Hey, it's New Year's Eve!

And here I sit. How pathetic is that?

I thought this cartoon was somewhat fitting...

(If it isn't readable, click it for full size)

The Sunday Morning Report

Okay, it's not much of a report--Sue me.

You know what's funny? Time and time again people have said how the tiniest little thing can bring the biggest thing down. There have been countless anecdotes, tales, and legends of instances where that has taken place. They'll say how a multi-million dollar NASCAR race can be lost by the failure of a 5-cent part. Well, it's true.

I recently explained how our high-speed press at work had finished it's job--How it's "day in the sun" had finally come to an end. Well, after all the products it makes had been washed and packaged, we were able to get an exact count on things and we determined that we needed to fire up the press again and run out just three more coils worth of raw material through it (about 120,000 parts). That's fine--We had until February to get them out, so it was something I could use as "space filler" when I had nothing else to do. Well, Friday I got the whole thing all set up to go. Material loaded and advanced all the way to the end of the press to where finished parts were visible at the exit of the die. All this is done at "inch mode" which means each time you press the buttons it cycles through. I was ready to go on full automatic, but before I did I had to set up the test fixture. We can't just run parts without knowing that they are within specifications right? We have to continually monitor them as the press is running by snagging a couple of them out of the exit chute every few minutes and clamping them into the test fixture.

The test fixture is comprised of five exact-placed dial indicators that read off the measurements of a freshly-manufactured part that we clamp into it. Before we can do that however, the gauges have to be set at nominal zero. To do that we have an exact-measurement block that has been made for that purpose that we clamp into place, then zero each gauge while that block is in place.

The block was gone.

We looked everywhere for it. There is no way it would have walked off on its own, and it would not have been used for any other purpose. After several hours of looking, we determined that the former operator of the press who was let go a few weeks back must have had something to do with it. While I'm sure he didn't steal it, it would have been very easy for him to just casually walk by any metal recycle bin or trash can in the building and drop it in. The bottom line: Without that block we can't run parts. After we gave up on ever finding it, we instead dug through CAD drawings for it. Now we've got our tooling guys painstakingly making us another one. And all that for only 3 coils of material (translation: About 6 hours of total run time). Oh well, at least we've got lots of time.

I took Teresa and Sarah out yesterday to exchange a couple shirts that Sarah bought me for Christmas. Sure, I know Teresa actually bought them, but Sarah picked them out. They are both of the heavyweight "outerwear" variety--One of them with a quilted lining and the other not. Both were size large instead of medium. Rather than me trying to exchange them with no receipt, I offered to drive them around to the right stores and get them exchanged. That also afforded me the opportunity to select colors that I liked. Win-win eh? After we got back to town I bought us all some burgers for lunch, and then delivered them back to their house. The rest of my day was spent not doing much. I did go out and do some troubleshooting on my truck again. I have determined that I have a major electrical problem somewhere--Most probably at a plug. I just have to find it.

It's been stormy as hell all night, and today will probably be more of the same. That's okay--I need to get some laundry and vacuuming done.

Yeah, today will be a good day to just stay in and put on my french maid apron...

Announcing: A New Blog Feature!

First of all, Happy Friday!

I only get a standard weekend this time--No Monday off. It will be weird working Monday then getting Tuesday off, but it should make the week go by fairly easily.

Okay, let's get right to the new blog feature. Blogger has offered this feature since way back when but I never took advantage of it. What is it? It's the ability to attach one or more "labels" to each post I make.

So what does that mean?

It didn't mean much to me at first, but as the blog went on and got longer and longer I could see some benefit. Not really to me, but to you--The reader. If you look over to the right in the menu column under "Post Labels", you'll see the categories I have my blog entries under. These are categories I have at this time--I can add any new ones as my blog entry content dictates. I actually took the time to attach labels to each post I have made in this blog up to now, and that in itself was not an easy task. Now I just have to do each new entry as I make it, and that's easy.

What good is it?

For example, if you enjoy my ability to tell a story in rhyme (my favorite entries), you can look over and click on "poetry" and it will list all the blog entries I have under that category.

Anyway, it's just something I finally started doing and thought I'd pass it on.

Another Age Thing?

I hate to think I may have to give up chili, but something is different now. I don't know exactly how long it's been this way, but noticed something about myself (my body specifically) last night after I chowed down on chili for dinner.

I know most people's first thought goes right to gas and flatulence, but that's not it. No, actually I don't have a problem with that at all. Okay... Everyone around me might, but I don't. No, that's not it at all.

I eat plain ol' Nalley's Chili con Carne with beans. I eat the regular "hot" variety (not shown on their website), not the jalapeno hot variety (that's just painful). I usually add just a tad bit of additional red pepper flakes in it while it's cooking, but not always. Sometimes I add some chopped onions in it, but not always. Sometimes I add some diced tomatoes to it, but again... Not always. Another thing I'll do occasionally is add some shredded cheese like I did last night. This time it happened to be Cojack cheese, but that's really not important.

What happened? Well, shortly after eating it, I was practically asleep. I say practically, because I was really moving slow and drowsy. It was all I could do to stay awake. Not long after that I got an upset stomach. It didn't get real bad, but neither did it go away on its own. I ended up using Alka Seltzer to squash that (which it did fine). It occurred to me when I was getting my Alka Seltzer that I only had one pack left in the box. Then I thought about it and it occurred to me that I had probably used most of the previous ones in the package on the post episodes of The Chili Blues as well.

Thinking hard about it, I could say with almost absolute certainty that the same thing has happened probably the last half a dozen times after I had eaten chili. Each time may have had a different thing added to it or not, I don't know--I usually don't do it exactly the same way every time. The only thing that I always do the same is that I eat the crackers and chili bite for bite. That translates to at least a complete package (sleeve) of crackers by the time the chili is finished.

There is something here that isn't agreeing with me any more I guess, but I didn't really see it. Either I'm eating too much total, too many crackers, or shouldn't be eating one or the other any more at all. Now that I think of it, I eat that many crackers when I eat soup too. I also get very tired after that, but I don't get an upset stomach.

I told Elaine about it at work today, and she said maybe it was too spicy, but I was quick to point out that my chili really isn't that spicy. I eat lots of things much more spicy than that with no odd effects. Then she suggested something odd: Adding a little vinegar to it while cooking. She said just a little bit, like a cap full. Hell, I dunno... I'll give it a shot next time. Who knows.

I just don't want to hear that it's an age-related thing again. Something like my body has changed and I can no longer eat a particular food I've eaten all my life? I wouldn't be surprised if that doesn't happen to me at some point in my life, but I sure hope it's not something that I love. Maybe it's just a metabolism thing and I just need to tone it down somewhat. Hell, maybe it's only the crackers. Oh man, but I love saltine crackers too!

One thing is for sure: I've lasted most of my 51 years with a "cast-iron stomach" and have enjoyed the hell out of it. I could eat anything and eat lots of it too. I guess it's time to start keeping a logbook or something so I can figure it out.

Dammit.

Christmas is in the Rear View Mirror

I am so glad that it's behind us.

It's not the same as it used to be, you know? Sure, there are always "feelgood moments" here and there, but never the same sort of magical feeling it was when we were young. I find the whole thing very tedious nowadays. When I was young, my favorite part of Christmas was opening my presents. When I got older and had a daughter, my favorite part of Christmas was watching her opening presents--Experiencing the excitement through her eyes. Now my favorite part of Christmas is when it finally ends. I don't mean to be cynical or anything really--I'm just being honest. I really like many parts of Christmas, but I really love for it to be over.

I had a pretty good Christmas this year I guess. I didn't have any emotional meltdowns or anything, and I managed to get everything done. Any shopping excursions I made out into the wilds of Malldom and such went smoothly. No screaming at idiots in their cars or mumbling about surly checkout people in stores. Basically, the traffic (both automobile and human) failed to rile me up or ruin my outings. That's always good.

Sarah stayed overnight on Saturday night, and Teresa dropped her off with some boxes and wrapping stuff as well. We spent the evening watching a movie, and both of us ended up going to bed at about 10:30. When we got up Sunday we went out and did some more shopping, then ended up spending the rest of the afternoon wrapping her mom's presents. We planned on getting the gingerbread house put together too, but that just didn't quite pan out. Oh well, no hurry. We had already determined that if we couldn't get to it we'd still get it done whichever day because it was a "season" thing just as much as it was a Christmas thing. We'll get it done one day this week or weekend I'm sure. It's more of an arts & crafts project really and we both have fun doing it.

I liked having Christmas fall on Tuesday this year. It made the final shopping weekend much less stressful knowing there was still a Monday to pick up any slack. By the time Monday rolled around, all I needed were a few food items. It was good to have Monday off even if it was unpaid. Anyway, after I took care of those little shopping things, I blew the dust off my Harley and fired it up.

It was a great way to spend some time and let off some steam. I hadn't been able to ride in over two weeks due to heavy rain and scheduling, so to finally get out on it was great. Monday was great weather here and just screamed for me to go riding. I didn't go far, but was out about an hour tooling around. I think my favorite moment came when I ran a stretch of road between Auburn and Pacific at 95 mph. It felt good to have to hang on to the bars with a death grip while the wind tried to rip me out of the saddle (remember, I have no windshield on it). It was just what I needed to get the blood pumping correctly.

My Christmas eve was a quiet and somewhat lonely affair. No noise, no visitors, no nothing. It was relaxing and pathetic at the same time. One part of me wanted badly to be out there somewhere, celebrating with friends, but another part of me kept saying, "Stay home and relax... It's an act of desperation to invite yourself to people's houses when they are trying to get their own Christmas in order.

Christmas morning started out with me going over to Teresa & Sarah's house at 7:30. I cracked a bottle of champagne and we all opened presents. Sarah really got a lot of stuff as usual. I was a little surprised when I walked in there and saw how many presents were around the tree. She got a lot of nice stuff--No doubt about it. She liked her new laptop, and I'm sure she was a plenty surprised to get that. She never really does get very excited about stuff though, so it's sometimes hard to tell just how excited she really is. After I ate breakfast we all watched The Santa Clause then Sarah and I went over to my parents house to continue Christmas. I guess you would call that "phase II".

We went a little earlier than I usually do because my sister's family wasn't planning on being there all that long and Sarah wanted to give her cousin Emma her picture that we made. They actually did end up staying a while so we all had a good visit. My dad was fairly tolerable throughout the day and that helped too. About the time my sister's family was getting ready to leave, my brother and his family (Sarah's other cousin Cassady is their only daughter) came over. Shortly thereafter we all ate a pretty good ham dinner. My brother's wife Kim and I were drinking wine pretty much the whole time. We both find it easier to tolerate my dad when we imbibe...

Sarah and I left there at about 5:30 and went over to Kurt & Noelle's house, which is where Teresa was spending her day. I stopped by my house and grabbed my vodka and cranberry juice, and a couple cans of nuts to munch on too. I stayed until about 8:30, during which we all had a pretty good time playing video games and stuff. They have two tv's going with video games, one of which had a dance mat thing on the floor that you have to follow moves onscreen. It's hard to describe, but it was fun. They're great folks. When I crashed at 9:30, I was fairly buzzed, and just like I figured, I was hung over this morning.

Serves me right...

The Seasonal Lament of a Partier Gone

It's not the same as it used to be;
times and people change.
I'd like to think it's not just me
whose life has rearranged.

Every weekend I could find
a party to attend;
a time to revel and unwind
from the week at work I'd spend.

But as we paired and found our mates
the parties became rare.
Our schedules never had blank dates
and we had no time to spare.

The parties did sometimes take place
but never like they were.
They had a more relaxing pace,
but at least they'd still occur.

Time and change can take its toll;
some marriages come undone,
and couples that are no longer whole
the hosts will almost shun.

It's a terribly hard job for a host
to have to pick and choose.
Which of the two do they like the most
or should they just invite them both for booze?

When parties are fewer,
and as we all age and change;
I sometimes feel bluer,
and distanced, and strange.

It's worse during holidays;
things are hectic as hell,
and I need badly to find ways
to socialize for a spell.

I could step up and be the one
and have a party here,
but even though I want some fun
too many "can't" appear.

I guess it's just the way things go
nothing stays the same.
I'll just tell my tale of woe
in this poem it became.

Ricky

The Last Work Day Before Christmas

I'm sure everyone at work will be in good spirits today. We get the next 4 days off, but unfortunately not paid for Monday. I'm sure that we will be moderately busy today as well, but that's mainly because it's Friday and a lot of things happen on Fridays.

Today is the day we get our Christmas "bonus" (maybe that should read "bone us"). The last couple years it was a ham. I believe we got a Black Forest ham last year and a smaller spiral one maybe the year before that. I don't remember exactly. The first year I was there it was one of those blue metal tins full of naked, Scandinavian cookies. The year after that it was some sort of chocolate-dipped cookies. Who knows what this year might bring. It has been a good year for the company, but that doesn't mean shit when it comes to such things.

I also didn't have to make my usual sandwich for lunch today. The top several guys in the shop (i.e. "upper pay scale") got together and is ordering us all pizza from Papa John's. Now get this--The only way that the co-owners of the shop will let them do that (yes, believe it or not they have to clear such things through them first) is if they tell them that everyone in the shop got together and paid for it themselves. There is no way they would agree to them just buying us lunch out of their pockets as a gift. Why? Because it would make them (the co-owners) look bad. Isn't that a kick?

Sue, our office administrator, came over on the way home from work last night, and surprisingly, stayed until after 9:30! She and I are both divorced and both the same age and have lots to talk about. She and I are different in many ways and would probably never "fit" together, but I really like her a lot and I treasure the friendship we have. Someone at work told me one time a few years ago that I was the only one she ever freely talked to. I responded by saying maybe it's because I actually talk to her? She is a very focused lady and has a lot on her mind, and people probably have a tendency to perceive her as somewhat cold, but I don't. I can "see" people. Anyway, we've developed a friendship over the years. She will occasionally ask me about some sort of software app that she just found out about, and I'll track it down for her (I'm her software pirate). That was the main reason she stopped by last night was to pick one of those up. For all I know, she may have wanted to stop by and visit other times in the past but didn't have the right reason. She is a single woman after all, and needs a certain amount of caution when it comes to such things. We had a great visit last night though. Had I known she would have stayed that long I would have fed us more than just nachos and beer though! We talked and talked enough that I didn't even remember until I was going to bed that I still had clothes in the dryer. Oh well. Note to self: Turn on the dryer when you get home and touch em up.

Today is my "dress-up day" at work. Myself and Elaine are the only ones usually. She has her blinking LED reindeer antlers that she wears (she calls it "flashing her rack"). I have my Christmas Harley shirt and my Santa hat, both of which are currently adorning my mannequin bitch in the entry. It will be kind of weird to strip my mannequin so I can get dressed for work...

Sarah will be staying overnight tomorrow night. I hope we can get some stuff done. We need shopping, wrapping, and stuff like that to get done, and we also need to co-build our annual gingerbread house. It's a kit, but we like to embellish the existing kit with other cool stuff. You know how it is--They can always use improvements.

Looks pretty durn cold out there this morning. I wouldn't mind riding the Harley today, but that wouldn't be too practical. I need to shop for some stuff on the way home. I think I'm just having riding withdrawals. I hope to get some riding in during my upcoming 4-day weekend!

I Love Sneezing!

Yep. The last thing you'll ever see me do is stifle a sneeze. The only one reason I would ever do something like that is if I have a mouthful of food or drink. Obviously that would not be pretty...

To me, sneezing is almost like an orgasm. But it's like an orgasm that you can do any place, any time... And people will even bless you for it! At least with a sneeze I can have a multiple of something. I guess I should feel lucky that I usually sneeze in twos. On a rare occasion I may get three or even more. That's like winning the sneeze lottery! My mom said the day I left the hospital after being born I sneezed two times the instant the sunlight hit my face. That still happens.

Sometimes I'll find myself with a little bit of a tickle in my nose and I'll finesse it--Inducing it into a sneeze by using the perfect velocity of breathing to get to the trigger point. For those of you that have ever played in band in school, it's very similar to a reed instrument like a clarinet or saxophone (which I played, but that's strictly coincidence). The air you blow into the mouthpiece makes the reed vibrate and it produces sound. In my case however, the "reed" gives me a nasal orgasm.

Sometimes the split second during a good sneeze may be the best you'll feel all day long!

There can, however, occasionally be a downside to a good sneeze. The obvious one that comes to mind would be those times when you can't quite get to that handkerchief or Kleenex in time. Especially if you're sick.

Another downside of sneezing is simply where the sneeze occurs. What you're doing, or the company you're in at the time of a sneeze can really alter the natural course of events that might have taken place had the sneeze(s) never occurred. You know what I mean... Job interview, first date, gynecologist exam, --The list goes on and on.

The real downside of a sneeze is a sneezed-caused trauma--When you actually hurt yourself in some way. I can remember one time when I sneezed while I was walking and hurt myself. As I recall I had a big sneeze just when I was stepping off a curb, and that resulted in a pulled back/side muscle. I'm serious. I think it hurt me for a few days. The more common sneeze trauma may sound more weird (which pretty much fits me doesn't it?) but really is much more common. That is when your tongue ends up getting a "nip" from your teeth during a good sneeze. I think it's like your tongue kind of ricochets and ends up in the bite zone at just the wrong instant. You have to admit, a sneeze can only be voluntary up to a point, and after that there's no telling what kind of contraction or chain reaction you might set loose. I've heard stories of some people peeing their pants (or even worse) during a good sneeze.

You know one thing that I find awkward about sneezing? The official "blessing of the sneeze" that you're supposed to administer when someone sneezes. I'm not religious at all, so my only choice really is to say gesundheit. What should a person say in that instance? Sometimes I say something like "whoa!" and sometimes I just let it go.

Yep, I really like sneezing.

The Sands of Time Are Flowing

Yes, it's Tuesday... One week from Christmas. Have you covered shopping for all your Christmas presents yet?

I'm so frustrated this time of year. I think it's partly due to the fact that I can almost hear the individual grains of sand falling through the hourglass... Mocking me... Wagging their finger at me for waiting so long to do something that shouldn't be a "chore" to begin with.

It's also partly because I have always prided myself on being a good shopper. I'm going to have to surrender that title I guess. The simple fact is when you don't know somebody you can't shop for them. The bad thing is who I'm talking about: My parents. Isn't that sad when you don't know your parents and you only live a 5-minute walk from them. It's true. I have no idea what they want or need, or like or dislike. I concede. Rhon, you told me that eventually I would cross over to the dark side and would know the ease and joy of a (gasp!) gift card. I concede. You were right. I think I will just buy them a bottle of wine (for mom) and put a Winco Foods gift card on it. It still feels like a cop-out though...

Debbie came over Friday night and picked up her computer. It's much better off than it was before, but still running slow. All of it's troubles have been fixed, but it's still badly in need of more RAM to speed the poor thing up. We had a great visit, and as usual hated to see her leave.

I spent most of Saturday not feeling well. I'm not sure why, but I was definitely substandard in the health category. I did manage to go out grocery shopping and then to a couple of stores, but really didn't get much of anything done other than that.

I felt much better Sunday. My brother called and asked me if I'd go help him pick up a truck that he had bought from somebody he knows through work. It seems that some reclusive alcoholic relative of a coworker had recently died and left his 2001 (I think) Chevy S-10 4x4 extended cab pickup behind. It's a really nice looking truck! It hadn't been driven in a few years because he had gotten a DUI so it had a few issues to get it started. After we played with it for a while and aired up the flat tires we got it running fine. It turns out that he only paid $1700 for it! I was going to say, "Why can't I ever find a deal like that?" but the truth is, I have made deals like that in the past. The trouble is, I could really use one right now. Anyway, I drove it home while he followed in his Jeep. It may end up being his daughter's ride, but he didn't say. She just turned 16 last month. Although she doesn't have her license yet, I'm sure she will soon.

I spent the majority of the rest of the day with Sarah's new laptop. First I had to unload all the crap that Dell installs on them that they think you need, then I loaded real software on it for her. I hunted down a good background wallpaper for it and customized it with her name and installed that too:


I loaded all the expensive stuff that she needs for graphic design too. You know, stuff that I "just happened to have" (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign. I wanted to finish it up last night and get it wrapped back up, but spent almost two hours on the phone with a chatty old friend from South Dakota. Maybe I'll get it done tonight. I hope so...

Can you hear the grains of sand falling?

Ramblings of a Weird Man

Sometimes I wonder about me. It can't all be age-related can it?

Last night I was sitting here right before bed, and I was idly rubbing the top of my head while reading something online. After a few seconds it occurred to me that there was something "different" up there. I went to the bathroom and looked into the mirror, but realized that I couldn't see quite up high enough to see what it was. (Not having someone to confer with is one of the downfalls of living alone.) I browsed around the house for another mirror to double up with and finally managed to see the area in question.

There up on top of my head was what appeared to be a wound about an inch and a half long, with a slight bump to go with it. Not a real fresh one either.

WTF?

Don't you think I would remember banging my head into something? Well I don't. Try as I might, I can not remember hitting my head on anything at all in recent memory. I don't usually get drunk enough to fall down, or worse yet, drunk enough to not remember events that transpire. Does that mean I'm sleep walking? Or worse yet, "clumsy, klutzy, bump-into-shit" sleep walking?

Obviously I did something at some point, so that probably means one of the following things:

• My pain tolerance is so great (aka: tough guy) that I didn't notice whatever it was when it happened.
• My short term memory is so far gone that I immediately forgot it.
• My mind considered it traumatic in some way and automatically blocked it.
• Someone has a voodoo doll of me.

Nobody told me that I would spontaneously start to sprout mysterious wounds when I went past the age of 50...

Maybe it's a secret thing... Like only seniors know? Maybe it will be like the dawn of the dead and crowds of seniors with blank stares will suddenly surround and embrace me, droning, "Welcome, Rick... We've been waiting for you..."

God that's creepy...

The End of an Era

Yes, a major, major change is underway at work. Something I have been directly involved in since day one of my employment in May of 2002.

Let's go back to the beginning.

The day I was hired was a hot day. I was a week or two shy of turning 47 years old and having just come out of 4 years at a Boeing desk job was not in great shape. They put me right into shipping and receiving. Translation: Packing boxes. I didn't know anything about the sheer numbers of product I would pack, nor did I even know what the items I was packing were. All I know is I packed a lot of them. What they were, in fact, were parts for Sonicare toothbrushes. Unbeknownst to me, I had walked right into the La Croix Industries' fastest moving, most furious, nonstop, never-ending account. One that took priority over almost everything else they made at that time. I had to work like I have never worked before. I worked my ass off to keep up.

To put it in perspective, almost every week we shipped 5 pallets of "short arms", 1-2 pallets of "long arms", and 5 pallets of "channels." What does that mean in numbers? Well, each box of short arms was 23 lbs. and contained 1000 parts. Each box of long arms weighed in at 27 lbs. and also contained 1000 parts. The channels were the ones that kicked my ass--Each box weighed 35 lbs. and contained 1500 parts. A full pallet of each kind of the arms contained 75 cases and the channel pallets contained 67 cases. That means on a weekly basis we were shipping 375000 short arms, 75000 long arms, and 502,500 channels!

That's a lot of packing! Hell, that's a lot of everything; Manufacturing, washing, packing, shipping... That explains why I lost over 25 lbs during the first two months I was employed. I kicked ass. I found something within me that I previously had never felt or known. I had pride in my job and I put everything I could into it. In addition to doing all that packing, I was also the delivery guy, and also unloaded and loaded trucks when they came in. I had a full plate! I worked nonstop all day long and many times had to do overtime as well just to make it all work. My work ethic had come from somewhere deep and had previously been hiding I guess. Fortunately, it was noticed--I received 3 raises during those first two years, and never asked for any of them.

After those two years of packing, I was moved. A few folks noticed that I possessed an intelligence level and mechanical aptitude that was above most of the employees there (it wasn't so much me as it was the other employees) and promoted me to operating the high-speed press that makes those arms and channels. It was not a position to be taken lightly, nor a position that was offered to just anyone. That Bruderer high-speed press was their baby--Their pride and joy. Whenever they had visitors or potential customers that they showed their facility to, it was the Bruderer press they were most proud of.

In the last year or so, I was bumped up once more to the "lead" to the press. That put Bruce as the supervisor, me as the lead, and we had a new guy as the operator. Things were moving way slower than they ever had, but were still fairly constant.

Well, all good things got to come to an end.

Little by little, the Philips company (owners of Sonicare toothbrushes) have been ordering less and less of the parts. The original "flagship" design toothbrush has been replaced by a newer design--One not manufactured by our company.

Last summer Bruce saw the end of the line before anyone else. See, whenever we have to order replacement bits and pieces for the tooling that makes the parts, we have to get an okay from the Philips company because they actually own the tooling that the press uses to make the parts with. Last August when Bruce called to get an okay on some replacements, the guy on the other end of the phone said, "Do you think you could get by on 2 instead of 4 of those?" After a little Q&A, Bruce determined that they were planning on phasing that entire product line out during the first quarter of 2008.

Imagine the owner's shock. When Bruce told Phil the rumor minutes later, he said he saw the color drain from his face. This was money rolling into the company that they could always count on. They used to call the Bruderer "what kept the lights and heat on".

Recently (maybe a month ago), we received the schedule that contained the last shipment. It was due on in the first week of February 2008. Last week Bruce did an inventory of parts that we had on the shop floor (some packaged, some not) and walked up to me with the news.

"Shut the press down. It's over. We've got our orders filled."

What does that mean to us? Not sure. Our company has shifted it's focus quite a lot to machined aerospace parts so it's not the end of the world by any means. What is troubling though is how much material we have left. We have to order the coils of stainless steel from the supplier in the Midwest quite a ways in advance. We now have a lot of material standing around. I'm sure they're going to try to get Philips to pay for them. We'll see. What will we do with the Bruderer press? Well, because it's a high-speed press we can't put just any tooling in there without tearing the tooling apart, but I'm sure they'll be able to use it for something. At least over the years it's paid for itself. I've been occupying my time the last several days with inventorying all the tooling parts we have on hand to give to Philips, because as I said before, they own the tooling.

Yep, it's truly the end of an era.

What a Busy Week!

I haven't made a blog post in what feels like ages, and there are so many things to write about I don't know where to begin.

I'm still not doing well with my Christmas shopping. I feel very, very nervous about that. Time is too short and it's getting shorter. Add to that the fact that I need to get one (that I don't have yet) in the mail to make it to Los Angeles before Christmas and still need to get my Christmas cards out. I hate this feeling, but it's all too familiar. If I knew what I was going to buy everyone there would never be a problem...

I was out yesterday at Fred Meyer and bought myself a present: Flannel sheets! I've never had them before. They had them marked down 40% off, so my set ended up costing me $23 for a queen size... That's cheap! I tried em out last night. Although I like the smooth feel (the feeling that makes you want to move your legs all around when you first get in) of clean regular sheets, the flannel sheets certainly were cozy!

I also bought a gingerbread house this last week while I was there. I learned my lesson last year. You go in the store one day and there is a huge floor display of the kits, and a week later they're all sold out. I bought this one on Wednesday and already the huge pile is halfway gone. Making a gingerbread house is something Sarah and I like to do every year.

Also on Wednesday Debbie brought her computer down. It's one of those deals where it's so ridden with bugs and crap that it hardly works. I'm doing major housecleaning on it (at my leisure of course). The trouble with doing that is that time has a tendency to get away from me, and I can't afford that this time of year. When I get this one done and out of the way it will be Rhon's turn. She should have been first, but being so far away it just wasn't convenient. It will happen though. Promise.

Friday an unusual thing happened. I have a dear friend named Cheryl that I've known for years via Yahoo chat. She lives just outside of town here with her husband and menagerie of critters. She text messaged me to come and join her and a few coworkers for drinks. When I drove up there I found most of her coworkers already gone (they had been drinking for a couple hours at that point) and Cheryl was feeling no pain. I stayed for a couple beers, during which time her last remaining coworker made me promise to take Cheryl's keys from her before she left, as she was almost on her lips at that point. It seems that Cheryl's marriage has been on the slow slide of death for some time, and Friday morning she left her husband a 3-page, carefully thought out letter when she went to work. It wasn't a letter of demands (she let me read it), rather, a thoughtful letter of resignation. She carefully explained her feelings and everything and did a very nice job of it. Anyway, she was in no shape to go home. Had I delivered her to her home, the fact that she was drunk would have not helped her at all. It would have just been a one-sided bloodbath with massive screaming more than likely. She came home with me and I poured her into bed. The poor dear could hardly walk even with me holding her up. She slept until noon the next day at which point I drove her back up to get her car. She was nervous about facing her husband, but fairly confident at the same time. I told her to just calmly explain that she will only be staying home until she finds her own place, and during that time she will have her space and he will have his. I still haven't heard from her at this point, so evidently she did okay or she probably would have got hold of me for emergency lodging.

It's been a long time coming, but she finally acted. She's a strong woman and I'm confident she will be fine. After all, she has years ahead of her... No sense in wasting them.

There is still more to report, but I'm outta time.

So Many Things Look Alien

This has popped into my mind several times over the years. I know it's happened to everyone--When you look at something and it seems so... Weird?

So unusual? So out-of-place? So odd? So alien?

• One of the first things I can remember making this association with was when I was shopping in a grocery store. It happens when you are at the checkout counter and you're watching what the person ahead of you is putting up on the conveyor belt. Look at all of that stuff... Chances are if you're like me you'll look at it and agree--Everything they are buying is so weird! You think to yourself:
  
  "Oh my god, look at that weird shit... I would never eat that."
  "Wow, I don't know what they're going to do with something like that."
  "That is such a shitty tasting brand--I would never buy that."
  
  And it goes on and on. Try it... Next time you're in a grocery store do a casual glance in everyones shopping cart as you pass by. I'll bet there won't hardly be a single thing in their cart that doesn't look alien to you for one reason or another.
  
  

• Another thing that looks alien to me, believe it or not, are people's nails. Yeah I know... I'm weird, but so are everyones fingernails and toenails! No matter how many you look at, they all look so... Different. Size, shape, whatever. They all look alien.
  
  I don't know why I don't feel that way about any other features of a person's body. After all, no two are alike, but for some reason, nails have always caught my eye when they look different than mine.
  
  I'm sure other oddballs like myself feel the same way about my nails as I do about theirs. Especially my right thumbnail. Hell, that one even looks alien to me...
  
  

• Don't even get me started on vehicles. This falls into two categories: Weird that a particular style even sprung from the drawing board to begin with, and weird that someone would actually shell out their money to buy one at the risk of being seen driving it.
  
  Understand, these two things are not always the same either. Some weird vehicles look totally right with the proper variety of oddball inside them. Sometimes the a vehicle looks so alien it would look weird with anyone in it. As far as people go, there are some of them that... Well, no matter what they drive it would be hopeless. They look alien in anything.

You can just go on and on with this sort of topic. Everyone is weird. Everyone is unique. Everyone eats weird shit, does weird shit, owns weird shit, and says weird shit.

Yeah, when you compare us... We are all so... Alien