Friday, October 30, 2009

Dad's Hot Rod

JayG's Friday Fun Thread theme this week is Beautiful Buicks, so naturally I've got to chime in here and post a few pics. What you see here is my dad's hot rod, a 1948 Buick Special. Oddly, I don't have any photos of the complete car.




Note the International House of MedicMatthew under construction/renovation.




And here she is, taped up with the wheel removed getting the final flame job.

When I moved home from Pittsburgh (the first time) my dad had just gotten her on the road. He had to run to the store to pick up a loaf of bread for my mom and when we left the store he drove out of town and pulled over and said "You drive it home." That was six years ago, that was also the last time I drove it. Incidentally that was the same day that pic #2 was taken. Everyone in the family jokes about taking the Buick out and my father would never say no, but there's no one in the family who is willing to take it out because we know that A.) If by some chance something happened to it we would never live it down and B.) We all know that he'd break out into a cold sweat and not breathe until it came back home

My dad has always had a project car and it has always been a GM product. He'd break it down and rebuild it back up, spending a lot of his free time in the garage. My dad has worked in a paper mill all of my life and when he wasn't working on his own car he did a lot of mechanic work on the side for other people to supplement the family income and he'd usually have my sister or I peering over his shoulder or fetching tools for him. And if we weren't already out in the garage with him it wasn't uncommon to hear him holler up to the house "Send the boy out here!"

This past week I got to spend a couple of days in the garage with my dad repairing Xterra v1.0, I have to admit it was kind of fun spending the day out in the garage getting my hands covered in grease & oil.





p.s. Anyone interested in a 2001 Nissan Xterra XE V6 with a 156,000 miles on it?

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Love it.

Pomplamoose Music's cover of Beyonce's 'Single Ladies'
Pay particular attention to the lyrics at approximately the 2 minute mark.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Man With A Gun Days 5 through 27

Nothing to report. This new pistol is very comfortable. A buddy of mine seems to think that since I'm in love with the Bersa that I should sell him my Glock. Not gonna happen. I'm okay with the Bersa in 9mm for defensive carry, but I want something that packs a bit more punch for when I'm out in the woods, though I would probably be better off keeping a 12ga loaded with 00 buckshot in the Xterra just in case I run into a pissed off bear or a pissed off mama moose out in the backcountry.

Not much else to report. I was the recipient of some linky love from both Ambulance Driver and Tam within a weeks time. Now my Sitemeter is wondering what the hell happened. Oh well, I'm sure it will get used to just being hit by my 1.34 loyal readers.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

My Name Is Matthew.

My name is Matthew. Thirty years ago I was born gay to two of the greatest parents that anyone could ask for. I was raised in a small town in Maine and have moved away twice to live in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to explore what life has to offer outside of this small town.

I am many things. I am male. I am a paramedic. I am Catholic. I am six feet four inches tall. I am gay. I have brown eyes. I am the sum of my experiences in life and I can be nothing more. I believe that all people are genuinely good, and though there may be some with bad or evil tendencies, I still believe that all people are genuinely good.

I have asked many people many times how my right to marry would affect them and their life and their marriage. I have heard many arguments against same-sex marriage, yet still no one can tell me how my right to marry would affect their marriage. As I said I am Catholic. I was raised in the Catholic Church, I was involved in youth ministry, I directed a choir, I was a Eucharistic minister, I served on my parish council. I base my belief system on the teachings of Christ, not the bureaucracy of the Catholic Church. I have argued with devout Christians who call me ignorant when I say that the Bible is a living document. These are the same people who fail to realize how many times the Bible has been changed over the course of its existence. There are dozens of versions and translations of the Bible, each with its own changes chosen by the translator or reviser, often using the Bible as a means of controlling the masses or defying the current authority. This has been documented throughout history and cannot be denied.

Several people have said to me that same-sex marriage would defile the sanctity of “traditional” marriage. I have done well to hold my tongue and not ask these same people if their divorce from their first (and sometimes second or third) spouse in any way defiles their current marriage. This nation has a marriage failure rate that has been hovering around 50% for quite some time. I’m sorry, but heterosexuals have already messed up marriage.

I have a good friend who believes that marriage is to be between a man and a woman, but he also believes that when the government got into the business of licensing marriage then religious restrictions placed on marriage became invalid. This is a perfect example of how the First Amendment of the United States Constitution works. The First Amendment is often referred to as allowing freedom of religion, while this is true it is also an absolute truth that the First Amendment more importantly allows for freedom from religion, meaning that the government cannot impose a religion upon the people. There is no government sponsored or sanctioned religion in our nation and thus when it comes to codified law the use of religion against same sex marriage is invalid. Our government is a republic, not a theocracy.

When both houses of the Maine Legislature passed LD 1020 and Governor Baldacci signed it into law there are some who decried it as a travesty, who wanted a recall of every legislator who voted in favor of it, who said that the Maine people do not want such a law. These people obviously fail to understand the structure of our government. Our legislators are charged with the task of making law while remaining true to their constituency. Deny it as they may, they do not realize that our legislators did just that. Thousands of people wrote to and called their representatives and senators to voice their opinion. Thousands of people gathered in Augusta to testify before a legislative committee. What these detractors fail to realize is that the people spoke and those in support of same-sex marriage spoke louder and in greater numbers than those who spoke against same-sex marriage.

All of this having been said, people fail to understand how LD1020 is written. The law allows for same-sex marriage but also allows for affirmation of religious freedom. LD1020 removes gender-specific pronouns from Maine’s marriage law and most importantly protects religious freedom. When LD1020 is enacted then Title 19-A Section 655 of the Maine Revised Statutes Annotated will read:

This Part does not authorize any court or other state or local governmental body, entity, agency or commission to compel, prevent or interfere in any way with any religious institution's religious doctrine, policy, teaching or solemnization of marriage within that particular religious faith's tradition as guaranteed by the Maine Constitution, Article 1, Section 3 or the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. A person authorized to join persons in marriage and who fails or refuses to join persons in marriage is not subject to any fine or other penalty for such failure or refusal.


This law protects everyone’s rights. It grants me the right to get married and it protects the rights of religious organizations from having to solemnize marriages that are not in accordance with its beliefs and teachings. I ask you, do what is right on November 3rd and join me in voting no on Question 1.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Status Update 10.19.2009

Nothing new to report.
1.) Still carrying everywhere but at work.
2.) Still trying to figure out what I want to be if and when I grow up.
3.) Still trying to figure out where I want to live.
4.) Still as indecisive as ever.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Untitled.

He was 84 years old, a resident of Fairlawn Acres for going on ten years, eight years ago a new resident came to live at there and he fell in love, eventually they married at a small ceremony right there on the lawn of the nursing home, attended by family, staff and fellow residents. It was the event of the summer at Fairlawn Acres. For seven years now he had shared a large room on the residential care section of the home with the love of his life. About a week ago they told him that his beloved wife only had a few days to live due to an exacerbation of one of her chronic conditions. The dementia had rendered her pleasantly confused for the past six months and so after conferring with her children they decided to keep her comfortable and make her last few days on Earth happy ones. The day came when she passed on and understandably he became saddened, today he buried her and returned home to his empty room at Fairlawn Acres, he declined his supper, telling the staff that he just didn’t have much of an appetite today and so after the staff got him settled in he sat down in his favorite chair and tried his best to read from a book.

The staff called on him all evening, checking on him, making sure he was okay. Naturally he had been quite melancholy for most of the day so no one gave it much thought when he nodded off in his chair, the book in his lap until it came time for his evening medications, he didn’t want to take them and he even though he skipped his supper he didn’t want his usual evening snack and so they left him be making sure to check on him periodically. About an hour later when one of the CNAs came to check on him he was slow to answer her and waved her off saying he was tired and just wanted to sleep, she sat with him for a while and over the course of their conversation he became increasingly lethargic, she checked his blood sugar and took his vitals and then called his son and called 911. By the time we arrived he would only mumble and wave us away, his blood pressure had fallen, his pulse had slowed and a slow stream of tears fell from his eyes.

Though we all knew the diagnosis before running any test he got the standard workup for someone with increasing lethargy. As we all suspected everything came back negative yet his pulse remained slow and became slower with time and his blood pressure never recovered. Unfortunately there is no code in the ICD-9 for a broken heart. It seemed as though the nurses and CNAs and doctors had an unspoken agreement to take turns sitting with him and his son. A couple hours later while dropping off another patient we checked in on him to see how he was doing, he had stopped responding to anyone and his son sat there by his side, holding his father’s hand while the now frail man could be heard faintly whispering his dear wife’s name over and over, quieter and quieter until finally he sighed a sigh of relief and let out his last breath.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Seriously?!? YHGTBSM!

h/t to JayG for fucking up my morning.

I've got nothing, go read Jay's post on it.

Obama and the fucking Nobel Peace Prize......Seriously, WTF?

Monday, October 5, 2009

Man With A Gun Days 3 & 4

Not really anything to report, Day 3 consisted of dubbing around the house and going to lunch with Mom. Day 4 consisted of going in to work for a special detail so no carry there. Then I ran a few errands & whatnot whilst waiting for others to finish their special details at work. Nothing to report. (surprise!)

Friday, October 2, 2009

Man With A Gun Day 2

Nothing to report, I never left the house all day.
I did manage to pay off some of my sleep debt from this week of exhaustion.

Man With A Gun

I haven't been good when it comes to concealed carry. I have my permit, I have my pistol I just don't seem to be all that diligent about grabbing it when I head out of the house. And of course I know that concealed carry is one of those things where you can think "What could go wrong with going without it just this one time?" only to find that the consequences are quite severe if you are without your gun and the need for it arises. While I do hope that I never have to pull the trigger outside of the range, I hope even more that *if* by some horrible twist of fate I do find myself in need of using a gun that I will have it with me.

I recently acquired a new pistol. A Bersa Thunder 9 Pro UC- a hot little compact 9mm pistol that is far more comfortable to carry and far more concealable than my Glock 22. While I love the un-fuck-up-able-ness of the Glock, it just isn't comfortable. Since this new piece is comfortable and almost as easy to use, and since I suck at blogging, I have decided that I am going to embark on a little project and call it Man With A Gun in which for the month of October I will carry every day (where I am allowed to, company policy says I can't carry at work) and I will blog about it.

Since I have become addicted to Twitter recently I will try to collect my tweets on the subject and post them here as well. I will also try to tag them with #MWAG as a hashtag.

Day 1 Report: Worked 0700-1500, home by 1515. Shower, dressed, out the door headed to a Rufus Wainwright concert in Portland. Concealment garment of choice today: sport coat.