A New Guestbook

I already have a guestbook for visitors to sign on my Harley website, and I also have one here on my blog (look over to the right).

Yesterday I spent some time and put one on my nudism page.

If you're the kind of person I am about customizing stuff, you would appreciate this guestbook, because they let you pretty much have free reign over the whole setup. You can change virtually anything you want. Funny thing with me though--Once I get started I nitpick until it's perfect.

After I set the thing up in its rough form, I decided I needed a couple of graphics to put up at the top. Trouble is, I wanted them to be transparent gif files otherwise they would just show up as an ugly square on the black background of my guestbook. I spent some time browsing and found a picture I liked, then went to Photoshop and made an opposite from it so I would have one facing each way. Then I took the time to transform the jpg file into a transparent gif so the white background on the pictures would be invisible.

I think it came out well, but you be the judge--Go to my nudism page, click on my guestbook, and see for yourself!

I also registered with a nudist and naturist webring and put the link up on my nudism site. What is a webring? It's when a series of website owners have their sites listed as part of this "group" and they are all linked to one another. You can either go from one site to another, or list the sites, or go random and see which one comes up. If you went from one to another, eventually you would arrive back at the site you started from.

My nudism site doesn't have much to offer other than a few stories, but I figure that the way I am I would probably have more as time went on.

Well, off to work I go!

Ouch!

I finally got around to doing my taxes the other day, and boy did I screw up. When I moved out on my own, I neglected to change my withholding on my W-4 form. My exemptions were still set at M-2 instead of S-1. I wouldn't have thought it would have made that much difference, but obviously it did. It looks like I owe Uncle Sam almost $900.

On a good note, my insurance settlement came in the mail Saturday, but almost half of it is now spoken for in the form of income tax. Durn it.

I spent most of the day Saturday out in the garage working on the Harley rear fender. I was in a foul mood. Nothing seemed to be going right. Every time I would weld somewhere, it would burn through and I would have twice as much to fix. Eventually I got all the holes filled that I wanted to fill, but I'm pretty sure the fender has lost some of its straightness in the process. I won't know until it gets some primer on it. Hopefully it will still be fine. I probably should have stopped and resumed on another day when I was in a better mood, but I just kept telling myself that I had to get it done.

Yesterday was so nice out! I went for a ride on my bicycle over to Sarah's house and borrowed Teresa's pruning shears. I went out back here and cut the huge growth of ivy that was encroaching on my patio out. My place still hasn't had its first lawn mowing of the season, but it's overdue, so I figured I'd get that other stuff cut out and leave it for the landlord to take with him when he does the lawn. I can't imagine it will be too much longer before he does it. You never know though.

I bought myself a nice oak display shelf for the living room yesterday from someone on Craigslist. It replaced the old, ugly one that I had there. I took the old one apart and reassembled it inside the storage cubby under my stairwell. It was quite a bit of work emptying it completely out and redoing it, but it was worth it. There's a lot more room in there now. I also put one of those cheesy battery-powered lights inside there so I could see something when I went in.

I drove back over to return Teresa's clippers, while I was there grabbed my small share of books off their bookshelf in the basement. Even though they're mostly sci-fi paperbacks, they do look at home on the new shelf in the living room.

Tamra called Saturday night at about 11:30 (yes, of course she woke me up) and we talked for over two hours. We had a lot to talk about I guess. It's funny when you're talking to your first love for the first time in 25 years or so how many things you remember. It seemed like the more things we talked about, the more those things "tickled" our memories and brought out other things.

A Phone Call Surprise

And quite a surprise it was!

It was my first love. Yes, I'm talking about first love, as in school days. Talk about a blast from the past... I hadn't heard from her in over 25 years.

Although it sounds like a totally amazing thing to have happen, it's really not. Here's why:

Her brother and I were best friends in high school. He still is a great friend, but we've drifted apart as people do, so we're not best friends any more. He lives nearby in Puyallup, and he's the one that I had lent my welder to recently. One time when he was over he mentioned that his sister asked about me, but before he gave her my information he wanted to check with me. I told him, "Sure, that would be cool. Go ahead and give it to her."

Dan and I used to be inseparable. We went everywhere together and were always sharing some sort of adventure or another. After all, we only lived about a block apart. He is the only boy in the family, and has 3 sisters. Tamra is the oldest of the three, but back then they also had an adopted girl too that was slightly older than she but still younger than Dan. Tamra reminded me of our "turning point" the other night when she called. It went something like this:

I went over to her house one day and she answered the door.
"Hi," I said.
"Dan's not home," she explained.
"I didn't come to see Dan." I admitted.

I had known Dan for a few years before all this transpired. I was actually interested in the adopted daughter, but it never went anywhere past flirtatious stuff that kids do. One day I must have had some sort of epiphany or something and realized that the right one for me was right there under my nose the whole time. Tamra and I were a great couple and were together constantly for a few years after that. As many people do, we drifted apart when I went into the Air Force.

She is living in South Dakota now, and has been for some time. She lived in Los Angeles for quite a while after she left here way back when. I she has two kids grown and gone, and she's divorced. I guess she is at another crossroads in her life and wanted to hear a familiar voice, so she called me from the bar stool she was keeping warm the other night. We had a great conversation, but it was fairly short. We have lots to talk about and I'm sure I'll hear from her again. Because Dan and a few of her friends live here, she visits the area occasionally. I told her she'd best be stopping in and spending some time with me next time she's up here, and she agreed. It's great to be back in contact with each other!

Well, I'm going to go in to work for a little while this morning. Bruce and I are going to be monitoring the installation and doing the hookups on a new CNC mill that's being delivered this morning. It should be sort of fun. I actually volunteered for it. I'm sure I'll be outta there before lunch time.

Parental Failure?

I am not a good parent. No, it's true. I like to think I'm a good father, but I'm not a good parent. I have problems with showing affection and administering discipline, and I will usually go out of my way to avoid confrontations. Those are necessary parenting skills, and I'm without them. I placate myself by telling myself that even as bad as I am, I'm worlds better than my dad was. I think I'm a good friend to Sarah, but not a good parent. That's my problem. That is a tough paradox to deal with. It has been said that you can't be both. I've seen situations that seem to be the contrary though, so I don't buy it. Even though I know that if you don't administer discipline the right way you lose trust and respect, I still can't do it right.

I'm not the only one with problems--Teresa's not a stellar parent either. Don't get me wrong--She's an extremely devoted and loving mother, but not a good parent. She doesn't know when to not hound her about homework, or when once might be enough, but more than once creates spiteful behavior. They are constantly bickering at each other. It wouldn't be much better if I still lived there either, because when I would be overwhelmed with their hollering back and forth, I would holler like you can't believe. I'm sure neighbors have heard that in the past, and I'm sorry for it. I just get to a breaking point.

I know my shortcomings and weaknesses, and I'm not in denial.

I see Sarah's actions lately and I have to do a mental balancing act--How much of what I see is a result of bad parenting, and how much of it is just typical teen? Teen angst and asserting their independence have always been hard for the parents to deal with. Time hasn't changed that, and I doubt it ever will. I don't know if it's a girl thing or what, but I'm not happy with the events of late.

Sarah has been getting more and more serious with a guy at school over time, and according to Teresa, they are now (as of last weekend) boyfriend/girlfriend. The problem? Sarah has pretty much ignored everything else going on in her life. She has never been a stellar example of responsibility, but now it's worse. All she does is text message back and forth constantly.

Here's a good example: I have been bugging her for the last couple weeks about her mother's birthday (which is today btw) and never got much of a response. Last night after her tennis match, I walked up to her and said, "Sarah, what about mom's birthday?"
Her friend nearby said, "Today is your mom's birthday?"
Sarah tells her no it's tomorrow, and says to me, "When have I had time to shop?"
I said, "Her birthday is on the same day every year, and I've been warning you. You'd better do something for her birthday tomorrow."

Other examples are her lack of concern for school and homework issues. She has been a straight-A student forever, and is now slipping quite a bit. Do I threaten to take her phone away?

Another thing that bugs me is the fact that I went out of my way to shop for her car. For months I scoured and drove here and there looking at people's pieces of shit for sale. Since we brought her car home a week and a half ago and parked it, she hasn't once been out to the car to vacuum it, clean it, learn its features, or even sit in it and change all the radio presets. She hasn't once asked to go driving it since we brought it home.

She has just shut everything out of her mind. Is teen love that blind? It obviously affects girls more differently than boys... No wonder girls get hurt so often.

All I know is that today is Teresa's birthday, and I'll bet Sarah hasn't bought her anything or even made her a card. I bought her a couple of interesting little specialty candy items I saw in a store, so at least I'm getting her something. Ex-husbands generally don't do such a thing.

Daughter's DO.

My Totaled Car

I knew it would be totaled when I was hit, but now it's official.

I received official paperwork in the mail on Friday explaining as much, but I must say I was genuinely surprised at how much they thought my car was worth. It's true that it's a one-owner car since we bought it new in June of 1994, and it's also true that it's "relatively" low miles at 92 thousand, but they were settling at just shy of $2,000. You also have to consider the fact that the figure is after they subtracted my $500 deductible too. I wouldn't have thought it was worth much more than say, $1,200 on today's market.

I've been playing phone tag with the insurance lady from time to time, and I finally got hold of her last night. She was very happy to finally get to speak with me after all the phone messages and such. We talked about the facts and figures of course, and I told her I wanted to see about buying the car back. Evidently she already started that ball rolling way back when it happened, based on the fact that the car was drivable after the accident (see what I mean about good service?) She said that the state of Washington has a rule that a car must be submitted to a "silent auction" prior to a sale of this kind. As I said, she had already done most of this paperwork, and she checked to see what it would cost me to buy it back. After a little digging on her computer, she came back with:

"Well, it looks like if you want to retain ownership it will cost you... Let's see... $80."
"$80 to buy it back?" I asked, not quite believing the numbers.
"That's what it says," she replied.
"I'm in."

So the bottom line is that I will still own my car and will get a check for almost $1,900. Not too bad of an outcome I'd say. She was going to send it right out to me today. Another bonus is the fact that I won't have comprehensive or collision coverage on it any more, and that will cost me less money too. After all, you can't really insure a totaled car for full coverage now, can you?

I've had nothing but good to say about the Hartford insurance company this whole time, from the speed with which they handled everything, to the personal service they offered when they sent the guy out to do a local valuation of my car while I was at work one day.

Now I can start the process of fixing a few things on it. It's in dire need of a tune up and the struts are about worn out (crappy ride over bumps). I want it to run and ride well, but obviously I didn't want to throw my money away if I wasn't keeping it.

Sunday Morning

It's been a few days, so it's time to play catch-up.

I managed to get quite a bit of progress on the Harley on Friday after work, but I still have a long way to go. I have gotten to the point of seeing what needs to be addressed on the rear fender and am ready to start welding on it. It was tough Friday because the weather was so warm. I wanted to be riding!

There was no school Friday, so I didn't have to do any transport duties. She was going out at about 6pm with a bunch of her friends on a special birthday bash. One of them was having an overnight party at a hotel in Bellevue for her 16th birthday, so she was pretty excited about that. I feel sorta bad that she didn't get a special birthday party for her 16th. Sigh.

I had a goal yesterday morning to stay naked the whole day. I know, it's a strange goal, but I like the simple things--What can I say. Anyway, that thought was dashed when Teresa called at about 9 and asked when I wanted to go have Sarah's car title transferred over. I told her now was fine, so she came over and we went down and took care of that. I guess we were lucky that it's the middle of the month, because the place was dead. We had just missed their opening rush and when we walked in we didn't even have to take a number. It went totally without a hitch, so Teresa now owns another car, and it has its new license tabs. I spent much of the rest of the day doing some shopping (yeah, see what happens when you get dressed?) and doing dishes and stuff like that.

I've been working on a new page for my website, and I've finally arrived at a starting point and have put links to it on my website menus. The subject: Nudism. Yeah, what can I say... It's near and dear to my heart. You can check it out here. I hope you enjoy it. I was in a writing mood!

Hey, I know... I'll make today my nude day. So far, so good...

I was SO tired yesterday...

...And I have to blame daylight savings time.

I ended up getting back home from Melinda's house a little late Sunday night (11:00) but that was only an hour later than I usually go to bed, so it wasn't all that much different. All day long I was yawning. It's just not like me to yawn like that, but I couldn't stop. Even my eyes felt hot and tired. I was just frazzled. It had to be my circadian rhythm or whatever... Something was definitely disrupted.

The party at Melinda's house was excellent as usual. It was an early celebration of her birthday (which is tomorrow) so there were presents as well as socializing. Everybody thought the gift I took was cool. You can see it in action on their website here. I bought her the 5.5" version. The movement happens when it spins around on its string, and can go either backwards or forwards. I don't know how they work, but they're cool!

It's starting to look like I'm never going to get anything done of my own. Before I went to Melinda's, my ex-father-in-law came by with his lady friend and dropped her computer off for me to take a look at. I've already got another computer project I'm working on for a guy at work that involves software testing. Then yesterday, Bruce (my supervisor) brought his new laptop in for me to take home and look at. There's nothing wrong with the computer (it's a brand new Dell) but something went amiss when he was upgrading to Windows Vista. I spent most of last night playing with that. At least it was handy--I could do it while I was eating dinner and watching an after dinner movie.

Teresa called yesterday right after I got home and was concerned. Evidently she's having a lot of disciplinary issues with Sarah. I don't know what to do about it except talk with her. I never see that side of her unless I'm over there when they clash, which has happened. She's concerned about her spending too much time talking on the phone (with a boy) or chatting online (with a boy) or texting (ditto) or whatever. The age-old teen vs. parent battle is playing out, with each trying to assert their strength. Teresa is worried that Sarah is just going to take the car and leave some day. I told her that it's every parents worry that when their teen gets his or her license that they'll never see them again. I think I need to start spending more time with her. She initiates anything involving a visit or stay here, but yet if I ask she usually agrees. There's one part of parenting that I'm not good at, and that's being the bad guy. Something I always try to run away from is confrontation, and to initiate a conversation that is inevitably going to end up that way just makes me sick to my stomach. I want the best for Sarah, but these are the hardest years. By getting divorced, I distanced myself from them and their battles, but evidently they're just getting worse.

Being a parent can really suck sometimes. Where's the guidebook when you need it?

It's Saturday, and Sarah has a new car!

Well, I just got back from a good day. Sarah loves her new car, and we (myself, Sarah, and Teresa) all had a good visit.

I was having my doubts last night though, because in true Teresa fashion, she called all concerned and not wanting this car deal to happen. I told her, "But I thought we agreed that I would buy her car and you would pay her insurance the first year, and we'd split the insurance the year or years after that." She insisted that she didn't remember ever saying that. She always does this sort of thing right before anything that's going to cost her money. It's sort of her "last gasp" panic attack where she feels totally overwhelmed. And as has always happened in the past, after she gets it all off her chest like that she's fine. Not a word was said about it today at all.

I picked them both up from their house at 10:30 this morning and headed up to get the car. As I drove to the area, I made some lame excuse like I was going shopping for a birthday present for Melinda in Tacoma (which was true btw...) but had to stop off and see a lady about something I bought on Craigslist first.

The people were expecting me and knew all about the scenario, so they had it in their garage so nobody could see it yet. We went into their house and into the garage, where I asked Sarah, "Well, what do you think?" In true Sarah fashion, she was very shy/subdued about the whole thing, but she really likes the car. She did admit that she knew we were going about a car. She fussed about driving it away from their house though, mostly because she didn't want anyone to see her flub something up. I managed to get her to pose for a picture though: Sarah's new car

We were going to go right from there to the store in Tacoma, but instead opted to go eat lunch in Kent first. Sarah drove me to their house while Teresa drove my Neon, and from there Sarah drove us to The Ram Restaurant in Kent. We feasted on some great food and beer and had a good time. We all ate too much, so Sarah persuaded me to drive us all from that point on so she could relax. I drove us to Tacoma where I did find exactly what I was looking for. They both had a good time looking through the store too.

It was a good day and everyone got along superb and had a good time.

I had Rhon overnight last night while she's en route to her parents' place in Ohio. I offered to drive her to the airport, and I'm watching her truck for the next 3 weeks while she's gone. She and her grown son, daughter, and grandson are all going on the same flight. Her dad is terminally ill, and they're all feeling that this is a trip that they can't afford to put off for one single day for fear of missing him. I wish her and her family all the best.

No Car Yet

Teresa called me at work yesterday morning and bemoaned the fact that we would be driving in the dark, in the rain, and on unfamiliar roads if we would have went to get Sarah's car last night. No matter if she rode with Sarah in her new car, or drove her car back while Sarah and I were in the new car, she still would have been uncomfortable. She's never been a night driver. So I called the gal up and arranged for 11:00 Saturday morning.

Originally I was going to be at Melinda's house on Saturday for a party, but she called last night and said too many people were having scheduling conflicts and postponed it. It may still happen Sunday instead, but I doubt it. A Saturday is always a better choice... That way I can stay over if I'm not able to drive, and it won't affect the next day's work schedule.

One of Sarah's best friends took her driving test yesterday morning, but failed. I pick her up with Sarah each evening after tennis and drop her off on the way home. Her folks just bought her a new car last week--A nearly new VW Passat. They are a reasonably well-off family. Her dad owns a legal business and her mom is a real estate agent. So last night when she got in the car and I asked her how her test went, she said, "I guess you'll have to drive me one more week."

Well, I need to go grocery shopping after work tonight. I'm running low on a lot of stuff, and better tonight than tomorrow--They're always way too busy on Fridays.
Last night I was so tired that I hit the sack before 9, but at least I got a much better night's sleep.

Well, back to the coffee!

A Restless Sleep

No, I didn't sleep very well last night. I don't know what the reason was exactly.

1. It could have been the fact that I didn't eat until late, and then just had a sandwich
2. It could have been the 3 or 4 trains in the 1-2 o'clock hour that rumbled and repeatedly blew their horns across the valley
3. It could have been the fact that I had just bought Sarah a car
4. All of the above

I'm pretty sure #4 about covers it. Yes, after months of searching, I finally found what considered to be a good buy. It's a 97 Pontiac Sunfire, and it's fully loaded with all the options. Here's a picture of it from the Craigslist ad I found it on:

I drove to their house at about 6pm to look at it. Because it was dark, I was lucky enough that they had it in a nice clean garage, and well lit. After giving it a good once-over, I concluded that this was one car that was well taken care of. It was a young couple in their upper 20's that had owned it since it was new, and have moved up to an Lexus SUV for a baby that's due later this month. I had the guy drive me around for a bit, then we traded and I drove us around. It handles, runs, and drives like new, and has no squeaks or rattles.

I paid for it and got a receipt, and we'll go pick it up tonight. I got home and called Teresa and told her about it, asking if she was free for the 3 of us to go get it tonight. Now there is more of a need for her dad to come get the boat out of one of her garage stalls so Sarah's car can live there. I told her that I'd buy them both dinner somewhere too. I gave her the option while I was talking to her of how much she wanted to reveal to Sarah while she was talking on the phone, but Sarah's no dummy--She knew we were talking about a car... I could hear her in the background.

I'm not sure what made (makes?) me nervous about it. I do remember thinking, "What if she doesn't like it?" The only reason I would even think that is the car's "flash" level. Sarah likes to be popular of course--All girls do. It's just that she likes to be noticed but doesn't want to stand out. I didn't buy it because it was red, but the red certainly does give it a little extra "look at me" factor.

Now I'm getting nervous again. Maybe it's just that I'm as excited about it as I hope she will be!

I was Enthralled

I was channel surfing right after dinner and happened across a show that blew me away. Our local "pledge" station KCTS had a show on called Celtic Woman.

I've heard some melodic voices before, but these ladies practically put me in a trance.

The thing that stopped me when I happened across the show was a beautiful woman with long flowing blond hair, jumping and dancing across the stage barefoot in a flowing translucent white dress, all the time hammering out a Celtic song on a violin. I was smitten by the music and the erotic nature of the dance she was doing, her hair and dress flowing around her. It was kind of angelic. Throughout the show, there were various solos and other more elaborate productions by all the members (all beautiful ladies... Especially the one with the red hair). The youngest (and also the one that had the most beautiful voice) was supposedly only 17 years old. Of course, there was a full orchestra playing too. It was live show they did at some castle in Ireland, and the whole production was great. Like I wrote in the title, I was enthralled. During one break I went online and ordered the only DVD of them the King County Library had in their system. Maybe some of it has to do with my own Celtic roots.

I bought myself a safe this morning. It's a nice one for home use, and has the combination keypad. I scouted around at a few stores before I happened across this one at Target on clearance for only $110. It was a good score!

I spent most of the rest of the day driving all over looking at cars for Sarah. Well... It was only two of them from Craigslist actually, but I had to cover some pretty good ground between them both. Neither of them fit my standards though, so I'll keep looking. I've found that the amount I'm willing to spend has slowly inched its way up. I'm holding my max at 3,000. It's obvious that times have changed. That price buys what 1,000 would have not too long ago.

Tomorrow morning I'm riding up with Steve and his wife to a Harley swap meet in Monroe. He said they were driving up in their Scion and invited me along. It should be a fun morning. Who knows, I might find something cool!

A Repeat Rant

I'm sure I've covered this topic before, but here it goes again: How to avoid actually selling a car you have for sale.

I was so pissed tonight, but I should have known. I emailed a guy about a car for sale on Craigslist the other day that I was interested in for Sarah. I asked a bunch of questions, and basically wanted to know when a good time would be for me to come look at it.

For a reply, I got one line with no punctuation, simply stating the address.

I looked it up on Google maps, and saw it wasn't' too far away. I sent another email later on asking for a phone number, and also asked if I could come by after 6 the next night and take a look at it. I got home from work today, and still no reply. At about 6, I emailed again:

I don't know if you got my reply or not, but is it possible to come have a look this evening?

A few minutes later, his reply was simply, "Yes."

I bombed up there at about 7:30, and there was a young gal leaving in an SUV with her boyfriend. I asked if someone there was selling a car, to which she replied, "Yes, but they're not home."

WTF?

So here's what I just sent him:

Thank you for telling me I could come look at your car, and thank you for not being there after I drove up there from Auburn with cash in my pocket.
You should try communicating with people next time.
If you don't really want to sell your car, you should do everyone a favor and remove your ad.

People like that piss me off.