Closure?

I would like to believe so. Yes, believe it or not, I seem to have finally stopped the water leak in my Neon. Can you believe it?

As much effort and heartache as I've put into that damn thing over the last several months, it's about time. I should be able to stand on a hilltop and look into the sunset with a confident super-hero stance, cape gently flapping in the breeze, and say:

"My work here is done."

But alas... That's just one minor skirmish that has been won. In my life of substandard asset ownership (aka: making every dollar go as far as I can) I have many other battles that must be won.

And win them I must.

A Dark and Boring Evening

This time of year is such an emotional roller-coaster ride sometimes, you know? I think I'd like to blame it about 50-50 on the lack of daylight hours and the lack of heat.

I like heat. Probably more than daylight even. Heat to me means comfort and less (if any at all) clothing. Not everyone feels that way about warm temps like I do. The darkness I think is what takes a lot out of me. It makes me not want to go anywhere and makes me think about going to bed sometimes at 8pm or thereabouts. It's just weird.

Sarah's Christmas present showed up at work yesterday so that's one thing I don't have to worry about. I haven't opened it yet, but I will one of these days. If not just to make sure it works right, but also to load all the software she will need onto it. I also need to come up with a good picture to use as a desktop. I think it should have a Merry Christmas on it as well. I'll figure something out.

My own computer here has been giving me fits. I sensed that the main hard drive was failing. It's a 200-gig unit that has been residing as my C drive since I bought it a year or so ago. The old 120-gig hard drive that I did have as my C drive was moved to D-drive position at that time, taking up the position of "second fiddle." The other day I swapped em back, wiping the 120 clean and installing Windoze fresh. I had to be so careful moving files though because the "old" C drive (which is now D) is acting up so much. It would make a single click sound and the whole computer would lock up. After I swapped em to the way they are now and reloaded, it was still doing it. Yesterday I completely unhooked the problematic 200 from the system. So far no lockups. I have to hook it back up and get the rest of my files off it though. All in good time...

We still haven't gotten much rain since I sealed the Neon with 5 lbs. of silicone sealant the other day. We did get some the other night, but I don't know how much really because it was at night time and I was sleeping. No leak so far though. Yay!

The truck is another story. I went down and bought a new starter after work yesterday (I didn't trust the old one even though it seemed intact). I just know it was refusing to turn over last time I tried to start it. After I put the new one in, it did the same thing. Obviously there is a bad cable/connection issue in there somewhere.

True to Craigslist form, I keep getting people that respond to my ad and want my chin-up exercise thing. So far I've had 3 people in 3 days that "want it" but guess how many have shown up so far? Zip. Zero. Zilch. I've said it once, and I'll say it again: Craigslist is just too easy for people to speak up and say "Yo!" at the drop of a hat. Actually putting their shoes on and driving their car to another town and shelling out cash is truly another story.

I still don't have all the balls on my Christmas tree yet. I keep getting sidetracked and haven't sat down to put hooks in all of em yet. I have the top 25% of the tree finished so far. I looks pretty plain, but that's okay... It's just like my house. And me. We're all plain.

One bright spot is that I did manage to get some Thanksgiving leftovers. I haven't enjoyed them yet, but I plan to tomorrow. Teresa came over on Sunday to have me blow out her furnace filter and to help her order a video game console online for Sarah. I found a spot where she could order it with no tax and free shipping. She left me a bunch of stuff from their Thanksgiving meal. Pretty nice of her.

Well, I guess I'll get a shower and get ready for bed. Wow, I made it to 9 o'clock so far!

The Post-Black Friday Sunday Report

Well, here it is--The last day of the 4-day weekend.

I went out and got my tree the other day, and spent a little while putting it together to make sure it was all okay.

One thing led to another:

1. I decided to move the exercise stand I had next to my TV and put the tree there.
2. Before I moved it, I decided to take some pictures of it and put it up for sale on Craigslist.
3. After I did that, I took it apart (not totally--I left it in large pieces).
4. When the exercise thing was out of the room, I started running the vacuum around where it was.
5. That led me to vacuum the whole damn house, even switching over to the handheld vacuum for cobwebs.
6. After hours, I finally moved the new Christmas tree to its new home. A perfect fit!

That all took place on Friday after I came in from filling the leaky area of my Neon with silicone sealant to stop it's leak. Hopefully I got it all sealed up okay. I had to act that day because it was such a nice, sunny day.

Yesterday was spent indoors with the wood stove blazing. It was so cozy! I even went down the street to the corner and scooped up a bunch of pine needles that I put in a pan of water and have that sitting on top of the wood stove. It smells up the house nicely. Later on in the afternoon I went out and bought myself some balls to decorate the tree with. I still haven't put all that stuff on it yet, but at least it came with the lights already on it. I hate putting lights on a Christmas tree. Hate, hate, hate.

I already got one hit on the exercise thing. Hopefully I'll get that sold and out of my way. I'm tired of looking at it.

I spent a couple hours yesterday tearing Sarah's digital camera all apart, hoping to find just a dirty circuit board contact under the buttons or something, but alas... It appears to be history. It recently lost almost all it's functions. Hardly any of the buttons do anything any more. Time for a new one I guess. Maybe her mom can put that on her Christmas list.

Well, I'm going to go get a shower and go pick Sarah up. We're going to Bed Bath & Beyond so I can get a little food chopper (hand-smackin' variety) and then we'll do a walk around the mall while we're there.

Thanksgiving: A Day of Socializing

It was a pretty good day. I wasn't really surprised about that, but I was relieved.

I spent some time in my kitchen before going over to my parents' house. I had an idea for an oyster/bacon appetizer, remember? Well... They didn't quite go according to plan. I failed to consider (I really didn't know) the fact that oysters in a can are very soft. When I poured them into a bowl of wine, garlic, and pepper, they pretty much fell apart when I stirred it around. Still, I made the best of it. Because of that, I decided I'd batter do a backup plan and decided to make some baked garlic/rosemary carrots to take along. When I started to go through my carrots (which I had in the garage to keep them cool) I found that one of the 3 bags was totally rotten, and the other two bags had to be gone over and bad ones weeded out. When I put those into the oven I started working on the appetizers. I managed to get enough of them wrapped to use up the 12-oz. pack of bacon, but because I had the oven in use I couldn't broil them the way the recipe stated. Instead, I pan-fried them. I must say--They were damn tasty! Sarah and Teresa were out shopping, and while I waited for her to drop Sarah off at my house I kept nibbling... I ate over half of them! The carrots came out flawless. I took the remainder of the oyster nibblies, the bowl of carrots, a platter of cheese and crackers, and two 6-packs of the hard apple cider I mentioned yesterday.

I was surprised to find that everybody was there yesterday--Even my sister and her husband that live out in Port Orchard. Everyone was in good spirits and got along great. Everyone that wasn't afraid of the oysters and did try them loved them. Even my mom approached one with trepidation and gave the "hmm... pretty good". The apple cider was a big hit too. People that didn't normally drink much if any were into their second before long. Basically, all the stuff I took went over well, and everything that was there from everyone else was great too. My old man wasn't too tough to take either. The only time his colors shined was when Sarah and I were ready to leave. I went out to the back porch to get the bag with the two apple cider six-packs in it. I came into the kitchen (we go out their front door when we leave) and put it up on the counter, looking through it to see if any of the bottles were still full.
"Looks like all but one got drank," I said.
"You can leave the rest of it here, we've got lots of room in the recycle bin," my mom volunteered.
My dad leaned over. "What this?" he asked, looking into the bag.
"What's left of the cider. All empty but one," I explained.
Again, my mom pipes up, "Just leave em here, we can throw them away."
Then my dad turns into his usual self, and says, "I don't want to take them clear out there." (Their recycle bin is all of maybe 25 or 30 feet away just outside the fence of their small back yard.)
"I'll take them with me," I said, closing the conversation.

See what I mean?

Anyway, from there I took Sarah home. When we pulled into the driveway I saw that the house was dark. "Where's mom?" I asked her.
"At Noelle's."

I asked her if she wanted me to take her over there, knowing that she doesn't like to be in the house by herself if she can help it. She called Teresa on the phone and said that would be good. While I was there I took the rest of my carrots in and put them into their fridge. Sarah loves them and Teresa liked em too. It's best if they get eaten and it's probably more than I could have eaten by myself anyway.

We went over to Kurt and Noelle's house, which is right across the street from the house we used to own a few years back. It still feels kind of like our old neighborhood. I was just going to go in and drink my last apple cider with them but I ended up staying most of the evening. They're great people and I like spending time with them. The visit there was a great way to cap off a pretty good day.

Now it's Black Friday! I don't feel like fighting any crowds, but I may venture out and buy a loss-leader Christmas tree for my place this morning. We'll see.

Happy Thanksgiving!

At this point in the day it's just any other day, but I'm hoping it will be a good day. I always hope that the day with the family will be a good one and it usually is. If it's not, it's only due to the actions of my dad. I totally love spending time with everyone else in the family. As a matter of fact, Thanksgiving used to be my favorite holiday--Even above Christmas!

I was amused by a comic I read yesterday that kinda hit home (click on it if you want to see it full size):

I'm going to make some garlic-roasted carrots to take along, and also some appetizers. For the appetizers I'm making bacon-wrapped water chestnuts (those are baked... toothpick holding them together), and something called "Angels on Horseback." They are essentially oysters that are marinaded in wine, pepper, and garlic, then wrapped with bacon and broiled on both sides until crispy looking. I think they'll be interesting.

In addition I'm taking booze of course. This year I'm taking two 6-packs of Hornsby's Hard Apple Cider. I had some at Teresa's house a while back (I think I mentioned it) and recently bought some myself. I drank 3 bottles the other night after work and they definitely pack a good little buzz. Pretty good stuff. I figure 2 sixers will allow enough for others to try out as well. Pretty sad when you feel you need booze to put up with one of your parental units isn't it?

I've been working overtime for the last 6 work days. I was a little miffed at first, but the time went by quickly, and I found it fairly easy to do once I got my head used to it. I worked the special assembly project (gluing foam onto parts) with Elaine for the first 4 days of my overtime stretch, and because of that my normal job inbox grew by leaps and bounds. That's what I've been working on during the last two days. It will help me cover the new laptop for Sarah that I just ordered from Dell. Not to mention the fact that utility bills are always higher during these months. At any rate, overtime certainly can't hurt.

Well, to those who read me, I hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Being the Nice Guy... That's Me

You know me--I can never say no.

After I got home from my grocery shopping yesterday it felt pretty good to be inside and warm on such a nasty day and doing my chores in the nude.

Then Teresa called. "The skylight over the dining room table is leaking. We came home and there is a puddle on the dining room table and the drywall is all wet. What should I do?" I could hear the "frantic" in her voice.

We discussed it for a bit, and I suggested she go downstairs and get the stepladder so she could get a better look. While she did that, I talked with Sarah for a little bit. When she scooted the dining room table out of the way and climbed up on the ladder (the skylight is recessed about a foot and a half up into the ceiling) she got back on the phone.

"The drywall is all soft and wet and I can just push through it," she said. "What would cause that?"
"Duh," I said, "The water leak of course. Drywall is just basically pressed dust. When it gets wet it disintegrates."

We talked about it for a bit longer and discussed the condition of the roof (which is not good) and various ways to seal the leak, etc. I told her that somewhere in her house was a gallon of wet/dry roof patch that I used on our old house one day when the flashing around the range hood roof vent failed in a rainstorm. It's the kind of stuff that's designed to go on whether or not the affected area is dry or not. After much looking in the basement and garage, she finally found it. I told her when my laundry load was finally done and in the dryer I'd come over and have a look. I told her in the meantime to pull Sarah's car out and get the giant ladder out of the garage so it was ready when I got there.

Grudgingly, I got dressed and went over. At least the rain had stopped for a while. We went up on the roof with the roof patch stuff. Normally, she would never go up on the roof because she is afraid of heights, but since our divorce any time I have worked on/repaired anything there she is looking over my shoulder. Good for her.

Her roof is the low slope variety that they call a "torch down" roof. Originally they are made of hot tar over a membrane of some kind, and then they put gravel or some sort of rock on top afterward for protection. Her roof is pretty old and the rock is long gone. It has been painted routinely by the previous owner using that aluminum-colored paint stuff, but that's just "getting by" instead of doing what really should be done, which is replacing the roof. Besides, that silver stuff makes it look like a mobile home. Anyway, with that low type of roof all the skylights are raised up somewhat. I think each of them was about 6 or 8 inches high off the roof. In other words, they are mounted on a sort of a frame instead of mounted flush. It appears that the failure spot on the affected skylight was actually the rubber seal of the glass itself and not the frame, so I got some rubber gloves from her and carefully smeared that black goo around each of the 3 skylights on her roof. Even though only one of them was leaking, it the others didn't look all that great either, so what the hell.

As far as the drywall goes, I doubt if that will ever get fixed. I just hope we stopped the leak.

Freezers and Food

Let's start with the freezer. You know... Those square things that are supposed to keep all your hoarded food cold?

I was on my way out to go shopping this morning. I wanted to go early to beat the mass of weekend shoppers--Especially with this being this weekend before Thanksgiving.

But I digress...

Before I went to the store I wanted to start a load of laundry so it would be ready for the dryer by the time I got back home. When I went out to the garage and got the washer all set up, I pulled the knob out to start it and got nothing. Hmm. Just to make sure I was in a "good spot" on the timer, I spun it all the way around and tried it again.

Nothing.

I looked at the outlet. Yep, it was plugged in. Then it occurred to me that the garage freezer was on the same circuit. "Nooo.... " a voice inside my head cried, with the sudden realization that I had used that outlet last weekend when I had the shop vac and chop saw both going and I was cutting my firewood up.

But it was true.

I opened the freezer and it was cool. Not cold--Cool. I felt around, noting the condition of the various foods that were in it. Apparently it was only now getting to the total thaw point because there was still some "frozen" in the center of some of the things that are normally soft. I went over to the circuit breaker panel and saw that the breaker had tripped. I flipped it back and heard the hum as the freezer kicked on. Even had I not decided to wash clothes I still would have found it out though because I always look in there to see how much bread I have left before I go shopping.

Most of what was in there was stuff like breads, french fries, and pot pies (Marie Callender's of course), although there were a few cuts of meat and some Tilapia filets too. I'm not worried about the fish because they are all vac-packed at the factory. The pot pies and the fries... I figure not much to go wrong there. The steak and package of ground beef I think I'll chuck out though... I don't trust em. The two whole chickens that are in there are still mostly frozen so I'll play the odds and leave em be too.

The funny thing is, the breaker never popped when I was using it last Saturday. At no time did I ever lose power on anything I was using at the time. I must have popped some time between now and then or the freezer would have been even warmer than it was I'm sure. I need to watch it like a hawk I guess to make sure it's okay.

The main reason I wanted to go to Winco Foods today was that they always have a special deal going before Thanksgiving. If you spend $50 or more, your frozen whole turkey is half their sale price, which is already cheap. For example, my 14-lb. turkey today cost me a whopping $3.02. You can't hardly beat 22 cents a lb can ya? I will never get any "post-Thanksgiving turkey unless I cook one myself. My selfish asshole of a father won't let my mom send any leftovers home with any of us so she doesn't even volunteer it. Who knows, I may go back and buy another turkey before it expires. If nothing else, I can just buy a few cases of beer to make the $50 minimum.

Anyway... The bottom line is don't assume that your "reserve" freezer is working. It pays to check up on things from time to time. Don't let "Out of sight-Out of mind" ruin your day. Or your pantry stores.

A Week of Easy Overtime

It's overtime, true... But it's fairly pleasurable work. To me anyway. It's definitely not for everybody though.

I've been on a priority job shift at work. While my regular job is "on hold" and the inbox is piling up I've been put on a special project. Myself and Elaine are the only two people there that seem to have what it takes to do this job because it's very, very tedious and yet requires a the utmost attention to detail. We've been gluing 1/8" foam onto parts. At the risk of going into too much detail, imagine an aluminum suitcase about one foot high, one foot deep, and 1.5 foot wide. Inside are all kinds of little compartments and areas to hold tools or equipment captive while in transit. Our company buys the boxes, but we make all the stuff for the inside. After all that, Elaine and I build them. When they are finished they are works of art, but boy are they tedious. As I said before though, we're working in a nice, comfortable environment that's warm and quiet. Every day when I get off work my fingers are covered with glue residue. I feel like a poster boy for an eczema commercial.

I'm just about to the Boeing application process. I've pretty much finished my resume online but haven't submitted it yet. I just got an email from Steve yesterday that said he had talked to one of my coworkers and told him I was thinking of coming back. He said, "Yes, we need planners badly! Tell him to call John!" and gave Steve the boss's phone number to give me. John was my boss when I was there too, and probably still remembers me. It's sounding better and better.

Boeing is a company that gives their employees about 2 weeks off over the Christmas holidays every year, and according to Steve, they cut off employment from now until the first of the year so they won't get someone hired on and immediately give them 2 weeks off with pay. Makes sense.

I just know that things sure seems different where I work now than back in May of 2002 when I was first hired on. Everything seems to have gone "loose" and is disconnected. The owners (brothers, remember?) run pretty much the whole show, but Phil (he's the one that runs the shop aspect of the company) seems to be losing his grasp. I think the company has gotten to big for him to handle. Everything is always in a disarray and things are constantly "falling through the cracks" and not getting done or done correctly. There needs to be real change made around there, but I don't see it ever happening. They are both getting up in years, and frankly, I don't see a future for the company. There is no "new blood" being groomed at the top. There has never been any sign of any successors or heirs to ever take over the company. If either Phil or Bernie ever strokes out it's all over.

I like to work efficiently and I like to see plans and guidelines and criteria. There seems to be none existing any more there. There is no redundancy there. For example, there is only one guy there that writes purchae order's. If we need something shipped or bought or whatever, we have to wait for him. His schedule. Hardly any of the computers in the company are networked. One or two are on the internet, one is hooked to the PO printer, etc... You get the idea. It's just a sad state in today's world. They actually print their house orders (that's the what we call our manufacturing plans) using Microsoft Word instead of using dedicated software. Poor Sue up at the front desk uses Windows 3.1 on her computer! I kid you not.

See what I mean? Time to move on. It's been a good run and I've learned a lot about the manufacturing business. It should serve me well at Boeing.

The Sunday Sicklies

That's what I had I guess--I was in bad shape all day yesterday. I think I had the flu.

I woke up yesterday morning with a splitting headache. I mean a bad one. I wasn't even going to wait to see if the caffeine in my coffee had any effect on it--I smacked it with Excedrin right off the bat. Even that didn't kill it completely.

I did my blog post yesterday during my coffee, but I barely got my coffee down and my stomach decided it was going to jump into the fray. I never "lost" anything, but I did have to go lie down for a while. It was during that time under the covers that I noticed I was getting colder. After an hour or so I got up, intending to do some daily chores. Sarah called and wanted to come over and borrow my laptop while I have hers here overhauling it. I was still in my robe at that point, so I reluctantly got dressed, not wanting to look like the derelict I felt like. She and Teresa came over and were here for a few minutes while we got everything together. After they left I put my robe back on.

Over my clothes.

I was still freezing, and in the back of my mind my headache was still there. It was making just enough of itself known that I wouldn't forget about it. I decided at that point that I would try a little grown-up medicine. Five or six vodka/cranberry's later it seemed to be working well. Although I was still cold, I felt good enough to cook dinner. After I wolfed a baked potato, a whole can of green beans, and 3 pieces of pan-fried Tilapia, I felt pretty good. Trouble is, couple all those drinks and all that food and what do you get?

Tired, that's what.

I lay down on my bed and dozed for a couple hours. When I got up it was only an hour or so until bedtime, but I noticed my chills had pretty much subsided. I was beginning to think that last night would have to be the first time in years I might have to wear something under the covers, but by bedtime I seemed fine.

Now this morning it's like it never happened.

Security: My Fortress Mentality

Remember when you were a kid and played "fort"?

Sometimes it was a nasty day and you were in the comfort of your house. Carefully arranging chairs or other furniture and draping a blanket or something over them to create an enclosure of sorts. Sometimes it might be just playing in a corner or behind something where there wasn't a lot of space.

Outside was a little different. The enclosures were totally different, but they were "forts" nonetheless. Growing up in the rural town of Algona just to the south of me here, we had a lot of space to play. One of my favorite times was in the middle of summer when everything was dry, including the deep drainage ditches that bordered all the roads in the town. They were all lined with tall grass that created a nice carpet when it was matted down. We'd place boards (or whatever else was handy) across the span, creating a nice, cozy space underneath. Just the tall grasses would even make a nice fort out in the middle of a field if you matted them down in a nice round pattern, creating walls of the still-standing grass. The endless mounds of blackberry bushes that grew wild in the area also created an interesting fortress. Although blackberry bushes were tall and rounded clumps of thorny vines covered with leaves on the outside, the underneath was a dark, hollow space with no vegetation. All that was under them was the thick, woody vine stalks with lots of space to walk or crawl around through if you were careful.

I guess it's something about having a space--A space that's yours and nobody else's. A space where you feel secure, whether it's real or imagined.

I get the same feelings when I do some things nowadays, but they're variations on that theme. Now I get the same feeling when I have all my stuff gathered into my space. For example, when I moved in here--When I finally had all my stuff moved inside my walls and the doors were closed and locked I felt the feeling again. Ahh... Security. Now I could do all the stuff I wanted and spread my stuff all around because I was safely within my walls. Nobody could mess with my stuff. I get another variation of the feeling when I stand behind my screened windows in the summertime--Mentally thumbing my nose at the bugs, cats, and other wandering critters--Knowing myself and my stuff is safe within my boundaries.

Where am I going with this?

Yesterday I felt the same feeling after I spent a couple hours out in the garage cutting up my firewood. After I moved it all into the living room and saw this (you can click it for a full size pic):


Maybe it's that "hoarding for winter" mentality this time, I don't know. I just know I felt the same feeling of security when I had this pile of wood in my living room.

I guess this time I'm thumbing my nose at winter.

I Need a Change

I'm not sure exactly, but I think it's mostly my job. I need something else.

I say I'm not sure because I really haven't put my finger on the source of my discontent. Maybe it's not my job--Maybe I need to move... I don't know. It's just that lately I feel like everything is wrong somehow. Nothing seems to be clicking. I've pointed an angry finger on more than one occasion recently at all three of my vehicles, like they're letting me down.

What if I'm just letting myself down?

When it comes to my job, I have to suffer the slings and arrows of my lack of education. I made my bed, now I have to lie in it. I'm not one of those rapid-fire job changers that has a resume' that's multiple pages long--I like to stick with a job. I like the feeling of loyalty to an employer. When you are just a basic "jack of all trades" as I am, you will never earn a lot of money unless you do stick with an employer through thick and thin.

Unless you work at Boeing.

I have to admit, I was online looking at their jobs last night. They have a lot of openings and I could easily get hired on there. Do I really want to? I hate the unknowns that come with working for Boeing. How long will your job last is the big one. Will your job move you to another area to work at some point down the road? If I didn't like it much back then, why would now be any different?

Because Boeing gives you vacation time off and sick days, that's why. And regular raises and good insurance and lots of other bennies.

I think what's really bugging me lately though about my job is the lack of time off. I'm not talking the opposite of overtime--I work the usual 8 hour days and get my weekends off. I'm talking about vacation time. I have worked there for well over 5 years and still only have one week of vacation. You know what you want to do when you have only one week of vacation? You want to put it under a glass case or mount it on a plaque on the wall. In other words--Not use it. It's just not enough to be flexible with. One teeny little vacation wipes you out for an entire year. Your friends might go on a Harley event someplace, but you can't go because your vacation is in "in case of emergency, break glass" storage area. You are afraid to waste it, and that just makes it eat at you all the more.

My supervisor said to me once that at La Croix Industries vacation is a "negotiated" thing. Being a merit shop, nobody gets things automatically--They have to earn them. You know what? I shouldn't have to negotiate vacation. I haven't missed an unscheduled day of work since I've been there, and the 2 or 3 times I've been late for work in 5 ½ years have all been no more than one or two minutes.

I'm just disgruntled. Maybe it's my job--Maybe not. All I know is, I need a change. I wish someone could tell me what it is...

Okay, okay... So it's Monday...

...And I haven't posted anything since Friday. Obviously, my weekend wasn't anything much to write about or I would probably already done so. It wasn't a bad weekend, just a "dum dee dum" weekend.

My Friday night was so special I really don't remember a single thing about it. For the life of me, I can't even remember what the hell I ate for dinner that night even. Obviously, it was not a newsworthy evening.

When I finally got up and around on Saturday morning, I was just leaving to go over to the store to get some beer so it would be cold by beer drinking time when Steve rode up on his new Harley. It was sweet! The model is a Street Glide, and it's very nice. It had all the smells of something that still isn't used to getting hot--The paint, the metal--All were emitting that "new bike" smell. Well, I'm only assuming that because I've never owned a new bike... After visiting with him for a while, he left and I continued to the store to get my beer, which was needed because I planned on spending the rest of my day out in the garage/driveway putting the steering column back into my truck. During the time I was out there, my friend Greg drove up, showing off the new tires he had just had put on his Scion. He's the kind of guy that totally loves doing garage work, and he ended up out there working with me the whole rest of the day.

I put the steering column in (containing the new ignition switch) and the original "no start" problem was still there. At that point, we took the distributor out and dissected it, testing things as we went. One part of it was "iffy" so I opted to replace that portion of it. After we went downtown and bought the replacement portion, we bench-tested it with a battery. When we spun it by hand we got a nice hot blue spark. After putting it back in the truck we got nothing. Weird. About the time we were playing with it, something else gave up and no power was going to the starter any more. Needless to say, it was a good day even though the truck still isn't any better. Everything we did went without a hitch and the weather was fantastic.

Yesterday was an indoor day. It started out by setting clocks back from daylight savings time, then Sarah coming over to do homework. At least she's got good options for doing homework--Some kids probably don't even have computers... Even in this day and age. Anyway, while she was doing that I was doing laundry and washing dishes and stuff. At about noon I took her back home (her mom had dropped her off that morning on the way to do some shopping or something). The rest of the day was just a putzing around day... Cleaning and computer stuff. Right before the sun went down, I went out and took the starter out of my truck and tore into it on the bench. Eventually I'll get to the bottom of what ails that goddamned truck...

That was my weekend.

One additional thing I will talk about though concerns my strange sleep pattern of last week. For some reason I woke every day of the week at 2am give or take 10 minutes. I swear it was that regular. It started a week ago on Sunday night/Monday morning. Each of the days of the week the exact same thing. Once or twice I heard a car running outside, but not each of the days, so I doubt if there was something that woke me up each night. If there was, it was quick and I never knew what it was.

The trouble was that every single day of the week that it happened, and I mean every single time it happened I never did get back to sleep. What that boils down to is this: I go to bed at 10pm, wake up at 2am, and get up at 4am. That's not a lot of sleep. I noticed Friday night's sleep was marginally better, but I still woke up at that time. The only difference was that I was able to just stay in bed because it was Saturday morning, so although I never really got back to sleep, I still was able to get enough rest before getting up. Saturday night was better, and last night was back to a full night's sleep again.

I've noticed something about me and my body: For some reason, when I get something that's bothering me or ailing me, I always seem to have it for 5-6 days. Whether it's a headache or whatever--5-6 days.

Isn't that weird?

Keeping Up With The Joneses

I'm talking about my best friend Steve. He just can't stand it when someone has something better or newer than he does, but unlike most people that you hear about that do that sort of thing, he doesn't do it to brag. Okay, he does like to play "show & tell" when he gets something new, but who doesn't?

No, with him it's more of a feeling of restlessness--A feeling of sudden dissatisfaction with something he currently owns. He's very impulsive and because of that, tends to be fickle and lose interest in things quickly too. I am that way sometimes myself--I just don't have money to play with like he does.

A good example: When he came over and first saw my mannequin dressed in her biker garb, he thought that was just too cool, and he's been searching for one ever since. It will have to happen because he can't really rest until he fills his "shopping list."

Anyway, the whole reason for this post today? He bought a new Harley! His other one is new by my standards--He just bought it in 2005 and there isn't a bug or a speck of dirt on it anywhere. It's not like he doesn't ride it either... He has put a respectable number of miles on it. It's a beautiful bike, no question about it.

So what prompted him to buy a new one? Two of his coworkers/riding buddies each bought new ones. One of them had a Yamaha something or other and recently bought a new Harley with all the options and bells & whistles on it. He's a guy that is so "plugged in" (literally) to his bike that it takes him 5 minutes to hook/unhook every time we stop or start a ride. He has on board cameras, GPS... You name it. Another coworker/fellow rider traded in his bike that's almost like Steve's and also ended up with a model of Electra Glide. It seems more and more folks are dumping the Softail models and going to the 'Glides. I would like one myself, but that's another story.

So the other night Steve popped up in a chat window and told me he was putting his bike up for sale and was going to buy a new 'Glide. He told me the whole story and sent me a link to the sale ad for his bike. He also sent me a link to a picture of the bike he was getting. Pretty nice... Complete with ABS brakes even! At the time he was chatting to with me about it, somebody was already calling him about it. The guy identifies himself as Scott somebody from Eastside Harley-Davidson, and he offers Steve $12,500 for his bike right then and there (Steve had his Harley on Craigslist for $13,995).
"Hey, when I rode it down there last week, you only offered me $12,000. If it's going to keep going up every week I'll hold out for another couple weeks!" Steve says.
"Oh, you were here and I looked at it already? Hang on, let me check something," he says while he puts Steve on hold. He came back on the phone and says, "I'll tell you what--You buy the bike you were looking at right now and I'll give you $13,500 for yours."

Steve said he gave the guy his Visa card number and told him to hang a 'SOLD' sign on that new one. He always has moved fast when it came to buying and selling and "horse-trading."

He paid about $16,500 for it when he bought it, and I know he's well over $20,000 with all the stuff he's bought and had done to it.

But like Rhon said... It's his money!

My Halloween Day

I started off my day by riding my squeaky Harley to work.

I looked outside and saw frost and clear air so I went with it. Everything was going great until I go almost to work--I'd say about a mile away--When it became foggy. I was extra-vigilant because sub-zero temperatures and fog aren't a good mix. I kept a sharp eye on the road surface as I rode just in case. I was in 35mph zones all the way to work at that point and it was well traveled, and I relaxed when I saw that the road surface was staying totally dry. Then on the last street leading to my work, the fog got suddenly thick and "whited out" my goggles. I was the only vehicle on the street at that particular time so I couldn't just follow tail lights of the car in front of me. All I could see is the staggered street lights showing the general path of the curving road. The bottom line is that I'm fine and didn't crash or anything, but I literally almost missed the driveway going into our parking lot--I was almost that blind. Oh, and don't forget frozen--I was also that. I had a lot of trouble getting my helmet unclasped with numb fingertips...

The ride home was great. I had on extra clothing from the ride in that morning, and even though it was somewhat chilly out, I was totally comfortable and loved every moment of it. I did a quick stop at home to turn my heat and computer on, then grabbed a beer and rode over to Sarah's house to visit with her and drop off a child support check for her momma. I wonder if I would visit more often if there was beer in their fridge? Hmm. I'll bet Teresa's dad would--I think he's mentioned that before. Anyway, I visited with her for a while then left to come home and get my Halloween stuff all taken care of.

I hung the skeleton in the window like I planned, then went to the garage and brought out my plug-in garage "trouble light." Last year I bought 4 screw-in "black light" bulbs at a clearance sale (at the huge price of 2 for a buck) and screwed one of those into the trouble light and put it under the skeleton. I also replaced the overhead light in the entryway with one too. What a joke. Those are not "black lights" but rather, purple lights. They have such a dark purple coating over a standard filament that it's basically all you see is a dull purple glowing filament. I left the overhead one on just because it created a nice, eerie glow in the area, but in place of the one under the skeleton I put a candle instead. It looked much more cool.

This year was a repeat of last year pretty much. My doorbell rang 3 times for a total of 6 trick-or-treaters. Actually, it rang four times, but that one wasn't a trick-or-treater--It was Debbie surprising me with a visit! She was still wearing her "office-approved" Halloween costume, consisting of some face-painted whiskers and a kittycat ears headband. She was going to meet a gal pal after work for a drink but it fell through so she instead opted to drop in on me. It was a very nice surprise! We sat on the steps under my 50¢ "mood lighting" and talked (mostly), watching the trick-or-treaters walk by out on the street. Maybe the side door design of my apartment is why people don't ring the bell that much... I dunno. I have the porch light on but I guess that's just the way it's going to be living here. I should count my blessings I guess that I don't get inundated with kids, but on the other hand, I do like looking at their costumes and seeing their happy faces and enthusiasm.

I was disappointed that Kailey didn't come to my door. I had a special bag made up for her and it's still sitting down there. After Debbie left I went over and to deliver it but nobody came to the door. Their porch light was still on, but it's possible that they were visiting around the corner on foot. One of Kailey's grandparents lives within walking distance.

Oh well... I'll go over again today after work.

Happy Halloween!

It looks clear and frosty white outside right now. Brrr!

I doesn't seem like much of a Halloween, but I guess that's because I live alone and I'm still sorta used to seeing the whole house transformed into orange and black like Teresa does every year. I haven't heard a peep from Sarah about carving a pumpkin this year either. Although it's her style to not communicate well and she waits until the last minute on most everything she does, I think it's more of a boyfriend thing this year. I'll stop by after work and see how it's all going.

I stopped on the way home last night and bought a few things to make up a special Halloween good bag for little Kailey next door. She's my special 3-year old neighbor. I bought her a fancy blinky toothbrush, a set of washable Crayola markers, and a little goodie purse with a candy necklace in it.

I didn't get anywhere near the amount of goodies that I got last year to hand out to trick-or-treaters. Last year was a bust and it was even good weather like they're predicting for tonight. Now watch me get swamped this time...

I bought one of those 5-foot tall glow-in-the-dark hanging skeletons the other day to hang in my little window that faces the driveway, but I still haven't hung it up there yet. I need to carefully put a screw in the top of the window frame to hang it on. Although it's glow in the dark, it's not going to glow unless it's "charged" by a light or has a black light shining on it. I highly doubt that I'll be flipping my light on and off to recharge it all evening, so I'll just hang it and let it be.

I think I'll ride the bike to work this morning. According to the web reports, it's 30 degrees out there. I can see it's plenty frosty, but it looks nice and clear. I wouldn't ride if it was foggy because that means icy roads. It's kinda weird--Although it's much more comfortable to ride in a nice warm car, sometimes I'd rather ride the Harley than scrape the windows.

At least this way I'll get a nice sunny ride home after work!

The Weekend Winds Down

It was a good one. Sure, I could have probably found any number of "Halloween" parties last night, but I chose not to go out. That was due partly to the fact that I ate a huge dinner of leftovers and was somewhat lethargic, and partly because I really didn't have any particular direction to go.

The reason I put the word Halloween in quotation marks is the fact that it's not Halloween yet--It's this coming Wednesday this year. My way of thinking is that if someone has a party celebrating any event that isn't actually on that day, it isn't really the event, and for that reason I put it in quotation marks.

It's just one of my quirks.

I spent much of yesterday out in the garage. I know, I know--I should have been out on the Harley on such a beautiful day. The truth is, it was very foggy in the morning and really didn't get all that beautiful here until about 1pm, so it's not like I missed much. I chose instead to open the garage door (see, I was still sorta enjoying the day!) and work on my truck's steering column that I have out on the bench. I managed to get it almost finished, so I can get it back in before too much longer.

Today however, I was on the Harley. Weather-wise, it was a much better day than yesterday was anyway, so it's just as well that I waited. Debbie called at about noon and asked if I wanted to go for a ride. Her timing was perfect, because at that time the day was looking its finest and I just needed a destination. No arm-twisting required. She is going to be filling in for someone this week at a different branch of her office for three days over in Silverdale, so that's where we went. I have to say that when it comes to that sort of thing--It's always nice to "case" the layout in advance so you know where you're going when it comes time for you to show up for work. Today was a perfect day for it too. Sure, the ride to Silverdale from here is mostly freeway and can be boring, but when possible we detoured a bit to break up the monotony.

Today was the first time I had ever seen the new Tacoma Narrows bridge that they just built too, and that was pretty cool. Okay, paying a toll (it was $3 for bikers) kinda sucks, but it's not like you can do anything about it. Anyway, it was a great ride. It's been a while since I rode with anyone else, so it's good practice keeping pace with them and stuff. It's kind of a "watching out for each other" thing when you ride with more than one bike. It helps keep you from doing erratic & irresponsible riding and it insures that you make more deliberate moves and signal plainly.

At least to me it does...

I Cracked Up!

Let me tell you about Sue, our office administrator.

I think I may have briefly mentioned her a time or two in the past, but not really in much detail. She is a Jehovah's Witness. She doesn't "push" it on anybody, but neither does she hide the fact that it is part of her life. She is divorced, and has had a rocky time in the past, suffering the wrath of an abusive alcoholic husband. The as pulled herself up by her bootstraps and has become a survivor. She isn't an outgoing lady at all, and some consider her to be somewhat standoffish and cold. I understand her though. I was one of the few people that ever said anything to her, and I didn't care that I seldom got a reply--I still chose to greet her and talk with her whenever possible. Because of that persistence perhaps, she and I enjoy a friendship that nobody else at work has. By my standards, it's not a very close relationship at all, but for all I know it's near the top for her. We have talked about about many things and have shared many stories and anecdotes about our families and experiences. She has a very infectious, high-pitched laugh that is very easy to hear a little ways away. Yesterday we both had tears streaming down our faces from laughing.

I was at work yesterday morning and was sitting at my desk when she had just come out to use the paper cutter that resides in my workspace. Her work day starts at 8am, so she had just gotten to work a few minutes earlier. My leather jacket and helmet and stuff was sitting over by the paper cutter, so she commented on my riding in on such a cold day. Here's kinda how it went:
"You rode your bike today?" she asked incredulously, "It was kinda cold wasn't it?"
I leaned towards her for emphasis, and said in a mock sheepish expression on my face, "Yeah, it was so cold I couldn't pee for like an hour after I got here."
She erupted in laughter as she turned to the paper cutter. She was standing there and was just about to start cutting, and she again erupted in fit of laughter, this time more intense than the first.
"What?" I asked turning towards her. I hated to miss out on a good chance for conversation between us when she was in such a good mood.
"I was just thinking that..." Suddenly she erupts in laughter again, doubling over instead of cutting paper. In between laughs she manages to get out, "I was thinking that you need to get one of those things they put over faucets in the winter!" With that she cracks up again.
"You mean those styrofoam cup things?" I asked.
She nodded, still laughing herself silly as I joined in. Both of us laughed and laughed at the thought. Then as the laughter was starting to die down, I just had to rev it up again:
"I dunno--I think I would have to wear it on the outside, and imagine the people pointing while I'm stopped at the traffic lights 'look mommy, what's that man have on him?'"
We laughed and laughed and laughed... By the time we were finished we both were wiping our eyes and others nearby were wondering what all the ruckus was. As to not embarrass Sue I didn't explain it to anyone else until after she had gone back inside. It was truly a special moment to get my Friday workday going.

After I got home from work I got a call from Teresa, wondering if I would go to Lowe's with her and help her look over some weatherstrip choices to fix the back door threshold on her house. She came and got me and she bought a "scrubber" weatherstrip that screws onto the bottom of the door to eliminate drafts, and also bought one of those plastic window kits that you use your hair dryer on. I took the back door off and put on the scrubber thing, which worked fine. She was happy about that. One draft eliminated. After that we put a layer of that plastic stuff on the back door window (yes, same door). It worked pretty cool! The window is only about 18" x 24" or so, but it's single pane and it definitely sweats in the winter. All in all, she was happy with what we had done in a short amount of time.

Shortly after I got back home Debbie came over, staying until about 9:30 or so. When we are together we yak incessantly about every little thing. I really enjoy her company a lot and we seem to be "clicking" pretty well!

What's this? Rick is "smitten" by someone?

Being a "Biker"

You know, it's funny... I never considered myself to be a "biker" and I still don't. I love motorcycles and always have. My balls are the same size as most other guys' are I'm sure.

Here in the Seattle area it rains a fair amount, but not like other places in the U.S. When it rains here it's like "slow motion" rain. Sometimes it's just drizzle and sometimes it's just sorta "falling".

First of all, let me preface my blurb by saying that I work from 6am to 2:30pm. That means that I leave home at 5:30-ish (also known as Oh-dark-thirty). When you walk outside at that time of day, you can't really tell what the weather is going to do because it's still dark. Because of that, I use online weather forecasts. I never rely on just one--I usually use at least two and average them out and look for commonalities.

Wednesday of this week I rode to work (I rode before that too, but this is when the weather came into play). The forecasts called for showers throughout the day. BFD. To me, "showers" means that whenever a dark cloud happens to be full enough, it will dump for a bit. That doesn't mean rain all day. When I rode in that morning, I got all sorts of comments from folks. Things like:

"Whoa, you are hardcore, buddy"
"I was gonna ride my bike in today but it was supposed to rain."
"What are you, crazy?"

I don't get it. Okay... I get a little of it: That last comment was mostly geared toward the fact that my rear tire is about shot (more like bald in the middle) and I don't use a windshield. Throughout the day it did rain off and on. But when I left work it was fine just as I knew (hoped) it would be. Had it not--Oh well.

Today it was the same thing though, but for a different reason. The forecast was for a sunny day. Here in western Washington in late October, if it's going to be clear and sunny during the day, it's going to be clear and COLD during the night. Bottom line. So I was going to not ride to work because it was so cold in the morning? No way! How the hell else do you enjoy a beautiful ride home in the crisp fall sun after work if you don't ride to work?

This morning was definitely cold. When I walked outside, it wasn't just "frost" on the car windows--It was ICE. The bank sign I later rode by in town said 30 degrees. No problem--I had on my extra layer and my "head sock" and my chin/neck warmer.

Among today's comments after I rode in:

"Fuuuck, you're hardcore man."
"Eskimo biker."
"You da man."

Okay, I admit... It's cool to get comments like that and I enjoy it. Who wouldn't? But just because I don't like to let Mother Nature tell me when it's okay to ride? Nah. Okay, I may be crazy sometimes--Riding on that rear tire for example. I didn't look at it as dangerous--After all, it has good tread on the sides for cornering. I looked at it like it was just more fishtailing throttle fun I could have on the straightaways!

Some may call me a biker, but I don't see it that way.

I'm just an enthusiast.

I Would Like to Hope...

...That this may be a turning point. I spent about 3 hours outside after work troubleshooting the water leak in my car. How could I not? The weather today was phenomenal! At any rate, I have finally found the source of the water leak and spent plenty of time digging all the old crap out of the area before resealing it. I then used some different stuff than I did before--Stuff that was given to me by the windshield guy that came out to look at my car a couple weeks ago at work.

Did I fix it? I should know tomorrow, because when I finally narrowed it down I was able to see where it was coming in by pouring water in a certain spot. I'll do the same tomorrow while I'm holding my breath...

It was so nice today I couldn't believe it. Obviously I rode the Harley to work, knowing it was supposed to be nice today, but I wasn't prepared for how nice it actually was when I walked out to my bike after work ended!

I had spent all day yesterday and today at the back of the shop sitting in a chair doing silver solder work. Essentially, it's a form of brazing (which is like welding but not quite) but uses a specialty brazing wire that's very expensive, called silver solder (pronounced sodder). The reason we have to use silver solder is that I'm working with stainless steel, and regular brazing rod won't do the trick. These are little things that heart surgeons use in O.R. to restart hearts after they stop them during surgery. We make the rod and the round disk end both at our shop, and I'm one of the few people that knows how to attach them together and do a good job at it apparently. Job security? Nah, but it's at least a change of pace from my normal job.

Well, if it's not raining in the morning I'll ride to work again.

OMG!

I'm turning into my dad! It seems to be apparent, and I don't like it one bit. Although there are many aspects to being my dad, I'm only talking about one particular trait that he possesses:

Fixing things that aren't broken.

Whenever he "fixes" things around the house or on a vehicle, he causes more problems than he started with. There are many reasons for it I suppose, and among them:

• Not troubleshooting things correctly to begin with (me)
• Not doing investigation before jumping in with both feet (me)
• Lack of patience (me)

I suppose that I could come up with all sorts of things like that given enough time, but I don't have the patience for it. It suffices to say I've recently caused an awful lot of extra work/expense over things that never should have been "repaired" to begin with.

Let me see if I can come up with a few things to illustrate my point...

• This last summer I totally gutted my car to fix what I thought was a leaky heater core. Was it leaking? I thought so, but maybe it wasn't. Did it fix the water leak? Fuck no it didn't, and I'm still fucking around with it. And that's after I spent $60 on a new heater core too. As of this very moment, I have a wet floor, the blower motor is out, and the whole top of the dash is still off of it. Add to that the fact that I've had two people out to work to "fix" what I thought must be a leaky windshield. Maybe it isn't? Who the fuck knows--Certainly not me because I'm "my dad" now.
• I have not been able to figure out why my truck only starts some of the time. Instead of really troubleshooting it methodically, I've just been doing the "remove and replace" method. Is it fixed yet? Fuck no... I'm "my dad" so I obviously can't fix it. So far I have bought a new distributor cap, rotor, ignition module (it goes under the distributor cap), spark plugs, and ignition switch. When I removed the ignition switch, I couldn't get the new one back on. I stupidly (underline that) couldn't get the new one on, and little by little ended up delving deeper and deeper into it. Right now the whole steering column is out of the truck and on the bench in my garage, half torn apart. Will I get it back together? Who the fuck knows. All I know is, I bought a new ignition switch (fortunately fairly cheap), and a specialty tool for steering wheel disassembly that I didn't need. Why didn't I need it? Simple--I'm my dad and I tried to put the fucking switch in wrong. Instead of really investigating the problem, I assumed that a linkage had slipped when I took it apart, causing it to not align correctly to allow for reassembly. Wrong. There are a lot of parts in a GM tilt-wheel steering column. Key switch, turn signal switch, dimmer, ball bearings (I found 12 out of 14), tilt wheel linkages... What a mess. And all I had to do was open my fucking eyes...
• The famed Harley shocks fiasco. I spent over $200 on shocks that have caused me nothing but trouble. Did they actually help the ride? Fuck no. What should I have done? Put some new tires on it. Instead of starting with the right things first, I lit the bottom of the fucking candle. Why? Duh... Obviously I'm "my dad."
• Yesterday I went up to Federal Way to buy some more memory for my laptop. I took the old chips out and looked at them, noting their speed. I "assumed" that I should buy the same speed (pc2100 @266mhz for you geeks following this) to play it safe and make sure they would work, even though all the newer RAM is faster speed than that. I got home and plugged em in. Did they work? Fuck no. I could have easily taken my laptop with me and installed them on the spot, but nooooo.... I can't do anything right. Now I have to go back up there and get my $100 back (if I'm lucky). Just call me "my dad."
  

I could go on and on. It's plainly a case of me losing my ability to fix things, and because it has happened little by little, it's taken me a while to realize it. I'm not happy about this one bit. I can't see well, I can't hear well, my patience has been sliding for some time, and now this. I find it extremely frustrating. I don't make enough money for me to keep pissing it away "fixing" shit that was never broken to begin with.

Now I'm going to have to go into my Real Me page and change some shit. The fact that I "can fix almost anything" is now history, and who know what else I'll find...