Abner Kaplan

That is my grandfather's name. He didn't have a middle name. He passed away on April 2nd and I didn't really know what to make of it at the time.

I come from a pretty small family and have never really experienced loss of anyone close before. The only other funeral I have been to was my paternal grandmother's, but she lived in New York most of my life. Abner is my maternal grandfather. My paternal grandfather died before I was born and my maternal grandmother lives on. My mom's parents have always been in Los Angeles and we'd see them on most holidays. My grandfather was always quiet, as was I, so we never really talked much or at least as much as we probably should have. I still feel like I don't know what he was all about and I didn't think his passing would affect me that much because I am generally not that emotional of a person. It didn't really strike me until the funeral as his life was described through my uncles' words. The more I heard the more I realized how much we were alike. It made me wonder what it would have been like to know him at my age and I teared up.

Same Difference

Let us recap the recent events in Weztown! Like I would write about anything other than myself here anyway...

Dear diary...

I have been gearing up for m' first "big show" with Dr. Taco lately. It is this Saturday, April 17, in a warehouse in Menlo Park. If you want to attend let me know and I'll give you all the details. I'm still a bit nervous, but every practice gives me a little more confidence. It should be good!

I also had the excitement of giving my 30 days notice to my apartment before having a new place to live. Combined with uncoordinated trips out of town by me and my buddy who I planned to move in with making finding time to look at places a chore, the experience became a little stressful. In the end we found a pretty cool place and moved in a week ago.

While moving I found out my grandfather had passed away. I will have a more detailed post next time.

The Flats Part Two

Uggggggghhhhhhh...

So I compared where I had patched my recently current tube and my last tube and the patches were in near the same location, but in not in exactly the same place. The inside of the tire in that region did have a tear of sorts, which makes sense I guess, but it wasn't rough or anything. Regardless, the new hole was in a different location. I decided it probably was just bad luck, so I went about replacing the tube and right after I tightened the bolts on the wheel I gave the tire a little squeeze and kapow! The tube popped and went flat. This is the point where uggggggghhhhhhh...

The Flats

With the reemergence of the sun I got back on the old human-powered two-wheeler and pedaled my way to work yesterday. It was glorious. So much so that I would have liked to have had a similar experience today. Not so fast roared the bicycle gods. My back tire is flat. Again. I got two flats at the end of last year before I started blaming the weather for my laziness. There must be something wrong with the tire. I will have to investigate this evening.

I also went bowling on Sunday for the first time in quite a while. Topped at 183. My bicep is sore now.

Same old bore shack. Bikes, bowling and typing.

Stop Everything!

So I haven't been bowling much lately or typing in Dvorak or exercising. I have a myriad of excuses, but fuck em. Let us begin again.

As my last post stated six months ago, timing my entries became quite tedious: too boring even for me. For now I'm just going to type it up in Dvorak as much as possible and hopefully actually get proficient with it, because if I can't keep promises to myself then what am I doing here?

How about some good ole life updates, huh? The most recent news in Weztown is that I have joined a band. I'm replacing the bass player (he is moving away) of the illustrious San Jose party rockers Dr. Taco. I've practiced with them a couple times now and it is a little bit humbling. I've been "playing" for a long time, but never really with people and never really full songs. Besides screwing up a lot, though, I can already tell it is going to be a lot of fun.