I’m in Metropolis, Il. I’ve been here almost two weeks. Not much to report, really. I have found a nice bar that I have been spending my time. Found me a real cutey that I have been wooing. I really dig the southern accent.

My old man has been sending me e-mails with advice about work and stuff. He and The Sister are the only ones that have e-mailed me since I have been on the road. You are all lazy bastards. I’m kidding, you all know I love you guys. I should note that my bud Iggy has IMed me a few times since I’ve been down here in Superman’s town. Thanks Iggy. Send me a e-mail or sign the GuestBook so I can post it like the old days. Any way here is what my old man has had to say:

my ma said you called her before you reached me last night. you talked about moving but it was the other topic you talked to my ma about that perkt my ear she said you said you didn’t get paid as much as you thought you should is it true
are the korpsuckers [long as you’re fisher not fish korps short for corporate carp you’re fine godsend for this godfaring torpor of country we if we have a smidge of a mind to call our own hesitate to call our own] paying you the 24 thousand they said they was or are they paying you 7 or 8 bucks per hour and if it’s the latter or anything near it then you’d no worse off if you quit them pronto and got a 7 or 8 buck per hour job here in winn or rock counties that way you keep your house and pay your car payments and insurance too which if i know you at all you’d probably like better than what you’re doing now

you have to be honest with yourself if no one else

don’t be a sucker for status especially if pay and fringes don’t go with it if they call you a gm but have you doing auditor chores in wayback of nowhere [only claim to fame metropolis has is that it’s where an emigrant comic book hero hailed from] and even worse pay you at auditor rates are you worse off if you become an auditor closer to home i don’t think so

how secure is your email can your bosses read it if they can erase this message fast but keep its contents in mind before making furthur decisions

love your dad

And this one:

i talkt about business in my other letter of a minute ago now i’ll talk pleasure especially in the acerb way i take mine
i had no trouble getting on net this morning i notice someone turned on your airconditioner which ain’t a bad idea if you have your computer’s best interest in mine and i think you should it is a fascinating instrument i must say keep it on

i hope you are a better letter answer than my dumbkoff brother and that you take time and answer my letters if nothing else it’s a way to keep in touch which i hope you do if nothing else it’ll give you something to do

what do you do with your free time if you have any my ma said you went to a flick in peducak do you know i went there once when you were kneehigh to grasshopper and looked for work without much luck it was in 75 that climateric year for a lot of people and i had quit stl and was floundering like a carp in a dry mudhole i was trying to add engineering to my useless anthro degree and taking courses at siu at carbondale a bottom moment in my life [i was blesst with many] i didn’t have the math i had later and have since forgot and so i knew i couldn’t hack my engineering courses and so i quit and came back home and was still unable to find work etc

writing about that time 75-80 fraught times for me i’ve never been able to get over fears and insecurities it induced so you see your progenitor had troubles not unlike your own so didn’t mine but he’d never admit it

what else write reviewing this it sounds more like confession maybe because i think pleasure is a sin it ain’t never believe that whatever else you do

love dad

And:

i want to warn you watch that drinking happy to see you wrote and sorry i hadnt check your mail til now but i been busy it’s been hot out and i’m getting old and working harder than i care to so i been to tired to write i must have got through couple days back because my letter was in your file it was hotter than a bitch out even if in my experience of the last bitch i was hitched to she was the opposite of hot
love your papa

And this:

anyone there on the enterprise or did you beam off into motes
if you check e-mail i sent my fandango brother you’ll notice i used a similiar heading under subject to him hope to hell you ain’t as out of any world as he pretends he is in dedecated pursuit of selfishness [wish i could be half as selfish as he is i wouldn’t do zilch today instead i interrupt my real trip to grocery store to a virtual trip to you by the by i’ve aways found communication with anyone but self arduous in the extreme that you are my son doesn’t make that difficult task any easier maybe it’s harder cuz we assume we have so much in common]

in sum i interrupt my usual sunday chores to stop at your house and see if you answered my letters especially the first about your job but much to my consternation answer there was none i can’t tell you how much it perturbs me when my replies go unanswered and it doesn’t escape me why the journal is my genre of choice when i write in it i know no ones going to answer me back

enough lamentations

i have so little free time however that if you do answer i won’t know you did til next weekend when once again i’ll check the log of letters to see if you wrote me unless of course you reach me before then by phone

got to run as i have trim to do and to pick green beans too before i can do what i do best take life easy and let time fondle me

love your papa

Thanks for e-mailing me Pop. I was really glad to hear your advice. I owe you a few e-mails.