Reasons to be...

Just a few quick comments then.
So, our new dog came to live with us last Sunday. She's a sweet 10 week old puppy called Ziggy (which could be Stardust or could be Marley, but I prefer to think of her as 'Ziggy Pup'). I'll doubtless up fotos here or on the family blog in the coming years. It's nice to have a dog again, even though she reminds me of Luna, because she also reminds me of Luna when she was a puppy and not as the old lady of more recent years.
Another one of my obsessions - Dean is about to turn hurricane, and will likely hit the Caribbean this weekend and the US in about a week's time. He looks like he'll get big and nasty. It's fascinating to watch the satellite and the tracking as a storm moves off the West African coast and tracks across the Atlantic, watched by thousands; we see it grow and at times like now as the storm grows intensely but no land is threatened, it's even fun. But I imagine being in the projected path of this thing is scary - if I ws in Jamaica right now, I'd want to get off the island as soon as possible.
Last thing - I'm 40 soon, and trying to get a party together for a week or so's time. Of course - will anyone show up? Now that I'm working for the corporate yoke and living the family life in the suburbs, do I still have any friends left?

Old friends

I'm preparing the invites for my 40th birthday party this weekend. (The party's not this weekend, just the preparation).
So I've got this idea to gather a few old mates around. It's a sort of nice taking stock and celebration moment in one. There's a few mates from the last few years that I've lost track of more or less. Even more unusually, I was googling a couple of my very best old mates from the way off past, and have come across them too. (As not many people read this blog, it being a sort of personal ramble, you may well be one of those reading this now ;-)
It's an unusual thing to be able to go back and make contact with your history. I've always been a one for burning bridges quite freely and brightly throughout my life, and suddenly here I find myself middle-aged and mortgaged, breadwinner for a wife and kids, yuppie job and accidental career, and I'm able to bump back into my past. For better or worse, I figure I at least should have the balls to face it. I don't really feel ashamed or overly guilty about anything, though that might just be my psychopathic tendencies ;-)
Je ne regrette rien, in ieder geval...
And if those folks who were such good friends would still like to come over and meet me now and share a beer or ten, then it should also be a fascinating time, to see my present and past collide. I know where my heart is, being not a rich hippie but a punk yuppie these days, and I wonder what may come...