Star Date 01102016
Matt M will like this one. Adele’s, When We Were Young. Here’s the tough part of some of the whistling songs…because I don’t know all the lyrics..and in most cases don’t really care to, I end up whistling just the chorus. Over. And over. And over. Some songs this is okay to do, if I’m by myself. Otherwise, not so much. I don’t tire of it, but I’m not really paying attention to the fact that I’m even doing it. Jess catches it every once in a while and will laugh and ask what I am whistling. She’s given up on how or why the tune is in my head to begin with.
Busy day ahead. Need to get to the gym, get back, get clean, watch my baby whilst the girls do girl things. Busy. Paul, Courtney, Sam, and Jay will be over today as well. They all traveled early to get here from Indianapolis, IN. So…two toddlers will be here. We’ve done about all we can to “childproof” the house as much as one can for a house under destruction.
Fast forward. Got the gym part done and the cleaned up part done. Seeing the aforementioned folk from Indy was most excellent. It’s been too long. I have not done the best at keeping up via phone and or textulation. Didn’t matter. Good friends watching two toddlers battling over toys, and having good conversation. Re-connecting.
Spotlight friend. I have to go back a bit here. Jay would fit in after Les, in the timeline. Jay was working for his then, bro-in-law. He needed an employee, and I needed a job. I got hired, even though the bro-in-law wanted a different guy, Jay convinced him I was the correct move. We hit it off right off the bat. When the bro-in-law’s company went teets up, Jay and I determined we could run the business. We filed all the appropriate paperwork, and Fordyce Inc. was born. We picked up contracts that were defaulted on, and had business right away. Made some connections with a national sign company out of Boise, and the real work began. We were painters. Not artists. For the next three years, Jay and I spent the majority of our time traveling around the United States. Most of the time we were in the work truck, dragging a trailer with our supplies and Harley’s. …gotta have a little fun, except when you’re in Nebraska or Kansas or Texas. Then it is just balls hot all day and night. We had an in-dash DVD player so we could watch movies as we drove. Yes…both of us. We spent every waking and sleeping hour together. Conversations…serious and lighthearted. We’ve watched each other’s kids grow up. We’ve seen each other through some unpleasant sh**. We have always been there for each other since we met. In the short amount of time that Fordyce (named after Jay’s father) was in business, we amassed thousands of miles by road and air. Watched and went to countless movies, saw amazing places, took pictures that still make us laugh to this day. Always together. We had good and bad conversations…not bad…tough. We listened, we talked, we picked on each other…as brothers do. I was part of his family and he was my family. I realize as I type this, that there really aren’t many specific times I am bringing up, but that is merely due to how many things we did in a very short time span. I’ll hit on one or two, but the outcome is the same. We did everything together….within reason…all day, everyday. Most days, we worked our asses off and still managed to find some fun in it. I suspect Jay’s version might vary slightly, but…he’d be wrong. Just sayin. We closed the business when the work ran dry. Jay got a job with Firestone Building Products, and I moved West from CO back to CA. Closer to my kids and hopeful for work. It was because of Jay that I was hired at Firestone. It is because of Firestone that Jay and I both found our wives. Connections. It has been and always will be about connections. Jay was and is my best man. So…a story. There’s the time we went to Maui and rented Harleys for the couple days we were there. We road the entire island.
The top pic is the top of Haleakala. The bottom pic…as it states, is the road to Hana. When you rent a bike in Hawaii…best to get the insurance. I bounced mine off the guard rail somewhere near the top, when a tourist crossed the line and brakes were being applied in all directions. Get the insurance. It was awesome. 80 degrees at sea level and 32 at the top. Tank tops and shorts. Aloha. We stayed on Oahu. Jay has propensity for finding a drink that he likes all the ingredients, and when it comes out from the bar, it bright pink, orange, or blue, covered in flowers and fruit. We just laugh. He’d had a couple of those one night and we were walking back to the hotel. He saw an attractive caucasian gal in front of us and started following her. She caught on pretty quickly, but it didn’t matter. Amazingly, she flirted back with Jay. I was in awe of this. …not of her, of what was transpiring in front of me. She was dressed in business attire and looked every bit of serious. We kept walking and not so sober Jay was laughing and chattin. We got to the hotel steps and Jay invited the gal in for a drink at the hotel bar. …at least that’s how I recall it. She didn’t move. The security guy at the door informed us that she was a lady of the night. Unbeknownst to either of us, their kind weren’t allowed in the hotel, nor did we know she was one. Good times. It was the company out of Boise that sent us to Hawaii. The same company that sent us everywhere. We became their go-to contractors. In order to get paid, we would submit invoices and pictures of before and after. One time…only one time, I was left to send the pictures in. Sounds easy enough…and it was…sort of. You see, Jay and I liked to have fun with statues…pictures of each other mounting them in various ways. Not for blackmail…just for S and G’s. We had taken a trip outside of Seattle, and in front of this bank was a cannon. The base was painted bright red and the barrel was gloss black. You may be asking yourself why any of this matters. Don’t. All statues and such were in very public places. This cannon happened to be on a busy street corner. The bank was not open yet, so we pulled our rig around and set up for the photo opp. In this particular case, we took turns being at either the front of the barrel, bent over, or behind the barrel…for obvious reasons. We set the camera’s timer and struck several poses. Laughing until we cried. People driving by were honking and laughing. We …two full growed men…making idiots of ourselves. Fast forward to me handling the pics to be sent to the folks who paid us for performing quality work. Yep. Somehow, one of those pics made the folder. I received a call from the VP of the company asking if I meant to send all the pics. He was clearly implying something, but I did not know what. He suggested I go back in to the folder while we were on the phone talking. He had me on speaker with a couple other folks we knew at the company. Suddenly there was laughter. Turns out one of the cannon pics got mixed in with the business pics. Whoops. Jay never let me send pics again. However, the company requested regular photos of our trips and statue poses. I complied with the request. Anything to break up the day with some laughter.
Fast forward. Time for Charlie’s coming out party. Should be a hoot.
Final thought. Expecting to see a few peeps tonight. There is no sadness expected. Just connecting and laughing. Newer friends mixed with older. My framily, minus a few key folks. That part is a bit sad. The evening will go way too quickly. I and we will enjoy the now. My peeps.
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