It's friggin' hot here.

It's ridiculous in Nashville these days. It's in the 80's and the humidity is enough to choke a horse. Sunday I ran three miles outside and it felt like 50. No joke, I lost 2 pounds (of sweat) from the time I went outside to the time I came in. I ran inside on a treadmill today.

Tonight I stopped by the townhouse on the way home from church to check on progress. None. I was roaming around when I heard this hissing sound. Turns out I got a nail in a tire. That's probably going to keep happening. So I raced home (1.5 miles, nice) and changed clothes so I could put on the spare. This is a side note, but the spare shouldn't be a spare, it should be a fifth wheel that gets rotated in and out with the rest of them. Nope. I must have neglected that the last three times I got new tires because I don't even remember ever getting BFGoodrich tires for this vehicle, ever. But I digress. This simple process, in the dark, rendered me profusely sweaty. As in, my hair and shirt were soaked. I had to go inside and take a complete shower.

Vegas isn't this way. I agree with folks who say, "It's a dry heat." I LOVE it out there. 115 degrees with zero humidity is wonderful. I can walk from one end of the strip to the other, or traverse a dessert all day, the whole while feeling perfectly comfortable. The Nashville Rainforest, however, is miserable. What's Kansas City like?

Selling the spirit - Hardball with Chris Matthews - MSNBC.com

Selling the spirit - Hardball with Chris Matthews - MSNBC.com

How cool is this? I didn't know that the 'Christian Industry' had such a presence in Nash-Vegas. That's pretty sweet. I think I could handle working for a church-oriented business.

Some light reading for you

Jane's Information Group

I think this is kind of like 'Consumer Reports' and 'People Magazine' for the international intelligence community.

$200 Trillion

Do you have $200,000,000,000,000 just lying around? 'Cause I think this is a great idea and if a few of us get together we could do some very valuable good for this planet.

http://www.livescience.com/technology/050627_warming_solution.html

Fat & Happy

So, I haven't blogged in quite a while. I can't think of anything good. My title borrows from an Amanda phrase. I respect a woman that can confidently utter that phrase.

Last night we thought that blogging about SFBPC (sweaty-forehead-boy-pants-chic) would be funny ... but I think it's a had-to-be-there story. If you're confused, last night we had a waitress that had a sweaty forehead and wore boy jeans.

I'm happy. Life is good at the moment. I even have a few things that I could be all upset about if I wanted to. I live in a prison cell, I drive a Nissan P.O.S. that cost me another $400 today. But I am not even the least bit perturbed about that. Now, you jerks (you know who you are) are leaving town for a hundred million years. That has me bummed.

I don't even think I have anything funny to say. I think most of my humor is usually laced with of sarcasm. I got nothin' right now.

If you have a link on the right hand side of this site, chances are you are directly responsible for my positive mood.

Thanks.

The Guster of Oz

Song / Album / Artist

What You Wish For / Lost & Gone Forever / Guster

"... once had this dream, crashed down in oz
not black and white, but where the colors are ..."

Come Downstairs And Say Hello / Keep It Together / Guster

"Dorothy moves to click her ruby shoes
Right in tune with dark side of the moon ...

...

Voices calling from a yellow road
To come downstairs and say hello ..."

I have found after many years of intent listening to The Beatles that they have several themes of imagery that they reuse in many songs. The most obvious example being the use of the sun and rain (Here Comes the Sun, Sun King, I'll Follow the Sun, Rain, I Am The Walrus "... Standing in the English Rain"). The sun tends to represent hope or greatness. Rain is melancholy. Paul, in particular, uses birds, usually to describe fear or loneliness, (Blackbird, Bluebird, Free as a Bird "John never completed this song, Paul picked it back up", And Your Bird Can Sing). John even intentionally reuses their own lyrics or song titles (Glass Onion, How Do You Sleep?, All You Need is Love)

There are others. The sum of which weaves a cord or continuity to their collective works. It also gives a common lexicon of important keywords that can describe the purpose of the lyrics without a lot of verses.

Having been trained to find such continuity by The Beatles, I tend to pick up on these things in other bands. Thus, I caught in two Guster songs on two different albums (referenced above) that they must have a thing for The Wizard of Oz. Funny, that the two aforementioned songs are probably my favorites off each album. I wonder what their fascination is with The Wizard of Oz. They use it rather effectively. It tends to add a touch or surreal or dreaminess (stoned?) to the song.

I think I am really starting to dig Guster. If I can compare them to The Beatles, that's a lot in my book.