The Briar Patch

So I think this is my last entry for the year of 2023 that won't be in the series I have started. All it will take is a quick read and some of this was started a month ago, or more. I am going to concentrate on those other blogs and maybe be done them by the end of the year, sorry if some of this is really not relevant anymore! 337 years... That's at least how long my family has been in North America. Or at least the the part of my family whose surname I still use. The other part of me, well we have been in Canada forever, Ojibway. Anyways what I got from doing family tree research was it would have been my great (X9) grandfather that came here way back in 1686, Jebus. I found out for a few generations we were in Philly and then moved to New Jersey... Thank god we moved outta there. Then into Ontario, again thank god we moved to Alberta some time between 1896 and 1910. A lot of Jacobs, Lewis' and Daniels in the tree. The hard thing to tell is are they Irish or British they ...

 You ever watch Walk the Line? I feel like Johnny Cash in Folsom when he stares at the water then talks to the prisoners. See like Johnny I felt I had "seen some things" I have done some stupid shit. Trying to fight bouncers, hanging with shady would be drug dealers, having guys try to sell me illegal guns, my walk home from work down a hooker stroll. That made for some crazy conversations or when they found a body on fire in my dumpster, those are a few choice things that made me feel like I had "Seen Things". Then yesterday I found out my cousin died and it was a kick from reality. I am a pretty average guy, not someone who had seen some things. See I wrote about him in earlier blogs. I called him Bad News cousin if you read them. When I heard he passed though I looked into him a bit more. A simple google search told me what I already knew, he did 10 years for a murder here in Edmonton, after that he was charged in an operation to curb violence and drugs in Calgar...

I am getting old, or at least my brothers are. I left home in 2000, and my brothers would have been 4 and 5. That is how I remember them, in my mind they have seemed stuck there. Yes I watched them grow up and they became teenage boys. They did all the stuff associated with that, dick, fart and gay jokes..... One went to school, the other went to work. And at some point along the way they became men. Or at least young adult males. On a long drive to Saskatchewan with my littlest brother (lil beast if you read older blogs) we sat and chatted about a million things. History, politics, food, health, religion. I have always considered myself smart, fairly knowledgeable but when my brother started speaking I was amazed. He brought up shit I had never heard of. He wasn’t arrogant or combative just made good cases for his ideas. (Something you don’t see on twitter…) I knew he wasn’t that little boy I remembered, the teenage boy addicted to video games and there was more than just a kid who ...

Woke up my first day married, in a king sized bed in Mexico. Not a bad way to start the day. Room service knocked shortly after that. They serve breakfast in bed, the day after a wedding. It is a nice gesture, but there isn't much to it. Fresh fruit and some pastries. I had a couple bites and we were on our way to the buffet.Well actually I had to walk to the Frenchmans room to get my toothbrush, pit stick and all that kind of stuff because I got ready in his room the day before. Amazing let me in and gave it to me. But no one else was moving, not even the kids who were usually up and running by now! For the first time we weren't up early, but no one else was either. Well that's not quite true, we ran into my wife's cousin Show and ate with her. People trickled in and we did meet up with in-laws and a few others. Also Biggs girlfriend had just finished eating by herself. We invited her to eat or sit but I think she wanted to see how he was doing. I guess my brother was ...

It has been a rough month and a half. It is supposed to be a super fun month as I am finishing up everything to go to Mexico for two weeks to get married. I have been taking two step lessons, since I guess I dance like a drunk in a bar (To be fair that's how I learnt) In the last 6 weekends I have been on the road 4. For funerals for both my grandmothers. How fucked up is that? Both my grandmothers have passed in the last 3 weeks. Both were fairly sudden and it sucks. If you have read my autobiography blogs here, you would know I was very close with my maternal grandma. Below are some memories I have of her. I wrote them to say at her funeral. I didn't get half of them out. It was way to hard. I never knew how hard it would be to say them. So I guess for the dozen followers I have below are a few of my favorite memories of one of my grandmothers.(Oh as a side note a few people in this are named same as in my biography blogs. If you actually are interested you will have to go b...

Been awhile since I just blogged about random shit. A ton has gone on in my life. I got married, I finished a first draft of my book. Work picked up. My grandmother sadly got worse. So ya even though I should be doing something useful in my chance to write this AM, I think I will chill and ramble. I guess if I am rambling about writing I am kinda bummed that Fansideseats.com hasn't been putting new shit up for awhile. I was enjoying writing stuff for the and I think there was actually more views of my work so that was good. But not writing there gave me more time to work on my fantasy novel. Which I finished YA! But editing sucks, it is making me rethink the whole writing process. Like I just pour words onto a page and then get back to it months later. Welp half the time I am not sure what I meant and then my writing was so unedited that I, the writer can't get what I was going for. SO I think I need to work on making sure my first drafts are better. Total random thought but ...

Second last old rant.... Circa 2010. No editing done.... Parts of it don't make much sense to me either lol...... I am saddened by the death of common courtesy. He was mostly a good friend, he never asked for much yet often he made a shitty day just slightly better. That one small act, known simply as common courtesy brought a small token of happiness to millions and I believe he has been killed. Last weekend we went back to my home town, driving through the parking lot of the mall a fellow waved to me... (See fellow pleasant way to say some dude I dunno, maybe the changing of common words has helped speeding the death), anyhow. My girlfriend asks who was that? I dunno just a friendly person, has a wave become that foreign of a concept? Door holding, is that gone also? I have noticed people are either really happy or confused when you hold the door for them, I find that sad. My dad would slap us upside the head is we didn’t hold the door for people. I personally blame the guidos...

Its all over, another Xmas has come and gone. Did you get what you want? Welp it doesn't matter cause really you could be out buying in on these amazing boxing day sales right now! As I gotten older and maybe wiser I started to realize that last sentences don't matter. I mean actually I knew that a long while back but let me get down to Xmas and what is really about..... Do you remember what you got last Christmas or the one before that?? Presents are for kids. I mean yes it is a big deal then. I remember just waiting to open my Santa present. But even as a kid something better was always coming. My cousins! We would go over or they would come over and it was soooo much fun. I think that was maybe when I started to there was more to Xmas. Then I moved away, it solidified it. Coming home it didn't freaking matter what was under that tree. It meant 2 things. Time off! So that was super awesome. But more than that it meant I got to see family. My parents, grandparents and ...

                                              The New House                                         Late summer 2009ish I think is about where we can jump in. I was moving for the 12th time in the nine years since I left home. Moving was starting to be something I detested! But this one, this was the best one. Everyone showed up, on time and sober. KT and I went to get a trailer to move our big stuff, that took maybe half an hour but by the time we we were there was enough help almost everything else was loaded. For the first and maybe only time ever we were done by noon. And the fun began. I think we had bought a 24 of beer and burgers to bbq for lunch. That flew by,  we now lived behind a liquor store. So we bought a bottle of Wisers this time and some more beer (B...