Phidoux Phidoux It's a dog eat dog world and I'm barking up the wrong tree. News, views and commentary from the laptop and life of a 40ish gay guy, high in the mountains of Western NC.
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Good Night & Good Luck
2008-02-26 00:09:00 Dear Readers, I have a much busier life and work schedule now than I did when I began blogging several years ago, and this has made it difficult to find the time and motivation to write. Thus, I have decided to end this blog. Many thanks to everyone who has written to me and commented over the years on various topics and posts. I'd like to now ask a favor of you. There are VAST seas of unread words out there longing for your attention. Please take the time that you would spend here and spend it with another blogger - something new and fresh and interesting, maybe even devoted to a brand new topic that you've always been interested in but never pursued. Beading perhaps? Oh, I know - how about animal husbandry or taxidermy - or both. That way you can get both sides of the story. Have an amazing life. Jeff More About: Night , Good , Good Night , Luck , Good Luck
Good Night & Good Luck
2008-02-26 00:09:00 Dear Readers, I have a much busier life and work schedule now than I did when I began blogging several years ago, and this has made it difficult to find the time and motivation to write. Thus, I have decided to end this blog. Many thanks to everyone who has written to me and commented over the years on various topics and posts. I'd like to now ask a favor of you. There are VAST seas of unread words out there longing for your attention. Please take the time that you would spend here and spend it with another blogger - something new and fresh and interesting, maybe even devoted to a brand new topic that you've always been interested in but never pursued. Beading perhaps? Oh, I know - how about animal husbandry or taxidermy - or both. That way you can get both sides of the story. Have an amazing life. Jeff More About: Night , Good , Good Night , Luck , Good Luck
Nightshade's New Wunderbra !
2007-12-28 15:16:00 Our little Wolfdog isn't so little any more. She's approaching four months and forty pounds. She loves to frolic (does anyone even use that word anymore?) and run. This is great because we want her to grow up to be fit and healthy, however it poses a problem at walk times. We use harnesses to walk our dogs - Eric insists upon it. The thing is, wearing a harness the dog can get a really good footing and pull like hell. This is great if we have a foot of snow and a sled, but most days - not so cool. Chief and Dixie are old enough to know how to pace themselves and not strain against their leads - little Shade hasn't figured that part out yet. Imagine 40 pounds of young Timber wolf darting around at the end of a leash, yanking your arm out of the socket. Getting the visual? Enter the Gentle Leader. We learned about this new type of lead from both a friend with a young Spaniel as well as our vet. There are two version... More About: Nights
Wednesday Morning Thoughts
2007-12-19 15:53:00 Happy Holidays all around. We're looking forward to finishing up the work week and having a few days off. We're opting to work a bit on Christmas Eve,but we'll have the night free to watch for Santa - hopefully through an alcohol induced fog. Eric recorded the Glenn Beck interview with Dr. Paul last night. I can barely tolerate Glenn Beck, but he threw out some good questions and Congressman Paul threw back some good answers. I have no clue who I'm going to support in the next Presidential election at this point. I've narrowed down my favorites to include Paul, Clinton, Obama & Edwards. Favorites is probably not the best word. Truthfully, I think it's an all around sorry lot to choose from. Reminds me of the South Park episode where the kids had to vote for a school mascot and their choices were between a turd sandwich and a douche bag. I fear we're going to get the douche bag - need I say more? As usual, we've been... More About: Thoughts , Morning , Wednesday
Weekend Recap
2007-12-04 14:52:00 Eric and I had one of those work / play weekends. You know the ones. There are things that you just HAVE to get done, but you want to squeeze in a little fun to make it SEEM as though you had a real weekend. Saturday I ran errands, shuttled a truck full of stuff over from the storage unit (including Christmas tree decorations), washed and vacuumed said truck, cleaned the house and spread 8 bags of pine nuggets around the front sidewalk. Eric also cleaned house, raked leaves ( I had hoped this would be the final leaf clean-up, however the strong winds yesterday had other ideas) and kept busy with house chores while I was out galavanting. Saturday night we had a few people over for tree trimming. I'm discovering again how nice it is to live in a convenient location so that friends WILL come by. In Georgia we had to practically beg our few friends to drive the 23 miles out to our house. We eventually just gave up. So, we all got drunk, decor... More About: Weekend , Recap
To Tree Or Not To Tree
2007-11-27 16:16:00 So, I've been having a debate with myself about the upcoming Christmahannukwanzika holiday. Eric doesn't really care what we do in terms of celebrations and has thrown the ball into my court. Do I dribble and foul or do I go in for a lay up? For me, it all starts with a tree. If we don't put up a tree, then I don't get into any of it very much. If we DO put up a tree, then I'll want to have a party, go shopping, tie ribbons, make sugar cookies and pretend that it's 1947 (1947 was supposedly the pinnacle of America's greatness with our population being such that everyone could enjoy the 'American Dream' - I read that somewhere - probably Field & Stream - AND it was the year the space ship crashed in Roswell NM). On Thanksgiving day a man came around our neighborhood putting little orange fliers in all of the mailboxes advertising his local Christmas tree business. He lives around the corner and sells trees to the neighborhood that are... More About: Tree
Tagged, Drawn & Quartered - Meme 161
2007-11-27 16:11:00 I've been Meme -tagged by Marty at Ephemera. It's a simple, but clever meme. My mission is to supply you with the 6th sentence on the 161st page of the book that I'm currently reading. Here goes: From: Dark Mission - The Secret History of NASA by Richard Hoagland and Mike Bara :"Since returning from the moon and retiring from the space program, Bean has spent a great deal of his time developing his obviously innate talents as an artist."Now, I have to decided who to tag! More About: Tagged
My Dogs Live Here
2007-11-21 13:50:00 Yesterday I received this little poem in an e-mail from Nancy over at Full Moon Farm. Last night when I got home I had the same e-mail from my friend Roy in Raleigh. I don't think that the two know each other. Maybe it's coincidence or maybe it's an example of how things go viral on the internet. At any rate, it's a cool little poem that I wanted to share. My dogs live here, they're here to stay.you don't like pets, be on your way.they share my home, my food, my spacethis is their home, this is their place. You will find dog hair on the floor,they will alert you're at the door.they may request a little pat,a simple 'no' will settle that. It gripes me when I hear you say'just how is it you live this way?they smell, they shed, they're in the way..'WHO ASKED YOU? is all I can say.. They love me more than anyone,my voice is like the rising sun,they merely have to hear me say'C'mon , time to go and play' then tails wag and faces grin,they... More About: Dogs , Live
Asheville Holiday Parade 2007
2007-11-19 01:53:00 Eric and I had breakfast Saturday with our old friend John - complete with strong coffee and strong Mimosas. Afterward, we went downtown for the parade. Christmas parade? I guess that's what it really is since Santa is the last attraction. Eric snapped tons of photos and you can see them HERE . There are 490 pictures, so it may take a moment for all of the thumbnails to load, depending upon your internet connection speed. More About: Holiday , Parade , Asheville
Life Goes On
2007-11-14 14:06:00 I'd like to thank everyone who has taken the time to write over the past month. I've had a tremendous amount of life situations to deal with and my blog just hasn't been a priority. I lost my younger brother to a tragic accident this month. He had just turned 31. We were very close and I've had a rough time of it. He died as a result of head trauma caused by an ATV accident. Senseless, tragic, awful. The only good that has come of this is the fact that he was an organ donor and two people now have a second chance at life. His heart is still beating somewhere out there, and his kidneys are giving someone life without dialysis. My Grandfather also passed away and was buried the day before Brad's accident. He was 88 and lived a full life. This was no shock or surprise as his health had been failing for the past year or so. We should all hope to go out at 88 and not 31. Our new pup is doing great. She's star... More About: Life
Out With The Old, In With The New
2007-09-21 15:49:00 Life really is such a cycle - ups & downs, ins & outs. We've been getting a bitter sweet dose of that as of late. We lost one of our babies and we're getting a new baby. We're leaving out transitional home into a more permanent home. Lots oh change. I really haven't thought about our upcoming move - with the exception of arranging all of the utilities on Monday. That was easy, just a few phone calls. Yesterday when we got home for our midday break, our Landlady Lee was outside the house talking with the new tenant who will be renting the apartment. She's a wonderful person and she too is going through life changes. Her husband has passed and she's moving out of the home that they shared for so many years in order to put it up for sale. She really liked what we did with the place and wants to buy all of the bamboo window blinds, our wicked cool hanging wine rack and the new window AC that Eric and I sweated and stru... More About: The O
Shocking Question
2007-09-20 14:24:00 I tuned into Air America radio yesterday for a short while. It was during the Randi Rhodes show - and I wanted to hear what was on her mind. I was thankful to hear that she wasn't discussing OJ Simpson (will someone please make him go away). She was discussing the erosion of our right to free speech in the wake of that student being zapped recently during John Kerry's speech. Everyone's been blathering about this - however, no one seems to be discussing the question. Does anyone even know what the question was that the kid asked of JK? I'll tell you what it was. He asked Kerry about his relationship with the Bushmonster in regards to fraternal connections with Skull & Bones. Kerry of course would not answer. This is what got the kid fired up in the first place. I can't help but wonder if JK 's purpose as a presidential candidate in 04 was for no other reason than to throw the election to Bush. I mean come on, could the... More About: Question
New Puppy Pictures
2007-09-18 07:14:00 New puppy pictures - about 3 weeks old. Her eyes look wonky - is that a puppy thing or a Linda Blair thing? More About: Pictures , Puppy
Post Modern Times | 2012
2007-09-17 15:28:00 Link: Post Modern Times | 2012. I've been a fan of Daniel Pinchbeck since his book Breaking Open The Head. He's launched a new site with a short video dealing with conciousness expansion and it's relationship with the year 2012. There are also lots of cool links there as well. Just wanted to share. More About: Modern Times , Post-Modern
Finally Fall ?
2007-09-15 15:52:00 Yesterday we had torrential rain (which was especially fun for a dog walk, I might add) and this morning the weather actually feels like Autumn. Eric opened up all the windows and a nice cool breeze is blowing through the house. We went by our friend Bridgett's coffee shop yesterday morning and watched her roast coffee for a bit. We picked up a couple of bags of beans and made our own blend out of them this morning. Nothing like coffee made from beans roasted the day before! Today is errand day and we're going to work for a few hours this afternoon at a new account which officially starts on Monday. Getting a head start makes a huge difference. We're having a bit of a working weekend, but that's ok every once in awhile. Laterz... More About: Finally , Fall , Fina , Ally
Walk or Chew Gum, I Can't Do Both At The Same Time
2007-09-13 13:28:00 That's my current cop-out for blog neglect. I've had a couple of web projects that I've been busy with in addition to our cleaning business. After spending a couple of hours staring at the computer screen for someone else each night, I just haven't had the motivation for blogging. Besides, there isn't really much to tell. We've been working fast and furious to bring our business up to speed and we're pretty much there. With cooler Fall weather around the corner, I'm hoping to get out into the world a little more - especially on the weekends. We received a couple of photos of our new little girl from Pam the breeder. She's probably going to be a holy terror, but who can resist a puppy? Here they are : More About: Time , Walk
New Diggs
2007-08-31 13:09:00 I can't believe that I'm writing this, but Eric and I are moving again. I know, we're gluttons for punishment. Thing is, we moved full time into our little 'weekender' apartment. It's been working out just fine, but we didn't think it fair to subject our neighbors a mere wall away to a yapping, howling puppy. The move should be pretty easy as we don't have a lot of our stuff in the apartment - most of it is in storage. Also, it'll only be a mile away. The house is a rental - a restored 1926 bungalow in an old Asheville neighborhood called Kennilworth. The house will probably be for sale in a couple of years, so if we like it - well, we'll see. Asheville real estate prices have blown through the roof, so it may be out of our price range. More later ...
Does Absence Make The Heart Grow Fonder? A Tail of Two Wolf Dogs
2007-08-29 14:22:00 Absence on many levels. I've been a bad blogger as of late. Eric and I have been tremendously busy with work. We've been starting new accounts and meeting with people for site reviews in our normally 'off' time. It's paid off though, we've managed to bring our business up to full trot in two months time. We're not quite at the level we were in Georgia, but we're close. That's the good news. The horrible news is that we lost one of our kids. Star, our Arctic Wolf / Husky mix passed away quite unexpectedly. She was only 8 and it's been a tough time. I won't get into the details, but we did everything that we could and we still don't really know what went wrong with her. We have a $1300 vet bill and our girl is gone. It's been bad times on the home front. We expected Chief to go as he's 13, but not Lil' Star. There is a silver lining to our dark cloud. On Saturday I got up bright and early (I... More About: Dogs , Heart , Make , Grow
Sleeping In?
2007-08-18 15:34:00 E and I have been busy with work this week. Most of it has been the early morning kind - you know - set an ALARM clock for 6AM. Going from a night schedule to a morning schedule has been tough. The trouble with getting up so early is that I'm ready to drop by 10pm. No late night radio for me lately - only podcasts. Since it's the weekend, I didn't set the alarm clock to start it's rude little chirping at 6am - thought I'd sleep in. I woke up feeling very rested - well, apart from a bit of a left over cloudiness from the two Ativan that I ate last night and the wicked crazy dreams.. I looked at the clock and it read 8:30am. Not fair - I thought that it was at least 10. I guess I'm getting into the morning groove after all. It's a beautiful day out, so we're going to go do something before the heats goes from warm to broil. Today's paper says that Buncombe has now been added to the list of counties in extreme drought.&nb... More About: Sleeping
No Party For Me
2007-08-14 13:44:00 I recently signed a petition that was going around Asheville, and it has changed my life - on paper, anyway. The Asheville City Council took it upon themselves to change the city election rules. They decided that if you want to run for City Council, you have to be either a registered Republican or a registered Democrat - partisan elections. This PO'd a lot of folks in town - enough of them to get over 5000 petition signatures so that the matter can go to referendum and the citizenry can decide if they want partisan elections or not. I thought it was a rotten move that left out all of the independents, so I signed it. Anyway, that's the back story. After signing the petition, I received a letter from the Board of Elections asking me to verify my address and confirm that I had signed the petition. For some reason, they had my address all wrong - they had my old address from Mars Hill over 8 years ago. I had changed my voter registration las... More About: Party
Spooky Movies & Oster Toast
2007-07-30 15:09:00 Sunday came and went without incident. We decided to forgo Bele Chere as we had our fill of it on Saturday. Too much of a good thing, right? After one little job in the afternoon E and I had lunch and then made a Target run for dog food and a new toaster. I bought a new toaster oven about a year ago and wouldn't you know it - the timer stopped working. Also, the toaster portion seemed to be on the fritz - you had to set the thing on broil, throw in your bread item, wait a few moments and then flip the thing over. Since I chose the last piece of Chinese crap, it was Eric's turn pick our new toaster of the month - or perhaps we'll get three out of this one - who knows. He picked an Oster that has oversived slots for toasting up to four regular items or two big 'uns. We tried it out with blueberry waffles and English muffins. So far so good - except for the intense burning electrical smell when it was fir... More About: Movies , Toast , Spooky
Bele Chere in Asheville
2007-07-29 02:39:00 Eric and I had a great time at Bele Chere. The only disappointment was that the parade was canceled because of the rain, so no Clydesdales. We enjoyed a couple of the bands, ate junk food and Eric took some great people pictures. You can view the photo album HERE. More About: Asheville , Ville
Flying Dogs & Beer Dragins
2007-07-28 16:52:00 "Daddy, Daddy, can we go see the jumping puppies and big horsies, please please please?" my imaginary son Nuthin asked of me this fine Saturday morning. You see, imaginary children are much better than real ones. They always behave, never have to go to the dentist and they're asleep by 9pm - as long as you follow the directions on the prescription bottle. Nuthin has been excited about Bele Chere all week. He wants to see the dog act where the mutts all line up and then run as fast as they can and see who can jump the farthest into a pool of water. Cool, huh? He also wants to see the big draft houses from the beer people. The Clydesdales will be gracing the streets of Asheville with their - um - presence this weekend. Nuthin will stand for nothing else. Last year we were still living in Georgia and coming up the mountain on weekends. We skipped Bele Chere weekend last year and Eric regrets it to this very day. On... More About: Dogs , Beer , Flying
What Can Brown Do For You?
2007-07-28 16:16:00 So, last week I ordered a headboard. Nothing expensive, flashy, antiquely or otherwise deserving of special treatment. It's a simple mission style headboard that goes with our other simple mission style furnishings. I won't dare reveal it's lineage for fear of ridicule. Let me say this however - it DID NOT come from Wal-Mart. It came from another, slightly better mass market retailer with a strong relationship with the peoples of the Far East. It's really spiffy how these days when you order something online, you get a long number from UPS that you can shove into Brown 's slot and soon know how long before it comes. That didn't sound right, did it. Let me try that again. One receives a tracking number with which to follow the progress of one's order. How's that, Brown? So anyway, I checked the status of my order on Thursday and was informed that the headboard was in Greensboro. It took a week to get from somew...
The Girl With The Pink Scooter & Scissors
2007-07-28 15:31:00 A couple of weeks ago Eric and I were walking down Broadway and we noticed a bright pink Vespa scooter on the sidewalk, pulled up close against the storefront of a salon. On the seat was a hand painted sign which informed pedestrians NOT to sit on or screw around with the scooter as they were being watched. This was a vintage '63 Vespa with the cool chrome trim and man, it was cherry. I could easily see why someone would want to keep an eye on it. There was really only one place that person could be - inside the salon. Being in need of haircuts - hell - being in need of a new stylist to start with on a regular basis prompted us to open the door and take a look around. We chatted it up with a couple of the girls in the salon, one of them being Theresa, the owner of the scooter. After talking about the bike for a bit, E and I decided to scheduled haircuts - dive right in, right? So yesterday we had appointments - Eric with An and I with Theresa th... More About: Pink , Girl , Scooter , The G , The Girl
Death Comes A' Knockin'
2007-07-21 23:34:00 My little brother just phoned to tell me that our cousin Jamie was killed last night in a car accident outside of Raleigh on his way to National Guard duty. He was a ballistics expert, had a girlfriend and a two month old baby. He was 30 years old. He was my brother's hunting partner and best friend. They saw each other last night before he left for Guard duty. I've been trying to find a good side to this - the only thing I can come up with is that at least he died here and not in Iraq. That's all I got. More About: Death , Knock
Window Weather & Mattress Swap
2007-07-21 22:17:00 The weather today in the Smokies is so beautiful we opened all of the windows and gave the AC a much deserved rest. After six years in Georgia I cannot begin to tell you all how great it is to open the house and get fresh air - in July. E and I decided to jump into a project today that we've been putting off since our big move. The mattress that we've been using isn't what you'd call top quality. It's the one that we used for weekends, which was OK, but we had a much nicer one from the house in Georgia that's been in storage. Today we took the bed apart and swapped out mattresses. It was a bit of a chore locating all of the bedding pieces and parts in the storage unit, but we managed to find everything - and it's all still nice and clean just as we packed it. Heck, driving over with the thing strapped to the roof of our truck probably gave it good airing out. Anyway, that's the project that we're into today. Afte... More About: Weather , Mattress , Window , Swap , Tres
Cold Calls, Wooden Geese & Fried Dough
2007-07-20 17:19:00 I've discovered something new about weekends over the past couple of weeks. When you're not working - or working very little as we are at the moment, everything sort of runs together. There's really not much difference between a Friday night and a Monday night. Eric and I did a little door-knocking and hand shaking this week to start rounding up a little business, so it did feel somewhat like a work week. Sales is not my favorite thing, and cold calling is especially bad because you never know what sort of reaction you're going to get from the person into whose space you've insinuated yourself. Mostly, it was good experiences. My big plan for the weekend is to go down to the Civic Center and tour the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands. This event is bi-annual and is held by the Southern Highland Craft Guild. I'll snap some photos. We're supposed to have phenomenal weather this weekend, so being outdoors will be a priority as well. ... More About: Cold , Calls , Fried , Dough , Doug
McClintock Oak
2007-07-15 02:11:00 When Eric and I left Georgia, we had to remove a geocache that we maintained on our property. Inside our cache was a travel bug that needed to find a new spot. Today I dusted off the old GPSr and loaded it with fresh batteries. I found a cache that looked suitable and close by. After a short drive and a nice walk through an old growth forest, I found the cache - very near this monument. Pretty cool. This puts me in the mood to get back into the game.
Loafing 101
More articles from this author:2007-07-14 17:52:00 I have come to the conclusion that I need a refresher course in Loafing. As of today, Eric and I have been in Asheville full time for two weeks. During that time, we've been marketing our business, organizing our little apartment, working (yes, already a little of that) and catching up a lot of personal things. I have been working on a business blog for a friend of ours who owns and operates a Physical Therapy office, and that's been time consuming - but in a fun way. We have some new accounts scheduled to start next month, so I should be happy and just enjoy the time off right? Well kinda. I WANT to enjoy the time off, and I really am getting a lot of r & r, but I can't seem to get rid of the feeling that I'm doing something wrong - being bad - shunning my duties and being a bum. I suppose that comes from being in business for myself for 16 years. Or, maybe it comes from NOT loafing at all for the past six years. Never... 1, 2 |
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