E tickets). I can hardly wait!

Aside from that, things are looking up around here. I'm being treated fairly at work, and that is the main factor in my deciding to stay. As far as jobs go, it's a decent one (I work in the shipping/receiving/warehouse departments). I've had worse. I've made more money too, but money isn't everything... is it?

Don't answer that.

The people at work are cool. Most of them anyhow. Some are cooler than others, and some are just not cool at all. Right now we're all cool because it's like 25 degrees outside. Great day to hang out around the house and update your website. So, get going will ya! I need something interesting to read.

Remember, life is good.

It's been a while since I posted anything here so I thought I'd just put something new here so when I load the page it somehow looks different. I'm thinking of a major overhaul to this site anyhow. I'm kind of tired of the darkness of it. Maybe I'll put in some windows and let in some light.

If you're at all a fan of Star Wars I highly recommend the latest film (Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones). I liked it a lot. Yoda is one bad mofo.

The same can be said for Spider Man too. Very well done. I can only hope it somehow increases the value of my Spider Man comic book & trading cards that I've had for years.

I've got to get out to see the Sum of All Fears soon too. I'm a fan of Tom Clancy and I've heard good things about it. I'm re-reading Rainbow Six right now. I wish they would make that one into a movie next. The computer game(s) based on it were good as well.

Does anyone have an extra web design job laying around that they're not using? I can really use one right about now. I'll trade you some Spider Man comic books for it!

Have you ever bumped your head? I know I have, but never like this.

Anyhow, I just thought I would put something here to let all (2) of you know I made it safely. There was one close call involving some black ice on the interstate 6 miles from the last exit before home. Almost exactly in the spot that I got a speeding ticket last year when I came up. I think I should find another route by the town of Wayland.

It was about 11:30pm and it was snowing. It was snowing when I left to go down to Florida, so why shouldn't I expect it to be snowing when I come back. It is almost the end of April after all. The snow wasn't heavy at all and didn't appear to be sticking to anything, so I was driving the normal 65-70mph (below the ticket zone) and the roads were just slightly wet. There wasn't a lot of traffic so it was a nice anxiety free drive on the last leg.

I came up over a hill and could see up ahead where the road curved to the right as you go down the other side there were a LOT of police and emergency vehicles. Lights flashing all over the place and a long row of flares on the road. The sign of a bad accident for sure. I slowed down to about 30mph to try and figure out how to get by it. I was in the left lane and realized I needed to be in the right lane. That's when I noticed the police car that was first in line on the left side of the road. After I noticed the police car, I noticed the police officer that was walking out from behind the police car, waving his police arms at me to get over into the right lane. So I hit my civilian breaks to slow down some more, and turned my civilian steering wheel to the right (because that's the direction the right lane was in) and before I knew it I was again a victim of the phenomenon wherein the rear end of my car decided it might enjoy being the front end of my car for a while. I hate when that happens.

Yes, the rear end of my car was coming around to the left and I wasn't doing a very good job of getting over into the right lane at all. Ooops! Doom on Mikey! And possibly doom on that police officer. So I did what I was trained to do so many times in Ninja class... I panicked.

Well not really. I hadn't gotten to full on panic yet. But I thought for sure I'd end up there pretty quickly. I can only assume that the police officer was feeling the same way. The only upside to it, was that there were already lots of emergency people around so help would have been pretty quick if I didn't take them all out in a firey explosion. (probably not, but you never know)

So I did what comes naturally at times like this... I wished I wasn't sliding towards that police officer and his police car. Then my rear wheels must have caught some dry road and it came back around behind me where it belongs and I just sort of coasted past the police² and I believe I heard him yelling STOP! STOP! or something as I went by. I thought about stopping for a split second, and then quickly remembered that it was my civilian break pedal that might have caused the problem in the first place so I decided against it.

I could see a car upside down off to the left as I went by. Someone wasn't as lucky as I was. I hope whoever was in that car survived to talk about it.

I drove reeeeaaaalllly slow the rest of the way home.

And now I'm done typing about it.

Time for a nap.

Anywayze, I'm departing at O:dark:hundred in the morning for Florida (as if you cared). I always get a little anxious before a long drive. I wish I wasn't driving alone, but I've loaded my CD cases with my favorite tunes and I'll be just fine.

There's supposed to be patchy snow showers in the morning for at least until I get out of Pennsylvania. It will be in the 20's overnight with a definite absence of sunlight... Hopefully the sun will come up as expected and keep the roads melted. I don't need any black ice crossing my path. It's bad luck so they say.

Going to try and get to sleep early so I'll be somewhat alert while I drive. I'd hate to sleep too much and miss the scenery.

I will reach out when I can to those that warrant a reaching. You know who you are. If you don't, you will, once the reaching out has commenced.

I'll try and be thorough so I don't insult anyone by leaving them out of all the reaching out I'll be doing. But if for some reason you would prefer that I refrain from any sort of reaching in your direction... I probably wasn't going to anyhow so Nyaah!

Everyone else have a great weekend!

Going to spend a week or so at... the Bondo Condo®. The plan is...

I'll leave here on Saturday, April 6th and head south. I should arrive the next day (which according to my calculations, could be as soon as Sunday) in sunny Florida... sans long underwear and jackets/sweaters/shirts with sleeves. Not that I've worn shirts with sleeves more than once this entire winter. But I digress.

I'll be making contact as I can with both of you when I get into town and get settled (read, toss my bag in the house and put my flip-flops on)

I'm very much looking forward to seeing all...er, both of you when I get down there, as well as the rest of you that don't read this.

See you in a week and a half!

Sometimes things happen that just make you smile out loud. Today I smiled out loud. ;-)

I drank way to much coffee tonight and now I can't sleep. So I'm typing something here. I've been meaning to type something here for weeks now, but just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe I didn't have anything worthy of saying that would be of any interest to the 3 people other than myself that have ever even been here. And as I type here, I'm not altogether sure I have anything worth saying right now. But here I type.

I think I'll add a new paragraph here to make it seem longer. That's always good when you want to stretch the page a bit.

Here's something... Go see We Were Soldiers. Unless of course you don't really like Mel Gibson, or war movies. It's a very well made and gripping movie. I give it 2 thumbs up. If I had more thumbs, I'd give it more thumbs up.

Hey, another paragraph break... I am on a roll!

Sometimes it just flows, you know what I'm saying?

Me either.

But the more I type the more it looks like I've actually said something. Maybe I've said too much. I can't be sure yet.

I'll have to wait and see when I reload the page.

Should have had decaf.

Say goodnight Mike.

(I just did, but you couldn't hear me)

The sea grew rough, the sky grew dark and the boat sailed on and on and on and on... But Puffnstuff was watchi... Oh sorry. Flashback. Anyhow.

I decided that I better turn around because it was only getting worse. That was my next mistake. I slid through an intersection and ended up stopped on the side of the road and decided that my trip was over for the time being. This was at about 1:00pm. I ended up sitting there on the side of the road watching in amazement as the one (seeming to me) idiot after another flew by me in what had to be the biggest blizzard in history. At least my history. (you'll remember I'm from Florida, so I've never actually seen a blizzard first hand) I could only see them for a short time as they passed me so I know it wasn't any easier for them to see ANYTHING let alone me as they came over the hill. I was in a bad spot and afraid to move and no help in sight.

After sitting there wondering if I would ever see home again and praying that nobody would accidentally move to the right a bit and fill up the back of my car with the front of theirs. I had less than a half a pack of smokes, and 1/8th of a tank of gas. I did have sunglasses too, but I wasn't wearing them at the time.

Finally, after 2 and a half hours, a cop came by and checked on me and called a tow-truck. Oh great, here comes a $150.00 going in the wrong direction. But as it turned out the tow-truck driver told me that the "blizzard" was letting up and the road cleared up to a safe enough degree not far from where I was. So I reluctantly followed him at a snails pace down the road for about a mile and low and behold it was no worse than driving in a thunderstorm in Florida. I was saved!

Anyhow, I'm getting drunk right now in celebration of my surviving the "Blizzard of 01/21/02". I just thought I'd share that with my web server. Nobody else ever reads this. :-)

See you after the hangover.

I hope that before this weekend is over, I'll like myself a lot more and figure out where I'm going next.

Once it's done, this space will be used regularly to post little bits of info about myself, or those that I know so that the rest of the world can come here and find out wtf is up. Say for example that I wake up one day and find that the big toe on my right foot is sore. I'll let you all know about that right here. It will be fun I promise.

So, for now you can poke around and see everything that's not there yet. And maybe one day soon it will be.

Adios Burritos for now.

MTBondo

For anyone that isn't aware, I have relocated to western New York after 30+ years of living in sunny Florida. The Tampa Bay area to be more accurate and without being specific. After all those years of sweating and living on flat ground I thought it might be a positive change to move where the seasons change and there are hills and mountains... and snow.

Oh my god, the snow. Now some of you might actually enjoy it. And to you, I have only one question.

What is wrong with you? Haven't you ever lived without it?

OK, that's actually two questions.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

First of all. I'm used to living in a place that has just about anything you could want within minutes in ANY direction. Be it fast food, a mall, the movies or whatever. It's right there. The biggest dilema is which direction to go when you want something. 3 minutes to Taco Bell if I go west. Four minutes to Taco Bell if I go east, and three and a half minutes if I go north or south. Life was tough.

Don't get me wrong, there are some drawbacks to living in such a populated area. The biggest being the other people (you don't know) around you. Generally speaking, people are stupid. And stupid people do stupid things. I'm not going to get off on a "stupid people" rant right now. I don't have that kind of time. My main point being that when you live in a densely populated area, the odds are that sooner or later, you're going to have some kind of encounter with someone stupid, doing something stupid, that for no other reason than bad timing, causes you some kind of grief. And it's usually in a car on a busy road where people can be hurt or seriously killed. Not much attraction there for sure. But you get used to it and it somehow doesn't seem all that bad. Really it doesn't. Those of you that live in bigger cities will probably agree.

So, after visiting western New York several times over a year or so, and seeing that you don't necessarily "need" to put up with all the stupid people, doing their stupid things right in front of you. And being laid off from my job with Net Connect after 6 years there seemed to be nothing holding me in Florida. I packed up the camaro and moved to Nunda (pronounced none-day), New York. The grass just HAS to be greener on the other side of the fence doesn't it? No more traffic jams, polution, crowded stores, high crime rates, neighbors on the other side of the livingroom wall complaining about the loud music, etc. etc. etc..

What could be better than living in a place that has none of those things. Where you can drive for hours and only see a handfull of cars and the worst traffic jam is 4 cars at the only stoplight (4-way) for miles and trying to decide who goes first. Where the only polution to speak of is getting stuck behind a truck full of cow manuer... maneur... manure... cow shit coming up the hill. That's an experience. Where to find a crowded store, you have to drive for an hour to the nearest mall at Christmas time. Where you can count the murders or other serious crimes over a ten year period on one hand. Where you would have a hard time hitting your nearest neighbor with a sniper rifle (at least where I live), so loud music might bother the deer running across the road, but not much else. Life in the slow lane is a welcome change from what I'm used to I will say.

It's paradise... for about 2 weeks. Then the reality of it sets in the first time you get a craving for a Wendy's double cheeesburger with everything on it and it's a 30 minute drive... ONE WAY! Is any hamburger really worth an hour drive? Me thinks not! So you don't feel like driving that far and decide to order a pizza and have it delivered... Not a chance in hell! It's easier to open your own Pizza Hut than have ANYTHING delivered where I live. I'm pretty sure that even the local ambulance doesn't make house calls unless you're dead.

I suppose those might seem like minor inconveniences to some. And I will admit that during the spring/summer/fall months you could somehow (barely) live with it. The long drives are nice and scenic. Rolling hills and lots of stuff to look at if you're used to everything being flat and boring. But then along comes Old Man Winter. And he brings snow up here. Which turns that 30 minute drive to Wendy's into a chance to see just how far your car and slide before ending up in a ditch... or worse. I suppose that risk can be lessened if you own a 4-wheel drive vehicle, or at least a car with snow tires and front wheel drive. I don't. I have a 98 camaro with rear wheel drive and tires made for driving on dry/flat cement roads. Giving it even a little gas can be a frightening experience when the rear end of the car starts to come around to become the front end of the car. Holy Christ is that fun... NOT! Unless you for some reason enjoy the thrill of spinning uncontrolably in a 5,000 pound vehicle where going of the road in some cases can mean plunging downward farther than any car should ever plunge downward while occupied by human beings. Not to mention the fact that they put salt on the roads up here which will turn your nice car into a rusty POS in notime.

I will admit that before the first snow came I was rather looking forward to it. I thought about all the fun stuff you could do in it. Skiing, snow boarding, snowball fights, making snowmen. But the truth of it is, unless you're used to the cold that also comes with it, you don't necessarily want to be out doing any of those things. After a couple of days, that pretty white snow starts to mix with all the dirt (did I mention that they have an enormous amount of dirt up here?) and sand and salt and turns to a slushy mess that gets all over your car, your feet which gets it inside your car and house and anywhere else your feet might go. It quickly becomes a royal pain in the butt and serves no good purpose beyond the "Oooh, isn't that pretty" factor. For me it's more of an "Oooh, isn't this stuff ever going to melt so that I can leave the house without risking my life" kind of thing. Driving to the store downtown for anything is a major ordeal for me. Having to all of a sudden rely on someone else to take me to get some smokes is a crippling feeling. All at once I feel like I'm 15 again without my own transportation. Curse this frozen H2O!

If I sound like nothing more than a whining crybaby to you, that's fine. I can hear all you wannabe Sam Kinison's out there screaming, "MOVE TO WHERE THE FOOD IS!" loud and clear. I know I have nobody to blame for my current situation but myself. Did I know it was coming? Yes I did. I knew exactly what was coming. And I made the choice freely. I guess I just wasn't prepared for the reality of it all. And I know that one day, the snow will be gone, and I will no longer dread the thought of having to drive again. But until that day comes, I'll quietly grumble to myself and tough it out. Who knows, I may even get used to it. I suppose you can get used to anything if you have to. I am trying, really I am.

But when the snow is finally gone, and the weather warms up, I'll get hungry, and a Wendy's double cheeseburger with everything on it is still 30 minutes away.

Be back in an hour.

MTBondo