Sunday, September 26, 2004
Just my luck...
We worked in the basement all day. I managed to listen to Penn State lose while we were doing it. We were almost ready to stop and our power got weird. Long story short, we had an electrician and PP&L come out to get things back.
We're finally running and all getting showers...it's after 2.
I'll talk to you later.
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Ivan...the Terrible (Pt 2)
Saturday we were up around 9. It was a long night and we had to get ready for the game. We had worked out with Toby last night that we’d pick him up where he works in Lewistown. We took a look at the damage, packed our stuff and headed out.
Less than a mile from the house they came across the radio saying that traffic was being let through the Lewistown narrows 20 cars at a time. This was due to partial flooding and mudslides. They also said that they were probably going to close the narrows later because of the rising waters. Deb and I decided that going to the game wasn’t the best thing to do.
We went into town and headed to the Weis store for some essentials. I managed, in a round about way, to contact Toby. When I explained the situation to him, he said “Christ, I better get my ass home!”
We headed back home by way of the inlaws place. They were still pumping out the basement with that coveted gas powered sump pump. We came back toward the house and made it about a mile from our place. There was a tree still across the road. Later on we found out that it split a pole in two and left the transformer on the ground. No wonder we didn’t have power.
We took the long way around, surveying the damage all over the place, and finally made it home. Mike was here, so we took to removing the two limbs from the oak tree. That took several hours. Chrissy was at a baby shower for her stepsister, she got home around 6 or so and her and Mike played on the tree. I took pictures.
We finished up toward dark and decided to wash up. Deb heated water on the grill and we mixed it with cold water in the bowl to take a bowl bath. I thought it would suck, but I felt pretty good afterward. It was very interesting rinsing off in the tub with a gallon jug of cold water. Lots of fun! Remember, yesterday was all the mucking around in the basement and I hadn’t cleaned up afterward.
We went into the local chinese restaurant and pigged out. We were all pretty goofy and it was after 9 when we sat down to eat. I called Cat and we tried to one up each other on the damage. They got hit pretty hard up her way too.
We came home and lit the candles and hung out for a bit listening to the radio, then everybody crashed. Pretty early too. We had a little sleepover in the living room, since the waterbeds were too cold (but not for the cat).
Tomorrow we clean.
I’ll continue this later. Heading out to the BOC/UFO show.
cya
Quick Update
This week has been relatively cool at work. EGCW is on light duty, so there is a lot less of his stress induction.
I go to see Blue Oyster Cult and UFO tomorrow near Phila. I'm going to be taking pics, so they will be going up after the Ivan pics do. During the day the furnace guys will be here. Probably won't post again till late Friday.
I'll get part 2 of the Ivan story up too.
cya
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Ivan...the Terrible (Pt 1)
I went home and started on the basement. I got a lot more done. A lot of things went into containers, which was a very good thing as it turned out. We took a break for dinner and did some more. The rain was picking up a bit.
We kept checking the Weather Channel because of the game Saturday. It looked like Ivan was moving really fast and would blow out of here by kickoff. Amy wasn’t able to go, she was going to Trish’s (Chrissy’s Stepsister’s) baby shower. But Toby was looking for someone to fill in. He wouldn’t know for sure until later in the evening.
Back to work in the basement for awhile. I got nice and dusty moving stuff. We knocked off with a feeling that we were on track for the furnace guys to come in. I went up and figured I’d get a shower in a bit. Deb went to bed. Chrissy was playing Baldur’s Gate and I was on the computer. The rain was picking up. Very hard at times.
Around midnight the power went out for about 5 seconds. Whew…dodged a bullet that time. At about 12:15 the power dropped again. You know the vroom it makes when it comes back up, right. It was “Bam….vroom…Bam…vroom…Bam…vroom…Bam…vroom….Bam…vroom…BAM”
After the fourth drop, I said out loud “This is not good”. And it wasn’t. There we were, no power. So Chris went for some candles and I went in to shut down Deb’s machine and turn off her power supply. We did that and I told Chris to come down with me so I could cut my machines off.
I sat down at the machine and did my thing and moved my foot about two inches to the right. (Me) “Fuck….FUCK…” (Chrissy) “What’s wrong?” (Me) “The damn basement’s flooding.”
I immediately go into panic mode and figure that I have to get the sump pump running. So I go out and WADE into the garage. Probably about 2 inches of water there. I find the power inverter and go get the car. BTW, I forgot to mention that we couldn’t burn all of the trash that we generated during the day. So we stacked it up in the garage. So I had to maneuver around that while doing all this stuff too. I get the inverter hooked up to the van and plug the pump in and it runs.
We start moving boxes off the floor. We had a lot of plastic containers, so we were pretty good on some stuff. We had extra plastic boxes and stacked stuff on top of them.
The pump didn’t sound right, so I took a look at it. It turns out that the inverter is quite powerful enough to run the pump. So we were fucked. The second time I opened the garage door, one of the containers in the back of the garage blew over from the change in air pressure. It was really blowing outside.
So, at this point, I naturally decide that I’m going to Wal-Mart to get an inverter. The river had been rising up that way, but I didn’t think it was too bad.
I’m starting to shake at this point, so the diet goes out the window. I eat a bunch of snack bars and head up the road. This begins to unfold as a bad TV movie. I head down toward the highway, 3.2 miles away. There is a tree branch hanging from a tree just down the road from the house. Of course, I don’t get the omen thing.
I keep going and have to weave around a tree covering half the road. I keep going and trees are down everywhere. At one point I see a power line on the road. I go a little further and there is a tree completely across the road that has been cut to allow one lane of traffic thru. A little further down there is a huge tree down. Past that there is a tree down on a house. I finally get to the highway and there are emergency vehicles all over the place. I tell a guy flagging that I want to go to Lewistown. He says, you’re not going anywhere. They’re closing down 22/322 and not letting anyone on the highway.
So I turn around and head back home. I have a guy in front of me that’s going pretty slow and I know he doesn’t know where all the debris is, so I pass him. He’s got a Bush bumper sticker on, so I know he’s pissed when he sees my Kerry sticker. I get ahead of him and stop at the trees that are down till he catches up. So he can see what’s going on.
I get to the point where the tree was down on my way in, and there is a borough truck there. The guy gets out and puts up a “Road Closed” sign. He comes back and says I can’t get thru. I tell him I was just through there 5 minutes ago. I take a look and another tree has fallen, and this one does the job completely.
So we turn around and head back. There is a little dirt road that I thought I’d be cute and take. I get back it about 100 yards and there’s a dead tree across the road. I think I can pivot it and move it out of the way. Since it’s old and dead. Well, it is pivoted on the road in such a way that I can’t get any leverage. This is a very narrow road and I had a hell of a time turning around. Mr Bush was at the end of the road and I followed him back to the highway. We got on the road that was the detour until recently. All along that road there are trees down partially blocking the road.
We head up toward the rendering plant, so far so good. I get about a mile from my house and there’s another tree across the road. The road is completely covered, but there is a vehicle width between a fence and the tree. Mr. Bush goes for it and makes it. I think about it a second and think, screw it, and I go. I slid a little, but I did make it around. I finally made it home. Resigned to a wet basement.
The wind is whipping a lot. We’re sitting in the living room and Deb is spooked a few times by “cracks” outside. A little after two, she calls me out and says, “Does that sound like a freight train?” It did, but I didn’t want to panic anybody, so I said don’t worry about it.
We sat up and fretted a bit, then finally went to bed.
I’ll continue this later.
cya
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Aaaand....we're back!
We got spanked by Ivan. Basement flooded and trees down. Power was out from 12:10 am Saturday till about 6:15 Monday. We're slowly getting back to normal.
I've been getting systems up and running here. We're still sleeping in the living room tonight because the waterbeds aren't warm enough yet.
I'll get ya all caught up by the weekend.
cya
Friday, September 17, 2004
Vote for Kerry
Deb was home today. I got up and Deb walked with me for a little. Then I finished up and did the weights.
I headed down to the burg and picked up a memory card at Best Buy. I'm running really tight on time, and the guy says he'll help me and goes to the computer. Then the phone rings and he spends 4 minutes with the person on the phone. That is wrong. I was still ok on time, so I didn't push it, but that really pisses me off.
Then I go up to pay. I use the credit card. Now, Deb and I messed up when we got them and signed each other's card. So this girl at the register is the first one to call me on it. Perfectly within her rights, but just bad timing. So I have to run out to the car, get the drivers license and then show it to her. I made it to work on time, but just barely.
We were a person short, so they brought down TQOTPS. This is one of those guys that has a problem with everything, the whole worlds out to get him, and he's gonna fuck 'em before they fuck him.
During our 1st rotation, he stays down for almost 50 minutes. It's supposed to be 30 minutes, maybe 40 at the outside. The next rotation he tries it again. I didn't let it happen. At 30 minutes I gave him 5 more. Then I went down and started clearing the machine. He wouldn't go up. He stayed down for 10 minutes. I didn't really care. He went up and got all full of himself and told Paulette that "I'm not coming down till 10". Problem is, we go to break at 5 of.
She tells me this when we switch. TQOTPS is talking to HPB the whole time, instead of coding. Then, when Paulette and I are talking, she stands near us trying to hear what we're saying. So I moved so I was facing away from her. Lots of fun at the PO.
I finished up the evening and headed home. I had to stop and get gas, then I had to stop at the store for some stuff. I finally got home and started writing this.
cya
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Ignorance Is...?
I had to go out to Wally World and pick up some stuff. Then I headed down to work.
When I'm punching in, there is this mail handler talking to another mail handler. He's saying "Yeah....Kerry's guilty of treason. He should be in jail. But for some reason, they didn't want to put him in."
I think it's amazing that people take a work of fiction that's been completely debunked and use it as their primary argument. I wondered to a friend of mine if it's actually painful to be that ignorant, or if there is really something to the "bliss" theory.
The rest of the day was ok. At the end, Evelyn, who was in my rotation, asked me if we had any overweight mail on my side of the machine. I said no. Five minutes later EGCW asks me the same thing, he's not in my rotation. I ignored him. It felt...right. :)
Came home and rebooted my xp machine from blue screen of death. I looks like SP2 installed ok. So far, so good.
Came upstairs and turned on The Weather Channel. Ivan is raising hell with the gulf coast. It's gonna be very interesting what the morning brings. And Jeanne is projected to hit the Atlantic Coast of Florida. What a mess.
Cat sent me an email saying that the bass player for Blue Oyster Cult has bolted and left them high and dry. Buck seems to be ok with it, except for the fact of little notice. I tried to send Buck a message for permission to use my camera at Keswick, but his mailbox was full. I'll try to resend tomorrow.
We're looking at heavy rain for the game in Happy Valley on Saturday. That should be fun.
Gotta go to bed.
cya
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday (Tuesday Edition)
I finally got up and did my walk and exercise. I went down and checked my machine and found out I could get XP service pack 2. So I put it in and started installing it, then I went to work.
Work was relatively ok today. We had some mail sent down from upstairs and it all decided to drop into 2 sacks in the area I was working in. It was very annoying and bothered my back a little, so I took a pain pill. BLFH tried to give me a little shit when I was getting my pill, but I ignored her. We didn't get done completely, so that's kinda cool too.
I headed home.
Mike was here. He bought some chinese food for us, so I had some chicken and rice. We discussed the day, then I came in and watched "Unscrewed". Then I started typing this.
talk to ya later
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
These are you Children, see what you have done...
Headed home, got some lunch and headed to work. Work has been pretty benign lately, so we know that some shit is right around the corner.
We had a meeting today. At the end of the meeting, one of the gun nut assholes says "I want to say that today is a historic day. We're getting rid of the oppression of the Clinton administration..." And that's where I turned off. But the Pointy Headed Boss engaged the guy. So we had a political discussion on the workfloor, which is a BIG no-no. Nice to know that the gun nut postal workers can all go out and buy assault weapons now, huh?
An uneventful day. Came home and did this. I have a client to see tomorrow, so I'm wrappin' up.
cya
Monday, September 13, 2004
Not a Pelican Brief
Not much to report after that. I came home and watched a very good "Six Feet Under". Lots of story movement tonight.
Here's a website for y'all. Did you ever wonder what the condemned man's last meal was? Take a look here.
And I started typing this to all you good people.
Maybe I'll have more of a life later...till then...
cya
Saturday, September 11, 2004
A Day of Rememberance
We got a good chunk done. I can actually walk in my office now. We got most of the stuff in the middle area cleaned. Deb ripped out about half of the ceiling.
It’s a lot of fun to go over the old stuff. Found a couple of old pics that I wanna scan and put up.
I did my walk. Then I came in and started weights. We had a pizza delivered, so I took a break and ate. Then I did the rest of my exercises during the first half of the Penn State / Boston College game.
Penn State managed to lose 21 to 7. It’s still early in the season, so I’m not too worried. They seemed to have more gas left at the end of the game, but they just couldn’t get it done. I hope that they don’t let it affect them, We’re taking Toby and Amy up to the UCF game next week.
Chrissy told me that the thing she went to today was covered in the Harrisburg paper. Because they had a party instead of a funeral. You can try this link, if not, go to Pennlive.com and search “wilt”.
I’m watching a CNN thing on 911 and typing this to all you special people
cya
Runaround
Then I headed back home. I was having trouble with some, well, a lot of the pics coming out too dark. So I adjusted what I had and burned them off and headed back into the shop. I figured out what the problem was reshot most of what we did, but it was worth it. I'll let you know when I post them.
I went into the store and got some salad and dressing, then I came home. My butt was really draggin', so I tried to take a little nap. Deb came home, then the 3 of us headed into Stop 35 for dinner. Picked up a lottery ticket and headed home.
I helped Deb fill out her food diary and then went online. Chrissy and I watched a movie called "Boondock Saints". It was pretty cool, a real shoot em up with religous overtones. I got to have a long chat with Cat while I was watching it. Even though she said it would be a short one.
Then I surfed for awhile and started this.
Talk to you later.
Friday, September 10, 2004
The Completion Backwards Principle
I went in and fixed a clients computer today. I got everything working except the damn Outlook Express. It works ok on their one machine, so I installed Eudora on the other machine. Go get Eudora. I've used it since the BBS days and never had ANY problems with it.
Came home and wanted to walk, but it was raining. I took a look out, and precisely at 12:30 the rain quit. Well, slowed down to a manageable trickle. I went out hoping to get an hour in. At 45 minutes, when I was in front of my house, the rain picked up again. I took it as a sign.
I went in and started my resistance training. I've decided to do everything on one day, 3 days a week. It went pretty good.
I threw the bike in the car and headed down to the Burg. I went in and picked some stuff out and picked out a seat and some tires. It should be done next week.
I went into work. Work was ok. Nothing major to report.
Headed home and got on my downstairs machine. Looks like the restore worked, but I'm having driver issues again. I guess I'm gonna have to do a wipe of the drive and start from scratch. I'm gonna procrastinate as much as possible tho.
Client to see tomorrow too. So I gotta go.
cya
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Get it Up...
I went to work. Work was pretty benign, but I managed to make it through. I found out that there was a blow up between two guys on friday, but I didn't get the full skinny on it. I have some more in a day or 2.
I've been listening to DBF tapes from May 99. Sound pretty clunky, but pretty good in spots.
I got a client to see tomorrow, so that's about it.
You kids have fun.
cya
Monday, September 06, 2004
I posted yesterday, I promise.
(For Paulette) fuck all you fuckin fukers.....i'm tired, i'm goin to bed.
Work wasn't too bad. My client cancelled on me today, so i gotta go see em tomorrow. Another early night.
Louise gave me some good strokes today. Very proud of my progress. Make me blush. :)
Gotta fix this and hit the rack. More later.
Cya
Two Days in One
I got up yesterday and went over to the inlaws. I had to do my walk before we ate. It was cool to have some different visual input. I had a few hills to go up, which worked out ok. I want to do a week of 1 hour walks before I start doing hills. Of course, if they don't approve it, I won't be doing it.
I got back to Bill and Betty's house and a bunch of the family was there. I was a little surprised because I thought it was just gonna be us. We had a nice picnic meal and gave Chrissy and Betty some gifts. It's kinda convenient. Chrissy's birthday was Friday, Betty's birthday is Tuesday and Deb's is Thursday.
I headed to work. I got an idea on the way down. I told you a while back that one day my back was so bad I couldn't get out of bed. I was trying to think of a way to give me some relief and I got an idea. We have things called Vertalifts. They are a hand pushed forklift that will lift one of our smaller containers. It raises the container on an arc up to 90 degrees. I got dirty looks from some of the evil ones as well as a few of the mailhandlers, but I went ahead and did it anyway.
Bonnie and Kathy (another one of the good ones) were in my rotation. They both loved it. It involves an extra step, but it doesn't seem to take more time. Both of the girls are short and have to lift high to get the sack into the aircraft container. This way, it goes into the lower container, then on the Vertalift, then you can stand upright and transfer the sack.
I couldn't have done this with the regular supervisor there, but there is a fill in guy who was working who is easy to get along with. He came up later and said I should put in a suggestion request to get permission to use it. I told Bonnie about the plan earlier in the night and said "It's easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission", that's why I went ahead and did it.
We went on break and came back and, guess what?? The lift was gone. I don't know if EGCW or LBFH were responsible, or one of the mailhandlers. I didn't push it because I proved what I needed to prove and I had support from other workers. LBFH said something to Kathy at one point while she was walking away, it ended in "It's part of the job". I yelled back "It wasn't part of the job to do this for 6 fucking hours when we started". At a lower volume I said to Kathy next to me "...You stupid bitch".
So we had lots of nice tension all night. I let it roll off me. When I know I'm right, I can deal with a lot of stuff. We're also going to write a letter to the safety office. I'm gonna get a bunch of people to sign it.
I came home. The kids we're in the den so I actually got the living room for awhile. I've been really damn tired lately, so I went to bed early.
Woke up today around 9, but I didn't get up till Deb rousted me at 10:30. We straightened up the place for awhile and then put the meat on the grill. Chrissy was watching it but I had to put some hot dogs on. When I did, I closed the lid. She had the heat up too high and some of the stuff got burned, but I thought the sausages, which were burnt the worst, tasted pretty good.
We went down and worked on the basement for awhile and Billy showed up. So we hung out and talked for awhile. He mentioned that he was gonna get a digital camera and Deb suggested that we give him my old Nikon. So I did. He didn't want to take it, but I convinced him that I got more than enough use out of it and he should try it. If it dies, it's no big loss. I also got him set up with a blog. It's here, I'll put it in my links when he's got some posts on it.
The kids went down to Harrisburg to get some baby shower gifts at Babies 'R Us. Deb and I walked and then watched some tv.
The kids came home and showed us what they got. We're watching "Real Time with Bill Maher" and I'm doing this.
Now we're all caught up.
cya
Sunday, September 05, 2004
WE ARE.....(pt 1)
Game day. Season opener. Signal of fall and the start of all that is right with the world. Of course, I'm talking about football. But not your gay, european soccer kind of football. Not your overpriced, whiny american professional kind of football. No sir, I'm talking about your college football. Specifically your Penn State football.
I slept in today, thank god. I really needed it. I got up and did my walk. Came in and changed and we headed up the road. Chrissy, Mike and JoAnn weren't too hungover after they're party, so they had gone into Stop 35 (a local trucker diner) for breakfast/lunch. When they got back they said that traffic on the highway was backed up from the narrows almost all the way to Mifflintown exit. I wasn't too worried. We got on the highway a little before 2 and had a clear shot the whole way up to Happy Valley.
We parked in a different area than normal and we really like it. No major hills to deal with, just a gradual incline up to the stadium. We got up to the ticket window, which is right up by our gate and I held the tickets up in the air. Within 3 minutes we had them both sold. I didn't get much, but it was better than having 2 pieces of paper. Here's the deal though. We never saw either of the guys we sold them to. Weird, huh?
We headed up and watched PSU thoroughly trounce Akron 48 to 10. It was 48 to 3 up until about 6 minutes to go. They ran 4 different quarterbacks and had 2nd and 3rd string players in. All of the squads seem to be a cut above last years team.
Here's my notes. 2 tailbacks ran for over 100 yards. The second play from scrimmage was a 77 yard touchdown run by Tony Hunt, and they didn't look back. The first time for that since 93. Zack Mills threw a touchdown, ran for a touchdown, and caught a touchdown pass. That is very cool.
Again, you don't wanna throw a whole season of hopes on one game. But there was a palpable difference in this team from last year. They are more physical. The first half of football was about as perfect as you could ask for. At one point, for 7 posessions, there were 7 touchdowns. There was one point where Akron was threatening and I thought "Oh well, I guess they're gonna get 7." Last year, they would have. This year, they sucked it up and stopped them. They have energy. They have emotion. The defense was able to pick off a Heisman candidate and keep his longest pass completion to 15 yards. The offensive line dominated. It feels very nice to say that. The PSU recievers are trying something new this year called "catching the ball". It seems to go over well with the crowd.
The officials missed a few calls (It's a Penn State game, after all) :) But when your up by 40+ points, it doesn't bother you nearly as much.
I took a lot of pics, I'll put some on the photoblog tonight.
We went to Sam's afterward and found a backway to the parking lot we were in. We're gonna try to park there more often. Then we headed down and met the kids at Angelo's for some good eats. We then went back up to Giant on the other side of town and did our grocery shopping. We came home and put stuff away. Then I headed down here to do this.
BTW. I'm doing this on the XP machine downstairs. It seems to be behaving, but it didn't like my reboot a few days ago. So things are not 100% yet.
cya
Friday, September 03, 2004
Bentley's!...Ass!...Cut!
I got up at 7:30 and went over to the car dealer. The replaced the dash, gave the car a wash and, to my surprise, we're able to inspect it. The inspection was set up in a weird way. I had to get it inspected twice in a year.
I headed over to Walmart to get a few things, then back to rehab.
Rehab was weird. Louise went over weights with me and I got to do the full workout, that part was ok. But... The gay guy I told you about a few weeks back? The guy that brought cake? He came in with a briefcase. Well...he sings for the girls that are there. He's got a fairly nice soprano voice. Then it comes out that he was a drag queen, and still is. Funny, funny stuff. I'm just shakin' my head. Besides, I know that, in a few months, I'll look a lot better in a dress than he does. :)
I came down here and picked up a prescription and got gas, then headed home. About 10 minutes after I got here, Mike got here. He worked on the van a bit while I worked on the basement. Then we got the chipper shredder out and couldn't get it started. I realized after a while that I was pretty tired, so I came up and laid down.
I got a few phone calls, one was Billy, the other was Toby. Billy said he'd stop out later in the evening. Toby did too, but he never showed. I heard Mike finally get the chipper started when I was talking to Billy. We ran some wood for a half hour or so and then came up and got showers.
Chrissy got home and was going crazy to get stuff ready for her friends. Then Deb finally got home. The kids have 5 tents set up in the backyard and a ton of alcohol. Billy showed up and we got to talk for a good hour or so. He left, but said he'd be back Monday. Things slowly degenerated outside and Deb and I came in a little after 11.
The funniest exchange I heard this evening...
"Hey man, check this out, you're really gonna love this CD."
"Why? Is it full of porn?"
So now I'm watching "Dinner For Five" and typing this. A tip of the hat to Faizon Love for tonight's title.
cya
Get Up, Stand Up...
I got back up around 11 and headed down to Newport to have lunch with Margaret. We had a great lunch and talked about some stuff for the show at Christmastime.
Bill Magill’s mom came in and she was with Vivian Drum. Mrs. Drum was married to the first minister I remember at the Presbyterian church in Newport. It was great to see them.
I had a large cappuccino. Here’s a bit of advice. If you haven’t had caffine for a few months, Don’t get a large cappuccino. I was vibrating all night. Hell, I still have a little buzz from it. This coffee cup is the size of a nice soup bowl. Incredible.
I got to work and saw that someone put another Bush sticker up on their locker. So I went to the supervisor and told him. I said “There’s a campaign sticker up in the locker room, can you get it taken down?” He says, “Who’s it for?” I said, “Who do you think?” He laughed. It appears that he’s a Kerry man, so I guess he’s not all bad. :)
Evidentally the guy works on tour 1 (overnight). I guess he came in and Sid talked to him. He got pretty pissed.
The RNC
Let’s sum up the whole think, ok? 911, 911, war on terror, 911, connected, war on terror.
I cannot wait for the debates, I think that Kerry has a chance to take this by double digits.
It turns out that Kerry got the last word in this news cycle and from what I understand he took the gloves off.
It’s about time.
They say he’s a strong closer. I hope so, for all our sakes.
Let me wrap this up with a few things. Both men have negatives. If you took Kerry’s and put them together you’d probably have a baseball, or maybe a softball. If you take Bush’s and put them together, you’d have a planet.
And I will never, NEVER, vote for anyone who wants to write biased language into the constitution. Nor would I vote for someone who wants to take women’s rights away with language in the constitution.
He’s goin’ down.
cya
Thursday, September 02, 2004
I Told Ya...
I stopped in to talk to Margaret, she's right next door. She had a headache and she gets doozy's. I hung out for a few minutes and we talked about basements and stuff like that. We're gonna hook up for lunch tomorrow, so I have to get some sleep here at some point. :)
I went up to rehab. It's the first time since last Wednesday that I did my whole machine routine. Dessa said that my heartrate was elevated. She was a little concerned, but I said I was pushing it a little too. So I guess I'll survive.
I came home, fixed lunch and started to watch tv when I heard "heloooo??" It was Mike. Since the kids are having a party on Friday, he came up to mow the lawn and fix the van. The van still has some problems, but he'll get it straightened out, I'm sure. I hooked him up with a walkman and headed to work.
At first break I saw the general clerk and asked her if she got my buck slip (english=note) to put me on the ODL (english=overtime desired list). She said yes, but she can't call me because the union took my name off. It turns out that if you don't sign up within 3 days after you return, you can't be on the list. This is that oncoming bullshit I told you about.
I was really cheezed and asked the supervisor for a steward. He starts with the 20 questions and says "Can I ask you what it's about?" My response was "It's about I NEED A UNION STEWARD". Never give the enemy any information, only the bare minimum.
I went up and talked with the steward. She explained that it was true and they were enforcing the contract. I understand that, but I said...How am I supposed to know about this?? Shouldn't my supervisor have asked me about the ODL as soon as I came back? They are the ones that pass the sheet around quarterly. It's their responsibility 4 times a year, I think it should be their responsibility in this situation. She agreed and said she'd talk to the head steward and get back to me tonight.
She didn't.
It's starting to not be funny. This is the third time that she's forgotten about me. I mean, tell me "I'll see you in 3 or 4 days." Just stick to your word. I think I have to make an impression on her.
I should, in all fairness, say that the supervisor came and apologized to me later. I graciously accepted.
The rest of the night went pretty well. At the end, this supervisor let us go early, but EGCW was setting up a manual ring and slamming skids on the floor. Passive aggressively trying to get our attention. It didn't work.
I came home and the kids were watching tv. I hung out a bit and remembered I tivoed "Father of the Pride". The paper sort of panned it, but I thought it was pretty funny. I thought it might be a little too risque for NBC, but good for them for putting in on.
Then I came downstairs to do this.
Now I gotta go
cya
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
A Twofer
Yesterday I did the rehab thing. I was the only one there, it was kinda cool. They showed me some more stuff with the weights.
I came home and headed out to work. Work was ok. It's like waiting for the other shoe to drop, there will be some bullshit soon, it's just a matter of time.
I've been after people since last Thursday to take down a Bush sticker in the locker room. We're not allowed to have anything like that in the building. Well, after bugging and bugging, it finally came down.
After work I had to head over to Walmart to pick up some dumbbells (let the jokes begin!). So that took an hour out, then headed home.
I got home and had to hurry up and go to bed, I hate that. I had to get up early today to do my walking thing.
So I did the weights and the walk. I think I need a few more pounds on the barbell. I got 10's and I think 12's would be just about right.
I headed to work. Made a bunch of phone calls on the way. I'm having trouble reaching the furnace guy. Chrissy told me later that he called and said that he could be down here on Saturday. As long as it's in the morning, it'll be cool.
Work was quiet....too quiet.
I headed home and checked the tv. Looks like we lost the local channels. I guess we'll have to get them and lose the NY/LA channels. I hate that. I'd like to have all of them.
The RNC...sponsored by Republispew. (announcer) Try Republispew. The official spew of the Repubilcan Party. With 1/3 more bullshit than the average spew.
If somebody just stepped on the planet, they'd think that these people had a clue. They'd be wrong.
Yesterday, Dennis Hastert compared Bunnypants to Lincoln and Reagan TOO many times. Let me put it this way. If Lincoln was around today, he'd get so far from these Repubs it's not even funny. I don't think Lincoln would want to be associated with a group that wants to write bias into the constitution and take rights away from women.
Also. Too much 911. But then again, 911 and Afghanistan is all that Monkey Boy has.
I have no respect for John Mcain anymore. Bush bitch slapped him silly in the primaries 4 years ago and now he's his shill. I know there's party politics, but this is ridiculous.
Giuliani got some good ones off against Kerry. I think you have to sort of ignore the rhetoric. Here's the deal. Both candidates have they're negatives. But I think that George's outweigh Kerry's 15 or 20 to one. And that's not an exaggeration.
And their show of "diversity" is just a big lie. This is the party of the rich. They only care about the rich and gaining more wealth. Don't let them suck you in with statements of "morality".
Tonight I didn't get to hear a whole lot. I did hear Santorum interviewed though. When asked about the constitutional marriage amendment, he said that they're not "against" people. They're for marriage between a man and a woman. Give me a break.
I have a client to go see tomorrow. So I gotta wrap this.
cya