Who'd a thunk it?

Today is the five-year anniversary of my first post on this blog.

I hadn't started out to gain readers or become famous, it was just a vent to blow off steam during a rather dark patch in my life. The year before I'd split with my ex-wife, I was living alone in a strange State with no friends... Christmas and my Birthday had just past and I was feeling pretty shitty...

I've written about just about everything, from politics, religion, little absurdities I'd see and ironies I'd point out... My ever~present desire and drive to get on as a conductor then become an engineer for a railroad... My failures, my successes... When I laughed, when I cried...

I was bitter, angry and really didn't care who I pissed off, hence my motto; "Pissing off the entire world, one person at a time."

So I've gained some readers, and I've lost some over the years. Guys who've stuck around to see what happens next, Like Honkeie, Terry, CMK, Mushy and Leazwell... You guys have been with me almost from the beginning and you're almost like family... Thanks for letting me share my words with you!

I've recently acquired more readers, Like Just Telling it, Ubermouth, Tee, Liane, Spiky & Kimberly... Welcome aboard! Hope you guys stick around... You never know what's going to come off my keyboard!

The readers I've lost, well... Some I miss, some I don't. There was the nutty Alien Abduction Guy, who kept on sending me scans of "Authentic Alien Drawings", ie; drawings of alleged "Aliens"... A Busy Body Ex-Mother-In-Law who instead of looking at her own fucked up family and thought it would be absolutely hysterically funny to hound my friends and family spreading lies and half-truths on how I was a sex pervert and a lousy husband... A few ex-girlfriends and people who never got it, thought I was serious when I was joking and the other way around. I got tired of explaining it...

It's not funny if I've got to explain it!

But throughout, I've learned a lot. I've learned how to let go... How to be a better person... How to become the man I am today.

A man, who after 44 years now, has finally learned to like himself and loves what he's doing.

Maybe I'll never finish the novel I'm writing.

Maybe I'll never be a famous author.

But at least I finally got to where I wanted to be.

On the road not taken...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

to where it bend in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black,

Oh, I had kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

Took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference

~Robert Frost

I'm glad I took that road.

and I'm happy you guys are along for the ride!

Thanks!

Video pinched from YouTube

Poem by Robert Frost

Meloncholly rambling Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

Almost Cut My Hair...

For years I've worn my hair cut really short. Military-Short. What in the Army was called a "High & Tight". This year I decided to see how long I could let it get before it starts driving me nuts. The last time I had my hair this long was when my age still ended in "teen"... June 30, 2009 was the last time I had the clippers to my head and that's when I decided to let it go for a while.

I'm now getting my balls broken by a few guys at work... One actually asked when I was getting a Mullet.

Ranger Tom has never worn a mullet, nor will he ever, OK?

My boss even told me the other day to go out and get a haircut. In a humorous way, he does have a sense of humor, one of the reasons I really like him.

Anyway, again last night I was asked about my hair and I finally said I'd let it go until the second to last day before the end of the sugarcane harvest and the mill went down for the summer and shave it bald.

I don't think I'll do that, but I think I'll let it go a little more... Letting my Freak Flag fly...

Tell you what though, after looking at these pictures of me taken last Wednesday at the Tiki Bar, I've still got to loose some weight because I've got more chins that a Chinese phone book!

Almost cut my hair
Happened just the other day
It's gettin' kinda' long
I could've said it was in my way
But I didn't and I wonder why
I feel like letting my freak flag fly

~David Crosby

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden