Fear and Stealing in Seattle

I am guilty of many crimes.  They are all just mildly and wildly stupid.  Today, I committed a crime.  I stole a dog and a ladder.  Stealing is really something I don’t do well.  In fact, I’m completely against it, but when our two dogs are wagging and begging to see a friendly neighborhood dog, I just can’t help myself from opening and entering through the neighbor’s back gate.  Opening and entering sounds far more decent than breaking and entering.  I didn’t break anything….other than the law.

Bo,  our neighborhood friendly dog, also affectionately known as Bobafet, Bobafettish, Bobo Brayton, or Botox  was allowed, by me, to exit his backyard.  He is safely hidden in our basement.  Actually, he is currently playing in our backyard with our friendly dogs.  Bo is a wonderful guy.  Our dogs express that fact to me daily.

Crime number two:  “Stealing a Ladder”. The owners of Bo, the dog, received a gift from me earlier this summer.  It is an extremely tall ladder.  I provided that gift because, being ridiculously afraid of heights and gutters, getting rid of that ladder and hiring someone to clean gutters seemed like the right thing to do.  My wife wasn’t necessarily pleased with my decision.  Before our wedded bliss, she purchased this firefighter like ladder for a mere sum of money I don’t wish to disclose.  It’s huge.  I don’t mind throwing or giving away crap that’s mine, but I probably shouldn’t give things to people which I didn’t purchase.  So, the right thing to do is steal it from the person you provided it to, right??  Reluctant to steal anything, I was forced purchase a 13 foot tree to commit the crime.  Unless I became “Spiderman”, there was no way to place the star on our Christmas Tree. Stealing that ladder was the only option.

If my children, friends, neighbors, dogs, cats or wife are starving, I will steal a loaf of bread.  That’s just the way I roll.

Sorry, John.  Bo is heading back home, but will you PLEASE steal our ladder back.

Victim of a Crime (excuses)

It’s 5:49 a.m. Pacific Standard time.  My good friend, Vic, commented on my post regarding the Punctuality theme.  He was a bit disgruntled because I haven’t posted for a couple of days, thus not staying punctual.  Since I love to make excuses, I have a couple perfect ones.  While shopping for a 767 foot Christmas tree, I was too exhausted after negotiations with the lumber broker and my wife to write about anything. The lumber broker actually wanted us to pay 100 dollars for the stick, and my wife actually thought it would fit in our house.  We are having family over for Christmas and I believe she was anticipating the tree should have the same ratio value as the turkey or roast beast.  Since 13 people will attend Christmas dinner, I figure a 30 pound turkey will suffice.  She thought, since 13 people will be here for a Christmas Celebration, we must have a 767 foot tree to make everyone happy.  Since we only had decorative accommodations for the 6 foot tree I could find for free in our backyard, this required another 100 dollars and 200 minutes at Target.  Tempers were growing and a man meltdown was ensuing.

After cutting 12 feet off of the tree, I managed  to cram it into our house.  Then in comes “A Very Elvis Christmas CD” and lights which are supposed to make me nostalgic and merry.  It was 24 hours ago when I began wrapping the lights around the tree.  I now sit before you writing this crappy piece because I need to be punctual.

The tree and I have kissed and made up, but more importantly, I wish to apologize to my friend, Vic, for not being punctual.  He was right.

Stay tuned for mediocrity.

Ben