Atomictumor

So, I never made that concert.

I had made all the necessary preparations.  Daco and his wife were coming over to put the kids in bed, and I’d take off for N. Knoxville around 7:30 or so.  I was anticipating the freaky surrealness of seeing a one man show of The Robot Ate Me at some weird little residential house that nobody’s ever heard of, and I felt like it was something that I was compelled to do, simply because of the circumstances of finding it, and a couple of points where the music of the band fit into BJ’s life and death in interesting ways for me that’d take too long to explain now.

So, it was almost a kinda pilgrimage for me.  I wasn’t really into the drive down there, and I wasn’t feeling great, kinda worn out like I’ve been a lot lately, but I was determined to do it.

So, we ended up (the boys and I) going to pal’s house to hang out for a few hours before Daco showed, and we all had a great time.  Pigpen was acting sleepy and under the weather, and MastaG’s stomach was hurting.  Another friend or two showed up, and we were sipping beers on the porch.  It was a damn nice time, and it occurred to me that it’d be silly to leave what is a good time for something that only may be a good time.  I wasn’t crazy about ditching the boys, so we stayed.  I called Daco, and met his wife at our house to let em know that we wouldn’t be needing their services.

So, we had some steaks over there, and I missed the show.  I wrote an email to Ryland of the band in appease the compulsion to see the show, which in hindsight seems silly, but hell, why not.

So, we’re sitting out on the back porch, chatting, finishing our steak and beer, and I rolled up a cigarette.  Yes, I’ve been doing a little bit of this, on the sly (I need a vice).  MastaG has some determined opinions vis a vis cigarette smoking, and he ended up sneaking up on us as we were talking and I was smoking.  I tried to play it off, but it didn’t really work, and on the drive home he grilled me.  I gave up the game, and told him “Yes, G, I have been smoking.”

He broke down and cried.  He yelled at me, saying “Don’t you know that’s bad for you????  Why are you doing something bad for you???”

How can I explain?  It reminds me of times gone past, when BJ was here and I was happier?  It eases my stress which is damn near constant these days?  It provides pretty much my only vice (since I’m not, ahem, having nighttime liaisons anymore)?

I thought of those reasons, the justifications for smoking that I give myself, and realized that none of them would pass muster with the 10 year old.  I was irritated.

I was pissed, actually.  I was pissed that I was busted, I was pissed that he was making such a big deal out of it, I was pissed that he’s been hounding me for months trying to find out if I was smoking or not.  I wanted to yell at him, turn it all back on the boy, give him the 3rd degree.  “Boy”, I’d say “do you have any idea what I go through?  If you had a lick of sense, you’d just let this go and let me go on doing what I want to do”

Instead, I gave him the pack of tobacco and rolling papers.  I promised to never smoke a cigarette again.  He banged the pack with his fist a few times, and threw it in the garbage.

Vices are overrated, anyway.

—

Last night, just after tucking in a very, very sleepy Pigpen and a now appeased (but still somewhat distrustful) MastaG, Pigpen woke up and puked all over the place.  He had a fever.  I cleaned him up, while he sobbed, and tucked him into a cozy bed on the living room couch.  All of us ended up staying home today, because G said he wasn’t feeling good either, and I’m just waiting for him to pop up with a fever.  Pigpen hasn’t puked since last night, and his fever went away (without medicine) an hour ago or so, but he’s still worn out.

The first few drops of rain are hitting the quiet roof in my bedroom.  Its dark outside, and it occurs to me how lucky I am, and how much I love.

Putting these up all over town:

I think I’m gonna make t-shirts also.

(Edit - Netmom added this for a double bill)

A letter to the Oak Ridger today stood out as a shining example of what happens when smart people don’t stop to consider exactly what their positions on things are, and why this weird little town is as backwards as it is today.

Now, I don’t intend to call out the author, because I’ve met him, and he’s a smart, friendly guy, but his points in the article didn’t make much sense.  Lets go over them, because this is what I’m getting from a lot of people these days, and it don’t make a lick of sense.

The nut of the thing, and I was going to do a point by point thing but got lazy, is that he’s applauding the school board’s decision to ask for a million extra bucks for their budget so they can slap a 2% raise on the teachers, and telling city council to fully fund the school board and stop screwing around, all points that I wholeheartedly agree with.

However, on the other hand, the dude is trying as hard as he can to block the whole Crestpoint thing, which, by all projections, would be a huge boost to the money available to the school board.  I mean, at this point, the school board ain’t getting the money they need without raising property taxes.  Now, I’m not necessarily against that, but the town already has one of the highest property tax rates in the state.  Seems to me that it ain’t exactly a sign of fiscal health to have to keep milking the already high taxes in order to fund a school system fully.

So, whats the deal?  Sure, the city’s going to have to dump some cash into infrastructure and works on the Crestpoint deal, thats life in the 21st century.  Yeah, its gonna be traffic.  However, that traffic problem is all going to be chock full of people paying income tax into the city, and the lions share of that goes to AC and OR schools.

So, seriously man, how do you negotiate the two points?  How would you propose that the city funds the school system for the next 10 years or so, and we’re not talking 2% penny ante raises, we’re talking decent 3-4% raises like everybody else gives?

Peter’s broke, and lemme tell you, Paul is starting to get a mean gleam in his eye…

So I thought “I know. I’ll look at the website for The Robot Ate Me, because I’ve been listening to one of his CDs for the past week, (was BJ’s favorite) and have written about them twice on the ‘tumor, and see what they’re up to.”

Well, they’re up to a show in Knoxville on the day after tomorrow. I’ll be damned. Its at some place called “beast Warz House”, and Google only told me that its a house in North Knoxville with the address, 8PM, for 5 bucks. Hmm.

Now, I had emailed good ol’ Ryland (the guy who is The Robot Ate Me) a while back and asked he do a show down in K-Town, and it looks its fixin to happen. I think I might just need to go, but be damned if it ain’t on a school night, a Wednesday, and at what appears to be some weird kids house in a bad part of town.

Its certainly odd, but no odder than the fact that I just happened upon this concert 2 days before its gonna happen. Strange days, people, and this is just Monday.

So, who’s up for babysitting?

If you’re anything like me (and lets face it, who doesn’t want to be like me?) you’re having a hard time with the whole “Monday” thing this morning.  Through no fault of your own, you’ve woken up to a world demanding more out of you than you are consenting to give, and the whole thing has left a bad taste in your mouth, like sour orange juice.

Well, I have what may well be the solution.  For those of you lucky enough to live in the mighty Oak Ridge sphere of TV influence, flip the tube to about channel 15 tonight at around 6:30, and your mind may well be blown by a live preformance by Pigpen’s preschool class singing songs for the Oak Ridge school board.

Oh yeah.