Home. Rant. Vent.

Work your starched white ass off. (What song is that from?)

Holiday season. It means many things but it's very telling that this is when I see our boys in blue every few miles on my way back from work. "Don't worry about me, boys. I do my drinking at home."

I cross the dam and study the lights and their reflections in the water as I drive slowly to the place where my bed and my love wait for me. The only real color I see is the yellow Waffle House sign in my rearview mirror. The rest is like a black and white album cover, "artistic" but cheaply done.

Because I can, I built a domain for myself on the web. I registered www.chezbez.com via Microsoft's OfficeLive and simply used it as a link to this blog, my photography blog, and my myspace page. I'll turn to a friend to see if he can spiff it up a bit. For now, it's basic as basic gets. More importantly, it's also free as free gets. Everyone knows you can't impress girls with your website address if you have to add dot-blogspot.com to the end. Now I simply direct the ladies to www.chezbez.com and wait for the fawning to follow. (Note to self: Meet ladies. Another note to self: Watch lovely wife roll her eyes as she reads this.)

• Not blogging about work, but...remember in Office Space when the protagonist makes an error with the TPS reports and hears about it from several different bosses? We are all supposed to relate to him and his cubicle misery. Me? I watch that scene and every time, I think how lucky he is to have so many bosses on the same page. On a daily basis, I answer to any number of bosses who would approach any given situation with a number of different viewpoints.

The wine is now gone. The bottle is empty.

• Tennesseans. You mean well. You are patriotic. We get that. But many of you need to know something. You are flying your state flag upside-down. Its top star should be closest to the pole. If the star closest to the pole is on the bottom, you need to start over and hoist that rag opposite of how you hoisted it before. No biggie. It's an easy mistake. Even the local Air National Guard is flying it upside-down. So, if we are grading on a curve...you're cool.

• Red light runners. I counted so many of you while I was driving my hotel shuttle bus tonight. Stop it. You're gonna kill someone. And for what? A minute better on your travel time? "Bee alert. Arrive unhurt."

I heard a song on NPR tonight during a Tom Waits interview. I may be using it out of context, but I imagined me singing it to my little daughter as a lullabye. The song and its lyrics follow:

"Bend Down The Branches"

The sky's as deep as it can be
Bend down the branches
Close your eyes and you will see
Bend down the branches

You're like a willow
Once you were gold
We're made for bending
Even beauty gets old
Climb the stairs they're not so steep
Bend down the branches

Close your eyes and go to sleep
Bend down the branches

Sleep well. My lonely Thanksgiving approaches. But you read this and I smile.

Wanna see Casino Royale with me and my dad Wednesday afternoon? We're catching the 4ish showing at Regal Green Hills Cinema. Witnessing strangers saying stuff to me like, "Aren't you Chez Bez?" would really knock his socks off. I'll be the tall guy. (Tall people post above.)