Pete Nickeas

VACATION! Erin & I are going to Denver next weekend for a low-budget honeymoon. Two nights in Denver, a Rockies game, maybe some shopping and whatnot. We’ll see. Pictures to follow.

Speaking of, here are some wedding photos. Shout out to Pat Yeagle, wedding photog extraordinaire, plus good friend and whiskey drinker.

A good read via my colleague Josh, one man’s defense of Michael Hastings’ much discussed profile of (former?) Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Perhaps a more substantive post to follow.

In the meantime, there’s been quite a bit of discussion prompted by Hastings’ profile. I find the AfPak Channel on ForeignPolicy.com to be quite informative.

And Tom Ricks’ blog, too. He guessed that USMC General James Mattis would take over in place of McChrystal, but made his pitch for Gen. David Petraeus, who did eventually replace McChrystal.

Well, fall came in one day. It went from like, sunny and 80 the day before, to hail and overnight snow the next night. What the hell. There’s still snow on the top 2/3rds of the mountain. About 1,000 feet of elevation separates us from the snow, which seems like a lot but isn’t. It’s like a 12 minute drive to snow.

On the up and up though, I’m looking forward to the winter. I plan on working out a lot and reading, since we won’t be drinking in Dan, Jake, and Megan’s back yard anymore. Kinda sounds like prison. There’s also going to be some Xbox in there, obviously.

I’ve always liked fall. Back when I was in high school, me and my kid brother Jack would sometimes walk the train lines through Milwaukee, taking pictures of graffiti on the bridges and on trains if we could catch them rolling by. It was good times.

We’d park the car, walk to the spot, then walk from there. I’ve still got a whole book of photos that I ended up giving my cousin D, which, I guess I don’t have the photos anymore. But those were good times.

There’s also, walking in the cold. I enjoy that. Headphones, hoodie, some good boots. A coffee mug perhaps.

But I doubt we’re gonna be able to do a lot of that. Wind gets crappy here, and the snow is supposed to be a bitch.

We’ll see how it goes I guess. I’ve got mixed feelings.

So, either The Office is more than halfway through its tenure or it will last longer than Friends.

Friends went ten seasons and The Office just aired the first episode of its 6th season.

Now, I wasn’t old enough when Friends was popular. I was merely a punk ass sixth grade kid that didn’t give a shit when the teachers were talking about their infatuation with Joey.

So, is it too early to talk about the end of The Office? Or is it not yet halfway through, and will it outlast Friends?

I have no clue. And, having watched every episode of both, I’m not sure which one I like more. Damn.

By our guide’s estimate, it was about eight miles.

Our guide, by the way, was Jake.

As I understand it, we went farther into the woods than he’s been before, which is good. I was kinda worried over the past week or so that I wouldn’t be in physical shape to carry a bag with a gallon of Gatorade, a gallon of water, a loaf of bread, some peanut butter, and a couple other random things.

I know my brothers are laughing right now.

Anyway, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

I think we’re gonna hike again next weekend. It was good to get out of the house. But, now that we’ve been up to the mountain, I don’t know that there’s a whole lot left to do before next summer when hopefully I can get a couple days off and go backpacking through the mountains. We shall see.

The best way to describe the hike was, starting at the top of the tennis racket. We walked down one side, then up the handle, and it brought us to wide open plains like area that was atop a ridge. We walked along that ridge for (by my guess) a couple miles, stopping to take photos and look at different bugs and snakes and stuff. Then we walked back, back down the handle, and back up the other half of the tennis racket.

Next weekend, if we go, should be fun. We’ll pack lighter or walk longer. It was better to have more fluids than we ended up needing — I think we only drank about 3/4 of the gallon of water and half of the Gatorade. We did eat half the bread.

Photos soon come ….

Last weekend, we got rowdy. And that’s the only way to say it.

First off … apparently, to Marines, the 4th of July is not only an extremely important holiday, but also an excuse to get ridiculously drunk.

I’m not a Marine, but my brothers are. And they both came back to Addison for the weekend. Erin and I made the trip from Wyoming, Mike came from South Carolina, and Jack from Maryland. Grandfather came, uncle too, and other family friends. Tony too.

Plus, D came from Milwaukee. Erin’s parents made the trip up from the south suburbs, and my boy Donald from the south side.

Everyone important in my life was there, except a few PAR folks who couldn’t make the trip up, and a couple family members who stay distant.

It was great. It was amazing. It was probably one of the best nights of my life. I mean, it was what a celebration of life should be. Everyone was smiling.

My father cooked like 10 pounds of Italian sausage with green peppers, 10 pounds of ribs, five pounds of burgers, there was all kinds of chips and snacks and other delicious food. I think there may have been hot dogs.

We started early … before 4. And we went til about 2 before everyone knocked out.

We got left for El Burrito and one of Jack’s buddies was laying on the sidewalk in front of the house, hurling, but he couldn’t stand. He wanted a burrito though so we picked him up one. But when we got back, him and another one of Jack’s buddies were passed out on the floor.

El Burrito was delicious, as it always is. I don’t think I’ve been there during daylight in years.

We had to bounce the next day, and it sucked. Not only did we have to drive back to Denver, then to Casper … we knew that was coming. Lucky for me, the hang over wasn’t so bad so driving to western Nebraska, where we stayed for the night, wasn’t so bad.

But I have no idea when that’s going to happen again.

We’ve all graduated … Mike and Jack from bootcamp, me from school. There’s a good chance they’ll be deployed next year when Erin and I get married.

And that, it’s saddening. For real, it’s something that weighs on me. The positive side of all this is, I was fortunate enough to realize how much my family means to me in time to have big ass parties with them. And now that everyone’s gone - my father is basically alone in Addison - the prospects of us convening again don’t look good … at least for a few years.

It’s not for nothing though. Jack’s career in the Marines is something that’s going to help him when he gets out. Mike is like … a Marine’s Marine, I guess. He lives for his job. It’s who he is. And I love my job. We’re doing well for ourselves. The price of that is, though, being distant.

I like to think that at some point, we’ll be back in the general vicinity of each other. Who knows though.

Oh well. Last weekend was great, was the point I was getting at.

It’s Saturday afternoon, and though there’s “responsible” things to do, I don’t want to. Damnit, I’m tired.

I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a long time … because, probably about a month ago, I knew how the time-line for this move to Wyoming would work.

Drive to Wyoming one weekend, find an apartment, drive back. Later that week, load up a truck, drive to Chicago, pick up Erin’s car and attach it to the truck, drive to Wyoming. Unload the truck, return the truck and the trailer Erin’s car was on. Drive from Casper to Denver, fly to Chicago, party, zpick up my truck, drive back to Denver, get Erin’s car, drive back to Casper.

Home.

Then, three days of work.

Which brings me to this weekend! Had a few drinks last night with some coworkers. They’re funny. Erin just told me that I was farting and apparently, they were too. Which is good, because for a split second, I was worried I was the only one farting. But that wasn’t the case!

Then, of course, there was the hangover this morning. It did hurt. I slept in the hallway on the floor. We don’t have a couch and I snore like a furry beast when I’ve had a drink or two so I just knocked out where there was room.

And now I’m feeling kinda burnt out.

Yawn.

I’m gonna play X-Box, productivity be damned.

Last night, the weather was a bit on the chilly side but it was nice.

So, I was driving to the grocery store, thinking, I wonder what my next blog post should be. And then it hit me!

Joy riding.

This has not to do with ghostriding the whip, or going dumb.

It’s more about driving slowwwww.

I used to love driving around the city with nowhere to go. That luxury hasn’t been fiscally responsible since around the time I sold (what used to be) my landscaping company in March of 2007.

But man, driving up and down Lake Shore Drive a few times or driving a loop from 290 into the city, LSD down to 55, 55 back to 355, and 355 back up to 290 was so peaceful. You could kill a whole night with two loops.

And what was the destination? No destination! Roll down the windows and turn the music up, and take in the fresh air.

Now, and this is going back a few years, I used to have an 84 Grand Marquis, two tone champagne and brown, that when you went over a speed bump it would go up with the bump, then slink real low when you come down, then continually bounce slowly until it leveled off. It was a heavy ass car, a lead sled if you will, and it it was smooth.

Oh man, that car. Sometimes I’d drive it a half hour or forty minutes just to get out of the house, go grab a couple hot dogs a few towns over.

I have a truck now so joy riding is not an option. Also, I don’t have money, so that puts the kibosh on any joy riding too.

One of the things I enjoy about the spring is being able to smell again. You can’t smell shit except smog and unhappiness in the winter.

I like smelling fresh-cut grass, and freshly watered grass, and flowers on a breezy afternoon. And, coffee in the morning when it’s kinda cold but you have the windows open. What I do not like smelling, though, are the Bradford Pear trees. Those are the ones that smell like … shit. Only for a few weeks.

The problem is, the bloom is some kind of beautiful. For real. Gorgeous. But when the flowers go away, so does the smell. So deceptive :-/

I also enjoy that at random ass times, baseball is on. We’re situated in a weird market, apparently, so we get Sox, Cubs, and Cards games and the occasional Kansas City game.

And also, we have a fridge with some beer and some peanuts, though I don’t keep those in the fridge. Plus, The Office is on! HELLLLL YEAAAAA

This never really happened when I worked outside, but in the past few months, the combination of long hours in close quarters with other people who are sick has led me … to get sick. Big shocker there I suppose.

So I’ m at home today, making a list of bills that passed out of the House and Senate, as well as a list of bills I’ve followed, so as they pass I have daily stories to turn to. Woo hoo!

I’ll also rest, since that’s the point of staying home. I’m not worried about getting a full week of work in, even with a day off.

In other news, I’m toying with the idea of giving up journalism to become a permanent fantasy baseball manager, though there’s the question of what to do during the off season.

Also, I could play Call of Duty for a living. It’s fun, serves a public good, there’s never a shortage of work, and requires a fair amount of training. There’s just that issue of finding a viable revenue stream.

Later today I’m tripping back to Chicago to see my kid brother Jack, who is a marine.

Looking forward to the weekend away. No updates til Monday morning!

PEACE!