Tuesday Stuff

It was a good day at work for a change. Still busy, but a little more predictable and less stressful thanks to the fact that Bruce was back from his week in Florida. I felt myself feeling a slight bit better as the day wore on too as far as my sore ribcage went.

The day turned more interesting after I got home though, and started with a phone call from Sarah the instant I walked in the door.

"Daddy? Do you still have the spare key to my car?"

It turns out that she was going to move her car to the opposite end of the school grounds to where the tennis courts are, and when she dropped her armload of stuff into the hatchback of her car and closed it her keys were no longer in her hand. Been there, done that! So I hurried up there and got her into her car so she could get changed and join the rest of her tennis team at practice.

When I got back home I got my house all vacuumed like I've been meaning to do for several days. When that was over I was a victim of a "vacuum hot flash" and felt the need to go outside. What is it that makes people hot when they're vacuuming? It's not much exertion at all, and it seems that no matter how slow you do it, vacuuming makes you break a sweat. Anyway, I felt that was a good time to go out to the garage and get one of the wheels off the Harley to drop off for its new tire. I was just finishing that when Suzie drove up. Good timing!

We were just inside for a short time when the doorbell rang. Chris from next door was there, and the instant I opened the door, in blew his whirlwind of a daughter, Kailey. I'll tell you what--She is quite a handful. It was very funny watching her "interact" with Moana. She would actually walk up and say "hi" to her. When I wanted to take her picture next to Moana, she was a little hesitant, looking up at her as she cautiously inched herself closer to her.

The reason for the visit? Chris brought me some RAM for my laptop! Yep, "just like that" I went from 256K of RAM to 2 gigs. Pretty nice thing to do for a neighbor I'd say. We both agreed that the laptop was probably not sold with that little bit of RAM in it--Someone probably swapped the original sticks into their new machine when they sold this one. At any rate, now it's running much faster.

Thanks, Chris!

Under and Around the Weather

My work day got off to a weird start yesterday. I was feeling pretty good when I got there, but it did a 180° pretty quickly.

One of my coworkers moves the trucks out every morning, and when he tugged on the chain of the door nearest my desk the small chain came off the gear mechanism way up above. Because the van was still inside and in the way of using a forklift to repair it we were forced to use a giant ladder. Let me tell you, that ladder is heavy and long. By the time we got it in place, repaired the chain, then put the ladder back down and stowed, I had a huge throbber of a headache. I never got rid of it all day long.

During the course of the last several days I've been dealing with something I did to my ribcage. I was coming down the stairs one morning (I think it was Thursday) and my foot slipped off the bottom step, sending me off balance. Somehow I hit hard on the end of the steel banister a few inches above my left nipple. Ow. I never got any visible bruising, but I definitely did something there because I haven't been able to take a deep breath without pain ever since. I figure I bruised a rib or cracked one, and any time you do something like that it effects movement, strength, and breathing. Not much sense in ever going to a doctor for something like that though, because they just give you a prescription and tell you take it easy. Anyway, add that to yesterday's headache and I was having a fun day.

Yesterday was a scheduled tennis match in Sumner, about 15 minutes south of home. As usual, Teresa texted me and asked if I was going, hoping to get a ride. I replied that I was going on the Harley and never heard back. This is our shower time of year, and Sarah texted me from there saying they had just arrived and the courts were soaked so they weren't sure if they'd play or not. I decided I'd go for it anyway, figuring it would be a good excuse for a ride. I started to have second thoughts when I saw huge rain squalls sweeping the area I was headed toward, but I kept going. When I got there it actually was pretty decent, but even though the sun came and went, it was cold because of wind. When I got there they hadn't gotten the courts totally dry yet. By about 4:30 they were just starting to play, but by that time the clouds were looking pretty bad and I was feeling a little vulnerable. I told Sarah I was going to take off and see if I could beat the rain back home. Fortunately I did beat it--Only catching a few sporadic drops here and there.

When I got home I didn't feel well and ended up taking a nap for a while. I never got anything done that I wanted to do yesterday, and that frustrated me. I hope I have a better day today. At least I awoke to a smile when I saw Suzie's blog post.

I needed that.

Instant Summer!

That's what it felt like. Thursday I heard the first robins doing their monotonous and repetitive chirp when I went out to get in my car to head to work. Although the "powers that be" tell us when the first day of spring actually is, the song of the robin is my yardstick.

Well, apparently we went from Thursday being the first day of spring to yesterday being the first day of summer! Okay, well, It sure felt like it...

When we got up yesterday, me and Suzie knew we would be on the Harley at some point during the day. The weather report pretty much explained that to us. While she was anxious to go for a ride in nice weather for a change, she still didn't have much biker lady garb yet. After all, she only had new Harley boots and a little leather ponytail wrap. While we were sitting there drinking our morning coffee and talking, we formulated our plan of attack to get the day going. The first order of business was to make a stop at Eagle Leather and buy her some chaps. As it turns out, we drove into their parking lot just as the doors were opening at 10 o'clock. After getting fitted for some nice chaps, we wandered over to another section of the store where she picked out some nice deerskin gloves.

We made a stop at the Tacoma Mall JC Penney store on the way back home. They had a shoe sale going on and I wanted to scope out their stock. I tried on a few things, but I didn't find anything that totally worked for me. They had a half-off sunglasses sale going on too and Sue bought a pair of sunglasses for her son so the stop wasn't a waste of time. He had been wanting some for quite a while.

We buzzed home and got ourselves all decked out biker style. Suzie looked really good wearing her new chaps and new boots! She still doesn't have a new jacket yet so she wore the fringed one that I have here from an old Ebay purchase that didn't work out. The look was really complete (at least in my opinion) by the leather hair thing around her ponytail. She looked good and it was apparent that she was feeling good too. I planned on us hitting the Harley dealership in Tukwila for lunch, and I also wanted to check on a couple windshield parts. On the way there we stopped at R&R American Cycle and bought her some new riding sunglasses. Hers were not doing the job at all because they weren't close enough to her face. Even though we had only been on the bike about 5 minutes when we got there, she already had watering eyes. While I was there I verified that my new tires were in. When we hit the road again we were both happy to learn that the new glasses were doing a great job. After all, what good is having all the right riding apparel if you're miserable and can't see? Now she was really feeling good about riding--Everything was working for her. The first time she rode with me she was miserable. Cold weather coupled with not having the right clothing, and having watering eyes the whole time. I'm surprised that she even lasted through that ride.

I wasn't prepared for what greeted us when we rolled up at Downtown Harley in Tukwila. I knew it would be busy because the weather was so nice and they always have free lunch on Saturdays, but I didn't expect the crowd that was there. As it turns out, it was an anniversary bash. The line for lunch was long, and had I seen that before we parked I probably wouldn't have even stopped. Suzie got into line while I went inside to use the restroom. While inside I also bought a few hardware items to help me with my detachable windshield installation. Suz had a great time people-watching and was feeling good about her new look. When you start wandering among a crowd like that you start to realize how "slapped together" some people are and everyone knows how ladies like to compare things. After having ourselves a good little bite to eat we again hit the road.

We wound our way eastward with the intention of putting a little more civilization behind us, and for the most part it worked well. It was a very good ride, especially when we put most of the traffic behind us and the speed limit inched its way up to a better level. We basically did a sweeping loop that took us to Suzie's neighborhood. Her son lives just a few doors down and I wanted to give her the opportunity to play show-and-tell with her new biker persona. As luck would have it, her daughter and her husband were there also, and everybody got a kick out of it. Mom's a biker! We hung out there for a little bit and everyone decided that it was a day for a barbecue. We went back to my house, where we switched back out of our leather goods, once again becoming ordinary citizens.

A stop at the store and we headed back up to Denny's house. It was a most excellent way to complete the day. Good food, good people... Good times. I must say though--I never would have predicted in a million years that I would ever take part in the act of rolling a full-size trampoline over a house! Yes, that's what I said. Sue had a trampoline in her back yard and they had determined that we would turn it upside down on top of my Neon and drive it down the street to Denny's house where it would live out the rest of its useful life. Trouble is, it wouldn't fit under some of the structure that went over her driveway alongside her house. What to do? We could take it apart (which is how it went in there after all) but no, that would be too much trouble. We decided to stand it up on edge like a coin and with two people on the roof, rolled it up onto her house, over the top, and down to a couple of us waiting on the ground in the front yard. We then finished the original plan of putting it on my car and driving it down the street. That was wild. The whole thing was documented on Suzie's camera, so it's possible that we may see as slideshow of it in the future. I know we certainly got some good pictures. I'll bet the neighbors probably got quite a kick out of that one!

I was picturing in my mind the lady up the street that Suzie lovingly refers to as Gladys Kravitz (remember her on Bewitched?) for her snooping and meddling.

"Abner, come look at what they're doing now!"

What a killer day!

Powder Power

My mind works strangely--At least to me it does. For all I know, everybodys mind works strangely. Mine tends to be somewhat fragmented. Did you ever hear about the book, "If you give a moose a muffin"? That's kind of how my mind works. It skips around.

Take yesterday morning for example. I was on my way to work and was a little miffed when I found pretty heavy ice on the windshield that I had to scrape. When I was nearing work and drove by a local 7-Eleven, I remembered I wanted to stop for gum. The problem was because I scraped the ice before leaving home I no longer had time to make a gum stop. While thinking about gum, my mind went rummaging in my desk drawer at work where I keep the gum, then left actually left the desk drawer and wandered to my boots sitting under the table waiting for me. That's when I remembered that my boots were starting to squeak yesterday before I left work. Hey wait a minute, I used to have a thing (this is what we call a container when we don't know what else to call it) of Dr. Scholl's foot powder in my tool box there, didn't I?

When I got to work and sat down to put my boots on I remembered, "Oh yeah... Foot powder." I opened up my tool box and looked around and there it was. It hadn't been used in a while and it was pretty hard to spin the top to line the "shake holes" up so I could pour it. My work boots have insoles in them and they are usually what squeaks so I took them both out and sprinkled a decent amount of powder in the boots before putting them back in. I'm the kind of person that believes in doing anything I can to increase personal comfort if I can (like my using hand cream at work, having my own easy chair for lunch, etc.) so naturally I'm going to put powder in the boots before putting my feet in them too right? Of course. I didn't skimp either. I used lots of it.

Ahhh...

It's funny how something like that can make you smile. I spent the day being constantly reminded about how great my feet felt every time I walked somewhere. Every time I bolted out of my chair back onto my feet I noticed the difference. It truly put my into a good mood. I put a lot of miles on walking all around that place, and even though I wear Red Wing boots (far and away the most comfortable boots I have ever owned in my life) it can still take its toll on feet.

I don't know if I owe my revelation of foot powder ownership to scraping ice or missing gum or what, but I know I'm going to leave it out as a reminder and use it again. And again.

Getting The Jump

Almost a month ago I ordered myself a new printer (which I love BTW) on Buy.com. I was able to save an additional $50 by signing up for yet another credit card I didn't need. Fast-forward 3 weeks... Still no word from them. Call me paranoid, but I know how credit card companies like to operate. If you pay your bill in full, either early or on time, they don't make any money off you. To slant things in their favor they like to give you a very small "window" of opportunity to pay your bill on time. My experience has shown it to be typically one week until due date when the first statement will show up. Well I was getting a little concerned because I still hadn't heard anything from them, so I went online and did some digging. I was able to find the right website and register there with a password. Once I was in I found my outstanding balance of $36, but it still showed zero due. Hmm... I still didn't trust em so I paid it off right then. Yesterday things started showing up. I opened the first envelope and it was a letter explaining that they were changing banks or something, and it apologized for people with autopay setups that would have to change their information. The other thing from them that also showed up was the new credit card itself. It remained whole for approximately 30 seconds before the attack of the scissors.

Still no statement.

I did find, however, that their late fee was $35. I can just imagine that--Hit with a $35 late fee on a total bill of $36... It's possible my bill wouldn't have been due until next month, but better safe than sorry right?

Other news is Harley-related. I placed an ad on Craigslist a couple weeks ago asking if anyone wanted to swap windshield brackets. Harley makes two different varieties of brackets for my bike--For bikes with passing lights and those without passing lights. I have been communicating with a guy way up north of me and we have struck a trade. He needs the type I have and he has the type that I need. Because attaching hardware is also different between the two varieties, he is also including all the mounting bolts and hardware! That in itself is over $60 if you buy from Harley, and I just assumed I was going to have to buy that stuff regardless. Anyway, he's got his boxed up to send me today and I have mine boxed up to send as well. I included a 20-dollar bill to thank him for the hardware he's throwing in.

I'm planning to stop on the way home from work today to buy a couple tires for the hawg--We'll see if that actually comes to pass. I'll order the tires then once they're in I'll take the wheels off the bike and take them in to have them mounted one at a time. My bike is very unstable when you take both wheels off at the same time and it wants to not sit on the jack very well.

Although the weather isn't showing it very well, it's almost riding season and I have a lot to accomplish.

When Words Can Fail

That was the basis of conversation between me and Suzie last night as I was hungrily wolfing the best-tasting homemade soup I have ever eaten.

How can a person possibly describe to readers something that tastes so good? You'd have to be a poet to even come close to being able to get such point across to someone in a blog, and even then it would be subject to whether or not the reader had ever experienced any of the descriptive words that were used to explain it. Like I've said before, could you explain a spiral staircase to a blind person that doesn't know what a spiral is?

If you haven't guessed by now, we had a killer soup for dinner. Sue came over at a little after noon with all her fixins and proceeded to fill my entire place with mouth-watering aromas all afternoon. At best I was able to lift the lid and stir it every now and then, inhaling the intoxicating smells that wafted up from the pot. When it was finally determined time to eat, we also enjoyed a baguette fresh from the oven.

It was sure a great way to bring a killer weekend to a close!

Suzie Scores a Deal

Yes, yesterday was indeed her day. We were drinking our morning coffee yesterday and getting ready to go to a camera swap meet in Puyallup when I spotted an ad on Craigslist. When I told her it was just up the hill in Federal Way and what was included, she ran back into the room and read it over my shoulder. Here's a screen print of the ad (you can click on it to read it full size):

"Did you email him yet? Email him!" she said excitedly.
She already has a zoom lens for her camera, but it's only an 85-200 or something, and she really needed an extra battery as well. After emailing him with our desire to look at it and her cell number so he could contact us while we were out and about, we proceeded to the Puyallup Fairgrounds.

It was actually a pretty cool swap meet. The people there reminded me a lot of the geeks that used to swarm over computer swap meets back in the 80's when computers were in their infancy. Yep, a lot of camera dweebs just like us (sorry Sue). I found a cool "star" filter for my camera, and Suzie found herself a couple different filters for hers as well. We had a good time poking around through all the stuff and admiring all the antiques and photography-related stuff from down through the years too. We were just about finished when her phone rang. It was the guy from the ad! Apparently we were first to call, so we headed up to his place after making a stop for cash.

We got there before the guy got back from his errand run. He said he had realized that there were still pictures on the camera cards so he stopped at a store to print them out or whatever. He showed up on a scooter a few minutes after we got there and let us into his apartment. While he went to get all the gear we looked around. There was a collection of Barbie-sized dolls called "Living Dead" dolls (Google them... Pretty unique) still packaged in their casket-shaped boxes and standing on top of a shelf. There was also a statue of the 3-headed dog from the Harry Potter movie. Quite the place. When he returned, he explained that all that stuff was his roommate's stuff.

When he started laying out all the camera stuff, it was quite the pile. At one point he remarked, "I have this wide angle lens I'll throw in too." I thought Suzie was going to lose it at that point. She has been craving a wide angle lens for a long time. Bonus! While I was playing with the camera and Sue was investigating the other things, he said, "Oh, I also have a bag" and disappeared into the other room once again. After he left, Sue and I made eye contact and did the "open-mouth/flabbergasted" look at each other. By the time we got out of there, she probably had $1000 worth of stuff in her hands! After we got back to my place and laid it all out, she was so tickled. She gleaned several items out of the purchase to keep for herself, and still has a very impressive package to turn around and resell again--Possibly for even more than what she paid. She gave me the owner's manual that came with it. Mine didn't have one when I bought it and I had been searching for one for quite a while. That was nice of her!

I felt the urge to spend some money myself yesterday, and went back up to Federal Way to our local computer store where I bought myself a new monitor. While my free Dell LCD monitor (remember? My neighbor Chris gave it to me) was a clear improvement over the old CRT monitor I had, it lacked clarity and brilliance. Anyway, when I first got it home and hooked it up yesterday I wasn't all that impressed--It seemed overly bright and washed out. I ran Adobe Gamma on it to set it up, which is a monitor setup utility that comes with Photoshop. It looks good now!

Yesterday was quite the day for sure. Suzie is probably still excited about it! Me? I'm going shopping for Living Dead dolls...

So Many Things...

...Where to start? It's Friday--How about that for starters?

When I went to work on Wednesday a coworker brought be a computer motherboard that he was going to throw out after his upgrade. I was very surprised to find that he also included the processor, cooling fan, and a gigabyte of RAM in it as well! I don't like my current computer, and this might be just the "base" I need to tie my computer together into a good machine.

That same day, I went to Sarah's tennis match up at her school. I got home from work, switched over to the Harley (it was sunny but cold) and rode up to her school. Imagine my surprise to see her not there! I was sitting there on the bike watching the other players and I heard my phone make the "beep" the sound it makes when I miss a call (like I would ever hear it while I was riding the Harley, right?). It was from Teresa so I called her back. She told me that Sarah's team had a playoff of sorts within their team, and the loser (Sarah and her partner) would play with the JV team at the opposing school's court. In this case it was Auburn High, which is right near me here anyway. I jetted down and watched her play her first ever singles match. She lost, but still--I had never seen her play singles before. While I was there Teresa walked over and told me that her new puppy had broken her leg and was at the vet a few towns away getting fixed up. She's not sure what happened, but thinks it was badly startled by a neighbor dog charging the fence. It would have had to have gotten a leg wedged or twisted weirdly or something I would think. She had to leave early to go pick the dog up, so I invited Sarah to come by for dinner. I told her that Sue would be there too.

When I rode home it was obvious that Sue was hoping to have a much more intimate evening that it ended up being. Food was cooked and the hostess with the mostess was looking good. Unfortunately for us Sarah showed up about 15 minutes later and stayed until about 8:30, doing homework and filling out SAT testing applications.

Before going to the tennis match I managed to remember to call for a doctor's appointment, and that was scheduled for 3:30 yesterday afternoon. I also ended up setting up an appointment with my parents to photograph one of their vehicles so they could sell it on Craigslist. Both of those things happened right after work, so I took my camera with me to work so I could just stop by their house on the way to the doctor. My dad was in his usual surly form--Hollering and bitching at everything. He started bitching at my choice of where to take pictures of it at, and I basically told him, "You want me to take pictures of your truck or not? It will be fine right here." When I left he was screaming at mom about not instantly having the keys to the truck in his hand or some equally ridiculous thing. I was glad to leave and boogie over to the doctor's office. Besides refilling my annual prescription I also got him to prescribe some amoxicillin to me. I told him that I thought I had a recurring sinus infection, and after some conversation he concurred to the possibility. I'll give this a shot and see if it helps my occasional headaches and other symptoms. I was dismayed to find out when I got home that he had given me a prescription for a different size than I had been getting. That means basically that I only have a 30-day supply instead of a two-month supply. I don't have to cut these in half before taking (a good thing) but they will cost me a copay every month instead of every other month. Crap.

I sold another little trinket on Craigslist last night. Some guy that lives nearby came down and bought a circular saw blade I had for sale for $20. I don't know why, but it gives me a strange sort of hoarding satisfaction when I open my safe and put more cash in there. I should be careful--I'm starting to behave like Teresa or her brother...

My new cell phone is finally all programmed in with it's phone numbers and such, so now I can call and activate that. That's a pretty tedious process, but at least it got me more familiar with using it. My old phone was apparently very weird by today's standards.

Things are suddenly looking very busy at work. Bruce is gone for the next week or so, so I'm picking up a lot of the things that he normally does. Even besides that, however, things are still ramping up again. It's looking like I may be a lot more involved in paperwork-type things in the future. That's just as well--Things have been very slow lately, and given the choice I'd rather be "groomed" for white collar than blue collar. Looks like overtime in the future.

Busted!

Yes, Suzie and I were caught yesterday, and our office romance was killed. It was just a matter of time and we both knew it, but neither of us expected it to happen quite like it did.
I was upstairs in my usual easy chair and had just finished my sandwich when I heard her familiar footsteps. She had no sooner bent down and gave me a big kiss when she looked up over her glasses toward the area behind me that she had just come from.
"We've been caught," she said.
"Who?" I asked.
"Phil."
The word sent a chill.
He and Bernie took us both into an office and gave us a 5-minute stern lecture, admonishing us for "acting like high-school kids" and so on. We were basically put on a "no contact" order. While he was plainly pissed at us both, I was a little miffed that most of his ire was directed toward Sue instead of me. I'm sure it was partly due to the fact that it was her work time that we were caught on, but I think it's also that they tend to look down on women in the workplace.
So, touching when we pass each other, kisses in an empty hall, lunchtime hugs--All gone.

I received my new cell phone yesterday, so that was a good thing. I haven't transferred service over to it yet though--I still have to figure everything out and enter all my personal info before I start using it. I may keep my old one in the kitchen to use as a timer or something--I don't know. If nothing else I can keep it for a backup if I lose or break my new one.

It was nice to finally sell the tripod I've had on Craigslist for so long. Some guy came all the way down from Everett to buy it! We're talking a two-hour drive during the time he drove it. When he got here, he had a standard little digital camera that he was using to test it with. Talk about overkill! The tripod is easily twice the size of the one that I use for my picture-taking. It's more of a tripod for video than for still photography. Oh well... A sale is a sale as far as I'm concerned.

I hope nothing hits the fan today...

Surprise Tennis

Yeah, it was a surprise. They don't usually have tennis on a Monday, and I had taken advantage of the opportunity by doing up a crock pot full of pork, knowing (so I thought) that I would have plenty of time to mess with dinner. I had plans of oven-roasted garlic potatoes too. I had just finished a beer and was just about to go downstairs to start prepping spuds and something made me check the online school sports calendar.

Varsity tennis at Riverside High School. Damn.

I looked at the time and it was already 3:35. With a sigh I grabbed my stuff and headed out. It was a beautiful day for it, but that didn't help them win. They played very well, but the other team played just ever so slightly better to win both sets. One of them was only won after an 11-point tie-breaker. At least I was able to deliver Teresa's child support check to her without going over to their house. Right before I left I invited Sarah over for dinner.

She didn't waste much time. Apparently she jetted right down to my house as soon as the bus got back to their school. She arrived with a skateboard (just the board) under her arm as well. It's a project in her art class that I find kind of unique. All the students buy a plain, standard curved skateboard base and decorate them any way they want. She wanted me to do a couple of coats of white gloss spray paint on the bottom side. Knowing Sarah, her board will be a knockout when she's done. I guess it's up to each student as to whether or not they actually buy hardware (wheels, etc) to finish the board when they are done, but I'd like to be able to see them all at the end of the project.

I noticed this morning that Sarah has inherited her mother's knack at missing the trash can. There were several tissues near the downstairs bathroom trash can, but none in it. Between the two of them, it explains why their house looks the way it does I guess...

Spending Time With Suzie

I sure do a lot of that, you know? I spend time with her at work, at my house, at her house, and out in the rest of the world as well. I really enjoy all those times.

We had a very enjoyable evening on Friday. Doing ordinary stuff like watching a movie, eating slightly above-average sandwiches on asiago cheese bread, and drinking average beer and ale... All in the shadow of a comfy fire in the woodstove. Ordinary folks having above-ordinary times while doing ordinary things.

After going out for breakfast at the Muckleshoot Casino here in Auburn, we spent all day yesterday out shopping, and we hereby declare yesterday to be "Footwear Day." I bought some very ordinary-looking Dockers shoes that I've been meaning to buy. I had determined that I had no shoes to wear to any nice occasion, and I fear that a funeral is close at hand for Melinda's mom, Gloria. Also, I've had these nice-looking slacks (sorta) that I've had and have never worn them--Partly because I haven't had shoes to wear with them. Okay, I admit--I never even got around to washing them after I bought em either.
Have you ever went on an investigative shopping excursion for a certain type of item and then, many stores later, end up buying at the first store you went into? That's what we did yesterday as well when we bought Suzie some new Harley boots. I don't know how many stores we went into, but it's safe to say it was a few. Pretty cool looking boots! Now we need to keep going because there are still chaps and a jacket to buy yet.

We also made a stop at R & R American Cycle here in town. I was finally ready to buy tires for the Harley and still didn't buy. There was a good reason though, and this is one occasion where my nature of procrastination paid off. April is tire sale month, and all tires you buy through them are 15% off. Nice! I'll go back in later this week and buy because I want to talk with one of the other guys there about tire compounds, and he won't be back to work until Wednesday. I'm glad I waited, but I'll be even more glad when I finally get new tires on my bike. Traction is pretty important on a two-wheeler you know!

After our return, we did what old people do: We took a nap. Gotta recharge you know! When we got up from that we spent a couple hours scanning slides. Sue scammed a bunch of antique slides from her parents while she was there visiting, promising to scan them and get them back to them as soon as possible. We made a pretty good team while we were doing that. My scanner will scan 3 slides at a time, so I was doing the placement and changing of the slides, and she was running the software aspect of it--The execution of the scanning processes, and naming & saving of the scans as we went. We did about 3 boxes in a fairly short period of time.

Today she's planning on taking some "semi-pro" pictures of her son and his wife out in her backyard. I'll be her lackey I guess, volunteering tips (whether she likes it or not) and helping with setup and stuff. I suppose it will be "weather permitting" as we have been having some weird stuff around here lately. Snow, hail, rain, sun--It's been quite the winter-to-spring transition.

You know what Sue did for me this week? She made me the most awesome bag for my camera tripod! I had this idea for a bag a while back. She came over one day when I was on the living room floor with an old pair of jeans all cut up, wondering if there was enough material in them to make a bag for my tripod. I wanted a bag with some character and a little ruggedness, and I thought that it might be cool if I could figure out how to make one out of used denim. Well, she offered to work on it for me and I gave her the material and tripod last weekend. Friday she came over with the finished product and it more than exceeded my wishes. Besides being fast, she did an awesome job. What do you think? Thanks Suzie!

Well, I think I'll start my day with a trip to Winco. I still haven't done my food shopping yet and I'm getting pretty needy at this point.

Love, Death, and Tennis

I was walking across the shop yesterday right before quitting time when a coworker motioned me over.
"I know it's none of my business" he said, "...That lady up front... She your girlfriend?"
"Yes she is." I stated, still moving.
I wanted to get more info out of him as to how he figured that out but his timing was a little off and it was almost quitting time. I'm sure I'll hear more about it. As a matter of fact, now that he knows it will probably be a domino effect. Elaine said he already mentioned it to her. I wonder if it was the kisses we exchanged out in plain view (although we didn't see anybody) yesterday? Hmm... Could be.

Actually, I'm surprised it's lasted this long. It's been 3 months and nobody has "figured it out" yet.

I got an email from Melinda that greeted be this morning. As soon as I saw the subject "News about Gloria from Melinda & Danny" I knew what would greet me when I opened it. She died yesterday at 84 years old. I would say I'm sad, but in all honesty I'm relieved. She was the most tenacious person I've ever known when it comes to clinging to life. She suffered a massive stroke a number of years ago and since has been operating on only one half of her body, and in recent years has been plagued with one thing after another. The recent few months have been the hardest though, as it always seems to be when someone frail is near the end of their life. Melinda has probably put more miles under her with visiting and care giving over the years than many people put forth driving to and from their jobs. One couldn't ask for a more giving daughter. Rest in peace, Gloria... You've had a good life.

Sarah lost her tennis match yesterday amid tears of frustration. It was virtually a repeat of the previous school's match. The first set was zero on their side and the second one was neck and neck. It was very exciting and there was some good tennis played, but at the end it was lost. Too many little mistakes can add up. While both girls are very good, they don't seem to be a good match-up. Oh well, that's sports right?

Ah good... It's Friday!

Snow!?

It was certainly an unusual sight to see last night--Snow falling heavily for several hours with a backdrop of newly-blossoming trees! Sue and I were amazed by the fact that it was even snowing at all to begin with, but the longer it snowed the heavier it came down. It was a fair assessment that it was the heaviest snow we had experienced all winter.

Wait a minute... It's spring!

We had finished a great meal of corned beef (courtesy of my crock pot) and were both sitting in the living room with that glazed-over, satiated look on our faces that comes from eating too much when snow started mixing in with the rain. By the time Suzie left at about 9:30, it was solid snow and it was heavy. I would say it was a good thing it didn't stick, but judging by what I see out there this morning, it might have been easier to drive in if it had. It looks like it's going to be a frozen mess out there today. I'd better leave a little earlier than usual.

We did go out in it for a little bit last night, but it wasn't doing much at that time. I drove us to the library to drop off some books and pick up a movie they had on hold for me. We browsed for a few minutes, I ended up with a digital photography book published by National Geographic. Who would know pictures better than they, right? We also got Sue fixed up with a replacement library card while we were there.

It wasn't a great day for tennis for Sarah. They played Enumclaw last night and Sarah and her partner lost their match. The first set was lost easily, but the second was different. It was even all the way up to a tie-breaker they had to play, but they lost it at that point, giving Enumclaw the 2-out-of3 win. The second set was very good.

Although they have a match slated for this afternoon as well, I hope it doesn't happen because I'd like to do some shopping on the way home. I guess I'll know later.

Thoughts of Money

I have those thoughts like everyone does, but sometimes they just rush at me. All the things I'd like to be able to drop some money on. Sometimes I spend so much time analyzing that it overwhelms me.

I think about all the things I own that need to be upgraded or replaced. I'm not talking about the "keep up with the Joneses" thing that so many people do. It's more about things in my life that I don't trust to continue working correctly--Things that I fear may give out when I need them most.

My truck doesn't work at all, and my car is beat. It needs new struts so bad it's almost painful with I hit bumps, and it actually has a cassette player in it. My Harley needs tires, and I'm unhappy with the shocks on it. In my garage sits a dying air compressor. In my closets hang dozens of shirts that are either stained, don't fit, or worn out. Shoes that are worn out or just butt ugly also grace my closet. If I had to dress up for something unexpectedly I'd be screwed... My computer needs a new power supply and monitor (at least). I have no music system in my living room to speak of. I don't like my dining room table. My closets and storage areas are full of things I don't like and need to get rid of.

I think about paying child support--How amazing it would be if I suddenly had that extra $233 every two weeks back in my pocket. I wonder if Sarah will actually go to college. I wouldn't put it past Teresa to urge her to do so just so she can continue to receive my child support...

I think about what a lousy investor I am. I have IRA's and stocks all over the place, and only a handful of them seem to be doing okay. I'm too spread out and I don't know how to fix it.

I finished my taxes last night which prompted some of these thoughts. I had to pay a lot of money last year because of my own blunder. Fortunately that didn't happen this year, but I was peeved when my return instantly went from getting a measly $67 back to me owing $188 just because I entered my interest income. It's like Uncle Sam slaps me across the face for saving money in my bank.

The majority of these thoughts are with me all the time. The frustration comes and goes. The wish to chuck it all and start over and go on a major spending spree.

Sigh.

I'm Still Not Awake Yet...

...But I figured I'd see what my fingers type for me anyway. I don't feel much like writing today--Much like yesterday--But I'll go ahead regardless.

The Easter event went well over at my parents' house. Everybody seemed to have a good time and Sue got a taste of name confusion (much like I did the first time or two I met her family). My dad didn't have a meltdown or anything, and that's always good. I'm sure everyone liked Suzie (what's not to like?) except my dad. He doesn't like anybody. As a matter of fact, sometimes he's a good barometer of things if you know how to read him. If he doesn't like something or someone, they're probably everyone else's favorite. Sarah showed up just before time to eat like she seems to usually do, so I'm glad she's able to drive herself around now. It was funny--When we got there Emma was sitting out in the little parking lot next to their house in her car. She said she wasn't going to be the first one to go in there...

When Suz and I went back to my house, we both took a nap for a couple hours like old people always do. Kind of a battery recharge if you will. After all, the evening was still ahead of us. We raced up to her house where we spent the rest of the evening.

Yesterday at work was kinda weird because I ended up running a press. I don't usually do that sort of thing, and I can do without it really. I like the variety, but I just don't do well with doing something thousands of times over like we do with so many of our production parts. It can really raise hell with muscles, joints, and state-of-mind. Fortunately, it wasn't such a bad one this time like some things they've had me working in the past. I wish work would speed back up in my own area of expertise. I prefer to be swamped with work.

I got kind of perturbed last night while I was in the garage puttering with my new Harley windshield. I knowingly bought the "wrong" one on Ebay and was studying my possibilities. The reason I say it's the wrong one is that it's for a Harley with passing lights. Those are the little spotlight-looking things that are on either side of the headlight on so many Harleys. Mine has those lights, but I removed them quite a while back. I figured I'd be best to have the windshield that will work with them as it's "primary fit" and adapt it to fit without them. After playing with it for a while, I thought maybe I should have taken the easy way out and bought the right one instead. I went inside and posted an ad on Craigslist, offering to trade straight-across for someone in the same situation, only the the other way around. After spending some time formulating my ad and posting it, it wasn't up more than a half hour before some asshole flagged it and it was deleted. Why? More than likely because it wasn't "for sale". They have a special section for "wanted" items but I don't like to use it. Deep breaths...

Sarah has a tennis match today, and fortunately it's up at her school. Sue may stop by on her way home and see me if I'm there. I may ride the Harley up there, but it will be iffy weather probably. It's kinda funny--Playing tennis and riding the Harley are on the same weather schedules: Sprinkles okay, but no rain.

I just bought myself a new phone from Virgin Mobile. My old phone is "okay" but it's very limited in talking quality. I have to say though--It's practically indestructible. I don't know how many times it's hit concrete when it fell out of my pocket. I hope the new one is as good along those lines.

Happy Easter!

Easter in my family is not a religious event really. While some family members do regularly attend church, our family Easter event is but a gathering to eat, drink, and yak.

Every year it's hosted by my mother at their house. While we did have it at my house a few years back when I was still married, it's never happened anywhere else before or since. Why? My dad. Everyone totally loved having it at our house that year because there was a lot more room, things to do (ping pong, etc) and there was no smoking. See, back then my dad was a smoker and their house always reeked of smoke, and after leaving their house so did we. We stopped having it after that because my dad was totally miserable. He couldn't sit in his easy chair, watch his channels, smoke in the house, and worst of all, he didn't get any leftovers. He is so selfish with their feast food that he flat gets mad if mom sends any food home with anyone.

It will be different this year. I don't remember when we last had something new to infuse into our family gab fest, but we do this year: Ricky's girlfriend Suzie. She hasn't met any of them and none of them have met her yet. Sarah will end up driving over on her own this year, which is another first.

When Sue was over Friday night we kept meaning to see if we could get some pictures of the full moon. I had a schedule I had obtained from the web, and when I looked out the window for the moon it was never in view. Almost an hour after the appointed time I happened to look out and what do I see? A perfect yellow-orange moon, coming up over the hill with wispy clouds and everything. Apparently I failed to take into consideration the fact that Auburn is in a valley. While the timetable may have been accurate based on the latitude and longitude, it still has to account for geography. Anyway, while we did scramble up the hill with our cameras, we missed it. Oh well, it was a learning experience.

I got off to a slow start yesterday morning, but I spent the afternoon and evening up at Sue's house. Get this: I washed my car! Can you imagine? Actually, I washed both hers and mine, and believe me they were both badly in need. I had to change the water between vehicles it was so bad. While I was washing my car I tried to think of the last time I had washed it, and I really couldn't remember. I know I haven't washed it in the last year... I finally decided that I didn't think I had. How pathetic...

We had a barbecue at her son Denny's house up the street, and afterwards watched "I am Legend". It was a pretty good day.

Delivery Day

Yesterday was one of those days where goodies showed up. I had only been to work for about 45 minutes when one of the owners came out and gave me a little puffy envelope that had showed up in the mail the previous afternoon. That was a new polarizer filter for my camera. About an hour later he comes walking out and sets a big box down next to me. My new printer had just shown up! I like those kind of days. It's sort of like birthday presents or something. I almost always have anything I order sent to work simply because I don't want any UPS or FedEx person leaving something right in plain view on my doorstep.

Sue came over the night before last for dinner as I mentioned we were going to do in my blog post that morning. I must have gotten pretty lucky weather-wise, because it was only a few minutes after I took the steak off the grill that the sky opened up and it rained. Dinner was perfect by-the-way.

She had been working on her letter to her church elders for several days--Formulating, editing, adjusting, tweaking--And had finally finished that and made it available for my perusal. I thought she did an excellent job on it. As I have mentioned before, it basically told her church elders that she was deviating from their "acceptable practices" for the foreseeable future. It's a necessary thing to take place when entering a relationship with someone other than her husband--Even though they were divorced over 10 years ago. The bottom line: When they say "til death do us part" they mean it. Anything other than that has a certain process that must be followed, and that process involves her being disfellowshipped. It's very complicated. When said relationship either peters out or results in a union, then she can "go before the board" and ask to be reinstated. So the letter writing is behind her. It was a very hard thing for her to do for many reasons, and because of all that she had ridden quite an emotional roller coaster the last few days. She seemed to be much better yesterday.

Sarah had another tennis match out of town, and sure enough, I got a text from Teresa asking me if I was going. Knowing that she just wanted a ride, I texted her back and said yes, I was indeed going, but would be going directly to my girlfriends house from there. Okay... I lied. I took the chickenshit way out instead of telling her I don't want to give her a ride. She texted back with a simple OK. Just as I also thought, she didn't go to the match. Too bad for her, because it was a good match. The rain clouds skirted the whole area pretty much and rained all around us, but never rained on us. Lucky!

I was very surprised when I got home when I came upstairs to check my email after coming home and found a funny card that Suzie had left me on my keyboard. I loved that!

After I got something to eat I set up my new printer. It's a pretty nice printer for $36 bucks! They have sure come a long way. With any inkjet printer you have to do a print head alignment as one of the regular setup processes. This one did the whole thing automatically! It was weird to see it print out the usual colored barcode-looking patterns, but I was pretty surprised to see it suck the paper back in back and forth as it "read" it and made necessary adjustments.

Hey look... It's FRIDAY!

Just Stuff...

Today's post is filled with little things--Mostly nothings to dominate, with a smattering of somethings throughout.

Sarah and her partner won their doubles match in tennis yesterday in two sets. I hate it when they have to do best 2 out of 3 when the match is close. That adds another half hour at least, and by the time the end of the second set rolls around I'm always ready to get outta there as it is.

For some reason I haven't had the desire to ride the Harley lately. I can't really explain it, but it's happened before. I guess what it boils down to is that it's always there in my garage and therefore not "special" and screaming to be ridden. People that don't own one can't quite get a grasp on that. I just keep hearing, "How come you didn't ride your bike to work today?"

I think I'll probably start riding it to Sarah's "away" tennis matches. That way I don't have to make excuses about why I don't want to car pool with Teresa so she can save gas. Let her spend money on gas. I think I'm paying her enough for her to be able to do that.

Sarah's mom's birthday is in two days (Friday) and I will bet money that she hasn't bought her anything, or even thought about it in the least. I just sent her an email challenging her to get off her ass, and told her that I will not be able to take her shopping this year, and that she better get out there and do something for her mom for a change. She deserves better than she gets from her only daughter. You know what occurred to me though? That song by Harry Chapin, The Cat's in the Cradle. (You can click HERE if you want to read the lyrics. You'll be subjected to some crappy MIDI music while you're there but you can turn it down.) Basically, it's a classic case of "what ye shall sow, so shall ye reap". Teresa doesn't forget birthdays, but she makes it plain that she'd rather not buy anyone anything. She has a million excuses, and the most popular one is, "They didn't even acknowledge your birthday last year did they?" It all boils down to the same thing. Not buying presents is her M.O. and Sarah is going to follow her exactly, like it or not. This year I will not be taking part in her birthday so it's all up to Sarah, Wade (her brother) and her dad (who is in Arizona). Wade will only come down if it's totally convenient for Wade. By convenient I mean he will come down if he's on his way to a Sonics game in Seattle, or wants her to babysit his dog. He only shops online so he don't have to be inconvenienced. They're quite a pair they are...

I hope the weather holds out long enough to fire up the grill tonight. Suzie and I are having a little nicely charred red meat for dinner!

Suzie's Back!

I wasn't at work more than 45 minutes yesterday when my phone rang that she had just touched down. From our place of employment in Kent, SeaTac airport is very close by, so I ended up jetting out at 6:55 to get her and was back by 7:25. It was great to see her again! She was so glad that I had taken some breakfast for her along with me when I went to pick her up. She was starved. I ended up staying at work until 3:00 to make up for the half hour I used when I went to pick her up, and she ended up staying the whole day with me. Of course, it's not like she had much of a choice beings that I was her transportation, but she could have taken my car and left if she wanted to--I could have ridden home with someone I'm sure. At any rate, because she was unable to sleep and had been up since she got up the previous morning, she was draggin' ass by the end of the day. I remember when I came home from Maui a couple years ago I did the same thing. I think we have both vowed that we would never do that again, but I wouldn't be surprised if history didn't repeat itself some day in the future. She stayed at my house just long enough to have a beer and show me a couple special pictures of surfers that she had taken (which were totally killer) and then I sent her home to get some sleep.

Sarah had a tennis match at her school last night, but my schedule was kinda screwed up so I didn't try to make it up there. I figured by the time I did make it she'd have probably finished playing by then anyway.

My new detachable (read that "quick-disconnect") windshield showed up at work yesterday, and I'm very happy with it. It looks like brand new, and I got a great deal on it. Now I'm shopping for the hardware to mount it on the bike with. I've already got it in my sights on Ebay and I'm monitoring it carefully so it doesn't slip through my fingers.

I ended up getting killer headache last night. I didn't do anything at all to cause it either. I had just finished eating some dinner and wham! It was bad enough that I ended up going to bed at 8:30. Like most headaches, they are much better when you're horizontal. This one was located right behind my right eye and it was maddening. There is no rhyme or reason as to when I get a headache or where in my head that it shows up. Sometimes I wonder if it has anything to do with anything else I do or eat, but I doubt it. Maybe it would help if I did the "aspirin a day" thing. Supposedly, aspirin's blood-thinning properties help people out a lot in that regard, and it's recommended for lots of folks as they age anyway for prevention of strokes and the like. Although I haven't had a complete physical in ages, I do have to go in once a year for a prescription renewal, and my blood pressure is always fine. I dunno. I know I feel fine this morning and that's what counts right now.

Another tennis match tonight, and this one is close by--Right over near me at Auburn High School. I hope the weather holds out because rescheduling of these things screws me up.

Although it was St. Patrick's Day yesterday, I didn't remember it and therefore didn't wear any green. Fortunately (or UN?) nobody pinched me. I did, however, hit Safeway later on and scored a nice flat of corned beef to cook up in the crock pot later this week.

Well, back to work!

Sunday Morning Wheelin' & Dealin'

I just made another of those sweet deals online. You know, the kind of shopping deal where you can save an additional amount of cash by being instantly approved for a credit card? These are the kind of deals that not everyone is comfortable making, but I don't have a problem with them. The key is to make double-damn sure you read every little thing on every screen you click through. You never know when one click will send you hurtling down the e-commerce road to despair and heartache.

I just went to Buy.com and bought a new Canon Pixma ip4500 printer. After one-time "new card" savings of $50 (nothing to sneeze at!) and no tax or shipping, it ended up costing me $36. How can you lose? I've cursed my current printer for ages, and even though I've still got a couple of color cartridges (it uses 3 individual color cartridges) still new in the wrappers, my black one just ran out. They want a whopping $25 for a new black one. Screw that. I curse Epson printers for their persnickety problematic performance and HP printers for their overpriced replacement ink cartridges. I've had very good luck with Canon though. The old one at Teresa and Sarah's house is still performing well after many years, and with the separate black and color ink cartridges it uses are only about 13 bucks each.

In other money news, I sold a sander on Craigslist yesterday for a whole $15 bucks. Hey, it's something I know I would never use again. I've decided that I will throw the proceeds for whatever I sell on Craigslist (unless it's some big-ticket item I need to money for) into my safe. It's always nice to be able to have some cash lying around for those after hours emergencies, right?

I did a couple other mundane things around the house yesterday too, like a load of laundry. I also finally replaced the burnt out light bulb above my bathroom sink that's been out for almost a year (woo, that was tough!). There is a row of 6 of those small, candelabra-base bulbs that make up the lighting above the sink. Because they're all clear instead of white I took them all out and cleaned them with glass cleaner. What a difference! I also adjusted the chain in my toilet flusher so it won't keep hanging up every now and then. One day I came home from work and it was still running...

Let's see what else...

I updated my movies listing on my website. That was pretty tedious because it took awhile, but it was still very easy because I have special movie software that automatically downloads all the movie data and generates the html files. All you need to do it input the title. I'm sure I entered well over 50 of them. It's been quite a while since I updated it last.

I spent a little time learning more about my new camera too. The guy I bought it from couldn't find the manual for it when I bought it, and although you can download it from Canon in PDF format (which I did right off the bat), it's not the same as having it in print. Sometimes I'd rather just lie down on the couch and read about it you know? Even though with a PDF file you can set how big the print is and skip around quickly and use the search function, I find that reading a manual on the computer is tedious. I did learn some stuff though, so that's good.

Yeah, it was a fairly crappy day yesterday so it was good to stay in, and I still managed to get a lot of stuff done.

At Least it's Friday

Sometimes I want to be such a selfish bastard. Like now for instance. I want to say to Sue, "Screw your vacation, you get back here right NOW!"

Yeah right.

It's truly a case of jealousy and longing both rolled into one. I am so jealous of where she's at and what she's experiencing. I'm jealous of the weather, jealous of the lonely clothing-optional beaches, jealous of the smells, the sounds, the sights. Hawaii is truly an experience of the senses, and she's reveling in it. Sure, I could have probably gone along too, but this was Suzie's trip. It was her vacation. The first time I think, ever, that she was able to go solo on a vacation that she so richly deserves. For someone that's a devoted mother and head-of-household, to be able to do this is truly a sign of success. She has done a fantastic job of raising a family from what I've seen. She has earned the right to spend some time doing what she wants to do--To eat what she wants, go where she wants, or even just lie on the beach for hours without hearing someone grumble about being hungry or bored or any of a multitude of things a mother is used to hearing.

The longing? She's been on my mind all week long. I want so badly to see her, talk to her, hold her, love her. I guess I should thank my lucky stars that we live in this day and age, because even though we're so far apart there are still cell phones, emails, and pictures that can be transmitted instantly anywhere in the world. A good example could be when she called me while sitting on a beach the other day and held her phone out from her, allowing me to hear the surf pounding the beach. It was so weird--To be sitting here under the gray, rainy Washington skies while listening to the warm tropical waves of Kauai in real-time. Thank you technology, but sometimes you don't make things easier to take mentally! I guess I'm lucky because at least I get to see her before anyone else does when she arrives Monday morning. Whoops, I guess that was another selfish moment...

I finished off my work week today by paying a visit to my little Korean barber lady for a haircut after work. After I got back here and had a beer and checked my email, I phoned in an order for a Papa Murphy's Cowboy pizza. Yes, it's kind of a little way of signaling the end of my work week--Much like when I buy a special beer on some Fridays (but not this time).

You know, I'd really like to have Suzie here to share it with...

Another Day, Another Tennis Match

Yesterday was Sarah's first tennis match of the season. It should have been the day before, but it was postponed due to rain. As usual, she did very well, but unfortunately she was paired with a pretty lousy player. It seemed like every time Sarah returned and excellent shot, her teammate blew it for them. They ended up losing badly. Their school won at least.

Sarah was so mad about the match that she actually called me after she got home and yakked good-naturedly about it. That's kind of rare for her to do that. Maybe it should happen more often? She never calls me unless she needs something.

I ended up playing the nice guy and taking Teresa with me. As I mentioned previously, the match was out in Bonney Lake and she always likes to car pool when she can. Sue doesn't like it when I do that, and frankly, it's grating on me too. I noticed yesterday that I changed the instant she got in the car. It's like my defenses went up. I try to just be nice and have conversation but found myself becoming easily annoyed. I would turn the music on and she would start talking. I would turn the music down and she would stop talking. I did it again and she did it again. Finally I left the radio off.

All those years and I never knew that she had a volume knob...

Hump Day!

I don't normally call Wednesday Hump Day. I'm not usually a "day counter" like so many other people are that are anxious for the weekend to show up. In my case however, I am anxious. I want my woman back. Daily emails and the occasional text messages and phone calls are great, but sometimes things like that just make it harder (excuse the pun). The pace of things are work aren't making it any easier either--Things are very slow there.

I had another one of those strange things happen to me in the world of software yesterday. I must be getting older. I think I've already discussed this in the past--The irony of the fact that the only software purchase I've made in probably at least 15 years is the one that lets me pirate software via newsgroups. Well, there may soon be an addition to that lonely purchase. I've gotten to the point where I'm tired of not being able to stay with a particular antivirus package that works for me. I can get by with them for free for a while, but they always find out that certain serial numbers are bad and blacklist them. That means no more updates. What frustrates me the most about security software (that's what they're calling them all these days) is the fact that they have to always be running in the background. What that usually means is that they end up taking over your system instead of the hackers they're supposedly protecting you against. The only one I've ever used that doesn't slow your system to a crawl or seriously hamper boot or shutdown speeds is Trend Micro. Theirs used to be called PC-Cillin but now is called Trend Micro Internet Security. I had it on here (pirated of course) for about a week and loved it, but then it stopped updating (they always catch on eventually--Sometimes sooner than others). After browsing the web, I found that I can get that one at a good price, so I will eventually end up buying it (the crowd gasps in amazement) sometime soon. In the meantime I went to their site and downloaded and installed it. It's a full version that will work for one month, and by then I'll have my own.

It's yet another milestone in my life I guess. It's kind of like when a guy gets to an age when he suddenly decides he's finished working on his own car and starts paying to have it done instead. It kind of makes me picture a scene in a Star Wars movie when Alec Guinness says, "I sense a great disturbance in The Force."

Weirdness at Work

No, I'm not talking about the Bobsey Twins this time--This one is about me. Well, mostly.

I guess it's fair to say that things are very weird at work without Sue there. I can't really vouch for the feelings of people within the confines of the front office, but I'm sure it's weird there too. The main thing is how everyone has to answer the phone when it rings instead of pretending they don't hear it.

What's weird is the things I caught myself doing. She usually comes in at 8 o'clock and I caught myself glancing at my watch before 8 on more than one occasion, then telling myself, "You dumbass... She's asleep in paradise right now." I would walk into the office and find myself automatically glancing toward her desk, then immediately brought back to reality by the sight of her dark, cold computer monitor. Having lunch in my comfy folding chair upstairs, I caught myself listening for her footsteps. Thinking of the almost daily occurrence of her coming to share some hugs and kisses with me on the sly. Nope, no such thing yesterday. It's funny how one person missing can have a dramatic impact on daily thoughts and activities.

Bernie (the frugal money-man of the LaCroix brothers) came out yesterday with one of those green hanging file folders. I watched in amazement as he carefully and completely repaired it with packing tape instead of throwing it out because it was worn through. It's possible that he's still in shock over having to shell out the money for a new (okay, new to us) company van. I'll bet he hasn't slept recently because of that one. I suppose we'll end up moving the old van in and out of the shop every night for several years just like we did with previous vehicles they got rid of. They have a bad habit of trying to sell their old vehicles as such laughable prices that they never get any interest. By the time they finally do get rid of them, they are in such bad shape from neglect that they practically have to give them away...

In other news, I won bid on another windshield for my Harley on Ebay. As most everyone knows, I'm not a "windshield person." I prefer not having one on my bike so I can occasionally feel the mortal pain of a bug smacking me at 60mph. (No, not many people understand that.) Anyway, there are occasions when it would be nice to have a windshield.

I don't like my original windshield for a couple reasons: For one, it's not detachable. Almost all Harleys in recent years have detachable windshields. The actual shield itself is the same, but they have totally different hardware holding them on so you can remove or install them in seconds. Mine it a bolt-on, requiring washers and shimming and aligning and adjusting--It's a total pain. The second reason is that it's a full-height windshield. If I had good, erect posture it wouldn't matter so much, but I always found myself staring at the very top edge of the windshield. Contrary to popular belief, you are not supposed to look though a windshield on a bike, but over it. The windshield is there to provide air deflection. The one I just bought is a slightly shorter version so it will fall lower in my line of sight. Without a windshield, any passenger that rides behind me will also be subject to the same bugs and wind that I am, and I would rather they had some protection--Especially with the factory passenger seat because it sits taller than my seat does. Hopefully this windshield will fit all my criteria. Oh, it's also slightly tinted too, and I like that aspect of it beings I have a dark, ugly "stealth" bike.

Monday Morning

I hate changing clocks to and from daylight savings time. I like the effect, but hate actually doing it. It takes a while to get things back in order with my internal clock.

It's going to be weird without Suzie around this week. Nobody to trade knowing glances with, steal kisses and hugs with, trade love notes with, or any of the other little things that make the workday fun for us both. Ho hum... Just the usual grind. I guess I'll try to stay busy so I don't dwell on it too much.

Tennis season is upon us, and I get to spend time watching Sarah playing tennis after school on certain days again. She's a good player--One of the better ones. She will never be a fantastic player just because she is not one of those "extra mile" type of people, but she is definitely good. I like to watch her play. Tomorrow is their first game and it's up at Bonney Lake High School.

I went to the library yesterday to return a couple movies that I had copied, and had a notification to pick up another one that had come in. I stopped at Sarah's to see if she wanted to go with me, and while I was there picked up Teresa's Harley leathers for Suzie to try out. If they fit maybe we can do some wheelin' and dealin'.

I stopped by my folks' house on the way home from dropping Sarah off and had a pretty decent visit. Right after I pulled up Denis and his wife Kim pulled up as well. I ended up sitting there and yakking through 3 glasses of wine (that's probably what caused me to take a nap a little later). Nothing new as far as dad goes. The MRI thing is slated for tomorrow so I guess everyone will no more then. Nothing changed as far as his attitude goes. He's still hard to hold a conversation with as ever.

'Twas a fairly humdrum weekend really--Laundry, oil change, and other mundane stuff.

I never have posted a picture of my mannequin before but it occurred to me yesterday to do so. Her official name is Moana (yes, I know how I spelled it). Pretty hot, don't you think? Her look changes from time to time. As always, you can click for a bigger picture.


She's wearing a t-shirt that Steve bought me back in Louisville (duh) a couple years ago when he was there on vacation. He got it on the clearance rack and it's no wonder. What you're seeing here is the back of the shirt, which I think is one of the coolest designs I've seen on a t-shirt in a long time. Nice colors and layout. What's on the front of the shirt is nothing but a HUGE orange and white Harley logo. I mean HUGE. It's totally ugly. When Moana saw that she said, "Hey, I ain't wearin' that shit!" I talked her into putting it on backwards instead.

It works on her...

Workplace Fashion Faux Pas

We've all heard the stories. A big party hosted by the boss... You want to make a good impression and want everything to be perfect. When you and your lovely wife arrive and are greeted at the door by the boss's wife you discover that she and your wife are wearing the exact same dress. Gasp! This is the epitome of a social embarrassment to many women. Men aren't quite as bothered by such things.

Okay, usually.

This week a similar situation happened at work. Here's how I recollect it.

First of all, the hourly folks that work there all show up at 6am. The people that work in the office, however, show up at all kinds of different times. Some are salaried and some are hourly, but their schedules are pretty flexible. Anyway, Scott wandered in as one of the first office employees to arrive. He's a great guy and is always upbeat, and as he took off his coat and hung it on the coat rack behind me he said good morning to me in his usual chipper way. I didn't think much past that at that particular moment.

A little while later, Tenney (I'm not sure if that's short for Tennyson or what) shows up and goes by me into the office.

(Hey, wait a minute... Isn't that the same shirt Scott was wearing?)

It's pretty common for someone to wear "almost" the same shirt, but I was thinking more than "almost" at this particular time. Now I was intrigued. I got up and went into the office and took another look, memorizing his shirt, then I went back out into my area and sat down. Scott was out in another area of the shop and soon wandered by on his way back into the office. It was a dead match. I could hardly contain myself.

"Nobody told me there was a particular uniform we had to wear today," I said, stopping him on the way in.
"Huh?" he said with a puzzled look.
"Are you and Tenney pretty close? Apparently you collaborated on what to wear today... You'd better go have a look," I warned.

He gave me a "don't tell me" look and went into the office. While he was gone a few other folks came and went by my area and of course I had to fan the flames:
"Have you seen Scott and Tenney this morning? You haven't? Go take a look."

After a little while it had spread like wildfire and everyone was joking about it. I have to admit they took it pretty well. I don't think it mattered a whole lot to Tenney, but Scott (and many others) probably didn't really care to be associated with Tenney too much (he doesn't seem to really do anything), let alone having it look like they were twin sons of different mothers (Scott is on the left):


I'm not sure which is more embarrassing really, to find out that

• someone else is wearing your exact shirt
• someone you don't really care for has the same taste in clothes
• you both shopped for them at WalMart.

Judges?