Saturday, April 28, 2007

Hats Off to a Truck Driver


Sometimes your emotions can turn 180 degrees in an instant like mine did yesterday.

So I'm on my way home from work, and I'm almost to the vicinity of my home. I'm driving in the far right lane of a 4-lane road with two lanes going in either direction and no center turn lane. The posted speed limit is 35 miles an hour and is fairly well monitored. The left side of the road is a seemingly endless row of industrial businesses--The kind with lots of truck traffic and loading docks and the like. On the right is a grassy area, somewhat swampy, with train tracks that paralleled the road. Behind that area is the fence that surrounds Emerald Downs, our local horse-racing track.

On my left and slightly ahead of me is a full-size semi truck with a flatbed trailer loaded with metals or something.

All of a sudden he puts on his 4-way flashers and swerves partially into my lane and slows to a stop, blocking both lanes of southbound traffic. I can't really see past him, but I'm assuming he's blocking the road for another truck that us using part of the road while he backs into a business or something. There were four or five cars behind each of us, all stopped by his blocking maneuver.

We wait. Nothing seems to be happening. I'm starting to get pissed at this point, wondering what is going on. About the time I was going to get out of my car and look around the side of him, I saw the reason.

Just passing in front of him and coming into my view was a mother goose and 5 or 6 babies, making their way across the road to the swampy area on the other side of the road.

My building rage suddenly turned into a broad smile and I gave a mental "nod" to the truck driver. He knew exactly what had to be done, and he executed it perfectly. I doubt if many other drivers ever knew what the cause of the stop was, because when the geese reached the side of the road they disappeared out of sight.

Way to go man.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Recharge!


I wonder if it's normal? To enjoy going to bed at night?

It's not something I can ever recall ever hearing anyone admit to. Whether in person, in a book, on TV, or in a movie. I'm not talking about the tired, "Whew I'm bushed... I can't wait to get to bed" statement--That's more of a health necessity.

No, I'm talking about enjoying the feeling of laying down in bed. I sleep nude and have for years, and I love the the feeling of lying there sprawled out as far as I can... Maybe sliding my legs back and forth and enjoying the feeling of the sheets against my skin. I like to try to feel my whole body relax... From the bottoms of my feet all the way to the top of my head. Sometimes I will just revel in the feeling.

Maybe it's because I love my bed? Okay, call me spoiled.

Most of the time a make a noise when I lie down--Kind of a cross between a groan and a sigh. I think the best way to explain it is what happens when you lay a set of bagpipes down: They deflate slowly with a dying sound... Then blissful quiet. I know for a fact that there have been many times I've had a big grin on my face after putting my head against my pillow... Eyes closed and lying in the darkened room.

What's weird to me is that I will sometimes go to bed early just to feel that feeling. Sure, boredom sometimes has a lot to do with it, or maybe I'm just trying to wash my hands of a crappy day. Kind of a silent way for me to resign with a, "Fuck today, let's give tomorrow a shot" and move on. Truth is, when I lie down and I feel the familiar buzzing in my body (think about it sometime--You'll notice it most in your feet and lower legs) of total relaxation, I'm in nirvana.

Lots of people will tell you that you "lose" half of your life while sleeping. I don't agree--Nothing is lost if you enjoy it. They'll say there's a way to figure out how much of your life that you actually have lost or will lose before you die, but you know what?

I don't want to waste my time doing math--I could be lying in bed sleeping instead!

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Jumping Through Hoops


That's basically what I was doing after work yesterday, but unlike trained circus animals, I didn't get a treat--Just kind of a "stay out of jail free" card.

I was lucky with Northbound traffic at 2:30 pm yesterday, because that was the time I had to speed up to Bellevue to get my car inspected by the State Patrol (hoop #1). They do that on any vehicle that has been totaled by the insurance company. I guess the main reason is to insure that a car is still safe to drive on the roads. It kinda makes you wonder how many aren't doesn't it? I'm sure the secondary reason is the $50 fee that gets added to the title fee when you re-register it.

I got there a full hour early, but because there was no one in line they waved me right in. The guy did a couple of quick checks of visual damage, noted the numbers on the car (VIN and mileage), then had me turn the key on to see if the airbag light would go off (which of course it did). The first thing he asked me after he looked at both ends of the car was whether any airbags went off.

After doing his thing, he stamped my registration and attached the form he filled out onto it. Then he says,
"Your normal renewal time is June and you have an emissions test due this year (every other year in our area) so you might as well get that taken care of first before you go to the license agency."
"Okay," I said.
He continued, "And you might want to do it as soon as possible--Your plates have been canceled."
Whoops.

After leaving there, I sped home the "back way" using Highway 18, intending to pop in on Sarah's tennis match. Her school is right off one of the exits there before I come into Auburn. The closer I got the wetter the ground was, so I knew there would be no game and her schedule would be practice until 5:15 instead. I continued on past her school exit and went to the emissions inspection station to get the car "sniff tested" which of course it passed with flying colors (hoop #2).

From there, I hit the license agency. Teresa's name is on the title and registration alongside mine, so I knew I wouldn't get it taken care of during this visit. I asked the gal behind the counter what I need to do to get her taken off my paperwork short of bringing her in with me, and she pulled out a form and highlighted all the parts that she needs to fill out and notarized (hoop #3).

About the time I drove into my driveway my phone rang. It was Sarah, explaining that her practice was over and she was ready to be picked up. When I dropped her off at home, I gave Teresa the form she needed to fill out and explained it to her. It should work out well because she works in a collections office and they have a notary there. She should have it for me at tonight's rescheduled tennis match. I can stop by after work tomorrow and get all my licensing done. I've been driving illegally probably for a few weeks at least... What's another day or two.

Assuming I make it... (hoop #4)

Monday, April 23, 2007

Where to Start?


I'm so behind I don't know where to begin posting so I'll just plod along.

First of all... Emma is fine. It turns out that the surgical procedure was a non-cutting one. It involved some sort of catheter thing that injected some sort of substance into the opening of the kidneys. If it worked, it is supposed to have created exit valves to stop the reflux. I'm not sure how long it will be before anyone knows if it "took" or not. Mark said she was up and running around like nothing happened after she awoke and everything wore off. Glad to hear it!

Saturday was a pretty productive day, garage-wise. I ended up finishing my traffic light. I've had the thing for so long, and it's now 100% finished and standing in my living room. It actually looks pretty good! I know, I know--I should have taken a picture of it to post here, but I didn't. I'll get one up here one of these days.

Saturday was my dad's birthday and I had to wander around trying to find something for him. I ended up at a "chocolate art" place here in town. They make things out of gourmet chocolate using molds for the most part. They sell all kinds of cool things made out of chocolate. For instance, they have a whole area just with chocolate belt buckles. Anyway, the old man likes dark chocolate so I bought him a few things along those lines, as well as a little box of dark chocolate butter creams. I guess I did well, because he was raving around how good their chocolate was and was nibbling the whole time I was there. I really wasn't in the mood to visit, so I left after having a piece of cake and hanging out for about 45 minutes. I guess because I spent so much time wandering around town and wasting my day that I just wanted to get back to my world. How selfish.

I also finished the rear fender on the Harley Saturday. I didn't get around to taking it over to Denis' house though until yesterday. When I went over to his house, he was surprised that I didn't have it over earlier in the week, as nice as the weather had been. I told him that every time I thought I was ready I would find something else on it that wanted to tweak. At any rate, it's in his capable hands now for bondo and primer. He and I agreed that it's going to be a challenge to get it looking decent. I will require hammering and bondo to get it looking right, but I know he can do it.

I invited Sarah and Teresa over for burgers on the grill for dinner yesterday. Both of them came over sporting their new cell phones courtesy of T's brother's service that they're both signed up to. I have to admit, new Razr phones are a far cry from the little phone that I use (and that Sarah used until Friday). She was sure having fun learning all it's features. Teresa didn't seem to be having any trouble using hers, but then she only really uses it for a phone. When she tries to do texts she still has trouble. It was a good visit with both of em, and that's what counts.

I have finished playing "catch-up" with my Harley website and my project. By that I mean that I have everything I've done up to this point all on there with pictures. Although it's linked on my website, you can just go here to jump to it.

Well, it's almost time to face the Monday...

Friday, April 20, 2007

Thinking of Emma


My granddaughter Emma is going under the knife today. I so wish I could be there! I text-chatted with Mark and Dana the other night on Mark's birthday, and they told me that she's going in today for some kidney surgery. It's an outpatient thing so it's not too serious, but any surgery is serious in my opinion. Apparently what's happening is some sort of kidney reflux that she's had since birth. As a matter of fact, that's what led Mark to search me out two years ago--To see if there was anything genetic that he should know about. Anyway, each time she pees a little bit backs up into the kidneys again or something to that effect, and creates infections. She's been on antibiotics since she was born, and now that she's crossed the two-year point and nothing has gotten any better, it's time to step in. Believe me, her parents are nervous, and who wouldn't be? To have to send your angel into the hospital to be subjected to that sort of thing. I talked to Mark again last night, and when I asked about Emma, he said she was sleeping--Blissfully unaware. Dana has been making herself sick with worry these last several days.
I am going to be thinking of them all day.

It was a great afternoon for a tennis match yesterday, and Sarah was paired with an outstanding partner--One that usually plays singles and wins. They played against a tough team yesterday (#1 in the standings), but Sarah and her partner game them a run for their money. They ended up finally losing 2 of 3 matches, but it was very close all the way. One of them even had to go into "tie-breaker" rules at the end. They were so evenly matched that it went one-for-one almost to the end. The thing that I noticed yesterday though, was that Sarah was much more businesslike about it. She knows the girl well, but is not one of her close friends. It was plain to see that she respects her and therefore didn't want to disappoint her. Their match took over two hours and they were the last ones playing, and they were both worn out by the time it ended. I thought they did excellent!

I guess Sarah and Teresa's new cell phones came in at her brother's house yesterday, so they'll be going up to his house later today for them. He's had that provider for a few years now, so he'll give them the tutorial on how everything works on them. I'm sure Sarah is pretty excited... She likes technology. I hope T can keep up... She gets confused with technology.

Speaking of cell phones, Teresa told me last night that Sarah's boyfriend went "slightly" over his allotted usage last month. His bill was a little over $400. WTF? I'm sure it was all he and Sarah that ran it up. According to her, he has a really crappy plan and doesn't get much. Even our prepaid plan was much better than what he had. He's lucky in the fact that his sister pays his cell bill. I'm not sure how that works... Maybe it's a Japanese family thing. I would say that's a pretty nice sister! But even nice sisters have their breaking point, and I guess he's on cell phone restriction now.

Learning to juggle resources, money, and time... One of life's great lessons...

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

A Birthday Today!


Happy Birthday to my son Mark in Los Angeles... I think he's 28 today. I know, I know... You're supposed to know that stuff about your kids, right? Well, I'm the absentee father, so as chickenshit as that excuse sounds, it's the one I'm going to run with. I sent him a card with a nice note in it a couple days ago, so at least I'm trying.

My supervisor came back to work yesterday after a week and a half in Florida. He is dark. There were a lot of jokes (yes, bordering on racism) along those lines. It's good to have him back. He was pleasantly surprised with how little he had to come back to. Usually he comes back to a huge list of things that are broken, burnt, inoperative, etc. This time I took care of all of them except one little thing. Although I am able to do many of those things, I'm spreading myself pretty thin doing it, because I have regular duties to do as well, and he doesn't. Maintenance is his main function.

I went to Sarah's tennis game at her school after work and watched her bunch stomp the other team. For some reason it doesn't seem like the same quality of tennis as I'm used to seeing. Nobody seems to be trying any more. I don't know.

Yesterday morning before work I changed her cell plan features to stop the automatic "top up" on the account, and changed the texting back to flat 5 cents in/5 cents out. I'm just trying to use up what's there because supposedly she and Teresa's new phones and service will be starting Friday. I'm just trying to make a smooth transition.

I didn't feel like doing and work on the Harley last night because I got home a little later after watching tennis. I did a little work on the website pertaining to the facelift, but my head wasn't in it. Evening isn't my best time to do stuff like that. Weekend mornings are when I get the most done on tedium like that.

Well, that's enough for now... Almost time to go to work.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Hitting My Stride


I spent much of this weekend in the garage. Did I accomplish anything? You betcha!

I started my day yesterday by doing the usual mundane stuff like dishes and the like. When I finally came to grips with the fact that I was going to have to get dressed to ever get anything else done, I sighed heavily and put some clothes on.

I decided to start my day doing something a little different, but yet still garage related. I wanted to spend a little time seeing if I could get a stand made up for my traffic light. What? Traffic light!? Yes, I have a full-size, genuine, fully operational traffic light. Why do I have it? I don't know... I thought if was cool when I saw it at the swap meet a few years ago so I bought it. I spent a little time updating the cracked and deteriorated wiring after I brought it home, then bought a solid state control unit online to make it blink exactly like a working traffic light. It never did get mounted on any kind of stand though, and it's been following me around for about 5 years or so now. I have a heavy duty steel 3-legged stand out in the garage that I was going to put on it but couldn't come up with a way to mount it to the light without ruining it. I went over to Lowe's yesterday and bought some steel pipe to get me started.

I stopped by Teresa's house on the way home to browse through my steel supply that's still in her garage, carefully selecting a few choice pieces I needed for the Harley. We talked for a bit and I told her today would be a good day to get her car's oil changed if she were to pop on by, because I was planning on being in the garage and dirty anyway.

After spending a short time with the traffic light and not getting anywhere, I turned my attention to the Harley. I used a piece of steel I brought home and fabricated a mount for a new electrical thing I had to mount under the gas tanks, and got that welded in and painted. I then ended up devoting the rest of the afternoon to the resurrection of my rear fender. I spent the rest of the time I was out there just doing the tedious job of paint removal. By the time I was done I was a mess. I called Teresa to see if she was coming over before I got cleaned up. She said she had forgotten, so I went inside to eat some dinner and watch a movie.

About halfway through the movie, Denis came over to drop off some tools he had borrowed, so I hurriedly threw on my lounge pants (jammie bottoms) that I keep nearby. I proudly escorted him to the garage to show him the progress I had made since he had been here last. He was pretty impressed. We discussed a few related items and he gave me a few more pointers and ideas for certain repairs. He said if I finished it today I could bring it over and he could get started with the bondo process.

This morning when I got up, I spent a couple hours processing the pictures I took on my digital camera of the Harley, and put together a web page covering the first part of the Harley project. It's on my main Harley page, but if you want to just skip to it for now you can just click here.

After I went out there today I spent time working on the traffic light again (with a fresh idea) and I pretty much finished it. Now I just need to do a couple little things and it's finally finished. About midway though the afternoon Teresa finally showed up and I changed her oil. Although it's obvious she will never learn to do it, she does at least make the effort to try to understand it. She had coveralls on and was under her car while I was doing it. Gotta give her points for that.

The rest of the day was spent taking care of things Denis and I had discussed. I was tired and pretty much outta time to worry about rushing over to his house. I feel like the fender is 99% finished as far as what I can do. I say 99% because I'll go out one more time and give it a once 0ver with a fresh attitude before I call it complete and take it over to his house.

I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel...

Friday, April 13, 2007

It's All About Money Isn't It


The other day I was talking to Teresa on the phone and we got onto the subject of cell phones. She asked me how much Sarah's cell phone bill was in the average month because she was considering her brother adding them both onto his cell phone service. I admitted that I hadn't checked in a while. When I checked her account online I was a bit surprised: For the last 30 days, she has used $114 worth of service. Upon further inspection, only $14 of that was phone use, so that means the other $100 was all text messaging! Text messages on her plan are $9.99 for 1000 of them, then it's 5 cents each after that. If my math is correct, that means she has sent/received 2800 texts in the last 30 days. Wow, young love can be expensive can't it? I called her and told her to reign it in the best she can.

We'll see.

While I'm on the money subject, I got my income taxes printed out and ready to mail last night. It was a little painful writing a check for $888 let me tell you. I can only be slightly peeved really, because it was totally my own damn fault for not adjusting my withholding allowance when I was divorced. Now my paychecks reflect it. Last Friday was my first one that showed it, and I lost $30 off my take-home pay. Bummer. To make up for it (and then some) I'll try to make it a point to add a little overtime here and there when I can. I'm fortunate to work at a place where there is always something to do, and they even encourage it.

Oh, by the way... I got a good night's sleep on Tuesday night this week, so I guess I can stop wondering if it was pattern or coincidence. Who knows.

I figured out what went so wrong with the welding I did on my Harley fender a few weeks ago. The way a wire feed welder works is that the stuff (wire) you weld with is actually fed up through a nozzle of the hand-held portion of the welder, controlled by a trigger. It has two adjustments on the box itself: One for wire speed and one for electrical current. I pulled it out a few days ago to weld something and went to adjust the heat (that's what I call the electrical current adjustment) and the switch felt weird. Upon further inspection, I was surprised and annoyed to find that the inside of the knob was stripped out. The D-shaped hole was round and the knob was slipping. I'm sure that when I was trying to weld on my rear fender and fucked it up so bad, I thought the heat was turned to the minimum (required for thin metal) and in reality it was most definitely not so. If the current is turned up too high it will burn through, and boy did it... I went over to Radio Shack and spent a whopping $1.99 on a knob that goes on with a set-screw to hold it. Now I know it's right and it makes definitive "clicks" when you turn it. The welding I was doing after I fixed that was much, much better. Unfortunately, it was a little too late for my rear fender.

Oh well.

Work as been very frantic this week, mostly due to the fact that my supervisor is on vacation. It will be nice when he gets back on Tuesday so my world can resume to its former somewhat normal state. I'm both annoyed that he left, and jealous that he's in Florida and will undoubtedly come back very brown. Nudists like myself hate it when other people do that... I think it's high time I did that myself. I need a vacation big time.

Hey, speaking of money... What do you know, it's payday!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Times Change...


Standing in the garage, it's kinda weird to be posting to my blog. Can you imagine, say... Five years ago...
Phone rings:

"Whassup?" a friend asks, shooting the shit.
"Aw, nothing much... Working on the Harley, posting to my weblog on the computer... Whassup with you?"

Seems kinda weird doesn't it?

Well, progress is happening on the Harley. I was working with the welder a while ago and things were going well. It's a little easier these days beings the weather is getting better. I like working with the big door open on the garage, and although nakey is my preferred mode of dress, NOT with the big door open...

Last night I got myself an appointment with the Washington State Patrol to get my little bent car inspected in two weeks. When the insurance declares it "totalled" you have to have it done so they can make sure it's still safe to operate on the roads. I hate doing stuff like that. You know--Stuff that gives you no gratification. The state says "do" and we do. Oh well. Although it costs $50, it's still cheap to keep my car if that's what it takes.

Teresa called last night, totally frantic. It seems that Sarah and her boyfriend were going to be playing tennis or whatever (I'm sure it was a little of both--I remember teen years) up on the hill near Green River Community College. Well, Teresa went up to pick her up and she wasn't there. Several factors blew it out of proportion in T's mind: It was getting dark, she wasn't familiar with the area, she doesn't totally trust Sarah (hormones you know) with her new boyfriend, and her mind started playing tricks on her. I mean she was to the point of hyperventilating. I assured her everything was fine and to take some deep breaths. She said she went up there and nobody was there, and (her words) "the drug dealers started showing up." She has no cell phone so she couldn't call Sarah from the assigned pick-up point, so she went home and called from there. No answer. she called me then. While she was talking to me she got another phone call and says, "Hold on, maybe that's her" and put me on hold. Yes, it was Sarah, and all was well. To make a long story short, the first car that pulled into the parking lot that Teresa's nerves thought was a drug dealer, was Sarah's boyfriend's cousin, and they were all in it0. I'm telling you, when she called me she was so upset I thought she was going to lose it. She kept rambling on about her phone ringing on the ground because she had been killed... Whew. I felt kinda sorry for her really, but all ended up just fine.

I called Sarah today after I got home from work and told her to never do that again. I told her that she had no idea how much it upset her mom, and that her mom even sorta scared me with how upset she was. I think she understood after I explained it to her. Hopefully, she'll apologize to her momma again.

Well, I'd better get something to eat. It's getting late.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Happy Easter!


I'm not a religious person at all, so Easter only means one thing to me--A family get-together at my parents' house.

As many of the people that routinely follow my blog know, visits to their house can sometimes be... "Tedious." I used to look forward to family functions over there, but not any more. I'm getting to where I show up no more than one hour before eat time. I used to like to go early and hang around and bullshit and stuff, but it just doesn't work like that any more. I think my dad thinks I'm an alcoholic because I am always drinking, but he just doesn't know that I find it unpleasant to face him without having some sort of an attitude enhancement. Hey, I'll be first to admit that I may have alcoholic tendencies, but I'm not an alcoholic. I think I maintain a pretty good balance on things.

I was hoping we could take Sarah's car over to their house, but Teresa still hasn't applied any insurance to it. All she needs to legally do to cover hers/our ass is to call the insurance office and leave a message with the car info on it on their answering machine, and we'd be covered from that time onward. Although it's not like we're hardly going anywhere, it still needs to be covered. Actually, the fact that it's not covered now is stupid. If it gets stolen from their house, it's gone. If we don't drive it over there today (which we probably won't) we'll have to endure all sorts of good-natured ribbing about it I'm sure, because nobody in the family has ever seen it yet in person.

Rhonda came back into town Wednesday night from visiting her parents in Ohio for 3 weeks. It was a bittersweet visit back to her home because of her father's current condition, but it was something that had to be done. It was good to see her back in one piece, and also good to get her truck out of my driveway... ;-) And thanks so much for the Harley gifts, Rhon!

My brother Denis popped in on me Friday night to see my progress on the Harley. After looking the parts over, he decided that we need to give the gas tanks an additional layer of primer before painting. I say "additional" because the finish coat of semi-gloss black that all the parts will have is actually primer in itself. Anyway, he said that if I could get the tanks finished up we could probably shoot them on Saturday. He also agreed with my assessment on the rear fender--That my repair was pretty fucked up. (I had nothing but trouble with it when I was welding it, and it kept burning through.) When it was all said and done, it needs quite a bit of bondo work to make it straight again, but it will be fine.

I spent 4 or 5 hours out in the garage yesterday morning and afternoon working on the tanks. It was a good day for it I guess. The weather was good (I like to work with the garage door open if I'm dressed) and everything went well. I took them over to his house mid-afternoon and we gave them another half hour or hour's worth of prep work to bring them up to his pre-paint standards and he shot them with 3 coats of a special primer. They came out very nice and he complimented me on my prep work. I don't have to tell him how much work it was--He has done a lot of Harley's and knows how thick and troublesome their finishes can be to smooth or remove. At any rate, that part of it is finally done. There is really only one thing left for me to do, and that is on the rear fender. I need to decide how I'm going to attach the rear seat mount to it. It has to be something sturdy, but yet works well with the constant installing and removing every time I put the passenger seat back on. It's getting there!

I went over to Sarah's house last night at 8 o'clock to color Easter eggs with Sarah. As usual, we did great and had some excellent designs. It's not like it's any amazing thing to do, but Sarah is very, very loving of traditions, and coloring eggs is one of them. It's not the eggs, it's the fact that we're coloring them.

Well, I guess I should get myself moving. I guess I'll get all my dishes washed before I bother getting dressed... it's much more comfortable that way.

Deviled eggs, here we come!

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

And So It Goes...


Why do I have such trouble getting a full night's sleep on Tuesday night? It seems like every time I have the worst night of sleep I'm getting up on Wednesday morning. Last night was no exception.

I don't get it. I don't eat anything weird, and I don't drink any more than I usually do... So what the hell?

I woke up again tossed and turned for a while then looked at the clock: 1:00am. I had a headache, I felt restless, and I had that fucking humming sound in my head again. After lying there for over an hour, I finally got up and took an Excedrin. I figured either way I wasn't going to sleep, so I might as well at least get rid of the headache. I finally got to sleep and yes, you guessed it--The alarm went off.

I had a talk with Teresa yesterday while Sarah was at tennis practice. She is evidently pushing all her school work to the bottom of the priority list. She has expressed no interest in driving her car (or any car for that matter). She only has one thing on her mind: Boyfriend. It hurts me that I totally miscalculated the car thing. When I first started looking for a car for her, she was pretty hot on getting her license. I shelled out $2500 for a car that hasn't moved since the day we brought it home. I told Teresa to sell it. I'm not made of money... I would definitely like to keep my money if at all possible. Meanwhile, the car sits... Getting older... Losing value.

I had a good chat with my friend Dee last night. She's still in dire straits with her failing kidneys, and still hoping for a transplant that works. The last one didn't. She spent the whole last weekend in the hospital ICU, and in her words, she "almost bought it." I think I may have finally convinced her to call me on her cell when she's going into the hospital so I can come visit her if possible. She said she had no recollection of her last visit--She was totally out. I just fear that she's going to end up not coming out of the hospital one of these times, and I won't even know about it.

I did some running around last night to get quotes on a couple of window screens for my bedrooms upstairs. I just know I can't exist as I did last summer--roasting upstairs because I had no way of keeping the bugs out. At any rate, I can get em made for only 20 bucks each, but I just have to make sure that I can measure them right. They will do it for a $35 measuring fee, so you have to weigh the options: Pay the price and they "eat" any screw up they make, or don't pay the price and I pay if I measured wrong. The fee is the price of two screens for crying out loud. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go ahead and measure them myself though. I'll start with one of them, and if it's right I'll get the second. I'm also concerned that the screen won't fit the frame of the window right. One of the 4 sides has an unusual opening in it and a standard screen won't fit it. I don't know what to do exactly, but I'll do something for sure. I want to be able to sleep with my window open all summer for a change.

Work will be interesting this next week or so. Bruce went on vacation to Florida, so that leaves me in a bit more of a responsible position. I don't want to be responsible...

I just want to sleep.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Monday... Reprise


Yeah, I felt like adding to my post this morning. Partly because I didn't have time to make a decent post, and partly because I had more stuff to yak about.

The day flew by at work, but that was mostly due to the fact that my trainee and myself both spent most of the day working on part of our equipment. The big news of the day (at least to me) is that we have two new employees, and one of them is a female! Woo... I like that. She looks to be about my age too. You can never have too many ladies to flirt with in my opinion--It helps make a pleasurable work environment (at least to me). She will be working in the office, not the shop. That's okay though--I am one of the chosen few with office access and I'm in there all the time.

I picked Sarah up from tennis tonight and she was in such a great mood. It seems that there was a temporary opening in varsity tennis and she was selected! As I said though--It's temporary. But still, she gets a bit of recognition this way, and she said the varsity practice was way better. I'm very happy for her. That means she'll be playing in the next varsity game instead of JV. At least I think that's what she said...

When she got in my car she had this big artwork that she was working on. It was about 2 feet x 3 feet in size, and she had drawn it freehand from a little 3" x 4" picture she clipped out of a nature magazine . She has it taped to a sort of a smooth board for both carrying it and working on it. It's a pastel pencil drawing and it is unbelievable! I wish I took a picture of it because she'll only have it home tonight to finish part of it, but I'm sure I'll get to see it again. It's a very vibrant and amazingly colorful picture of some sort of a tropical bird of paradise or something. I was floored... She has certainly got some serious talent! I can't wait to see it displayed somewhere prominent so I can say, "That is my daughter's picture!"

Before I left for work today, I placed bid on a fuel petcock for my Harley to replace the aging leaky one that it came with when it was new in 1991. It was an EBay auction, but I knew I would get it because there were lots of them for sale and nobody was buying. After stopping off after work and picking up some specialty stainless steel bolts I ordered on Friday, I came home and finalized the EBay transaction on the petcock. What is a petcock? That's the little on/off/reserve fuel switch that hangs below the gas tank. Mine was leaky and crappy. I did some more work on the bike tonight too before going to pick Sarah up, and I'm feeling better about my progress. I've still got a ways to go though.

When I got back home, I backed my car into the driveway just in time to see my neighbor lady getting out of her car in her garage. We talked for a while about this and that. It turns out that she finally retired a couple weeks ago. I'm so happy for her... She worked for years at Home Depot, a thankless retail job. She was so happy that now she had her life back! She is now off all the time on weekends and she gets to spend lots of time babysitting her grandkids all the time in Bonney Lake and Gig Harbor whenever she wants to. The only bad thing I heard was that she was thinking about moving. Oh no! She is the nicest neighbor... What if I get a loud, obnoxious one? Or one with a subwoofer? Oh well, no use in fretting over it until it happens.

Who knows, I may get a nice single lady neighbor. Stranger things have happened...

Monday Already?!


Where does the weekend go?

I had a pretty good one though, I have to admit. I was able to spend the majority of each day in the nude, mostly doing housecleaning and laundry--Stuff like that.

Saturday found me feeling a little less than optimum. I woke with a splitting headache, and even though I managed to shake it a few hours later, I never really did feel 100%. I guess that's the main reason why I never felt like getting dressed all day.

It seems like I never get all the stuff done that I want to get done. I spent some time in the garage too, working on the Harley of course. Steve and Greg both popped in for a bit yesterday, but neither of them stayed long.

I finished up the weekend by getting a pizza yesterday afternoon and watching The Good Shepherd with Matt Damon. Good flick, but pretty heavy and hard to follow when you don't hear very well.

Well, back to work!