Sorry y'all but I haven't done too much to casa de McBride this month due to having been stricken with S.A.R.S/swine flu/malaria with a little touch of scurvy... Which in turn, caused me NOT to stretch and work out every morning. The result- a pulled muscle in my back AND tearing a tendon in my hand trying to overcompensate for NOT being able move around. Plus being told by a fine young lady up in WI. that WYLIE,

 a pupper that I thought more of then most people on this Earth, is now playing in the big playground up in the sky. So there won't be any pictures of the stuff I have done to the house. So if you're just in it for the pictures, well come back next month because I feel like typing some stuff that I have NEVER said nor will I mention again. I usually have to be REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, drunk to talk about WI. but I'll make an exception to the rule on this one. YOU ARE SO LUCKY!  I figure that with her gone, a chapter in my life is now closed. Plus I want to type it so I can remember it when I'm in the nursing home. FIRST OFF! It was OUR decision to move up there. I just quit a job that SUCKED, I only lasted there 6 months before I had enough. I think we needed a 'change' and moving someplace would help achieve that. She was from West Bend, WI and, again WE, decided to move up there. So with the help of her brother Dan and their dad, we packed up a U haul and away we went. I was well established in Charlotte and it was vise verse up there. The dynamics changed because she was born and raised there and had a circle of friends and a core family. I remember that it was a very hard place to get a job because, let's face it, WI. is not the most GROWING economy in the USA. With in a month of us moving up there I landed a job I KNOW I was over qualified for but hey! It was a freakin' job. It was a 2nd shift job in a print company. HA!!!!! I sooooooo remember going to the bathroom and taking a nice long nap in one of the stalls because I was so bored..... SLEEPING on the MAN'S WATCH!!!! I also helped out her dad on a few of his jobs, he was a contractor and he taught me some cool stuff that I STILL utilize today. She worked at Chilis in Milwaukee for a little bit but eventually worked for her mom at a mail/shipping place. It was a very cool set up for her because her boss was her mom and it was a very friendly and a family atmosphere. Her brother worked there too and he had a SWEET German Sheppard, Greta and Mary had Wylie. They were part of the Mail Drop. Customers loved seeing, petting and giving treats to them..... We lived with her dad, Peachy, in his HUGE house, It had its challenges but in all everyone was happy. He lived in one end and we lived in the other. It was cool because I loved the small town atmosphere and I felt that we all looked out for each others best interests. She did her best to try to make things work between us but I think we both saw that the end of us was near... She and I only lasted like 6 months while we were up there. I think it all can be summed up with the help of Bob Dylan and the last verse of 'Tangled Up In Blue' "We always did feel the same, We just saw it from a different point of view." I moved out into my own apartment and was BOUND and DETERMINED to make a go of it MYSELF for at least a year so I could say to people "I DID IT!" My apartment consisted of stuff that people gave me which was pretty cool and, needless to say, it was bare minimum. KRIPES! I think my bed consisted of a mattress on the floor. I felt pretty alone and realized when I pulled into my Grandparent's drive way in Mansfield, OH that my closest relatives were 450 miles away from me! That's far!!! I ALWAYS dreaded going back to WI. when I was seeing family in OH. or NY. I HATED I-90 west because it meant I was going back to WI.. I made some GREAT friends up there including the Haver clan

 both Andy and his brother Scott made life easier on me by having me over for dinner and family parties. I will always remember watching the 2000 election with Scott not knowing WHO WON and drinking coffee the whole time and ANDY/Deanna and their kids were saints to me!!!! BUT I knew I had to go back under the Mason-Dixon line. I kinda just hung around but I'm pretty sure that I had a nervous break down while watching the Bills and Vikings game. Don't ask me why then, maybe a Doug Flutie sack triggered it. I just fell apart mentally and my boss and friend told me to go see a Dr. because he and others were worried about me because I just wasn't the 'happy go lucky' guy I was usually. SURE enough the Dr. said I was depressed and prescribed Paxil and some sessions with a counselor. FUN STUFF let me tell ya. I remember being so pissed that I had to take an effing drug to be 'normal'. Then and now, I still think just talking to someone was more effective then the DAMN anti-depressant I was on. The whole time I was thinking about my 'exit strategy' so I could get back home. Andy H. was gracious enough to give me a job at his machine shop so we thought it would be cool to tear apart my 65 Mustang and redo it right (when you're a teenager, ya tend to do stupid stuff to cars) because we had the tools to do it. WOO HOO!!!

 We were in the middle of that when I decided it was time, having my brother and sister-in-law say that I can have her slightly used boat helped make my decision even easier.

 Plus I will never forget my Grandpa Cawley, after I told him I was thinking about moving back, saying "Andy I really think you should do it, It would ease your mom and her sisters minds to know you were back in a happy place in your life."

 So we hastily put the Mustang back together just enough for me to put it on a trailer that I could tow with my good old truck, said good bye to a few people, tried not to cry like a baby and on Sept. 9th, 2001 I pulled into Charlotte. I was going to unpack that day and the 10th with the intention of looking for a job on the 11th. Well we all know that EVERYTHING changed that day. ANYWAYS, A few months later I got a great job at Wells Fargo and that's where I have been ever since. My Mustang is still in the same condition it was when we put it back together so I could haul it back to Charlotte.

 I want to clarify that it's SOOOOOOOOOOO easy to look back at a situation and say "I would have done that differently" KRIPES!!! Hind sight's ALWAYS 20/20. It was an experience, a chapter in my life,  I learned some valuable lessons from it that I will ALWAYS uphold:

1. I will NEVER live with a girl before marriage, You are freakin roommates and there is nothing stopping you from saying "I'm done and outta here." With marriage (the one thing I think it's good for) you both know, "HEY I'm in it till 'death do you part' so WE need to resolve our issues and remember that we are in it for the long haul."
2. Teepee's are pretty spacious and cozy.
3. "KRIPES!" and "What the crap?" are pretty funny sayings and I STILL use them to get a chuckle out of people.
4. I will NEVER live from pay check to pay check. having no money BLOWS! Call me a chick but I love security that comes with knowing I have $ in the bank to cover any emergencies that might come up.
5. Bluegrass music is some pretty good stuff.
6. Hey! I'm pretty good at welding aluminum.

 I think in the end we are both very happy in the way our lives are now. Mary has her husband who adores her and two little babies and a great family to support her. I have a life of being a single guy that names his power tools and is happier than a pig in poopy to play out in the yard with the goal of SOMEDAY being awarded the 'Lancaster County Yard of the Month". I view WI.=FAILURE. I'm not bitter, angry or calling anyone the ANTICHRIST, but I might work with them and as far as I know they never lived in Wisconsin. I just don't want to relive it. I know that will upset people I became friends with up there but that's how I feel and I have no desire to ever go back up there to visit. Too many bad things. Call me an 'A' hole but that's how I feel.
So there ya have it, This is MY version of what happened. Others might be different and that's groovy. As for me, You will NEVER hear me talk about this again and if you ask me then I will simply direct you to this and it will tell you all you need to know.

 Marking the 5th anniversary of living in 'L' town at casa de McBride, I will mention MONUMENTAL moments from the past 5 FREAKING years until 9-2011: This month marks the first time I got 'comfortably numb' on hot chocolate and Baileys while listening to Johnny Mathis Christmas Album. Speaking of Christmas, I hope ya have a merry one especially the people I know that, some might say, are a waste of donerable organs.


and a SWEET New Year