ain’t it amazing that no matter how sophisticated and updated we get with technology and easing life’s toils, the same things still need to be done, repeating a daily or weekly ritual  just to maintain?

The wind was about to knock me out of my chair the last few days and late last night found me driving into Vegas.  Yup, just for the drive more than anything…and to see how my little buddy was doing.  And to see if his dad was talking to me after a spectacular tête-à-tête we had by phone last Friday where I was doing most of the tête in a rather loud voice…and ending it by hanging up on him.  Yah, the life and times of all of us in one way or another.  Jerry Springer really has no patent on anything, he just televises it.

The Riot is still a riot but his little tummy wasn’t well still, it had all moved down to the other end.  I was off to the drugstore to get some children’s medication within a heartbeat.  For the first time in forever, he didn’t want to go home with me.  It was a relief.  I would have brought him with me for a few days again but I’m really ready to settle in and just work, play online poker, and get some stuff done around the new digs…if the wind ever quits.

There’s an incredible, dark mass of clouds moving across the sky from the mountains, and the wind is making their journey pretty damn fast.  I plan to sit outside, next windy day, and wait for one of the crows that tries to battle its way in no uncertain direction as it attempts to either catch the current or even find it, with camera in hand.  And the clouds look like they can be touched, if that makes any sense, ghosts of the sky floating off to the next canyon or valley or perhaps to nowhere; maybe they don’t move at all but try to hold themselves together to maintain identity against the wind.  Yes, I’ve now given life to clouds and have designated that they may have choices.  Guess that’s what living in the desert does for you.  I love having the space and thought to create life in something that was thought to be a void or incapable of having the spark.  Many simple things please me.  But have I ever mentioned how much I hate the wind.  I do, I do, I truly do.  It wears on my nerves and grinds into the tension in my shoulders and continually reminds that it’s there.

But what does any of this have to do with the garbage?  While in town last night I picked up my mail, the bill from Republic Services was in the mix for the old digs.  And I’m preparing to do online bill pay for the month and it is on top of everything else.  And that, my friends, is what made me think of garbage.  Which brings another thing to mind, for years I have managed my AT&T bill online and not taken a paper bill.  Almost a year ago I opened a business account with them and still managed to go online and pay my bill and not receive paper.  Two weeks ago I couldn’t log on and when I called their customer service they informed me that since I’m a business I can’t use the internet and I will receive a paper bill.  Umnhhh…more garbage, like half a tree in a paper bill from AT&T every month with all the phone lines, phone calls and text messaging, it’s a beauty.

And there’s garbage everywhere, even sitting in some seats at the poker table, that has never been taken out.  I had a phone visit with my buddette Sylvia Hart the other day, and the super ugly J.C. Pearson is still at Bellagio, playing almost every day.  She said if she sits down and pushes him a pot, he immediately starts in threatening that he’s never tipping her again.  Wonder if Republic Services could swing by and empty that seat?