CALL IN THE BIG GUNS.....

Today I went out to a co-workers house to fire his Barrett .50 Caliber Rifle. I was at work last week talking with some folks about guns and I started talking about this one, because my little brother is absolutely in love with this gun. The M99 Big Shot is not your average rifle. If you are about to climb to the top of a tower at your local university, or you're contemplating becoming a sniper for hire, then yeah....this may be your gun. Short of that, this isn't your typical stalk Bambi in the woods sorta equipment. If size matters, then Ronnie Barrett quite definitely left no room for competition when it comes to this rifle.

First off, the bullet is about at long at your hand. Someone else loaded the gun for me and got it all ready to go. I braced myself behind it for a good long time as I attempted to find anything, anything at all, in the sight. I moved forward and backward until I did finally get a small bead of an image floating around in the scope like a bubble in a level. I don't think that's how it's supposed to go, and since I had my fingers wrapped around an assault weapon whose shot could travel further I was willing to go looking for it, I just aimed low and hoped for the best.

Fear and reason suggested that I step away, but something else took over in me and I squeezed ever so lightly at the trigger. I had watched someone else fire the gun and one thing you notice is that the bullet strikes the target in the same instant that you fire it. It is going fast =). Although my shot posed no danger to the target, we'll assume it otherwise occurred in equal fashion. Oddly,I was aware of everything in that second. As the double baffle muzzle brake was redirecting high-velocity gas back across my face,and the thick rubber recoil pad became one with my body, I had an epiphany. The thought didn't even last the time that it takes me to say it now....it just sorta occurred, but I thought "This must be what it feels like just before you explode". And then for what seemed eternity, I thought maybe I had exploded. I stood up, backed away from the rifle, and fell on my ass.....I was overwhelmed with emotion. I was excited that I was alive, excited that I had done something I feared, excited about an experience that made my mind move so quickly that time itself seemed to slow down....then I started to think about how you can rattle your head so hard that your brain becomes detached and I knew I was back in the moment.....I was good.

Tiger's Final Flight....

Okay, so the game sucked...we got our asses totally kicked and I don't really feel like talking about it, but the one bright spot was being there to see Tiger fly one last time. They started her lower than usual, and she didn't really do the whole round and round thing, but then she's been through a lot with the whole skin cancer thing. She was the bird when I was in school at Auburn and it was awsome just to see her honored. On November 11th, 2006, War Eagle VI was officially retired in a pregame ceremony before the Georgia game. During halftime her predecessor, Nova, was named War Eagle VII. In her final game as War Eagle VI, Auburn defeated Arkansas State 27-0, finalizing the team's record under War Eagle VI at 174-69-4. She saw two undefeated Auburn seasons, four SEC titles, and six SEC Western Division crowns.


Tiger came to Auburn from the Tennessee Valley Authority Raptor Rehabilitation Facility in Land-Between-The-Lakes, Kentucky. Trainers made the trip to the facility to receive Auburn's new mascot. Funds for this trip were made through the donation of Thomas Chamberlain, an Auburn alumnus. The bird originally came from St. Louis, Missouri, where she was seized by Federal agents as part of an illegal breeding operation and brought to Kentucky. Like War Eagle V, she is under the stewardship of the U.S. Government under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act and is on loan to the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine. She arrived in Auburn on October 8, 1986 at an age of six years old. Like the two eagles before her, she was cared for by the brothers of Alpha Phi Omega until 2000 when she was turned over to the Southeastern Raptor Rehabilitation Center. Currently, the Southeastern Raptor Rehabilitaion Center uses three birds, Spirit, a bald eagle, Nova a golden eagle and Tiger.
Nova, Auburn's six year old Golden Eagle, was officially named War Eagle VII on November 11, 2006. He was born in the Montogomery Zoo in 1999 and moved to Auburn at only six months of age. Prior to being named War Eagle VII, Nova had already participated in pre-game flights and convervation exhibits throughout the southeast.
WAR DAMN EAGLE!!!!

Farewell to Tiger....

I had this footage of Tiger from the Olympics in Utah. It's from before I got my first digital recorder for the TV so it was dubbed from VHS to DVD, transformed to .AVI and ultimately uploaded to youtube where I am sure it will sit on servers for generations to come. Today is Tiger's last flight and I just wanted to pay my respects.


Since everyone always asks why we do "the whole War Eagle thing", I offer the following....
The story of the first War Eagle dates back to the Civil War. According to the legend, a soldier from Alabama was the sole Confederate survivor of a bloody battle. Stumbling across the battlefield, he came across a wounded young eagle. The bird was named Anvre, and was cared for and nursed back to health by the soldier. Several years later the soldier, a former Auburn student, returned to college as a faculty member, bringing the bird with him. For years both were a familiar sight on campus and at events. On the day of Auburn's first football game in 1892 against the Univeristy of Georgia, the aged eagle broke away from his master during the game and began to circle the field, exciting the fans. But at the end of the game, with Auburn victorious, the eagle fell to the ground and died.

C'est Peut-être...Le Votre...

I have finally completed the DVD/thank you notes to sent out to the guests of our wedding (if you are getting one, expect it soon) and it occured to me that I totally failed to blog about the honeymoon....which was really fun. We spent the week in Vermont where we were able to have a civil union performed right in the front room of the bed and breakfast. Now we are legally spouses in something like three states. It's a start.

We did a lot of cool things while on vacation, we went to a maple syrup makin' place, we tasted New England wines, we watched glass being blown, and we ate Ben and Jerry's almost everyday (they encourage that at the factory).

Vermont reminded me a lot of when we go to Gatlinburg, only better and with more old people. We were kidding, only not really, that we were the youngest old married couple in Vermont. We just happened to be there for the peak weekend of fail foilage which is something to see if you ever get the chance. Since Canada was only a stones throw away, we also decided to drive into Quebec and look for british candies that you can't get here in the lower 48. French speaking Canada was definately a challenge I didn't see coming. There were large traffic warnings that we couldn't read, I could never figure out how many kilometers I should be going, and when we stopped in Granby for beer and a Walmart, NO ONE could tell us where we were or how to get home. It was exciting. I saw this one road sign about four times, and I don't speak French so I don't know what it means, but I am pretty sure it is telling you to look out for dead baby hookers in the road.....

We were careful not to hit any..... We also decided that eating in a non-English speaking country might be fun since we wouldn't be able to read the menu or talk to the waiter, so we gave that a whirl. Let me go ahead and tell you that this is a damn fine plan if you want to end up eatting duck. Luckily it would seem that BEER translates into every language.

Wedding pictures....

A preview of the DVD I am working on for the guests =)

I used to keep this picture of Laura from when she was a bridesmaid in her cousin's wedding because I just thought it was the most beautiful she had ever looked to me.  

We are older now, so I just figured that was it...that was our beautiful youth....now we can get old.  But I have to tell you....when I saw her on our wedding day....WOW....I just can't ever remember her looking more beautiful than that exact moment.........  I am so honored that she wanted to marry me.

You always hear people talk about how they saw their bride and it just took their breath away, and I was pretty sure, as you may be...that this was just some BS sweet thing to say.  I have to tell you though....I literally GASP when I saw her for the first time that day.  I think when you are in love with someone, it just changes you at a chemical level your body reacts to their presence.  Maybe just in small ways on a day to day basis, but then every now and then it is just HUGE and you are aware of it, and it is INTENSE.
So the honeymoon is over now..... I will have to tell the story of NORD once I get some of the pictures uploaded.  I hope to have some of the photographers pictures from the wedding soon also....this one was done with a hand held by one of our guests.

So I am proud to announce that I was finally able to pick up one of these ball and chains while visiting the fine state of Vermont, and we are having a great time!!!  I should have pictures to post when we get back, but I didn't want to leave you totally without anything so I offer these.....

 

We've driven past just about every bed and breakfast in Vermont, and some in Canada and I still think ours is the best.....

Dry Tongue and other tortures.......
I went to the dentist earlier this week. I have a tooth that was filled when I was a little kid that now has to have a crown, so I am in the chair and....well .... I don't open my mouth until I see Mr. Happy Nose.....so they hook you up on the laughing gas (which just makes me hear wierd noises BTW) and leave you in the chair for a while until you are good and floating and then they come in and start working and asking you questions.....THEY KNOW YOU CAN'T ANSWER CAUSE THEY HAVE THEIR HANDS IN YOUR MOUTH and they don't even, like, wait a reasonable time as if to imply that they expect that you might try to answer...they just babble at you!!!!! "Oh well I have to have a box fan to sleep personally...Do you ever sleep with a fan Shy? I even have my kids so that when we went to the grand canyon we had to go out to Wally world and buy a little fan for our hotel room....none of us can sleep without it...." And then I think they throw in some S(*# just to let you know that they know that you are F'ed!!!! SO I had a few minutes alone and I thought to whip out my cell phone and snap a shot to see just how guppied up I was (ah technology...). And when I looked at the picture, it was TOTALLY blurry and messed up looking....well I thought it was just me!!! I put the phone away and they come back in and start packing my mouth with gauze and crap...and I have this thing....like I TOTALLY freak if my tongue is dry...I don't even like to see someone else's tongue be dry...that's how bad it is...so I am just sitting there with this dry tongue and I think I would almost rather die than have to spend one more minute in this state....and the GAS....I mean...I was as close to a psychotic break as I have probably ever been....but somehow I made it, paid the serveral hundred dollars it cost me to play "Mr. Toads Wild Ride" and left. I really wanted to tell my buddy Brooke about my experience so I went back to get the picture off my camera phone...and it is still crazy looking!!! In fact, everything I take on my phone now looks like it is still on the nitrous!!!! WHOA........

[somebody save me?]

Anuci update.....
I dropped the drawing onto the lot and did some coloring to get a feel for how it might end up looking......

I haven't tackled possible landscaping options yet....

Anuci.......
Laura and I had a meeting with the architect that we hired to translate our sketches and snapshots into our next home (project name "Anuci") and we were pleased to pick up renderings of the exterior of the house. We are about 300 square feet bigger than we were shooting for, and we have some work to do on the curb side entrance, but I was very pleased with the water side drawings. Our master bedroom is on the main floor and attached is a screened in porch where we will have a sunken hot tub (a little pool actually for two girls that don't have enough land to have a big pool). The upstairs is completely under roof and consists of two more bedrooms, an office, and a small loft area that we hope to make into a sorta den for the two children we don't yet have. All weekend we have been daydreaming of what life will be like once we are living in this drawing we have been studying over. It's strange that this whole project started with the two of us just sketching out connecting boxes on a piece of college ruled paper.... In about 8 months we should have keys to that sketch and completely different fiscal outlook on life.............

PRIDE O'six.........
So for those that know and those that don't know...this weekend is Pride 2006 in Atlanta. I look forward to pride all year long. I can still remember when I was young...... you know, when you are young and gay and you don't know really any other gay people, you sorta question whether or not you are an okay person. I mean it's natural....if you look around and you don't see anyone else quite like you, you wonder if YOU is something really bad. But the thing about PRIDE is....and I have said this for years.....no matter how F'ed you may think you are...and you may really be going for totally F'ed.....there is someone out there that makes you look completely normal...and that person is going to be at pride, probably with her shirt off wearing nothing but virgin olive oil and electrical tape....alright, maybe that was just my experience, but anyway.... point is, PRIDE is a really good at leveling that weirdo playing field in your mind. Not only that, but it's like you get to imagine, and only for the weekend...what the world might be like if just about everyone else was gay.

Actually I sorta doubt straight people go around doin' high fives and honkin' the horn at each other "LOOK!!!!! WE"RE HERE.....WE'RE HETERO!!!! LET'S GET STICKERS FOR THE CAR!!!", but who knows what you breeders do when you get in a pack. Last year we were going back to the hotel after a long day at the park..........jammin to the indigo girls.......hum.......[dreamy music]....it was a little like this .........

......I never can stay on topic.....anyway, we were in the lift, Laura and I, and there was another woman there just sorta looking at the buttons, you know how you do....and Laura and I were talking and laughing and this woman out of no where just sorta stroked my face and kissed me.....hum....I sorta just remembered that.....okay so that was wierd and that's not really one of my favorite things about pride.....I don't know.......wait for the pictures maybe......

The whole point of the blog was to mention that I got my hair cut today for pride. I am very sensitive about having my hair grow out into anything even remotely like a Mullet. I have been driving my brother's truck all week and with the hairs in the back just getting a tad long...it was time to deal with it. And if you wear a mullet and love it, I'm not tryin to knock that okay...I can be business up top, party in the back too, I just don't like to play into all the stereotypes at the same time......and I wasn't taking off the thumb ring....

Getting through it all........

	We worked all weekend at Laura's mothers house.  We have been working over there almost every single weekend since        she died last Sept, but just recently the house was sold so we have had to kick it in overdrive these past couple of weekends.        That has meant MOVING ITEMS QUICK....and as you can see, we developed a plan for how to do that.  There were a few creative moments on this project actually....what we didn't throw out the window into the dumpster in the backyard, prisoners hauled out front door. Did you know that you can donate your garbage to the "girls ranch" and have a load of prisoners come to your house and haul it off? I actually did not know that, but it works like a charm. So we separated out the utter crap from the stuff that someone might actually be able to sell or use and we formed two lines, one to the dumpster, the other to the trailor. It took the prisoners about four trips, but I think they pretty much got everything.
By the end of the weekend, the dumpster was just about overflowing, but the house was looking pretty empty. So we are thinking that next weekend will be the last one that we will spend at the house. That's pretty wierd for me just because that has been Laura's home for the whole ten years I have known her, we started staying there near constantly when her mother got sick 4 years ago, and we've worked to get it cleared out for 7 months solid now. We've just fought like crazy these past couple of weeks because of the stress of everything, but really I do sorta wonder how things will be once we're done....and it's really done.... it's 10 years of my life, but it's 30 years of Laura's...it's home....it's her mother....I am a little scared of what THAT stress is going to do to us. I talked to her about it....she is so sweet....she said that when we get through this, we will have to buckle down on getting the house built. So then I was like, yeah and when we get through that we will have to focus on the wedding, and when we get through that we will have to get through  having babies, and then I am sure we will have to through a few years of having no money.... we just went back and forth will all the things we will have to get through for rest of our lives and even though it's depressing to thing of life as just one thing after the next that you have to "get through", that really is sorta how life is, and I am just so grateful that I have such a wonderful person to get through it all with.

Extraterrestrials and DUIs.....

Okay, So I have a confession to make to you meow. CNN's Robin Meade is totally hot to me. The thing about Robin is that she totally captivates my attention. I can stare at her until she just looks grotesque to me, which in my own way is a sign of my attraction to her. BUT WHAT IS IT? I know from biology that as humans we are all sorta drawn to symmetry in the face and body. I know from art history that a high forehead and full lips on a female are valued as beauty. I even vaguely remember from sociology that the reason we pick up a crying infant is because we are emotionally attracted to the large eyes relative to the head. Robin has all these things, but there's something else too.... She's witty....she's bubbly without being stupid. She looks as though she would be demanding, and who isn't a sucker for that sorta confidence..... And she has information...story's that interest me...and you may think she is just reading from the paper in front of her, but give me my fantasy. For those of you that notice such things, Robin's hair was just a touch lighter this morning with more of an overall red....eyebrows dyed to match....Are we making a change Robin?  This is how my life with Robin would go....Everyday I would could come home..."Robin honey, how was your day?".........
"Oh Shy, oil fell to 75 dollars a barrel, Brangelina had their wedding in Mozambique, a cloned cat gave birth to a human fetus and two idiots recreated the Bellagio fountains with Mentos and Diet Coke".
	Wouldn't that be a wierd life? Now it's not as though  my own beautiful bride to be doesn't posess these same qualities. In fact, she is a better match for me...I never stare at her until I find her grotesque, and I have actually been through some pretty gross stuff with her.... hum..... In other news, I get to spend the day in Auburn tomorrow going to court with my younger brother who will hopefully get off easy from the DUI he was recently charged with. For those that don't know, be warned....when you give them the bail money, they don't just mail it back to you when the person shows up at court....NO.... you are pretty much agreeing that you will take a day off work and come to court and hold the hand of your chosen criminal.     Pray for him, and for me that it all goes well

I decided to download the pictures off my camera today and I came across this one of Bailey.  This was about 3 weeks before he died.....we didn't even know he was sick.  What you have to know about Bailey first, is that he was fat....I mean fat.....like 132 pounds....This dog weighs more than my mama....it was crazy.  Fat dogs get hot, so Bailey liked to wade in the pool during the summertime.  He wasn't really a swimmer, cause it's hard to maintain the weight if you exercise, but he did like a dip.  Laura and I were doing our typical weekend "move the shit around" fest at the house in Lanett and I glanced out the window and found Bailey in the pool....only the damn cover was still on it.  He was just chillin'.  This was last week of March, first week of Aprilish, so it was just starting to get nice out.  I had to run out and get a picture.  It was beautiful Bailey Bliss.....

Ok...so losing Bailey had us all with a hole in our family and we wanted another clumber spaniel so I put out an ad at work looking for a clumber or a clumber mix, or any tips on how to find one (thinking this would take forever....you can't just walk into a pet store and find these dogs).  So my phone at work rings and it's a woman with a 6 year old clumber who wants her to live in a family that will give her lots of attention (maybe rewrite top 40 songs for her).  She came over for the weekend and Laura and I are completely in love with her.  We are calling her Loli (her name is Delilah, but anyone that knows me knows that my dogs have to have four letter names - before you say it, Laura named Bailey - anyway, Deli wasn't cutting it....so Loli it is).  I don't know what her owner is likely to ask of us in order to keep her, but it's entirely too late because we are in love.....

tag, i'm it.
Current mood: nerdy

To play this game, you post six weird habits/things about yourself and people who get tagged need to write a blog about their six weird habits/things. In the end, you need to choose the next six people to be
tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you
are tagged" in their Myspace comments and tell them to read your blog.

1. I eat all my food one thing at a time. I don't like for any of it to be touching, I want the temp to be just above room temperature, and I save my favorite thing for last.

2. I think I know when I am going to die and it scares me the closer it gets.

3. I love my dog so much people think I am sick. I incorporate her name into every song on the radio and something reminds me of her on average about 4 times an hour (in fact she is often in my dreams).

4. If I am eating something and you want to have a bite, that's cool....you can have a bite - except cereal. Never touch my cereal!! We might have just exchanged bodily fluids, but it grosses me out to have someone else put their spoon in my lucky charms.

5. I can't stand for any of the white part to be showing on my finger nails. When I was little I had the white part bend backwards once and I FREAKED. Now I can't stand for any to be showing...I will pull over to a gas station and buy clippers if I notice some white.

6. Laura says I never get mad, and that it is wierd....

I was tagged by Brooke.
I am tagging: Jackie, Tiffi, Vernie, Wendi, Mike, Deanna

Whew..... got some catchin' up to do. As per usual, my life is utterly chaotic. Let's see....we spent New Years at a cabin that we rented in Gatlinberg and I choose this occasion to pop the question (stroke of midnight...New Years...We had been in the hot tub drinking frosty adult style beverages and smoking cigars all night so I think we might have been our jammies at this point).

She told me later that I was far calmer about the whole thing than she thought I would be....and my thinking was...you know, we have been dating for 10 years. I was feeling pretty good about my chances that you would say yes..... What else did we do.... we dressed up like gangsters and got our picture made, we went to the Ripley's Believe it or not museum, and we had the best pancakes you could imagine. Here is a picture of me and Laura with our friends Kim and Tiffany at the Old Mill where we ate one night.

Just today, we closed on some lake property that we had under contract back in Alabama. Yep....we are going back to Bamy.... if you would have asked me if I could ever live in a place called Salem Alabama, I would have laughed in your face...but the lake is beautiful and I think we are gonna really like it. There is a part of me that stays panic'ed about what all this is going to cost us...but I know it's an investment, and what other investment gives you as much as your home. As we parted with that big old check today...that's what I was telling myself.....

I made the observation today that for the first time, there is more Bush behind us than in front of us....... isn't that a nice feeling?