No Moshing Allowed

It’s never a dull moment around the hacienda down here.

I must have caught whatever RC had. Was sick for two days and actually stayed home. Woke up feeling like my head was going to explode, nauseous, dizzy, and that was the high point for my day.  Generally felt like one of the Walking Dead.  Crawled on line, e-mailed my boss and co-workers that I would be a no-show and went back to sleep. Pretty much wasted days - watched a few left over NetFlix movies (Captain America, The Mechanic) a couple of old WWII movies (Frank Sinatra as a PFC, Burt Lancaster as the Sergeant). Finally turned the corner on Thursday and went back to work . Of course, for every day I miss at the office, I get backed up 3.

I am still fighting with my computer. Thought I had it pretty much licked, but this weekend something else started dragging it down. I’ve restored it back to an earlier version, but I am still working at a handicap. I am debating getting one of those PC cleaning programs, but I think, at this point, I am better off reinstalling the OS (aka, starting over) which pretty much wipes out most of my settings/favorites. I don’t really want to go to that extreme, but it is either that or use my special hard drive fix it tool (9 mm version). The funny thing is that for the $$ it may cost me to recover the system I could probably pick up the same system that sported in Wally world this weekend (same brand, more memory, faster processor). I may go for a laptop version and keep the old system to recover files and use as backup. 

I’ve been laying low for the past few weeks. Halloween came and went like it always does. We don’t get many trick or treaters each year. A few of the local kids, some neighborhood kids with their parents in tow, a few “older” kids and of, course a couple of guys sporting facial hair. I have a soft spot for the little ones. They usually get a handful of the good stuff. The big kids get twizzlers and the off brand stuff. The dogs were pretty intrigued by the whole deal. I expected them to bolt every time I opened the front door, but they were very well behaved. Grayson was interested in greeting each of our ghoulish guests, and even dressed the part (yes, I did dress up one dog). One the other hand, Claire wasn’t sure what to make of all the commotion. I am not sure if it was all knocking/doorbell ringing or kids in costumes, but she hung back. Quite the difference from her normal role as Ambassador of Lickenstein.



Aloha, Dudes!



Junior was in town this weekend for a Guns & Roses concert. Brought home a wrist band with the Moshing disclaimer. He indicated that there sure were a lot of “old” people in the floor seats.  G&R kicked off at 11:00 pm and Axel played all 38 sets. Old rockers never die – they just go on the road.

I am finally getting psyched up for my road trip to Brussels next week. Started packing this weekend, but not sure what to bring. Trying to prepare for cold & wet but don’t want to haul too much wasted gear. I am starting to plan my down time to take an opportunity to see some of the local area, sample some of the local flavor, drink some of the local beer. I will be in country over the weekend so Saturday and Sunday are mine to use (or lose). I started mapping out a strategy and just figured out yesterday there are a number of very interesting options for the short amount of time:

  1. Explore Brussels and the local sites (drink beer, explore local area)
  2. Try to find a local volksmarch
  3. Go tour Bruges (1 hour northwest)
  4. Hop a train to Normandy (a couple of hours southwest)

  Or, for something completely out of the box,

  5. Hop a train for Paris (2 hours south) for the weekend or
  6. Hop a train for London (1.5 hours northwest) for the weekend

All of these options peek my interest. I’ve been to Paris, granted it was 25 years ago, but how many times does one get to climb the Eiffel Tower.  Always wanted to tour the battlefields of WWII and see the Normandy invasion beachhead.  Bruges is an iconic older town that has a unique flavor (check out the dvd In Bruges). Of course, I’ve always wanted to go to London. And who knows?  I might wind up running into some bike riding, guitar playing, pizza chef, rabbit owner.

So much to see, so little time...

Any ideas/suggestions?