Reality Bites

Reality jumped up and bit me in the ass today.
I am taking my mom on a trip to the doctors tomorrow, and during the conversation setting it up the conversation drifted around to "Whose turn is it for Thanksgiving this year?" I knew it wasn't ours, but as it tuens out, it is our turn for Christmas Eve.
Today was just drifting around in my head, looking at the next couple of months, when I thought "Holy Crap! We are going to have to make egg rolls!"
For Thanksgiving.
Let's see. We are going to go see Trans Siberian Orchestra the weekend before, so that is out.
Weekend before that we will be babysitting "i", so that is out.
We have something going on the weekend before that.
That leaves..........this weekend.
Guess I know what we will be doing Saturday.

Shiner

Whenever you have any kind of procedure, they always give you a whole list of "possible" side effects, right before you sign the waiver. The list is always long and bewildering. Having a hangnail removed? Possible side effects: infection, amputation, paralysis, the end of civilization as we know it.
We all just blow by all of this because of course they don't apply to US.
Well, right now the right side of my face is all swollen up, and I am sporting my very first ever black eye. It is a thing of beauty.
I need to sit down and construct a story Worthy of the black eye.

Under the Knife

In an effort to help my Periodontist upgrade his car from a Porche to a Ferrarri, I am having oral surgery tomorrow.
I had three teeth extracted a couple of months ago. I am having new implants put in. These are top back teeth. The bone structure there is weak, so before they can do the inserts, they have to build up the bone.
They do this by inplanting a piece of vacated bovine bone matrix, which will actually integrate itself with the existing bone. It takes several months for it to become contiguous with the existing bone.
Bovine?
as in cow.
Now when someone calls me bull headed, they will be partially correct.
SO if I am not around, it is because I am loaded up on percocet and drooling on the couch.
The lengths some people will go to to get their hands on some drugs.

Angels

Our neighborhood is a very diverse neighborhood. We have blacks, mexicans, asians, anglos and racially mixed couples. It is mostly a quiet urban neighbohood.
It has a lot of kids.
I get along well with the kids in the neighborhood. When I pass them I always stop and say hello, ask them how they are doing. when I pass by they always wave. I love the way they think and how they look at the world with fresh eyes.
Tonight there was a rap on the door. There on the stoop were a couple of little angels, age about six. One white, one black.
Their hands were full of flowers, which I suspecct had been purloined from neighborhood flower gardens. They were for me.
Little angels spreading joy on a blustery fall day.

The Quiet

This weekend reminds me so strongly of something I carry around with me that most other people seem to not have, or not value. As I said in my last blog, when I go into the woods, the quiet seeps into me until I become a part of it.
When I go into the woods I want to go to a point where I can no longer hear any evidence of people, and stop and sit. It takes a while of sitting silently for you to become a part of the environment. Slowly you become aware of things around you. After a while you become aware of the sound of a small bird in the bushes or a squirrel in the firs.
But for me, I become mostly aware of the quiet in between the noises. Quiet is the steady state that lies underneath the sounds, contrasting them.
When you become aware of this, you become a part of it. And it becomes a part of you.
Back at work I carry it with me. It is there in the back of my consciousness. Like the tail on a kite, it keeps me pointed in the right direction.
But like a battery it needs to be recharged at intervals.
A little piece of me is still up in the Olympic mountains, sitting on a log.

Lake Quinault

We took off after work on Friday and headed out to the Lake Quinault Lodge, which is one of my favorite places. It is about a three and a half hour drive, but worth every minute of it.
Peace and quiet.
No cell phone service.
No television.
No phones in the rooms.
Miles of trails through the rain forest.
Since this is the off season, room rates are lower. Not cheap, mind you, but lower than at peak.
We always stay in The Boathouse, because the rooms there are critter friendly.
The attached restaurant is very good. On Friday we had the Cedar Plank salmon with braised vegetables. It was one of the best meals I have eaten this year. Enhanced by the Marionberry Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream.
Despite the fact that the Lodge is in the rain forest, it did not rain while we were there. Saturday after breakfast (Eggs Benedict) we drove to the end of the road up the south fork of the Quinault river to the end of the road, and hiked until we got tired. We found a small batch of Chantrelle mushrooms, which I will be cooking up with butter and a little bit of salt shortly.
During the entire hike, which lasted over three hours, we never saw another human being. The quiet seeps into you like water into a sponge. leaving little room for stress and worry. Those things belong to a different existence.
It was with great reluctance we returned home today.
Mrs A starts her new job tomorrow, and we figured it might make a bad impression if she didn't show up on her first day.

Losing It

Sometimes you start down the path, take a misstep, and the next thing you know you are nekkid in the cornfield. (it's just a saying. fer heaven's sake)
Every Friday, I stop over at my Mom's and see if she needs anything, stop and visit and get all the news of the family. When I was there, my badge fell out of my pocket. She called me later to tell me she had found it. No big deal, I would drop by and pick it up sometime over the weekend.
Well, I forgot.
Monday when I was getting ready for work I was going through the checklist (beeper,badge,bug,wallet,watch,cell phones)
Badge. Oh crap I forgot to go get my badge. It is way to early to go by my Mom's to pick it up, so I will have to stop at the Badge Office and get a Temporary Badge, which includes a Security Token so I can get into our work area.
After work I stopped by my Mom's and picked up my badge. As I was walking out to the truck, my work cell phone rings, and the guy I share a desk with is on the phone. I did not undock my laptop and secure it. What did I want him to do with it? We made an agreement.
This morning when I got to work and went to wand myself into the work area, it would not let me in. I had forgotten to turn in my temporary badge and Security Token.
I had to go out to the Badge office to tell them I had forgotten to turn in the temporary badge and Security Token, could they please reset my badge?
Today when I went to leave work, there in the pocket on the door, was the temporary badge and token. I sure as hell didn't put it there. I will have to remember to turn it in tomorrow.
Who knows what adventures await me tomorrow.

Lost weekend

So where the heck did the weekend go?
I had a great weekend, only there is never enough of it. How is it that a day at work lasts FOREVER and a day off flashes by on fast forward?
Saturday we slept in and did a little work around the house. Then we went to Jazz Alley for dinner and to see Average White Band. What a pleasant evening. The food was good, the music was good, and we shared the table with a very nice couple.
Sunday I barbecued a buffalo roast, we did some work in the yard, and I worked on Frankenhealey, adjusting the timing and the carbs. (without burning myself) It is running much better, but I am still having a problem with the linkage for the gas pedal. On the other hand it runs great and accelerates well enough to be a little scary. Just the way I like it.
Now if I can get the lights working, the wipers and turn signals going, I could actually drive it around.
And then the weekend was all the sudden over with.
Gone like it was never there.

BWA-HA-HA

In my further efforts to drive Mrs A out of her pea-picking mind, I did something last night to push her one step closer to the edge.

Friday was her last day at work, so she is feeling a little off ballance this week. She has been working everyday for the last thirty five or so years, has never been on unemployment. She feels like we are on the brink of financial disaster. But truth is that I make enough money that we don't NEED her salary. But she is still in this OMG WE'RE GONNA CRASH place.

I was perusing e-Bay last night. I have bids in on a couple of engine parts for Frankenhealey. One of them is listed under Lotus, so when I went to check out my bid status, there was this absolutely gorgeous tribute Lotus 11 that the bid was about to close on. The car was worth well over $50,000 and the bid was at $17,000. So I decided to throw in a couple of bids. The car had a reserve, and I'm sure it was nowhere near the reserve, so I put in a Max Bid of $20,000. Mrs A saw me do this and about went breserk. Where are we going to get $20,000?!?!?!?!?.
I can just put it on my Visa.
The car is in California, how would you get it home?
Buy a cheap plane ticket down there and drive it back.
It is not licensed.
Trip permit.
It doesn't have a top!
I'll buy a helmet.
My high bid was almost immediately overbid, and the reserve was never met.
I had no intention of buying the car.
Oh, if I could have gotten it for the price I bid, I certainly would have bought it and had it shipped up here. I could have made some money on it.
But it was an opportunity to tweak Mrs A.
BWA-HA-HA!

OWIE!

There are some lessons we have to learn more than once, or at least some of us do.

I guess I am one of those.

I learned a long time ago that when you are working on a car, you take off your jewelry. I have been pretty faithful about his. There are lots of things that can go wrong if you wear jewelry while you are wonking on the car, and absolutely no benefits.

I was working on Frankenhealey the other night, and because I was just replacing the carbs with the newly rebuilt cars, I didn't bother to take off my watch. Since I was not running the engine or dealing with moving parts, it should be OK, right?

Wrong.

While tightening the bottom rear carb bolt, I got my watch band between the two terminals of the starter solenoid, causing a direct short. It instantly heated the watch band red hot. Thereby melting the skin under the watch band.

I was dancing around, saying impolite things while trying to get the watch off.

That smell of cooking pork? That was me. When I got the watch band free, the skin sluffed off. I now have a very nasty looking spot on my left wrist.

It is going to leave a scar, which will be around for a long time to remind me of a lesson I supposedly learned a long time ago.

Changes

It was a long day on Saturday, going with the band. I guess it was about a 20 hour day, all told. So Sunday we just took it easy.
I am still sore from humping around 300 pound speakers, loading and unloading the truck, setting up the stage. Mrs A is getting to the stage where she is about ready to give up job of crewing for the band. I'd still like to do it now and then. Oh well, we'll see what happens.
Mrs A got offered another job today, and I think she is going to take it.
One of the women that she has become friends with is a partner in a local law firm. They want to hire her to work in the office. Part time at first, but with the option of maybe going to full time eventually. She told her friend she would have to think about it, and she did.......for all of five minutes.
I have met the lady a couple of times, and we got along just fine.
It should pay a lot better than Curves, and more important, I think Mrs A will be happy there.
I just hope she doesn't overdo.

Road Trip

Tomorrow we are off with the band ML3 to do a gig in Cenralia, at Maple Lane, a Youth Facility. It will be the first time we have done a road trip for a while, with me working seven days a week. We have sure missed everyone.
In case you are new around here, ML3 is a Christian Rock band we crew for. They have a semi and 20,000 lbs of gear. Full sound system and light show. It takes around six hours to unload the truck and set up the stage. A couple of hours for sound check. two one hour shows, break it all back down and load it back in the truck. We will get home around midnight, exhausted and felling like we have done something worthwhile.
The message from the band is directed more towards "You can have a whole lot of fun without drugs and alcohol" than an altar call. Since we are dealing with incarcerated youth, and about 80% of them are in for drug and alcohol related offences, I really believe it is the right message to the right audience at the right time.
We feel strongly enough about this that we have been road crew for the band for over six years now.
So, tomorrow night we will come dragging home tired, sore and fulfilled.

A Time of Change

Mrs A works part time at the Curves in Renton. She goes in and opens the place up at 6:00 in the morning, and works until 10:00. She likes doing this for a couple of reasons. One it provides her with a little extra money, plus she gets to work out every day.
I make enough money that we could get along just fine without her working. I have told her she can quit and be a stay-at-home mom any time she wants. She has always worked and supported her family, almost always as the single source of income, struggling to make it day to day.
She feels a little guilty about not working full time, feels she is not pulling her weight. Nothing I tell her seems to make a lot of difference. Her attitude as a working mom is so ingrained into her behavior that she doesn't know any other way to be.
Well, she will soon get to experience staying at home.
The Curves in Renton is closing on September 25th. I have told her she should take some time off and just take it easy for a little while. Collect unemployment for a couple of months. She has a job lined up at another Curves, but I think she ought to just wait and see what shakes out of the tree.
At any rate, it will be a time of change for her. I just have to remember to keep telling her that no matter what she chooses to do, she has my support.

Two Steps Back

None of my bright ideas to remove the broken jet from Frankenhealey worked worth a damn.
First I tried using an easy-out to try to lift the jet out. That didn't work at all.
Then I tried tapping threads into the bushing and pulling. That didn't work. Then I tried drilling it out. That removed most of the jet, but there is still a little at the bottom of the hole that will have to be removed before the new jet will fit in. In order to do that I will have to remove the carb fron the engine.

I have a spare set of carbs, so I spent most of the day yesterday tearing down the spare carbs and cleaning everything up and checking them out. Everything looks very good, so I will try swapping the carbs. Then I can work on the screwed up carb at my leisure.

I am crossing my fingers that the car will start when I put the spare carbs on. No reason why is should not start. That doesn't mean it will.

Frankenhealey

Yeah, I see that glazed-over look in your eyes. There goes Al Again on that stupid car.

It's true.

Yesterday I went out to work on the carbs and tweak the timing. One of the things I need to do is charge out the accelerator jets. This should be a simple drop-in. Unfortunately I broke off the first one I tried to remove, and the second one also seems to be stuck. I am sitting here trying to figure out how to get it out without destroying the carb. I may have to drill it out, which would be a very delicate operation.

Oh well, I will figure out something.

R came by with "i" yesterday. It was sure great to see them. I hadn't seen "i" in a couple of months. and they change so quickly. when he last by he was pulling up on things and taking a step or two. Now he is toddling around everywhere. He's not quite talking yet, but jabbers a lot. It makes sense to him, we just can't understand what he's saying.

Hmmmm

Maybe if I drill a small hole in the jet and use an easy-out I can loosen it up. Or Maybe tap some threads and use a screw as a puller.

It's Just A Shot Away

Just to be the antithesis of The Stones, who on Give me Shelter screamed "War, children, it's just a shot away" I give you:

Peace, Children, It's just a Shot Away.

A shot of Tanqueray, that is. After some negotiation, we settled on an apollogy and a bottle of Tanqueray. More expensive than your average bunch of flowers, but less than dinner.

Negotiation hell, she just called me up and said "Instead of Flowers, I want a bottle of Tanqueray". I was not in a position to negotiate.

So all is peaceful in Latteland.

Tonight I am signing the contract to put new siding on the South side of the house. Mind you that side of the house is 40 feet by 40 feet, and covered with 10" lapped cedar siding. Decent tight knot 10" cedar siding is getting mighty hard to find, and when you CAN find it, it is expensive as hell.

I wanted to do the work myself, but Mrs A has a conniption fit if I get anywhere near a ladder. Last time I got up on a ladder to repair a downspout, I had to give her three drinks before I could go up on the ladder.

I haven't seen the breakdown, but the estimate is $3800.00, which seems about right to me. I still don't like paying someone to do something I could do myself, but what the hell.

In Trouble

I'm in trouble with Mrs A today.
I didn't do anything wrong, mind you, it's something I DIDN'T do.
I didn't give her a good-bye kiss when I left this morning.
She called me on the cell phone before I even got to work, in tears. "Seven years together, and this is what it has come to!"
Sh!t.
No way out, no amount of fancy talk is going to change it. Guilty as charged. Sure I have a (to me) legitimate excuse, but the facts is the facts. The question now becomes "How much is this going to cost me?" Flowers at the very least. I don't think this is a flowers and dinner offense.
First of all there is the fact that I do not wake up well in the morning. I stumble, I grunt, I bump into things. I get by by ritual. Things are always done in a certain order. Anything that breaks the ritual or order is likely to end up with the whole morning in chaos.
First of all. V has a zero hour class, so for the time being, I am giving him a ride to school, something I have never done before.
This morning when I came down from upstairs there was a whole pile of papers on the seat of my chair. Papers that needed to be signed and dated. School stuff, field trip, science class, legal release. Stuff that I would like to at lease peruse before I sign it, but no time to read. Glance at it, sign and date.
V. forgets something at the last minute, so I am running late. Rush out the door.
Halfway to work, the cell phone rings and it is Mrs A.
Busted.

TSO!!!

For the last several years, one of the things I have done for Christmas is take Mrs A and Vinnie and my cousin Lynn to see TSO (Trans Siberian Orchestra to you Troglodytes).
Tickets went on sale yesterday at 10:00 A.M. A pre-sale for fan club members only.
Unfortunately I had to be at a meeting at 10:00. I really couldn't blow the meeting off, since I was to receive an award at said meeting.
I left as soon as possible and ran back to my desk, got on line to order tickets.
Floor tickets, eleven rows back from the stage, center of the floor.
Oh yeah!
Screaming electric guitar pyrotechnic light show laser extravaganza Christmas music!
Ho, Ho, HO!

Lost weekend

Or maybe Blogging on Percocet.

I had three teeth pulled on Friday. I'm only in it for the drugs.

I have been fighting bad teeth for about ten years now. One of the past conversations with the periodontist, and dentist concluded that I had about a 75% chance of losing those particular teeth. We tried to save them, but it was a losing battle. Everything we tried failed.
So the last resort was to have them pulled and have inserts put in, a long, painful and expensive process, which includes a bone graft using vacated bovine bone matrix. Yeah, you saw that correctly. Bull Bone. I will truly be part animal when this is over. Jokes could be made about being full of bull, but in reality I will be only a very small part full of bull.

I have been alternately napping on the couch, trying to read and watching the boob tube. I have accomplished exactly nothing, and this short post will be about as ambitious as I will get.

Time to go take another Percocet.

Under pressure

After we got home from the ocean, I figured it was time to break in my birthday present, the pressure washer.
It's a manly tool. Gasoline powered 2500 PSI three pages of warnings and dangers, may result in serious injury or death. Oh yeah!
I pressure washed 420 sq ft of deck. The pressure washer did a great job.
That still leaves the patio and the driveway.