I woke up this morning with this absolutely great idea for a blog entry for today.
Of course I imediately went back to sleep and forgot it. I should have written it down. Several times now I have awakened from a dream that would make a great short story and thought "I should write that down" but of course I don't, and by the time I am fully awake, it is long gone.
On the other hand, frequently after waking, and in the harsh light of reality, the ideas suck.
I have had a series of related dreams for years, that actually hang together as a coherent story. The Government has been overthrown and I am leading a small group of rebels going around attacking government outposts. We are living in the mountains in Eastern Washington or North Idaho and conducting guerilla warfare. I never die or get hurt in these dreams, but get a great deal of satisfaction blowing things up.
Wonder what Sigmund would have to say on the subject.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Monday, September 11, 2006
I wear a black stud in my left ear to remember 9/11. I swore I would wear it until they brought the twisted mental defectives who thought up this terrible act to justice. It is too bad that five years later I still wear it.
I have no vendetta against the Arab peoples of this planet. Like any other people, they are mostly good people trying to survive in a very confusing and complicated world. Doing the best they can.
So remember the victims and heros today.
ps: I "Borrowed" the picture from Rick's Blog.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Short week, long day
It always seems to me like life demands that you have to take so much crap at work every week.
It doesn't matter how many hours you work, you still have to account for the same amount of crap. So weeks with a Holiday in them mean the crap just has to be shifted to the other days to make up. The weeks that are really bad make up for the sick days you took when you weren't really sick, or the time you go on vacation.
Don't get me wrong, I love my job and have a hard time thinking of doing anything different, but there is always a certain amount of crap to go along with the gravy. (Now there's a nasty visual).
So hope everyone has a great Friday and a better weekend, and be careful of the lumps in the gravy.
It doesn't matter how many hours you work, you still have to account for the same amount of crap. So weeks with a Holiday in them mean the crap just has to be shifted to the other days to make up. The weeks that are really bad make up for the sick days you took when you weren't really sick, or the time you go on vacation.
Don't get me wrong, I love my job and have a hard time thinking of doing anything different, but there is always a certain amount of crap to go along with the gravy. (Now there's a nasty visual).
So hope everyone has a great Friday and a better weekend, and be careful of the lumps in the gravy.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Parrot Joke
A guy I know has a pet parrot. He fed it by hand. Hepoured some nuts or sunflower seeds in his hand, and the bird would eat them out of his hand.
The problem with this was that the bird was an agressive feeder and sometimes would bite his hand. As a result his hands were always sore.
He decided that the best solution would be to file off some of the parrot's beak.
He went down to the hardware store to buy a file. The clerk asked him what he needed, and he said "I'm here to buy a file."
The clerk asked "What kind of file we have flat files, round files, rasps, even half round bastards. What are you going to use it for?."
The guy explained that he was going to use it to file off part of the beak of his parrot.
The clerk said "You can't do that, the parrot will starve!"
The guy said "I didn't ask for advice, just a file!"
So he bought a file and went home.
A couple of weeks later he was back at the hardware store and ran into the same clerk.
The clerk asks "So hows the Parrot?"
The guy says "Oh, he died."
The clerk says "HA!!! I told you he would starve without his beak!!!"
The guy says " You don't know anything. He was already dead when I took his head out of the vise!"
The problem with this was that the bird was an agressive feeder and sometimes would bite his hand. As a result his hands were always sore.
He decided that the best solution would be to file off some of the parrot's beak.
He went down to the hardware store to buy a file. The clerk asked him what he needed, and he said "I'm here to buy a file."
The clerk asked "What kind of file we have flat files, round files, rasps, even half round bastards. What are you going to use it for?."
The guy explained that he was going to use it to file off part of the beak of his parrot.
The clerk said "You can't do that, the parrot will starve!"
The guy said "I didn't ask for advice, just a file!"
So he bought a file and went home.
A couple of weeks later he was back at the hardware store and ran into the same clerk.
The clerk asks "So hows the Parrot?"
The guy says "Oh, he died."
The clerk says "HA!!! I told you he would starve without his beak!!!"
The guy says " You don't know anything. He was already dead when I took his head out of the vise!"
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Last Deck Post
So, I promise I won't bore you any more with anything to do with my new deck, But I did promise to publish a photo of it when it was done.
Here it is with the new furniture. We've had dinner out on the new deck the last couple of days. It was real nice.
I sure am glad to be done with it.
Welcome back Blogger
For the last couple of weeks, Blogger has not allowed me to access the site from work. Don't ask me why.
I felt like someone stole my binkie, and I didn't have my blankie to console me.
Today everything has returned to the status quo (you notice I didn't say normal).
The deck is done. Yesterday, Mrs A and I went out looking for outdoor furniture for the deck. We found a very nice aluminum and wood table and chairs marked down from $699 to $349 on an end-of-season sale. Unfortunately it had no umbrella, and they were all out of replacements. They suggested I go straight to the manufacturer.
So we had hamburgers outside on the deck last night, and it made it worth all the hard work and cusswords. I hope my neighbors have recovered from the shock and the blue sulfurous cloud that hung over that corner of the house during construction.
So long to Steve Irwin, who was way too cocky and obviuosly took too many risks, but entertained millions of nature lovers. He will be missed.
I felt like someone stole my binkie, and I didn't have my blankie to console me.
Today everything has returned to the status quo (you notice I didn't say normal).
The deck is done. Yesterday, Mrs A and I went out looking for outdoor furniture for the deck. We found a very nice aluminum and wood table and chairs marked down from $699 to $349 on an end-of-season sale. Unfortunately it had no umbrella, and they were all out of replacements. They suggested I go straight to the manufacturer.
So we had hamburgers outside on the deck last night, and it made it worth all the hard work and cusswords. I hope my neighbors have recovered from the shock and the blue sulfurous cloud that hung over that corner of the house during construction.
So long to Steve Irwin, who was way too cocky and obviuosly took too many risks, but entertained millions of nature lovers. He will be missed.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Dynamite
My mother's side of the family has traditionally held a family reunion on the Fourth of July every year. I have always enjoyed getting together with the relatives I don't see the rest of the year and see what everyone has been doing. Not the same people show up every year, so there is always someone different to talk to. It is always potluck, with everyone bringing something they make especially well or are proud of (not necessarily the same thing). It is pretty much a traditional Fourth of July.
Except for the dynamite.
My Aunt and Uncle live on the South end of Vashon Island, where they have a sizeable chunk of property. It is a very rural setting. The land is mostly second growth timber and brush. At the time, because they were clearing land, they could but dynamite (for agricultural purposes only) at the Co-op. Anyone who has spent time on the business end of a muck stick and prybar trying to get a stubborn stump out of the ground can really appreciate the pristine beauty of a couple of well placed sticks of dynamite. Not to mention the fact that it is a heck of a lot of fun to make things go BOOM. Both the relatives on Vashon and my family in Idaho had obtained and used dynamite for a number of years.
For the family get-together, people would usually start arriving around noon, and start out with the veggies-and-dip, and chips and snacks. Around the same time the first fireworks would show up. The policy towards fireworks has never been consistent in the State of Washington. Heck, it is not even consistent from block to block. It is literally possible to buy fireworks, walk a couple of blocks and be arrested for setting them off. It is not a policy designed to to build a great deal of respect for the law and its enforcement. To complicate matters, the Indian Reservations are only subject to Federal Law, so you can get a lot more of "The Good Stuff" from the Indians, including some stuff that is outside Federal guidelines.
Every year, McCord Air Force Base in Tacoma holds an Airshow to celebrate the Fourth. They generally flew North out of the base and turned around at the North end of Vashon. During the day we would see all kinds of Aircraft from fighters to cargo carriers, to bombers. We would hear them coming and rush outside to see if we could identify the type and model of the plane.
The fireworks would typically start with the younger kids lighting snakes and smoke bombs, then progress through lady fingers, regular firecrackers, bottle rockets and the usual small fireworks. Since we had to take the last ferry back to the mainland at around 7:00 we never got into the more elaborate airborne displays. We spent the afternoon and early evening, when not occupied eating, inventing new and more elaborate ways of blowing things up.
Firecrackers were placed under tin cans.
Holes were punched in tin cans to pass the fuse through, and then the cans pushed down into mud or soft sand. The idea is to see how high in the air you can blow the can. My personal favorite was an Old El Paso chilies can inside a regular soup can partly filled with water. If you didn't get the fuse wet, it was good for at least a hundred feet of altitude.
I suppose that it was inevitable that we would someday come to the conclusion that since we had dynamite, and there were stumps to be blown, there was no reason we couldn't blow stumps an the Fourth of July. We didn't do this every year, just when the urge was irresistible.
One year after sending cans flying as high as possible, we started speculating how high in the air we could send something if dynamite provided the propulsive force and we could find something sturdy enough to not disintegrate. First we took an old wellhead, dropped a lit stick of dynamite down it, followed by a section of madrona. It made a satisfactory BOOM, but the wood disappeared completely. We never saw it after it left the pipe.
Next we saw a car wheel laying out by the barn. Perfect!
We put the car wheel on a flat place over the top of a stick of dynamite, lit the fuse and got back.
BOOM!
Totally unsatisfactory. The wheel, spinning madly went about thirty feet in the air. Heck we could blow tin cans a lot higher than that. The problem seemed to be that the force of the explosion needed to be focused. Not an insurmountable problem. Having experienced the benefits of the fact that water is not compressible, we decided to dig a pit slightly larger than the wheel about a foot deep, fill it with water and try again. And since one stick of dynamite didn't provide enough propulsive force, three ought to do the job!
We finished digging our pit and filling it with water. Actually, but the time it soaked in, it was more like thin mud than water, but we were pretty sure it would do the job. We had waterproof fuse, so we didn't have to worry about the fuse going out. We set three sticks of dynamite equally spaced in the pit, and dropped in the wheel. We lit the fuse and got the heck out of there.
Just as we lit the fuse ad retreated, we heard a thumping noise on the horizon. It was a flight of six helicopter. Surely they wouldn't be coming anywhere near us! But they kept on a course that would bring them right overhead.
OH SHIT!
We looked at the wheel with the dynamite under it. The fuse got shorter. No one was willing to go near it to pull the fuse. A mistake would probably be fatal.
The helicopters came closer.
The fuse got shorter
Closer
Shorter
BOOM!!!
We had succeeded in our plans, for the wheel flew a couple of hundred feet in the air.
Right into the view of the helicopters. They must have seen it, because the formation split apart and headed away.
We figured we were in huge trouble. The first thing we did was put the dynamite back in the powder shed. Then we all went in and watched some sporting event on TV and prayed nothing came of it. Every time a car went by, we figured it was going to turn in the driveway, filled with guys in grey trenchcoats and black fedoras, but we never heard a thing.
I always wondered what the Flight Leader reported. I don't think he would want to report that they were under attack by car wheels. Maybe they never said a thing and that's why we never heard anything.
The only thing I know for sure is that the next time we went to the Co-op to buy dynamite, they wouldn't sell us any.
Except for the dynamite.
My Aunt and Uncle live on the South end of Vashon Island, where they have a sizeable chunk of property. It is a very rural setting. The land is mostly second growth timber and brush. At the time, because they were clearing land, they could but dynamite (for agricultural purposes only) at the Co-op. Anyone who has spent time on the business end of a muck stick and prybar trying to get a stubborn stump out of the ground can really appreciate the pristine beauty of a couple of well placed sticks of dynamite. Not to mention the fact that it is a heck of a lot of fun to make things go BOOM. Both the relatives on Vashon and my family in Idaho had obtained and used dynamite for a number of years.
For the family get-together, people would usually start arriving around noon, and start out with the veggies-and-dip, and chips and snacks. Around the same time the first fireworks would show up. The policy towards fireworks has never been consistent in the State of Washington. Heck, it is not even consistent from block to block. It is literally possible to buy fireworks, walk a couple of blocks and be arrested for setting them off. It is not a policy designed to to build a great deal of respect for the law and its enforcement. To complicate matters, the Indian Reservations are only subject to Federal Law, so you can get a lot more of "The Good Stuff" from the Indians, including some stuff that is outside Federal guidelines.
Every year, McCord Air Force Base in Tacoma holds an Airshow to celebrate the Fourth. They generally flew North out of the base and turned around at the North end of Vashon. During the day we would see all kinds of Aircraft from fighters to cargo carriers, to bombers. We would hear them coming and rush outside to see if we could identify the type and model of the plane.
The fireworks would typically start with the younger kids lighting snakes and smoke bombs, then progress through lady fingers, regular firecrackers, bottle rockets and the usual small fireworks. Since we had to take the last ferry back to the mainland at around 7:00 we never got into the more elaborate airborne displays. We spent the afternoon and early evening, when not occupied eating, inventing new and more elaborate ways of blowing things up.
Firecrackers were placed under tin cans.
Holes were punched in tin cans to pass the fuse through, and then the cans pushed down into mud or soft sand. The idea is to see how high in the air you can blow the can. My personal favorite was an Old El Paso chilies can inside a regular soup can partly filled with water. If you didn't get the fuse wet, it was good for at least a hundred feet of altitude.
I suppose that it was inevitable that we would someday come to the conclusion that since we had dynamite, and there were stumps to be blown, there was no reason we couldn't blow stumps an the Fourth of July. We didn't do this every year, just when the urge was irresistible.
One year after sending cans flying as high as possible, we started speculating how high in the air we could send something if dynamite provided the propulsive force and we could find something sturdy enough to not disintegrate. First we took an old wellhead, dropped a lit stick of dynamite down it, followed by a section of madrona. It made a satisfactory BOOM, but the wood disappeared completely. We never saw it after it left the pipe.
Next we saw a car wheel laying out by the barn. Perfect!
We put the car wheel on a flat place over the top of a stick of dynamite, lit the fuse and got back.
BOOM!
Totally unsatisfactory. The wheel, spinning madly went about thirty feet in the air. Heck we could blow tin cans a lot higher than that. The problem seemed to be that the force of the explosion needed to be focused. Not an insurmountable problem. Having experienced the benefits of the fact that water is not compressible, we decided to dig a pit slightly larger than the wheel about a foot deep, fill it with water and try again. And since one stick of dynamite didn't provide enough propulsive force, three ought to do the job!
We finished digging our pit and filling it with water. Actually, but the time it soaked in, it was more like thin mud than water, but we were pretty sure it would do the job. We had waterproof fuse, so we didn't have to worry about the fuse going out. We set three sticks of dynamite equally spaced in the pit, and dropped in the wheel. We lit the fuse and got the heck out of there.
Just as we lit the fuse ad retreated, we heard a thumping noise on the horizon. It was a flight of six helicopter. Surely they wouldn't be coming anywhere near us! But they kept on a course that would bring them right overhead.
OH SHIT!
We looked at the wheel with the dynamite under it. The fuse got shorter. No one was willing to go near it to pull the fuse. A mistake would probably be fatal.
The helicopters came closer.
The fuse got shorter
Closer
Shorter
BOOM!!!
We had succeeded in our plans, for the wheel flew a couple of hundred feet in the air.
Right into the view of the helicopters. They must have seen it, because the formation split apart and headed away.
We figured we were in huge trouble. The first thing we did was put the dynamite back in the powder shed. Then we all went in and watched some sporting event on TV and prayed nothing came of it. Every time a car went by, we figured it was going to turn in the driveway, filled with guys in grey trenchcoats and black fedoras, but we never heard a thing.
I always wondered what the Flight Leader reported. I don't think he would want to report that they were under attack by car wheels. Maybe they never said a thing and that's why we never heard anything.
The only thing I know for sure is that the next time we went to the Co-op to buy dynamite, they wouldn't sell us any.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
At Last.
So I am taking tomorrow off to help Rose move.She is going to be staying here at least part of the time. If she is genuinely trying to get herself together, it is a good thing, although I foresee some stormy weather ahead.
I haven't managed to get much done on the deck lately. All I have left to do is nail in the 2 X 2's to close it in so kids can't fall off and get hurt (or growed-ups either). I wanted to get done by Friday so I could actually take a couple of days off and maybe swill a couple of beers and read a book. I just bought Dean Koontz's latest (The Husband) but haven't had a chance to crack the cover yet. Maybe when I get through here.
I haven't written anything here lately because there has been too much other stuff going on. I need to order up a couple of extra hours a day.
Tonight it is raining, so I had to give up on working on the deck. OK with me. I have spent nearly every available moment working on it for the last couple of weeks.
I know there is a good story roaming around in my head somewhere, but I haven't had time to do much with any of them lately. Maybe I'll pull something out of some orifice or the other.
I haven't managed to get much done on the deck lately. All I have left to do is nail in the 2 X 2's to close it in so kids can't fall off and get hurt (or growed-ups either). I wanted to get done by Friday so I could actually take a couple of days off and maybe swill a couple of beers and read a book. I just bought Dean Koontz's latest (The Husband) but haven't had a chance to crack the cover yet. Maybe when I get through here.
I haven't written anything here lately because there has been too much other stuff going on. I need to order up a couple of extra hours a day.
Tonight it is raining, so I had to give up on working on the deck. OK with me. I have spent nearly every available moment working on it for the last couple of weeks.
I know there is a good story roaming around in my head somewhere, but I haven't had time to do much with any of them lately. Maybe I'll pull something out of some orifice or the other.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
So, here's the deck. I am getting set to start on the handrail.On the homefront, both L & N have jobs, so they are looking for apartments. Mrs. A and I had to co-sign the lease, but we will be dropped off of the lease after six months.
R. comes and goes. I'm not sure of what her plans are. She referred to the spare bedroom as "My room" so she may be moving back in. When N and L move out she can have the big bedroom in the basement. She and I can work together to fix it up.
I had my annual diabetes checkup yesterday, and my hemoglobin acl was 7.1 which is very good control. Everything else was normal too, so I guess I haven't abused my body too badly. The one complaint I had was not being able to sleep, so the doc prescribed some sleeping pills, with the understanding I only use them occasionally. I think I will try one Saturday night. I have been averaging only about 5 hours a night, and I'm getting pretty raggedy. Thank God for caffeine
Monday, August 21, 2006
Back to the grind
My computer at work will no longer allow me to log on to update my blog, so I have to do it from home. No big deal, I just used my lunch and breaks to do stuff.
I am not quite done with the deck. Still need to do the handrail and ballisters. I don't have any pictures at the moment.
It was hard to get up and go to work today, having slept in for a while.
R. spent the weekend. It's the first time she has been around for any significant amount of time for months. Emotionally she is all over the map. I hate to see her suffer, but she chose to go down the junkie path, and I can only support her if she is trying to go straight.
At one point she wanted somebody to drive her over to her suppliers house, but everyone told her we loved her too much to do that, so she left on the bus.
It is awfully hard on me to let her go, but I need to separate myself if I am to survive.
I am not quite done with the deck. Still need to do the handrail and ballisters. I don't have any pictures at the moment.
It was hard to get up and go to work today, having slept in for a while.
R. spent the weekend. It's the first time she has been around for any significant amount of time for months. Emotionally she is all over the map. I hate to see her suffer, but she chose to go down the junkie path, and I can only support her if she is trying to go straight.
At one point she wanted somebody to drive her over to her suppliers house, but everyone told her we loved her too much to do that, so she left on the bus.
It is awfully hard on me to let her go, but I need to separate myself if I am to survive.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Get'n 'er done
Progress on the Deck. I think one more day and the deck will be done, less the handrails and that kind of stuff. And my life will return to its normal state of chaos.
I hurt in all sorts of places from doing things my body isn't used to.
Surprisingly, the sholder that was operated on last October hasn't hurt in particular, and it hasn't hampered me from doing whatever I wanted.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Some progress
So here is the progress on the deck so far. Things are taking a lot longer than I anticipated. I guess there probably won't be a camping trip at the end of the week.
Damn!
Monday, August 14, 2006
And so it begins
Bolgger is messed up and won't let me upload any more photo's for now. I wanted to show the progress we have made. The framing is about 40% done.
We went with Morning Light this weekend for a concert in Centralia, so Saturday was a great but long day, Sunday after church there wasn't much time to get started on the deck, but today we put in about 6 hours. I have to admit that V. was a big help, which surprised me. Of course I let him use my new cordless power tools, so that had a lot to do with it.
More pictures tomorrow, if Blogger allows.
Here's where the deck will go. It's a real mess at the moment
Here'e the big pile of wood dropped in our driveway Hard to believe it cost almost $7,000.00
Friday, August 11, 2006
V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N.
Tomorrow we are going to jail.
We are going with Morning Light to Maple Lane in Centralia for a concert. They will load up the truck with 13,000 lbs of gear tonight and we will head out in the morning. When we get there, we will set up a full sound system with light show. Not to mention setting up chairs for a couple of hundred kids. Two one hour shows, then break it all down and go back home. It is one long day.
Here's a picture of the crew and band from last time:
I am on vacation as of tomorrow. Oh yeah, I have a deck to build, but I am looking forward to it. The deal is that whenever I take on a major project at home, I get to buy a new toy (oops, I mean tool). Since I will be puting the deck down with deck screws, it will require the purchase of a new cordless drill.
And I will be working with my hands, which I don't get to do all that much. It is a nice change from my normal work.
I had to move to a different cubicle today, first thing this morning, fourth time in the last month. I have it down to a science now. It took me an hour from when I started until I had the computer up and running and was handling my e-mail.
Happy Friday everyone. Have a great weekend.
We are going with Morning Light to Maple Lane in Centralia for a concert. They will load up the truck with 13,000 lbs of gear tonight and we will head out in the morning. When we get there, we will set up a full sound system with light show. Not to mention setting up chairs for a couple of hundred kids. Two one hour shows, then break it all down and go back home. It is one long day.
Here's a picture of the crew and band from last time:
I am on vacation as of tomorrow. Oh yeah, I have a deck to build, but I am looking forward to it. The deal is that whenever I take on a major project at home, I get to buy a new toy (oops, I mean tool). Since I will be puting the deck down with deck screws, it will require the purchase of a new cordless drill.
And I will be working with my hands, which I don't get to do all that much. It is a nice change from my normal work.
I had to move to a different cubicle today, first thing this morning, fourth time in the last month. I have it down to a science now. It took me an hour from when I started until I had the computer up and running and was handling my e-mail.
Happy Friday everyone. Have a great weekend.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Deck
They delivered the materials for the deck yesterday. They mixed up some of the order, but I'm not going to complain. I ordered treated redwood decking, and they deliverd Redwood composite decking. I priced the composite stuff, and it was almost $1000.00 more. I won't be returning it. Someone also threw in a 14' treated 4 X 6 that doesn't appear on the manifest.
I am taking off next week to build the deck, but I may get started tonight. I need to remember to take pictures as I go along.
Saturday we are going with Morning Light to jail for a concert. That is always a lot of work, and a lot of fun, and a long day. I'll try to remember to take the camera. I am hoping R. will go with us. They have a lot of resources for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics. But you can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped.
I am taking off next week to build the deck, but I may get started tonight. I need to remember to take pictures as I go along.
Saturday we are going with Morning Light to jail for a concert. That is always a lot of work, and a lot of fun, and a long day. I'll try to remember to take the camera. I am hoping R. will go with us. They have a lot of resources for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics. But you can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Deck
Today they deliver the materials for the deck. I went to Lowe's hardware and they have a program where you just put in the dimensions and what kind of wood you want and it spits out plans and a complete materials list.
Right down to how many nails you need.
So I have spent several hours going over the materials list and the plans and trying to make sense of it all in my head. It shouldn't bee too difficult for me, after all I am a Manufacturing Engineer. And decks are a whole lot easier to build than 737s.
Nonetheless, when I awoke at 3:00 this morning, my mind immediately went to work building the deck, getting the exact sequence of events set in my mind. And of course revising the plans as I go to accomplish what I want.
I am taking next week off to get the deck built. Hopefully we will get done a little early so Mrs A. and I can disappear into the mountains for a short camping trip.
I have a special place in mind, but will have to sedate Mrs A. to get her there. She has this fear of going off the road and into water and drowning. The place I want to go is 23 miles of bad road out in the wilderness, a lot of it with a cliff on one side and a dropoff on the other, plus the last barrier to the campground is you have to ford a stream with the car.
The payoff is one of the most beautiful camp grounds on the face of the Earth.
I think if I get her to take a couple of benadryl before we leave she will be enough in LALA land that by the time she realizes what is going on, we will be there. Of course this means she won't be helping me set up camp.
And then there is the trip back.
Right down to how many nails you need.
So I have spent several hours going over the materials list and the plans and trying to make sense of it all in my head. It shouldn't bee too difficult for me, after all I am a Manufacturing Engineer. And decks are a whole lot easier to build than 737s.
Nonetheless, when I awoke at 3:00 this morning, my mind immediately went to work building the deck, getting the exact sequence of events set in my mind. And of course revising the plans as I go to accomplish what I want.
I am taking next week off to get the deck built. Hopefully we will get done a little early so Mrs A. and I can disappear into the mountains for a short camping trip.
I have a special place in mind, but will have to sedate Mrs A. to get her there. She has this fear of going off the road and into water and drowning. The place I want to go is 23 miles of bad road out in the wilderness, a lot of it with a cliff on one side and a dropoff on the other, plus the last barrier to the campground is you have to ford a stream with the car.
The payoff is one of the most beautiful camp grounds on the face of the Earth.
I think if I get her to take a couple of benadryl before we leave she will be enough in LALA land that by the time she realizes what is going on, we will be there. Of course this means she won't be helping me set up camp.
And then there is the trip back.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Another fine mess
I mentioned a while back that R. was back on meth again. I love my daughter with all of my heart, but I had come to the point that I had to let her go.
Completely.
Be prepared for the phonecall from the Police or the Hospital. It hurt like Hell, but I did it. Not that you can ever be prepared for those phone calls.
She got her head straight, and got clean (or so she claims). I have had a couple of conversations with her recently, and she seemed all right.
Last night I got a call, and she is all in tears and practically incoherent. She had this boyfriend. He was hit and dragged by a Metro bus a couple of years ago, and his settlement with the Transportation Department was several million dollars.
He is also a junkie.
They had a big fight a couple of weeks ago, and started not coming home at night.
Last night he showed up with a couple of his "homies" to get his stuff. They of course got into a big shouting match, and she got choked into unconsciousness.
One of the neighbors called the police, but he was gone by the time they got there.
While the Police were there, he called her on the phone and told her he was going to kill her, kill me and Mrs A. and everyone in the house. She told me not to answer the door for anyone I didn't know, and she was scared half to death. She said that the police checked and he has outstanding warrants, and so do the two guys that were with him.
Doesn't really worry me particularly.
First of all, I can take care of myself. I have no compuntion to "fight fair" and the quicker you can take them out, the better off you will be.
Second of all, most of these punks run on hot air and intimidation. If they were going to kill anyone, they would have started with R. when they had her. The threat to kill the whole lot of us is just a lot of hot air.
Mind you, I did put a baseball bat under the seat of my car just in case.
Completely.
Be prepared for the phonecall from the Police or the Hospital. It hurt like Hell, but I did it. Not that you can ever be prepared for those phone calls.
She got her head straight, and got clean (or so she claims). I have had a couple of conversations with her recently, and she seemed all right.
Last night I got a call, and she is all in tears and practically incoherent. She had this boyfriend. He was hit and dragged by a Metro bus a couple of years ago, and his settlement with the Transportation Department was several million dollars.
He is also a junkie.
They had a big fight a couple of weeks ago, and started not coming home at night.
Last night he showed up with a couple of his "homies" to get his stuff. They of course got into a big shouting match, and she got choked into unconsciousness.
One of the neighbors called the police, but he was gone by the time they got there.
While the Police were there, he called her on the phone and told her he was going to kill her, kill me and Mrs A. and everyone in the house. She told me not to answer the door for anyone I didn't know, and she was scared half to death. She said that the police checked and he has outstanding warrants, and so do the two guys that were with him.
Doesn't really worry me particularly.
First of all, I can take care of myself. I have no compuntion to "fight fair" and the quicker you can take them out, the better off you will be.
Second of all, most of these punks run on hot air and intimidation. If they were going to kill anyone, they would have started with R. when they had her. The threat to kill the whole lot of us is just a lot of hot air.
Mind you, I did put a baseball bat under the seat of my car just in case.
Monday, August 07, 2006
It's Only Money
So I went out over the weekend and spent a whole lot of money (by my standards anyway).
The deck off of the living room here at Moneypit Estates has been deteriorating for quite some time. It was bad when I bought the place 20 years ago, so I reskinned the deck with some nice cedar decking. But the underpinnings were rotting out, so it was time to start all over.
While Mrs A. and I were in Mexico I had N. tear the old deck off of the house. He thought it might be a good idea to run under the deck, hammer on the support beams and run out before the deck fell.
Of course that didn't work, and the deck fell on him and he ended up in the Emergency room. Luckily there were no major injuries. I pointed out to him that there were several lenghts of chain hanging in the shop that he could have used to PULL it down with, but he kinda got the "Deer in the headlights" look.
Shortly after that, he flicked a cigarette butt into the pile of debris from the deck, and set it on fire. Luckily they managed to put it out before the house caught on fire. The only casualty was my old yellow cooler.
Saturday we finished up cleaning up the boards from the old deck and got them neatly stacked in the back yard. I plan on using them to build raised beds in the back yard to plant vegetables in.
So Sunday after church, we went down to Lowe's and sat down with the computer and plugged in my design and it spit out the bill of materials.
I about had a heart attack when I saw the bottom line.
$6746.17 of my hard earned dollars just for the materials.
Luckily we have been saving for this for over a year and already have the money set aside.
Wednesday they are delivering the wood. Then comes the hard part: turning a pile of lumber and hardware into something approximating a deck.
The deck off of the living room here at Moneypit Estates has been deteriorating for quite some time. It was bad when I bought the place 20 years ago, so I reskinned the deck with some nice cedar decking. But the underpinnings were rotting out, so it was time to start all over.
While Mrs A. and I were in Mexico I had N. tear the old deck off of the house. He thought it might be a good idea to run under the deck, hammer on the support beams and run out before the deck fell.
Of course that didn't work, and the deck fell on him and he ended up in the Emergency room. Luckily there were no major injuries. I pointed out to him that there were several lenghts of chain hanging in the shop that he could have used to PULL it down with, but he kinda got the "Deer in the headlights" look.
Shortly after that, he flicked a cigarette butt into the pile of debris from the deck, and set it on fire. Luckily they managed to put it out before the house caught on fire. The only casualty was my old yellow cooler.
Saturday we finished up cleaning up the boards from the old deck and got them neatly stacked in the back yard. I plan on using them to build raised beds in the back yard to plant vegetables in.
So Sunday after church, we went down to Lowe's and sat down with the computer and plugged in my design and it spit out the bill of materials.
I about had a heart attack when I saw the bottom line.
$6746.17 of my hard earned dollars just for the materials.
Luckily we have been saving for this for over a year and already have the money set aside.
Wednesday they are delivering the wood. Then comes the hard part: turning a pile of lumber and hardware into something approximating a deck.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Thanks Denny
I was so inspired by Denny's declaration of yesterday to be a national holiday dedicated to laziness that I stayed home from work today.
Since I found out too late to celebrate yesterday, I figured today was the next best thing.
Whew, that was tiring.
Think I had better go take a nap.
Since I found out too late to celebrate yesterday, I figured today was the next best thing.
Whew, that was tiring.
Think I had better go take a nap.
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