the truth of the matter is it seldom ever does so when it does, it’s extraordinarily wonderful.  But today was really no different, it didn’t.  I had thought to be out the door and on my way to Vegas by noon.  Nope!  I left around 2pm, scooting out into the desert heat, locking up the coach and starting up the steed…wondering how we’d made it so far without it being a blistering 100+ every day so far. 

I stopped by the tire shop to see if the boys would rebalance my front rims…not to see if I could trade in the steed on their advice  Yah, they could get to it in about 15 minutes.  So I waited.  I asked Joey if he played poker.  He does.  Sometimes they play at Bob’s house, sometimes he goes to the casino that I keep threatening to go to and play.  They play a variety of home games at Bob’s.  Just then I got called to look at a slight variance in one of the front rims.  The wheel had been off in weight by 3oz and Joey told him they had just done my tires and balancing a week ago.  I started laughing and said, “If you guys play poker like you balance wheels, I want to play in your game, I’ll have all your money.”

They took it well.  The other front tire was off by 1oz on each side – or so I was told and don’t ask me what the hell that means because I have no idea.  I can tell you that the trip into Vegas was delightfully smooth…no wobble or shake at any speed.

I got no sleep last night.  The neighbors (bad ones) now have three dogs.  The dogs took turns growl/bark/grumble off on and on throughout the night and a few cars came and went too, I must’ve finally dropped off about 5am.  So why is it that every time you have to get up and want to get something done, something like that happens and you’re so frigging tired you can barely draw a breath?

I have a plan.  First I will look for and purchase one of those machines that emit high pitched noise when a dog barks and see if that solves the barking dog noise – anyone know if it works or not?  If not, my next move is to buy a barking dog sound track and then play it with my window open at night, which will create one helluva din and keep the neighbors awake for a change.  I will put in the earplugs and turn on my sleep machine if I feel the need to z-z-z-z-z.

One morning around 7am there was a stray dog out in the front of the neighbors property that made it to the back fence where the 3 dogs are confined,  and the stray kept barking and yipping and the neighbor’s dogs went nutzo.  I was already up and had some music running to drown out the din.  I almost fell over laughing when the neighbor came out screaming and swearing at the stray to get the fuck out of there, blah, blah.  So it bothered him, but his own damn dogs barking or growling half the night don’t seem to.  We shall see…we shall see.

I stayed in Vegas tonight, took a room at the Suncoast, and when I saw the cars parked for hotel registration, I saw a car with ‘don’t let the music die’ written on it in big letters – like a just married type of thing.  Unfortunately when I got my room (and there were damn few nonsmoking ones left), the room right next to mine has a sign-in banner on it and the top of it reads “Don’t let the music die!”  Kee-rist!  I hope that doesn’t mean they’ll be like the frigging neighbors dogs in a few hours.

So…tomorrow I will be able to pick up my main man Riot.  I can hardly wait.  His little boy stories and smiles will make me smile.

Time to z-z-z-z-z before the music starts.