Shopping lists assembled along with the "cooler bags" I'm headed out to make the weekly shopping run. By the time I get back, put it away, and vacuum, Dillon will be here to spend the weekend.
After he picks a movie, I plan to slip downstairs to my "dungeon" until time to fix dinner for he and Dottie. Disappointed to find the shelf at the "front" of my basement wet again this morning, I discovered that the leak isn't in the cinder block wall as it appeared, but is the drain bucket in the dehumidifier leaking and running that direction! Lowe's has been added to my list...
May the weekend be wonderful for each of you, and may Monday be kind as well!
alan
Friday, November 14, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Sometimes...
it's hard to write something you're proud of, then follow it with the "drivel" of everyday life!
After my breakfast/bloghop of yesterday, I spent the afternoon scanning documents to prove that my wife is indeed eligible to remain on my health insurance for the 3rd time in 5 months and mailing them. In between I fielded a phone call from my buddy in Colorado, who was just east of Abilene, KS and headed eastbound. He had made arrangements with someone in Abilene to pick up a load of firewood at 11 yesterday morning, and got there only to find that the guy had decided to go to Wichita despite their appointment. He called me to Google up some phone numbers and when I talked to him last at 5:30 yesterday afternoon he was in Topeka waiting for someone so he could load up and make the drive back to "almost Denver".
This morning, I did the b&b thing again, then went out to try and caulk up the gap between my front foundation and the sidewalk that lies next to it. I had planned to replace a section before winter caught up with me, but it's not going to get done, and the last two heavy rains have found a bit of water leaking through the front wall of the basement from it.
My workout yesterday was the best/heaviest "chest day" I've ever done, though it was cut short with phone calls and John and the grandkids coming by at one point. I'm getting ready to go down and hold a shortened "leg day" now...
This link ties into my last post...if I am still around at over 100 years old may I still be so active both mentally and physically!
May Friday be kind to you all!
alan
After my breakfast/bloghop of yesterday, I spent the afternoon scanning documents to prove that my wife is indeed eligible to remain on my health insurance for the 3rd time in 5 months and mailing them. In between I fielded a phone call from my buddy in Colorado, who was just east of Abilene, KS and headed eastbound. He had made arrangements with someone in Abilene to pick up a load of firewood at 11 yesterday morning, and got there only to find that the guy had decided to go to Wichita despite their appointment. He called me to Google up some phone numbers and when I talked to him last at 5:30 yesterday afternoon he was in Topeka waiting for someone so he could load up and make the drive back to "almost Denver".
This morning, I did the b&b thing again, then went out to try and caulk up the gap between my front foundation and the sidewalk that lies next to it. I had planned to replace a section before winter caught up with me, but it's not going to get done, and the last two heavy rains have found a bit of water leaking through the front wall of the basement from it.
My workout yesterday was the best/heaviest "chest day" I've ever done, though it was cut short with phone calls and John and the grandkids coming by at one point. I'm getting ready to go down and hold a shortened "leg day" now...
This link ties into my last post...if I am still around at over 100 years old may I still be so active both mentally and physically!
May Friday be kind to you all!
alan
Monday, November 10, 2008
11/11/18-08
Tomorrow.
The 90th anniversary of the end of what was called by some "The Great War". Only 10 of her veterans survive. Their memories of the horrors of the hamburger-grinder that consumed not only 3 generations of so many families will soon be relegated to the pages of books and the oral histories they have recorded, and they will join those whom they knew so very long ago.
I heard last fall of a book being written by a woman in Britain who had found her grandmother's journals and realized that her grandmother had lost her grandfather, her father and his brothers, her own brothers, all of her cousins and all of her 2nd cousins. The maelstrom created by modern weaponry combined with century old tactics sucked down the lifeblood of all the families in all the countries that were touched by it without regard!
When I first started reading history many years ago I was amazed to hear this conflict called not only "the Great War", but by another name even more confusing to my young mind.
"The War to End All Wars"!
Surely, if such a war had been fought then man wouldn't desecrate the service of those who died in it by shedding even more blood!
Yet, later that year in my 7th grade history class, while even more lives were being fed into yet another conflict in Southeast Asia, our teacher pointed out that since the "War to End All Wars" there had been over 500 wars fought in various parts of the world!
I am sure that now, these 41 years later, that number is probably over 1,000!
So tomorrow, on what is "Veteran's Day" here in the U.S., instead of reflecting on my own service and that of my wife as I am prone to do, instead of mourning "my" ship upon her passage into "the mothball fleet", I plan to spend some time thinking of those who gave their lives so long ago in the noble thought that no one would ever have to do so again!
Tomorrow, if you can, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, please take a moment and remember these survivors of that terrible war; those who fought and died; and those who were forever changed by it!
Please?
alan
The 90th anniversary of the end of what was called by some "The Great War". Only 10 of her veterans survive. Their memories of the horrors of the hamburger-grinder that consumed not only 3 generations of so many families will soon be relegated to the pages of books and the oral histories they have recorded, and they will join those whom they knew so very long ago.
I heard last fall of a book being written by a woman in Britain who had found her grandmother's journals and realized that her grandmother had lost her grandfather, her father and his brothers, her own brothers, all of her cousins and all of her 2nd cousins. The maelstrom created by modern weaponry combined with century old tactics sucked down the lifeblood of all the families in all the countries that were touched by it without regard!
When I first started reading history many years ago I was amazed to hear this conflict called not only "the Great War", but by another name even more confusing to my young mind.
"The War to End All Wars"!
Surely, if such a war had been fought then man wouldn't desecrate the service of those who died in it by shedding even more blood!
Yet, later that year in my 7th grade history class, while even more lives were being fed into yet another conflict in Southeast Asia, our teacher pointed out that since the "War to End All Wars" there had been over 500 wars fought in various parts of the world!
I am sure that now, these 41 years later, that number is probably over 1,000!
So tomorrow, on what is "Veteran's Day" here in the U.S., instead of reflecting on my own service and that of my wife as I am prone to do, instead of mourning "my" ship upon her passage into "the mothball fleet", I plan to spend some time thinking of those who gave their lives so long ago in the noble thought that no one would ever have to do so again!
Tomorrow, if you can, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, please take a moment and remember these survivors of that terrible war; those who fought and died; and those who were forever changed by it!
Please?
alan
Sunday, November 09, 2008
ker-flu-ey
My "Election Night Jitters" when the electoral count hung at 200 turned out to be the beginnings of a nice bout of influenza. Since Dottie had gotten her shot, she's remained just fine through my continuing battle. Of course, many in her nursing home are sick, and she's brought home a cold to go with my current predicament...
So this is just a short, quick "I'm alive" for those who might be curious.
Anyone you'd like me to go breathe on?
May your Sundays be wonderful and Monday be kind!
alan
So this is just a short, quick "I'm alive" for those who might be curious.
Anyone you'd like me to go breathe on?
May your Sundays be wonderful and Monday be kind!
alan
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Today!
Today we awaken as a better nation!
A better people!
We have thrown off the shackles of Empire and reinvented our Republic!
With our pennies, our dimes and our dollars we have wrested the levers of Government from an aristocracy that sought to reduce us to serfdom and told them that we will not accept their crusts when we make the bread! They may own 7 houses if they like, as long as we are allowed one!
That those who jammed the governors and bypassed the safety valves in their melting down of the engine of our economy along with those who have looted the Treasury should be held responsible will be debated. Yet it is a time for forgiveness and unity; not a time for a "reign of terror".
They should, however, be held under continued scrutiny if only to guarantee that their hands are in their own pockets instead of finding their way back into ours!
As we take our first tentative steps on the path out of the wilderness where we have wandered for 40 years, we look around us to see the graves of so many beloved; so many more wounded, maimed and injured both physically and mentally and we must remember that with each step we take into the bright sunlight of a new day, that we must bring each of them with us! There is no "i" in "we"!
We the people!
Yes, we can!
May the day, the week, and the future be kind to each of you!
alan
A better people!
We have thrown off the shackles of Empire and reinvented our Republic!
With our pennies, our dimes and our dollars we have wrested the levers of Government from an aristocracy that sought to reduce us to serfdom and told them that we will not accept their crusts when we make the bread! They may own 7 houses if they like, as long as we are allowed one!
That those who jammed the governors and bypassed the safety valves in their melting down of the engine of our economy along with those who have looted the Treasury should be held responsible will be debated. Yet it is a time for forgiveness and unity; not a time for a "reign of terror".
They should, however, be held under continued scrutiny if only to guarantee that their hands are in their own pockets instead of finding their way back into ours!
As we take our first tentative steps on the path out of the wilderness where we have wandered for 40 years, we look around us to see the graves of so many beloved; so many more wounded, maimed and injured both physically and mentally and we must remember that with each step we take into the bright sunlight of a new day, that we must bring each of them with us! There is no "i" in "we"!
We the people!
Yes, we can!
May the day, the week, and the future be kind to each of you!
alan
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Sunrise? Sunset?
Our money is spent...
Their money is spent...
The race is run...
Our votes are cast...
Now we await the results!
When the election of 2000 was (in my view) hijacked, for the first time in my life I knew I had to do something, so taking the "easy" way out I signed up for a payroll deduction to the UAW's V-CAP fund. (It is a fund that helps educate the electorate and funds get-out-the-vote drives among other things.)
At each turn as the Constitution was (again, in my opinion)ignored, along with the ideas that the "Founding Fathers" held dear, I increased that deduction. There was enough going to it that it became a bone of contention between Dottie and I as things grew "tight" financially at different times. In 8 years, enough went that direction that put "half-down" on a new Cobalt...
This year for the first time ever, we both agreed that we needed to contribute to some of the candidates as well, and though it wasn't as much as it might have been if I hadn't retired this past summer, we still gave to my Congressman; the one who answers each and every petition, letter and e-mail he's gotten from me for the last 6years as I have grown more and more active (my wife says a pain) in things. (Unlike my two Senators who, if they reply, send out a form letter quoting their party's line. One of whom, a member of the Intelligence Committee, I just took great joy in voting against.)
Besides giving to Obama/Biden and Dennis Moore, I also kicked in to the DSCC and DCCC funds, knowing that as long as things can be filibustered or tabled in committee we aren't going to get anywhere, ever.
I talked, I pleaded, I cajoled...I think/hope that some votes were swayed.
I came home after I voted and called and offered to keep Caleb so John and Noel could go vote before the older two get out of school and people start getting off work.
I know there are many who did more, so very much more than I did.
I'm hoping that there are so many who have done more than they ever had before that perhaps tomorrow will bring a very brilliant sunrise, despite the storms that are in my weather forecast.
Because I'm not sure I can deal with sunset!
Now I'm going to fix a bit of breakfast, then go out and clean my gutters before the deluge comes and try and rebank a place along my foundation that has leaked in the last two storms.
Surviving all of that, I'll be off to my dungeon for shoulders, arms and neck. Then it will be time to fix dinner and cross my fingers...
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Their money is spent...
The race is run...
Our votes are cast...
Now we await the results!
When the election of 2000 was (in my view) hijacked, for the first time in my life I knew I had to do something, so taking the "easy" way out I signed up for a payroll deduction to the UAW's V-CAP fund. (It is a fund that helps educate the electorate and funds get-out-the-vote drives among other things.)
At each turn as the Constitution was (again, in my opinion)ignored, along with the ideas that the "Founding Fathers" held dear, I increased that deduction. There was enough going to it that it became a bone of contention between Dottie and I as things grew "tight" financially at different times. In 8 years, enough went that direction that put "half-down" on a new Cobalt...
This year for the first time ever, we both agreed that we needed to contribute to some of the candidates as well, and though it wasn't as much as it might have been if I hadn't retired this past summer, we still gave to my Congressman; the one who answers each and every petition, letter and e-mail he's gotten from me for the last 6years as I have grown more and more active (my wife says a pain) in things. (Unlike my two Senators who, if they reply, send out a form letter quoting their party's line. One of whom, a member of the Intelligence Committee, I just took great joy in voting against.)
Besides giving to Obama/Biden and Dennis Moore, I also kicked in to the DSCC and DCCC funds, knowing that as long as things can be filibustered or tabled in committee we aren't going to get anywhere, ever.
I talked, I pleaded, I cajoled...I think/hope that some votes were swayed.
I came home after I voted and called and offered to keep Caleb so John and Noel could go vote before the older two get out of school and people start getting off work.
I know there are many who did more, so very much more than I did.
I'm hoping that there are so many who have done more than they ever had before that perhaps tomorrow will bring a very brilliant sunrise, despite the storms that are in my weather forecast.
Because I'm not sure I can deal with sunset!
Now I'm going to fix a bit of breakfast, then go out and clean my gutters before the deluge comes and try and rebank a place along my foundation that has leaked in the last two storms.
Surviving all of that, I'll be off to my dungeon for shoulders, arms and neck. Then it will be time to fix dinner and cross my fingers...
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Thursday, October 30, 2008
"If She Had a Set of Wings...
I know she could fly!"
When Talia was here last weekend I walked outside with Angel because there have been a couple of (very) large strays running around the neighborhood, and at 13 and having arthritis in her hips, I didn't want her having to defend herself even if they only wanted to play. (They ran up two nights later and knocked down the landlord of the house next door to me just trying to play with him.)
Of course, the rain had stopped and she wanted to swing, so after I dried off the seat I let her and went back in to grab the little point-and-shoot I bought last year.
I've been trying to get a good photo of Angel for the last few months, not knowing what lies ahead through the winter.
I've been trying for longer than that to get a decent one of "Frankie", the cat Noel tamed from a stray and then couldn't keep because he tested positive for feline leukemia. She had 3 and so asked if we would take him. He's so black that without a flash he's indistinct and with one his eyes are scary, so this is the best I've gotten of him so far.
When she was off on Tuesday we ran a few errands and got her the last pieces to make her a "rodeo clown" for her Halloween costume for work. Tonight she works late as they have a "Trick or Treat" party at the nursing home so the residents get to pass out candy to their families and those of employees.
I spent yesterday bloghopping and doing a light work out; this morning I started picking things up to vacuum and started catching up laundry because we're keeping all 3 grandkids this weekend while John tries to finish spackling their ceilings and getting them ready to "re" texture.
It's probably not nice to say, but I'm glad it's him and not me!
After I vacuum I'm going downstairs and see how many sets of squats I can do and still come back up the steps; last week after 10 sets and leg extensions and curls, I had to stop halfway for a bit...
:o)
May the rest of the week be kind, and if I don't see you between now and then may your Halloweens be fun! I probably won't be around much over the weekend (something about Dottie being home and us having all 3 grandkids tends to fill up my time), so enjoy!
alan
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Quirks 'R Us!
Tagged by Zillachen a few days ago, I'm just now catching up with it...
These things always seem hard to do because (I'd like to think) most of my quirks are readily apparent...like B.B. King's admonishment to Bobby "Blue" Bland in a live recording so many years ago; "I ain't a refrigerator, I don't keep nothing in"!
The rules:
1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers’ blogs letting them know
they’ve been tagged.
1. I believe if mechanical things don't have souls (I'm still not convinced) that
they at least have personalities. I talk to them, have spent a fair amount of
time coaxing them through the years, and have felt guilt at abandoning the ones
that didn't leave my hands "alive"!
2. I tend to overthink things to the point of inaction. Be it spending more time
reading how to do something than it would take to just go do it, or reading so
many viewpoints that they all become mush in my brain and lead to confusion. This
is one I'm working on.
3. Closely related to #2, I have poor budgeting skills concerning time. If I make a
"to-do" list for the day, I'll be lucky to be 1/3 of the way through it by day's
end. This may or may not have anything to do with the distractions of Blogger,
MSNBC, G4TV, FuelTV, or MusicChoice...
4. As I've grown older, being in crowds bothers me more and more. From sharing an
aircraft carrier with 5,000 other guys 35 years ago being "normal", I now cringe
at the thought of a mall during the holidays.
5. Which leads to the fact I've been Christmas shopping for months now, though not
as much has been put away as I'd like, having to do with those lists that never
show up until Thanksgiving. Of course, the ultimate goal of having it all wrapped
by Thanksgiving like my Grandma used to will never be achieved!
6. I've never been an "assertive" person, part of why I don't capitalize the first
letter of my name here or when I visit you; part of why I always ended up with
extra work on my jobs through the years that no one else could or would do; part
of why I just can't bring myself to tag people when I do things like this. Many
of you have gotten e-mails from me through the years that open with my apology
for intruding, etc.. More of you would have had I an address!
So, now that those who are still here are bored to tears...
Dottie was off yesterday and after our errands, we went to Lawrence to watch one of my younger nephew's last football games as he graduates this next spring. John, Noel and the grandkids also went, and though it was very cool and had rained most of the day, we all had a good time. The grandsons talked Cindy into keeping them overnight, so Dottie invited Talia to come home with us. She is in the living room watching Barbie's "Nutcracker" as I write, and has a model she picked out, a C5 Corvette, that she wants to put together later this afternoon or tomorrow. (I'm very glad I won't be keeping her in rolling stock when she comes of age!)
When I click "publish" I'm going to wander downstairs and spend some time lifting and doing laundry, and decide which way I plan to grill the chicken for dinner tonight. I bought some "raspberry chipotle" marinade, but Talia isn't much for "different" things right now (neither is her Grandma, actually, and that word chipotle drew quite a reaction when it was seen on the bottle).
About 3 times a year I allow myself a glass or two of wine (some years not at all) and the other week, having been through all my bloodwork and such for the year, I thought a treat was in order so I picked up a bottle of chardonnay...Newman's Own "Top Hat"...
Since tonight will be the first IRL race since Paul departed, and since Carl Haas announced earlier in the week that as long as there is a team, Paul's name will stay on the cars (that had been decided in advance, he said) it seems like a very appropriate time to pop a cork and think fondly of someone who did so much for the world!
May the weekend be kind to you all!
alan
These things always seem hard to do because (I'd like to think) most of my quirks are readily apparent...like B.B. King's admonishment to Bobby "Blue" Bland in a live recording so many years ago; "I ain't a refrigerator, I don't keep nothing in"!
The rules:
1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers’ blogs letting them know
they’ve been tagged.
1. I believe if mechanical things don't have souls (I'm still not convinced) that
they at least have personalities. I talk to them, have spent a fair amount of
time coaxing them through the years, and have felt guilt at abandoning the ones
that didn't leave my hands "alive"!
2. I tend to overthink things to the point of inaction. Be it spending more time
reading how to do something than it would take to just go do it, or reading so
many viewpoints that they all become mush in my brain and lead to confusion. This
is one I'm working on.
3. Closely related to #2, I have poor budgeting skills concerning time. If I make a
"to-do" list for the day, I'll be lucky to be 1/3 of the way through it by day's
end. This may or may not have anything to do with the distractions of Blogger,
MSNBC, G4TV, FuelTV, or MusicChoice...
4. As I've grown older, being in crowds bothers me more and more. From sharing an
aircraft carrier with 5,000 other guys 35 years ago being "normal", I now cringe
at the thought of a mall during the holidays.
5. Which leads to the fact I've been Christmas shopping for months now, though not
as much has been put away as I'd like, having to do with those lists that never
show up until Thanksgiving. Of course, the ultimate goal of having it all wrapped
by Thanksgiving like my Grandma used to will never be achieved!
6. I've never been an "assertive" person, part of why I don't capitalize the first
letter of my name here or when I visit you; part of why I always ended up with
extra work on my jobs through the years that no one else could or would do; part
of why I just can't bring myself to tag people when I do things like this. Many
of you have gotten e-mails from me through the years that open with my apology
for intruding, etc.. More of you would have had I an address!
So, now that those who are still here are bored to tears...
Dottie was off yesterday and after our errands, we went to Lawrence to watch one of my younger nephew's last football games as he graduates this next spring. John, Noel and the grandkids also went, and though it was very cool and had rained most of the day, we all had a good time. The grandsons talked Cindy into keeping them overnight, so Dottie invited Talia to come home with us. She is in the living room watching Barbie's "Nutcracker" as I write, and has a model she picked out, a C5 Corvette, that she wants to put together later this afternoon or tomorrow. (I'm very glad I won't be keeping her in rolling stock when she comes of age!)
When I click "publish" I'm going to wander downstairs and spend some time lifting and doing laundry, and decide which way I plan to grill the chicken for dinner tonight. I bought some "raspberry chipotle" marinade, but Talia isn't much for "different" things right now (neither is her Grandma, actually, and that word chipotle drew quite a reaction when it was seen on the bottle).
About 3 times a year I allow myself a glass or two of wine (some years not at all) and the other week, having been through all my bloodwork and such for the year, I thought a treat was in order so I picked up a bottle of chardonnay...Newman's Own "Top Hat"...
Since tonight will be the first IRL race since Paul departed, and since Carl Haas announced earlier in the week that as long as there is a team, Paul's name will stay on the cars (that had been decided in advance, he said) it seems like a very appropriate time to pop a cork and think fondly of someone who did so much for the world!
May the weekend be kind to you all!
alan
Monday, October 20, 2008
You've Got to "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive
Eliminate the negative"
_______________________
Not to interrupt Mr. Johnny Mercer's lyrics, but that's been a goal for some years now; always trying to "stay positive" about things, be they my life, my hopes, my dreams, or the energy I try to give the Universe...
_______________________
"And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium's
Liable to walk upon the scene"
______________________
Perhaps like it has these last few weeks? These last few years?
Hmmmmmm...
______________________
"To illustrate my last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do just when everything looked so dark?
(Man, they said "We'd better accentuate the positive")
("Eliminate the negative")
("And latch on to the affirmative")
Don't mess with Mister In-Between (No!)
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
(Ya got to spread joy up to the maximum)
(Bring gloom down to the minimum)
(Have faith or pandemonium's)
(Liable to walk upon the scene)
You got to ac (yes, yes) -cent-tchu-ate the positive
Eliminate (yes, yes) the negative
And latch (yes, yes) on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No, don't mess with Mister In-Between"
______________________
I first heard this song as a child and just thought it was cute. I grew a little older and thought the lyrics were a nice outlook if you could achieve it. Life was contributing much to help my outlook at that point.
As I grew bitter and cynical in my early 40's I began trying to (though I couldn't have said it this way at the time) change my life by changing my outlook on life.
Here came those words again...
Never did I think of them as a manual for trying to get out of this life sane!
Finally hearing this over the weekend, I realized I've been trying to do just that for a long time now...too bad I wasn't smart enough to listen the first time I heard it!
I found a clip of one of the original versions; it also has some other "goodies" in it if you have time to stick around; some humor, a dedication... It's from something that was filmed "for the boys" 64 years ago.
We picked ourselves up by our bootstraps and put things back together then when no one really thought we ever could. We can do it this time, too!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
_______________________
Not to interrupt Mr. Johnny Mercer's lyrics, but that's been a goal for some years now; always trying to "stay positive" about things, be they my life, my hopes, my dreams, or the energy I try to give the Universe...
_______________________
"And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium's
Liable to walk upon the scene"
______________________
Perhaps like it has these last few weeks? These last few years?
Hmmmmmm...
______________________
"To illustrate my last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do just when everything looked so dark?
(Man, they said "We'd better accentuate the positive")
("Eliminate the negative")
("And latch on to the affirmative")
Don't mess with Mister In-Between (No!)
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
(Ya got to spread joy up to the maximum)
(Bring gloom down to the minimum)
(Have faith or pandemonium's)
(Liable to walk upon the scene)
You got to ac (yes, yes) -cent-tchu-ate the positive
Eliminate (yes, yes) the negative
And latch (yes, yes) on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No, don't mess with Mister In-Between"
______________________
I first heard this song as a child and just thought it was cute. I grew a little older and thought the lyrics were a nice outlook if you could achieve it. Life was contributing much to help my outlook at that point.
As I grew bitter and cynical in my early 40's I began trying to (though I couldn't have said it this way at the time) change my life by changing my outlook on life.
Here came those words again...
Never did I think of them as a manual for trying to get out of this life sane!
Finally hearing this over the weekend, I realized I've been trying to do just that for a long time now...too bad I wasn't smart enough to listen the first time I heard it!
I found a clip of one of the original versions; it also has some other "goodies" in it if you have time to stick around; some humor, a dedication... It's from something that was filmed "for the boys" 64 years ago.
We picked ourselves up by our bootstraps and put things back together then when no one really thought we ever could. We can do it this time, too!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Friday, October 17, 2008
Here Comes the Sun!
Maybe...for a minute...if we're lucky!
Woke this morning to an unexpected thunderstorm...bloghopped, put together my shopping lists and called in prescriptions so that I can run errands this afternoon. Dottie is off this weekend; Laura flew to D.C. yesterday to spend the weekend with Bill and won't be back until Monday; John, Noel and the grandkids are busy this weekend.
So it's supposed to be a nice quiet weekend with just Dottie and I...for the first time in months I think!
She wants to see Mark Wahlberg's new movie "Max Payne" so we'll be doing an early show of that either tomorrow or Sunday. If we do two this weekend, "Appaloosa" is also on her list. I'll be waiting for "Nights in Rodanthe" to hit DVD, along with "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist". I like both of the "kids" playing the leads in that one...
And though they're in their 20's, I guess I'm at that point where if they're less than half my age, they're "kids"!
We have some Netflix that have been "sitting" while life "whirled" around us these last few weeks, and I bought "Leatherheads" last week when it came out; one I had really wanted to see "on the big screen".
So, there's probably already more on the list than we can get done before Monday morning!
I spent yesterday rearranging the basement and moving her plant stand and plants inside for the winter, along with rigging the plant lights and a timer, as we got down to 40 the night before last. I also, not being as hardy as some of my friends, vacuumed out our main furnace and lit it off, for which we were grateful night before last.
May the weekend be kind to each of you...
alan
Woke this morning to an unexpected thunderstorm...bloghopped, put together my shopping lists and called in prescriptions so that I can run errands this afternoon. Dottie is off this weekend; Laura flew to D.C. yesterday to spend the weekend with Bill and won't be back until Monday; John, Noel and the grandkids are busy this weekend.
So it's supposed to be a nice quiet weekend with just Dottie and I...for the first time in months I think!
She wants to see Mark Wahlberg's new movie "Max Payne" so we'll be doing an early show of that either tomorrow or Sunday. If we do two this weekend, "Appaloosa" is also on her list. I'll be waiting for "Nights in Rodanthe" to hit DVD, along with "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist". I like both of the "kids" playing the leads in that one...
And though they're in their 20's, I guess I'm at that point where if they're less than half my age, they're "kids"!
We have some Netflix that have been "sitting" while life "whirled" around us these last few weeks, and I bought "Leatherheads" last week when it came out; one I had really wanted to see "on the big screen".
So, there's probably already more on the list than we can get done before Monday morning!
I spent yesterday rearranging the basement and moving her plant stand and plants inside for the winter, along with rigging the plant lights and a timer, as we got down to 40 the night before last. I also, not being as hardy as some of my friends, vacuumed out our main furnace and lit it off, for which we were grateful night before last.
May the weekend be kind to each of you...
alan
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
And speaking of escaping!
I was released from jury duty and home by noon yesterday. Dottie was off and I got home just as she was leaving in my truck to go the post office, so we had lunch and then ran errands for a bit.
I figured out through the course of events the other day that the shut-off valves I put in 20 years ago had their rubber washers disintigrating and clogging aerators on faucets and the fill-valve on the toilet, so I started in changing those to a newer type that have no washers, a steel "ball valve". By the time I changed all 6, making a parts run in the middle, it was 8 something last night, lol.
Thinking I was done, I carried all my tools back to the garage, we both showered and finally sat down to watch something. Before bed I checked them each, and found a slight drip in one. I placed something under it and in a bit I'll go take all the stuff out of the cabinet and crawl back in to see if I can fix it...
Then I can put everything in the basement back where it started and put my little gym back together!
Still holding at around 280, which is good as I'm not gaining like I would have been had I stopped excercising while I was working (I'm eating less than I did when I was working, and probably healthier...at least until we stopped at Krispy Kreme yesterday). Hopefully I can start driving that number down again soon!
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
I figured out through the course of events the other day that the shut-off valves I put in 20 years ago had their rubber washers disintigrating and clogging aerators on faucets and the fill-valve on the toilet, so I started in changing those to a newer type that have no washers, a steel "ball valve". By the time I changed all 6, making a parts run in the middle, it was 8 something last night, lol.
Thinking I was done, I carried all my tools back to the garage, we both showered and finally sat down to watch something. Before bed I checked them each, and found a slight drip in one. I placed something under it and in a bit I'll go take all the stuff out of the cabinet and crawl back in to see if I can fix it...
Then I can put everything in the basement back where it started and put my little gym back together!
Still holding at around 280, which is good as I'm not gaining like I would have been had I stopped excercising while I was working (I'm eating less than I did when I was working, and probably healthier...at least until we stopped at Krispy Kreme yesterday). Hopefully I can start driving that number down again soon!
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sometimes the demons escape their cage...
I hope I'm forgiven for needing a bit of help getting that one back in (referring to my last post). I've never talked about all of that with anyone; my family seems to have all dealt with it or blacked it out; my wife keeps telling me I just need to quit thinking about it...somehow it's not like a light switch that can just be flipped off...
Friday while Dottie was off we changed the water pipe out of the hot water tank. I had rebuilt the "header" line in the basement 20 years ago, and then as we lost pressure again I had changed the line into it a few months ago, but still to get a warm shower there was so little pressure that it would barely keep the diverter button in to make the shower work.
When we got the 1/2" galvanized line out, we carried it outside and even pointing it at the sun there was not even a pinhole of light through it. I replaced it with 3/4" CPVC and for the first time in about 5 years, not only do we have hot water to the shower, but the sinks and washing machine as well! The shower you actually have to turn down because you can't stand the pressure of it on full!
Right after we had that hooked back up and had bled the lines out, Dottie was in the basement and I was headed up the steps when there was a loud "pop" and she started yelling something. Having a hunch, I ran to the "furnace room" and found one joint had unglued itself and hot water was spraying everywhere. I threw a towel over the pipe and reached past it to turn off the shutoff on the inlet...then had to take the bag out of my shop-vac and start vacuuming up water again, pulling up some of my mats again...I'm really getting tired of floods!
Anyway, when I tried to find my glue for the plastic pipe it was missing, so I ended up making another trip to Lowe's to buy new. Where there used to be only one, there are 3 kinds of it now, so after reading the labels to figure out what I needed I didn't read all the cautionary things...like the one that said "for hot water use allow two hours dry time"...
The last time I tried to get hot water to the washing machine I twisted off the stem of one of the valves Dad had put in 49 years ago when he moved the washer down into his newly finished basement. Yesterday I shut things down again and replaced both inlet valves, as well as cleaning the screens in the machine itself. I also tried to change a "hydrant" on the other side of the basement that had a drip that didnt' want to stop; even though I had bought my valve in advance, it turned out that I needed one more piece to attach it; I've been in Lowe's almost every day this week...
Now, as I finish my morning coffee, I'm going out to clean out the gutters as they are full of fall leaves and it's supposed to rain for the next 3 days.
I have "jury duty" starting tomorrow, so not knowing how that's going to go, I may not be around much for the rest of the week.
I'm truly hoping I don't run into a bunch of these people while I "do my duty"!
And yet when John Lewis says that the current tone of things reminds him of the days of George Wallace McCain's campaign demands apologies...
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Friday while Dottie was off we changed the water pipe out of the hot water tank. I had rebuilt the "header" line in the basement 20 years ago, and then as we lost pressure again I had changed the line into it a few months ago, but still to get a warm shower there was so little pressure that it would barely keep the diverter button in to make the shower work.
When we got the 1/2" galvanized line out, we carried it outside and even pointing it at the sun there was not even a pinhole of light through it. I replaced it with 3/4" CPVC and for the first time in about 5 years, not only do we have hot water to the shower, but the sinks and washing machine as well! The shower you actually have to turn down because you can't stand the pressure of it on full!
Right after we had that hooked back up and had bled the lines out, Dottie was in the basement and I was headed up the steps when there was a loud "pop" and she started yelling something. Having a hunch, I ran to the "furnace room" and found one joint had unglued itself and hot water was spraying everywhere. I threw a towel over the pipe and reached past it to turn off the shutoff on the inlet...then had to take the bag out of my shop-vac and start vacuuming up water again, pulling up some of my mats again...I'm really getting tired of floods!
Anyway, when I tried to find my glue for the plastic pipe it was missing, so I ended up making another trip to Lowe's to buy new. Where there used to be only one, there are 3 kinds of it now, so after reading the labels to figure out what I needed I didn't read all the cautionary things...like the one that said "for hot water use allow two hours dry time"...
The last time I tried to get hot water to the washing machine I twisted off the stem of one of the valves Dad had put in 49 years ago when he moved the washer down into his newly finished basement. Yesterday I shut things down again and replaced both inlet valves, as well as cleaning the screens in the machine itself. I also tried to change a "hydrant" on the other side of the basement that had a drip that didnt' want to stop; even though I had bought my valve in advance, it turned out that I needed one more piece to attach it; I've been in Lowe's almost every day this week...
Now, as I finish my morning coffee, I'm going out to clean out the gutters as they are full of fall leaves and it's supposed to rain for the next 3 days.
I have "jury duty" starting tomorrow, so not knowing how that's going to go, I may not be around much for the rest of the week.
I'm truly hoping I don't run into a bunch of these people while I "do my duty"!
And yet when John Lewis says that the current tone of things reminds him of the days of George Wallace McCain's campaign demands apologies...
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Saturday, October 11, 2008
The anniversaries don't get easier...
though I had always thought they would!
The memories are never far from the surface...the months of being sick while he fooled around with the family doctor that had delivered my sister, myself, and my Mom; the one who had never told a patient they had cancer (including my Grandma who had 3 colostomies and went through radiation each time before there wasn't anything left to reconnect) since the first one he told killed himself in his parking lot. Being told we'll try this test; a week later that it hadn't shown anything, so next week we'll try something else- this went on for over two months!
The diagnosis of pancreatic cancer when he finally went to someone else that only took a day; the news that in something that didn't have a high survival rate even then that this had gone on much too long; probably less than 6 months, no more than a year...
The man who had never taken a sick day from work in 35 years finally having to take a terminal leave; getting to take a few chemo treatments that left him so weak that the man who could pick up a hindquarter or foreleg of beef to butcher it was left at the mercy of strangers when he had a flat tire and a trucker stopped to help him.
The final 5 months spent in a hospital that began with him in ICU trying to get my pocketknife out of my pocket while I stood there alone with him; when I asked "why" he wrote on his little "Mickey Mouse" slate (because he was on a ventilator and couldn't speak) "End this bullshit!". My guilt at telling him I couldn't do that because my Mom would have filed charges on me.
Mom telling me it was all my fault he got the cancer because he was so stressed out worrying about me. Her telling everyone else in the family that he wouldn't give up and die because he knew how badly I'd fuck up my life if he wasn't around.
Dad telling me the last time he was off the ventilator that if there was anything in his garage I wanted I should probably go get it and take it home, because he wasn't sure what was going to happen after he died; then asking my wife and I to look after Mom when he was gone.
The doctors asking my sister and I to please talk to her and let them disconnect some of the pumps and things that were prolonging his agony; her telling us that we didn't have enough faith, that he was strong and he was going to get better.
Watching for 5 months as he went from 260 to 80 pounds...his veins so "shot" that the IV pumps would balloon his arm and leg on one side 'til the moved them to the other. The cancer eating his spine until his arms moved uncontrollably and his legs not at all.
Watching his eyes change as his brothers told stories from when they were boys, about him and each other, when everyone knew he was in a coma and that he couldn't hear anything.
The final hours watching his heart slide down out of his chest because there was nothing left to hold it, until his aorta burst.
My mother trying to legally change the conditions of his will after he died and threatening to take me to court if I didn't go along...
Finding out when she wanted the carpet in their bedroom pulled up that while he was sick she had moved into my sister's old bedroom and that the purple place on the gold carpet that bothered her was where the chemo had made him throw up and "he hadn't cleaned it up"...
Sometimes it's so hard to remember the happy times...the good times...
Especially today!
alan
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
"Flyin' Home"
(Actually, since I'm the only one around who probably remembers, that was the name of an old Lionel Hampton classic...)
Dottie shot this out the back window of my truck Sunday evening as we turned east and headed for Hays, Kansas on our way home from moving my nephew and his girlfriend. I was rather shocked to find out while we were there that we were closer to Amarillo, Texas than Denver, Colorado! (My sister was reading the little "welcome to town" guide.)
The trip went well, despite a slow leak in one of the trailer tires (the guy who hooked it up checked them by banging on them with his fist; the front one had 70 pounds in it instead of 65, the rear was flat but sounded exactly the same). I have to be the only dummy in the world who checks things like that I guess, especially with a real gauge...
We took the trailer to Lawrence and drove to his girlfriend's to load her toolboxes (she is a mechanic as well as he), bed and TV, as well as his tools which were there because they had been working on some things there. Then I put it in my sister's driveway (last house on a dead-end street, one of those fun ones to back into) and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening loading it along with having my brother-in-law's birthday party.
His girlfriend's birthday was several weeks ago; his isn't until Christmas, but knowing how "tight" things were going to be for them (especially since his last boss fired him when he tried to give his notice two weeks ago) we made both of their birthdays and Christmas come early for them so they would have a bit of cash as they settled in after the move.
We took our car as well as our truck that afternoon so we could leave the trailer there overnight instead of dragging it back and forth. We got home in time to get a decent night's sleep before "the haul".
Up early the next morning, I laid out a nice breakfast for Dottie and I and we rolled out of home for Lawrence just before 7. We got there as they loaded the last few things in the trailer, my sister's van and my nephew's "little truck", stopped to air tires on the trailer and his pickup, then headed west.
We drove into the rain a couple of hours in, just as I had figured. Letting my nephew pick his route (as the crow flies) we ended up spending 4 hours on two-lane with no shoulder, most of it in the rain. Unloading took less than 30 minutes (the friends he went to school with and will be working with were there waiting) and an hour later we were headed north, because I wasn't taking the same route home in the rain. An hour on a U.S. highway that was wider with shoulders brought us back to the Interstate and we headed east at 70 instead of 60...the trip took the same amount of time as it was further, but the better road was worth it! (That two lane was so narrow there was no "wiggle room" before the trailer tires would have been off the road and I hate to think of the "flip" that would have ensued!)
We stopped in Lawrence on the way home and picked up Dottie's Malibu, and got home in time for her to get her normal night's sleep before work on Monday; all in all a very good run!
I got up yesterday and returned the trailer and took the tools and floorjack and such out of my truck (the just-in-case gear). As I settled in here to upload Dottie's sunset pictures and bloghop the phone rang. It was my daughter-in-law in Lawrence, the Buick that was her grandmother's that she's been driving was acting up and showing "low voltage" on the voltmeter in the display. I loaded the tools back up and made another run to Lawrence, changed the alternator and brought her "dead" battery home with me to charge. She has classes today and walks to campus, and I'll meet her when she gets home at 5:30 to put the battery back in and she'll be set for the rest of her week.
A lot of people think that the battery will just charge back up after an event like that, when you run off it instead of the alternator; and it will if you drive 5 or 6 hours without shutting it off, running the fans, lights and other accessories. Most people don't drive long enough to recharge it before they shut it off and "crank" it, drawing back out whatever they've managed to "put back in". Then you get a cold morning, or run the defroster or the A/C and wonder why you are having to find a jump start.
That battery drew for two hours on the "fast" side of my shop charger, and for two more on the "slow" side last night. I went out earlier and restarted it just to make sure it is fully charged when I return it...
So that's my life in a nutshell these past few days. I hope it's been kind to each of you in my absence!
May the week be kind as well!
alan
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Ebb tide...
After Ike's remnants visited I had been up on the roof every 4th day trying to clear my sewer line. Each time it decided to act up it was Dottie's day off, twice it was just after dark so I was up on the roof and it was midnight by the time things were over.
I had already made up my mind that I was going to dig it up over the weekend and call the plumber on Monday to come put in a clean-out "T" and cap in my front yard. Last Thursday night accelerated that...a lot!
Before I even tried to clear the line last Thursday night I called and asked for "1st call" on Friday; they said I'd have someone here by 8:30. I got up at 7, and was digging by 7:30.
(I had promised myself no photos of me were going up here before I was back down to the "low 2's" but life seems to be thwarting my best efforts at working that down...I hope you forgive me!)
The plumber showed up about 8:20, just as I got to the very top of that clay pipe you see between my feet in the photo. Having had to cut tree roots up to the size of my wrist had slowed down the progress I thought I would make.
He assumed that it was a 4" line (normal residential size) and went to get the supplies to put a "T" in while I kept digging. I started digging down the sides of it, and he came back and took a turn on the shovel because I was pretty well frazzled by that time.
It became apparent that, since this neighborhood was built as Red Cross replacement housing after a flood in 1951, they had used whatever they had, and that apparently they had 6" clay pipe and weren't afraid to use it.
I finished digging under the clay pipe while he went back to trade the 4" stuff for 6". When he returned, he cut the clay; it had such a solid core of tree roots in it that he had to use a "sawzall" to cut them and lift the piece out. There were roots on both sides of the piece he cut out of the line as well...
The plumber's comment was that he "wished those were a pair of fish"...
The shorter of those two is 32" long, 6" in diameter and very dense; picking it up to bag it for disposal, it was like a very dense sponge and weighed around 50 pounds. The other piece was about the same.
The line towards the house he cleared with a small auger, then a medium to clear the line into the house, then he ran a 6" one to the end of the house line. He turned the other way, and after pulling a foot or so of roots out of the line towards the street, it was clear! Meaning that the tree roots weren't from the huge tulip tree in my front yard, but my neighbors elm trees!
So, $1200 later, the on and off again problems of the last 20 years are dealt with, hopefully for much longer than I plan to be here!
Having taken care of that, backfilled the cleanout and packed the earth back down around it, and bought grass seed to fix my lawn there; the rest of my week now gets sucked aloft "in the whirl" again.
My older nephew is taking a job in western Kansas, starting Monday and moving on Sunday to get there. His Dad's birthday party was supposed to be on Saturday, so now it's going to be a combination of birthday and going away. I had volunteered my truck (the only full size in the family) for moving things, and they've put rain in the forecast, so to keep his tools and their furniture dry, I reserved a covered trailer last night (6'x12') to load them into.
So today I mow, tomorrow I shop, and Friday I get my truck ready to go; Saturday I pick up the trailer and take it there to pack, along with dinner and the family party, and then on Sunday I get to drive 850 miles with unloading splitting the miles in half...
I hope you will forgive me if I'm not around much again until next week!
Thank you all for the kind words on my last several posts...I will fill in some blanks on the courtship/wedding one when I get back...
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you; may the weekend be wonderful as well!
alan
I had already made up my mind that I was going to dig it up over the weekend and call the plumber on Monday to come put in a clean-out "T" and cap in my front yard. Last Thursday night accelerated that...a lot!
Before I even tried to clear the line last Thursday night I called and asked for "1st call" on Friday; they said I'd have someone here by 8:30. I got up at 7, and was digging by 7:30.
(I had promised myself no photos of me were going up here before I was back down to the "low 2's" but life seems to be thwarting my best efforts at working that down...I hope you forgive me!)
The plumber showed up about 8:20, just as I got to the very top of that clay pipe you see between my feet in the photo. Having had to cut tree roots up to the size of my wrist had slowed down the progress I thought I would make.
He assumed that it was a 4" line (normal residential size) and went to get the supplies to put a "T" in while I kept digging. I started digging down the sides of it, and he came back and took a turn on the shovel because I was pretty well frazzled by that time.
It became apparent that, since this neighborhood was built as Red Cross replacement housing after a flood in 1951, they had used whatever they had, and that apparently they had 6" clay pipe and weren't afraid to use it.
I finished digging under the clay pipe while he went back to trade the 4" stuff for 6". When he returned, he cut the clay; it had such a solid core of tree roots in it that he had to use a "sawzall" to cut them and lift the piece out. There were roots on both sides of the piece he cut out of the line as well...
The plumber's comment was that he "wished those were a pair of fish"...
The shorter of those two is 32" long, 6" in diameter and very dense; picking it up to bag it for disposal, it was like a very dense sponge and weighed around 50 pounds. The other piece was about the same.
The line towards the house he cleared with a small auger, then a medium to clear the line into the house, then he ran a 6" one to the end of the house line. He turned the other way, and after pulling a foot or so of roots out of the line towards the street, it was clear! Meaning that the tree roots weren't from the huge tulip tree in my front yard, but my neighbors elm trees!
So, $1200 later, the on and off again problems of the last 20 years are dealt with, hopefully for much longer than I plan to be here!
Having taken care of that, backfilled the cleanout and packed the earth back down around it, and bought grass seed to fix my lawn there; the rest of my week now gets sucked aloft "in the whirl" again.
My older nephew is taking a job in western Kansas, starting Monday and moving on Sunday to get there. His Dad's birthday party was supposed to be on Saturday, so now it's going to be a combination of birthday and going away. I had volunteered my truck (the only full size in the family) for moving things, and they've put rain in the forecast, so to keep his tools and their furniture dry, I reserved a covered trailer last night (6'x12') to load them into.
So today I mow, tomorrow I shop, and Friday I get my truck ready to go; Saturday I pick up the trailer and take it there to pack, along with dinner and the family party, and then on Sunday I get to drive 850 miles with unloading splitting the miles in half...
I hope you will forgive me if I'm not around much again until next week!
Thank you all for the kind words on my last several posts...I will fill in some blanks on the courtship/wedding one when I get back...
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you; may the weekend be wonderful as well!
alan
Monday, September 29, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
She asked...
so when your eyes cross it's Zilla's fault!
33 years and just a month or so ago, I met my future wife. We were introduced by her cousin, a Navy Chief Petty Officer that I had known for a bit over two years at that point. He was the 4th person I met in California when I arrived (August, 1973) at the base I was sent to after jet mechanic's school. The 1st was a guy sitting on the curb in front of the barrack's scraping gasket material off the rocker covers of his 1965 Barracuda (he'll pop up again later); the 2nd was the barrack's Master-at-Arms who assigned me my room. When he took me to my room, one of my new roomates was "in" and saw the trumpet case in one hand, and recognizing it, said "I play too". This led to an impromptu "jam session", about 20 minutes into which there was a loud knocking at our door. Opening it, we found a Navy Chief in khakis and we both assumed we were in trouble for disturbing someone's Sunday afternoon.
Instead he told us that "that sounded really good", and that he ran the counseling center in the middle of the barracks quadrant, and that we should come down and play there sometime.
He turned out to be the counselor for the guys coming back from Vietnam with problems; the guys going through drug rehab; the guys dealing with the divorces that 9 month WestPac cruises tend to cause. By the time I left for my own WestPac we had gotten to be pretty good friends.
I also ran into the guy with the 'Cuda a few times as well. He was a harmonica player, very into "blues"...John Mayall, early J. Geils...
When I came back from my WestPac I was heading home on leave the next morning; that Navy Chief not only picked me up at North Island when the Kittyhawk came in, but took me home, let me spend the night and then took me to the airport the next morning to save me from cab fare.
A few weeks later, leave over, I returned to San Diego with a bike I had bought while I was in Memphis, a 1971 Yamaha 650. I took it by to show it off to Cas (the chief's name) and let him take it out for a ride.
When I ran across the guy with the 'Cuda he told me he was putting together a '56 Triumph 650 and that I should come by his barracks room and see it sometime. I did, and was told he was moving out to share a house with his girlfriend and I should come by there sometime.
I moved out as well, into an off base apartment with a couple of squadron mates. I'll just say it was the 70's, it was California, and it was "party central" and let it go at that. A guitar player I had met on the Kittyhawk was playing in a band that worked a club in Chula Vista and I spent a lot of nights sitting in with them. Wandering down to the beach in the evenings was always good for an impromptu jam session with someone who played guitar, and invitations to some parties I wish I could remember!
At some point one of my roomates blew the shifter forks out of the Yamaha transmission one night when we had traded vehicles and I was driving his 442 Olds. I sold the bike for what I had in it and bought a '64 Falcon. I ran into the guy with the 'Cuda again as he had rotated to nights in the same hangar I worked in. He was looking very dejected and when I asked what was up, he said he had walked to work because the 'Cuda was "down" and he didn't know why. I gave him a ride home, had him crank it a few turns and told him the timing chain was shot and it had "jumped time". We went and bought parts, and by late that evening the 'Cuda was running again. He was rather amazed that I could diagnose that so easily; all these years later I know how lucky I was that was really the problem...
I met his wife that night, the girl he had moved out to live with. Her name was Debbie and among other things she made the most amazing homeade doughnuts!
Rick and I hung out together more and more; I spent a lot of nights sleeping on their couch having been there working on something or helping put that still unfinished Triumph together.
I got out off "active duty" in June of 1975 and went for a ride in my Falcon, up the coast to San Francisco, stopping on my way back in Oxnard to hang out with my guitar playing friend, now stationed there.
While I was gone, Rick and Debbie were in a motorcycle accident; after lingering for a few days, she died of her injuries leaving behind a 6 week old daughter and Rick with a broken leg, arm and shattered wrist. The bike they were on was one he was tuning for someone.
I returned, his Mom and Dad took their grandaughter to Santa Cruz while Rick was still in the hospital, and I started putting the wrecked bike back together. I met the guy he had bought his '56 Triumph from, and ended up buying a '58 of my own.
While Rick was "gimped up" I rebuilt the Barracuda as well, engine, driveline and front suspension. I slept on the couch, he moved in two other guys to split the rent of their house, and I made my spending money by working out of the garage and donating plasma. One of them wrecked my Falcon and ended up buying it for what I had in it...I knew it wouldn't ever be "right" again.
August of 1975 found me working out the final assembly of my '58 Triumph when Cas, the Navy Chief called. He had two cousins visiting, one just stationed in San Diego after two years in Hawaii, the other taking a semester off from college in Vermont.
He invited me to dinner; I cleaned up as best I did in those days, and walked to dinner as the Triumph wasn't "road ready" at that point. Through the course of dinner I found out that the older cousin was getting ready to leave for Indiana that weekend to marry a guy she had been stationed with in Hawaii.
Being the smartass I was, I offered to play "Taps" at her wedding. We all laughed...little did I know what would transpire!
I kept in touch with Jane, the sister taking time off from school, and worked the bugs out of my bike, as there wasn't a lot to do in San Diego with "no wheels". By November, when I had the bike where I trusted it, I called to ask Jane out, but found out she had gone home to Vermont to enroll in school.
The cousin that had gotten married that fall was at their apartment the 2nd week of December that year, 1975, preparing Christmas dinner for herself and Cas (the Navy Chief, if you've forgotten. Since he was doing "sea trials" at the time, this was the only time before the holiday they were both going to be "off".) when the phone rang. It was the guy in Indiana, the one she had married because she loved him and he wanted to split her BAQ money (the payment for living off-base) so he didn't have to work.
(I found out later that in Hawaii, when they were living together, when she told him she loved him, he had told her "he loved her as much as he did their coffee table". She of course, was certain that he would grow to love her as much as she did him...)
On the phone he told her that "his ex-girlfriend had just gotten a divorce, and she wouldn't go out with him until he got one, so he wanted a divorce".
When she hung up, for some reason the phone came right off the wall!
After she had a day or so to "cool down" Cas started telling her she should call me to see what I was up to. Finally, she did.
Dottie and I went out for the first time on my birthday, December 29, 1975. I went to the plasma bank that morning and had gotten enough to fill my Triumph, buy a pack of Marlboro's, and had $3 left over. We went out for a long ride through San Diego, over the Coronado Bridge, and back up the "Strand" to Imperial Beach. I stopped at "Jack in the Box" offering to buy her dinner; she knew by looking at me (5'8" and at the time about 126 pounds. She later joked about "taking me in because my ribs showed".) that I couldn't really afford that. I insisted on buying her something, so she settled on a chocolate shake. I only bought one, telling her I couldn't hang onto one and drive...
We talked that night until 3 or 4AM; the next day we just "hung out" and talked away the afternoon and evening again. The next few days we were either on the phone or together most of the time she wasn't working.
The first week of January, 1976, she asked her cousin would it be all right if I stayed over...we moved in together and have been together since.
Cas's Mom had lived with him for a while in 1974 and I had gotten to know her then. Aunt Ruth came back to live with him after Dottie and I moved into a house that March. The guy in Indiana had to get a job to pay for their divorce and paying the lawyer took him a while. I kept asking why she didn't point out to him he could get an annulment (she flew back to San Diego immediately after the ceremony) and she said "if he wanted a divorce he could pay for it"!
Aunt Ruth was already telling Dottie she should marry me...I already knew that married or not I wasn't going anywhere...
My grandparents came to visit during this time as well. Grandma and Grandpa Fritz (my mom's parents) had come to California to visit his brother in Long Beach and came to visit us on a side trip. Dottie planned to give them our room and one of us was going to sleep on the couch...Grandma was having none of it! She told us that it was our house, that was our bedroom, and we'd best be planning on sleeping in it. She said that living together and figuring out whether we got along was much better than all the divorces that people were going through, and that she just wanted to see BOTH of us happy!
That fall her divorce finally came through. She was more than a bit wary of getting married again, however, after her first experience. (My riding and partying didn't help matters any, most likely.) Finally, around Thanksgiving, she said that if I was really serious about it, that we could get a marriage license in December. I called her Dad and asked his permission to marry her...not that a "no" would have stopped us.
So we did get a license. When we worked out the duty schedule for her, for her cousin, and the Reserve time I was finally making up (I had skipped some drill time through the course of my "wild times"), December 14, 1976 worked out to be the magic day.
We met at a San Diego judge's house after his day in court was through. She wore bibs and a T-shirt, I wore jeans and a T-shirt with a Levi jacket with my Triumph wings on the back. Her cousin "gave her away"; he and the judge's mother were our witnesses.
Life has taken some twists and turns since then. It took me a "long time" to grow up, and through the years more than once I gave her cause to regret "being badgered into marrying me" by her Aunt Ruth, Cas and myself. That we are still together says much more for her stubborness than how easy I am to put up with...
Perhaps, if there is reincarnation, then next time she'll end up with the guy she deserves...
But for now, she's stuck with me for as long as she wants to put up with me. I can't imagine starting over; I can't imagine life without her!
So, as I said at the top, if you've made it this far, it's Zilla's fault, not mine!
Dottie's off tomorrow and I have both grandson's tomorrow night, Saturday and Sunday. We usually try not to do that when she has to work Saturday and Sunday, but John and Noel have plans, so we're going to hope this works out and she gets enough sleep to survive work!
My presence might be scarce in the meantime, so if I don't get to visit any of you 'til Monday I hope you understand!
May the rest of the week be kind and your weekends be lovely!
alan
33 years and just a month or so ago, I met my future wife. We were introduced by her cousin, a Navy Chief Petty Officer that I had known for a bit over two years at that point. He was the 4th person I met in California when I arrived (August, 1973) at the base I was sent to after jet mechanic's school. The 1st was a guy sitting on the curb in front of the barrack's scraping gasket material off the rocker covers of his 1965 Barracuda (he'll pop up again later); the 2nd was the barrack's Master-at-Arms who assigned me my room. When he took me to my room, one of my new roomates was "in" and saw the trumpet case in one hand, and recognizing it, said "I play too". This led to an impromptu "jam session", about 20 minutes into which there was a loud knocking at our door. Opening it, we found a Navy Chief in khakis and we both assumed we were in trouble for disturbing someone's Sunday afternoon.
Instead he told us that "that sounded really good", and that he ran the counseling center in the middle of the barracks quadrant, and that we should come down and play there sometime.
He turned out to be the counselor for the guys coming back from Vietnam with problems; the guys going through drug rehab; the guys dealing with the divorces that 9 month WestPac cruises tend to cause. By the time I left for my own WestPac we had gotten to be pretty good friends.
I also ran into the guy with the 'Cuda a few times as well. He was a harmonica player, very into "blues"...John Mayall, early J. Geils...
When I came back from my WestPac I was heading home on leave the next morning; that Navy Chief not only picked me up at North Island when the Kittyhawk came in, but took me home, let me spend the night and then took me to the airport the next morning to save me from cab fare.
A few weeks later, leave over, I returned to San Diego with a bike I had bought while I was in Memphis, a 1971 Yamaha 650. I took it by to show it off to Cas (the chief's name) and let him take it out for a ride.
When I ran across the guy with the 'Cuda he told me he was putting together a '56 Triumph 650 and that I should come by his barracks room and see it sometime. I did, and was told he was moving out to share a house with his girlfriend and I should come by there sometime.
I moved out as well, into an off base apartment with a couple of squadron mates. I'll just say it was the 70's, it was California, and it was "party central" and let it go at that. A guitar player I had met on the Kittyhawk was playing in a band that worked a club in Chula Vista and I spent a lot of nights sitting in with them. Wandering down to the beach in the evenings was always good for an impromptu jam session with someone who played guitar, and invitations to some parties I wish I could remember!
At some point one of my roomates blew the shifter forks out of the Yamaha transmission one night when we had traded vehicles and I was driving his 442 Olds. I sold the bike for what I had in it and bought a '64 Falcon. I ran into the guy with the 'Cuda again as he had rotated to nights in the same hangar I worked in. He was looking very dejected and when I asked what was up, he said he had walked to work because the 'Cuda was "down" and he didn't know why. I gave him a ride home, had him crank it a few turns and told him the timing chain was shot and it had "jumped time". We went and bought parts, and by late that evening the 'Cuda was running again. He was rather amazed that I could diagnose that so easily; all these years later I know how lucky I was that was really the problem...
I met his wife that night, the girl he had moved out to live with. Her name was Debbie and among other things she made the most amazing homeade doughnuts!
Rick and I hung out together more and more; I spent a lot of nights sleeping on their couch having been there working on something or helping put that still unfinished Triumph together.
I got out off "active duty" in June of 1975 and went for a ride in my Falcon, up the coast to San Francisco, stopping on my way back in Oxnard to hang out with my guitar playing friend, now stationed there.
While I was gone, Rick and Debbie were in a motorcycle accident; after lingering for a few days, she died of her injuries leaving behind a 6 week old daughter and Rick with a broken leg, arm and shattered wrist. The bike they were on was one he was tuning for someone.
I returned, his Mom and Dad took their grandaughter to Santa Cruz while Rick was still in the hospital, and I started putting the wrecked bike back together. I met the guy he had bought his '56 Triumph from, and ended up buying a '58 of my own.
While Rick was "gimped up" I rebuilt the Barracuda as well, engine, driveline and front suspension. I slept on the couch, he moved in two other guys to split the rent of their house, and I made my spending money by working out of the garage and donating plasma. One of them wrecked my Falcon and ended up buying it for what I had in it...I knew it wouldn't ever be "right" again.
August of 1975 found me working out the final assembly of my '58 Triumph when Cas, the Navy Chief called. He had two cousins visiting, one just stationed in San Diego after two years in Hawaii, the other taking a semester off from college in Vermont.
He invited me to dinner; I cleaned up as best I did in those days, and walked to dinner as the Triumph wasn't "road ready" at that point. Through the course of dinner I found out that the older cousin was getting ready to leave for Indiana that weekend to marry a guy she had been stationed with in Hawaii.
Being the smartass I was, I offered to play "Taps" at her wedding. We all laughed...little did I know what would transpire!
I kept in touch with Jane, the sister taking time off from school, and worked the bugs out of my bike, as there wasn't a lot to do in San Diego with "no wheels". By November, when I had the bike where I trusted it, I called to ask Jane out, but found out she had gone home to Vermont to enroll in school.
The cousin that had gotten married that fall was at their apartment the 2nd week of December that year, 1975, preparing Christmas dinner for herself and Cas (the Navy Chief, if you've forgotten. Since he was doing "sea trials" at the time, this was the only time before the holiday they were both going to be "off".) when the phone rang. It was the guy in Indiana, the one she had married because she loved him and he wanted to split her BAQ money (the payment for living off-base) so he didn't have to work.
(I found out later that in Hawaii, when they were living together, when she told him she loved him, he had told her "he loved her as much as he did their coffee table". She of course, was certain that he would grow to love her as much as she did him...)
On the phone he told her that "his ex-girlfriend had just gotten a divorce, and she wouldn't go out with him until he got one, so he wanted a divorce".
When she hung up, for some reason the phone came right off the wall!
After she had a day or so to "cool down" Cas started telling her she should call me to see what I was up to. Finally, she did.
Dottie and I went out for the first time on my birthday, December 29, 1975. I went to the plasma bank that morning and had gotten enough to fill my Triumph, buy a pack of Marlboro's, and had $3 left over. We went out for a long ride through San Diego, over the Coronado Bridge, and back up the "Strand" to Imperial Beach. I stopped at "Jack in the Box" offering to buy her dinner; she knew by looking at me (5'8" and at the time about 126 pounds. She later joked about "taking me in because my ribs showed".) that I couldn't really afford that. I insisted on buying her something, so she settled on a chocolate shake. I only bought one, telling her I couldn't hang onto one and drive...
We talked that night until 3 or 4AM; the next day we just "hung out" and talked away the afternoon and evening again. The next few days we were either on the phone or together most of the time she wasn't working.
The first week of January, 1976, she asked her cousin would it be all right if I stayed over...we moved in together and have been together since.
Cas's Mom had lived with him for a while in 1974 and I had gotten to know her then. Aunt Ruth came back to live with him after Dottie and I moved into a house that March. The guy in Indiana had to get a job to pay for their divorce and paying the lawyer took him a while. I kept asking why she didn't point out to him he could get an annulment (she flew back to San Diego immediately after the ceremony) and she said "if he wanted a divorce he could pay for it"!
Aunt Ruth was already telling Dottie she should marry me...I already knew that married or not I wasn't going anywhere...
My grandparents came to visit during this time as well. Grandma and Grandpa Fritz (my mom's parents) had come to California to visit his brother in Long Beach and came to visit us on a side trip. Dottie planned to give them our room and one of us was going to sleep on the couch...Grandma was having none of it! She told us that it was our house, that was our bedroom, and we'd best be planning on sleeping in it. She said that living together and figuring out whether we got along was much better than all the divorces that people were going through, and that she just wanted to see BOTH of us happy!
That fall her divorce finally came through. She was more than a bit wary of getting married again, however, after her first experience. (My riding and partying didn't help matters any, most likely.) Finally, around Thanksgiving, she said that if I was really serious about it, that we could get a marriage license in December. I called her Dad and asked his permission to marry her...not that a "no" would have stopped us.
So we did get a license. When we worked out the duty schedule for her, for her cousin, and the Reserve time I was finally making up (I had skipped some drill time through the course of my "wild times"), December 14, 1976 worked out to be the magic day.
We met at a San Diego judge's house after his day in court was through. She wore bibs and a T-shirt, I wore jeans and a T-shirt with a Levi jacket with my Triumph wings on the back. Her cousin "gave her away"; he and the judge's mother were our witnesses.
Life has taken some twists and turns since then. It took me a "long time" to grow up, and through the years more than once I gave her cause to regret "being badgered into marrying me" by her Aunt Ruth, Cas and myself. That we are still together says much more for her stubborness than how easy I am to put up with...
Perhaps, if there is reincarnation, then next time she'll end up with the guy she deserves...
But for now, she's stuck with me for as long as she wants to put up with me. I can't imagine starting over; I can't imagine life without her!
So, as I said at the top, if you've made it this far, it's Zilla's fault, not mine!
Dottie's off tomorrow and I have both grandson's tomorrow night, Saturday and Sunday. We usually try not to do that when she has to work Saturday and Sunday, but John and Noel have plans, so we're going to hope this works out and she gets enough sleep to survive work!
My presence might be scarce in the meantime, so if I don't get to visit any of you 'til Monday I hope you understand!
May the rest of the week be kind and your weekends be lovely!
alan
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Sometimes you just get lucky!
We had our first rain last night since Ike's remnants rolled through. I don't know what the amount was, just that I got woken up by the thunder 3 or 4 times.
I've been trying to time my getting up so I'm not in Dottie's way in the mornings, so when she left I turned on the kettle then went downstairs to check the basement;
It was dry!
So I laid the last line of my mats back down, then came back upstairs to eat and bloghop a bit, along with paying some bills. In a few minutes I'm going back downstairs to try to ease back into my lifting routine again.
I didn't end up mowing on Monday, as Bill needed a birth certificate for his new job and when I tried to order them I found out I needed a notarized statement and to fax it to them before they would process the order. By the time I got those errands taken care of the mosquitoes were out, and I wasn't going to be eaten alive again this week.
So I finally mowed yesterday; 3 passes on the front lawn to make it look "decent" without the furrows of clumped up wet grass lying on top. Part of the "extra passes" as that I took it down shorter than usual so if the sewer line acts up again I can start digging. The plumber and I had discussed them putting a cleanout box in the line after it exits the house, and if I do the digging the price comes down quite a bit. Hopefully, if the misalignment in the sewer line is where we both thought it was the box can be used to correct that as well, and then we can hope my problems end. If not, then at least I'll know where I'm beginning to dig my way to the street!
Apparently the back corner of the house has shifted a bit since that last rain as well, as I have a crack in the sheetrock that wasn't there before...those are nothing new in this place, as it sits on a cinder block foundation.
I hope the week is being kind to each of you!
alan
I've been trying to time my getting up so I'm not in Dottie's way in the mornings, so when she left I turned on the kettle then went downstairs to check the basement;
It was dry!
So I laid the last line of my mats back down, then came back upstairs to eat and bloghop a bit, along with paying some bills. In a few minutes I'm going back downstairs to try to ease back into my lifting routine again.
I didn't end up mowing on Monday, as Bill needed a birth certificate for his new job and when I tried to order them I found out I needed a notarized statement and to fax it to them before they would process the order. By the time I got those errands taken care of the mosquitoes were out, and I wasn't going to be eaten alive again this week.
So I finally mowed yesterday; 3 passes on the front lawn to make it look "decent" without the furrows of clumped up wet grass lying on top. Part of the "extra passes" as that I took it down shorter than usual so if the sewer line acts up again I can start digging. The plumber and I had discussed them putting a cleanout box in the line after it exits the house, and if I do the digging the price comes down quite a bit. Hopefully, if the misalignment in the sewer line is where we both thought it was the box can be used to correct that as well, and then we can hope my problems end. If not, then at least I'll know where I'm beginning to dig my way to the street!
Apparently the back corner of the house has shifted a bit since that last rain as well, as I have a crack in the sheetrock that wasn't there before...those are nothing new in this place, as it sits on a cinder block foundation.
I hope the week is being kind to each of you!
alan
Monday, September 22, 2008
Hope floats...
though at a lower ebb some days than others!
Talia had a great time, though she didn't end up with the whole weekend as we thought she would because her Mom and Dad had something to do earlier on Sunday than they originally thought. Between the time she arrived on Friday and Caleb's party at 2 on Saturday we still managed to assemble Obiwan's Jedi fighter and a Corvette, along with watching the first two episodes of the original "Addams Family".
At 7, she's not too sure about them...I bought the first season last week thinking Dillon was the same age (9) I was when I first saw them and would love it. (Yes, I know I'm ancient!) We'll find out this next weekend...
We're still getting over our colds, so decided not to do a movie yesterday. We went to Costco and gassed Dottie's car and just decided to go for a ride; something we haven't really done all summer.
20 some years ago we attended an auction at a historic property I had heard of my whole life but never visited. Since then it had changed hands several times and gone through a battle in which the city tried to keep it from being allowed to crumble. Called "Sauer Castle" there are many legends about the place, most of which are just that.
Though the photos at the link above are about where things still stand, a better explanation of events is here.
It's truly sad to see something that could be so lovely allowed to fall apart...one window we could see from the front doesn't even have glass in it; this with all the rain we had last week.
We looked for "stickered houses" as we wandered the hill above Argentine, then rolled through it on our way home. There aren't nearly as many vacant "stickered" houses there as there are in my neighborhood. Rather odd considering the housing there is turn of the century through the 20's, and here it's newer (50's); perhaps explained by most of those being much larger than the ones here are...
Which brings us back to my title; though things look rather bleak at the moment, I have to try and keep a sliver of hope that somehow, it's all going to work out one more time...
May the week be kind!
alan
Talia had a great time, though she didn't end up with the whole weekend as we thought she would because her Mom and Dad had something to do earlier on Sunday than they originally thought. Between the time she arrived on Friday and Caleb's party at 2 on Saturday we still managed to assemble Obiwan's Jedi fighter and a Corvette, along with watching the first two episodes of the original "Addams Family".
At 7, she's not too sure about them...I bought the first season last week thinking Dillon was the same age (9) I was when I first saw them and would love it. (Yes, I know I'm ancient!) We'll find out this next weekend...
We're still getting over our colds, so decided not to do a movie yesterday. We went to Costco and gassed Dottie's car and just decided to go for a ride; something we haven't really done all summer.
20 some years ago we attended an auction at a historic property I had heard of my whole life but never visited. Since then it had changed hands several times and gone through a battle in which the city tried to keep it from being allowed to crumble. Called "Sauer Castle" there are many legends about the place, most of which are just that.
Though the photos at the link above are about where things still stand, a better explanation of events is here.
It's truly sad to see something that could be so lovely allowed to fall apart...one window we could see from the front doesn't even have glass in it; this with all the rain we had last week.
We looked for "stickered houses" as we wandered the hill above Argentine, then rolled through it on our way home. There aren't nearly as many vacant "stickered" houses there as there are in my neighborhood. Rather odd considering the housing there is turn of the century through the 20's, and here it's newer (50's); perhaps explained by most of those being much larger than the ones here are...
Which brings us back to my title; though things look rather bleak at the moment, I have to try and keep a sliver of hope that somehow, it's all going to work out one more time...
May the week be kind!
alan
Friday, September 19, 2008
Falling tide...
Outside and inside at this point!
The water stopped trickling in from outside the basement two days ago. I had vacuumed up about 6 gallons (lesson learned, empty the shop-vac each day as it didn't smell too good).
The sewer line seems to be behaving as well, with nary a gurgle since I used the "drain kings" the other night.
Since I live halfway down a terraced hill, the water flowing down it finally quit crossing my driveway yesterday, so now there's just the mud left behind on it.
I shopped yesterday because the grass was still too wet to mow; after Dottie calls at noontime, I'm going to go out and knock it down so I can get through the shower before Talia comes to spend the night. She's spending tonight and tomorrow. Tomorrow morning we'll have her little brother as well as he turned 5 yesterday and in the morning they're going to decorate for his family party tomorrow afternoon.
My cold seems to be subsiding; I'm hoping Dottie's is as well. Tonight I'm supposed to take Talia to meet her at a hobby store when she gets off work so Talia can pick a model or something else to do while she's with us this weekend. Last time she made a purse...
Tomorrow is the monthly "hazardous waste" collection for my county, and I have Bill and John's oil changes to drop off. The collections end for the year either this month or next, and I'd rather not have them hanging around all winter. (My garage is small enough as it is!) Dottie's is due, but life hasn't exactly been cooperating of late. At least since I run it on Mobil 1, there's more leeway there!
Depending on how the rest of the weekend goes, perhaps I'll get my little gym put back together now that the floor is dry.
I'm watching the news, and it's hard not to let it "get to me". Tens of thousands of people losing their homes didn't matter, but when Wall Street implodes then we're going to save them...the exact pattern of the "Savings and Loan" crisis...
Thousands along the Texas coast without lights and water, yet we deliver them food that needs to be cooked! At least a jar of peanut butter doesn't need to be heated to eat and refrigerated to keep!
"America, how many times do you have to be hit over the head before you realize who's hitting you?"- Harry Truman
May the weekend be kind to each of you!
alan
The water stopped trickling in from outside the basement two days ago. I had vacuumed up about 6 gallons (lesson learned, empty the shop-vac each day as it didn't smell too good).
The sewer line seems to be behaving as well, with nary a gurgle since I used the "drain kings" the other night.
Since I live halfway down a terraced hill, the water flowing down it finally quit crossing my driveway yesterday, so now there's just the mud left behind on it.
I shopped yesterday because the grass was still too wet to mow; after Dottie calls at noontime, I'm going to go out and knock it down so I can get through the shower before Talia comes to spend the night. She's spending tonight and tomorrow. Tomorrow morning we'll have her little brother as well as he turned 5 yesterday and in the morning they're going to decorate for his family party tomorrow afternoon.
My cold seems to be subsiding; I'm hoping Dottie's is as well. Tonight I'm supposed to take Talia to meet her at a hobby store when she gets off work so Talia can pick a model or something else to do while she's with us this weekend. Last time she made a purse...
Tomorrow is the monthly "hazardous waste" collection for my county, and I have Bill and John's oil changes to drop off. The collections end for the year either this month or next, and I'd rather not have them hanging around all winter. (My garage is small enough as it is!) Dottie's is due, but life hasn't exactly been cooperating of late. At least since I run it on Mobil 1, there's more leeway there!
Depending on how the rest of the weekend goes, perhaps I'll get my little gym put back together now that the floor is dry.
I'm watching the news, and it's hard not to let it "get to me". Tens of thousands of people losing their homes didn't matter, but when Wall Street implodes then we're going to save them...the exact pattern of the "Savings and Loan" crisis...
Thousands along the Texas coast without lights and water, yet we deliver them food that needs to be cooked! At least a jar of peanut butter doesn't need to be heated to eat and refrigerated to keep!
"America, how many times do you have to be hit over the head before you realize who's hitting you?"- Harry Truman
May the weekend be kind to each of you!
alan
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
You just never know...
what turn things will take next!
Bill is settling in; he got lost for the first time this morning when he couldn't make an exit and had to drive 40 miles to get turned around and headed back the way he needed to go...after almost running out of gas...
Dad always told that it didn't cost anymore to keep it full than empty; also, with the junk I used to drive, you were a lot safer filling them when they were only down halfway so they didn't have that whole tank to condense water in. Not so much a problem in this day of "plastic" tanks, but when they were 26 gallons and metal you could "make" a lot of water in one certain times of the year.
35 years ago when we would "pull" fuel samples on the Navy helos I worked on you could get an inch of water in the bottom of a Mason jar from each of the 5 tanks on board...every day!
My cold is better...my throat is still scratchy, but I'm gargling diluted peroxide alternately with salt water.
Which is a good thing because at 11:30 last night the sewer line backed up again and I was on the roof at midnight dropping a Drain King down the stack and then cleaning up the "mess" while I tried to get Dottie to go to bed because she had to work today. I was finally done around 1:30 and she was still talking to me as I went through headed for the shower. She's not sleeping so well as the arthritis in her back is getting worse and her "other" hip, the one that wasn't replaced, is starting to bother her. Since that's the one she sleeps on...since she can't have Celebrex because she only has one kidney...Aleve and aspirin aren't really getting the job done.
I don't know how she's going to sleep if they replace that other hip!
Anyway, off to run an errand then come back and try a load of laundry to figure out whether I'm digging up the sewer line this afternoon or mowing the hayfield that's popped up from all that rain we had!
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Bill is settling in; he got lost for the first time this morning when he couldn't make an exit and had to drive 40 miles to get turned around and headed back the way he needed to go...after almost running out of gas...
Dad always told that it didn't cost anymore to keep it full than empty; also, with the junk I used to drive, you were a lot safer filling them when they were only down halfway so they didn't have that whole tank to condense water in. Not so much a problem in this day of "plastic" tanks, but when they were 26 gallons and metal you could "make" a lot of water in one certain times of the year.
35 years ago when we would "pull" fuel samples on the Navy helos I worked on you could get an inch of water in the bottom of a Mason jar from each of the 5 tanks on board...every day!
My cold is better...my throat is still scratchy, but I'm gargling diluted peroxide alternately with salt water.
Which is a good thing because at 11:30 last night the sewer line backed up again and I was on the roof at midnight dropping a Drain King down the stack and then cleaning up the "mess" while I tried to get Dottie to go to bed because she had to work today. I was finally done around 1:30 and she was still talking to me as I went through headed for the shower. She's not sleeping so well as the arthritis in her back is getting worse and her "other" hip, the one that wasn't replaced, is starting to bother her. Since that's the one she sleeps on...since she can't have Celebrex because she only has one kidney...Aleve and aspirin aren't really getting the job done.
I don't know how she's going to sleep if they replace that other hip!
Anyway, off to run an errand then come back and try a load of laundry to figure out whether I'm digging up the sewer line this afternoon or mowing the hayfield that's popped up from all that rain we had!
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Monday, September 15, 2008
Bill is safe...
and settled into his apartment. He called this morning for some information to fill out more of his paperwork for his new job, then was going shopping to buy a "real" bed instead of sleeping on the air mattress he took with him.
The basement is still trickling water, but not at nearly the rate it was; another day or two and it will subside. At least there isn't anymore rain in the forecast for this week!
My older two grandchildren have been back in school for a while now; when they came to dinner last Thursday to say goodbye to Bill, they had passed the first cold of the year to their Mom, and I seem to have been the next on the list...
I had to call my friend in Colorado to find out something for Bill earlier, and then called him back to find out how he was doing; we talked for about 2 hours. He is still trying to get his roof replaced from the last storms they had there, and it's cold enough now he has been using his new woodstove these last 2 nights.
Winter is definitely on it's way!
As I watch Ike's aftermath on the screen to my left and fear for those I know in that direction along with everyone else displaced or awaiting rescue, I'm grateful I didn't take that transfer to the Gulf Coast all those years ago when we weren't sure that GM would build a new plant here.
And as I watch the rest of the news of the day, my memory goes back to the "Savings and Loan crisis" and the "Keating Five"...
"Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it." - Winston Churchill
I used that in a reply earlier to a friend in Britain in response to her post about the London branches of the firms collapsing today refusing to pay their staff. At the time my ancient memory couldn't remember who to attribute it to; I remember hearing Harry Truman quoted as saying it.
I was rather embarassed when it turned out to be Winston Churchill!
My eyes are burning, my head is throbbing, my nose is glued shut and it hurts to swallow...the drugs aren't helping...more drugs...more drugs...
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
The basement is still trickling water, but not at nearly the rate it was; another day or two and it will subside. At least there isn't anymore rain in the forecast for this week!
My older two grandchildren have been back in school for a while now; when they came to dinner last Thursday to say goodbye to Bill, they had passed the first cold of the year to their Mom, and I seem to have been the next on the list...
I had to call my friend in Colorado to find out something for Bill earlier, and then called him back to find out how he was doing; we talked for about 2 hours. He is still trying to get his roof replaced from the last storms they had there, and it's cold enough now he has been using his new woodstove these last 2 nights.
Winter is definitely on it's way!
As I watch Ike's aftermath on the screen to my left and fear for those I know in that direction along with everyone else displaced or awaiting rescue, I'm grateful I didn't take that transfer to the Gulf Coast all those years ago when we weren't sure that GM would build a new plant here.
And as I watch the rest of the news of the day, my memory goes back to the "Savings and Loan crisis" and the "Keating Five"...
"Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it." - Winston Churchill
I used that in a reply earlier to a friend in Britain in response to her post about the London branches of the firms collapsing today refusing to pay their staff. At the time my ancient memory couldn't remember who to attribute it to; I remember hearing Harry Truman quoted as saying it.
I was rather embarassed when it turned out to be Winston Churchill!
My eyes are burning, my head is throbbing, my nose is glued shut and it hurts to swallow...the drugs aren't helping...more drugs...more drugs...
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Partings...
Bill, my oldest, left for his new job in D.C. this morning. He and Laura came to dinner Thursday night here to say goodbye to the grandkids and his brother and Noel. Bill was extremely tired and forgot some of the things from here he was going to take, so we gathered them to take to him last evening.
One of the worst driving experiences I've ever had...I knew heavy rain was coming and had Rain-X'd the windshield in preparation for it. 4 inches we were supposed to get on top of the inch or so the day before. As we were getting ready to leave tornado warnings went out for the county south of us, with one on the ground tracking into Missouri. When we got about 5 minutes west of our house on the interstate I could hear the sirens over the rain, over the radio, over everything at 70 mph.! The radio announced tornado warnings for us, but not their location.
John was on his way to our house to pick up the leftover lasagna from the family dinner Thursday night; Dottie called him to tell him he might want to wait a bit. He checked his TV and found out they were tracking a funnel that was coming out of Bonner Springs towards I-70 and K-7...I was a half mile east of there at that moment.
I was concentrating on staying on the road at that point, in the rush hour traffic with the rain pouring down. I saw a lowering off to my left at one point, but no rotation. Dottie thought she saw a funnel off to our north about the same time.
We got to Lawrence, stopping to buy 3 new maps to send with Bill along with the Yahoo maps directions he had asked me to print. We had dinner with them and helped them bag some of the things he was taking and get them in the car tonight so he had less to do this morning, then drove home through an even heavier downpour.
No phone calls this morning, and if he's driving I'm not going to bother him as he'll be running through the rain almost all day today.
So my fingers are crossed...
Hopefully he'll be running ahead of the remnants of Ike tomorrow, as they're predicting tornadoes all the way up through Ohio, which is where we're hoping he'll be when he stops for the night tonight. If he makes that then he should be ahead of it tomorrow!
I've been rotating through the channels this morning, watching the weather and seeing the reports from Texas...I hope everyone down there is OK!
May the weekend be kind to each of you!
alan
_______________________________________
4PM edit...
The good-
I've heard from Bill twice today, once just after noon when he called to ask if he should use his new (and first ever) cell phone to call in an SUV on it's roof in the median. He was just driving into the rain then and decided he really needed to concentrate. He called later when he was stopped for gas about 100 miles from St. Louis.
The bad-
I took the dog out earlier and walked the yard to check for damage, only finding one limb down. Brought her in and went downstairs; the leak in the stairwell had stopped (probably need to replace a piece of plastic I buried against that wall years ago). The sump was keeping up...
Went to turn on a light and get ready to spend some time working out, and my pretty checkerboard of mats felt wet...took another step and they went "squish". So I've spent my afternoon moving things, pulling them up and standing them on edge to dry and using my shop-vac to pick up the water. It's not coming in the upper part of the wall where it used to (plastic sheeting there several years ago, as well as in the bottom of the "flowerbox", and between it and the driveway). It didn't come in where the cap blocks are separated from the lower wall...
It's coming in one cinder block from the very bottom, right above the floor. Meaning the 8" or so of rain we've had in the last 36 hours has soaked down through the driveway and the lateral Dad buried behind that wall 49 years ago isn't picking it up...
It's not much, and I'll keep vacuuming it up every couple of hours 'til it stops. The dehumidifier and the fan I use for working out already have part of it starting to dry. I'm so much better off than I was when we first moved in (I'd have had 4" or so to squeegee into the sump) and I know those south of me are faring far worse!
The ugly-
It's raining again...the northernmost outer bands of Ike are visiting...
:o)
alan
One of the worst driving experiences I've ever had...I knew heavy rain was coming and had Rain-X'd the windshield in preparation for it. 4 inches we were supposed to get on top of the inch or so the day before. As we were getting ready to leave tornado warnings went out for the county south of us, with one on the ground tracking into Missouri. When we got about 5 minutes west of our house on the interstate I could hear the sirens over the rain, over the radio, over everything at 70 mph.! The radio announced tornado warnings for us, but not their location.
John was on his way to our house to pick up the leftover lasagna from the family dinner Thursday night; Dottie called him to tell him he might want to wait a bit. He checked his TV and found out they were tracking a funnel that was coming out of Bonner Springs towards I-70 and K-7...I was a half mile east of there at that moment.
I was concentrating on staying on the road at that point, in the rush hour traffic with the rain pouring down. I saw a lowering off to my left at one point, but no rotation. Dottie thought she saw a funnel off to our north about the same time.
We got to Lawrence, stopping to buy 3 new maps to send with Bill along with the Yahoo maps directions he had asked me to print. We had dinner with them and helped them bag some of the things he was taking and get them in the car tonight so he had less to do this morning, then drove home through an even heavier downpour.
No phone calls this morning, and if he's driving I'm not going to bother him as he'll be running through the rain almost all day today.
So my fingers are crossed...
Hopefully he'll be running ahead of the remnants of Ike tomorrow, as they're predicting tornadoes all the way up through Ohio, which is where we're hoping he'll be when he stops for the night tonight. If he makes that then he should be ahead of it tomorrow!
I've been rotating through the channels this morning, watching the weather and seeing the reports from Texas...I hope everyone down there is OK!
May the weekend be kind to each of you!
alan
_______________________________________
4PM edit...
The good-
I've heard from Bill twice today, once just after noon when he called to ask if he should use his new (and first ever) cell phone to call in an SUV on it's roof in the median. He was just driving into the rain then and decided he really needed to concentrate. He called later when he was stopped for gas about 100 miles from St. Louis.
The bad-
I took the dog out earlier and walked the yard to check for damage, only finding one limb down. Brought her in and went downstairs; the leak in the stairwell had stopped (probably need to replace a piece of plastic I buried against that wall years ago). The sump was keeping up...
Went to turn on a light and get ready to spend some time working out, and my pretty checkerboard of mats felt wet...took another step and they went "squish". So I've spent my afternoon moving things, pulling them up and standing them on edge to dry and using my shop-vac to pick up the water. It's not coming in the upper part of the wall where it used to (plastic sheeting there several years ago, as well as in the bottom of the "flowerbox", and between it and the driveway). It didn't come in where the cap blocks are separated from the lower wall...
It's coming in one cinder block from the very bottom, right above the floor. Meaning the 8" or so of rain we've had in the last 36 hours has soaked down through the driveway and the lateral Dad buried behind that wall 49 years ago isn't picking it up...
It's not much, and I'll keep vacuuming it up every couple of hours 'til it stops. The dehumidifier and the fan I use for working out already have part of it starting to dry. I'm so much better off than I was when we first moved in (I'd have had 4" or so to squeegee into the sump) and I know those south of me are faring far worse!
The ugly-
It's raining again...the northernmost outer bands of Ike are visiting...
:o)
alan
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
"To the Stars...
through difficulty"
These words I seem to have known forever; never have they seemed more appropriate than now!
The motto of my state, traceable through history back to the Romans.
So many seem to turn their back on history these days; that in doing so they doom us to repeat it seems not to bother them at all!
147 years ago this was agreed on and adopted as "The Great Seal of the State of Kansas". Centered on a field of blue, it also became her flag. The culmination of a long period of bloody intimidation and hatred, fueled by forces of "the status quo", or those who would stride forward into the light of day having tried to better themselves and the country they loved!
That of course, was not the end of the struggles, of the death, or the destruction.
It wasn't enough that two competing state constitutions had been written, one legitimizing slavery, the other freedom. It wasn't enough that not only homes, but whole cities were burnt; fathers were drug away and stabbed only to linger and die a year later from infections (William "Buffalo Bill" Cody's father) or people were drug from their cabins and murdered (John Brown at Pottawatomie Creek) in return for which others exacted revenge (the Marais des Cygnes massacre).
There are those who know of William Quantrill's burning of Lawrence in 1863. Most don't know that was the 2nd attack on Lawrence, Kansas. 7 years before "pro-slavery" forces had ransacked the town, destroying printing presses and burning what they could.
So much for freedom of speech...
You would think in a state where so many had died as a direct result of hatred, words would be tempered with thought! You would think that tolerance would be a watchword...that an effort would be made to promote peace, love and understanding among all her citizens...
Yet, of late, Kansas is known as much for one small group of hate-mongers as she is all of her other attributes and history. They have become known throughout the world for their particular brand of vehement intolerance. They know no shame in parading children as they spout their vitriol, and delight in causing pain to those who are seeking nothing more than to bury their loved ones.
I'm trying not to give them a single counter click by not mentioning their name or that of the "church" they belong to; though I try very hard not to deal in "negative energy", if I could trade my being for having all of theirs and their ilk beamed from the planet I would.
Our Governor has taken them on legally, though they still persist.
Sadly, not only do they believe that God hates fallen soldiers, or musicians, or accident victims, but he must hate high school students as well, because they protested at my nephew's high school graduation several years ago!
Of late, I almost fear admitting where I'm from! That 2,764,00 of us can be branded by 75 so is sad, but in this age of video clips and soundbytes it seems it is so...
It is very hard indeed not to wish that their "god" would inflict as much pain on them as they have in "his" name!
alan
These words I seem to have known forever; never have they seemed more appropriate than now!
The motto of my state, traceable through history back to the Romans.
So many seem to turn their back on history these days; that in doing so they doom us to repeat it seems not to bother them at all!
147 years ago this was agreed on and adopted as "The Great Seal of the State of Kansas". Centered on a field of blue, it also became her flag. The culmination of a long period of bloody intimidation and hatred, fueled by forces of "the status quo", or those who would stride forward into the light of day having tried to better themselves and the country they loved!
That of course, was not the end of the struggles, of the death, or the destruction.
It wasn't enough that two competing state constitutions had been written, one legitimizing slavery, the other freedom. It wasn't enough that not only homes, but whole cities were burnt; fathers were drug away and stabbed only to linger and die a year later from infections (William "Buffalo Bill" Cody's father) or people were drug from their cabins and murdered (John Brown at Pottawatomie Creek) in return for which others exacted revenge (the Marais des Cygnes massacre).
There are those who know of William Quantrill's burning of Lawrence in 1863. Most don't know that was the 2nd attack on Lawrence, Kansas. 7 years before "pro-slavery" forces had ransacked the town, destroying printing presses and burning what they could.
So much for freedom of speech...
You would think in a state where so many had died as a direct result of hatred, words would be tempered with thought! You would think that tolerance would be a watchword...that an effort would be made to promote peace, love and understanding among all her citizens...
Yet, of late, Kansas is known as much for one small group of hate-mongers as she is all of her other attributes and history. They have become known throughout the world for their particular brand of vehement intolerance. They know no shame in parading children as they spout their vitriol, and delight in causing pain to those who are seeking nothing more than to bury their loved ones.
I'm trying not to give them a single counter click by not mentioning their name or that of the "church" they belong to; though I try very hard not to deal in "negative energy", if I could trade my being for having all of theirs and their ilk beamed from the planet I would.
Our Governor has taken them on legally, though they still persist.
Sadly, not only do they believe that God hates fallen soldiers, or musicians, or accident victims, but he must hate high school students as well, because they protested at my nephew's high school graduation several years ago!
Of late, I almost fear admitting where I'm from! That 2,764,00 of us can be branded by 75 so is sad, but in this age of video clips and soundbytes it seems it is so...
It is very hard indeed not to wish that their "god" would inflict as much pain on them as they have in "his" name!
alan
Monday, September 08, 2008
Stormy Monday...
Woken by the thunderstorms numerous times last night, about 5:30 I finally slipped in a pair of earplugs, only to be woken by them again at 7:30. As I wandered through the house (as long as I was awake I might as well use the bathroom) there was a loud "POP" and though I didn't actually realize the lights were off, I heard the battery backup for my desktop beeping.
I shut it off, then set my little cooking timer for a half hour to make sure Dottie woke up for work, went downstairs and checked the sump in the basement, then tried to doze back off...I think I just had when her alarm clock (battery backup) went off...then her other alarm clock...then the timer! I decided it was a message and put my kettle on (gas stove lit manually), deciding I was up for the day.
She showered and ate, I made a latte and oatmeal, then called in the power outage. I grabbed my radio from work and was sitting in our old platform rocker with the cat listening to NPR when I heard the rain start up again.
So I went and started rolling out the extension cords, preparing to drag our generator outside before the rain got "heavy" again. As I got the first one stretched all the way through the house and to the sump, I heard the dehumidifier come back on. For now, the lights are "holding" though it's usually 5 or 6 hours before I "trust" them. The cord is still lying there...
Saturday morning Dottie decided she wanted to sleep in more than she wanted to see "Death Race", so we put that off 'til Friday and she slept 'til 10:30. We picked up Dillon around noon and took him to a hobby store where he picked out a "screw together " Harley kit and his first "glue together" model, a 2007 Shelby Mustang. Those took up most of the afternoon and early evening.
He asked to go back to the Natural History Museum at KU; we had taken he and his sister there a year or so ago. He spent a lot more time looking at the fossils this time, but had told he grandma that why he really wanted to go was to see the snakes (live examples of all of the ones native to Kansas).
I've lost count of how many times I've been to this museum since my first trip when I was in the 5th grade, yet I'm always intrigued by it. Besides the donation at the door, we always try to pick up something out of their shop to help support it as well. Dillon picked up some geode and mineral samples, I bought a little rocket kit, powered by vinegar and baking soda. Next time he's over we'll go out to the park and launch it...here I'm afraid of losing it in a tree or a neighbor's yard!
Last night after dinner and getting Dillon home for his bedtime, we watched "Lady in the Water", one we had both wanted to see in the theater and missed. Not at all what I expected, and a very good movie! I'm still not sure it's a bedtime story, though...
So that was our weekend...I hope each of you had a wonderful one!
Tonight "Sarah Connor" kicks off a new season...one of the best of last year, I'm loooking forward to it!
May the week be kind!
alan
I shut it off, then set my little cooking timer for a half hour to make sure Dottie woke up for work, went downstairs and checked the sump in the basement, then tried to doze back off...I think I just had when her alarm clock (battery backup) went off...then her other alarm clock...then the timer! I decided it was a message and put my kettle on (gas stove lit manually), deciding I was up for the day.
She showered and ate, I made a latte and oatmeal, then called in the power outage. I grabbed my radio from work and was sitting in our old platform rocker with the cat listening to NPR when I heard the rain start up again.
So I went and started rolling out the extension cords, preparing to drag our generator outside before the rain got "heavy" again. As I got the first one stretched all the way through the house and to the sump, I heard the dehumidifier come back on. For now, the lights are "holding" though it's usually 5 or 6 hours before I "trust" them. The cord is still lying there...
Saturday morning Dottie decided she wanted to sleep in more than she wanted to see "Death Race", so we put that off 'til Friday and she slept 'til 10:30. We picked up Dillon around noon and took him to a hobby store where he picked out a "screw together " Harley kit and his first "glue together" model, a 2007 Shelby Mustang. Those took up most of the afternoon and early evening.
He asked to go back to the Natural History Museum at KU; we had taken he and his sister there a year or so ago. He spent a lot more time looking at the fossils this time, but had told he grandma that why he really wanted to go was to see the snakes (live examples of all of the ones native to Kansas).
I've lost count of how many times I've been to this museum since my first trip when I was in the 5th grade, yet I'm always intrigued by it. Besides the donation at the door, we always try to pick up something out of their shop to help support it as well. Dillon picked up some geode and mineral samples, I bought a little rocket kit, powered by vinegar and baking soda. Next time he's over we'll go out to the park and launch it...here I'm afraid of losing it in a tree or a neighbor's yard!
Last night after dinner and getting Dillon home for his bedtime, we watched "Lady in the Water", one we had both wanted to see in the theater and missed. Not at all what I expected, and a very good movie! I'm still not sure it's a bedtime story, though...
So that was our weekend...I hope each of you had a wonderful one!
Tonight "Sarah Connor" kicks off a new season...one of the best of last year, I'm loooking forward to it!
May the week be kind!
alan
Friday, September 05, 2008
A smile for the weekend...
I'm about to drop out of sight for a couple of days. Dottie is off this weekend; Bill and Laura are coming for dinner tonight for what may be his last Friday here, depending on when he starts driving to his new job back East. Tomorrow morning we're planning to try to catch a movie, then pick Dillon up on our way back to spend the night and Sunday.
I was a bit "precocious" growing up. I read early, and was lucky enough to not have my picking up of any book I had access to questioned.
The summer I was 6 my Dad took vacation and we drove to Texas to help his father rebuild an old house he had just bought for his retirement in Nocona, Texas. I-35 wasn't done yet, and Dad stopped in Claremore, Oklahoma overnight and we visited the Will Rogers Museum there. I became very enamored of the man, and as we were leaving used a bit of money I had saved to buy "The Autobiography of Will Rogers". I spent the rest of that vacation reading it, and have re-read it several times through the years, along with going back to find certain sections of it many times. At some point I need to replace it, or have it rebound...
Through the years I've quoted Will here, and once again he has come to mind as I know somewhere he's smiling at the video clip I'm going to use him to introduce:
"There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you."
I'll let Will close things for me as well...
"If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging."
May Friday be kind and your weekends all be lovely!
alan
I was a bit "precocious" growing up. I read early, and was lucky enough to not have my picking up of any book I had access to questioned.
The summer I was 6 my Dad took vacation and we drove to Texas to help his father rebuild an old house he had just bought for his retirement in Nocona, Texas. I-35 wasn't done yet, and Dad stopped in Claremore, Oklahoma overnight and we visited the Will Rogers Museum there. I became very enamored of the man, and as we were leaving used a bit of money I had saved to buy "The Autobiography of Will Rogers". I spent the rest of that vacation reading it, and have re-read it several times through the years, along with going back to find certain sections of it many times. At some point I need to replace it, or have it rebound...
Through the years I've quoted Will here, and once again he has come to mind as I know somewhere he's smiling at the video clip I'm going to use him to introduce:
"There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you."
I'll let Will close things for me as well...
"If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging."
May Friday be kind and your weekends all be lovely!
alan
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
The fast lane...
My oldest son, Bill, flew to D.C. this past summer to visit his wife Laura while she was doing an internship at the Small Business Administration. One of those airplane conversations started with the gentleman next to him; it has turned into a job offer with a contractor that puts his degrees in physics and astronomy to use calibrating weather satellites!
This has come up within the last 10 days; he has to be there by mid-month! We snuck in a family "going away party" for him on Monday and even managed to surprise him, thanks to Laura's help. She is finishing her last semester at KU and then will be joining him.
I spent last Saturday putting rear brakes on his car to make sure they were "good" before he left and he wouldn't have to pay someone else to do it when he's back there. He and Laura have spent their spare time house shopping on-line trying to figure out if they can pull off buying an house instead of paying rent when they move, and figuring out the logistics of supporting two households for 3 months and moving...
So these next few days are going to be a bit hectic for them and in a lesser way for us as we try to spend what time we can with him before he moves. I'm happy to see him working at something that puts his knowledge and grasp of physics and astronomy to use; Dottie would be happier if he were closer to "home".
I haven't pointed out to her that he will be no further from "home" that she was when she came here with me instead of going "home" to Vermont when Bill was born...
We kept Talia and Caleb overnight on Sunday as Monday was the "Labor Day" holiday, and took them to see "Fly Me to the Moon" on Monday. My sister had kept Dillon overnight and met us there; it was her first "modern" 3D movie and it was thumbs up all around from us. Usually we try to do a family movie the day after Thanksgiving, and she has decided if "Bolt" is out, that's going to be "the one" this year.
After the dinner celebration Monday evening we went back to my sister's house for cake. Dillon and Talia had school yesterday, but Caleb having missed the birthday deadline by a few weeks, hasn't gotten to start kindergarten yet. When his parents told him to get his shoes and socks on so they could leave, he told them he was going home with us.
Noel came to ask us about this, of which we were unaware, but since Dottie was off yesterday after having worked Saturday and Sunday, we said it was OK. Caleb was admonished for telling them before he was invited, then got his way...
I wonder why there are only quiet weeks in "Lake Wobegon"?
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
This has come up within the last 10 days; he has to be there by mid-month! We snuck in a family "going away party" for him on Monday and even managed to surprise him, thanks to Laura's help. She is finishing her last semester at KU and then will be joining him.
I spent last Saturday putting rear brakes on his car to make sure they were "good" before he left and he wouldn't have to pay someone else to do it when he's back there. He and Laura have spent their spare time house shopping on-line trying to figure out if they can pull off buying an house instead of paying rent when they move, and figuring out the logistics of supporting two households for 3 months and moving...
So these next few days are going to be a bit hectic for them and in a lesser way for us as we try to spend what time we can with him before he moves. I'm happy to see him working at something that puts his knowledge and grasp of physics and astronomy to use; Dottie would be happier if he were closer to "home".
I haven't pointed out to her that he will be no further from "home" that she was when she came here with me instead of going "home" to Vermont when Bill was born...
We kept Talia and Caleb overnight on Sunday as Monday was the "Labor Day" holiday, and took them to see "Fly Me to the Moon" on Monday. My sister had kept Dillon overnight and met us there; it was her first "modern" 3D movie and it was thumbs up all around from us. Usually we try to do a family movie the day after Thanksgiving, and she has decided if "Bolt" is out, that's going to be "the one" this year.
After the dinner celebration Monday evening we went back to my sister's house for cake. Dillon and Talia had school yesterday, but Caleb having missed the birthday deadline by a few weeks, hasn't gotten to start kindergarten yet. When his parents told him to get his shoes and socks on so they could leave, he told them he was going home with us.
Noel came to ask us about this, of which we were unaware, but since Dottie was off yesterday after having worked Saturday and Sunday, we said it was OK. Caleb was admonished for telling them before he was invited, then got his way...
I wonder why there are only quiet weeks in "Lake Wobegon"?
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Saturday, August 30, 2008
New Category...
or "You can die for this country, but don't expect to be voting"!
"Voter Registration Drives Barred from Vets Homes"
Just a snippet...
"The VA has since explained that its decision to evict Preminger was part of a Bush Administration policy that bars outside groups from registering voters who live in VA nursing homes, hospitals, and transitional housing for homeless veterans.
In an e-mailed response to questions for this story, VA press secretary Alison Aikele said that "designating a VA hospital as a voter registration site" would make it harder for the government to care for wounded veterans. It "would be disruptive to the quality care we provide our veterans," she said.
Veterans groups have expressed outrage over the policy, which they say is disenfranchising as many as 400,000 veterans who often do not know they need to re-register to vote when they move into a VA facility and it becomes their official, state-sanctioned address. The VA has even barred local elections officials from carrying out voter registration drives."
________________________________________
Growing up, I remember reading about Patrick Henry "Pappy" McMahon, a WW2 Machinist Mate aboard a PT boat in the South Pacific. When their "boat" was cut in two one dark night by a Japanese destroyer and sunk, McMahon, having been below decks, was badly burned. His lieutenant, despite having re-injured a pre-war back injury, spent 3 hours towing him to the floating remains of their craft, then, having seen a small island, led the 11 survivors to it. He towed McMahon using a life jacket...with the strap in his teeth! 15 hours in the water from the time of the collision...
4 days later they swam again to a slightly larger island as they found no food on the 1st one. Again, with the lieutenant towing "Pappy" in his life jacket with the strap in his teeth. This led to their finding natives and their eventual rescue.
The lieutenant was later awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his heroics. McMahon survived his injuries and went to work for the U.S. Postal Service.
In 1960 the lieutenant was seeking public office and McMahon and some his fellow survivors decided they wanted to thank him by campaigning for him. This led to his being told by his superiors that he wasn't allowed to because he was a government employee!
Later this decision was altered, as I recall by court order, to say that government employees couldn't campaign during work hours, or wearing their uniforms...
So once again, we've been here before! And once again, the Bush administration seems intent on forcing it's own interpretation of things!
I mean, who wants a bunch of veterans who have been denied care, made to jump through hoops to get what was promised them, and seen those they served with stonewalled in some cases to death to register to VOTE!
By the way, for those who might not know, that lieutenant I mentioned above?
His name was John F. Kennedy...
That link will take you to his naval record.
Forgive my rant...I just can't believe that some of the things being foisted on us right now!
May your weekends be kind!
alan
"Voter Registration Drives Barred from Vets Homes"
Just a snippet...
"The VA has since explained that its decision to evict Preminger was part of a Bush Administration policy that bars outside groups from registering voters who live in VA nursing homes, hospitals, and transitional housing for homeless veterans.
In an e-mailed response to questions for this story, VA press secretary Alison Aikele said that "designating a VA hospital as a voter registration site" would make it harder for the government to care for wounded veterans. It "would be disruptive to the quality care we provide our veterans," she said.
Veterans groups have expressed outrage over the policy, which they say is disenfranchising as many as 400,000 veterans who often do not know they need to re-register to vote when they move into a VA facility and it becomes their official, state-sanctioned address. The VA has even barred local elections officials from carrying out voter registration drives."
________________________________________
Growing up, I remember reading about Patrick Henry "Pappy" McMahon, a WW2 Machinist Mate aboard a PT boat in the South Pacific. When their "boat" was cut in two one dark night by a Japanese destroyer and sunk, McMahon, having been below decks, was badly burned. His lieutenant, despite having re-injured a pre-war back injury, spent 3 hours towing him to the floating remains of their craft, then, having seen a small island, led the 11 survivors to it. He towed McMahon using a life jacket...with the strap in his teeth! 15 hours in the water from the time of the collision...
4 days later they swam again to a slightly larger island as they found no food on the 1st one. Again, with the lieutenant towing "Pappy" in his life jacket with the strap in his teeth. This led to their finding natives and their eventual rescue.
The lieutenant was later awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his heroics. McMahon survived his injuries and went to work for the U.S. Postal Service.
In 1960 the lieutenant was seeking public office and McMahon and some his fellow survivors decided they wanted to thank him by campaigning for him. This led to his being told by his superiors that he wasn't allowed to because he was a government employee!
Later this decision was altered, as I recall by court order, to say that government employees couldn't campaign during work hours, or wearing their uniforms...
So once again, we've been here before! And once again, the Bush administration seems intent on forcing it's own interpretation of things!
I mean, who wants a bunch of veterans who have been denied care, made to jump through hoops to get what was promised them, and seen those they served with stonewalled in some cases to death to register to VOTE!
By the way, for those who might not know, that lieutenant I mentioned above?
His name was John F. Kennedy...
That link will take you to his naval record.
Forgive my rant...I just can't believe that some of the things being foisted on us right now!
May your weekends be kind!
alan
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Not the post I had planned...
but the one I can't ignore!
I saw this at a friends and knew I had to put it up...
Thank you, Tara!
Dottie is off tomorrow, so I'll be around on Saturday unless someone decides I need to do something else, lol!
May the rest of your weeks be kind and the (for those who get one) holiday weekend fantastic!
alan
I saw this at a friends and knew I had to put it up...
Thank you, Tara!
Dottie is off tomorrow, so I'll be around on Saturday unless someone decides I need to do something else, lol!
May the rest of your weeks be kind and the (for those who get one) holiday weekend fantastic!
alan
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Red letter day!
Or perhaps it should be called a black ink day...
I've spent my morning paying out the "buyout" money that finally showed up yesterday. I paid off one credit card with a balance enough to buy a new small car, a 2nd that was enough to buy a new Korean car, a Sears account that had enough on it to buy a nice used car and a furniture/electronics store account with a sizable balance that was still interest free if I paid it off before January.
I just freed up about $900/month in payments...
Of course, that's going to go towards the other ones now to "knock them down" and not into the "general fund"! (This said with the grandchildren's magazine drive, a grandchild's birthday and Christmas all coming up, along with both daughter-in-laws birthdays, and our own...)
We've been here before, but when we got here before I'd always get laid off again; this time things should stay on a more even keel! (I hope!!!)
The "five year plan" at this point is to ride out the real estate slump, then hopefully sell this place and move out of the city a bit...we'll see!
Off to open my first savings account in 28 years; they didn't withold state tax from this and I need to put it away now or I won't have it next year!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
I've spent my morning paying out the "buyout" money that finally showed up yesterday. I paid off one credit card with a balance enough to buy a new small car, a 2nd that was enough to buy a new Korean car, a Sears account that had enough on it to buy a nice used car and a furniture/electronics store account with a sizable balance that was still interest free if I paid it off before January.
I just freed up about $900/month in payments...
Of course, that's going to go towards the other ones now to "knock them down" and not into the "general fund"! (This said with the grandchildren's magazine drive, a grandchild's birthday and Christmas all coming up, along with both daughter-in-laws birthdays, and our own...)
We've been here before, but when we got here before I'd always get laid off again; this time things should stay on a more even keel! (I hope!!!)
The "five year plan" at this point is to ride out the real estate slump, then hopefully sell this place and move out of the city a bit...we'll see!
Off to open my first savings account in 28 years; they didn't withold state tax from this and I need to put it away now or I won't have it next year!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Monday, August 25, 2008
New week, new post, lol...
Talia had been promised she could spend a weekend, and she arrived before Dottie was home from work on Friday, homework done and ready!
"Lego Star Wars" on the PS2 was her entertainment choice while I finished the things I wasn't done with when she arrived. I had shopped, extra because my sister's family birthday party was on Saturday. Bill and Laura were coming for dinner as well Friday night...I did manage to get everything to work out for when Dottie was out of the shower and they arrived. Gorditas, soft and hard shell tacos...
Mom called at 10 something and said she had knocked a lens out of her glasses again and that the screw was missing. We got up early as Talia wanted to go see her, got her glasses fixed and got back in time to eat some lunch and gather the food and presents for Cindy's party and head west.
Though dinner was supposed to be around 5 we left at noon because my younger nephew's first scrimmage of the football season was Saturday and we needed to put things in Cindy's fridge before we went; as the overcast burnt off and it went from 80 to 94 while we were there I'm glad we did!
Dinner came off well, though trying to cook 16 steaks meant two rounds on the grill and playing musical chairs with them to get them done. I was eating as my sons and wife started doing the dishes...
We brought all 3 grandkids home with us as Dottie really wanted them to see "Journey to the Center of the Earth" in 3D. They saw the movie while they were in Colorado on vacation last month, but the theater wasn't set up for the 3D.
Even though they had seen the movie, the 3D worked it's magic. Caleb, the youngest, was in Dottie's lap within 15 minutes. Talia shrieked and grabbed my arm before the opening sequence was done. Dillon, older and "independent" would just "jump" in his seat. They absolutely loved it! We had seen it last week, and enjoyed it just as much this time.
Dottie called for pizza as we left the theater, and we picked it up on the way home; dinner and 3 showers later we had them home in time for bed at 8. We talked to John and Noel for a bit, then came home and I finally got the haircut I'd been begging for for a month.
Our "us" time for the weekend was "The Spiderwick Chronicles"; quite a tale and very well done! 4 thumbs up from us...
So this morning, she just left for work; I slept 'til almost the 8 hour mark and am off to make an eggwhite omelet for breakfast. Then I'm going downstairs as my weights have been gathering dust since Thursday and, although I'm down 28 pounds in two months, I need to keep going that direction!
May Monday and the week be kind to you all!
alan
"Lego Star Wars" on the PS2 was her entertainment choice while I finished the things I wasn't done with when she arrived. I had shopped, extra because my sister's family birthday party was on Saturday. Bill and Laura were coming for dinner as well Friday night...I did manage to get everything to work out for when Dottie was out of the shower and they arrived. Gorditas, soft and hard shell tacos...
Mom called at 10 something and said she had knocked a lens out of her glasses again and that the screw was missing. We got up early as Talia wanted to go see her, got her glasses fixed and got back in time to eat some lunch and gather the food and presents for Cindy's party and head west.
Though dinner was supposed to be around 5 we left at noon because my younger nephew's first scrimmage of the football season was Saturday and we needed to put things in Cindy's fridge before we went; as the overcast burnt off and it went from 80 to 94 while we were there I'm glad we did!
Dinner came off well, though trying to cook 16 steaks meant two rounds on the grill and playing musical chairs with them to get them done. I was eating as my sons and wife started doing the dishes...
We brought all 3 grandkids home with us as Dottie really wanted them to see "Journey to the Center of the Earth" in 3D. They saw the movie while they were in Colorado on vacation last month, but the theater wasn't set up for the 3D.
Even though they had seen the movie, the 3D worked it's magic. Caleb, the youngest, was in Dottie's lap within 15 minutes. Talia shrieked and grabbed my arm before the opening sequence was done. Dillon, older and "independent" would just "jump" in his seat. They absolutely loved it! We had seen it last week, and enjoyed it just as much this time.
Dottie called for pizza as we left the theater, and we picked it up on the way home; dinner and 3 showers later we had them home in time for bed at 8. We talked to John and Noel for a bit, then came home and I finally got the haircut I'd been begging for for a month.
Our "us" time for the weekend was "The Spiderwick Chronicles"; quite a tale and very well done! 4 thumbs up from us...
So this morning, she just left for work; I slept 'til almost the 8 hour mark and am off to make an eggwhite omelet for breakfast. Then I'm going downstairs as my weights have been gathering dust since Thursday and, although I'm down 28 pounds in two months, I need to keep going that direction!
May Monday and the week be kind to you all!
alan
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
As the weeks slip by...
It's hard to believe it's been almost 2 months since I last went to work...
John came by to change the oil in his Neon Monday after he got home from work. He had all 3 grandkids with him, and since the youngest missed the cutoff date to start kindergarten by two weeks, and Dottie was off yesterday, he spent the night and went to see "Wall-E" with us. It was his 3rd time to see it, and he still was spellbound as I was. Dottie admitted afterwards that she enjoyed it much more than she had thought she would.
I heard a lot of commentary when it first came out that said it was "Chaplinesque". As someone who's seen not only a lot of Chaplin, but also Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, I thought it was a lot more Keatonesque...Buster was always fooling around with one thing or another, Chaplin dealt much more with people (my two cents, lol).
It was very nice to see something that worked on so many levels that it not only could charm the children but adults as well!
____________________________________________
Monday I picked up a USA Today because I saw a story on the front page about mold in military barracks in Oklahoma. After all the promises that were made and the commissions that were held after the Walter Reed scandal, I (should have known better) expected more of the people entrusted with the care of our children.
Reading that this is yet another case of it being a place for care of the wounded returning from Iraq and Afghanistan irks me; reading this morning that they have now fired the patient advocate who reported the conditions to USA Today after they weren't resolved makes me think nothing has changed but the location.
NPR broke some stories about soldiers forced to accept less than honorable discharges after having been treated shamefully at a hospital in Fort Collins, and not given the medical care they should have been because they were deemed to have "discipline problems" instead of PTSD. It seems that behavior is also continuing.
Of course, I'm sure if someone drives off the road at 5AM trying to make a muster for PT while they are on psychotropics or sedatives (one of the stories in the link just above), it won't be the Army's fault...
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
It's time for the promises that are made to each person who enlists to be kept! That you will be taken care of properly, and if you are injured you will be cared for properly as long as necessary. Not abused and pushed to the point of reacting in a manner that allows someone to put you on the trash heap because it's cheaper!
This isn't someplace you can have beancounters draw a bottom-line...
This isn't the place to balance the budget...
These are our children; our brothers; our sisters; someone's parents...
They deserve better!
Garry Moore's closing to "I've Got a Secret" was always;
"Please be kind to each other"
which some of you know is where my wishing the week to be kind to you comes from.
I hope someone is kind to these poor veterans...
alan
John came by to change the oil in his Neon Monday after he got home from work. He had all 3 grandkids with him, and since the youngest missed the cutoff date to start kindergarten by two weeks, and Dottie was off yesterday, he spent the night and went to see "Wall-E" with us. It was his 3rd time to see it, and he still was spellbound as I was. Dottie admitted afterwards that she enjoyed it much more than she had thought she would.
I heard a lot of commentary when it first came out that said it was "Chaplinesque". As someone who's seen not only a lot of Chaplin, but also Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, I thought it was a lot more Keatonesque...Buster was always fooling around with one thing or another, Chaplin dealt much more with people (my two cents, lol).
It was very nice to see something that worked on so many levels that it not only could charm the children but adults as well!
____________________________________________
Monday I picked up a USA Today because I saw a story on the front page about mold in military barracks in Oklahoma. After all the promises that were made and the commissions that were held after the Walter Reed scandal, I (should have known better) expected more of the people entrusted with the care of our children.
Reading that this is yet another case of it being a place for care of the wounded returning from Iraq and Afghanistan irks me; reading this morning that they have now fired the patient advocate who reported the conditions to USA Today after they weren't resolved makes me think nothing has changed but the location.
NPR broke some stories about soldiers forced to accept less than honorable discharges after having been treated shamefully at a hospital in Fort Collins, and not given the medical care they should have been because they were deemed to have "discipline problems" instead of PTSD. It seems that behavior is also continuing.
Of course, I'm sure if someone drives off the road at 5AM trying to make a muster for PT while they are on psychotropics or sedatives (one of the stories in the link just above), it won't be the Army's fault...
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
It's time for the promises that are made to each person who enlists to be kept! That you will be taken care of properly, and if you are injured you will be cared for properly as long as necessary. Not abused and pushed to the point of reacting in a manner that allows someone to put you on the trash heap because it's cheaper!
This isn't someplace you can have beancounters draw a bottom-line...
This isn't the place to balance the budget...
These are our children; our brothers; our sisters; someone's parents...
They deserve better!
Garry Moore's closing to "I've Got a Secret" was always;
"Please be kind to each other"
which some of you know is where my wishing the week to be kind to you comes from.
I hope someone is kind to these poor veterans...
alan
Monday, August 18, 2008
On the ball...
Literally...
I'm still cleaning and sorting and pitching, even though it's been a month and a half since my last gainful employment. I've spent enough time downstairs with my weights that my back feels healthy enough to start working on crunches and other things, so I dug out my big purple exercise ball last night and sat on it through about half of "Beowulf". My back was noticably tired when I got up...a good sign!
This morning I got up earlier than I have these past few days, ate and was getting ready to call the vet to see about Frankie's follow-up shot to last months annuals when Dottie's youngest sister called from Vermont. It seems their 2002 Intrepid had just had it's oil changed and blew a head gasket on the way home...I'm hoping Dodge will cover it for them, she deserves some luck!
Got Frankie to the vet, came home and spent a 1/2 hour making peace with him (much faster than last month) and now I have to go run a few errands; a printer cartridge, an oil filter for Dottie Malibu, and a stop by Lowe's because among other things I need to get back to fixing the hot water side of my plumbing. A while back I changed the shut-off valve going out of the hot water tank; this time I'm going to change the line going in and put another shut-off in it, that way if I have to change the rest of the manifold in the basement I don't have to shut off the whole house.
Dottie is off tomorrow. If she'll forgive me I might try and talk her into going to see "Wall-E" as I missed "Iron Man" and she missed the "X-Files" movie...
See you all on Wednesday...may the week be kind!
alan
I'm still cleaning and sorting and pitching, even though it's been a month and a half since my last gainful employment. I've spent enough time downstairs with my weights that my back feels healthy enough to start working on crunches and other things, so I dug out my big purple exercise ball last night and sat on it through about half of "Beowulf". My back was noticably tired when I got up...a good sign!
This morning I got up earlier than I have these past few days, ate and was getting ready to call the vet to see about Frankie's follow-up shot to last months annuals when Dottie's youngest sister called from Vermont. It seems their 2002 Intrepid had just had it's oil changed and blew a head gasket on the way home...I'm hoping Dodge will cover it for them, she deserves some luck!
Got Frankie to the vet, came home and spent a 1/2 hour making peace with him (much faster than last month) and now I have to go run a few errands; a printer cartridge, an oil filter for Dottie Malibu, and a stop by Lowe's because among other things I need to get back to fixing the hot water side of my plumbing. A while back I changed the shut-off valve going out of the hot water tank; this time I'm going to change the line going in and put another shut-off in it, that way if I have to change the rest of the manifold in the basement I don't have to shut off the whole house.
Dottie is off tomorrow. If she'll forgive me I might try and talk her into going to see "Wall-E" as I missed "Iron Man" and she missed the "X-Files" movie...
See you all on Wednesday...may the week be kind!
alan
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Another attempt at an update...
When I tried to do this yesterday, Blogger decided my words should be translated into Hindi. Earlier in the week as I was trying to figure out why comments appeared and disappeared, I had changed a setting I should have apparently left alone...
My last post I left up for a few days because I was rather proud of it; there really wasn't a lot going on here anyway until Friday, Dottie's day off. My only real accomplishment besides a few sessions in my "gym" downstairs and watching some of the Olympics was possibly tracking down a "brake band" for my old chainsaw so I don't have to replace it. It arrived yesterday, so in a bit I'll go take it apart and see if it's the right one.
Friday morning we went to see "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor". Enjoyable with some unexpected turns; always a plus.
The 2nd movie was one I was looking forward to and afraid it might "get away" before I got to see it: "Swing Vote". I'd have sat through it a second time; damn good movie! I swear if I could I'd send you each a ticket...
Bill came for dinner that evening and we "caught up" and they watched "Stargate: Atlantis" while I slipped downstairs for a bit. Yesterday I started my day with a run to the hazardous waste drop to get rid of a half a car battery someone through in John's yard after a wreck at the corner below his house, then Wal-Mart and Costco before coming home to mow.
Netflix had their system up and running finally, after a few days downtime (and a credit to our account) They shipped us out 3 movies, the first of which we watched last night: "Big Trouble", a riot from 2002 that has so many name actors in it I don't know how I missed it when it was new, Tim Allen and Rene Russo being the leads, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (director of "Men In Black").
So tonight when Dottie gets home it's either "Beowulf" or "Grace is Gone"...
Off to grab some breakfast and then go see if that chainsaw is smarter than I am!
May Sunday be kind to each of you!
alan
My last post I left up for a few days because I was rather proud of it; there really wasn't a lot going on here anyway until Friday, Dottie's day off. My only real accomplishment besides a few sessions in my "gym" downstairs and watching some of the Olympics was possibly tracking down a "brake band" for my old chainsaw so I don't have to replace it. It arrived yesterday, so in a bit I'll go take it apart and see if it's the right one.
Friday morning we went to see "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor". Enjoyable with some unexpected turns; always a plus.
The 2nd movie was one I was looking forward to and afraid it might "get away" before I got to see it: "Swing Vote". I'd have sat through it a second time; damn good movie! I swear if I could I'd send you each a ticket...
Bill came for dinner that evening and we "caught up" and they watched "Stargate: Atlantis" while I slipped downstairs for a bit. Yesterday I started my day with a run to the hazardous waste drop to get rid of a half a car battery someone through in John's yard after a wreck at the corner below his house, then Wal-Mart and Costco before coming home to mow.
Netflix had their system up and running finally, after a few days downtime (and a credit to our account) They shipped us out 3 movies, the first of which we watched last night: "Big Trouble", a riot from 2002 that has so many name actors in it I don't know how I missed it when it was new, Tim Allen and Rene Russo being the leads, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (director of "Men In Black").
So tonight when Dottie gets home it's either "Beowulf" or "Grace is Gone"...
Off to grab some breakfast and then go see if that chainsaw is smarter than I am!
May Sunday be kind to each of you!
alan
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