Detour de Force

Wednesday June 16th, 2010 - Milwaukee, WI

Keeping my bookings straight is like trying to organize a swarm of bees. I thought I’d at least try to narrow it down to Wednesdays for now, but that’s not happening. Something’s always coming up, and today it was a call from my cousin Brett in Milwaukee who has an unexpected vacation from his job this week. He’s always worth the trip, so I drove there.

Brett is very creative and a great sounding board. He’s the only other left handed person in our family, so in many ways we think alike. But, he’s also got a very logical side and is often able to come up with an angle I haven’t thought of. Plus, he makes me laugh as hard as any human being on Earth, including comics. He’s sick, twisted, dark - and I love it.

He could have easily been a very good comic had he wanted, but chose to be a carpenter instead. That’s his passion, and he spent a lifetime learning his craft like I did mine. Now he teaches at the union training center in Milwaukee so our lives are taking a similar path.

I wanted to talk to him about how he teaches, and he said he’s a maverick like I am as it doesn’t always have to go by ‘the book’, whatever that is. He breaks tradition all the time, and his students either love him or hate him. I’m the same way, and we both loathe idiots.

I’m already behind on my booking process, so another week wouldn’t really make a big difference. It wouldn’t make any difference at all. Nobody knows I’m way off but me, and I’m the only one that says so. But it’s true, and eventually I really have to turn this around and be a lot more organized. I’m getting work, but not nearly at the level I know I can get.

Brett and I discussed that and a lot of other things over a Red Lobster dinner, and it was worth the drive on many levels. The food was outstanding, and it was a great opportunity to both reflect and look ahead. Any family relationship I can nurture is important to me.

Brett and his sister didn’t get along very well as kids, and they too spent time in silence. Eventually, they patched it up and it took work on both sides. They still communicate in a civil manner today, even though she moved out of town years ago. They both work at it.

That’s all I wanted with my sister too, but at this point I’ve written it off. We discussed it at dinner and then it occurred to both of us on the way home we were near Mitchell St. where my father’s house was. We decided to drive by and see the condition it was in, and to our surprise it was vacant and boarded up. It looked like it was a condemned building.

Maybe it was. The neighborhood has really gone down, not that it was great in the first place. It looked surreal to see it abandoned, with windows busted out and others boarded up. I don’t have happy memories of that place at all, and I wanted to burn it to the ground.

My old man rode with the Milwaukee Outlaws, and I remember bikers congregating on the front porch when I was a kid and scaring the neighbors half to death. Now all of that’s over, and good riddance. I heard their new leader got arrested today. It didn’t bother me.