Childhood memory found

You ever have one of those childhood memories that you just can't seem to remember where it came from or what time in your life, you just know it was from a long time ago. It could be a song, a movie or just something someone said.

I had one I had been struggling with for years. It was a song and all I could remember was a part of the song which featured three bats singing "isn't it cozy, isn't cozy, isn't it cozy here". That was it that was all I had. On occasion I would sing the song because I did remember how the tune went but only remembered those three lines. Now I have been trying for years trying to convince my wife that this was a real song and I was not making it up and one thing I knew for sure or at least I thought I did was that it was a cartoon made by Rakin Bass. They are the awesome creators of  Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, The Mad Monster Party, The Hobbit and many many more. Now I kind of feel like if I want to find something on the internet I will find it but dang it I just could not find anything about that song. But yesterday morning that all changed. My wife was doing a little surfing on the internet and she was on the Rankin Bass website and did a search for "isn't it cozy" and lo and behold the tile of a movie called The Daydreamer came up. She went onto youtube to see what that show was for some reason(I truly believe my wife has psychic ability) picked The daydreamer part 8 and wouldn't you know it, in that little 10 min film clip my long lost song was in it. So for your (hopefully) enjoyment and thanks to my wife I bring you my long lost song Isn't it Cozy. The song starts at about 7.15 in the video.

Are you ready for some football???

As the month of August is coming to the end the days here in Tucson are starting to cool down ever so slightly. Instead of waking to morning temps in the low 80s we are down to the mid to low 70s. The days are getting shorter while the shadows are getting longer and the sky is getting back to a richer blue instead of the faded blue of the summer heat and that can only mean one thing, the return of college football.

 If you are from Tucson you are most likely a University of Arizona Wildcat fan from the first breath of your life until your last. With Tucson being a relatively small city the Wildcats are the only game in town that matters. But I was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Simi Valley . Back in California I grew up a UCLA Bruins fan. We had great coaches like Dick Vermeil, Terry Donahue and yes I even consider Bob Toledo a great coach because he got the Bruins within one game of the national championship(yes we were robbed against the Miami Huricanes) With players like Troy Aikman, Carnell Lake, Freeman McNeil all having worn the powder blue and gold. The Bruins have not been the best of football teams since 1999 but now it's 2012 and the Bruins have a new head coach in Jim Mora who has been trying to change the culture of apathy that had taken place in the Bruin program. But as is the case every year I still anticipate a good season and I think Coach Mora has the Bruins headed in the right direction. So I wish my Bruins luck in their opening game in Houston against Rice. I anticipate many eight claps this year.

I feel the earth move under my feet...

So how did this California boy end up in Tucson? Well it's not a terribly long story but with a little help from some tectonic plates and about a 15 second ride through hell during the Northridge earthquake I was ready to pack my bags and head to the desert.

I can't remember if it was in 1992 or 1993 we were told at my job that the plant site was closing down and moving to Tucson Az. I can remember it was like a punch in the gut. I had been there for just over 10 years and now I was going to have to find a new job. I had no plans of leaving California I just figured I'd find something around the San Fernando Valley. I was taking the classes for the post office, I had been trying to learn the air conditioning trade but the electrical side of it was very confusing for me. I was a bit worried but I knew something would come up.

On Sunday January 16th a friend and I went to the L.A. Convention Center in downtown Los Angeles to check out the big auto show going on there. We spent the day checking out the new vehicles and taking lots of pictures. It was a pretty fun day but nothing out of the ordinary and when I got home I ate dinner watched t.v. for a bit and went to bed. As I recall I was having a pretty good nights sleep, and then at 4.30 am(about an hour before my clock would go off) I was tossed right out of bed by a 6.7 earthquake.Northridge Earthquake  It was the worst earthquake I had ever been in. When I hit the ground I wanted to stand up but I couldn't so I crawled to the door jam and rode out the quake. Now for those that have never experienced an earthquake it's hard to explain the feeling of going through one but the sound of your house being shaken on it's foundation is one of the loudest and most frightening part of the quake. Everything in your house is on the move and getting tossed around like it weighs nothing. It felt like eternity before the shaking stopped but it did only last about 15 seconds but when it stopped I got to my feet and man was it dark. The power had been knocked out. As I was making my way to the front door I could hear water running from the bathroom but at this point I just wanted out of the house. I found the door and had opened it and was leaving when I heard my roommate calling my name. I had forgot she was there but i was not going back into the house so I held the door knob and stretched out my arm and called her name so she could find me in the dark. We went out to the parking lot to gather with the other people in the parking lot. Everyone was pretty shaken but no one was hurt. About 3 minutes after being outside we could hear a large explosion and saw a giant fireball from a gas line that had exploded a few blocks away. it took a while for me to gather my wits enough to think that I had to go back into the house and check out what the running water sound was. I borrowed a flashlight and went back into my home and found that the toilet tank had broken and the water was running. I quickly turned it off and got the hell out. it was then that I decided that a move to Tucson might not be a bad idea after all.

I made the move to Tucson in July of 1994 and have to say I have grown to love this town very much. I met my wife have a great family and who knows when I retire I might just move back to California. I guess we shall see.

An Old Hag or my Guardian Angel?

I put a lot of thought into whether I would write about an episode that happened to me years ago. It reveals a personal issue I had in my past and what happened to me to overcome it, and still to this day even though I have since learned what happened to me is a known medical issue it still seems as if a guardian angel or something was looking out for me.

Growing up I was a shy kid, oh sure I had a few friends but I was not someone who made friends easily. This shyness carried on through my teen years and I guess that was how my drinking and substance abuse first got started. I am not a person who is comfortable at parties or gatherings. I mean I'm much better now but when I was young the only way I would relax or feel even half way comfortable was to have a few drinks. Unfortunately that was the start of me using alcohol for most any sort of discomfort in my life. Mix in some recreational drug use and by the time I was in my twenties I was a mess. I was that person that drank to get drunk and was also very obnoxious. Anyway my substance abuse carried on until about the age of 27 or 28 yrs old. I don't remember the exact year but I do remember the day.

The day was Dec 31st(again not sure of the year) I was home alone(again) on New Years Eve. I had planned to go to opening day at Santa Anita to bet the horses with a friend of mine the next day. On New Years eve sitting home alone and feeling sorry for myself I proceeded to get drunk alone as was my usual New Years eve ritual. Waking up on Jan1st I had a pretty nasty hangover but I was looking forward to having a few beers at Santa Anita so to wake myself up a bit I did a couple of lines of crank. If you don't know what crank is it's a low purity, crystallized methamphetamine that comes in a powder form. It's speed. In about 20 minutes I am wide awake,still hungover but ready to go. I call my friend and he tells me he is not going because he is too hungover. Well I didn't want to go alone to Santa Anita but man I was speeding pretty good by now and the only way I could think to come down was to try and drink myself down. I spent the day drinking screw drivers and as the day wore on I got very drunk. Well needless to say when I woke up Jan. 2nd I was a wreck and did not make it in to work I just lay around the house all day feeling like crap but did not drink or use. That night when I went to bed I set my alarm as usual and fell asleep. Now I don't know what time it was but sometime during the night I woke up and was lying on my stomach. It seemed very dark in my room and I could not seem to move. since my head was turned to my left side I was able to to see over my left shoulder and I could make out a silhouette of a person sitting on my bed with their hand on my back. I was terrified I could not breathe nor could I move but I could plainly see and feel a shadowy person sitting on my bed and looking at me. I'm not sure how long I was in this position, I'm guessing it wasn't long but I was finally able to roll over on my side and the person was gone as if they were never there. My heart was beating so fast I'm surprised I could not see it coming up out of my chest. After I calmed down and caught my breath I came to the decision I was never going to drink or use again. I felt as if I had just received a warning from God and that I needed to stop immediately. From that day to the day I am typing this I have not had a drink of alcohol or used again.

Now in the 20+ years from that day I have since learned of the medical condition know as sleep paralysis or by the lay mans term the Old Hag syndrome. But as far as I am concerned I was given a gift, a gift of life because in the years that have followed I over came many of the discomforts I felt as a teen but never gave myself the chance to over come and for those that know me now can probably tell I'm not that shy kid anymore. For anyone that reads this please feel free to share your experiences no one here will judge.

When did I become my dad?

There comes a time when a man has to admit he is no longer that cool young guy anymore but has slowly, over time evolved into his dad. The time for me is now.

Oh the signs have been coming but I tried to ignore them. My wife was the first to notice maybe 8 years ago and she seemed quite happy to tell me that I walk just like my dad. Of course I said no way and walked off. Then there came another sign, I'm sitting on the couch watching TV and my wife again points out that I'm crossing my legs at my ankles and my hands are clasped behind my head just like my dad. Now I'm starting to take notice and I'm begin to worry that she is right. I tried to fight it because I want to be my own man and I'm much cooler than my dad ever was but now the signs are coming faster and more often. I forget words to songs so make up my own, I break out in dance if I hear a catchy tune whether it's a jingle from a commercial or a song on the radio. I think the final dagger was when I would catch myself bugging my son when we were driving somewhere. See when I was young my dad would be driving and he would have his left  hand on the steering wheel and with his right he would reach over and touch my ear or just tap my head. Of course I hated this just like my son doesn't like it when I do it to him but it makes me laugh and I understand now why my dad did it to me and who knows maybe sometime in the future my son will do the same to his son or daughter.

When we were young my friends and I would always say we were not going to be like our parents we were going to be different but time, maturity and love have their ways of changing the way we view ourselves and our parents and if I could be half the man my dad is I would consider that a great accomplishment.

Damn, 50 already?

How did I get to 50 so fast? It seems like yesterday I was out of high school and starting on a road trip across the country to Rhode Island(long story for another time). I look back and see a few years wasted on youth and stupidity but finally left that crap behind me in my late 20's. I remember on my thirtieth birthday I woke up with a sore back and I thought oh man I'm getting old. Well here I am at 50 and I can see just how naive I was. While 50 didn't feel too bad this morning but I can see in the mirror what 50 looks like and when I compare it to 30, yikes! But generally I'm in good health and feel like I can do another 50 so as Jason Hawes says, "On to the next"

Paranormal Unity

I am part of an online paranormal radio show called Class A Radio which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com . Today we spoke a bit about paranormal unity and what it means or at least what some people think it means. In my opinion there doesn't need to be unity there needs to be respect. If you respect how my team goes about it's business and I respect how others go about theirs then we should not have any problems. Unfortunately some in the field think that unity means I have to like everything they do and not question their processes. In our field we should always be open to peer review and be willing to accept when others disagree with our findings.  By the way Class A Radio airs live Sunday afternoons at 3pm MST, 6pm EST with your hosts Brian Cowley of Parazona Investigations and Mike Dentato of Suncoast Paranormal Research and Investigation and myself

Licensed to Drive

Watching my son grow up I have been through a few nerve racking moments in his life. There was his first day of school, that was pretty intense leaving him there in the care of someone else for the day. The many basketball and volleyball games he has played in. The hardest on the nerves were the championship games in both basketball and volleyball in his last year at Secrist M.S. He was a starter on both teams and was a city champ in two sports.

But I think taking my son to the MVD for his drivers test has been, up to now the most nervous thing we have done in his life so far. Anyone going to the MVD knows how long of a wait it can be for your number to be called even in a smaller city like Tucson. I could feel his nervousness as we waited for his number to be called and after about a 20 min wait(not too bad) we go to the clerk where we hand in his paperwork and pay the fee for his test. Now because nothing is quick and easy we get to wait outside for the instructor to come out and start working on the line of cars that are waiting to take their test. While we were waiting a car pulls up and instead of going to the back of the line he cuts to the front because the cars had not rotated forward. well this caused a small commotion but since the instructor did not see the guy cut in she told everyone they need to move up when someone takes their turn. Now I felt bad for the kid whose older brother(I think) took cuts because he failed the first part of the test, which is the 3 point turn, and was sent home. it seemed like an instant karma thing but still I hated to see the kid fail.

In the mean time my son is waiting patiently but now his nerves are turned up and my are probably 50 times worse than his but I'm holding it in. One by one kids are attempting the 3 point turn, some pass and some fail, and now it's Davids turn and I'm about ready to bust. he pulls up to the start position and then slowly makes his left turn into the parking stall where he hesitates a moment and then starts the all important backing up into back part of the 3 point turn course. He is moving slowly but steady and from where I'm standing I can tell he has hit his marks perfectly and will complete the course. If I had the ability to do a cart wheel I would have done five of them. With the hard part done the driver road test was just a formality(because I have trained him so well). And now my son has his drivers license and my wife and I have a chauffeur. On to the next chapter.