Been a bit of a downer with another memorial mass today. It was a beautiful service for a good guy at the UU Church on Elmwood. He had a broad enough reach that the place was literally full to overflowing. I found myself standing on the top step of the choir loft to be inside. He was a pretty good friend who had a great appetite for life and knew just the right wine for the occasion. His sons talked a little and I have tremendous admiration for both young men. They were moving, funny, and very poised in front of what might have been a little over 800 people. I don't know if I could do the same. It was truly a worthy sendoff for a true man of the people. Every service should end with "Into the Mystic." You can let go and be hopeful at the same time, no mean trick that.

Helped a good friend move on Saturday and I'm still paying for it (my rationalization for skipping yoga today). A countless series of laps up and down her three stories, culminated in my lugging up a sideboard. Said sideboard spanked a relief map of what vaguely looks like a relief map of Michigan into my left shoulder. Woke up this morning feeling a little beat up. Walk, snap, crackle, walk, fuck!

Missed the hoo-ha at the 24 to be a good guy. I wanted to be there, but I got dolled up as a zombie to escort my young son and a few cohorts up and down Anderson and Lexington. A nice houseparty followed, complete with a firedancer. That was pretty awesome. Met up with some old friends and staggered home around 12:30 where the Zombie makeup was looking a little too permanent. Don't worry, picture to follow.

Hope everybody had a great one, I'll see you for new year's if not before.

Kind of puts this electoral nightmare in perspective a little bit

As I am sure, the Roswell peeps probably know, Roswell Park does a memorial service for patients who die during a six month period. With my father-in-law's passing back in February, his turn was tonight. My mom-in-law got the invitation a few weeks back and I think was torn a little bit. You want to go, but you don't want to go. I quietly wanted to go for my ex, my mom-in-law, bro, etc, but I had a feeling it would of the vague sort.

We went over together to the auditorium across from the main hospital building. I was a little taken aback by the numbers of people who turned out. Even more shaky was the amount of people in the deaths column. The service was non-demoninational and very-well intentioned. With the exception of a baby with the Krupe and one woman very much still grieving, it was fairly quiet. A children's choir sang quietly as pictures of the loved ones rolled by. It almost reminded me of that moment on the Oscars when they salute the passing of the dead movie stars. Will people applaud when Pop shows up?

Pretty soon, there he was, big as life. A good family friend placed a photo that I worked on for the original memorial service. My Pop was a denture wearer so for his program, I gave him a full set of teeth. Seeing him blown up to fill an auditorium movie screen made me strangely appreciate my digital handiwork while getting teary eyed at the same time. I didn't hear much of anything till the end of the service when we were directed to head out for a "remembrance gift" and refreshments. Nobody felt like crowding in for refreshments.

Afterwords, I hung out at the house with my younger two while their mom took her mom home and retrieved our eldest from a babysitting assignment. It was nice and centering. Homework was done, prepwork for tomorrow was all set and Edward Scissorhands was on the DVD. After skating the highs of finding costume parts, the lows of a misbegotten Zoo event, the high/low of my final Bell's Palsy check-up, the high of getting a raise, and the real low of what I guess was some left over grief, I looking forward to payday and free and easy weekend.

Hoping to get to the party......

More of that socialist propaganda, eh

With some video being the order of the day, I thought I'd toss a little more gas on the 25,000 journal climb with this little number. It's a compilation of the couch gags from the beginning of the show. With 20 years, that's a lot of couches. Enjoy

It's some trying times. I've been of the opinion for sometime that I am sort of without a demographic to call my own at my workplace. There exists a lot of vigilant Neo-cons republicans at my office. That in and of itself is no big whoop. I don't mind diversity of opinion. That is a good thing. Lately the cadre at lunchtime has been complaining every god damn day about how Palin is taken out of context, how the media is in the tank for Obama, factual inaccurate quotings of both McCain and Obama. It's making my head hurt and I'd really like it to stop.

I actual yelled at my boss to stop already. The turning point was her lauding Palin for being an advocate for special needs kids. The only thing Palin has done for special needs kids so far is to have one, and then politicize it. I grew up in a house with two special needs brothers and after 40 years of case reviews, autisms, down's, group homes, developmental centers, sheltered workshops, schizophrenia, oxygen tanks on the bedroom wall, suiing NY State to keep a school open, I heartily submit it is a wonder the Governor can sit down given all the talking out of her ass that she's done. I sympathize with the baby for sure, if for no other reason, his unfortunate moniker, but as the ever thoughtful (e:james) reminded me, her position made her advocate for the cause, largely because she said she'd be a voice.

Now I chuckle like the next guy at her delusion that the word also is a verb, but after watching her greet these poor folks who think they have somebody who will give a rats ass about what their child is facing made me mad. At six months in, I don't believe you can possible have an understanding as to what lies ahead with kids in those conditions. Every once in awhile, fortune does smile. I remember a "Dr. Bernie" who basically went back to school to learn how to manage my younger brother's illnesses. I'm sure her position as governor or future contestant on Dancing with the Stars will ensure that the various twists and turns that Downs can take will be administered to for her boy. And that is great. That is how it should be, for everybody and it is not.

Rare is the politico who actually genuinely gives a crap. Bill Hoyt was the last one in this area. He led the charge keep the Campus school at Buff State open and "walked the walk" to keep the West Seneca Developmental Center open. Two things that were desperately needed by a large number of families including mine. And before any GOP guys start slapping me around, this isn't a diatribe against one party or for the other. This is me lamenting the falsity of what the campaigns are turning into. Special needs kids don't need to be reduced to a talking point, especially by somebody who just took the first step and on very long road.

Government does have the power to not only give hope, but actually deliver. I don't care about Ayers, shopping sprees, that one, alaskan successionists, middle names, train rides to Delaware, different flavors of tax plans, Joe the plumber, who voted with who on what and so much more when none of that matters. Nothing on the stump is going to come to pass anyway. As I sit and listen to the giant sucking sound of my 401K turning into a 201, that notion of Palin suddenly being a champion to the special needs kid galled me. Don't tell people you're going to be advocate. Advocate, that's how it gets done.

Mike the marketer

One of my favorite holiday traditions. It may have lost a step from its early years, but is still miles ahead of most sitcoms. I know where I'll be on Nov 2.

Most you guys probably didn't get much use out of Memorial Auditorium in its heyday. It was quite the dump, but it was our dump. This blog came though the email and looking at the pictures was a little bittersweet. .

The old hot box was short on comfort, but had some amazing sightlines for concerts. It was good to move forward but the Aud was the place where I first saw the Who, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Bob Seger, Eric Clapton (in lieu of my high school prom), REM, as well as a slew of Sabres games and, watch as I show my age, a few Buffalo Braves games.

The city as usual screwed up. This is a venue that hosted everything from Elvis Presley to Led Zeppelin and while esthetically underwhelming, held a lot of firsts for people. I know the money was never there thanks to this region's prediliction for "suing first, asking questions later," but it would have been cool to find a mixed use for the spot similar to what happened to Montreal's old Forum. It wasn't exactly the Taj Mahal either, but it got new life being chopped up for retail and entertainment and the old center (excuse me) centre ice spot got preserved. It's a crazy notion, incorporating one's history into one's future, but Montreal all showed it can work.

Here, we have another asbestos farm.

I'm sitting here on a lovely sunny afternoon (cue the Kinks record) doing homework. Actually, I'm helping number one son learn to juggle his workload and finish off some of my own. And that is pretty okay.

I spent yesterday afternoon and evening outside at the Zoo with day 2 out of 4 on our Hayride event. Nothing like being out in the cold on concrete for a few hours to make you feel your age (or somebody considerably older). Came home to a cold beer really tired. Hung in there to watch Saturday Night Live kiss Sarah Palin's pentacostelist butt and faded to sleep.

Sprint sent me a free ring tone and I paid it no mind till it worked this morning. The Stock Exchange bell rang from my phone with a text from my eldest daughter asking for a ride home from an overnight. She needed picked up from the Riverside Area at 8:30. I rubbed my groggy eyes 8:07. Aargh!! Stood up to realize just how sore I was from Zoo duty. Made it to Riverside by 8:29. This guy's good. Deposited her at her post at the Zoo and was back in front of the coffee maker by 9. Still, a helluva way to start. Ensuring my descent to hell, I skipped church to do laundry and rest a little. Something renewing about an omelet and a Hogan's Heroes rerun in its place.

Nice to know I can still pass fifth grade math and social studies.