Swing it...

About that time to post something new, I suppose.  I hope you guys are doing well in your neck of the woods.  Can't complain here.  Food, water, shelter...all the bases covered.  Just got done skyping my sister Kim.  Had a heck of a laugh goofing around with the smiley faces you can send back and forth. Spontaneously busted a gut and laughed for a good minute non-stop.  Felt good!  Ahh...the simple things in life.

Probably made the best discovery in my first two months that I've been here this past week.  I got wind of a young adult group from the Perth area that meets at Sacred Heart monastery, which is right next to the church I go to.  Wednesday evenings...Mass, exposition, holy hour, benediction, and then dinny afterwards.  I got to inhale that sweet smell of incense for the first time in two months!  That hit the spot.  A group of about 25 or so showed up.  One guy from France just cruising around Australia stopped in and a girl from Belgium found out about the group too.  Nice people with warm welcomes and good conversations.  I was probably one of the older fogies in the group.  Mostly everyone seemed to be in their 20s...a few in their 30s, so I wasn't totally alone.  A couple people who asked how old I was said they thought I was 26...so at least I got that going for me.  I guess all them years of hard livin...the boozin, gallivanting with loose women and rock and roll...haven't caught up with me yet!  Super glad to have met up with these guys...sort of rekindled the Wednesday night routine that I left behind in Seattle.  The five-day work week just got much better.

Don't know what it was, but some situation this past week or so got me thinking about 90s music.  I've been playing this Sponge song in my head and on the music box recently.  A good throw back tune...didn't care for it too much then...probably because everyone and their brother liked it....but now that it's old and mostly forgotten...not so bad now:



Another thing that happened was a highly intellectual conversation a few of us had in the office the other day.  Fancy technical phrases like geological model, time-rate of settlement and paleo-channel resonated off the Wheatstone war-room walls at 6:30 pm on a Friday evening.  At that time of day, it got to the point where I couldn't think of anything else better to sum up what I was thinking than this:



Man, I love those guys.

That just about does it for now.  23:00 and Scotty's dishes are done. Time to saw some logs.  Don't forget..."I" before "E" except after "C"...most times...

Peace and love,

Scotty

The Quiet Place...

I'm sure we've all been in a place or situation where there was a lot of noise.  A concert.  A ball game.  Maybe the dinner table!  Trying to hear what someone right next to us has to say can be difficult or impossible.  Too much noise and too many distractions seem to get in the way of the conversation.  It's possible to catch a word or two, but not the whole thing.  It's possible to hear something completely different than what was said.  Or, nothing at all may be heard. 

I'm learning more and more that finding a quiet place is not so much about me being able to be heard...but more about me being able to hear...

Kind of a drag...

Good daye, friends.  I guess it's Wed morning where most of you are.  Hope you had a good night's sleep and are ready to hammer through the midweek hump.  Late in the day here, 19:15 as I type these syllables, in fact.  Still at the office...thumbing through the news and sending an email here or there...Virtually impossible for me to catch up on news or email during the day...pretty much wide open and full throttle from the get go of each day.  No real plan for my evening except to stop by a buddy's place for an hour or so, then eat left over bangers and mash that I made a couple days ago.  Man I love HP sauce...The UK's favorite brown sauce since 1896!  Goes great with them bangers.

Just got done listening to that 60s tune Kind of a Drag from The Buckinghams. Reminds of me driving with the windows down in the old station wagon or the Honda during the weekly summertime drive home from Grandma's with Mom...Dick Biondi spinning oldie tracks on 104.3 FM in Chi-town.  "Where the heck does this stuff come from?", you may say.  One too many bike crashes, I guess...broke more than my wrist and a few helmets apparently...seemed to have jostled something loose in my brain along the way!  On the topic of the UK, I was flabbergasted to learn that The Buckinghams were not from England, but from Chicago!  Blimey, I say!

Made it to that footy game Sunday afternoon.  Perfect weather outside.  Alfonso and I made the 20 minute hike from West Perth to the Subi Oval on foot.  Huge playing field...36 players on the field at one time...18 a side.  Constantly moving, kicking, running, bouncing.  Freo (The Freemantle Dockers) took the opening possession off the bounce and scored a goal (6 points) in the opening minute...then they proceeded to pile on a load of whoop arse for the next 99 minutes.  They routed the North Melbourne Roos by nearly 70 points.  One of the wildest parts of the match was when a few guys got in a scrap and started throwing down.  I'd say about six or seven guys were involved in the pushing and punching.  A couple guys went to the ground...all the while, the other guys were playing on as a player was lining up and kicking a goal!  No stoppage in play, no whistles, no officials went in to break it up...it was hilarious. The scuffle ended soon after the footy soared through the goal and everything went back to normal.  Pretty wild. The crowd was intense and into it the entire game.  36,000 fans packed the oval.  The Dockers poured it on until the final whistle.  After the game they played the Freo fight song and then quickly followed with AC/DC's "TNT"!  The late AC/DC front man, Bonn Scott was from Freemantle, so I guess they play a tribute song after every win.  I was probably embarrassing Alfonso to death as I rattled off "Oye...Oye" and "lock up your daughter...lock up your wife...lock up the back door and run for your life..." in my best Bonn Scott impression.  Pretty good way to close out the afternoon!  Unloaded some pictures to the link over dere ------------------------->

Well, my buddy's waiting for me, so I need to bail.  More to jot down here, but will wait til next time.  Until then, you guys take care and make it a great day.

Cheers and God bless.

Scotty