Lawyers, guns and money...

The only thing in the mail today was a CD from ATA Airlines, indicating it contained information on the company's 401(k) plan with the caption, "Have you thought about your retirement lately? We have." I'm not sure if there's a dig hidden in there somewhere or not. Not only do I not work for them anymore, but I wasn't there long enough, nor in a capacity sufficient to qualify for eligibility in the plan. What do they mean they've been thinking about my retirement? What have they thought? Bastards! Maybe I should send them back a card telling them thanks, but I'm already enjoying my retirement and they're too late? Perhaps when I'm bored next week, I'll open it up and see what's on the CD. It should be good for a laugh, anyway.

Not a terribly eventful Friday: met up with some friends for drinks at a local sports bar/pool hall type joint, chatted the night away, primarily about guns and cars (no lawyers at all, but money was peripherally involved, as it apparently requires some of it to acquire and play with both.) Guns are definitely something I could get kind of crazy about if I let myself, and/or hung out with more gun nuts. I don't think I have an addictive personality (although Amy said she thought I was a "compulsive sex addict" today, although we really didn't get a chance to discuss the hows the why whys, that's a topic for another day), but I do have this need to acquire things one isn't allowed to own (handguns while I was living in Chicago, absinthe, Cuban cigars, illegally modifying cars, are but a few that come to mind), and even though the assault weapons ban has sunsetted, (can you turn sunset into a past tense verb form?) I'd still want to buy things that are hideously difficult to get and thus astronomically expensive. I'm also prone to getting too attached to my belongings and finding various excuses not to sell (or discard outright) things that have long since outlived their usefulness, further tying up valuable cash that might be otherwise used for more noble purposes, like helping pay a dancer's way through school (or whatever they actually use the money for.)

I also learned about (and need to do more research on) what I think they called the "gunslinger laws" (?) wherein (at least my understanding) basically anyone is allowed to have on or about their person, provided it's plainly visible, and there isn't notification to the contrary by, say a proprietor, a loaded handgun. Hrm...this almost makes up for the helmet law! While I'd like to eventually certify for a concealed carry permit (not that I'd ever actually carry, like my buddy Mike's been known to do in Memphis), I haven't even legally established residency here, and it WOULD be pretty cool to be able to legally have a gun in the car (I have to say here again and emphatically, that I'm not a gun nut! But having grown up in the very non-gun friendly City of Chicago (Thank you Daley family!) it's gone a long way towards reinforcing the need to have it since I couldn't before), so the idea DOES have it's appeal. I should also say that I have a tremendous respect for guns and their potential for damage, and loaded guns still scare the bejesus out of me, so the likelihood that I'd have a loaded gun lying around or carry one around loaded is humourously miniscule, at best. I have read lately that shooting a gun releases the same hormones as kissing (D, babe, any way I can get you to cite a reference on that one? Not that I mistrust your interpretive abilities at all, I'd just like to be able to direct people who doubt mine)...and I DO love kissing, but firing a gun is, for me, a whole different kind of fun.

I checked my range (Carolina Sportsman) membership card today, and it appears that it expires the day before my birthday, August 5 of this year. So Rusty, (and anyone else interested in doing it or trying it out) get your trigger finger ready, we're going shooting! (A lot, as I need to get my value out of this membership...)

We also talked cars for a bit and it got me thinking about my old(s) '67 Cutlass convertible, my first purchased-with-own-hard-earned-cash car, and while I don't regret having sold it (it had gotten to be kind of a heap and a sinkhole for cash - I'd wrecked it and spent years and tons of money getting it back together, and I'm pretty sure that I could buy another better one for a reasonable price at any point in time), I do miss having the barge and the joys of convertible ownership. For that matter, I even miss the old rustbucket '64 Triumph TR4 that I had for years and was never really reliable or roadworthy enough to drive for anything more than quick runs around the block or to neighborhood haunts. I've always enjoyed the open-air experience (most of why I enjoy motorcycling so much, and got into it so early) and for the longest time tried to only drive convertibles or some manner of open-air vehicles...the Cutlass, the TR4, a Sebring convertible I bought for a girlfriend but ended up driving myself, the 280ZX with T-tops, the targa-roofed Supras, the acoutrements of youth...unfortunately, these all tended to be sports cars, and combined with my somewhat heavy right foot, resulted in a far-less-than-stellar driving record, which still haunts me to this day. I remember a time when I eschewed all things electronic, proudly proclaiming that "Goddmanit, I want to be able to tear it apart and fix it with my own hands if something breaks! Who needs all these computers and sensors and doodads! where's the soul of the car?!" On the other hand, I've since grown older, lazier, and quite fond of modern-day niceties like ABS, traction control, airbags, manumatic transmissions, ass warmers, 300+ horsepower (out of 262 normally aspirated cubic inches while delivering 20+MPG, meeting emissions, and making very nearly no noise, whereas the 330 2bbl in the Cutlass was anemic at best, got well under 10MPG, put out enough fumes that one of these modern ULEV engines could probably run on them, and rumbled through the dual glasspacks enough to sound car alarms), remote keyless entry, hundreds of thousands of miles of trouble-free service, no weird fluid consumption/loss/untraceable leakage, et al. Crap, I'm digressing again, aren't I?

I should try and put together a list of all the various crappy cars/bike/vehicles I've owned, wonder if I could even remember all of them...does it make me any less sensitive an owner if I can't remember them all, or in what order or when I owned them? Does it in any way diminish the time I had, or the joy/happiness/pleasure I felt with them if I can't remember every subtle nuance of my time with them? Should I have cherished the time more? Taken more photos, spent more quality time? Taken better care of them and/or more diligently nurtured the relationships? Could I have done it better given what I know now? Would I have made the same decisions? Wait, what am I talking about again? Lost my train of thought...hrm...the parallels in life...

Once I got home at, oh, 4am, I remembered that I'd promised to burn someone a CD of photos...while organizing the photos and compiling the CD (my photos are in an horrific disarray, possibly on par with Skip's post-catastropic folder loss) I went through literally thousands of photos, and waxed nostalgic for all manner of people/things/places/times, something that never speeds up the process nor helps one get to bed in a timely fashion, especially when one still has a blog entry to write. Photos are a wonderous thing when done properly, and I need to get back into the habit of taking more pictures. When I first got the Optio S4 two decembers ago, the novelty of snapping 4MP images just about any time lasted almost 4000 photos in the year I had it. Since I've replaced it with an S5i and a larger memory card, the magic of whipping it out and snapping away seems to have lost it's shine a bit. If a bunch of random shots taken all willy-nilly over time with no particular importance or signifigance are enough to stir the soul, imagine the power of truly precious moments encapsulated on digital celluloid, seen any number of weeks/months/years down the road once the memory has begun to or perhaps even completely fade(ed)...

Wow, I sat down with no clear concept of what I was going to write...so much for that...guess I do tend to ramble...and today wihtout even the benefit of humour, consistent and/or rational flow, or hot chicks. Sorry gang, better luck tomorrow...well, better luck for me tomorrow, anyway, as this page will see its usual dearth of weekend updates.

Bonsoir...