Slackjaw's Forum

Saturday night it snowed, not a lot, but enough. Enough for the oldest boy and I to build snowmen, have a snowball war and make snow angels: Enough to forget about rain and mud and short winter days. Enough to keep a fire burning all day too read by. Enough to make soup.  It’s the first real snow we’ve had since he’s been born. We bundled up the littlest one in a snowsuit he got from his cousin. I took a lot of pictures with imaginary film and a few more with the real stuff. Ate chicken soup with dumplings and banana bread muffins with butter. Watched black crows fight over a dead squirrel and watched the cats watch the crows. We have two cats named Batman and Zane, though they are both girls. They are old and past their hunting days but they will still keep an eye out for a careless bird. Hunched in the window ledge, tail flicking behind them they watch and wait. Pretending that they would pounce on a moments notice given the slightest opportunity. Knowing full well th...

She had a basket of daffodils hanging off her elbow. She stood pressed against a storefront window, beneath an awning that protected her from the rain as she sold them for 25 cents apiece. Lewis and I had taken his 48 Desoto into town to see the parade. He was in it last year, but due to a disagreement with the local Chrysler chapter about suspension and engine modification they had asked for his resignation. “Those old fat bastards were looking for a reason to get rid of me anyway,” he said. So last year he painted it a fire engine red and we parked it right off Pacific Ave. so the floats would see it when they passed by. Lewis didn’t see her right away. I had caught her out of the corner of my eye and kept my mouth shut. With Trina you never know what you’ll get. She and Lewis had dated a few times, but that was during the Gulf war when he was still wearing his patriotism in the form of an imitation bomber jacket with a two-foot American flag decal on the back. Sinc...

Well the old site just blasted through the 2000 viewers mark this last week. Minnie’s bang-up job fixing my page made it a lot easier to update and I think people are going back to look for updates more often now. I know I find myself not as fearful of updating as I used to be, so I don’t avoid doing it as much. Getting everything ready for the gig on Friday night at Kings Coffee in Tacoma. We’ve named the band The Prairie Dogs (thanks to sweetie) and Doug Mackey (from Mr. Blackwatch) said he’d warm us up. Right now we have about twelve songs we can play and that should get us right around and hour and a half. Just perfect. I sent out the gig email today so if your reading this and you didn’t get one you know what to do. Get your self on the mailing list so you can keep up with my non-existent music career. On the home front our health woes never seen to end. The older boy threw up all over his bed around midnight and after cleaning him up and changing the bedding and ever...

Well Minnie and Otto headed back to the central states, and that leaves our home a little quieter than it has been. Played a gig on Saturday night at a local coffee shop, warming up for some friends in a band called Mr. Blackwatch ( www.misterblackwatch.com ) The people who were going to warm up for them had backed out so they called me in a bit of a bind. Fact was I was happy to do it, being that I don’t get out and play as much as I’d like to. I had warmed up for Mr. Blackwatch before and in fact have been in various bands with some of the members over the years. Though their music is a little more atmospheric or mood driven than mine is, it was just fun to play and catch up on old times. The only drag was that I really didn’t have enough time to get ready, so the show was a little rough to say the least. Got a very nice response from the crowd though and Rick, the guy who owns the place, asked me to play again. So I’ll be appearing with my good friend Michael Shin at Kin...

Happy New Year all! Time sure is a fast mover when you get over the age of 30, Itellyouwhat. I’m just starting to get the hang of writing 2000 on the tops of my checks and now I gotta learn 2002. What the hell happened to 2001? Minnie and Otto have finally made it out to the Pacific Northwest and spent a few days hanging out with us and enjoying all Tacoma has to offer. Spent last Saturday up at the pass inner tubing with the older boy and Otto. The older boy had been a little disappointed these last few years in the amount of snowfall we’ve had here in the low-lying areas. I had told him that if there wasn’t any snow by this Christmas we’d go up to the mountain and find us some, so that’s what we did. Sweetie and Minnie took the littlest one to a bar, did some catching up and had a drink. Somehow in the midst of all the snow and parties and guests, the littlest one managed to come down with something. New Years Eve, Sweetie and I we’re all dressed up and ready to go when sh...