hines8695

Old friends, and lifelong lessons

2006-06-11T22:04:00.000-04:00

Well, whatdayaknow!!

Found out one of my childhood friends is still in the area. I had lost contact with her for several years. Knew her brother, too, and met him a few years ago at a chance encounter at a pizza shop. But this is totally different.

Quick story – so I was searching on one of those singles websites – you know, one of the ones that are only useful if you are willing to shell out about $20 per month to get together with total strangers. Me being skeptical of all that pertains to weakening my wallet, I go with the freebie versions – you can search but can’t contact anyone.

So I’m sitting there searching in general when I come across a photo of a cutie that I know looked really familiar. I mean REALLY familiar. I open up her profile and took an even closer look. After pondering a few minutes to dig into the old memory bank (short term memory loss and all, I still have a few noodles in the cranium), I had an epiphany about who it could have been. Could it actually have been Melanie?? An old long lost neighbor who I grew up with from my 6th birthday until after I graduated high school, and lived on the same street and all?

Was it the same girl who I talk about when I explain to people about when I really learned about how not to strike a woman in anger, no matter what? The same girl from the pitchfork story?

Oh, really quick on this one. When I was about 8-10 years old (not sure when exactly), I learned a good lesson from my old man. See, I used to live caddy-corner across the street from this family – girl a year younger than me, and her brother who was about 5-6 years younger than me. Of course growing up at that time (pre-puberty), you didn’t know about the birds and bees, or have any of those crazy sexual impulses that you get when you get older. Instead, girls are like boys, especially those tomboy ones that challenge you all the time. Anyways, me and this girl (Melanie) used to get into it with one another all the time. We used to drive each other nuts – “Well you’re not allowed in my yard either”, blah blah blah.

One day, we played the same stupid childish game against each other, and I was not allowed in her yard. Well, me being the goofball I was back them (still am), I decided that she couldn’t kick me out, and I had to jump in and out of her yard, right at the edge so I was not driving her too nuts. Well, eventually I did. All of the sudden she came running at me with a pitchfork. Looking around to defend myself, I saw a broom laying right beside me. I picked it up and tossed it in her direction to stave off what I thought would be an impaling at the hands of a crazy younger girl. To my amazement (I could not have tossed it any better if I had 10000 more chances), the end of the broom handle struck her about 2-3 inches below her eye!! I was too lucky, otherwise she’d be one-eyed today. Anyways, she ran inside, hands on her eye, screaming bloody murder. I knew what this would come to, so I started walking across the street back to my house. I knew Melanie was going inside her house to tell on me, so I figured I’d go home and maybe even get the phone off the hook so her parents could not tell mine about what happened. Anyways, it was too late for me – by the time I hit my yard, my dad had already come to the front door and started yelling at me in anger to come inside. I went in and he told me about the phone call he had received from her mother. Long story short, I got the worst (and only, I might add) beating that I ever had from my parents. I remember it vividly, because my dad said afterwards… “Never, no matter what they do to you, never, ever hit a girl, I don’t care what they do!!”. Funny that words of wisdom that you learn when you are a kid you hang on to for the rest of your life!!

Until this day, I have never taken up my hands against a girl in anger. I’ve been punched in the face myself by an ex-girlfriend (thanks, Cheryl), and I just ended up laughing at her. Funny, because I had a few drinks in me at the time, so I didn’t feel it then, but I felt it the next morning. Either way, I could have hit her back, but I didn’t. That old lesson from Dad stayed in my memory, probably subconsciously.

Now, here I am, going on 31, looking online on one of those singles sites, and I come across Melanie’s profile. Funny how small a world it can be sometimes. Now I got in touch with her, and hopefully we can get together soon. She has a little girl, and so do I. Maybe we get the girls together, catch-up a little bit, and then keep in touch from there?

Do I think maybe we should explore being more than friends? Not sure on that one, it might be a little weird. Guess it depends on if sparks fly on our meeting. Either way, I want to keep in touch with her for a long, long time.

Since that day when we were kids, I still have referred to that to many of my friends, my friends kids, my child, and whoever will listen. She has had a big impact on my life, and yet she doesn’t even know it.

What a world this is??!!!

Roger Clemens

2006-05-30T20:06:00.000-04:00

So I hear today that Clemens will sign again with the Astros for about what is reported to be $3.5MM per MONTH.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2463566

Okay, let's do the math, shall we?

$3,500,000 per month
divided by 5 starts per month (one every 5 days) = $700,000 per start
divided by (maybe) 100 pitches per start = $7,000 per PITCH

Okay, got that? Now figure an average at bat is about 8-10 pitches (conservatively, right?). This means that for one batter, Clemens is getting about $70,000 per batter that he faces.

Let that sink in a little bit...

For those of you that don't make $70K per year, this means that Clemens makes more for one batter than you make in a year. Sure, he's gonna pay more taxes, but I'd rather be in his shoes than yours and mine. That's a no-brainer.

Keep in mind that this does not include the little "perks" of the job, such as flying home every other day in a private jet so he can see his kids grow up. Does not include the 5-star restaurants that this guy eats at on a daily basis (probably does not even have to pay for them, either - it is most likely comp'd). So every penny that this guy gets goes straight into his bank account.

Not to be critical, but something is terribly wrong with this scenario. I don't know about you, but if I had my life to live over again, I'd screw middle school, screw high school, screw college, screw the laws about taking "performance enhancing drugs", and screw everyone in my way so that I could be able to face 1 batter in 1 game and earn more than 3/4 of the people of this world makes (per annum) over the span of about 15 minutes tops.

Then again, things could be worse - he could have gone to the Yankees!!

Penguins

2006-05-28T14:25:00.000-04:00

In case you've lived in a cave, there is a big controversy going on in Western PA regarding a new arena for the City of Pittsburgh, in conjunction with the issuance of a slots licence for Allegheny County.

I'm sick of watching the greasy politicians of the Commonwealth of PA (and especially Allegheny County politicians) sit back and do nothing to prevent the Pens from leaving Pittsburgh. Mellon Arena has been around since 1960. I went to only 1 game this year because it is such and old, decrepid, outdated venue that I could not really enjoy the game. I've been to concerts at this venue and found that the sound quality sucks! Maybe, just maybe that is why there are not very many really "good" concerts that come to Pittsburgh during the colder months?! Get a grip, western PA, if the Pens leave and we keep the old Mellon Arena, we'll be passed up on so many national attractions (concerts, conventions, NCAA Tourneys, etc.) that we'll become a 2nd or 3rd class city. We'll be surpassed by Cleveland (they have the Rock-n-Roll HOF, and are near the NFL HOF). How any native Burgher can sit back and watch Cleveland pass us by without wanting to strangle yourself with your terrible towel is crazy!!

So what can we do? Write to your state legislators, local officials, anyone you can think of to voice your displeasure about what is going to happen to our city without a new arena!

Here is the Slots for Mario link. Use it to make your voices heard loud and clear!
http://www.slotsformario.com/main.asp?Page=80

Deadwood?

2006-05-28T13:42:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I'm also a big fan of Deadwood. Found out this week that HBO might cancel the show after the 3rd season that starts on 6/11/06. Big mistake, HBO. This show has seemed to revive a new view of what the Wild West was all about!

See other posts...
http://www.realdeadwoodpodcast.com/

http://promos.podshow.com/?p=844

Write to HBO and tell them that they need to find a way to keep this show on the air!!
http://www.hbo.com/apps/submitinfo/contactus/submit.do?title=Deadwood&questiontype=HBOdeadwood