Sunshine, on my shoulders, makes me happy.

Sing it John Denver! Working for a traditional country radio station can surely test one’s patience, but once in a while you’ll hear a good song that has some actual meaning. Today it was great to get out in the sunshine and enjoy life. You’ll notice the new picture up there in the right hand corner… that’s me, along a creek, in the Ilion Gorge (along Route 51) with Earl taking pictures.

We kicked off the weekend with a visit to the local drive in theatre to see “Troy”. It was an o.k. movie… there were a couple of things I found disappointing. First of all, there’s a wide smattering of English dialects throughout the movie, which I find quite interesting since they’re all suppose to be Greek. At least on Xena, they all spoke with a southern California dialect, why couldn’t everyone speak with the same dialect in the monster movie “Troy”.

Secondly, why do lots of women and some men find Brad Pitt so darn irresistible? I don’t find him attractive at all. I mean, he’s not bad to look at I suppose, if you’re into that sort of thing, but he just seems to pretty for my tastes.

On Saturday I took Earl to a new barber for a much needed haircut. Back when I had enough hair on top to actually get a haircut, I went to a great barber named John who could cut a killer flat top. I haven’t seen John in quite a while (over eight years), and Earl hasn’t been happy with his last couple of haircuts from the local barber so I took him to John’s. John is apparently very popular these days, because we ended up waiting 3 1/2 hours for Earl’s turn. It was great to shoot the bull with the other guys, kidding around, talking sports, computers and cell phones and all the town gossip. Nothing beats a small town barbershop on a Saturday afternoon.

After visiting with John (Earl has a great haircut by the way, we’ll be going often), we headed to Albany for shoe shopping. I have a pair of “Enforcer” boots that are starting to show they’re age. I absolutely love these boots, as they make me feel very, very confident. I know that I shouldn’t base my confidence on boots, but I do. Call me crazy. Anyways, I picked up another pair at Dick’s Sporting Goods. We then went to DSW, where I picked up a pair of black casual business shoes (Sketchers) and black dress-up business shoes (Hush Puppies). I think my feet have shrunk, because I was very comfortable in a size 9, whereas I usually where a 9 1/2. You know what they say about the size of a man’s feet, I hope other appendages have not begun to shrink.

We had dinner at Romano’s Italian Grille… neither had ever been to one and it seemed like a good place to eat. Great, great, great food – boring, boring, boring server. He had no personality whatsoever. Earl and I enjoyed a delicious pitcher of Sangrias so Earl ended up driving home. Someday I’ll be big enough to hold my alcohol respectably.

Then today the weather turned nice so we went for a drive through the Frankfort Gorge then the Ilion Gorge (both of which lead to the Mohawk Valley). The twisty road is always fun to drive with the Impala, and it was nice to pull over and enjoy the babbling brook, the sound of the birds and the sunshine. A nice little meditative moment to prepare for the work week ahead.