Bucky's Rock Review 2011

Well, the end of the year is almost here, and I’ve been taking some time to revisit some of the more memorable rock albums of the year. While this is by no means a complete list of every album that’s been released in 2011, these are just a few of the ones I’ve bought this year.

Country Line by Aaron Lewis
The Staind frontman’s first solo EP is the first country CD I’ve ever put in my collection. This is a short disc of seven quick songs (three of which are the different versions of the disc’s single “Country Boy”), but it’s well done and really brings out Lewis’s strong voice and acoustic guitar really well. The track “Tangled Up In You” is a reworking of a ballad off of Staind’s last album, and it clicks as a solo acoustic song.
Recommended Tracks: “Country Boy” (radio version), “Tangled Up In You,” “Massachusetts”

Home School Valedictorian by Adelitas Way
If you’re a rock radio listener, you’ve probably heard the first two singles “Sick” and “The Collapse” off this band’s sophomore album. The rest of the album is mixed between uptempo rock songs like these singles and slower ballads like “Good Enough.”
Recommended Tracks: “The Collapse,” “Sick,” “I Wanna Be” (with cameo vocals from Tyler Connolly of Theory of a Deadman)

Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by Black Stone Cherry
Hard to believe that this is the Southern rockers’ third album already! This CD follows the same formula as most of their other songs, with great guitars and catchy lyrics that are more fun than thought-provoking.
Recommended Tracks: “White Trash Millionaire,” “Blame It On The Boom Boom,” “Can’t You See”

Shallow Bay: The Best of Breaking Benjamin by Breaking Benjamin
There’s been a bit of controversy over the single “Blow Me Away” from this best-of collection. Apparently guitarist Aaron Fink and bassist Mark Klepaski approved the version for this retrospective featuring vocals by Sydnee Duran of the band Volara to their record label without frontman Ben Burnley’s consent, which led to Burnley firing both Fink and Klepaski from the band during their current hiatus. I have no problem with either the version that’s on this album or the original version without Duran’s vocals from the Halo 2 soundtrack. I also like some of the B-sides, cover songs and live acoustic tracks on the second disc of this greatest hits collection, and am hoping that Burnley can eventually get over his “Axl Rose lead singer syndrome” to get back into recording music again with this band.
Recommended Tracks: “Blow Me Away,” “Enjoy the Silence” (Depeche Mode cover), “Breath” (acoustic live)

Songbook by Chris Cornell
This new disc by the Soundgarden and Audioslave is a compilation of fifteen live tracks culled from his solo acoustic tour and one new studio acoustic song. This is a great live CD for anyone who’s a fan of Cornell’s work and either went to one of these shows, or just for someone like me who is a fan and is kicking himself for missing this tour. These songs showcase Cornell’s powerful vocals and remind you that he’s a better guitar player than he’s usually given credit for.
Recommended Tracks: “Black Hole Sun,” “Doesn’t Remind Me” (live from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul), “Imagine” (John Lennon cover)

Superfiction by Cold
This is the first disc by the Florida band in six years, and musically it follows the same path as their previous album A Different Kind of Pain. The heaviest track is the first song “Wicked World.” That’s my favorite track on the album, because it harkens back to the band’s harder rocking sound on previous efforts like Year of the Spider and 13 Ways to Bleed Onstage. Frontman Scooter Ward’s vocals are very produced, although he turns down the Autotune much more than he did on his solo effort The Killer and the Star. This is more of a concept album where the songs are connected almost as if it was telling one big story, and it’s kinda interesting to count how many of the Cold spiders there are in the illustrations in the CD booklet.
Recommended Tracks: “Wicked World,” “American Dream,” Welcome2MyWorld”

The Lost Children by Disturbed
This is the first B-sides and rarities collection for the Chicago metal band, and their first album not to reach number one on the Billboard album chart in its first week. If you’re a fan of the band, you’ll enjoy these rarities and cover songs while the band takes a healthy break.
Recommended Tracks: “Hell,” “3,” “Midlife Crisis” (Faith No More cover)

American Capitalist by Five Finger Death Punch
The third album by this speedy metal band picks up where their last two discs left off – it’s a quick album full of fast-paced rock anthems paired with a few slower, Steelheart-type ballads. It’s a formula that works, so why fix something if it isn’t broken, right?
Recommended Tracks: “Under and Over It,” “The Pride,” “Remember Everything”

Wasting Light by the Foo Fighters
One of Dave Grohl’s band’s most solid works to date, and probably their best album since The Colour and the Shape. This disc had me reeled in from the first song “Bridge Burning” to the finale “Walk.” Welcoming guitarist Pat Smear back to the band gives the trio of Grohl, Smear and Chris Shifflett a more complex, layered guitar sound on this album. They also have some good guest stars on this disc, like Bob Mould of Husker Du on vocals and guitar on the song “Dear Rosemary” and Grohl’s former Nirvana bandmate Kris Novoselic playing bass and accordion on the song “I Should Have Known.” Be careful when you open the CD booklet though, because each one includes a small piece of the analog tape that this album was recorded on!
Recommended Tracks: “Bridge Burning,” “I Should Have Known,” “Walk”

If Not Now, When? by Incubus
This is the first album in quite some time by the mellow pop/rock band, and it doesn’t disappoint their fans. While it’s not their best effort, the soothing sounds on this album are perfect background music for a busy workday.
Recommended Tracks: “Friends and Lovers,” “Isadore,” “Adolescents”

Th1rTeen by Megadeth
Yes, the title of this album is spelled correctly above! It’s the thirteenth studio album by frontman (and former Metallica guitarist) Dave Mustaine’s band, and it continues their heavy metal legacy, picking right up where their last album, the underrated Endgame left off. The return of bassist (and native Minnesotan) Dave Ellefson to the band brings their signature sound back to one of the better metal albums of the year.
Recommended tracks: “Public Enemy No. 1,” “Whose Life (Is It Anyways?),” “Black Swan”

Twenty (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Pearl Jam
If you enjoyed Cameron Crowe’s documentary film on Pearl Jam, this double-disc set is a great companion piece to the movie that celebrates Pearl Jam's two decades in the alternative rock scene. The first disc is full of live tracks from the film, and the second disc is a cornucopia of demos, acoustic and live bonus tracks that are perfect for the Pearl Jam fan of any age.
Recommended Tracks: “Say Hello 2 Heaven” (Temple of the Dog demo featuring Chris Cornell on vocals), “Given To Fly” (Mike Mcready acoustic instrumental demo), “Bu$hleaguer” (live)

Dedicated to Chaos by Queensryche
Queensryche is known for their concept albums (and concerts). I really wanted to like this album after enjoying their previous concept disc American Soldier, but this is simply a disorganized, pop-influenced mess. Song titles like “Got It Bad,” “Wot We Do” and “Big Noize” don’t exactly inspire their loyal fans either. I think this will eventually be an album like Metallica’s St. Anger or Motley Crue’s Generation Swine, one that the band will hopefully deny it ever existed!
Recommended Tracks: I can’t recommend any song on this album, it’s my 2011 “clunker” of the year!

Somewhere In The Stratosphere by Shinedown
I’d recommend this double CD, double DVD collection to anyone who’s a Shinedown fan or who want to relive seeing them live in concert. This album devoted both a CD and DVD to a pair of concerts, one being an acoustic, VH1 Storytellers kind of intimate affair in Kansas City, and a more traditional electric live concert in Washington state that you may have seen on the Paladia channel on cable.
Recommended Tracks: “Times Like These,” (Foo Fighters cover – acoustic), “45” (electric live), “Second Chance” (both acoustic and electric live versions)

Live-Made In Stoke 24/7/11 by Slash
This is a great live double album by Slash and his solo band featuring Myles Kennedy from Alter Bridge on lead vocals. Recorded in Stoke-on-Trent England, where Slash lived for a while as a youth, this concert is a joyful homecoming, full of songs from his first solo album, plenty of Guns N’ Roses tunes, a few Slash’s Snakepit and Velvet Revolver tunes and a few instrumental numbers thrown in for good measure. I counted about a dozen songs from this collection that I got to hear this band play live at the casino in Walker, MN last year, along with several more on this disc that sound excellent live in concert.
Recommended Tracks: “Nothing To Say,” “Godfather Solo” (a ten minute instrumental jam featuring the love theme from the Godfather movies), “Beggars and Hangers On”

Staind by Staind
After Aaron Lewis’s acoustic country EP and the band’s break, Staind returned to rock radio this fall with a self-titled album that rocks harder and features more of Lewis’ screaming vocals then their previous two efforts. I was surprised to hear Snoop Dogg (yes, THAT Snoop Dogg) on the track “Wannabe,” but otherwise the band turned in a solid effort, their last album with original drummer Jon Wysocki who left the band in May after recording his parts for the album.
Recommended Tracks: “Not Again,” “Eyes Wide Open,” “Something To Remind You”

The Truth Is… by Theory of a Deadman
These four guys from Canada struck gold with their last album Scars and Souvenirs, and their new album continues in those same footsteps. Loaded with infectious and somewhat male chauvinistic R-rated rock songs like “Lowlife,” “Bitch Came Back,” “Gentlemen” and the title track that guys can enjoy, as well as a mix of slower ballads like “Out of My Head,” “Hurricane” and “Easy To Love You” for the ladies, this is another solid outing from the rockers who realize they’re rock stars but still don’t take themselves too seriously.
Recommended Tracks: “Lowlife,” “Bitch Came Back,” “Out of My Head”

Well, that’s all for now, so have a very safe and happy New Year, and I’ll be back blogging in 2012!

Bucky's Helpful Hints for Having an Excellent Concert Experience

This blog topic's been simmering in my mind for a while, so I thought I'd unleash it just in time for the holidays. I've been to a lot of great concerts over the years, so I thought I'd share a few tips that I use to make these experiences much more memorable.

1. If you must eat or drink, do so before or after the show.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen people at rock shows have a few too many and end up making complete fools out of themselves and become a distraction for others who are trying to enjoy the music with their friends. I don't drink anymore, but when I do feel hungry or thirsty I either enjoy a nice meal before the show or satisfy my craving after the show when I've had time to absorb the great time I've just had at a concert. That's why I enjoy going to shows at casinos, because there are usually quite a few good options available.

2. Hit the merchandise table early.
I've scored a few meet and greet passes and some other collectibles that were only available in limited numbers at merchandise tables at some concerts right when I've entered the venue. You can wait until after the show, but some vendors close shop early, so the T-shirt or CD you had your eye on might be packed up by then.

3. If you value your hearing, bring earplugs.
At the last Sevendust show I was at, I was complimented and given a hearty slap on the back by a fellow concert-goer next to me who remarked that I was smart and remembered to wear earplugs. I replied that I'd learned my lesson from previous shows. After one show featuring Everclear and Nickelback at SCSU's Halenbeck Hall about ten years ago, my ears were ringing for three days straight, so I definitely learned my lesson then!

4. Respect the people around you.
This point is worth bringing up, because while I've had the good fortune to meet a lot of really great rock and roll fans over the last decade at different shows, there's inevitably a rotten apple or two who parties a little too hearty either before or during the show and just ends up being a jerk. Have some consideration for your friends and other fellow concertgoers and enjoy in moderation, OK?

Well, that's all for now. Next week, I'll post my final blog of the year, which will be a review of the best rock albums of 2011 that I've added to my collection. Until then, have a great day and Happy Holidays, everyone!

Another Damn Great Sevendust Show!

I realized last night that I've become a Sevendust "veteran." The show was my sixth Sevendust concert in the last nine years. Although that's not as many shows as some people in the audience, I'd still been to more Sevendust shows than most people around me at the Myth in Maplewood who had either seen the band play live once or twice before or were Sevendust "virgins." I've been rocking to these guys for almost a decade, and if they keep playing hard, aggressive shows like they did last night, I'll keep coming back for more!

When I heard that Sevendust was playing at the Myth on Monday with four other bands and that tickets were only $20, I knew I had to go to this show! I hadn't seen them since their show at First Avenue in downtown Minneapolis in November last year, and I knew from experiencing their 2008 show at the Myth Nightclub that it was a great venue to enjoy such a concert experience.

I braved the Twin Cities traffic, arriving in enough time to do a little Christmas window shopping and to grab some supper before the show. The first band, Sucker Punch, hails from nearby Minneapolis and they showed promise with their original songs and an interesting metal cover of "Summer Nights" from the John Travolta movie Grease.

The next band, Pennsylvania-based Candlelight Red got the growing crowd into the show with some fun original songs from their January 2012 debut album The Wreckage, including the title cut and a cover of Roxette's song "The Look," among others. I enjoyed their set, and made a mental note to check out their album when it comes out.

The third opening band, Seven Day Sonnet, hails from Chicago. They played about a half-dozen songs including their current single "Hapless." I wasn't as impressed with them as I was by Candlelight Red, but they kept the crowd thoroughly entertained until the next act hit the stage.

The final opening act, Eye Empire, took the stage shortly after 9 p.m. The band was formed by former Dark New Day members guitarist B.C. Kochmit and bass guitarist Corey Lowery, who happens to be Sevendust guitarist Clint Lowery's brother. Clint even popped up on stage to join his brother's band to play guitar during the song "Victim" which he and Sevendust frontman Lajon Witherspoon recorded parts for on Eye Empire's album Moment of Impact. Before I knew it, their ten-song set was over. I thought Eye Empire did a great job, and was thoroughly ready for Sevendust.

After getting to see Sevendust's always unique backdrops (the curtain behind the drum riser had the band name in white on a red background with a cartoon character of a skull wearing dreadlocks and a cowboy hat with the number "7" on it) and the usual equipment checks during a set change, the house lights went dark and guitarists John Connolly, Clint Lowery and bassist Vince Hornsby led a thundering, thomping version of the song "Splinter" from 2010's Cold Day Memory. This heavy song set the tempo throughout the set, as the band played more bruising numbers like "Denial," "Praise," "Enemy," and "Strong Arm Broken."

Because this was such a driving metal show full of heavy lyrics and guitar, I didn't get to hear some of their lighter fare like "Angel's Son," "Xmas Day" or "Follow" this time around, but I really didn't mind because it was such a great aggressive set with songs I don't normally hear during their concerts like "Alpha", "Forever," and "The End is Coming." Sevendust closed the night with their usual encore song "Face to Face," and left their fans chanting "Sev-en-DUST! Sev-en-DUST!" yearning for more.

I splurged for the meet and greet pass, and got the opportunity to talk with Corey Lowery of Eye Empire near the merchandise table while waiting to meet Sevendust up on the third floor for the after-party. I first saw Corey play live with his old band Stereomud at the old Del-Win Entertainment Center in St. Joe, and got to remind him about old times. The after-party was great. We all got autographed set lists and band photos to get autographs for. I got to talk with all of the Sevendust band members again, but didn't get everyone's autograph this time, as some of them snuck out a little early to rest up for the next night's show. I didn't mind, however, because I enjoyed reminding Lajon of meeting him outside First Avenue before last year's show, talking to Vince and his friends about ice-fishing, chatting with John about shows and concert venues, talking more baseball and hearing some funny stories about Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows from drummer Morgan Rose, and talking music and life in general with Clint. Those memories will last a long time. Besides, I got all their autographs on the very same kind of photo sheet last year after their First Avenue show!

If you're into heavy rock or metal, and haven't been to a Sevendust show or picked up one of their CD's, I would strongly encourage you to do so immediately! They are one of the hardest working and hardest rocking bands today. Every show of theirs I've been to has been very memorable, and last night was just one more damn great Sevendust show!

P.S. I'm also including in this review a scanned copy of the autographed set list we received during the after-party. The band didn't play the song "Black," but otherwise every other song listed on the set list was played during last night's show.

The Art of Writing

Well, another November has come and gone. Only so many shopping days left until Christmas!

Last month, I did something I've wanted to try before but never did: I participated in the annual National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, for short. The goal is to write a 50,000 word or more novel during that month.

For me, I took this task as a challenge. I wrote my first words with a basic idea in mind, but had no idea as to what would really happen over the course of this story until I continued writing every day. I really took this seriously and committed myself to it every day, just like I'm doing on my current job search. Although some days I wrote more than others, on November 29th, I finally finished the goal of completing my novel. At over 50,600 words and more than 100 chapters, a prologue, and epilogue and a few author's notes at the end, this was a hefty task, and I'm proud of myself for accomplishing it. While I've written plenty of articles, press releases, and a few half-finished stories before, this was the first time I've written a full-length book, so I'm pretty darn happy!

As a treat for you, I thought I'd publish the prologue and the first two chapters of the book here. I haven't decided yet if I'll put the rest of this online, maybe if I do so, it'll be a downloadable file that requires a password. If I do any writing this month, it'll probably be editing a few minor plot points. Writers are never quite satisfied with their first drafts, after all! In the meantime, enjoy and have a great week!

Karma

A work of fiction by Aaron Backes

Prologue

“Man, how bittersweet is Karma!”

- “Karma” by Sevendust from the album Cold Day Memory

January 10, 2012

The bitter winds of another harsh Minnesota winter blew across the frozen Lake Krendle, a mid-sized lake that was just one of the state’s 10,000. Today’s projected high temperature was supposed to be a balmy negative fifteen degrees Fahrenheit, according to the ditzy blond weather lady, Maci Hughes, the early morning “Minnesota Metro News” meteorologist on the Twin Cities CBS Channel 8. Coupled with the bitter wind chill, it felt like fucking forty degrees below zero. Thankfully, it wasn’t snowing yet, although a couple of inches of fresh powder were in the forecast for tomorrow. It was too damn cold to snow much more than that, I guess.

A cold sun shone across the frozen lake, a light which I could see scant glimpses of through the small smudged window of the fish house I was currently sharing with my two good buddies Eric and Ron. We were fishing for panfish like we usually do once or twice a week during the winter. The fish haven’t been biting too well today, but we didn’t seem to mind. Besides, with all we’ve been through lately, it just felt good to get away for a while, drink a few beers, shoot the shit and take our minds off of the outside world, at least for a few hours anyway.

“Man, that wind is a motherfucking bitch,” Ron exclaimed while shivering nervously. His shoulder length grey hair swayed slightly as he shivered. A California native, Ron had only been living in Minnesota for five years, moving himself, his wife and their identical twin daughters from sunny La Jolla, CA to the sometimes aptly-named town of Autumn, MN when our now former employers relocated his position. He told me once he’d never even seen snow in person, except for a few ski weekends in the mountains of northern California, until he moved to Minnesota. “Why the hell are we still here? Winter in Minnesota sucks ass!”

“Yeah, no shit,” said Eric as he half-heartedly fidgeted with his fishing pole and nursed his beer. “We should’ve taken off for somewhere warm, like Florida or Mexico or something,” he said, taking another swig from his can of Dark Harvest beer and inching closer to the space heater that kept us from freezing our extremities off in the fish house. “I know I’d sure like to be laying on a warm beach somewhere right now!”

“That would be nice,” I replied as I fished around in the cooler for another cold one. Ideally at that time, we should have been taking a mid-winter’s vacation someplace nice and tropical, although we all knew we couldn’t leave the state. At least, not until the murder investigation was over, anyway.

Part 1

Chapter 1

How did it all begin, you ask? Well, it’s a long, complicated story. I can’t believe half the shit that happened. If I hadn’t lived through it, I’d have thought it was all a dream, or maybe some Stephen King story, the kind that keeps you up all night reading the entire thing from cover to cover, because the story just draws you in, so much that you feel like you’re a part of it. Might as well start from the beginning, I suppose. That’s how most storytellers do, anyway. Be pretty silly of me to start at the end, now wouldn’t it?

The ball started rolling almost three years ago at ITU, our former employers. ITU stood for International Technologies Unlimited, although there are now a few other choice words we’ve come up with now to creatively spell out that abbreviation. You can make up your own if you’d like, of course.

ITU began out of a rented warehouse in Yonkers, NY in the mid 1970’s as a small commodities trader. When I started there, they were known as an international insurance and securities broker, offering commodities in offices from Wyoming to Sweden, and almost everywhere in between. They had offices in thirty-two states and the one I worked at was the only branch in Minnesota. Besides their main lines of financial and insurance services, they also offered product warranties, computer software, and multiple other miscellaneous products and services.

When friends and family have asked me what I did at ITU, it was kind of hard to explain. Sometimes I said I was a jack of all trades, master of none. Other times, I said that I wore many hats. A few coworkers called me “Mr. Nice Guy.” To Angela Engelbretsen, the “grandmother I never had” (even though she was barely old enough to be an older sister to me) in Accounting, I was a veritable saint, especially considering all the crap I’d put up with in the long run. She always quick with compliments!

As far as what my actual job was, I was the chief administrative clerk for the Insurance and Financial Services – Upper Midwest Division. I basically did all of the office work, the “behind the scenes” details for the six sales reps (one each for Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Michigan), the local level marketing consultant, and our regional sales manager. The Minnesota office was the only one in the Upper Midwest (except for a small billing and accounting office in Wausau, Wisconsin), so it made sense to base the reps for all of those states in one central location.

My main task every day was to log the sales data from each rep into the company’s database. Sometimes that involved deciphering some interesting chicken scratch scribbled by certain sales reps whose penmanship skills left a lot to be desired. After logging all of that information, I still had to (according to company policy) file the physical contracts in our file cabinets. I also had to scan and print each contract and save them in the respective file cabinets. I didn’t mind the tedious aspect of the job, although it made me think that for a company who emphasized the option of paperless billing to its customers, they sure killed a lot of trees!

About twenty years ago, the building was a warehouse and manufacturing facility for various automobile, truck, motorcycle and RV parts and accessories. It even had a small three-stall garage for repairs and maintenance for fleet vehicles, and had a two-stall car wash, before that part of the building was later torn down. It was part of a small national chain that went belly-up around the time of the dot-com bubble’s burst about ten years ago. When that business went under, ITU bought the building a few years later. I haven’t found anything remaining from that old parts franchise, but a few coworkers swore that the building was haunted by a couple of workers from that business. If you ever visit that building now, you may still find a stray desk or filing cabinet, although I imagine most of the building’s been vandalized or occupied by a stray homeless person or now since then. It’s been vacant for quite a while now. The last time I drove by there, it almost looked like a bomb had hit it, which in a way, I guess it kind of did!

Chapter 2

I started working at ITU about two and a half years ago. I’d just moved to Central Minnesota from Duluth after a nasty divorce. I still love my ex-wife Candace and will have some feelings for her, but she fell out of love with me while we were still married. Shit happens, I guess. She later married my old grade school buddy Greg Hansen. He has a good construction and remodeling business going in both Duluth and Two Harbors, so Candi can continue being a part-time substitute teacher and spend more time with our two boys Will and Austin.

When Candi first told me she had feelings for Greg, I blew up. We were at one of our favorite restaurants downtown, celebrating a rare night out without the kids when she dropped the bomb on me right after we’d finished the main course, and man did it hit me hard. I felt like I’d been kicked in the nuts with a sledgehammer! We’d been together for almost fifteen years and been married for ten, so of course I took the news pretty hard. I almost caused a scene at the restaurant, and narrowly avoided getting us kicked out. The manager of the restaurant was a friend of a coworker of mine at the time, so of course word got around town, and I had to lay low at work for about a week! My office door at the car lot remained closed most of the time I was at work, because it was the only way I could get any work done without some snarky comment by my less than sensitive coworkers.

The next weekend, I ran into Greg at a McDonald’s in Duluth, where I was taking the kids to lunch after treating them to an animated Disney matinee in town. He was there on a lunch break from one of his remodeling jobs with a couple of guys in his work crew. He made an effort to say hi and make some small talk, but because I had the boys with me, I couldn’t tell him what was really on my mind. I mentally pictured cursing him out, and then picking him up by his coveralls and tossing him head-first out of Mickey D’s. Thankfully I didn’t carry out that idea, or else I probably would’ve been arrested. Gee, that wouldn’t be traumatic for the kids now, would it?

Greg later sent me a couple of emails and a few odd texts, tiptoeing around the fact that he and Candi were an item, offering a few half-hearted apologies. He even offered to buy me a beer at one of the local bars we used to hang out at to make it up to me, but to me the damage was already done. I should have known something was up weeks earlier when he “unfriended” me on Facebook, but social media’s something I have a hard time getting into – my kids are better at that kind of stuff than I am, anyway, although I knew they were far too young to be monkeying with that stuff.

A few weeks later, I came home from a rather disappointing day at work to find Candi still in bed, nursing a hangover from a “girl’s night out” with her girlfriends the night before. While I was sitting on my side of the bed (the kids were still in school for a couple more hours), my foot landed on a piece of clothing under the bed. I kneeled down, and found a pair of boxers that weren’t my brand. Furious, I coerced Candi into revealing that Greg had slept with her a couple of days before when I was at work. Turns out, this wasn’t the first time either.

A couple of months before, when I took the kids to visit my folks in Lakeland, Florida during their school’s spring break, Candi stayed behind. She told me that she had some student evaluations to work on, and that she was going to spend some time organizing the spare room of our house that she’d been using as a home office. At the time, I didn’t think much of it, but lying there in bed nursing a hangover, Candi confessed that Greg had slept over all week that week until the kids and I returned. At that moment, I realized my marriage was over.

Things unraveled from there rather quickly – my marriage fell apart, not to mention my friendship with Greg. (His marriage ended soon after too, although he and his wife Sherri had been living apart for two years. They were in the same house, but slept in separate bedrooms. They had no kids, and his wife was as shocked as I was, so I guess I can’t feel too badly for him.) After I signed the divorce papers (we worked out an arrangement with our respective lawyers to share custody of the kids – they’d still live and go to school in Duluth and I could spend time with them on weekends), I decided that I had to get the hell out of town, not knowing when or if I’d ever return. I quit my job selling new and used cars at the Duluth Automart too. At that point in my life, I just wanted a new start.

After packing what was left of my life’s possessions after the divorce into a U-Haul truck, I decided to head to Autumn, MN because my old college roommate Ramon lived there. I hadn’t seen him in a long time, but he was the kind of good, reliable friend who understood exactly what I’d been going through, because he went through a bitter divorce himself a few years ago. He told me I could crash on his couch for a few days. He also told me about a job at UTI that he’d recommend me for. Candi used to give me grief constantly because I never finished college (I went to two semesters of general education classes at UMD but dropped out to spend time with my mom after she had a stroke), but I’ve been working at a lot of different jobs, ever since my dad had me start mowing my Grandma Hazel’s lawn during the summer I turned thirteen. Hence, the “jack of all trades, master of none” moniker.

At the time, I was also offered a job with another firm in town selling life and health insurance for Seventh National Trust. I’d just been selling insurance for MNWI Co. in Duluth for five years before I got into the auto industry, and I really had no interest in selling insurance again. It was easy money for me. I had a natural ability to sell, and I had built a good client base, but I really got bored with it. After all the turmoil in my life, I just wanted a fresh start. Looking back on how things all unfolded now, however, I kinda think that I made the wrong choice.