Back to the Spring Schedule

Now I don't have to bomb up the hill right after work any more to pick Sarah up from school. This marks the time of year that tennis practice starts, so I pick her up at 5:15 every day again. This is good because it enables me to do all my running around at stores on the way home from work. I just need to make sure I don't get wasted before I go pick her up...

I really need to get her fixed up with a car. I keep looking--It's an everyday thing--But either the pool of available candidates I'm drawing from is too limited, my standards are too high, or I'm not looking to spend enough money. I think it's "B"...

She had tryouts yesterday, and she's reasonably satisfied at how well she did. She's pretty sure she won't make varsity--They are the ones that practice all year to keep the edge. Her biggest worry is that she makes "C" team instead of JV. I told her she'll make JV just fine... She's got some seriously good stuff. She's just worrying as most people do.

I had a good day at work yesterday for a change. I got a lot done without being derailed or distracted. My supervisor Bruce should be back from Hawaii today. I hope so... It's too hard doing two people's jobs for a week.

Well, it's a short entry today, but hey... At least it's an entry.

Planning a Summer Vacation

Everyone needs a vacation right?

I know I certainly do, and I only have a couple summers left that I can really spend with Sarah before she becomes an adult with a full schedule. I've been thinking about it, and I think what would really fit the bill this summer would be a father/daughter road trip.

Ultimately, I'd like to make Los Angeles the turnaround point, and spend a day or two with my son and his family, thereby giving them and Sarah a chance to meet each other. I would really like to read my granddaughter Emma a whole bunch of stories! I've always enjoyed reading to kids.

So what about the trip route? Believe it or not, as much as I've traveled around the US, I've never seen the Grand Canyon! Based on that and a bunch of web-searching for interesting routes, I would like to head for a certain spot of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona called Desert View Drive. It's a 25-mile route along the south rim that seems to be a very highly recommended for sightseeing. From what I've heard, a lot of the scenic spots along the Grand Canyon or nothing more than turns off the main road that lead you in to a spot, then requiring you to backtrack out again to the main highway. I don't like those types of scenarios. At any rate, this area looks like a good destination for us to head for before turning west and going to LA.

Another of my criteria for the trip would be to run as much of old 2-lane highways as possible. I like freeways for speed and convenience, but I want to see things, and I want Sarah to see things too. It might be cool to hit places in Utah as well, like Bryce Canyon. There are many things to see along our nation's roads, and I've missed traveling them. Sarah has never even really experienced anything like that.

I ran this by her, and of course she was all over it. The cool thing too will be the fact that she can alternate driving with me now. I only get one week of vacation, but coupled with a weekend at both ends of it, it should be just about right. We just need to figure out exactly which week we're going to use. Summer vacations can be a pretty slim window when you have to consider school and sports schedules.

I know it will be fun!

Happy Friday

Well, I can cross one item off my Craigslist search--A new bookshelf for Sarah.

After work I picked Sarah up and we went over and played some tennis for a while. She's getting old groove back, and we're both feeling better about that. I took her home so she could shower and stuff because I had a prearranged time to go look at the bookshelf.

Although she hates driving my truck I had her drive us up to the lady's house. We drove up to an exclusive area of Lake Tapps, which is just a few minutes south of town. It's complete with a guard shack and golf course, so you know it's a fancy place. I also figured the bookshelf wouldn't be crap for that reason. The road is curvy, and it was dark, so she got good experience. On the way in (past the guard shack at that point) she said, "I think I want to live here." I drove us home after buying it, and we carried it into her bedroom and set it up. It's a quality piece and was probably over $300 when they bought it.

Yesterday was a little better of a day at work. I got a lot done, but again the usual driver wasn't at work. He was scheduled to be back yesterday, but called in from Northern California with a "car breakdown" supposedly. I still have tons to do, but I'm feeling a lot better about it because the new equipment install is basically finished and awaiting the setup man that is due in today for finalizing and calibrating. The boss wants me present for that too, so if the guy shows up near quitting time I'll be stuck there again. I'd like to be able to go home at the normal time today. After all, it's Friday, it's been a hard work week (even though it was only 4 days). Also Steve was planning on dropping by, and chances are Sarah will want to play some tennis again.

Well, just about time to hit it.

Crying the Blues

I hate having to work overtime. Especially during a 4-day work week when I only get straight pay (under 40 hours = no time-and-a-half).

I've been working my ass off the last couple days, filling in for my supervisor on an installation of a piece of new shop equipment. This involves wiring, assembly, and all sorts of customization. Add to that the fact that our only other truck driver was out from Friday through yesterday (he'd better be back today) on vacation, which meant I kept having to drop what I was doing and go on a delivery or pickup. During all this stuff my regular work has been on hold and piling up in my inbox, so yesterday I stayed a couple hours over to try to put a dent in it. That's about all I did... And it was a small dent to boot.

One bright note yesterday though--I received two orders I placed online on Monday already! That was fast. Only two days is fast, and neither of them were from this side of the U.S. One of the items was an overhaul kit for my air compressor, and the other was the new rear turn signals I ordered for my Harley.

I was hoping to get up to someones house after work and look at or buy a bookshelf I found on Craiglist for Sarah, but she called back and apologized, noting that yesterday was her husband's birthday. We agreed on 6pm tonight. I hope it isn't raining by then. Last night would have been perfect. At least it's very local to me here, so it should be a quick and easy one.

I was out in the garage quite a while last night. It seems like this Harley job is taking forever. I guess that's because I hate long-term projects. I need to relax and just place one foot in front of the other and move at a steady pace. I'm almost ready to start in on the rear fender, and that's going to be tedious-A lot of welding and grinding. I hope I don't fuck it up.

Something else that's pissing me off is the fact that I have a tiny metal sliver in the tip of my right index finger--Right at the contact point for any button or anything you want to push. It's so small I can't even see it, let alone retrieve it. I may have to do some razor blade digging on this one.

(Sigh) I'll probably have to work overtime again tonight. Today the "setup man" for the Haas company that makes the big machine they just bought will show up and do the finalization of it, so I need to have as much done and ready for him as I can to minimize his time ($$) on the job. In the meantime, my regular work will again suffer.

I need a vacation.

Spinning my Wheels

That's how I feel sometimes when I'm shopping for something via classifieds--Like I'm spinning my wheels.

Craigslist is a great tool for the consumer to have at our disposal, but it can be frustrating. You're at the mercy of the seller for many things, like their perception of the item, their honesty & integrity, their ability with photography, and other things.

Take their perception of quality for example. Everyone sees things differently, so my idea of a "7" might be a "9" to you on the quality scale. Sometimes these are intentional (i.e. "fudging") by the seller, sometimes it's genuinely the way they see it.

Honesty and personal integrity are a problem, especially on the larger ticket items. When you're trying to buy a car, do you want to buy from someone that has lied to you? Even the slightest little lie can cost you big down the road. In these situations I tend to look at the person, their house and possessions, and their mannerisms when talking about their car. Caution flags fly with wild abandon when I go to someones house and see generally rundown condition of things. Similarly, the way someone is kept or dressed might come into play. If they won't stop "talking the car up" while you're looking, I also am very wary.

The seller's ability (or lack thereof) to put a picture in the ad can be a big problem and potential time-waster. Craigslist only allows 4 pictures per ad, and when you submit them they're re-sized to a specific maximum size by their software. More often than not, those pictures are fairly devoid of detail. Some people get around this by using their knowledge of html programming and do the formatting of their own ad to get larger pictures into the ad. Either way, you have to take certain things into consideration when you're looking at them. If it's a car, is it wet or raining? If so the paint will look brand new. If it's a furniture item, is the lighting in the picture intentionally flattering? For example, is the item in it's normal environment, or is it sitting somewhere so more flattering light can hit it and give it a shine or glow?

I drove to Kent to look at a car for Sarah yesterday, and almost everything I've written came into play there. I almost didn't stop when I got to the house. Cars everywhere, house in disrepair... You name it. The first thing I saw when I opened the hood was greasy fingerprints everywhere, and when I opened the trunk, the smell of moisture was strong. Sorry, we're done here folks!

I also drove to Bothell (yes, it's quite a ways) to look at a bookshelf for Sarah. The first flag went flying when I saw a big truck in the guys driveway that said S0-and-So's Thrift Store on it. Obviously, this was his business. Anyway, the piece was totally dinged up, and the guy talked about it incessantly while I was looking at it. He wanted 60 bucks for it, but refused to budge when I offered 40. Fuck him. I don't care if I drove 2 states... I'm not going to buy it just because I drove that far and don't want to go home empty handed. Put your P.O.S. back into your thrift store truck buddy...

On the way home I stopped and did some grocery shopping, so the trip wasn't a total waste of time.

You know what else pissed me off though? I went into Arby's near my house to pick up something to go. There was one young gal with a kid ahead of me, and she had put her kid up on the counter. Obviously, she was only there to socialize, as the gal behind the counter kept cooing and kissing her. After standing there for a minute, shook my head and muttered, "Jeezus fucking christ" just barely audible enough to be heard and whirled around and left. Hopefully my point was taken.

After having the whole start of my day pretty much in the toilet, I resolved to spend the rest of on my terms. I spent it in my garage, taking my frustrations out by sanding on my Harley parts.

Beer and other stuff helped a lot too. ;-)

In the Thick of the Weekend

Sounds kinda dramatic doesn't it?

I'm tired. I spent almost 4 hours at a swap meet in Puyallup today. It was an unbelievable day, weather-wise, and the turnout was amazing. The swap meet was automotive for the most part, but also had lots of antiques and cool stuff. Pretty much anything that a guy would be interested in, and a lot of things ladies might also like. If you're into cool shit that is. I went for a couple reasons:

1. I wanted to peruse the multitudes of displays for the "perfect" lights to use on the back of my Harley for turn signals. If I couldn't find something I could actually use, I hoped that maybe I might at least be inspired by some kind of cool design that I could use to make my own.
   
   
2. I was looking for a 90-degree angle grinder. They're almost all made in China or somewhere, so quality isn't that big a deal. I need one to do the work on the back fender of my Harley that I want to do. They're air powered, and they're excellent for paint removal, smoothing, metal polishing... You name it.

As it turns out, I did find a grinder, but I struck out on the lights. I did, however, find some amber LED turn signals that I bought to use on the front though. Yes, for those of you with good memories, I did recently buy some amber LED front turn signals already. I'm not real happy with them though, and the ones I bought today look better and were cheaper. The grinder is a typical noisy Chinese P.O.S. grinder, but it was only 20 bucks, and it will get the job done.

Oh, I digressed--I was explaining why I was tired. Anyway, when I go to those swap meets, I have a certain way of shopping. I like to make a first pass through the entire swap meet as fast as possible, trying to note various "possibles" and good deals, and also trying to remember where I saw what. Then I usually go back to the best things or deals that I found and buy whatever I was after (if I can find it again). When that is done, I then relax and take multiple slow trips around the whole place... Looking for anything cool. By the time I left the place, I probably walked 10 miles.

While I was there (but just about to finally leave) I got a text message from Sarah, asking me where I was. She said it was a nice day for tennis practice (hint, hint). I texted back that it sounding good to me and that I was just about to leave. Anyway, I went home and had a beer, dumped my stuff, and headed over to Sarah's house. We went over to Auburn High School and played for a while. It was fun, and I definitely got my workout. By the time I got home, I was pretty worn. I'm feeling fine now though.

I got an email from Denis today that was a bit of a surprise: I told me to keep an eye out for a stolen Miata. WTF? What is it with us? I totalled my Neon last Friday, and he has his Mazda Miata stolen this week. Is it something with us brothers and the planetary alignment or something? Do we all have "Tired of our cars... Take them away" tattooed on our fucking foreheads? It's pretty weird.

The fate of my car is still up in the air. An insurance guy came by work the other day and took some pictures and info down. Evidently, he's the guy that does the local demographic part of the claim. He pursues whether or not the local market will show my car worth more or less than the national average. They use odometer mileage as one of their key tools, hence the reason for his visit.

For such a beautiful day, it's sure a contrast right now. Being able to sit downstairs at the coffee table au naturale at the laptop, and listening to the wind and rain pound the windows is cool.

I like being in a nice, warm, cozy place during stormy weather, don't you?

Ho Hum

So, today is Valentine's Day. Yawn.

It's never been high on my list. I guess partly because I'm not a romantic, and partly because to me it's just another forced day of spending. Don't get me wrong--I like spending money--I just don't like days when the whole world feels obligated to spend money that day. Those days are all part of the Hallmark conspiracy. I'll stop and buy Sarah a card, and put a note in it good for a dinner at Red Lobster.

I used to really like it way back in elementary school though. Everyone in the class had the little "mailbox" things over on the one side of the classroom set up exclusively for Valentine's Day. It was required that everyone get one from everyone. I remember thinking back then how good of a thing it was emotionally to those kids that were treated worse than others. You know, the poor ones with bad clothes, the fat ones.... Whatever the reason. I remember getting a good feeling when I made them Valentines. I was too young to know that I was walking a fine line between condescending and philanthropy, but to this day I remember it as a warm, neighborly, "feelgood" time.

My trusty little red Neon that I bought back in June of 1994 clings to me yet, but no thanks to the repair estimate. The damages come to about $2100 and the little car isn't worth more than probably $1200.

Now I wait for the insurance people to call me and present me with my options. From where I sit, I only see them presenting me with three choices:

1. Take the settlement they offer me and get another car
2. Take the settlement they offer and buy my Neon back from them
3. Do nothing and go after the guy that hit me myself for full repairs

I'm not an "ambulance chaser" and I don't need money bad enough to hit them with a heavy lawsuit. Besides, they cost money. I would, however, like to get my car completely repaired and get a few hundred extra for my time. I don't think there's much reason to go for anything punitive. The whole experience was probably pain enough if the guy and/or his insurance is going to end up shouldering the bills for 3 cars.

I hate this kind of shit.

Quality Time

Sarah called me up after work yesterday and goaded me into going over to the high school to play tennis with her. I had been home long enough to have a couple beers, so I was a little concerned that I was going to embarrass myself. She needed practice to get ready for tennis season, and tryouts are in two weeks I think she said. By the time we got over there, it was the final hour of daylight.

I was surprised--I played pretty well! Although I've never been much of an athlete, I understand the mechanics of all of them. I can hit a baseball fine and things like that. Well, maybe tennis would have been something I could have done well at in school... Who knows. I think the advantage I have is the fact that my arms are so damn long. I was returning shots that were quite a stretch. I also had some killer serves. I was a little concerned with how I might be affected by my age and lack of aerobic exercise, but I did fine. I even joined her for a lap around the court afterward. If we go tonight, maybe I'll run two of them, as one didn't really affect me. No weird pains or aches this morning either. I think this will be a good thing for both of us to do regularly.

It's a good thing that Sarah requested some practice, because she needs to get "it" back. She was struggling to hit even the most basic shots--All of them hitting her racket in the wrong spot. I told her that it was because she had grown since last season, and her arms were longer than they were last year. It's true I'm sure--All of her flubs were hitting the racket too close to the handle instead of in the sweet spot. She was pretty frustrated, but she was starting to get it back toward the end. I told her I had the advantage because my lanky arms have been this long for over 30 years, therefore I know where everything reaches to.

In other news, here's more on the car accident: I have to say, Hartford has impressed me as an insurance company for their "hands on" approach. I got a phone call from them at work today (which I chose not to return due to time constraints) and when I got home after dropping Sarah off from school, there was a message on my machine from them as well. After called the lady back, we went through a question and answer coverage of all the details of the accident which she recorded as we went. She then punched my address into their network of body shops, and told me of one right nearby called Auburn Collision. I told her that would be fine and I'd take it there today after work for an estimate. Evidently, they are all on a network of some kind, and as soon as they do the damage estimate and punch my VIN number in from the car (the VIN holds all the car's options and equipment information in it's coded format) into their system, it tells right away whether the car is considered totaled or not. She also said there's really no reason to contact the driver that caused the accident--They would take care of that. She also assured me that from an insurance standpoint, it was not a chargeable accident to me. (Whether my rates go up remains to be seen...) After I hung up the phone, I got a call from Auburn Collision a few minutes later, and a very pleasant lady welcomed me to their business, telling me how much they were looking forward to serving me. The whole thing so far has been very proactive. I like that.

I'll find out today whether or not my car is totaled. If it is (I'm pretty sure it will be) I'll probably buy it back from them. After all, I know the whole car's history since we bought it new. I did some engine work on it one summer ago and it has brand new tires on it. It gets excellent mileage and it's fun to drive.

Also, now that it's dented it's achieved true commuter car status.

Sunday Morning

I spent a little while out in the garage yesterday. I should have been working on the Harley, but instead had to work on the little car. A person kind of wonders how much you should or shouldn't touch when there has still been no monetary estimate that has taken place yet. Some things had to be addressed though:

1. One front turn signal bulb was out and that needed to be replaced.
2. The front license plate was hanging by one screw and needed to be reattached.
3. Both front parking lights mountings were (still are of course) broken and needed to be duct-taped into place. The lenses are still mostly intact.
4. The rear bumper cover was torn loose. I had to take that almost completely off to get the mounts back into place to reattach it.

At least now it's fine and I can get on with things.

I did some laundry and some other general things around the house that needed to be done as well. I had just put a homemade dish of Au Gratin potatoes in the oven when my friend Greg stopped in. He wanted to take me out for pizza and beer, so I told him we were going to have to let the potatoes finish cooking beforehand. We ended up at Round Table Pizza and had a pretty good visit. I don't get to see him as often as I used to, so it's good to play "catch up" every now and then.

Teresa's brother will stop by this afternoon and pick up the computer of his (his daughters' actually) that I've had here for a couple weeks. It needed a new motherboard, but fortunately for him I had one in the closet that I just would have probably "sat on" and never used again anyway. I also told him he would have to take the old case it was in too, which oddly enough is identical to his. I guess we bought them both from the same place back then. It will be good to get those out of here, and I'm sure he'll be happy to get his daughters back onto their own computer again.

Anyway, back to my coffee...

When Things Go Wrong

I was having a pretty good day today. My work was going smoothly, feeling fine, happy that it was Friday/payday...

What could go wrong?

I was on my way to pick Sarah up from school. I had just left my bank a few miles back and was about halfway to her school. I stopped at a red light behind a guy that was already stopped, and I looked in my rear view mirror just in time to see a guy look up from whatever he was doing and BAM! I doubt if he even got slowed down from 35 before he hit.

Because I was in the middle, the back of my car and the front of my car both got fucked up. It's drivable, but it has plenty of problems. I was so pissed. I'm still pissed, but what can I do, right? Might as well accept the fact that today was my day. At least my airbags didn't deploy like the stupid fuck that hit me.

It ended up being a 3-vehicle accident, and it was a busy 4-lane (with a turn lane in the middle) thoroughfare. Although the guy that hit us wanted to trade information and speed things up, me and the guys in front of me said no... We were going to wait for the police. The guy that hit me was a pretty young guy... Maybe 20 or so, but he was dressed nice in a white shirt and slacks, so he was either on the way home from work or going to work. The problem was it was his girlfriend's car, and he had no idea if she had insurance on it or not. It's always hard to tell, but he seems to be a decent kid. His dad showed up after a while, and he too seemed like a decent guy. I called Sarah and told her what was going on and to try and find an alternate ride home. After a while the cops showed up and filled out the report. It was very plain that the guy caused the whole thing and the cop acknowledged as much.

I got a call from Sarah and she told me she had a ride home, so that was good. I stopped by their house on the way home so Sarah and Teresa could see my poor little car. They are gearing the house up for a belated birthday party for Sarah tonight. I hope it goes well. When I got home I called my insurance company and gave them all the info (while I was pounding a beer down of course).

You know what the bitch of the whole thing is? I had just switched lanes not even a block prior to that.

If only...

Catching Up

Yes, here I go again... Too busy (or lazy) to post in my blog again. A lot has been going on around here lately, and I'll try to recap it without being too long-winded.

First of all, a milestone event went by me last week, and I didn't even acknowledge it. My 1-year anniversary of living here! Yes, the first of this month marked one year since I moved out on my own and started a major lifestyle change. I'm sure I should have had a party, but I didn't. Oh well.

I started in sanding on my Harley's gas tanks. It's a lot of tedious work, and I was reminded why I hate doing body work on cars and stuff. I took a bunch of "before" pictures as I took it apart. I need to spend some serious time updating my Harley website when this is finished. I haven't done an update on it for ages. Evidently, Steve decided he should be changing his Harley too, because he's buying some hard fiberglass bags to replace his leather saddlebags, and he's shopping for dual pipes to replace his 2-into-1 single pipe. The difference between he and I though is that he spends money to get his done. I try not to.

Rhon was here visiting over the weekend, and that was fun. We seem to have a pretty good time hanging out together. If only she did body work on Harleys... ;-) Thanks for the brontosaurus steaks, Rhonda.

I went "wireless" in my house! I bought a nice little Netgear wireless router the other day off a guy on Craigslist, and it also came with a matching PC card to plug into my garage computer. $50 for both of them was a pretty good deal. I finally got the garage computer working with it's new wireless setup last night. So now I have my main computer here still "wired" and both my laptop and the garage computer can both access the web via their wireless connections. They seem to work great!

A lot of things have been happening at work lately. We've been gearing up for new equipment that the company bought. They spent big money and bought 3 new CNC machines, so we've been having to do a major amount of wiring, plumbing, and rearranging to make room for them all. So far one of them is in now, and I believe the other two of them are due to be delivered next week. Busy, busy. I told Bruce the other day when they were setting the first of them into place, "Well, there goes our $8 Christmas ham next year."

Adios.