Wow, I can't believe it's been only 7 years since I started posting on this forum. It seems so much longer ago, so much in my life has changed. Moving to Tennessee surely was'nt something I would have thought of just seven years ago. I'm not as manic as I was in the Bay Area, life is at a much slower pace here. Depression is the big pill to swallow now. I tried an anti-depressant called Celexa, but it just turned me into an uncaring zombie. Glad that episode only took 2 months of my life. I sure as hell won't forget dreaming about running from oppressors and waking up screaming with the worst leg cramp I ever had. It would take me a good 2 hours of restless leg syndrome before the drug would take me into a deep dive beneath the icy waves of my subconscience. While the dreams would be vivid as hell, it did little good with no real therapuetic people around to share it with. What's worse were the mornings I would walk into the kitchen and find remnants of meals that I had made while doing some serious sleepwalking. Particularly disturbing was a bag of popcorn in the microwave that had appeared to almost catch fire.
I'm back to the regular rounds of meds and doing pretty good. One thing that helped bring me out of a really depressing winter is that my young cat, Simone, had a litter of 6 kittens. They were a real handful, but I managed to find all of them homes and even collected 10 bucks a piece for them because they were so healthy and good looking. I got Simone spayed as soon as I could after that. She is a calico that was feral as a kitten, until I won her over. Her coat is like Fudge-Pecan Swirl and her left rear leg is solid Caramel colored. Her eyes are a greenish yellow, and I have learned that her meow means business when she wants out before sunrise. She played with my overhanging foot one morning as I kept trying to dose back off, and laid my middle toe open with her claw. It was probably an accident, but she DID have a pissed off look on her face as I let her out.
I came pretty damn close to being in a band, but it all drizzled before it got off the ground, because of the economy and lack of a practice room. I've been taking up Bass, but I still play guitar a bit. My big thing is needing other people to jam with. I've been toying with the idea of applying for some kind of business grant, if they are even available. Musically, I have managed to aquire a Squire Bass, Squire Fat Strat, Home Made Strat, Casio keyboard, and two acoustics. I even bought some mic stands and a couple of PA speakers. I lucked out and found an old VHS tape of Bass Basics with a guy named Beaver Felton. He was the Bass player for an old Florida band called Hootchie, that was injured and parylized following a tour bus wreck. He is an excellent instructor and now owns a music shop in Central Florida, that is worth checking out if you are in the area. I have found that playing the Bass is easier to learn than guitar was. I just have to keep at it and maybe I'll get snapped up by another band. All in all, it has just been a day to day struggle to not let shit get me down and try to keep a positive attitude. I have to renew my lease for another year of glorious misadventures here in Hillbilly Hell, also known as the Cleveland Housing Authority. I pay flat rate rent, which means I am RICH by ignorant white trash standards. I am envied and hated upon by most of my neighbors, most of whom live off of Food Stamps and Church Aid. The most troublesome family finally moved out into "Deluxe" accomodations up the street, following 3 years of deliberately flushing all sorts of shit down the the toilet and clogging the sewage arm. Crews have busted the shit out of the concrete in front of their old unit for the past week, and still have not found the phantom "pipe break." Back in '08 I took some photos of the kids dressed for halloween. I even gave prints to the welfare moms, only to have a hillbilly family start talking shit that I was a pedophile and a pervert child molester and all sorts of other shit, because they were not included and sent their kids to a City sponsored event dressed in For-God-Sakes Underoo's as their "Halloween Costumes." I am just glad that they are gone. Things are back to normal now pretty much, but like the Frank Zappa song says..........The Torture Never Stops!
I'll be signing a new lease tomorrow, and with the grace of God, I'll go up north aways to a college town called Athens and register for Unemployment and maybe even get Veterans Preference. Take it easy everybody and welcome aboard Dave Buick! Bob in Tennessee