Woodstock

I was watching the documentary titled Woodstock, then and now. Very cool.
It always seemed so huge musicaly that I almost forgot that it was only a 4 day event and that by the 4th day it was mostly over.
My step-brother Rick Burrow was in from California and he wanted to go and wanted to take me with him. I was 15 years old.
Rick had long hair and beatle boots and my dad, his step father, thought he was a communist out to overthrow the American way of life which, for him, was Hank Williams, truck driving, hard liquor, and cheating on his wife(s).
He didn't say no, he said hell no.
Rick left without me but I think he got sidetracked too and never ended up going himself.
So I almost attended the most significant event in modern musical history.
Thanks to my father I missed it.

Arbogasts

I was on CASE.NET today looking up random names and decided to look up my own. Case.net is the home page for Missouri court cases. There are over 40 listing for people named Arbogast! Most of them are orders of protection, spouse abuse, divorce, and traffic tickets. I just got one thing to say; All you freaking Arbogast's out there please get your collective Sh**t together and quit despoiling my last name. I carried this name for 55 years and never did anything to tarnish it.
It's enough to make a fellow want to change his name around here.
Hmmm, I really like Italian food;
From here on out my name is Rudolpho Laspara!

Watching TV

I was just watching one of my favorite Will Smith movies on the tele tonight called I ROBOT. The basic theme turns out that the main computer gets a mind of it's own and trys to take over the world. The computer, called Vikki, gets destroyed by Will Smith in the end. I can speak from experience when I say that any evil controling bitch named Vikki getting destroyed before she can take over the earth is a good thing for all mankind.

Work

Things have stabilized a bit at my job at the MFG plant but its still not good. The Central Scrutinizers (as I have aptly named them) are still there. The plant is very slow and several shifts are laid off so they are not doing much work. Hence there is much less for me to do BUT the Central Scrutinizers are boasting that because of their diligence they are saving the company money (spent on me). I would tell them and anybody who wants to hear that this is bullshit. Things are slow and sales are down so production is down and changes are almost nonexistent in the plant right now. Everyone here is slow (except the Central Scrutinizes who, as always, thrive in times of trouble and dispair). These guys are simular to funeral directors. When things are at their worst their business is booming. While I still like some of the people here there are some that have moved from that list. Some people here (one in paticular) don't seem to realize than you cannot screw someone over and still expect to be friends with them. Unfortunatly, this truth will probably not be seen by them until the day I am removed permanantly from here. After that point it will no longer be nessessary for me to play the nice good old boy game with them. I will not be mean or a jerk because that is just not my nature but I will no longer associate with them. I really hate wasting so much print and time venting about stupid stuff but I have no where else to get rid of it. During the last 8 years when things were tough I always knew I have this place to fall back on. No stress and rewarding work for wonderful people. The Central Scrutinizers took all this away in one fell swoop. For a time at the begining they were even trying to get rid of me by having others come in to bid and also investigating my past proceedures and work history. That failed, as I knew it would but the head Central Scrutinizer kept trying until other stuff finally got in his way. So, now what once was a peacefull wonder place is a lions Den.
My good friend Madeline told me that "it's true that things have changed but always remember that things will change yet again if you wait long enough". That is my trouble; I hate to wait!

Nutrisystem

Well, I was listening to my old Jethro Tull records a couple of months ago and came pon the song titled 'Fat Man'. Ian sings that he dont want to be a 'fat man'. I was getting a little sick of it myself so my wife and I decided to try something to change it. I tried Adtkins a few years ago and lost 40 pounds, even kept most of it off when all the other Adkins people around me gained it all back but that diet is really hard on your system if you suffer from Diverticulosus, as I do.
The Nutrisystem diet food is mostly a calorie count diet; 1500 a day for men and 1200 for women. I started at 245 pounds on June 1st and as of today, August12th, I am 219 pounds for a total so far of 26 pounds. Not bad but not good enough yet. My eventual goal is to break the 200 pound barrier. When I hit about 225 things began to slow considerable and that has been a little disheartening but I am still on track. Its a little tough but so far the benifits are worth it. I guess the most dissapointing part is that not a lot of people seem to notice it much. Its pretty bad that you are so dam fat that you can lose 26 lounds and nobody notices it at all. This will change with the next 20 pounds though. I figure it shoulf take me another 2 1/2 to 3 months tops.
The food is really very good and, though its not a lot, it is filling.
Its not really much more expensive than regular food. Considering that i dont eat out fast food anymore and only buy vegies to suplement the regulat nutrisystem meals it works out to about the same as if i were shopping for everything and hitting Mac D's once a week.