A Buddy of mine just sent these pictures, with the caption "Tough One To Score".

I don't think I could put it better. What sort of mutant beast grows antlers like this? What a friggin' mess. The hunter's got to be perplexed. You'd wanna be proud of it, but yer kinda scared of it too. Like goin' fishin' and haulin' in a big one, but when you land it it's got three heads. Sheeesh. Where the hell would you start countin'?



Looks more like a diseased growth than a set of antlers.



Looks like one of those sad, tree pruning butcher jobs when they cut the limbs off a tree way too far back and the new limbs grow out of the stumps totally unnaturally. I hate it when people do that.



Is that a proud daddy, or a guy sayin' "Damn, have you ever?" He almost looks like he's holding it at arms length, just in case.

Anyway, It's the end of another week and it couldn't happen to soon. Pooped! Think I'm approachin' burnout, and it's only February. As you may remember, I taught two mini term classes over the Christmas and New Years holidays so that the money would keep comin' in. As soon as those classes ended I started seven more classes, two of which are early morning advanced placement classes at a local high school, and one of which is another four week mini term. I mean two classes ended on a Friday and the others began the next Monday. I'm used to that sort of thing, but this time they've experimented with offering mini terms along with the regular schedule, and I was greedy enough to volunteer.

This latest four week class ends tomorrow, and another three week class begins Monday. I feel like a fat hairy rat on a wheel, but it's a very profitable wheel to be strapped to. I mean, It ain't ditch diggin', so I can't honestly complain too much, but it still drains the hell out of you when you feel like you really don't have any down time. I've got about 30 or 45 minutes to relax between classes in the morning and my lunch time classes, and about three hours in the afternoon, between the lunch time classes and the evening classes. I ether eat out somewhere or come home and throw somethin' together.

I check my email, check on my online class (oh yea, that makes eight classes), and then head back for my daily mini class (5 to 7pm), and then head to the late night classes (one Monday/Wednesday, the other Tuesday/Thursday, from 7:30 to 10pm). I get home between 10 and 10:30pm most nights, and then I check the emails again, try to relax with some TV, or surfin' this thing, checkin' up on ol' Mushy and everyone, and then I hit the sack with a book, if I have the energy. Before I know it it's 6:30am and all this shit starts again. I just finished a great book called "The Long Walk". Check it out. An excellent read.

I know, friggin' ridiculous. What's worse is the fact that I'm fightin' a cold this week. One of my students probably turned in a test after coughin' on it and now I'm takin' pills to try to keep it at bay. The last thing I need with this schedule is to be draggin' around coughin' and feelin' like shit. So I plan to stay home this weekend, relax, and try to recharge the batteries. Dad and I will be heading to our normal Chinese food outing this Saturday night, and then we'll be back to our normal Friday night outings beginning next week. Teaching this last four week class (5 to 7pm, M. to Fr.) pushed us to Saturday night, but the next mini term class will be just three weeks long, from 1:45 to 4:30pm every day, so Dad and I'll be back in business. That's right, my three hour afternoon break will shift next week to the evening, so I'll have time to eat dinner at the actual dinner hour, like a civilized person.

I've also been heading to a few local drinking establishments a few nights this week to watch a few of my buddies from work play pool in their local league. Means I got home about midnight one night last week, and last night and tonight. I enjoy their company, and it amounts to about the only social life I have outside my family and the classroom. Probably contributes to bein' pooped, but what the hell. You gotta have a little time outside of class to laugh and listen to old married guys drink and tell lies about women. These are the same folks I go to chili cook offs with, and go tubin' with in the summer. They're a great bunch. Fun lovin'. You've got to have people like this in yer life or you'll go crazy.

I get a huge break tomorrow morning, not having to go in to the morning classes. The high school kids are taking their TASP tests, so I get to sleep in till 10am. That will do a lot to start the rechargin' process. So, I hope all of you have a new sense of ease and confidence, warmed by the notion that your own life may not be as beat down as you thought it was. I guess someones always runnin' faster on that wheel than you are. I'm pretty well compensated, so I can't complain.

To wrap it up, here's a joke a friend sent me recently...

From an actual sign at a golf course in Scottsdale, Arizona:


1. BACK STRAIGHT, KNEES BENT, FEET SHOULDER WIDTH APART.

2. FORM A LOOSE GRIP.

3. KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN!

4. AVOID A QUICK BACK SWING.

5. STAY OUT OF THE WATER.

6. TRY NOT TO HIT ANYONE.

7. IF YOU ARE TAKING TOO LONG, LET OTHERS GO AHEAD OF YOU.

8. DON'T STAND DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF OTHERS.

9. QUIET PLEASE...WHILE OTHERS ARE PREPARING.

10. DON'T TAKE EXTRA STROKES.



WELL DONE. NOW FLUSH THE URINAL, GO OUTSIDE & TEE OFF.

Have a great weekend. See ya in the later.

Oh, what the hell, I guess it's Fatty Friday, so here goes nothin'. I know you didn't see it, but there WAS a fat guy in that picture. And to think, she's got good taste in reading material too. Now, for real this time, I'll see ya in the later. I'm off to bed, to dream of fat hairy women and easy money...

or is it easy women and fat hairy money. Yea, that sounds much better.