Dio

I just heard that Ronnie James Dio, former front man of Black Sabbath after Ozzy left, and hard rock start under his own name with hits like 'Rainbow in the Dark' and 'Holy Diver' passed away. He was 67 and I started thinking of all the really big rock stars around that age that are still alive but won't be for much longer, especially since a lot of them got started in and survived the drug drenched 60's and 70's. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, Roger Waters and David Gilmour, Ray Manzerek, Grace Slick, Ozzy himself, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, David Bowie and Lou Reed, Elton John, and last but definitely not least Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney...all born in the 40's or earlier. Heck, even my fave author of all time, Stephen King, was born in '47. All these jukebox heroes will be gone soon and all we'll have left is the music, but at least we'll have that.

The Wonderful World of Driving

I'm finally going to do an entry on something I've been doing for 27 years now and have a complete love/hate relationship with...it's called driving a car. One of my favorite things to do is drive across large open country on a trip with the music on...doesn't matter if it's a flat plain of grass and a two-lane blacktop, or through a beautiful mountain pass. One of my least favorite things to do is sit in traffic or be in traffic that's moving and noticing the stupidity of other drivers around me. I think I'm a pretty good driver. I have been in two major wrecks and both times it was old people that ran into me. The second was questionable as to fault, but Allstate having both mine and the old ladie's policy decided to say it was all my fault and then dropped me (thank God!). Those both happened very early on and apart from a small fender bender in the parking lot here at work a few years back I haven't had any wrecks. As for speeding, sure I've done it, but I've only been ticketed twice and the first time was total bullshit since it the cop didn't use a radar and thought since I was passing someone going really slow in the opposite direction of him that I was speeding. I'm a very defensive driver and an observant person anyways and there lies the problem. When I'm driving in the city, all I notice is how bad the other drivers are. Growing up in Dallas, I've seen some pretty crazy 'driving'. Up there, the law is if you think you're driving too fast in a lane on the freeway there's always someone that will go up your ass and need to go faster. Here in Austin it's a little more laid back than that though more and more are moving here from Dallas, Houston and San Diego so that's changing. The problem here is the road network that was poorly planned from the beginning and hasn't really finished getting to a good place. In DFW all freeway interchanges have exit ramps for every direction. In Austin, not one single interchange has all the ramps! I know that's hard to believe but it's true. NOT ONE! I'm not sure which frustrates me more though, the slow pokes that drive under the speed limit in the fast lane and 'creep' around a corner or the crazy bastards that are constantly switching lanes (but not getting any further ahead) and perpetually crawling up your ass or someone else's. Cars are the last bastion of control for most people so they think that they can do no wrong in these machines. The first reaction EVERY SINGLE TIME when someone screws up and you honk is for them to flip YOU the finger! The windows are never rolled down but they yell at you from inside their little cubby hole. Then there's the inability to use a blinker, whether it's some asshole trying to cram his way into your lane or someone who eventually wants to get over but has to do it at the last minute because they never put on the blinker so that you could know they wanted over. I let people over all the time if they'll just give me that blinker. If there's an exit ramp and a line in the exit lane, people have to try and squeeze in at the last second. I'll let a few in while further back but as the ramp is literally splitting off the main roadway I hug the bumper of the car in front of me so that they will literally have to hit my car to get in. Then there's the people that are behind you in a lane, feel you aren't going fast enough, so they go around you then STOP AND TURN right in front of you! They couldn't wait another few SECONDS staying behind you before turning? I just don't get that at all. I know when there's traffic because I go online before leaving work and looking at a map, and I will go out of my way to be on a road that is at least moving instead of one that is just sitting and wasting gas and time, but if you get stuck there and NO ONE can move, why do people feel the urge to honk? What do they want you to do, drive 'through' the car in front of you? I love that shit. My final observation is driving and weather. Weather happens but some people seem to only know how to drive one way...FAST. So even if there's ICE on the road they will drive fast. Then there's the opposite who see one rain drop on their windshield and they slow down 10mph. ARGH! So there you have it...driving in the 21st Century. Still no flying cars (Back to the Future II is only 5 years away now, and Blade Runner 9) and the trains that were promised 3 YEARS AGO still have not started. I have noticed with more people fired that even the busier times of year seem to have less traffic. You gotta look for the bright side of the crap.

Societal and Personal Shift

It's funny that as everything in my life apart from my job has been turned upside down in my own life that's it's happened on a much larger scale for society with the Great Recession or whatever you want to call it. I just read an article called '17 Ways Consumers Are Changing' and as I read it not only did the changes seem to be good things, like less waste, frugality, less credit card debt and more cash and smaller is better, but I seemed to be doing most of the things listed. I'm in a smaller house, smaller car, volunteered the most I ever have, moved away from brands, and even though I still collect movies, I'm coming close to selling all my CD's since I've copied all the files onto a hard drive and my I-pod and I've even been thinking about getting rid of a lot of my books. The last one on the list, though, has hit me like a shot today. 'Redefining Success' and saying that it's not about money and things anymore but doing something you actually want to do and feel satisfied with. One of the reasons I was so down last year was because what I had been defining as success, tons of money and a gigantic house, were gone, but now it shouldn't seem as necessary and as time goes by it won't. Even when I was in that big house, driving the SUV and not worried about money ever, I still thought, 'did I need all this and is this what I really want?'. That last entry is talking specifically about my job. We've been losing people and you can tell that they are trying to restructure things so that they can 'lose' more but I was thinking about that. What if I lost my job? Would it be so bad? I'm making the most money I've ever made in my entire life but I'm not happy. I'm only happy when I'm up on the stage playing for people and hanging out with good friends. What I should do right now is think about what I really want to do. I had discussed possibly getting my teaching certification finally and I know that I love to explain stuff to people, especially the young and the next generation coming up. Part of my reevaluation of my life should not just be my psychology and my love life, but it should also look at how I'm spending the rest of my life with my career because it's something you do every single day until you retire. I have a lot to think about.