Sarah's Car Comes Out of Mothballs

Yes, it's true--It's finally happened. Teresa finally put insurance on Sarah's car Wednesday morning.

The poor car hasn't moved much since it was bought. It came home on March 10th, and sat not being moved once for a couple weeks, and then it was only into the garage. The poor thing remained there, untouched until we resurrected it to drive it on our trip on July 7th. After we came back from the trip, it sat until Wednesday.

Her permanent laminated license showed up on Tuesday, so now she has that, and in addition has a key ring with a car key and a house key on it. That one little key ring carries an awful lot of responsibility.

I must say, it's been a series of frustrations for me... Watching that car sit in neglect like it has. I'm just glad it's over and my spent money is finally being used.

Now the ball is in Sarah's court. I hope she maintains whatever criteria she needs to so she keeps her privileges. She is not exactly what you call a "go-getter" and she has never been one you could depend on to get things done. Some people have it and some people don't. Yesterday she was home all day. I don't know if she gave Teresa some sort of chickenshit excuse to be able to do so or not. I stopped by there after work and was there when Teresa came home. Apparently she had given Sarah a list of things to do while she was home and none of them got done. Simple things like watering the plants on the deck out back. They started arguing about all manner of things like that, and I was reminded about how much I hated that sort of thing while I lived there. Rhon told me later it was a mother/daughter thing--Arguing like that. Whatever it is, I didn't like it one bit.

Personally, I think she probably did what I would have attempted: Stay home so you can go driving in the car.

Don't blow it Sarah... All eyes are on you at this point.

Wow, it's Thursday Already!

I guess that means that things are going well and smoothly for time to go by that quickly eh?

So, today is Taco Thursday at thousands of biker bars around the country, and because the weather is so nice, I'd probably better partake myself. Although my Harley is kinda dirty and covered with bugs, at least I changed its oil last night.

A 3-day weekend coming up, and once again they announced mandatory 10-hour days next week at work. This time, however, they added a new twist: Mandatory Saturday next weekend also. I told them no way... Sorry... Uh uh. I'm committed to hit a party at Melinda's house that Saturday!

I haven't talked to Sarah for a day or so, but she's been working at Teresa's work during the day. She's getting genuine minimum wage, so it's her first real job! The bottom line here is that if she wants to drive her car (aka get it insured) her mom said she's going to have to see some work/job searching initiative. She may already be on the way, because Teresa texted me yesterday morning and wanted to know the date I bought Sarah's car. For all I know she's driving it already.

I'd better stop tonight and find out!

A Lunar Eclipse!

You know what? There aren't many advantages to getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning. As a matter of fact, if I were to start a side-by-side list, I'd probably find more disadvantages than advantages.

Being able to see a lunar eclipse would have never entered my mind before this morning.

I was talking about it last night in the chat room--The fact that although it would still be visible when I got up this morning, I'd probably never see it. I'd probably get up on "autopilot" and stumble down to the kitchen in my usual naked state to start my coffee pot and make my lunch sandwich. After all, that's why I always make my coffee pot at night before I go to bed--So I can stumble downstairs and just plug it in and turn it on without having to tax my brain too much.

Well, I surprised myself. The instant I got out of bed and stood up it occurred to me to check on the eclipse. I went to the spare bedroom and looked out, half expecting to not even see the moon at all (I can only see west and southwest), but there it was.

It's hard to describe, but it was dark and light at the same time. It was both reddish and yellowish. It reminded me of a strange full moon... The kind that is showing through clouds and projecting odd coloring because of it. Shortly thereafter, it started looking like your "usual" eclipse--A sliver of brightness showing on one side and becoming progressively larger. At this time it's about three quarters brightness and one quarter dark.

It's very cool.

I have no idea how many planetary events of one kind or another that I've witnessed in my lifetime. Most of them happen at night, and even if you know about them and try to see them you're still subject to cloud cover (at least here in Washington). This may be the first one I've ever gotten to see so much of. Although I missed the slow transition to eclipse mode, at least I got to see the whole "unfolding" of it from eclipse mode. While it's not like a solar eclipse (which I have seen) it's a lot easier to see!

It's just another of the many things we insignificant humans can stare in wonder at.

Nudestock!

Yesterday was awesome. Why? Two things happened yesterday: Sarah got her driver's license, and I went to Nudestock.

I was on pins and needles all morning waiting to hear the results of Sarah's driving test. As I said previously, Teresa took her to North Bend for her test, and it was slated to happen at 8:30, which is when they open. I was sitting around here all morning, nervous for her, hoping that she passed. I was also nervous because the weather at Nudestock was going to be substandard, and I had no idea what to take or do differently.

I was sitting at the computer chatting, making careful note of the time. 9 o'clock comes and goes. 9:30 comes and goes. Where was the phone call from Sarah or Teresa? I kept looking at my cell phone every time I nervously walked into the kitchen area, as if I was asking it, "Where's my fucking message, you lazy phone?" Finally, I just picked it up and took it with me upstairs to the computer. 10 o'clock comes and goes. I didn't dare call Sarah--What if she had the phone with her and was on her drive at that moment? Anyway, Nudestock starts the music at 11am, and I was running out of time. I showered quickly (with both phones nearby) and hurriedly got all my stuff together. By now 10:30 had come and gone. I took one trip out to the car and had come back for the last of the stuff, and as I picked up my cell phone, there onscreen was the "1 new text message" notification. I took a deep breath and nervously opened the phone, punched up the message, and there it was: I Passed! I gave a call and congratulated her and sped off in my car.

The weather in Auburn actually wasn't that bad. Sure, it was overcast, but it didn't look like rain or anything. The closer I got to the locale of the nudist park however, the worse it looked. I seriously wondered if I was out of my mind when I turned onto the wet dirt road that led to their haven. I paid, parked, and grabbed all my stuff. The first band was already playing. It hadn't rained yet, but it was only about 60 degrees, so for the first time in all the times I had been there I walked to the lawn area still wearing my shorts and t-shirt.

The crowd was very tiny compared to last year. I overheard one guy telling another later in the day that it was the smallest Nudestock turnout ever. Anyway, I sat down on my blanket and got into the music. There were plenty of nude people around, but I'd say way less than half the people were unclothed. Many of those that were dressed were only half dressed. Although you wouldn't normally think much about that statement, it was different at nudist park than anywhere else. There were many men and women wearing t-shirts and no bottoms, and many with bottoms and no tops. Yes, watching people dancing up there with bare asses under their t-shirts was truly unique!

At about noonish it was getting pretty warm so I dumped my clothes and headed for the hot tub. They were in high demand yesterday because of the crappy weather. There were many times I wanted to go in but couldn't. Anyway, I stayed nude from that time on, and little by little most folks finally shed their clothing as well.

I experienced a real light, misty rain at one point, so I rolled my blanket up a bit, covered my bags, and went for a swim in the pool. The pool felt really warm yesterday, obviously in comparison to the air temperature. By the time I got out it had stopped already, and it had hardly even gotten anything moist. The sun came out here and there, and when it did it was instantly 10 degrees hotter. Wow... It was literally like standing next to a hot oven and opening its door.

At about 4 o'clock or so our good luck came to an end. It came down pretty hard for about 10 or 15 minutes. I was into the whole experience at that point, and chose not to leave. I could have ran to my car and gotten an umbrella that I had in the trunk, but that would have still left my blanket and stuff to get soaked. No, I chose to stay sitting. After all, my blanket was nice and dry under my ass. Instead of running, I grabbed the front of my blanket and folded it over my lap and my bags, and draped one of my towels over my head. It was actually pretty cozy and comfortable. When that rain hit, all those dancing that had been wearing any clothing at all (a couple t-shirts I think were all) peeled em off and continued dancing in the rain. I would have done the same but for the fact that I don't really dance and had no dance partner anyway. The whole thing was really cool to experience though. Throughout it all, the pool and hot tubs remained unchanged of course.

After the rain stopped, I took my bag and cooler (they had remained dry under the blanket fortunately) to the car, then went back and gathered up the totally soaked blanket and towel. I had no intention of leaving at that point, but my "base camp" had been rendered pretty much useless. When I came back from my car, I wandered by the fire pit for the first time ever. They have an awesome fire pit dug that's carved into the ground, and it has benches lining it all the way around. I spent my last hour standing around the fire (which was huge), talking with people and enjoying the music. It was awesome! It was a totally cool way to spend my last hour of the day. At about 5 o'clock I could see an extremely ominous wall of gray coming our way. It was the kind of gray that meant 'rain squall' and because we were up on a hilltop, we could see it coming before it got there. At that time I decided that it was a good time to make my way out of there. I had just gotten to my car when it let loose. I'm sure there were still lots of folks dancing in it, but they were probably folks that had their RV's there, so how wet or cold they got really wouldn't have mattered much.

It was a fantastic experience, as Nudestock always is. All day long there were parasails lazily floating down, landing at a site that was just a short distance from us. They were all two-person rigs, operated by a school or service about a mile or two towards the town of Issaquah. Some of them spiraled down close enough that you could see them waving. There were a few vendors there too. The same guy that sells homemade soybean wax jar candles every year was there again, and I bought a lilac one. He has every scent you can imagine. I also bought a Nudestock 2007 t-shirt of course. They are only $10 and this years design is very cool! It has the look of the late 60's in it... I totally love it!

All in all, it was a very cool day of Nudestock, even if it was totally different weather than I would have liked.

Danger: Nerd Cutting Loose

Yep, livin' on the edge... That's what I'm doing... Here it is--Friday night, and I'm sitting here defragmenting my hard drive.

What's wrong with this picture?

It just seems so wrong doesn't it? To celebrate the end of the work week... By sitting here defragmenting my hard drive?! I never would've guessed in a million years that I'd be perfectly happy (that's the key isn't it) doing something so mundane on a Friday night.

Truth is, I've never done well with Fridays anyway. Friday is a normal workday, which means that you get up at the crack of dawn and work all day, right? Well, how the hell can a person expect to really party on Friday night if they've already been up for umpteen hours, and are probably worn out, both physically and mentally to boot? Well, as much as I'd like to say, "Yeah, I was out until the wee hours on Friday... I had a great time", it's just not accurate. I'm a person that admits that I'm better off taking it easy on Friday night. Saturday... Now THAT'S another story. No wait... Who am I fooling--I just don't have the "party stamina" anymore, simple as that.

Sarah passed her written license test a couple days ago, and she's going to take her driving test tomorrow morning. Teresa is taking her to test in the sleepy little town of North Bend at 8:30. I rode around town for an hour or so this evening to prep her and see how she's doing, and my honest opinion is that she's not quite ready. It's not anything to do with her actual handling of the car--She's doing very well at that. No, it's going to the the little shit that bites her in the ass. Everyone assumes that they're going to fail the parallel parking portion, and most people fail the backing around corners portion as well. That's 8 points off right there, and you need an 80 to pass. She has trouble remembering the turn signal 100% of the time is the main thing. Handling stop sign intersections wasn't sitting well with me either. Maybe I'm being too nitpicky, but I'm pretty sure the tester will do the same if not more.

I haven't gotten to drive with her and teach her and I feel bad about that. Once again here I am--A self-admitted bad parent. I guess I had a bad taste in my mouth about me buying her a car last March and she not being interested in driving any longer after attaining the title of "permit holder." She has been driving all the time since then, but just from point A to point B, and always in Teresa's car (hers is an automatic and mine isn't). Now I find out badly she wants to get her license before school starts next week, and feel that she's jumping the gun. I'm sure she wants it because her boyfriend is urging her to do so. Part of me wants her to pass so I can be proud of her and share her triumph, but part of me wants her to fail so she can become an even better driver. I'm also a little uneasy about her doing this just because her boyfriend doesn't want to get HIS license. I feel in agreement with Teresa if what she says is true about him using her that way. Trouble is, Teresa has been known to almost always blow things totally out of proportion.

Tomorrow is Nudestock, and even though the weather has been predicted to be iffy, I am still planning on going.

A Strange End to Summer

If that's indeed what it is. I sure feels like it's ended.

This has been the coolest, wettest, worst August I can ever recall in my lifetime. Come on--Mid 60's?! What is wrong with this picture? Don't the weather gods know how much I hate clothing? I have had to change plans umpteen times in the last few weeks. As a matter of fact, I have been having to throw a light robe on while I'm sitting here having my morning coffee. Sunday I almost turned my heat on (gasp!) Almost.

No, it's just not right for August.

What's really pissing me off is the fact that it's starting to look like it might ruin Nudestock. It's coming up this Saturday, and according to a couple of online weather reports, one says a high of 70 with showers, and the other says mostly sunny with a high of 68. Hey, it's either or... Same thing only they vary by two degrees. All I know is, that kind of weather is not a nudist's favorite. It will probably have an effect of crowd turnout for sure. Oh well, if I do go and that's the case, the pool and hot tubs won't be quite as crowded. Nudestock is the biggest event all year at their facility, and I have been looking forward to it since last year!

Sarah has had a renewed interest in getting her driver's license lately, and yesterday Teresa took her down and she passed the written part of her test. I have talked with Teresa over the phone about her a few times, and she expressed a certain doubt about how "one-sided" it will be between Sarah and her boyfriend as far as the car thing goes. Apparently he's even more lazy than Sarah is (like me she's not a real "ball of fire"), and Teresa feels that Sarah will be investing all this time and trouble and money without seeing any reciprocation from him. It's not like Sarah has a source of income either, although she has also expressed an interest in putting out some job applications. That's a bit of a "Catch-22" really, because you almost can't have one without the other. Teresa has fixed Sarah up with a debit card (Sarah's account) so we'll see how that goes. Generally she is pretty good with money. I was talking to Sarah last night, and asked her if she remembered how much it cost me on our vacation to fill her car up with gas each time. She was close... But the point was how big of a chunk of cash it costs to operate a vehicle these days. The good thing is, Sarah has gotten to be a pretty good driver (Teresa's words) so I feel better about that at least.

I spent a little time over there talking with Sarah after work yesterday, and she showed me an artwork that she had finally finished that had been started in the final months of art class at school. She's very good! I would love to have her do a picture for me that I could treasure for the rest of my life. She also showed me her new ASB card (registration for the school year was just recently) and she has a very good picture on it. She has gotten very photogenic recently. She had an awkward era there (like all teenagers do) where she was trying to keep up with everything her body was throwing at her, but she really looks confident and beautiful in her pictures these days.

Well, the migration of chatters from Yahoo to Paltalk has been amazing. The new chat client works so well and everybody is having a great time. It was good to see Rhon make her way on there for the first time last night as well, and it was surprising to me (and probably to her as well) how many folks she knew in the room from her past chatting experiences.

One thing that reared its ugly head recently was weather-based. At least the findings were weather-based. All that work I did on my car--Gutting the whole interior and putting a new heater core in was mostly for naught. Apparently only a small portion of the leakage that was coming out of my heater was actually antifreeze from the heater core (I know some of it was because you could smell it). I drove the car somewhere Sunday after it had been sitting in the rain all day Saturday and was pissed to find a gusher of water come down through the heater when I turned a corner! Argghh! See, all cars have a "dead space" around the area of wiper linkage where inside meets outside. In other words, water from outside my enter these spaces (it has to really) but is funneled back out--Usually down either side of the firewall. I guess there is a seam leak somewhere in my car, and although fixing those water leaks is usually a cheap and straightforward thing, finding it or accessing it isn't. I may have to dissect the whole interior again just to do water tests.

I feel like sending both my car and my truck to the crusher and starting over...

Well, it looks like I need to ride the Harley to work the next couple of days so I can take advantage of the weather. That always makes getting off work doubly special!

Online Chatting

I have been chatting online for years and I have enjoyed it immensely. I have met some of my best friends whom I love dearly online in chat rooms of one kind or another.

But I'm here to tell you about the end Yahoo chatting.

No, I'm not going to stop chatting online--I love it! I will, however, be pretty much giving up on Yahoo. Why? Simply put, it's broken and they don't seem to have any desire to fix it. Sure, the individual messenger windows (aka PM's or IM's) still seem to work pretty well for the most part, but not the public rooms. They are dead or dying.

Yahoo chat rooms have always been plagued by "bots" that keep popping in and soliciting your interest with sexy one-liners and promises to "get naughty" or whatever. They also have an annoying habit of parking their names in chat rooms (which only hold 50 people each by the way...) so only so many humans can come in. This has always been the way of Yahoo, to allow this sort of thing to happen. Whatever software features (or "holes" if you will) that Yahoo has built in to their system to allow people to put their "bots" in has also allowed hackers to exploit their system. There are many power-hungry hacker geeks that love nothing more than to take control of areas of the Yahoo chat system.

I believe we are witnessing the beginning of the end of Yahoo chat rooms. Lately, the bots have changed. It's like they have gotten "smarter" if you will. At the same time, the rooms have developed serious issues that basically make them completely unusable to us lowly humans:

• The biggest problem was getting into your favorite room to begin with.
• Text that you typed wasn't always visible to the others in the room. Sometimes others would have to relay what you typed because someone else could see it. A few minutes later it would be someone else that's text disappeared to a user or two. We called it "Yahoo stealing our crayons."
• A serious time lag between when you typed a line and when others actually saw it had developed. I'm talking about 50 or more lines (two full screens or so) or more of typed text before someone in the room saw what you had typed. That's a HUGE lag.

All of these things have a cumulative effect: Non-usability.

My theory (and of course it's just MY theory) is that Yahoo is planning this. Here's what I mean: They allow all this to take place little by little, and in fact encourage it to a certain extent. Human users can't use their system at all because it's basically so broken that it's non-functional to them so they stop using it. Because of that, usage by humans goes down. It gets to a certain point and Yahoo can publicly announce, "Due to declining use, we have decided to cease operation of public chat rooms on Yahoo servers." If they did that when all the systems were up and functioning perfectly, imagine what an outcry there would be. This way all they have to do is point to their statistics and say, "See?" Again, it's just a theory, but hey... If it happens remember where you saw it first!

Okay, here's the real message of my post today: If I'm not on Yahoo any more, where will I be? On PalTalk, that's where.

A bunch of people that like chatting in one of Yahoo's rooms called Washington:4 have gotten together and went this direction. Although I paid a little money for an upgrade to eliminate ads and such, it's a totally free thing and it works very well. It works just the same way as most any other chat thing: You don't have to be in a room to chat with somebody. You can see them online (if they're on your "pal list") and send em a private message. I do however, encourage any of you that consider it to make sure your antivirus software is current and functioning well. You just never know what's out there...

I am on this ALL the time if I'm chatting, so chances are you won't find me on Yahoo any longer. My chat name is still grayhaird and I would LOVE for you to pop in and say hi whenever you see me online.

I don't want to lose anybody!

A Brave Boy

So I stopped at the Fred Meyer store across the street from me on the way home yesterday to buy some groceries. I had just walked up to the self-check line and witnessed the tail end of a tirade.

A guy, maybe 35 or so, and his boy, who was maybe 10, had just completed a checkout purchase. Apparently, he didn't get some sort of discount for using your own shopping bag or something... The details of that I don't know. I only know what I witnessed.

He storms off, leaving his items there at the self-check stand, making some comment about not shopping there any more.
"Come on Dylan!" he hollers not even looking back.
"But sir, you paid for those items. They're yours," the cashier says after him.
His son Dylan is looking around at the other shoppers nervously, and starts to get their purchases. Dad hollers again, "Dylan... Leave it." Dylan doesn't quite know what to do. Again, the cashier tells him he has paid for the items, they're his. Dylan nervously picks up the things and has just exited the self-check area when Dad-from-Hell storms back, rips the items out of his son's hands and literally throws them on the floor.

The sales gal is nervous and scared and calls for a manager to come down there 'right now' and also asks if a few of us in the area would remain in case she needs witnesses.

A minute or so after dad and son have left the store, Dylan came back in. Looking brave, scared, and blank-faced all at the same time, he quietly picked up the items, occasionally looking around at all the people watching him. My heart went out to him. I'll never forget the look on his face.

Dylan has got a lot going for him... Except to have to put up with a father like he has.

My New Girlfriend

Okay, okay... She's not a real girlfriend... She's made of plastic.

No, no... Wait... That's not what I meant! She's not that kind of a plastic girlfriend! I bought a mannequin yesterday. Really. I know, I know... Why the fuck would anyone buy a mannequin? Well I'll tell you, I've been shopping for one for a long time now, and they are not easy to find under $100. I found her for $30 the next town over yesterday, listed on Craigslist.com.

Okay, back to the question: Why?

The idea sprang from the fact that I have an antique motorcycle helmet I wanted to display. For a while I thought about getting a Styrofoam head like they use to display wigs, but then I thought, "Hey, I've got all these Harley t-shirts, I've got a ladies leather jacket, I've got got goggles... I've got all kinds of stuff. Maybe a full-size mannequin would be more fun."

So here she is as she appeared in the ad:




She's a hottie isn't she? So far she is only wearing a pair of my jeans and a Harley t-shirt, so she isn't exactly projecting that "biker bitch" look I'm after. She needs lotsa work--Wig, goggles, etc. She's a bit tall too--I look eye to eye with her. I may just take the torso and place it on a barstool or plant stand somewhere. I don't need "Barbie legs" on a goofy biker bitch display do I? So far I just have her standing in my living room where I assembled her--Right near the TV, but I need to do something about putting her in a good spot soon...

She's scared the shit outta me a couple times already.

The Extremes of a Saturday

What's that mean? Well, my day started out by going to work at 6am like any other workday, but ended up with me sitting naked in a hot tub at Fraternity Snoqualmie!

Anyone that knows me already knows how I feel about working overtime. I hate it. Time is more important than money to me. Even if I have nothing planned, I still feel it's important time because it's my time. They asked a bunch of us on Thursday, and my answer was "Sorry, no way" as usual. Well, Friday came and things started to fall apart. My shipping/receiving workload grew exponentially because I was away from the desk doing maintenance on the high speed press, getting it ready for a product changeover. We run two different products on that press, so we try to do maintenance and such on one die while the other die is in the press. Believe me, those dies have LOT of parts in them and things to go wrong. Everything has a +/- tolerance of one thousandth of an inch. Anyway, after I installed the "next" die and fired it up late Friday, nothing went right. Part of it broke, so I took it back out and replaced that part and put it back in. Then the parts were coming out way out of tolerance. Then the parts were coming out with slug imprints in them. It was just one thing after another.

The bottom line: In an act of self-preservation, I opted to come in on Saturday.

I was surprised at the fact that about half the shop was there--Even the office personnel. Apparently, everybody was totally overwhelmed with work. At any rate, I got the die problems ironed out and reinstalled, and the press is now hammering out perfect parts again. That's a relief because we needed it to be running as soon as possible to make the next delivery of 200,000 parts. By the time we all left at noon, all was well except my inbox. That was due to the fact that the office personnel was in there also. They send the jobs to me before they go to the shop, and I have to attach copies of material certifications before the shop can actually make parts.

I rode the bike to work, which helped my attitude going in. I looked at the weather report online before I left, and it said it was supposed to get up to low 80's or so (we have been having a very cool August this year). It also said that Saturday would be the best day of the next few coming up. During work I decided that I would go up to the nudie park if the weather didn't take a total nosedive.

After leaving work at noon, I went home, ate lunch, and gathered all my supplies together. I drove the half hour there and went into the welcome center (that's where you have to stop and check in/pay, etc). I had been wrestling with membership for some time now, not exactly sure which direction to go with it, but knew I had to do something (after all, Nudestock was coming up!) Having exhausted my first 3 visits to the park, I was at a crossroads: Become a member or not. The last two times I was there were this May or June, and the during the last visit the gal in the welcome center gave me the form to fill out for my membership. Well yesterday I carried it in there, along with my checkbook. I was fully expecting to become a member yesterday. Because it was so late in the season I was opting for the "Limited B" membership, which is much cheaper, but you have to pay $11 grounds fees each time you visit. At any rate, it didn't work that way yesterday.

I wasn't in their system.

Try as she might, she could not find me anywhere in her computer. How could that be? I was at Nudestock the previous year for my first visit. When I paid the next two times (this year) the gal at the computer just did a couple clicks with the mouse, took my payment and that was it, so I know I was in it then.

Suddenly, here I was at ground zero once again. My past had been erased. She said, "Well it looks like you get to start over. This is your free visit!" While I was happy about that, I can't help but wonder how much revenue they lose from time to time by stupid things like that. Sitting in the hot tub later I found out from other members that they had experienced some computer database issues a while back. Evidently they had restored a "less than current" backup copy. Oh well, that means for $19 I can go to Nudestock in two weeks!

I took my laptop this time when I went, wanting to try out the fact that they have free wireless advertised. It certainly did work, but like all wireless, depends on where you sit and how far away. Still, it's pretty cool to be able to be in a place like that and send an email to your friends, saying "Guess where I am?" They also have a new popcorn machine in their clubhouse, so now there is free unlimited popcorn to enhance your visit. While the weather was definitely less than hot, it was no less great. I had a great time as usual. Where else can you sit naked in a hot tub and meet people?

Very cool. Very cool indeed.

Things Eventually Come to an End

A couple days ago I decided to drop by Costco on my way home from work.

Teresa gets a free Costco card from her boss, I'm piggybacked off of her card (spouses get one at no charge). A while back (maybe almost a year ago) I went in to do some shopping and was told at the cashier that her employer hadn't renewed their account yet. It's a pretty common occurrence at their store, and they go ahead and complete your purchase anyway, but it's kind of embarrassing. Because of that episode, I always start by going to the service counter before I shop and asking them to check my card.

All good things got to come to an end. (Stolen line from "Wildwood Weed" by Jim Stafford.)

The lady punches me into the computer and says, "It says here that you have been removed from the account."
"Hmm, that's odd," I said, "How about my wife?
I told her Teresa's name and she said, "No, hers is active."

Not wanting to pursue the matter, I just thanked my lucky stars that I was able to get into Costco on his dime for a year and a half up to this point. I didn't think anyone had anything to gain monetarily by limiting a card to only one person though. It's a Costco thing to offer an additional card free to a spouse, not the employer's. I suppose it's possible that Costco themselves actually did it as a result of the divorce paperwork that may take a long time to finally filter outward like a ripple in a pond, but it sounds more like something her boss would do. I like the guy and get along with him great, but he owns a collection agency, and he knows how to be tight with money. He doesn't even pay his own bills until the second or third notice. He knows exactly how far he can push all of them for his benefit.

Oh well... It was a good run while it lasted, but damn--I really had a hankering for a Costco-sized jar of marinated artichoke hearts...

In my last post I mentioned that I had placed an ad on Craigslist for a heater fan for my Neon. The next day I got a reply from a guy way up in Bellingham. He had one for $20. I wouldn't dream of driving to Bellingham for a heater fan motor--It would have cost me that much in gas. Well, it turns out that he comes all the way to Auburn every Thursday to pick up a car at the auto auction here in town, so my timing was perfect. I met him there yesterday, plugged the motor in (it's an excellent design--no tools needed for removal or installation) and paid him his twenty bucks.

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together? (Stolen line from George Peppard on the A-Team.)

Fish-Sitting?

If there is such a thing, I guess that's what I'm doing for the next week or so.

I went over to see what was going on at Sarah and Teresa's house yesterday. I hadn't been there since like Wednesday or so of last week! Wow... Time got away from me there apparently. Anyway, she and her boyfriend and Teresa were all there. She and Teresa are going over to visit her friend over near Chewelah on Wednesday, so I offered to watch their goldfish until their return on the following Wednesday or so. Yep, call me a fish-sitter.

I went to drive the truck to work yesterday morning, and it wouldn't start again. I drove it off and on all weekend, but now it craps out on me again. The Neon wasn't "quite" ready to drive, but I was already a tad bit late to start gathering up Harley riding apparel, so it was my choice. It just barely turned over--Apparently I left the dome light inside on all day and night. No matter... At least it started.

I noticed right away that it shifts a lot easier. One of the little things I fixed was a missing bushing on the shifter cable. Without the bushing, there was a big hole for a little linkage pin to slop around in. That meant the cable had to move farther than normal each direction to get the required movement out of the shift linkage.The missing bolt I had on the coolant bottle mount didn't give me a problem either.

After work I stopped by the two junkyards in Kent that are situated right next to each other. I did a thorough walk around in each of them, finding all the Neon's they had and checking them over. I got the missing retainer nut I needed easily, but not the blower motor. I just happen to have a Neon with NO air conditioning, and I must be the only one in the world. The blower motors on AC-equipped cars are different. Oh well, for my troubles, I pocketed a couple of lighted heater knobs from a slightly newer Neon. Mine is a first year model Neon, and although the panel behind the knobs is lit the heater control knobs are not, so at night I could never see which direction the knobs were pointing. Now I can.

I left the stereo out of it when I put it back together too. It had been acting up for a few years now, and sometimes I'd have to bang on it to get sound out of it. After I got home from the junkyard I put the new heater control knobs on, attached the coolant bottle, and reinstalled the OEM AM-FM cassette that came in it (lucky for me I kept it). It was super easy to install because I didn't modify any wiring when I put the CD unit in a number of years ago. Unplug one, plug in the other. It sounds great, but has no CD player. Oh well... I hardly ever listen to them anyway. My commutes aren't long enough.

All I have to do now is track down a source of a blower fan motor. I've already placed a wanted ad in Craigslist for one. Now I'll just keep looking.

Better Late Than Never, Right?

Yeah, I know it's been a while since I posted, but that's just the way it goes.

There was kind of an odd twist to the heater core part I ordered last weekend when I tore the Neon apart. I mentioned how it was "cheaper than buying local." Turns out, it was local. It shipped so fast I had it in my hands on Tuesday, and that's when I noticed that they shipped it right from a warehouse right here in Auburn! How 'bout that. Even though I had the core by Tuesday, I didn't get it put in until Saturday. It actually went together a lot faster than tearing it apart went. That's because I kept having to refer to different parts of my book for information when I took it apart. It probably only took about 2 hours to put it together, but I spent considerably longer than that because of cleaning and fixing other little related things. At the time of this writing, I still haven't finished it 100%. I'm missing a fairly important little nut that holds the coolant overflow bottle under the hood, and I don't dare drive it without it and chance breaking the one remained hold-down ear off the bottle. It's unique enough that I didn't have one in my stash of spare hardware in the garage either, so I'm going to stop by a junkyard on the way home from work today and grab one off another car. While I'm there I'm also going to buy a fan blower motor for the heater. All the time the heater had been leaking took its toll on the blower and seized it up.

I did a lot of domestic chores yesterday. How fun, right? Multiple loads of laundry, washing dishes, vacuuming, changing bedclothes... You name it.

One thing that I really wanted to do yesterday was to lie out in the backyard nude and get some sun, but it didn't work out. Working on the car all day Saturday wearing only loose shorts added more color to my back, making the contrast of my white ass even more striking. I wanted to get some color on my ass as well as take a nice relaxing nap. I hauled my blanket out there and stretched myself out, but was only there 10 minutes before I called it quits. Why? Well, yesterday was a big day in the Seattle area, the Seafair Unlimited Hydroplane races. Anywhere you went in town you noticed how dead it was because everyone was home watching the races on TV. It also gave a lot of people the excuse to have gatherings at their houses, which is apparently what was going on next door. After lying there only 10 minutes, there was just too much talking and laughing wafting through the open windows in their house, and I didn't feel comfortable at all. More people in the house means more chances of someone looking out one of the windows and spotting me. What made it even worse was how totally perfect the temperature and the sun both were.

Dammit. I'm having sun withdrawals...

Buncha Dang Copycats...

I doubt if a lot of my friends know I had a personals ad running on Craiglist.

It wasn't your usual personals ad like someone looking for their ideal mate--It was me advertising my wish to wash my car in the nude at someones house. Yes, you heard me. My landlord had written a "no car washing" rule into the contract because of something a prior tenant did, so I can't wash them here. It's such a simple little request isn't it? You would think so, but evidently not.

Well, I did get a few well-wishers, such as people that wished they could take me up on it but didn't have the space and things like that, but no takers. I ran basically the same thing last summer as well, again receiving the same sort of replies with no takers.

Here's the most recent version of it as it appeared in Craigslist:

Nudist will wash your cars! - m4w

Yes, this is on the level. I posted a similar ad last summer, but only received a few good luck wishes, so I thought I'd give it another shot.

I love to be out in the sun wearing nothing but a smile, and I also have a very dirty car and no place to wash it (it's a landlord thing to prevent water abuse). If you let me wash my car at your secluded location, I'll wash your vehicle(s) as well.

I don't have any other motives than to enjoy being outdoors au naturale and to get my disgustingly dirty car clean. I don't care if you watch or help. I'm not going to do anything bad, nor am I a strange/unusual/lecherous person. I'm a decent-looking genuinely nice guy with a penchant for breezes and sun. Maybe there's some other outside chores you need help with?

I would like to limit myself to the South King/North Pierce County area.

Give it a shot!

Now it seems like there are a whole lot of people jumping up with off-beat requests. Here are a couple of recent ones:

nude housecleaning - m4mw

I am offering nice nude housecleaning you get a very nice looking nude male cleaning up a bit while you touch and play???twenty per hour...email for pics and times???

Location: Anywhere

nude housecleaning and or light body work - m4mw

I need a hair cut and would love to be naked while you cut my hair???Let me know very nice looking male????

Location: South Seattle

working at home in the nude - m4mw

I am working from home in the nude any ladies and or couples want to stop by and lend a helping hand. email for pic and location

Location: Kent

I'm thinking the last 3 ads might have come from the same guy. What's pathetic is that in each one he has loosened his criteria just a little bit. Finally, at the end he didn't care what someone came over for... Just so they came over.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Okay, if that's the case, I'm flattered. In the meantime, I sighed deeply and deleted my ad for the remainder of the season. I didn't want to look like just another copycat.

Meanwhile, my car and my truck get dirtier, and dirtier, and dirtier...