About Lugnut -- Patrick Malone
OK, come to find I had some (alright, many) of the details wrong about the cross-country bike ride for cancer research I alluded to above - like the starting date and location (and therefore the implied probable route), and who will be riding (including the extent of Lance participation in the actual tour :-) But in my defense...well, I probably shoulda researched this *before* opening my yap, but better late than later, so here's a link to the Tour Of Hope where everybody can find out more! |
Was it just me, or did I hear Lance leaving the door slightly ajar tonight on OLN when he was asked at the start of his interview whether he was really permanently retired now? I believe his exact words were that "it would take a miracle" he didn't forsee for him to ever get back on the bike. Hmmm...not quite a flat denial - especially in his case. |
Hi EVERYONE, I'm up early today so thought I'd take the time to fill you in on what's been happening. Mary's visit was very pleasant. I probably bored her a lot since we only left the house one time while she was here. We did listen to some music but again not like times previously. Humorous story here too. Since I've had trouble finding things I can drink and tolerate the flavor of my wife recently picked up some bottled, caffine free "RX" brand "Stress" type tea. It's really tasty and not too sweet. Well, Mary and I both drank it while she was here and we both napped a lot. LOL. After reading what types of tea are used, they all are meant to relax you and put you to sleep. We went out to Ron's place (the one with the Owyhee Mountain Range view) and both napped there too. Ron was nearing completion on his music room he built in the second story of his barn. Nice room but long enough to create some acoustic problems. We also set up his system, at least temporarily, and fired it up. The BIX turntable has some speed stability issues we'll have to look into. GROAN. The poor guy is charting territory with every piece of gear he owns and I can't download from my head to his all the crap I know. And, what I know is rarely enough. As most of you understand, even reasonable hi rez playback is difficult to get right and requires a lot of research. Ron's a quick study and his room/system doesn't require a lot of tweaking but the problem is how busy he is with the rest of his life. He has a business to run which is located where major road construction is starting. Groaning for him as I write. He's getting his Nampa home ready to sell and has been busy moving into his new to him home near the Snake River. Of course, building the music room was a huge undertaking in the middle of this. His dad is moving soon and guess who will be doing all the work? The dad has more stuff than you can imagine. Moving from one farm to another and being an auctioneer like Ron his collection of cool, unusual stuff is too vast to describe. They are partners in a seed business selling high quality alfalfa seed for planting which requires them to bag the tonage of seed into 100# bags, selling and delivering it too. Like I mentioned, he is also an auctioneer which takes up several days per month. He also finds time to give a helping hand to "select" inmates paroled from our penal system. His criteria for helping them is pretty high. All of the ones he helps are non-violent offenders with no family support. He finds them a place to live, buys them a vehicle and insurance and either employs them or finds work for them. Some of them get returned to incarceration, usually for failing a pee test, or drinking if that's prohibited too. Watching the successes and failures of these guys has shown me that many are redeemable. I guess I don't see how they could have done it without his help. He's no bleeding heart just like myself but feels strongly that giving an ex-con $40 and saying, "go out and join society" is a recipe for disaster. His commitment is personal, costly and done without any fanfare. He is part of the solution, a lesson that most of us could learn a great from if only we were lucky enough to see it first hand like myself. Each of us has the power to change lives without screaming for the government to do it for us. Just like this thread has done for me but on an entirely different level. My health is okay, I guess. Long periods of inactivity may be as much to blame for my fatigue as the drugs, and or the cancer. I had a week off from chemo and felt better for the break. I begun another round yesterday and that's why I'm so chatty today. Another round of steroids providing me with a boost of energy for a couple of days. That's good but the potential to blurt out something aggressive is always there and I must constantly fight that tendency. Most of my friends understand and laugh at me (or simply remind me if I don't apologize first) for it. LOL. Here's a good one. I can't remember who the passenger was in my car but about a month ago I was driving to Ron's store. On the way I pulled up to a very long red light at a five way intersection. Some poor young dude, with a horrible taste in music and the technology to make him go deaf at an early age, pulled up along side me with his windows down. I took the audio assault for about a half nano-second and screamed over to him to turn the f*&#@r down. I guess my look must have shown him I was serious because he did turn it WAAAAY down. Lucky I didn't get shot in the face. You gotta admit though that somebody NEEDS to say something like this and maybe I'm the perfect person, being kind of expendable as I am. LOL. Barb is kidnapping me this afternoon. I know she has gotten us a really nice high roller room in a downtown Boise hotel for the night. She and I haven't spent a lot of time together alone without interuption lately. Sunday is my birthday and this is kind of a celebration of sorts. It looks like I'll reach the double nickel (my high school football jersery number) unless I get run over by a city bus in Boise or smart off to someone packing a pistol. I'll probably spend a few hours at the local record store which is only a few blocks from where we're staying. We'll just let the evening and tomorrow morning unfold. Doug, if those lyrics remind you of me I don't want the tears to last long. Hopefully they will bring a smile to your face. And Nate, trust me, Doug won't be wearing a tutu any time soon. Albert, sometimes the truth makes the recipient feel good. I meant every word. Who knows, maybe I can return to Dallas. I can do it on my own nickel too. Selling the Nova has given me the ability to do that. Maybe we can convince Gumby to come too and I know Nate is chomping at the bit to have a reunion. If I'm lucky I'll see you at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. I wish I could make plans right now but don't feel that's the right thing to do. This situation is just so uncertain. You may want to consider getting the 45 rpm version of David Crosby's "If Only I Could Remember My Name" lp. I'd get it myself but decided to get a new 33 1/3 since changing speeds on my table is a pain in the ass. More world class druggies on this recording than you can shake a stick at and good stuff too. Bluebull, sorry but it's been over a 100° here for awhile. I'm into T shirts, comfortable pants and sandals until we get some relief. Whenever it cools a bit I'll be rotating that jersey into my regular rotation of attire. People ask about it and I have several lies I tell them. Geez, people are so gullible if you can say it with a straight face. Zaikes, I simply cannot understand those guys taking the southern route except that they will be hitting higher population centers for most of the trip. A northern route would be such a better ride for them on so many levels. Not to mention that we folks that live in the boondocks rarely get treated to anything resembling this. Still, I'll follow it, continue to wear my Live Strong braclet and hope that Lance stays out of the cesspool of politics. I'm hoping that he will enter some of the other races here in the states since he's proven what he set out to do in France. Alex, I again thank you for the CDP. I'm getting more enjoyment out of it than I thought I would. Luckily I picked up a matching stand for it and the tuner so I can integrate it pretty well in the room aesthetically. The Syrah line stage does it justice. Joe, thanks for the update on our project. I'll forward you a photo of the finished piece for you insert here at the appropriate time. You too are a very nice guy. If you guys were looking for me to bitch about things I want you to know that I could if I wanted to. Nothing huge, nothing new. No point in going over these things again. Life is too short to waste on repeating things. I hope you guys have read all of this. Thinking now that since I mentioned that the 7th is my birthday....greetings and congrats are welcome but please don't send me any gifts. Everyone has been so kind already. One thing you guys might get a kick out of. Since surgery in early January I've changed a lot physically. Weighing in a about 50 less than my fighting weight, aging and graying too. None of the chemo blasted all the hair away but drastically thinned things out, especially in my mustache and goatee. The eyebrows, eyelashes and nose hair disappeared. Most of this is coming back now but at a snails pace. Funny thing is, my head hair is so wavy now it's almost curley. Amazing new look for old Lugnut. Barb loves it but I dunno how I feel. It's kind of a cross between Art Garfunkel and Clint Eastwood. Too bad it's not as long as before all this started. Maybe my ponytail would have been more than pencil thick. LOL. Have a good one guys. Pat |
