Keep On Truckin'

Yesterday, hot. But not as hot as Monday or Sunday. Did the chiro, went and started my allergy shots, which will hopefully help with the migraines, and then went on a bike ride. I got beat down by the bike again, about half way through my thighs started burning like crazy, even when I wasn't pedaling. Just sitting on the bike hurt. But I pushed on and made it home. Grilled some food with the family (no Erik tonight) and then it started raining. It was nice because it really cooled off the air so it was actually quite comfortable. Erik showed up and had to finish up a car in my driveway in the rain. It really sucked, and I felt bad for him, but he got it done pretty quick. Hung out with the rents, and then kicked it with Aaron at the BP for a while. Then just spent the rest of the night watching movies, since I didn't want to be in the rain. Before I went to bed I ordered up some new headlights for my truck, because they got kinda damaged in the accident. They still work, but the aim is off and the brackets broke so I can't adjust them. Hopefully they will be here middle of next week.

Today, I woke up and right after I got out of the shower, Kaija and Ian were standing in my hallway. Kaija remembered my garage code, and when I didn't answer my phone, let herself in. She hasn't done this in probably 5 years, so it was an interesting surprise. I was just glad I had gotten my pants on first. We hung out on the deck for about 15 minutes, but then I left for the chiro and they went home. Now I'm at home slowly getting ready to head to my cabin in Hayward, WI. It's the first time of the year, so I'll have to open it all up and get it working again before everyone else shows up Thursday/Friday. My grandparents and parents are coming up tomorrow, and then my aunt and cousins are coming up on Friday. Should be a good time. Hanging out on the deck, going for boat rides, not being in the cities. I can't wait! That's why I volunteered to go up and open it up, so I could just get up there. Ever since it's been about 45 degrees outside, back in March, I've wanted to go up there. Now I get my wish. It's only about a three hour drive, so it isn't too bad. I've done it many times before, so going up in the middle of the night by myself on a two-lane, dark highway full of deer won't be a problem. I just wish I had my new headlights. Fortunately, my high beams are still aimed right (weird) so when there aren't other cars I'll be able to see fine. I'll probably take some pictures and post them on here when I get back. I'll get back on Monday, so you probably won't hear from me til then. There isn't internet up there, but I can sometimes get shaky internet on my phone up there, so when I get bored at night I might get on. We'll see.

Everyone take care, and be safe this weekend!

-Kevin

My dad, and subsequently my brother, are HUGE Grateful Dead fans, and this was the first song of their's I ever heard. Still one of my favorites. I thought it was fitting.

Roll The Window Down This Cool Night Air Is Curious

Well Saturday started off pretty laid back like I thought. Lounged around the house for a bit and then went on a bike ride. Spent a couple hours outside enjoying the weather and getting some good exercise. Had a nice dinner with the family (Erik was actually home for dinner for a change) and then went with Erik to a buddy's house for a party. Actually, it was his parents' house, because they were out of town, but whatever. Hung out there for a while and saw some people I haven't seen in almost a year which was really cool. Around 2 am we all decided to go on a bike ride around the lakes (seeing a theme yet?) and had a great time biking around and listening to music. Got back to their house and had a bonfire and then finally got out of there around 5 am. Yogi and BooBoo were pretty drunk, so they got a ride from me and crashed at my house.

Woke up on Sunday and gave the bears a ride to their car and headed off to band practice. It was extremely hot so I decided to drive instead of biking. Not a very productive practice though, I think we were all suffering from the heat. Finally we called it quits and went our separate ways. I went home and was informed our air conditioner broke. Great. Just had to happen when it's 90 degrees outside. Had dinner with the whole family again and then biked up to the bp to hang with Aaron. About thirty minutes after I got there, Kaija called me to have a bonfire/bbq at my house. I didn't really want to because of the heat, but they twisted my arm (free food) and I gave in.

We spent about three hours grilling different kinds of food, and by the time we were done, we figured it was too late to start a fire so we just hung out instead. It was the same crew as last time, and they ended up leaving around 2:30 in the morning. Again, when they left I biked to the gas station to get some smokes and then came home and went to bed.

Today I woke up hot as hell, and then remembered the A/C was broken. And it is another day in the mid 90s. It'll be a couple days until it can get fixed, which fucking SUCKS! Last night when I got to the bp I stood in their giant cooler for the pop for like 20 minutes enjoying the cold air. So after taking a COLD shower, I went to the chiro and then came back home. Killed a few hours watching crappy movies waiting for Erik to get home. When he finally did, we went off to see the Deftones play at First Ave. I'm not a huge fan, but I like them enough to be excited to see them live, more so than Korn at least. We missed the opening band since Erik was at work, but got there right as the Deftones got onstage. Since it was 90 degrees outside, it was around 110 degrees inside the venue, but totally worth it. They played an amazing show, and my body really hurts from it. Glad I have a chiro tomorrow. After the show, went home and we did our best to stay cool. Laying low watching tv and eating ice cream pretty much. Now I'm here, and about to go to bed. I have to start getting my stuff together to go to my cabin this weekend. It's the first time of the year, so there is a lot of stuff to bring up. We don't use it in the winter, because it's not winterized, so we bring almost everything home. But I get to drive my truck up there so it's worth the effort. And I just love being there looking at the lake.

Hope you're all well.

-Kevin

Deftones featuring Maynard James Keenan of TOOL - Passenger

Sun Is On My Side

So on Wednesday I went and played some frisbee golf with Josh and Garrett, did fairly well too. Kicked it with them for a while before dropping them off and driving to Demian's house. Got there and helped him put the driver door back on a car he just bought and is fixing up. After that we jumped in the truck and took of to go look at the bike. It was kind of a long drive, so we just talked about random stuff. When we got there, D sat in the truck and I went to the door. They were just pulling up in their boat when I got to the door so I waited for them to dock and what not before they came over. Did the introductions and then we got down to business. I saw the bike for the first time in person and almost passed out. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and looks 100 times better than in the pictures.

After I got over the shock, I took it for a ride around the block, and my only fear was resolved. It was the most comfortable bike I've ever ridden. When you look at the picture, you think you'll have to lean really far forward to reach the handlebars, but you don't. I'm just the right height where I can reach everything perfectly, almost like it was built for me :-P. I biked back to their house and then Demian started going over it with a fine tooth comb. Checking the lines, the bearings, everything. The guy said he'd seen people buy motorcycles who weren't as picky ,which I thought was funny because Demian is a huge motorcycle guy. After it passed D's inspection, it came down to price. It turns out there was a lot of interest in the bike, including some guy that wanted it boxed up and shipped to Ohio, so I couldn't talk them down at all. I was only shooting for $150, so it was only $25 so whatever. Paid them $175 and loaded it into the truck. The bike is 6.5 feet long, and it just so happens my truck bed is 6.5 feet long. I couldn't get it in and have the tailgate close, so I had to put it in diagonally. No biggie. Jumped in and took off with both parties happy.

On the way back, we stopped at Demian's parents house so he could grab one of his trikes. He wants to do some more work on it before a festival in a couple weeks, so he figured this would be the perfect time to get it since I have a truck. We somehow managed to get the trike and my bike in the bed and we went to his house back in Uptown. Unloaded the bikes and went on a quick ride for a few blocks just to test things out some more. After that I went home and took it for a ride up to the BP to show Aaron. He was supper excited and started riding it around the parking lot.

Thursday, had a chiro, then band practice. I drove to the chiro, since I don't have a bike lock yet, but biked to practice. The guys were blown away by the bike since they had no idea I was getting it, and all rode it around the block. We played a couple of songs, and then fired up the grill. While that was heating up, we played a small game of badminton, and then ate some brats and ribs. After eating, we played a little more and then called it quits. I rode home and hung out with mom for a while.

I got bored pretty fast so I went for a bike ride. Started cruising around town enjoying the weather and the new bike. After about an hour I went home and got on the computer. Screwed around on there for a bit and then went for one last bike ride, probably for 45 minutes.

Today I didn't have any plans, but I slept later than I had planned. I guess the biking had worn me out more than I thought. Went for another bike ride, and then drove down to Erik's shop to pick up an axle for a car he is working on. Loaded all that into the truck and headed home with him since he just got off. Ate dinner with the rents, and went to help Erik a bit with the car. Once he had everything under control I went inside to watch a little tv. Right when my show ended I decided to go for a bike ride again. Just as I was getting my stuff together, Erik asked if I wanted to go on a ride. I told him that's what I was doing, and we went together. We took off with nowhere in particular in mind, and ended up at some random lake sitting on the shore. We stayed there for about 20 minutes before heading on. We again just went wherever, and biked all over town. Finally we were getting tired so we went home. When we got there I looked at a clock and realized it was 2 am. We had been biking for over three hours. I didn't think it was that much, but explained why I was tired. We made some egg bagel sandwiches and then he went to bed. I got on the computer again and started looking around at bike parts and then came here. All in all a pretty good day with lots of exercise. I'm hoping I'll be able to get in better shape with all the bike riding. We'll see by the end of the summer.

Pretty laid back weekend, probably just a lot of bike rides. We'll see.

-Kevin

I Can See, I Can See I'm Going Blind

So like I said, I'm not a huge Korn fan, but holy shit do they put on a good show. We got there right when the opening band was finishing up, so we just hung out outside the infamous First Ave smoking cigarettes and getting pumped up. We headed in about 10 minutes before they started to get good spots. Erik and BooBoo went off into the pit, but me and our buddy Tom stayed off to the side so we wouldn't die. I didn't think my back could take some serious moshing. So Korn comes out and it's incredibly heavy and everyone is rocking out and the energy is extremely intense. They started their song called Coming Undone, which isn't really one of my favorites so I was just like whatever, but after the first chorus something happened. The drum beat stayed the same, but the rest of the band dropped out and I hear Jonathan Davis say, "buddy you're a big boy make a big noise." Oh shit! They busted out the first part of We Will Rock You by Queen. Definitely not expecting that at a Korn show. The entire place explodes and it was amazing. Definitely the highlight of the night. The rest of the show was awesome and I walked out with a really sore neck. Headed home, Tom got in his truck and went home, and Erik and BooBoo crashed out watching a movie.

Today I went to the chiro which was wonderful because my neck was really sore from last night still. After that went for another bike ride by myself around town, and then came home and hung out with mom. Pretty laid back night. Tomorrow I'm going with Demian to go buy a bike for myself. I have a bmx, but it isn't very comfortable to ride, and it doesn't fit in with everyone else's cruiser bikes. So I found a really cool GT Kustom Kruiser Roadster for $175, but I'm going to try and talk them down on it. We'll see. The picture is of the one I'm getting, taken from the ad.



Here is a video of Korn playing Coming Undone with We Will Rock You, but not from the show I was at.



I'll let you know what happens with the bike soon. I'd like to thank my two new followers, Paul and Gabey. Thanks for reading guys!

-Kevin

Pedal Power

Wow. What a weekend. I guess I should finish telling you about coming out. My cousin, Roger, lives in Utah but he and his family come out here at least once a year to see all the family. Over the last couple of years we have started to get close and last year I drove out to Utah to spend the week with him. It was my first long distance solo road trip and was a wonderful time. We've helped each other out with issues before, and when he decided to get sober, I was the first one he called. He leans more to the 'liberal' side of things, so I was pretty sure he wouldn't have a problem with me coming out. The night before I had been thinking things over for awhile and decided the next time I talked to him I'd tell him. As fate would have it, the next night I see him on facebook. This isn't something I would really want to talk about over facebook, but I was still to scared to call him. At least there is the chat function so no one else could read it. So I start talking to him and getting caught up. We both just finished our first year of college so there were a lot of first experiences to talk about. After getting all caught up, I wasn't really sure how to start the next conversation, so I straight up asked him if I could trust him. He said I could with anything. At this point I'm trying to decide if I want to go through with it or not, since I hadn't told him anything yet. Finally I figured, what's the worst that will happen? I'll lose him as a friend and we won't talk, but he lives far away so whatever. I told him I had something I wanted to tell him, but I wasn't quite sure how to. Right before I told him my nerves really started acting up, so I ran outside and smoked a cigarette as aggressively as I could. It kind of helped, so I jumped back on the computer and said, "I'm not really sure how to say this, so I'm just going to say it." "Ok." "I am gay." No response... All of a sudden I start freaking out, thinking what the hell have I done?!

After what seemed like an hour, but was about thirty seconds, he just says "really?" "Yup." Again silence. Then, "wow." No shit. He finally recovers from shock and says, "you know that's not a bad thing, right?" Thank god. I figured it would be fine, but now I knew. I told him I did, but was still really freaking out. We continued to talk for about an hour about everything and he finished by saying if I ever need to talk about anything, to call him. I thanked him, and then we both went to bed since it was around 4 in the morning. So I was extremely relieved. I had told someone I knew, and they accepted it without a problem, other than the initial shock. That night I slept the best I have in over a month. It felt like a huge weight was off my shoulders and I woke up with the biggest smile on my face. I felt like I was floating for the rest of the day. It seemed nothing else could bother me.

Friday I met up with the crew again and played some disc, and then went to Josh's for the night and just hung out playing cards again. Got home rather late and crashed right away. I was really beat from the 18 holes earlier.

Saturday we went up to my aunt and uncle's house, again, for my cousin Ryan's sweet sixteenth birthday party. We spent the day outside enjoying the weather and I took the kids out on the lake for a while abusing them on the tube. After dinner we started packing up our stuff and headed out. Got home around 9 pm and I had nothing to do. All my friends were already busy and I didn't want to stay at home all night, So I loaded up the truck and went back to Lynn and Doug's. I would have stayed from earlier, but my parents and I rode up together so we had vehicle issues. Got up there a little after ten and surprised everyone there. I brought up my guitar for something to do and entertained the kids with a bunch of different songs, both covers and originals. Around 1 am I headed off to bed.

Woke up around noon on Sunday and took the kids tubing again. When we got back to the house, I realized I had to get going back to the cities for band practice. I quickly grabbed my stuff and headed off. Got to Wyatt's house right when practice was supposed to start and we proceeded to make noise. Again, a rather productive practice, polishing up the new tracks and even wrote another new one. After about two hours we decided it was too nice out to be inside so we called it quits and went to spend the rest of the day outside.

I got home and met up with my brother. He had just gotten back from New Richmond, WI buying an old Schwinn cruiser bike and a Kangaroo. The Kangaroo is a foot scooter type thing, but instead of pushing with your feet, you bounce up and down like a kangaroo. The back wheel's axle is offset, so when it rolls, the standing platform goes up and down, creating momentum. We loaded them into my truck and went off to Demian's place in Uptown. Hung out there for awhile and had dinner, before we went on a bike ride. Everyone had some sort of cruiser bike, except Demian who has a trike complete with a cedar box on the back to hold the sound system. He has a battery and car stereo in the box, with two 6x9s facing out the front of the box, using the whole box as a speaker box. One of the other guys has a normal road bike, with a 48cc motor attached, so he doesn't have to pedal if he doesn't want to. We left D's at midnight and started biking through the city, blasting music and having a good time. We finally ended up at a beach and hung out there in the moonlight for awhile. After about an hour or two, we got back on the bikes and started to make our way back to D's. We bike around the lakes that are right in Uptown, probably a combined total of 10 miles, just around the lakes. We got back to Demian's and watched a movie. I don't remember what it was called, but it was ok. Erik and everyone else decided to sleep there, so I headed home and went to bed.

Today, I went to the chiro and then for another bike ride. I was just biking around town enjoying the beautiful day. I just got back a little bit ago and am relaxing on my deck. Tonight I'm going to see Korn with my brother and some friends. I'm not really looking forward to it because I'm not a big fan of new Korn, but Erik really wanted to go and he bought me a ticket. Can't really complain about a free show. I just hope I don't die in the pit, since I've been having some pretty bad back pain, probably from the biking.

So that's my weekend. Non-stop excitement. Should be a pretty calm week, with another big group bike ride Thursday night. But I thought last week would be boring too. We'll just have to wait and see.

-Kevin

HOLY FUCKING SHIT!

So I still think I might pass out, but what could be a better way to celebrate my one month blog anniversary? I guess I should tell you what I did though...Well, I came out to my cousin. It was actually a lot like how Rowan did it. Over the internet, felt they could be trusted the most, a bit of shock at first, etc...But he recovered pretty quickly. I feel 10000 times better now knowing someone knows. I won't go into much now because it's 4 am, but I'll tell you more about it tomorrow. I'M JUST SO HAPPY!

-Kevin

"There's a place where everyone can be happy, it's the most beautiful place in the whole wide fucking world."

So What Good Advice Have I Got For You To Insure Against Your Likely Metamorphosis Into This Reprobate?

OK. So I thought Friday night would be nice and relaxing, pick up Josh, drink some espresso, go sit in line. Not too bad. But no. Instead I had to drive Josh's mom off at home, which is an hour away. So I grabbed her from downtown and we went to get Josh. We got there a little early so we sat around for a while bullshitting. Once he got off we headed north to Wyoming (the city, not the state). A pretty boring ride considering Nicole (Josh's mom) was rather drunk and repeating the same story over and over again. We got to her house around 3 AM and went inside to hang out for a while. Basically Josh and Nic wanted to smoke some weed so we all sat around in her room and talked. Finally around quarter to four I convinced Josh we should head home. Got to my place about 5 AM and loaded up on coffee and warm clothes. Remember how I was worried about rain? Well it didn't rain, IT SNOWED! In fucking MAY! Sometimes I hate Minnesota, but mostly I love it. So after making sure we were going to be warm enough, we left to go get in line.

When we got there I was expecting there to already be a line, but there wasn't. So instead of sitting outside in the cold, we stayed in the truck waiting for more people to show up. About 2 hours later someone else finally showed up but he stayed in his car so we did too. The store opened at 9 AM, but tickets didn't go on sale til 10. About quarter to 9 a whole bunch of cars started to show up in the lot, but we soon realized it was people there to shop. The store was having some big sale so everyone wanted to get the good deals. When the store opened, me and Josh made a mad dash to the door and beat the one other guy there. We got a number (#1) and then had an hour to kill. We were both pretty tired from being up all night and sitting in a car for four hours so we just randomly wandered around the store. Once 10 rolled around we got in line and easily got the floor tickets we wanted. After dropping $290 we were on our way. I dropped Josh off at his house and went home to sleep the rest of the day away.

I ended up waking up at about 9 PM rather disoriented. It's pretty weird going to bed when the sun is up and waking up when it's down. I watched Saturday Night Live with my parents before they went to bed. It was too late to find something to do and I was still kinda tired so I just goofed around online for a while before going back to bed.

On Sunday we went to my grandparents house for Mother's Day. It was me, my parents, my grandparents, and my aunt and uncle with their three kids. It was a beautiful day so the kids and I went across the street to the park and played basketball until dinner. I'm not a big basketball fan, but it was just for fun and we all had a good time. Dinner rolled around (pheasant) and we had a huge meal full of wonderful conversation. The only thing better would have been if Erik was there, and Kodi. Oh well. After dinner we lazed around their house for a bit letting the food digest and then we all headed home. My cousins had school the next day and my parents had work. Was a pretty boring night at home after that.

Monday, had a chiro appointment, and then the whole crew (Garrett, Kaija, Ian, Josh, Nicole) came over for another bbq. This time in the rain. We decided to brats and beans again like last time because we were all on a tight budget. It wasn't raining that hard so grilling outside wasn't too bad, but we did eat inside. After dinner we played a bunch of card games and talked. It was a nice relaxing night and it was nice to have everyone together again.

Today the only eventful thing I did was go to the chiro. It was raining again today so I didn't get to go play frisbee golf like I had planned. It was Paul's birthday and I wanted to go throw with him, but between the rain and his physical therapy (for his bad back) he didn't want to. So I hung out all night with my mom watching movies instead. Now I'm here, bored as usual. I was disappointed to see JJ's blog has been deleted, but I understand it was for the best. He is still around, but the blog is gone. Hopefully it will come back someday.

Not much planned for tomorrow, all depends on the weather. If it rains, I'll probably drum for a while. If it doesn't, I'll go disc and then drum for a while. Either way I see drumming in my future. I've been changing my kit around lately and am still trying to get used to it.

But who knows, the days that start boring usually end up being my most hectic days. Maybe something big will happen tomorrow and I just don't know it yet. If it does I hope it's something good. Well that's it for now.

-Kevin

I've been on a big Bad Religion kick lately.

Trans-Continental Hustle

On Tuesday I went out with Paul and played some frisbee golf. It wasn't my best game, but I am really starting to see improvment. Makes me happy all the effort I've been putting in is paying off. Later that night I was trying to download the new Gogol Bordello album, when my computer got a virus. Now I'm sure some of you are saying I deserved it for illegally downloading music, but what can I say? I'm a broke college student. Anyways, I tried my best to get rid of the bastard but it wouldn't go away. Finally I gave up and figured I'd call my dad the next day. I called him (he's in Wisconsin all week) and explained what was happening. Without being able to see what was going on, he talked me through what I needed to do and how to do it. After letting an antimalware program scan in safemode for two hours, it finally found the virus and deleted it. I was super excited and really impressed my dad could fix it from over 200 miles away and going off what I said. I have a decent knowledge of computers, but I never could have done that. So I was happy again, but still wanted the new album. Turns out my buddy Aaron (BP), who I just got into Gogol, had the new one and said I could come up to the station and get it. SWEET! Did that, hung out for a bit and went home.

Loaded up the new tunes and fell in love. If you don't have the album, the title of this post btw, or if you have never heard of Gogol Bordello, GO check them out NOW! The best way to describe it besides awesome, if Gypsy Punk. It's not what you would normally picture as punk musically, but lyrically it is. I don't know, it's really hard to explain. They dubbed the term Gypsy Punk though, so must be close. After that I went and checked the various blogs I follow and caught up on the day and a half or two I was gone. I wait until night to check them/this, so it was more like two days because I hadn't been on since Monday night. Pretty boring day all in all.

Today I took my truck over to the insurance company so they could inspect it and give us an estimate to get it fixed. Turns out it was $1,000 to get it all fixed including labor. We have a $500 deductable, but we probably won't fix it. My truck is completely drivable as is, once I get a new license plate holder. They said I needed a new bumper and shit which added up quick. Oh well. Later on I played another round with Paul, this time in a lite rain. Not too bad because there was no wind and the water kept you cool. Wasn't as good of a round as Tuesday, but still better than a few weeks ago.

I think I forgot to mention earlier that I just found out TOOL is coming to Minnesota in July, and they are one of my favorite bands. Tickets go onsale this Saturday at 10 am, so me and my friend Josh are going to go camp out at 4 in the morning to get tickets. We really want to see them, and tickets usually sell out in 15 minutes, so we want to make sure we get tickets, hopefully floor tickets too. So I'm picking him up from work tomorrow at 2 am, heading to my house for an hour or so to load up on caffine and such, and then going and sitting in the cold for 6+ hours. I just hope it doesn't rain and I'll be happy. Then going home and sleeping the rest of the day away. Sunday I'm going to my grandparents house for Mother's day which should be nice. Erik won't be there though because he and his friend Demian are heading up to Brainard for the weekend to go camping and buy some El Camino parts. Demian has a '79 Camino, and knows a guy up there with around a dozen of them and all the parts you could ever need so they are going to splurge. I wish I could go, but I'd rather get TOOL tickets. Should be a nice weekend, although maybe a little hectic with low sleep and all the realitives.

I'd also like to say hi and thank you to my new followers Rob and Eddie. Thanks for following guys!

My current favorite song from Gogol Bordello. (Same their name 5 times fast, or slow, it'll break your tounge.)



-Kevin

Not My Weekend

So, I took Kodi up to my aunt and uncle's house on Friday night, and since Erik stole my truck, I took his car. Not the end of the world, just not as comfortable as my truck. It's about an hour drive up there which I spent listening to Bad Religion and smoking cigarettes. Great way to pass the time. Kodi loved the drive up and had his head out the window the whole time. It was a fairly nice day out with mild cloud coverage so it wasn't too bad having the windows down at 65 mph. Got up there and hung out for a while watching tv and catching up with everyone, just relaxing. Finally around midnight I decided to head home. Kodi was really sad to see me leave, but I'm sure he finally got over it.

The one thing I really hate about Erik's car is that the windshield has a big crack down the middle, just left of center so it's a little in my line of sight. I made it about half way home before I got pulled over. I'm not even sure where the cop came from or how they saw the crack, but they did. Pulled over to the side of the road and waited for the officer to walk up. She asked for my license and insurance, so I gave her my license and started digging around for the insurance card. Since it wasn't my car, I didn't know where it was and because my brother smokes pot, didn't want to dig too deep into his car to find it. So after checking the glove box and center counsel, I told the officer that I couldn't find it. She said that was fine, that she'd give me a form to fill out and then mail in. She took my I.D. back to the cruiser and ran it. At this point two other cop cars go speeding by with their lights and sirens on and the officer that pulled me over came running back up to my car and said she had to 'skedaddle'. She gave me back my license and handed me the form for the insurance and quickly explained what to fill out and where to mail it before she high-tailed it out of there. Got rather lucky because she only gave me a warning. As I'm putting the car back together and I noticed in the pocket on the door a small pipe of my brother's. DAMN am I glad she didn't look in the car. After that she would have torn the car apart and I did not want to go through all that at 12:30 on a Friday. Drove the rest of the way home and yelled at my brother to get his windshield fixed and then hit the sack.

Woke up Saturday and discovered we had no power. Great. My mom was freaking out because they had their dinner party later that night and had 16 people coming over. Then I explained to my parents what happened the night before. They were cool about it and my dad filled the form out real quick and gave it to me to mail. Around then my brother got home from work and we headed off to finish moving. My parents were trying to figure out what to do for the party if the power didn't come back so they were glad to see us leave. Got to Erik's house and loaded up his bed and some odds and ends. Quickly dropped it off at the house before running off again. There still wasn't power at my house and people were going to be showing up in half an hour.

On the way back to Erik's house, we were driving along on the highway through some construction. It was down to one lane and there were two cars in front of us. The car in front had their muffler fall off in the middle of the road and it bounced up and almost hit the windshield of the car in front of us. Instinctively, the car slammed on its brakes at 45 mph and we tried our best to stop. Tried. Ended up rear-ending them at 35 and smashing up their car pretty bad. We pulled over to the side of the road and quickly grabbed the debris out of the road. Then we went and talked to the other car. It was a husband and wife with their one year old baby in the back seat. We felt terrible once we heard about the baby, but she was fine and soon fell back asleep. The husband explained what happened and why he stopped all of a sudden. He acknowledged the fact that it wasn't my brother's fault and wasn't mad at all. He spent the next 20 minutes on the phone with his insurance agent explaining what happened. Once we exchanged information and made sure everyone was ok and everything was taken care of, me and Erik headed out. But I refused to let Erik drive my truck again. He was a little mad because it wasn't his fault, but I didn't care. Got to his house, loaded up the last of his stuff, and headed home. By then everyone had shown up so we decided not to tell our parents about the accident yet.

Unloaded everything and then me and Erik went to his friend Demian's house for the night. They were having a huge party and it was nice to see some old faces again. I'm not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but I've been sober for over 5 years. I still like to hang out and have a good time, and they are all respectful of my decision so it isn't hard to be around the alcohol and drugs. After many hours of partying, I decided to head home around 5 am. Erik stayed there and slept on the couch.

Sunday, woke up and Erik and the bears (Yogi and BooBoo) came over and we had breakfast. Yogi had to go to work and Erik and BooBoo were heading off to the May Day festival. It's not really a festival, just a party in a park over in South Minneapolis. Lots of food and good music. I would have gone, but I was off to my aunt and uncle's, again. This time to pick up Kodi. Same boring drive up, but this time back in my truck. When I got there Kodi was really excited to see me and I could tell he was missing us all. He loves my aunt's family, but it's not his. Again I hung out with them for a while, but their kids had school the next day so I left rather early. Before I left though, my aunt (Lynn by the way) asked if I would be interested in baby sitting my cousins this summer. My uncle is a pilot and my aunt is a flight attendant, so they are both gone a lot. I said I was interested but had to think about it. My mom says I either have to go to summer school or get a job this summer. I don't really want to go to class, so this might be the perfect solution. Headed home, ate some dinner and then studied for my final the next day.

Monday, went the chiro and had an extensive look-over once I told him about the accident. He didn't see anything severe so I left after that. Went home and drank my newest poison that I discovered when Erik moved home, espresso. I've always been a coffee fan, but this shit is just amazing. So I made a quick double shot and headed off to class. Not a smart idea to drink it on an empty stomach before a big test though. I was really jittery all throughout, but made it through pretty well. We had a break while the teacher graded the tests and I hung out in the halls with some friends. When we went back in the teacher gave us our tests back and I got an 83%. Not bad for how little I read the book or studied. Plus I had missed a few classes because of migraines. But I'm satisfied with the results. He let us out early and I went home. After eating dinner I went to the BP to hang with Aaron for a bit. Same old same old there. Came home at midnight and watched tv and hung out with Erik.

I just finished registering for classes for next fall and now I'm getting ready for bed. Is it bad that I'm going to bed at 5 am? Probably. Not much planned for tomorrow, maybe throw a round of disc with Paul if it's nice. Below is a picture of the car we hit and a picture of my truck. Because of the steel bumpers, I only cracked my grill and broke my license plate holder. We definitely came out ahead.

Well that's it. I'm beat and am going to bed. I have some news on Cory, but I'll talk about that when I know more. Peace

-Kevin