Sheppy Quest 2008?

Here is what I am thinking for Sheppy Quest 2008:

I am going to start on the same Goose Creek Trail from my last Sheppy Quest (see http://colorado.ericshepard.com/sheppyquest2005.htm)


But when Goose Creek crosses Hankins Pass Trail, I will take a left and head up almost to Hankins Pass and then cut across Lake Park Trail to McCurdy Park Trail which will take me back to the Goose Creek Trail.



The entire loop should be about 25 to 30 miles which I think would be the farthest I've ever actually backpacked on a Sheppy Quest. Looking at the profiles, it is certainly the toughest hike I will have done. Rather than doing just a weekend, I think I may do a Friday to Monday Sheppy Quest this time. Maybe I should plan on some more time. I am probably not in the kind of shape I ideally be in for a Sheppy Quest, but I cannot go three whole years without doing one. And of course, part of the appeal of the Sheppy Quest is pushing my body to physical exhaustion. Physical exhaustion should be easy as overweight as I am.

What is a SheppyQuest? Well, it is obviously named after a Vision Quest. Vision Quest is the Native American tradition where an older child goes out on a personal, spiritual quest alone in the wilderness. The child would tune into the spirit world for the purpose of discovering his (or her?) intended spiritual and life direction. Usually, a guardian animal would come to the child in a vision and at that point the life direction would become clear. My understanding is that the child would go out into the wilderness with basically nothing. No food. No water. I do not think they had a weapon for protection. Seems sort of dangerous.

I sort of doubt I will send Connor or Tyler on vision quests as they get older. For one thing, Mommy would never go for it.

My Sheppy Quest is quite a bit more tame. I bring food and water, and in fact have quite a big backpack full of camping stuff when I go. I have maps and a GPS unit and an overall plan of where I am going. I am able to give Tracy GPS coordinates of just about where I will be camping every night. I also do follow established trails so getting lost is almost impossible. Plus, I do always see some (but very few) people on my trips.

But, I do head off into the wilderness by myself. Last time, I saw a Bob Cat which I figured was my spirit guide, but he never revealed anything to me, so maybe it was just a bob cat. I think I do the Sheppy Quest more because it gives me a chance to back pack, which I love, but cannot do with a wife and kids yet. I do quietly contemplate life, think about all kinds of things in an attempt to bring some sort of self - clarity or understanding to my life. I would not say that I meditate. My thoughts are too random and scattered to call it meditation.

My wife begs me to bring someone along, and I have had offers of people who really want to come, but part of the Sheppy Quest is the alone time. My mother-in-law is convinced that going out camping by yourself is one of the most dangerous things you can ever do. I am convinced that where I go and the fact that my wife does know about where I am makes it much less dangerous than driving to work every day. So, obviously, it is not just about backpacking. If it were I would invite one or two guys to come along to satisfy my wife and her mommy.

This year, actually, my wife did not even bother bringing up the standing request that I not go all by myself. She did demand that I don't do anything dangerous. This probably means she finally accepts that fact that going off into the wilderness is not in itself a dangerous activity. Actually, she is just probably more tired of the argument than afraid that something will happen to me. I have enough life insurance that I am probably worth more dead than alive, but she hates it when I say that. Children need their fathers and all that crap.

So, there we are. I am currently "scheduled" for September 12 - September 15. Scheduled means I have permission from my wife and I do not have any auctions during that time. I am pretty excited. It has been too long since I've had anything to post at http://colorado.ericshepard.com

DNC

The Democratic National Convention is located in Denver this year.

Next week, downtown will be extremely busy.

Huge things are big for the economy of a city, but I have to wonder if anyone ever takes into account costs such as employees who either cannot get to work because of traffic concerns or decide just not to come to work.

Personally, I am planning on working from home and not dealing with the pain. Unfortunately, everyone at my client is planning on doing the same thing, and I am told the VPN probably will not be able to handle the traffic. As a highly paid consultant, if I cannot work, I probably just will not bill and do something else. CHFA has a great vacation and PTO package and I have a feeling a bunch of people there will end up being "sick". That will cost CHFA, but I guess officially it is time due their employees anyway.

But I imagine all across downtown there will be a staggering number of people who will not work that week because they cannot easily get to their offices.

The conventionteers are not so much of an issue apparently as the large number of protestors who will invade Denver. I have heard huge projections on how many there will be. Obviously, no on knows for sure, but I have heard guesses up over the hundred thousand mark. This on top of people who are actually here for the convention itself. Most of these protestors will have no place to sleep... All hotels are booked for hundreds of miles.

Anyway, it will all be a terrible mess.

Summer

School started for Tyler this week. It seems too early. School should start in the fall and there are still a couple of weeks of summer left.

Once again it seems like we wasted the summer. We only went camping twice. One of those was before summer started. I did not climb any 14ers. No SheppyQuest.

We may make one more family camping trip and it SheppyQuest is usually in September so I guess officially I could salvage the summer.

Plus we did have week of Trash 2008. We did get away for Tracy's birthday weekend. Tracy and I got away for a romantic weekend without the kids. So, considering my weird work situation, we did pretty well. I guess.

When I started working for myself, part of the appeal was the freedom. While I do have more freedom as my own employee, I take most of that up with my side business. I have the freedom to replace part of my high paying job with the more difficult hardly pay at all job. Does not seem that smart. Plus, now my client is the "boss". CHFA is an extremely easy-going boss which fits well with my side business, but it is a fact that working for yourself does not necesssarily mean you have more freedom. The customer calls generally calls the shots. I probably would not be able to do Auction Automations with just about ay other customer.

The truth of the matter, though, is that the summer went too quickly.

I am told that the mountains are expecting snow tonight.

Pictures

http://kids.ericshepard.com/guanella2008.htm

World Record

We seem to be on track for a world record in Silent Auction futility.

The silent auction has been going for 2 hours and they have raised a total of $225.

Of course, after one hour they were at about $25, so I guess it is picking up. Everyone is in the dining room now, so I do not anticipate this group even raising our minimum. People are just not that interested in the silent auction tonight.

It is a high-school class reunion group that has decided to raise money for "Fast Forward for Literacy".

We knew it would not be a big night because there are only about 110 people and only about 50 items. But, I never imagined it would be this pathetic.

I am not even really paying attention to it. I am watching the Broncos pre-season game on Sling Box.

The Broncos don't look that great either.

This damn thing goes until 11pm.

I was only supposed to work the during-event, but we were low on resources, so I had to be in charge of setup. At least it was a pretty easy setup.

14 bids in the system now. The Broncos are down 7 to 13. Almost half time. Offensive holding on the Broncos. 10 yard penalty. 16 seconds left until the first half is over.

We are up to $300. The customer owes us $1500 for our services. I hope they at least make the $1500. The only reason our fee is so low is because they signed the contract a year and a half ago when our fees were about half what they are now.

By 2009, the goal is for me not to have to do any of these events. I cannot wait.

18 bids $335. 2 hours and 38 minutes left. Broncos down 7 to 16.

One interesting thing about this event is that they are also having a casino night. People seem to be more interested in the gambling than they are in the silent auction.

The Broncos lost.

My wife is now trying to watch T.V. I am screwing with her by pressing pause. I wonder if she realizes what is going on. I'm not very nice when I am bored.

We are up over $1000 now. We have an hour and 18 minutes left.
I was just told to lower the minimum bid on a big-ticket item, so I think the total is going to jump up by $1,600 pretty soon. We might actually get above our fee. Sweet. Although I was sort of excited about breaking a record. Of course even with the $1,600 we are probably going to break the futility record.

Apparently, our employee, Mark is wheeling and dealing to get people to buy things at a reduced price. But, it has been several minutes since we lowered the trip to Cancun to $1,600, so I am a little confused. Maybe they got "cold feet".

Well, no sense boring my Blog readers any more on this subject.

Right now, we are at $1,026 with 1:10 left in the auction. I am assuming that soon some of these huge price cuts on the big-ticket items will bear fruit and we will jump above our fee for the total. Maybe.

I need a nap. It is going to be a real late night.

Blogging for the Glory of God

I came across http://trintyulc.blogspot.com/

Actually, I came across it because my dad writes it and he left a comment on one of my blogs. His comment lead me to look at his Google profile and I discovered that he does the TULC blog.

By the way... is a "Blog" an individual entry ... or is a "Blog" the whole group of entries? I think it is the whole group of entries, although I use the term both ways. You will have to pay attention to my context to know which I am talking about.

One thing I started this whole blog with was a bit of wonderment on why I should blog. http://blog.ericshepard.com/2005/06/blogging.html

I guess what it comes down to is that it is an easy way (at least Google's implementation of it) to distribute information. It is easier to put in a Blog entry than to update a website. And it automatically keeps a running history of what you say. Easy, but dangerous. You have to watch what you say or you might give someone more information than you want to give them.

And really, how important a blog is really comes down to how it is used. How useful or interesting or entertaining is the information being blogged about is really the measure of how good a blog is. Mine sucks.

I think using a blog for "Glory of our God" (http://trintyulc.blogspot.com/2007/10/trinity-united-lutheran-church-blog.html) is a great use for a blog. Unfortunately, based on the number of entries in there, my guess is that it is under utilized. My guess is lots of people in the church never go there and read what is there, so the author probably does not feel a huge motivation to keep it up to date. Really, what should happen in a church-blog situation (in my opinion) is that there should be a team of people who work on the blog and keep it up-to-date and it could be advertised every Sunday in the church bulletin. Ideally, anyone in the church should be allowed to add to the blog. You would probably need an editor of some sort, but as long as you have a group of people with a common interest and do not abuse the "power" of sharing information, why not let everyone participate? And, why not participate? Faith and religion just based on its philosophical nature lend themselves to great thought-provoking discussions. Although, they also can lead to emotional fights and disagreements (thus the need for an editor).

Anyway, a church blog is a great use of blogging. Much better than what I use this one for.

I tried a similar idea for my wife's family reunion: http://blog.trashfund.com/. Similar in that we had a group of people with a common interest and that everyone was invited to use. It did get used (less than I thought it should have been used, but more than I expected) . I offered everyone in the family access. Probably about half the families actually posted to it. It sent out an email of each post, so I do not know how many people actually read the blog as opposed to just read the emails, but I think it was pretty well used during the time leading up to the event.

Now, everyone is still invited to post stuff, but no one has. Well I have and my wife has, but no one else. It will probably start to get used the next time everyone wants to get together for a reunion (probably 2010). All in all, I think the great "Trash Blog" experiment was a success. Everyone else probably thinks it was stupid, but I think it worked out well.

Part of the reason this blog sucks is that it really has no defined purpose. My blogs basically range all over the place. Very few people in the world are interested in the the same exact things that I am interested about. And some of the things I write in here are not even that interesting to me. Probably about 60% of the time, blogging is just a way to take up time while I'm sitting on the light rail. The church blog has a purpose ... talk about topics that are useful or interesting to members of the church. The Trash Blog had a purpose, distribute and log information about an upcoming event. My blog is just a brain dump from one of the most un-interesting people in the world. And some of the most interesting things about me are things that I am reluctant to share with the whole world. Status of my Auction Automations company, for instance, we are going through an interesting negotiation which I cannot share because it is confidential at this point. Plus, potentially there are some interesting things I could share that would put us in a potentially disadvantageous negotiating position. Actually, that is not all that interesting either. But you probably get the picture. I'm just boring.

By the way... I just got some interesting news about one of my businesses that makes me happy. It is something I cannot really share on a blog. And perhaps it is just interesting to me.

Anyway, blog away.

SQL Partition clause

Here is something I did not know: SQL 2005: Subtotals and Totals

And I can think of a couple of places where things would have been much easier knowing it.

Bret

So it looks like Favre is going to the Jets.

I hate Bret Favre sort of like I hate most of the Red Wings. I hated seeing him burn the Bears over and over. He was the kind of guy who would be virtually sacked and end up throwing a TD pass at the last second.

It would have been awesome if he would have ended up with the Bears. But for pretty obvious reasons that is something the Packers just could not allow. And I certainly prefer he not go to the Vikings.

The whole situation with Favre and the Pack just seems completely bizarre. Neither party came across as handling themselves particularly well.

On one hand it seems crazy not to want a three time MVP with all those records, especially someone like Favre who has been the face of the franchise. And the guy is still (or was last year) one of the best QBs in the league. On the other hand, why retire and come back in the next couple of months? And then pretty much force the team that has been so good to you over the years into such a bad PR situation.

It just seems that reasonable people would have been able to get together behind closed doors without making the whole thing such a media circus.

The Jets got Favre for a 4th round draft pick in 2009. Seems low for a proven superstar.

It seems odd for a certain hall of famer to come out of retirement to play for a 4 and 12 team. It probably was not his first choice, but if he does stick through it, it does support his claim that "I just want to play football."

And of course now that Bret is not a Packer, I do not have to hate his (as much).

Some thing

Thing 2 not with standing. Thing 1 not with sitting either.

The ZZZ told me the other day "I am the Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz." I am sort of shocked he knew.

He's got Pretty Persuasiion. I don't got Pretty Persuasiion. Maybe I should get me some. Poison Rationality. The problem with getting what you want is that usually it costs more than you think it will. Its just a talk. After all you do know best.

Streaming the consciousness. It makes for a stupid sounding (looking?) blog. But then none of my blogs reek of intelligence.

Right now I am sitting on a bench outside fado Irish Pub in LODO Denver. If you have a Brad Hop type arm, you can hit Coors field with a baseball from where I am sitting.

It is a nice little spot under a shade tree. It is a good little spot to come on days when I just have to get out of the office for a few minutes. When (and if) I leave CHFA, I will miss this spot...unless I get another gig right here in LODO.

Whenever I sit here I think about taking the rest of the day off and sitting on fado's deck drinking Irish beers. I do not think my customer would approve of me doing that. The Tweedle Beetles probably would not have a problem with me drinking beer instead of working. But then they would probably welcome the opportunity to tattle on me.

Damn those Tweedle Beetles.

So, thinking about it is as far as I will ever get.

Anyway, I need to get back to work. That computer program won't write itself yet.

Alphabet

The BNLs have a new (I think it is pretty new) children's album. There is a cute song about the alphabet on the album:

A is for aisle
B is for bdellium
C is for czar
D is for djinn
E for Euphrates
F is for fohn
G for Gnarly,
I for irk
H is for hour
J for jalapeo
K is for knick-knack
L is for llama
M for mnemonic
N is for ngomo
O is for ouija board
P for pneumonia, pterodactyl and psychosis
Q is for qat
R is for R-gyle (No, it isn't. Okay, you're right; I couldn't find a good "r" word)
S is for Saar, a lovely German river
T for tsunami, a wave that makes me quiver
U is for urn, but not like earning money
V for vraisemblance from French,
And therefore kind of funny
W for wren, wrinkly, and who.
X is for Xian, an ancient Chinese city
Y is for yperite, a very nasty gas.
And zed's the final letter

I don't really recommend the whole album, but there are some pretty good songs on it.

Mid Life Crisis

Refugees run the seas 'cause they own their own boats.

I am trying to figure out when to start my mid-life crisis. In a year and a half I will be approaching 40. The typical midlife crisis occurs at 46 on average, but can range anywhere between 35 to 50. That is what wikipedia says anyway. So, I am a bit on the young side, but it certainly is an option.

At the moment I am not even sure what to do for my crisis. My wife is the most attractive sexy woman I know so I cannot trade her in for a younger hotter model. Plus I am not sure there are any other women who would put up with me. I can not get an expensive sports car because gas costs too much. I am forbidden from getting a moter cycle. My wife just won't let me, and as I said before she is hot.

What else do guys do in mid-life crisises? I just do not know. I have time I guess. Eventually I will come up with something.

My nose itches.

Another possible mid-life crisis activity is changing careers. That would be an option is I could figure out what I would like to do. I have blogged about not knowing what I want to be when I grow up and nothing has really changed since then.

Right now what I think I would like to do is stop working and moutain bike and hike full time. I do know how to make money at that, or I might really give that a go. Of course, with two small children (maybe I should say young instead of small.... Have you seen Tyler lately?), I would still need to spend most of my time where I could get home every night so I might get bored with the local scene, and then I would have to find another job.

Do some guys have little mini-retirements as mid-life crisises? That seems like the most realistic one I could try. But maybe I need to wait for the kids to get a little older. Then again, maybe not. I do know that at the moment I need a break from work. I am just too busy with my day job and my night job. I feel again that I wasted most of the summer away with work. And it is not just the time I put in. In fact it is mostly that I always feel tired and because of that I neglect things like mowing the lawn or paying myself or getting things fixed around the house.

I suppose I am not alone. Everyone feels overworked and everyone has trouble juggling home with work. Maybe that is really what causes midlife crisises.

Anyway... My nose still itches.

IE EG

Question: When do you use i.e., and when do you use e.g., and what do they mean?

Answer: The Latin abbreviations "i.e." and "e.g." come up very frequently in writing and would probably come up more often if people were more sure of when it is right to use "i.e." and when "e.g." is required. To me, the only way to figure it out is to know what they stand for.

i.e.

"I.e." stands simply for "that is," which written out fully in Latin is 'id est'. "I.e." is used in place of "in other words," or "it/that is." It specifies or makes more clear.

e.g.

"E.g." means "for example" and comes from the Latin expression exempli gratia, "for the sake of an example," with the noun exemplum in the genitive to go with gratia in the ablative . "E.g." is used in expressions similar to "including," when you are not intending to list everything that is being discussed.

Examples of i.e. and e.g.:

I.E. Id Est

I'm going to the place where I work best, i.e., the coffee shop. [There is only one place that I am claiming is best for my work. By using "i.e.", I am telling you I am about to specify it.]

E.G. Exempli Gratia

At the places where I work best, e.g., Starbucks, I have none of the distractions I have at home. [There are lots of coffee shops I like, but Starbucks is the only international one, so it's the only "example" that would work.]

Italics

I.e. and e.g. are such common Latin abbreviations that they do not require italicization.

Capitalization

If the form "I.e." looks odd, it's because both "i.e." and "e.g" are usually mid-sentence, surrounded by commas, so they are unlikely to be seen with sentence initial capitals

Keep it clean

This is a picture they have up in the mens' room at my current client.

If you cannot read it, here is what it says: "let's keep it clean, people"

"Please be courteous to your friends and coworkers by keeping this bathroom clean."

I wonder who decided we were such slobs that we needed such a sign. I also wonder if this considered that we the men's room users might get offended by the implication that we are such slobs.

Weird.

Celtics Win

My boy Tyler will be excited to learn that my Buddy Kevin Garnet won his championship tonight.

It would have been sort of nice had the Wallaby lead Lakers showed up to play the game as well, but you cannot have everything I guess. It was sort of exciting to watch the Lakers get just embarrassed. They did not get the win by 40 ... but it was close (39 points is what they won by, the slackers).

I stole this picture of KG from http://www.nba.com .

Green Shoes

There is a guy on the light rail dressed in business casual with a skateboard. He is probably about my age. The skateboard does not really fit with the clothes, but the skateboard is a great idea. I cannot skateboard, so I would have to learn to pull it off, but if I had the skills I think I might bring one along. The only disadvantage of riding the light rail vs driving is the amount of extra time it takes and the skate board would take walking time down a bit. This is the first adult looking guy I think I have seen on the light rail with a skateboard. I sort of expect to start seeing more.

This guy has green tennis shoes on.

The green shoes do not go with the tan dockers, but I think the shoes themselves are pretty cool looking. It takes a little daring to pull off wearing green shoes. I bet most of the Red Wings would be afraid to wear green shoes.

My buddy KG wears green shoes now that he plays for the Celtics.

I do not really love the Celtics, but I do like Garnet and I dislike the Lakers, so I hope the Celtics win tonight. If not tonight I cannot imagine LA winning two in a row in Boston, but I suppose anything is possible.

Tyler gave Kobe Bryant a cool nickname Sunday night when we had our Father's Day dinner at Wild Wings. The NBA game was on and Tyler called Kolby "Micheal Jordan Wallaby". Of course he got that because he misheard me say Kobe was a Michael Jordan Wanna Be. We had also seen a bunch of wallabys at the zoo earlier in the day. I like Tyler's term better. I used it the rest of the game. I will probably call Kobe a wallaby quite a bit in the future.

I do not suppose Mr. Wallaby would get caught dead in green shoes.

I think I am going to get myself a pair of green shoes. Go Celtics.

Lady Byng

I heard on the radio today that my buddy Dot Soup (we have a love / hate relationship just like I have with most of my "Buddies") won his third straight Lady Bing (actually Byng .. But I have a mis-spelling of names theme going on here) trophey this year.

I have to wonder... Do real hockey players, the ones who actually get to the penalty box for roughing and the occasional fighting penalties, respect the winner of the Lady Bing?

The whole concept of Lady Bing is to award the player in hockey who shows gentlemanly conduct on and off the ice. Usually it goes to a great player who does not get very many penalties. It seems like a trophey that a tough hockey player would not consider an honor. Hockey players are not supposed to have tea with crumpets.

Of course, I do not necessarily associate being tough with getting lots of fighting penalties. To me, it is just as tough to take a stick to the face, get up, take the penalty and/or get back into he play, and maybe even score a goal. My buddy Joe Sakic has won the Bing in the past, and I actually consider him one of the toughest hockey players I have ever watched. The only fight I have ever seen Joe Sakic in was when he beat up Doug Gilmore (a Blackhawk at the time). Joe got slashed, scored a goal and then beat up Doug Gilmore. But he knows how to get through clutching and grabbing without ever complaining or whining and he lets his goal scoring be the way he strikes out at the other team. He also plays PK and PP and rarely misses a shift.

Dot Soup is the same sort of guy I guess. I do not have the same sort of fondness for him as I do for Joe. But I suppose 3 Bings in a row is fantastic accomplishment. And he has the same sort of toughness.

Congratulations Mr. Soup.

Thing 2

Thing 2 probably feels that he got a bad rap when it comes to public perception after the whole Candy Cane Hat Cat incident. Imagine if you will, a young man leaving home in his teens to search his fortune in the big city. He quickly learns that no one in the big city is there to give you anything. He discovers the hard way that seemingly trustworthy people take advantage of naive young men. Food costs money. Housing costs money. No one wants to hire an inexperienced untrained kid, especially one with crazy blue hair. Money runs out. Life on the streets gets hard. And dangerous. A young man will do whatever it takes to survive.

His name is not even Thing 2. His parents named him Billy 1. He has two younger brothers Billy 5 and Mikey and a sister named Girl. It was not until he met the Candy Cane Hat Cat that he became Thing 2.

And the Cat is a smooth talker. He invites Billy 1 to his favorite Starbucks and buys him a Decaf Latte along with a cream danish. You cannot blame hungry Billy 1 for accepting an invitation for a coffee and some food.

The Cat spends the next hour or so telling Billy about all of the Candy Cane Hat Cat's "business interests". You can bet during the first meeting the Cat mentioned nothing about riding around in a big red carton and terrorizing young children and fishes. The Hat Cat probably makes it all sound like he is letting Billy 1 in on the ground floor of an incredible opportunity. By the time the Cat is done with the pitch, the young man is ready to sign up, but the Cat tells Billy to take some time and think about it. In the mean time, here's 100 bucks. Of course 100 is more than Billy has had in his pockets in a long time.

Over the course of the next few weeks the Cat has odd jobs for Billy to do for him. They are simple tasks that The Cat overpays for. It is at this time that Billy becomes Thing 2. He is proud to have a nickname from such a rich powerful business cat. And with the money, Thing 2 can afford such luxuries as food and shelter.

And then one day the Candy Cane Hat Cat asks "how would you like to make some real money?"

He continues by saying something like "now I realize that this sort of opportunity is not for just anybody and if you do not think you can hack it I totally understand, but I think you are just the sort of fellow who would excel at this." And with that flattery, the Candy Cane Hat Cat has Thing 2.

And just like that our blue-haired hero is shoved in a red box with Sid, a guy not unlike Thing 2 only more experienced and meaner for have been in the box longer. Fed only Espresso Beans and sugar, stored and roughly transported in a dark crate along with another guy and various junk, can you blame Thing 2 for going berserk when let out?

When a large Cat in a big candy cane striped hat comes in your house with a large red crate, do not give him an opportunity to open the box. And if you do, don't shake hands with Sid or Thing 2. And for goodness sake do not let your fish start talking. Talking fish freak out young blue haired men that have been carted around in a big box and fed only espresso beans with sugar for days at a time. By the time the hopped-up Thing 2 had even figured out what was happening, he had been attacked by blue white and red dresses and gotten a kite totally tangled up in everything.

Thing 2 was probably relieved when a net scooped him up. Espresso beans will do crazy things to even the calmest best behaved kids who have been cooped up.

And who do you think was the scape goat in this situation. You know the Cat never saw the inside of a jail. He and his money even got Sid out with little more than a slap on the wrist. The worst of the punishment fell on poor Thing 2. As always the guy with the least control takes most of the blame.

Currently Billy 1 is in rehab for an espresso bean addiction. He is attempting to get his life together, but he will always have that monkey on his back. Every time he walks past a Starbucks (and how far can you go without going past one?) he will have to fight the urge to partake. It is probably only a matter of time until he is back in a big red crate hooked on the beans and out of control.

Who is making the Cat accountable for the lives that he ruins?

Red Wings

Crap.

Crap Crap Crappy Crap.

4 cups in 11 years.

It made me sick to see Chelios carry the cup around the ice last night.

Crap.

Remember how 12 years ago the Wings were the team who had gone the longest without winning one? That was much better.

Crap. Crap. Crapity Crap Crap.

Congratulations to Dot Soup's line buddy on winning the Smythe. Crap.

Dot Soup

What is up with Pavel Datsyuk's playoff beard?

If you cannot grow a beard, just shave it all the way off. Don't do some sort of 13-year old peach fuzz. It makes him look ridiculous. Zetterberg's beard and Holmstrom's more than make up Dot Soup's lack of facial hair on that line. And the dominant play of that line ... really the whole red wing team really sort of makes all criticism mute.

Besides, Sidney Crosby's beard is sort of pathetic too (not nearly as bad as Datsyuk's). AND Crosby's first name is "Sidney".

Datsyuk is the one guy on the Wings that I don't hate. Well, I should say he used to be the one guy I did not hate. Now, with the way his face bothers me, I might have to reevaluate my feelings for him. The main reason I gave him some love before is because how incredibly fun it is for me to yell "Dot Soup" at the TV. I wonder if he would consider joining the Blackhawks or the Avs. He should be up for free-agency some time, shouldn't he? I wonder if his brothers Noodle, Alphabet, and Tom are also hockey players. Wouldn't it be fun to cheer for the Soup brothers in Blackhawk jerseys? It would be like some of the great brother combinations of all time. Like the Stanzneys or the Sutters or the Ovs. Of course I would really have to hate those guys if they played for the Red Wings... just like I despised the Ovs when 5 of them played for the Wings.

It pains me to say this, but the Red Wings are by far the better team. Pittsburgh is certainly talented and out of all the "everyone else" teams this year they deserve to be called second best. Due to my hatred of the Red Wings, I would certainly prefer for the Penguins to win the cup, but unless they find a way to play much better, or Fleury finds a way to play "off the planet" great, I do not see how the good guys will possibly win the next two. Of course while watching the game Monday night, I did not think they could have won that game.

As you probably know (actually, two out of the three people who read this blog probably do not know, but that is ok... you know now), Monday's game went into 3 overtimes. I was pissed because my DVR only got me to 10 minutes before the final goal was scored. Usually by sometime in the 3rd period, I am caught up with the live action, but things happened Monday night that made me start watching later than I usually would. So, my DVR stopped recording before I had caught up, and I missed the winning goal. Tonight I not only am telling the DVR to record my standard extra two hours for a hockey game, but I am also having it record a couple of hours after that. So, I should be good for about 5 or 6 overtimes.

How much do you want to bet tonight's game is done in regulation?

So, we are rooting for Penguins tonight in the Shepard house. Not only because Dot Soup should not be pretending to grow a beard, and not only because I hate the Red Wings, but also because I am not ready for hockey to be done for the year. I feel I got screwed out of the game Monday.

Go Pens.

JK Shepard

My brother would have been 22 today. Yesterday, I told my son that Jeremy would have been 21, but I think it is actually 22.

I wrote about Jeremy in September of 2005, around the anniversary of his death. If you do not know the story you can review it at:

http://blog.ericshepard.com/2005/09/jeremy-shepard.html

I have been thinking about Jeremy today. It has been distracting me quite a bit. I have been sort of sad.

I guess at 22 he would be close to graduating from college. I still picture him as a little kid, so thinking of him about to take place in a college graduation sort of blows my mind. Last time I saw him, he was a teenager, but basically I think of him as Tyler's age. I probably always will. I am not sure if that means I will always think of him as 5 or 6 or if that means that whatever Tyler's age, that is the age I will think of Jeremy. Probably, the later. Very often I see Jeremy in Tyler. Something about some of his facial features and expressions makes me think a lot of Jeremy is in Tyler.

Sometimes that scares me. I have an unjustified fear that somehow I will lose my boy. I know there is no more reason to think something bad will happen to Tyler because he reminds me of my brother than there is for any child. But often I am more concerned about losing Tyler to some tragedy than I about Connor. As crazy as Connor is, it should be just the opposite.

Tyler asked me last night why Jeremy died. I do not have a good answer for that question. I avoided it by talking about Jeremy's heart. But the simple truth is I do no know why Jeremy died.

I guess I could go with "because God wanted Jeremy with him". But why God had to have him at 15 instead of 85 is a mystery to me. It does not really bother me that I don't understand. But, I absolutely do not understand how a seemingly healthy 15 year old kid would die. I guess it is just one of those things I will ever fully comprehend. There are a lot of those things that are beyond my comprehension. I think Jeremy's death is at the top of my list.

I am trying to think where he would have gone to college. My answer (since I can pick anywhere) is Colorado University. Somewhere in Illinois is probably more likely, but today I picture him close to my home. We probably would have seen each other quite a bit had he come to school in Colorado.

Of course now I will never know.

Well, anyway, Happy Birthday Jeremy.