Hot Blooded

Hot Blooded                                                                         1203

Monday, June 27, 2005-10:00 A.M.

Dear Hustler,

I thought it would never happen to me, but it did.  I was attacked by two women in a bar who did me right on the pool table.

Actually, it didn't happen that way.  But it could have.

Saturday night's show in Valdosta, Georgia, was an interesting affair.  The show was supposed to come off at 8:30, but didn't start until 9:00.  At times, it seemed like there would be no crowd to play to, and many people walked in and out of the room before showtime, offering false hope, and then dashing that hope to the ground when they left.  Come to find out, the bartender was being very fastidious about checking I.D.'s, and if the patrons were not 21 years of age or more, they were asked to leave.

So the show went on at 9:00, with about 15 people in attendance, and it was o.k.  There were two ladies in attendance, Krissy and Jackie, two divorcees who were out for a good time.  They cackled and interrupted the show, not in a mean way, but interrupting nonetheless.  After the show, they hung around with Ray and myself and were asking us out to another bar, which I, being the married one, respectfully declined.  Ray, however, had no wedding ring or alibi, so he got his rear-end fondled and his package grabbed, and he bitched at me at length the next day.  Jackie bit my neck at one point.  They were interested in more fun than Ray and I could provide together.  Alack and alas.

We went book shopping the next day at one of those joints that advertise "No book over $3!"  And the place was rife with biographies of Bill Frist and Laura Bush and a bunch of other right-wing standard bearer losers.  What could I possibly glean from the biography of Laura Bush?  How to be a honky Stepford wife?  Puh-lease.

Ray flies home to Rochester today at 2:00 P.M., and I have a week or less before my big drive home.  I'm still waiting on an itinerary for this weekend's work, and if I don't get it, I'm going to be able to go home early, which right now would be quite a blessing.  I'm tired and homesick and want to be with my wife and daughter again.  Not that my father's company hasn't been fun, but I spent 30 years with him, so it's all just more of the same.

Enjoy your family today, because trust me, you will miss them like hell when they're (or you're) gone.

Ralph Tetta
Rochester, NY