Away We Go...

I've got my iPod on shuffle and the first song that came up is My Ride's Here by Warren Zevon - how's that for a sign of things to come? It's one of my Top Five Zevon tracks, so I guess it's good.

I keep a couple blogs already - an ancient Livejournal account that I use to basically keep up with a small handful of folks who still use it; and brettbilledeau.blogspot.com, which I use to talk about my main obsession: music.

I was inspired to create this blog for the sake of writing about anything other than music or the hum-drum of day-to-day life. Faith, politics, whatever... I've reached the point where I don't feel the need to apologize to anyone for the beliefs I have. Rather, it's time for me to write some of them down. I'm a good public speaker and can usually articulate my thoughts fairly well, but writing has always been my favorite way of expressing myself.

A little background:

I'm 33, married to the love of my life for a bit over four years, and we have two beautiful kids. For the last two years I've worked for a spring & stamping company in my hometown of Grand Haven, MI in the quality department. As mentioned, music is my main obsession and I'm always looking for my next favorite artist or genre (John Hiatt and Robert Earl Keen have been favorites this year). I enjoy reading mystery, thriller, and spy novels, and have been trying to finish writing one for years now. I'm too undisciplined to force myself to finish, but I will one day *lol*

I joined the Catholic Church on Easter, 2003; I didn't really convert, because other than being baptized, I'd never had any particular religious affiliation. My politics are to the right of center on most things, a bit further  right on a few others, and more in the "mushball middle" on other issues. I'm finding great amusement in the early days of next year's presidential election as the field for the Republicans contains such a large number of potential candidates, while the Democrats are definitely showing signs of inter-party dissent.

We've got two dogs, Daisy the Beagle and Charleigh the Charming Pug, and I have a definite affection for rescue animals. I'm not an animal rights activist but our family has made the decision to shop Cruelty Free to avoid buying products that are so cruelly tested on beagles and other animals who were made for being loving members of our families, not having tubes and chemicals shoved into them.

I enjoy sitting on our back deck with a cigar and few glasses of whiskey about once a week, grilling out, and good coffee - I have to give a shout-out to Dazbog Coffee out of Colorado and their KG Blend that I'm sipping right now.

Anyway, I look forward to getting this blog going. I don't know what the frequency or readership will be, but that's okay. Thanks in advance for your participation and interaction.