Wonderful, Blessed and Grateful... Priceless

For those tuning in late on Monday or those rising early on Tuesday… The promised “story to follow”…

Returning to the beach from “work” Monday morning at 6am, as is our daily routine… A walk, breakfast for the boys and I followed by another walk and a short nap… Monday’s nap proved shorter than most…

An early February snow storm back east providing snow days for school kids and their teachers… Also provided time for a text and phone call to roust me from my slumber sooner than planned… My best friend for the last 45yrs…

So what do you talk about with someone snow bound in NY… Yeah, the weather… Current life events… Our health… The upcoming adventure to Las Vegas… And baseball…

We are both always blessed to hear from each other… Conversations always started with… “Hey, I was just thinking about you.” Conversations always ended with “I love you.”

Our friendship is a Master Card commercial… Priceless…

The boys now wide awake weren’t about to let me just roll over… So dress… Walk and start a pot of coffee… Back from the walk and coffee ready… Just on time to share some time with two new friends… One of the best things about this adventure the boys and I are on is the people we have met…

As we prepare to move on to the next leg of adventure… There are people we have met at each stop who have welcomed us as one of their own and whether we see each other ever again they’ll be remembered for their kindness and friendship… Their love for the boys and the boys love for them… A blessing from the road… Chicken soup for the road weary warriors…

Feeling content and grateful… There was one final blessing of the day… A visit from an old Navy buddy I hadn’t seen since leaving our boat in San Diego for shore duty in 1982… We’re grayer and wiser… But for a short time as we talked, we were 20something sailors again… 33years is a lot to catch up on… But the laughs, the smiles, the firm handshakes and the hugs were genuine… Brotherhoods bonded at greater than 400ft don’t break easily…

Confirming again in my mind… This adventure the boys and I have undertaken is a good path… The right path… And all the mistakes and wrong turns taken before are no longer regretted… They were there to put us here… On this path…

As we prepare to head out on the next leg of this adventure, the boys and I look forward to both the new and old friends we will meet along the way… We are blessed by them and grateful for them… 

Serious... Serious as a Heart Attack!!!

Ok I promised a late night blog… It’s 430am and time to make good on the promise… It’s time to make a lot of things happen… But more on that later…

Life on the beach has been pretty tranquil and uneventful since my discussions with Harbor Patrol… http://viewsfrommyhammock.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-follow-up-to-christmas-eve-visit-from.html

Several email exchanges and a visit with the Harbor Master smoothed my ruffled feathers and seem to have put an end to the Harbor Patrol leading with their badge out in front of a bigoted, prejudiced and judgmental attitude towards “just another dirt bag living in an RV”…

While publicly stating to me his support for the Harbor Patrolman in question, I would have to believe that some “correction” was done in private… Fine, it’s good leadership… Now we are greeted with waves and “How are you?” Funny how that seems to work, isn’t it???

While the attendance at the Ventura Harbor Comedy Club was less than what I had hoped… The show went well and I will give another shout out to the comics… Angie Krum, David Nieker, Delanie Fischer and Matt Lewis… Unfortunately, the Golden Globe Award Show was the same night and while coming from a place where people willingly venture out via snowmobile braving the worst of weather… I have learned that all people in Southern California need for an excuse to stay home and watch TV is a little bit of rain… Insert your own judgments here…

I continue to be greeted by people on the beach and in town who recognize me after reading the VC Star feature article… http://www.vcstar.com/entertainment/arts-and-culture/nuclear-guy-hosts-ventura-comedy-show_38882961

It’s kind of cool, too bad they didn’t come to the show…

Special thanks to fellow comic, booker and friend Phil Peredo, for hooking me up with a “Front of the Line Pass” to audition for “America’s Got Talent” February 12^th in Las Vegas… Who knows what may come of it… I do know I would not have even considered waiting in line for a 90 second audition, before attending workshops with Steve North http://www.funnycoach.com/

Is a TV credit or more in the stars??? I’m just grateful for the opportunity…

While hoping to attend a reunion of shipmates of the USS FLYING FISH (SSN-673) this coming August… It hinges on being able to book enough PAYING comedy work during the trip east from California to Virginia Beach… While numerous emails have been sent… I’m still waiting for some replies… Bookers??? Hello out there…

My dogs and I are looking forward to a “Summer of Adventure” on the comedy road… We just need a “Little Help from Our Friends”…

So… Lastly… The title of this blog… Hopefully this will also encourage others and inspire some help from our friends… Take your dreams serious… Take them as “Serious as a Heart Attack!!!”

While I have lost about 15lbs since arriving in Ventura… A change of diet… IE drinking much less… And doing much more walking everyday… And generally feeling very well… Getting rid of the stress carrying job and ex-wife will do that… I had a bit of an eye opener recently…

January 5^th during my annual physical at the VA Clinic… The doctor walked in with the strip chart of my EKG asking… “Did you know you’ve had a heart attack???” Sometime within the last year… Since it didn’t show up on last year’s EKG…

It must have mild enough to write off as indigestion or just not feeling well at the time… So with a renewed commitment to making my dream come true… I’m asking again for a “Little Help from My Friends”... Bookers???

I don’t want to waste another damn day not chasing what I really want… I wasted ten damn years before going back out on the road a year and a half ago… But I am where I am and not complaining about that… I’m only looking forward to what gets me closer to my dream and the adventures that are coming next…

So bookers… Help send me and the boys on another adventure… And don’t worry… If I die alone in my RV, camping some night on the road… At least the boys will have someone to eat…   

VC Star

It’ll be in print in The Star’s Time Out section Friday

http://www.vcstar.com/entertainment/arts-and-culture/nuclear-guy-hosts-ventura-comedy-show_38882961

A Follow Up To Christmas Eve Visit From Harbor Patrol

P Hummer (Harbor Patrol Supervisor)

This past August 2014 while still living in Idaho Falls, ID… I began packing limited possessions as space allowed into my 28ft RV for my trip to Ventura, CA. Planning to travel there with my 3 dogs to take part in the Ventura Comedy Festival this past September…

Arriving in late August and falling in love with life on the beach… The Comedy Festival long since over… My dogs and I are still here… I’ve taken a part time security job at a Ventura Harbor marina… We’ve made many new friends and been embraced by a beach community of troubadours, musicians and misfits… Many different people with different backgrounds and different stories all leading to a place of common ground… The beach…

It’s an idyllic life… ALMOST…

What leads people to resent it??? To lash out against it??? I fall short of the words as I also fall short of explaining their possible reasons why… Why some… Unhappy with their own miserable existence would make false charges against people they don’t even know… Troupadours, musician and misfits happily living their lives… This could be discussed without answers for hours…  

Experiencing this personally Christmas Eve morning… I was “visited” by the Ventura Harbor Patrol at approximately 930am, while legally parked on Spinnaker Road at the Channel Islands National Park, in response to a “call” they allegedly received that my dogs were running unattended, unsupervised and defecating… While I allegedly ignored cleaning up after them…

While I have no way of confirming the alleged call was actually received… I can confirm that I was confronted by a Harbor Patrolman who had already decided the charges were correct… Guns blazing and in my face… Threatening to kick me out of the park… I quote… “We’ve kicked people out of here before… We can do it again”… Though I was legally parked and no dog droppings were found in the area of question… I was “just another dirt bag living in an RV at the beach”… 

Let me now take the time to set some things straight… Since your Harbor Patrolman neglected to take the time to find anything out about me… His mind already made up that I was a “just another dirt bag living in an RV at the beach”…

I am a 9yr US Navy submarine veteran… I’ve walked on the Polar Ice Cap (It’s not melting, btw), crossed the International dateline, swam at the equator in the Indian Ocean and seen the Rock of Gibraltar while standing topside on a submarine transiting into the Mediterranean Sea… I’ve transited the Panama Canal and travelled all across the world…

After serving I enjoyed a more than 20yr career as an operator at a nuclear reactor plant in Upstate NY… They don’t give those jobs to “dirt bags”… Following my career there… I enjoyed another 7 plus years on the road as a contractor at nuclear power plants all across this country… Including the Idaho National Laboratory… They don’t give those jobs to “dirt bags” either…

During my working career I also served as a volunteer fireman… Serving one year as Company President and another as Assistant Chief… “Dirt Bags” don’t do those jobs either…

During my 7 year stretch as a contractor I also began pursuing my dream of performing standup comedy and thus eventually arriving here for the Ventura Comedy Festival as previously stated this past August…

I am now 58 years old… Having earned my right to take an early retirement… I am pursuing a dream… Part of which is living and travelling in my RV with my 3 dogs… Being unfairly judged about a choice I earned the right to make was/is NOT part of that dream…

While I now regret not committing his name to memory… What has the Harbor Patrolman in question done in his life that gives him the right to unknowingly judge mine??? While I understand that he’s required to follow up on every call… I would expect it to be done professionally… Not with his badge out in front of his bigoted, prejudiced and judgmental attitude towards “just another dirt bag living in an RV”…

While I also completely understand his very possible lack of job satisfaction chasing down dog turd complaints… Maybe he should have chosen a different career… His lack of satisfaction gives him no right to drive around bothering people…

I understand and hopefully I am correct that this individual represents only himself and not your entire department… But while wearing the uniform and performing his duties… He does represent your whole department…

For your added information a copy of this email has also been sent to the Ventura County Star and Ventura County Reporter…

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter… I would hope no one is ever to be treated like this by anyone in your department again…

Sincerely,

Steve Natarelli

xxx-xxx-xxx

A Year of Thanks...

Last Thursday marked the one year anniversary of my last day at INL… A goodbye show at the Idaho Falls Elks Lodge the following night and I was on my way east… Two months on the road before returning to Idaho… Happy the boys were safe and loved in Port Orchard, WA…

I spent a week in Colorado, 2 in Illinois including a weekend with my twin sister I had seen once in the previous 3yrs… It’s once in the last 4 now and that needs to be changed… Finishing with 2wks with my cousins and best friend in NY before heading west again… Driving headlong into the “2014 Polar Vortex” in Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota before making “turns for home” and heading back to Idaho… Not that Idaho will ever be “home”… It proved again to be the comedy Siberia it always will be… Not enough venues/opportunity and too damn far from most of the rest…

I spent time with many friends in both directions along the way… Made many new ones and I am thankful for the laughs and hospitality shared with them all…

With my lease about to expire, the end of August, in Idaho… I sold my car, loaded the boys and myself into the RV and headed to Ventura, CA for the Ventura Comedy Festival… Spending a week in Northern Utah on the way…

Arriving in Ventura to take part in the festival… I found a part time security job 2am to 6am at a marina… It’s kind of nice being able to take the boys to work with me every night… Someone commented they don’t look like police dogs… I said… “They’re undercover”…

I am doing workshops once a week and shows once a month at the LA Connection Comedy Theatre in Sherman Oaks… Including last week’s “Industry Night” in front of bookers and agents for Commercials, TV roles and comedy… Reworking a big part of my act to fit a newly defined comedic character… I’m excited about where this can lead…

But maybe in a karmanic (is that a word) way… The marina job has reminded me…I don’t have to settle for where ever the winds of fate drive me… I can adjust the sails and steer for wherever I desire…

Which may be bringing this blog to the deep and thoughtful intent I spoke of before sitting down to actually write this…

As we all sit Thursday to say thanks… There are many things to be thankful for… If you are lucky enough to be surrounded by loved ones and family… Revel in that… I understand the choices I have made and the sacrifices that come with those choices… My closest “blood” is thousands of miles away… Possibly changing that is one of next year’s top priorities… With how, when and where yet to be determined… Las Vegas is a possibility…  

Again recognizing and acknowledging the sacrifices that come with my decision to chase this dream…To load myself and my three dogs into my RV and go… I left the second 6 figure a year job of my “civilian” career…

We live with the choices we make and I can honestly say I have never been more at peace… High stress came with those jobs… Death sentence stress… That stress is gone… I feel happier and healthier than I have in years… I’m thankful for that…

Where this adventure comes ashore is yet to be determined… But there’s only one set of hands on the sails now… We won’t be sailing in circles anymore… I am spending the holiday alone with my boys… Happy in the knowledge that it’s better than spending it with the wrong person…

I’m happy to report Riley broke into a huge grin and surprised me with a sprint across the beach at 630 this morning… Almost like he had been saving it up for me… He’s 12… But he’s still a puppy at heart… I am very thankful for that…

I’m not sure I said everything I started out intending to say…But I am going to keep this positive and end it here… Happy Thanksgiving everyone… For Thanksgivings past, present and future… Be thankful everyday… 

THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME...

So… A little background for those who don’t know… I realize most of you, my faithful readers, already know I finally escaped Idaho for good approximately two months ago… 

After spending a week in with a friend in Utah… I headed to Ventura, CA for the Ventura Comedy Competition and Festival… While here I have taken a security job at a local Marina… I’m back to working nights… But even though it’s from 2am to 6am everyday… Only 4hrs/day isn’t hard to take… The job itself is far from being mentally or physically challenging… Despite the long stretches on my feet sometimes...  

I hadn’t originally planned on still being here… But living and travelling in a 28ft RV with my three dogs has put a bit of a squeeze onto my travel budget…

Unfortunately, using the insurance money from the awning damaged in the Utah wind storm to correct some RV generator problems, hasn’t completely solved the generator problems and might have been better used as part of the travel to Las Vegas budget… So the originally planned follow up move to Las Vegas is currently on hold… And that’s OK…

There’s 2 good open mics in town… Monday and Tuesday nights… And I have an open invitation to another on Sunday nights in Santa Monica…

And it has given me time to think… Not always clearly, but learning to be quiet on the inside allows us to hear the answers the universe has for a lot of our questions…

Is the move to Las Vegas even the right one??? Would a move east be better??? There’s a lot of comedy work in the southeast… It would make it a lot easier to keep my calendar full… Would I be a better comic??? Of course… Regular work would facilitate that…

After finally taking my first step on stage in 2002, that I should have taken in my in my early 20’s or sooner… I wasted most of another 10yrs (the last 4 in the comedy Siberia of Southeast Idaho) in another shitty marriage to another drama addicted, shitty person who thought it was always all about her…

Complaining I was never home while trying to build a career as a road comic… I can only answer… I was gone all the time for the same reason I drank a half gallon of gin a week when I was home…

Hello… How are you at math??? Can you tell me the common denominator in the equation???

Maybe there’d have been less drama and she would have felt better about herself if she quit chewing so much food… Instead of trying to convince me her fat ass was just a Fig Newton of my imagination… OK, I’m done…

I haven’t said much about that and I won’t now… My new comedic character will though and he will endear himself to the audience at the same time… Yep… I can’t wait ‘til she sees me on HBO… The peace I feel having it over and done with is worth any price of hardship I am experiencing now…

Cesar Milan has nothing on me… I could easily be called The Bitch Whisperer… If she doesn’t like that, she should take my advice and unfollow my blog… I haven’t been able to figure out how to block that though I have managed to block the bitch from stalking me on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Google+ and several other sites…

Enough about that… Let’s talk about what the possibilities my re-found freedom is giving me…

Well, the previously stated travel budget concerns make relocation to Vegas or the Southeast US, at least currently, a point not open for discussion… I’m in southern California and maybe, just maybe the Universe is telling me… I’m in the right place at the right time… Is it time for a real shot at stardom??? Am I too old for it??? Possibly… Especially if I go around thinking I am… So I won’t…

I have begun working with Steve North http://www.funnycoach.com/ and I really feel it is going to make a world of difference in my career… Not as a comic… But as a comedian… Check out his website to understand the difference…

Working at night means long days at the beach with the boys… They love the water and it has really helped Riley rehab his arthritic knee and hip… I have a lot of time to exercise, swim, tan, write, work out new material and develop my new comedic character…

It’s also given me a chance to meet many locals who also hang out at the beach… It seems a lot of them… Especially the women, must have been hockey players* (for those for those who don’t get that… Stay tuned for the explanation at the end)…

I need 10 – 15 minutes of material ready for this Monday… 5 minutes or more on this Tuesday... Which may or may not be part of Monday’s 10-15… And 5 minutes for the first workshop with Steve North on Wednesday… I’ll be doing my first show with Steve on Thursday November 6th and performing at an “Industry Night” two weeks later on November 20^th… A lot of exciting things close on the horizon…

Is the Universe telling me, I’m in the right place at the right time??? I’m choosing to think so… 

I have long since determined to believe I don’t need to kiss anyone’s ass to get their permission to be funny… Just so you know… Yes, Mike “Drama”… I mean you… 

Those who have helped and encouraged me will get their thanks just as they have in the past, in the present and in the future… Those who want me to kiss their ass… Will be invited to kiss mine… Yes, purging some negativity there…

I have a lot of work to do… But really feeling energized with possibilities…

Stay tuned for more updates… Now I need to write more jokes about the meth heads* I am meeting at the beach… 

Underway on Nuclear Power

My newest project... A video blog of our next adventure... Struggling with finding a name for it… I finally decided aptly on "Underway on Nuclear Power"… 

As I leave behind the mistake of moving to Idaho Falls, ID by loading my three National Labs… Riley, JJ and Simon into my RV to pursue my comedy dreams...  It can be followed at www.youtube.com/stevethenuclearguy 

Leaving Idaho Falls a week ago today, we’ve been visiting friends in northern Utah for a week…

Three dogs and myself in a 28ft RV… It’s a good thing I was a submariner… It’s cramped and sometimes it doesn’t smell good in here… Yes… I’m hot racking with my dogs… If anyone wants to donate a klaxon we’d put it to good use and give you a shout out here on the blog…

If I showed you the outside of the RV… You would probably say we need a collision alarm more than a klaxon…

We’ll be leaving for Ventura, CA sometime tonight… Opting to drive during the cooler temps of the desert nights… At least there won’t be fog in the bilges and we will also avoid the Salt Lake City traffic… Google maps says it’s a 12.5hr drive… Not expecting to set any speed records in a 1994 RV, partly held together by duct tape… I know it’s going to take longer…

Scheduled for a preliminary round of the Ventura Comedy Festival Competition at 7pm on Sunday August 31^st… I’d love to see you in the audience if you’re in town… Hit me up to get on my guest list…

September promises to be interesting as I have submitted to numerous casting calls for movie extras and Reality TV… While spending my nights garnering as much stage time as possible… The end of the month will hopefully find me in the Ventura Comedy Contest Semi-Finals and I’m already booked for a spot as part of the Ventura Comedy Festival in the Road Warrior show Friday September 26^th at 10pm…

Seems fitting… But with three dogs and myself in a 28ft RV… We can’t fit much more in here… Road Warriors??? Yes… I’d say we are…

October will find us back on the road to various destinations, much more adventure and maybe a semi-permanent residence… Stay tuned here for updates… I’ll try to post a video at least once each week…  We’d like to consider everyone out there as part of the “crew”…