The Return of the Welder

Yep, my welder came home yesterday after being gone for many a month. Although my garage is now too full because of the stack (at least it's a neat stack) of heavy duty oak firewood pallets, it's complete again. Yes, it's good to have everything back under one roof.

Dan was my best friend back in high school days, and it was good to visit with him. There aren't too many people I would trust things like my welder with, but he's definitely on the good list. He showed his appreciation by having the argon gas bottle refilled before bringing it back, and that runs about 50 bucks. He was here for a couple hours last night, and we had a good time yakking our heads off and trying to play "catch up."

I stopped by Denis' house (that's my youngest brother) Sunday evening to get his input on my Harley project. He set me up with a few supplies and some great advice. He's a painter and body man here in town, and he knows his trade pretty well. The way I am I would just as soon let him actually do the whole thing, but I don't want him to think I was that lazy...

There is interesting stuff happening at work these days. My supervisor is our general handyman/repairman as well as various supervisory duties, and I'm his right hand man. The two of us work really well together and have a good time doing projects. Our shop is gearing up to have 3 big machines newly installed in the upcoming two months, and Bruce and I are doing all the electrical modifications and installations to get ready for them. Yesterday flew by. It seemed like every time I looked at my watch it was break time.

I hope all week is that fun.

MIA: Renter's Pride

If it's not missing, it sure seems to be. I think the general feeling among renters is, "The landlord maintains the grounds, so why should I care about it?"

As is typical of winter, more and more crap has been blowing around in people's yards. Some of it probably comes from recycling/garbage day when lids blow off of cans or when not all of the stuff makes it into the truck when they pour it. Some of it probably comes from litterbugs in general. The end result is the same though--The street in front of my place looked like shit. I would drive home and see crap strewn all over the street, sidewalks, lawns, and in shrubbery. Most litter seems to be a stark contrast to its surroundings too--Either white, or yellow--And therefore seems to stand out like a sore thumb.

I finally couldn't take it any more. I was out in the garage working on the Harley yesterday morning with the garage door open, and it got to me. I grabbed a bucket and went all around my place and up and down the street picking up everything that didn't belong. What a difference. I doubt if it even took me 15 minutes to do it all. I hope everyone saw me doing it, but I know if they did they probably just thought, "It's about time."

I went out to work on the Harley, but before I really got motivated to do that, I got sidetracked onto another path: Setting up my garage computer. Garage computer!? Yep, it was running at my old house too, and it's sole task was running mp3's through a receiver as my personal jukebox. So I scrounged around and got all the stuff together, ran the speaker wires, and got it all set up. It was good to have my music back.

Another thing that helped me work on the Harley was my kerosene heater. I've got one of those big round ones that is (I think) 22,000 btu. I almost sold it last month, certain that I'd probably never use it again. I'm glad I didn't. Even though it was sunny yesterday after the fog burned off, it was cold. With that heater in the middle of the garage, it was warm even with the big door open.

Garage, Harley, music, kerosene heater, lots of beer... Yep, it was a good day.

The Saturday Morning Report

I was getting Sarah's birthday presents wrapped before going over to their house for dinner yesterday when the doorbell rang. There stood one of those DHL men, dressed in their yellow and red garb, with a puffy envelope package for me. It turns out that it was a t-shirt from Mark and Dana! It was black (I like black) and was the right size, and it said "I (heart) NY" on it. Pretty cool of him to think of me during their trip to New York over Christmas. That was quite a surprise.

Having dinner over at Sarah and Teresa's is better than old times actually, because everyone treats each other like host and guest. No bickering is always good, and a good roast beef outta the crock pot certainly is a good thing too!

I felt kind of disappointed in Teresa when I saw what she got Sarah for her birthday. The few things Sarah opened from her were jewelry items that she had bought who-knows-how-long-ago at some clearance sale or something. Sarah didn't miss a beat on that either, saying something like, "Mom, these are just things you bought on clearance somewhere." The justification for it was that Teresa had already told her that completely redoing her bedroom was her birthday present. Come on T... How hard is it to spend a couple bucks for something fun?

I didn't spend much money on her, but she got some pretty fun things. She really enjoyed her electronic Sudoku game and her Pirate's Dice game. We played a few rounds of that until my parents showed up. My dad was in an "okay" mood, but his constant repeating of things is getting even worse. I also bought Sarah a tub of special Tillamook ice cream for herself. Teresa made a German chocolate flat cake, and I brought a cheesecake, so we had good birthday eats. The cheesecake could have been better though--It had a pronounced cinnamon flavor emanating from the crust, which in my opinion overshadowed the flavor of the New York cheesecake on top of it. Oh well. I did get to take a piece of cake home with me, which is good.

I mentioned in yesterday's blog about how I had put my website files on a new web space provider? Well, here's what was in my email when I got home from work yesterday:

Hello guys..

I'm sorry to say that we'll be shutting down all of websites
Due to heavy volumes of account. This doesn't mean cjb.cc will be completely gone. It means from now on, cjb.cc will only take paying members due to spam and abuse. You guys will have less than 24 hours to back up your website and the server will be upgraded to Xeon Dual core server, which should be very reliable.

Just like before, we'll offer $3 a month or $30 a year plan on new Xeon Dual core server (server upgrade). If you guys are interested, please wait until we get our new server ready, which will take another 2 days.

We'll announce the specification of membership

If you guys are interested in paying membership, which will not going to have down time. Please visit us at cjb.cc in two days or so. We'll make an announcement forum.

For current paying member, we give out free membership for a month.

If you paid for a year, pleaes let me know

Thank you for supporting cjb.cc, I really appreciate it.

I guess I timed that one pretty good didn't I? What a flake. Obviously a geek that didn't finish his business classes in college... He's also not very good at typing and spelling (I just copied and pasted it verbatim).

A 16-Year Old Daughter Today!

Yes, it's true, but it doesn't seem quite as alien as I thought it would. To have a daughter old enough to drive doesn't make me feel any different. For some people it makes them feel old. It does, however, make me nervous. I hate to put my only daughter out there in a driving environment. I know it's part of cutting them loose, but nowadays it's a little bit "sink or swim" as far as driving goes. I don't have to worry about it much yet though because she doesn't have her license, nor is she quite ready for it. She just doesn't get quite enough driving in.

I hoped to have found her a car by today so I could wrap the keys up in a box and give it to her amongst her other presents, but alas that wasn't meant to be I guess. I've found a few great deals, but for one reason or another, they made me uncomfortable and I didn't pursue them any further. Gut feelings mean a lot to me on deals with used goods.

I have my personal website on the world wide web in multiple places. Why? They're all free web space providers, and all are subject to "here today, gone tomorrow." My current favorite provider has been getting more and more flakey lately, and the young geek that owns it recently announced that he was close to broke and would have to start putting ads on everyone's websites. Screw that. The guy actually bought the whole website on Ebay if you can believe that. At any rate, I don't think it's long for this world so I went out and found a new one last night. As of now my new main website is http://rick1956.110mb.com/ I changed it over to the right here ---> in my "links" section already, so make sure you change it in your favorites if you have any reason to ever visit it. It sounds like a much better place, and it's owned and operated by a big outfit so it shouldn't disappear overnight like some of them do.

I've got my Harley torn apart out in the garage. Nothing broken, just doing some changes and updating and repairing a few things. I've got my friend Dan bringing my welder back after him having it for his 1970 GTO restoration project for almost a year. I'll be needing it to repair the rear fender that I have off. It's going to get a few mounting holes welded up, and it has a few "age cracks" around a couple of the bolt holes that need repairing. I'm also going to be painting the whole bike semi-gloss black. I just want a new look. I ordered some new gas tank emblems last night too, reproductions of the exact ones used on the 59-60 Harleys. I like their look. I think I'll put the new front fender on it that I've had in my possession for a few years. It's brand new and has never had any paint on it yet. The reason I bought it is that it has no holes in it at all. I will be taking lots of emblems and things off the bike during this time. I want it to look clean and mean. It should have a quite a new look when I'm finished.

What a Fool

I can't believe I can't even keep my daughter's birthday straight. I even have it right on my computer desktop calendar program... Staring right at me. For some reason, I kept thinking tomorrow the 21st was her birthday. Duh, I know her birthday is the 26th, so I don't know why I kept thinking that the 21st was her day. The only thing I can think of is that her birth year was 91 and I got the "1" stuck in my head.

At any rate, I didn't embarrass myself or anything, thank goodness.

I went over there today and was going to take her somewhere to eat dinner or something like that, and some how or another talk got around to her birthday. Teresa made a comment about how many days she had left or something like that and it set me straight. Anyway, Sarah and I bummed around for a while today. We went to a few junk stores, ate at Wendy's (it was next door to one of them) and finished up the evening by stopping in at Pier One Imports. We had a good time.

I spent much of the late morning and early afternoon out in the garage tearing my Harley apart. I was in the process or doing some lighting & wiring updates and changes. One thing led to another and I ended up taking the rear fender off. I started by taking the light off the tip of the rear fender, and that left a few unsightly mounting holes. Then I took off the bar that holds the rear turn signals, and it really looked bad under that, so I decided that I would fill some of the mount holes in and paint it before putting it back on. I'll try to take my time and do a nice job on everything.

Little Things

I was reminded again yesterday morning on the way to work how significant little things can be. All I did was put new wipers on my car, but it brought me pleasure.

God that sounds pathetic.

I still can't find myself into the writing groove. I am going to blame winter for it. I don't know if it's the lack of heat, the lack of sun (for sunbathing and Harley riding) or just the plain lack of daylight hours. Whatever the reason, I'm holding the season in general to blame.

This year we experienced more snow around here than we have in recent memory, but the most recent one has pretty much finally melted away. You know what? It's funny how people are about snow around here. "Cool, we might get snow!" "Wow, I hope we get snowed in tomorrow morning!" "I love the snow--It makes everything look so beautiful!" You get the picture... A few days later though, and things change. Let them experience the slippery roads, the stuck or wrecked cars, the school closures, the falling down on sidewalks, and the disruption to their lives in general, and it's more like, "I can't wait for this shit to melt." "I hope it never snows again." "I can't wait for summer."

I'm very pissed about whatever they've been deicing our roads with this year though. My truck has surface rust over every square inch of any bare metal now, and both it and the car have horribly streaked and nasty paint now. Who knows what kind of stuff might be in that crap? We have a lot of rivers around here that all our drain water runs off into, and what is the stuff doing to them? I wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Seattle Times last night about that very subject. I hate that stuff. We've existed here on just sand for decades... Why change now?

Sunday is Sarah's 16th birthday. I have some small gifts for her, but what kinda worries me is that when pressed, she doesn't know what she wants to do for her birthday. Does that mean that she wants me or her mom to surprise her with a party? Does that mean she wants a party but doesn't know how to have one without parental interference? Should I host one here? I'm so confused. I'm a little late to be coming up with this sort of pondering, but it does bother me. After all, a 16th birthday only happens once. Evidently nothing of consequence happened on my 16th other than my driver's license or I would have remembered it.

Over a Week?!

That's how long it's been since I last posted? Wow, what a slacker. Thinking back on the last week, I think that's a truthful statement too--I just slacked off.

There hasn't been a single bit of real news to report with the exception of our snow. Yes, as odd as it is, we actually got snow here the night before last. I think the amount here was almost 4 inches, which is substantial. Being in a valley it seems like snow usually passes us over for hills on either side. Usually they don't even get any. For people that don't know our geography, they probably think it's weird that being as far North as we are that we don't usually get any, but it has to do with our proximity to the water here. It keeps our winters and summers both somewhat temperate. We've got unseasonable cold weather here right now, and I'm making use of the block heater in my truck again. Love that instant warm air when I start it!

I've had a lot of little things this week, but none of them rated much more than a passing nod, such as:

• I brought home a stack of firewood pallets and put them in the garage, now I have to cut them up.
• I've cut back on my movie downloading. I'm still not ready to be "turned off" by Comcast yet.
• Teresa's dad just left for a month in Hawaii with his ladyfriend. Lucky bastard.
• I ordered some new tiny turn signals for the front of the Harley.
• I got tired of my goatee and trimmed most of it off. Now I have a mustache and a soul patch.
• I finally remembered to call about my voter's registration. Yep, they did have my address wrong.

See? Not much going on anyway. I don't know if it's winter blahs or what, but I haven't even had anything philosophical or rhyming to blog about.

I hope things pick up. At least it's Friday.

Comcast Drops the Hammer

I just got an interesting call on the phone. It seems that my account was "flagged" for excess bandwidth. Sure, I know I use a lot of bandwidth... That's no surprise. What surprised me though was the fact that according to the errand boy that called me, I'm supposed to "cut back drastically" (his words) to avoid another flag. If I am flagged again, my account will be automatically terminated for 12 months. As much as I pressed him for more details, or a concrete number, or even another person's phone number he just kept repeating himself.

WTF?

The problem here is one of judgment. Nowhere does their Acceptable Use Policy actually give a number to use as an "excessive use" limit. I pressed and pressed and he could not come up with any sort of number either. What that means is, even if I think I've cut back enough in the certain time frame, they may not. Poof. According to junior, my bandwidth usage was 281 gigabytes last month. Okay, sure... That's a lot. but even if I halve it, it's still a lot. Would that be enough? Who knows.

Here's the applicable part of their Acceptable Use Policy:

Network, Bandwidth, Data Storage and Other Limitations

Comcast may provide versions of the Service with different speeds and bandwidth usage limitations, among other characteristics, subject to applicable Service plans. You shall ensure that your use of the Service does not restrict, inhibit, interfere with, or degrade any other user's use of the Service, nor represent (in the sole judgment of Comcast) an overly large burden on the network. In addition, you shall ensure that your use of the Service does not restrict, inhibit, interfere with, disrupt, degrade, or impede Comcast's ability to deliver and provide the Service and monitor the Service, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services.

You further agree to comply with all Comcast network, bandwidth, and data storage and usage limitations. You shall ensure that your bandwidth consumption using the Service does not exceed the limitations that are now in effect or may be established in the future. If your use of the Service results in the consumption of bandwidth in excess of the applicable limitations, that is a violation of this Policy. In such cases, Comcast may, in its sole discretion, terminate or suspend your Service account or request that you subscribe to a version of the Service with higher bandwidth usage limitations if you wish to continue to use the Service at higher bandwidth consumption levels.

I know... It's my own fault, but dammit, I've been doing this sort of thing literally for years. Why now? If it happens, I guess I'll get to find out how good or bad DSL is.

Big brother is out there...

Back to School

I picked up Sarah from school yesterday after her first day back from a nice, long Christmas vacation.

I remember how it was back then. The first day back was always a day of comparisons, show-and-tell, bragging, and catching up. For the guys, it's always something like, "What did you get? Cool!" as they told of gadgets or toys they more often than not, were not able to have at school for one reason or another. For girls though, it's a totally different thing. It's like a fashion show.

Evidently, this year's hot item was the jacket that I bought for Sarah. Yes, the one that I had so much trouble getting, and then finally ended up with two of. It seems that, at least at her high school, the Denali jacket from The North Face was the item all the girls wanted. Funny thing--She was the only one that got one. If she was the bragging sort I wouldn't be happy for her, but she's a humble girl. I was very happy with the fact that she got to have some time in the limelight. A single child is always going to be wishing, hoping, and trying to fit in, without having the benefit of an elder sibling to help out with things. I figure if I aided her in one little bit of the teen awkwardness stage, we both gained. I'm happy for her!

I remember how her eyes lit up once when we were shopping--Just she and I. I think she was about 5 or 6 years old. We were in a mall store looking at winter coats for her, and she spied this black one. You could see it in her eyes. When she tried it on she looked like a total angel. It was black soft fabric with a full hood, and had white faux fur around the hood opening. It also had embroidered snowflakes done lightly in white stitching in a small line across the front, just below shoulder level. When she put it on, her face showed it. It was a total match. She was that coat. When I bought it for her, her mother was less than happy--After all, it wasn't a cheap coat. But let me tell you, she loved that coat for the few years she was able to fit into it. She treasured that thing so much. There was no chance of it not ever being taken care of.

History repeats itself.

Gloom

I don't know what puts me in such a funk sometimes, but I certainly was earlier today at work. I wasn't able to post to my blog obviously, but I did write down some of what was going through my head:

"What is it about New Year? People always seem to reflect on things. I'm standing here at work next to a loud press, and I'm hating my life. I'm not sick, but I feel like shit. I feel old... I feel tired. I'm sure it could be residual hangover from my weekend of partying, but I didn't feel this way yesterday, so I doubt it.

Sometimes I ask myself if I should quit drinking, but it's one of the few pleasures I have. But is it really a pleasure? What if I'm exactly like my dad, only I'm masking it with alcohol and he isn't? No, I don't think so. I may have my days of despair, but my head is still clear enough to be analytical. I still have my marbles.

I wonder still, as I have for many years, why I'm here and what I'm doing. I've said before how I thought that people who go to church do so to justify their existence. I also said I didn't need to justify my existence--That I was happy just "being." What if that's not true? I know church will never be in my life because I don't believe in it, but maybe what I'm missing is some sort of spirituality? I doubt if I'll ever know.

I don't know what it is about me. It's kind of like I'm a part-time hermit. Sometimes I want to completely isolate myself from humanity and not talk to anyone. Because that's how I feel this morning, I have been doing my damnedest to avoid everyone just to avoid talking. Other times I crave human interaction, and ironically, those those are the times that I seem to have the most trouble finding anyone to interact with.

Sometimes it's a cruel world."

Fortunately, as the day wore on I felt better. It's a helluva way to start the new year, isn't it? Tomorrow's another day...

Out With The Old... In With The New

It's been quite an eventful year! At this time last year I was still married and living in fear: Fear of the unknown. At this time last year I knew that divorce was right around the corner, but I had no idea what to expect.
I had no way of knowing that:

• I would still be friends with my ex wife (let alone better friends)
• I would still retain almost all my savings and assets
• I would find a nice place within spitting distance of where I used to live
• The next phase of my life would be such a smooth transition

In the old days, the New Year was a time to reflect on good times & hardships, lives lost & babies born, success or failure of crops, health & sickness, and a multitude of other things. It's just a wonder sometimes how much someone's life can change in less that 12 months.
Yep, a lot has happened this last year, and for the most part, all for the better.

I spent a great weekend in Aberdeen, ringing in the New Year with Rhonda and many of her friends and relatives. In abundance were all the good things that go hand-in-hand with family get-togethers: Lots of laughter, good food, good drink, games, stories, and all things that make for fun times. Some of the things we did were planned and others just "happened" but all were great fun.

Thank you Rhon, for including me in your family for the weekend. What a great bunch of people!