This time I took the time to make sure I followed the upgrade instructions completely. I now am up to the latest and greatest WordPress version. You won’t see many changes on your end, most of the changes are on the editing side with cool things like auto saves of posts that are in progress, built in spell checking and other fun stuff. I love WordPress.
In online gaming you normally use an alias to identify your character. Years ago when I was cutting my teeth in multiplayer FPS (first person shooter) games I came up with a nickname that I used exclusively for a long time, FRAGU. In these games, when you killed somebody, it was often referred to as a “frag”, I simply added a U to the back of it. I thought it was catchy. I thought it was catchy enough that I actually had the domain www.fragu.com registered for at least 5 years. I had dreams of the catchy name somehow blossoming into some sort of internet phenomena. Well it
never happened and fragu.com has since been snapped up by one of those lowlife domain snatching companies. However the fragu.com web site probably received the most attention from me of any I ever did from an appearance standpoint. I tried to make it just look cool. I stumbled across it yesterday, which is what brought this diatribe on. You can see the site here.
The image on the left is from Painkeep. It is a screenshot just before I got sucked into a gravity well. When I worked at Sovereign we had some incredibly fun Painkeep marathons. Those were the days.
I am still hooked hardcore into Heroes. It is getting better and better as the they are showing the heroes using their powers more and more. I only have one complaint and it is surely a result of the shows popularity, there are more and more commercials. With the Tivo commercials are skipped over in a few seconds, however the abundance of these ads cuts down on the duration of the actual show. It annoys me, I want more show.
The American Idol voting shows have started. We are now in the incredibly annoying stage of the show where it is on 3 nights a week and gobbles up five hours if you want to see it all. Last night’s male performances were not fantastic. There was a very funny moment when the fat guy that looks like Jack Osbourne, whom surprisingly sings pretty well, visibly pissed Simon off. After Simon made a comment saying how he liked the kids personality but thought the singing was only average, the kid made a smart ass comment about Simon and his involvement with the TeleTubbies and El Divo which hit Simon like a rock. He got an angry look on his face that I don’t think I ever saw before and was pretty much at a loss for words. It was a really odd moment.
I got my Sprinkler install book off half.com yesterday. I flipped through it and found several things I did incorrectly, none of which are of huge concern, however I will modify my install routine for the rest of the circuits slightly. We were pleasantly surprised when we got home last night and saw that they came out to mark the utility lines. They didn’t mark the electric however and I got a notice in email saying the electric was not affected by the proposed work. I thought that was odd since the electric line follows the path of everything else, underground from the pole to the house. My assumption is what they meant was the electric line was buried deep enough that we could go down a foot and not hit it. Regardless, digging through that area will be done by hand, a power trencher could wreak some serious havoc.
I got the latest pictures for the sprinkler project online.
WTF has happened to Brittany Spears? Man in the late 90’s and the early 2k years she was about as hot as hot could be. Now she has transformed into rich trailer trash. I have been loosely keeping up with what she has been doing on perezhilton.com I mean it is entertaining to see celebrities unwind I guess, but equally sad. I can’t believe she shaved her head. It’s a shocking visual. It would be nice if she shook off her demons and got it all back together, I’m not holding my breath.
I am going to try to upgrade the blog again today, this time I will be backing up EVERYTHING and following all the advised procedures instead of trying to shortcut it. Wish me luck.
Wohoo, we just crossed 20 thousand blog hits. Tiny on an internet scale but big in my book. Thanks.
It was the most laborious three day that I can recall for a long time, probably rivaling the tile installation projects. Before the weekend I had set the ambitious goal of having one circuit completely installed, the timer in place and a pipe run under the driveway. Well two out of three isn’t bad.
On Friday after work I bought 22 10 foot sections of pipe along with a few odds and ends I thought I would need to complete phase one. The forecast for the weekend was very cold by Florida standards, lows in the 40’s over night with highs barely crossing into the 60’s. Not ideal but better than 95 and humid for sure. Saturday morning it was actually cold enough that there was frost on the ground. The thermometer read 40 degrees so I was a bit surprised to see frost. I was worried we would have landscape carnage like last year from a freeze. Luckily it stayed just warm enough to keep any of our plants from taking a hit.
So I waited till the frost cleared before heading outside. Phase 1 was probably going to be the most difficult phase. It all was going to be dug by hand since it was right around the house going up the hill that the house is built on as opposed to the power trencher I plan to use for the rest of it. Phase 1 also had tricky sprinkler placing. We had to go under the landscape border with short pieces of pipe and then use funny pipe for the last 18 inches or so. What the hell is funny pipe you ask? No it isn’t something you put stuff into to smoke and feel “funny”.
Funny pipe is black pliable pipe made by Toro. It can be cut to length and then pushed over these barbed connectors. These connectors screw into the sprinkler or threaded pvc connection. There are no clamps or anything else needed. I was skeptical of their ability to hold under pressure. Originally I had ideas of doing long funny pipe runs into the beds, luckily I read up on it Saturday morning and found that they didn’t recommend going more than 18 inches with funny pipe because of pressure loss problems. The reason you use funny pipe is it makes sprinkler heads much more resilient. If you have a sprinkler head directly attached to rigid pvc, if you run over it with something heavy enough, there is a good chance you will break the sprinkler head, the riser or the pvc pipe. A funny pipe connection is flexible so if the same situation occurs, there is give on the head, preventing breakage. From what I read, almost all connections are done with funny pipe for this reason.
Anyway, around 10 o’clock Saturday morning the shovel hit the dirt. I started digging my trench. Even though it was quite chilly out, I soon warmed up from the activity, losing my sweatshirt within the first half hour. The digging, while tough, could have been much worse. Once you got through the top layer of grass it was sand underneath. I had only one major obstacle to go under, the drainpipe I installed years ago to route rainwater away from the downspout. I was able to dig under it with minimal fuss. So around I went, up the hill around the back corner of the pool and back around to the other side. Digging on the steep hills around the pool was tricky. I got to the opposite back corner of the house from where I started. The funny pipe reading that I did made me redesign on the fly how I was going to go into the landscape beds. Instead of running funny pipe right from the main pvc run, I had to extend pipe into the bed and then connect funny pipe to it, meaning I need T fittings that I did not have.
I was tired and needed a break. I got that far in the span of maybe two hours. Good progress in my book. After lunch, Ali offered to take over digging while I ran out to Home Depot to get what I needed. I felt bad having her dig because I knew it was tough work but she insisted she would be fine. So off I went to the Home Depot in Bonita Springs, the closest one to us. That store had a piss poor selection of fittings. They hardly had anything for 1 inch connections. I was trying to improvise and use a reducer to go down to 3/4″ pipe but even then, couldn’t find everything I needed. I got angry and eventually said f it, and sped off to the Home Depot off Pine Ridge Road, a good 20 miles away. In contrast, this store had a great selection and I got everything I needed within 10 minutes. Unfortunately my trip to two stores kept me away from home longer than I hoped, I felt bad about leaving Ali to dig for all that time. I expected to come back to her collapsed from exhaustion, I had no idea how far she would have gotten.
You can imagine my surprise when I pull up and see the trench dug all the way around to the front of the house at it’s ending point along with sections of pipe neatly laid out along the trench to facilitate installation, wow, awesome! I praised Ali for her hard work and told her how I got delayed. Since the trench was all done we were ready to lay pipe!
Laying the pipe wasn’t all that hard. The worst part was spending all that time on my knees. The measurements didn’t have to be real exact since the pipe itself was flexible. The only parts we had to be careful with was when joints were going up/down inclines/declines. Those connections we put together dry, got the angle correct and then drew a line across the connection with a magic marker so we knew how they should line up when it was glued. It was getting late in the day and Ali was going to a humane society “Pet Ball” that night so she bagged out at around 4. I did another 30 feet of pipe and sprinkler connections before I bagged. The stopping point was about halfway across the back of the pool. I thought we made great progress for day 1 and thought that it was realistic that on Sunday we could have water going through the system. I did minimal cleanup, leaving most of the materials outside since I knew I would be using everything tomorrow.
This “Pet Ball” thing is the Humane Society’s biggest fundraiser. Ali bugged me about going for a long time but the tickets are 300 dollars EACH. I love pets but not that much. Well a couple weeks ago she told me that the Humane Society offered her tickets for half price, 150 each, still extremely steep to me. When she told me about it I again balked, told her if she wants to go, she can but I had the outgoing money for the sprinklers, zoom bleaching and Toyota starter repairs on my mind, I didn’t want to pile on. Plus this was before we knew about the healthy tax return we were getting. Plus I was a bit annoyed that the Humane Society wouldn’t offer her a free pass, I mean wtf, she just busted her ass for six months organizing a race that raised nearly six grand for them, they can’t throw her a free ticket or two for all those countless unpaid hours? I thought it was kind of shitty. Well Ali, in typical Ali fashion, didn’t care much about the dollars and decided to go.
It is a very formal event where high rollers spend huge money on auction items with the proceeds going directly to the Humane Society. Ali borrowed a fancy red gown from Michelle and spent well over an hour primping, putting her hair in curlers and doing her makeup to the fullest. The effort was worth it, she looked great. I took a few pictures of her before she went. I felt a little guilty about not accompanying her but she already made arrangements to hangout with one of the humane society employee’s wife. She pulled out and I had the evening to myself.
I had a fine little time on my own. I ordered pizza that Nicki and I went out and picked up. Then I sat on the couch and watched Beer League, the movie with Artie Lange from the Stern show. It was one of those movies that Ali deemed she didn’t want to watch. (evidently she did her typical pre-movie screening online and saw there was nudity – gasp) Well anyway, the flick wasn’t bad, wasn’t great. It actually had too much swearing. I am a fan of swearing mind you, but as with anything else, if you do it to much, it loses it’s meaning. There was so much swearing in this movie that it just lost it’s effectiveness. My favorite character in the movie is an old softball player named Dirt. He had most of the lines that made me laugh. Overall the movie was below my expectations although there were a decent amount of funny scenes, C+.
I think it was on Saturday night where my brain farts almost caused a serious issue. Ali told me that Nicki needed her Advantix. Advantix is that liquid you put on a dog’s back to protect them from fleas and ticks for a month. I heard her say Advantix but instead I went back and pulled out a Sentinel which is a pill that a dog gets for heartworm, also once a month. I took the Sentinel out, put it on a plate mixed with a small amount of cat food and Nicki devoured it in seconds. I told Ali that the Sentinel was all gone proudly! She said, “What, you mean Advantix??”, confused with how I Nicki would ingest Advantix. No, Sentinel! I said and then it hit me. I f’d up. My brain farts that make me do things like put milk in the bird water dish, walk into rooms and forget why I was there and various other annoying, yet trivial issues up to this point, now has resulted in me giving Nicki a monthly dose of medicine that she just received the week prior. Ali was freaked out, worried that this extra dosage could have some sort of negative, serious side effect. She scoured the net for info and finally came across a phone number to call. I outwardly tried to make it seem like I was sure Nicki would be fine but inside I was a bit worried and upset with myself that my brain lock had caused something like this. Ali got a lady on the phone that asked her various questions. Thankfully it was determined that there shouldn’t be a serious problem other than maybe an upset stomach. (which we saw the next day with an unusually high amount of number 2’s) I felt bad about my f up. It scares me what the future holds, seriously.
After watching Beer League I sat down and WoW’d until Ali came home. It was a nice relaxing night for me after a day of busting hump. Ali said she really liked the ball and had a lot of fun. She said next year she wants me to go. Ok, great.
Sunday morning I got up with a spring in my step even though my body was aching. I was excited to get the project ramped up. My optimism went south when I looked outside and saw a steady rain coming down. I immediately thought how all the stuff I left out was now soaked and how all the exposed dirt will now be mud, hooray! I checked the forecast. The rain was supposed to blow out shortly but the high was only supposed to hit 60 with a lot of wind. I figured, ok , well I guess I will WoW it till the rain stops. That plan got cut short when we lost power for a couple hours, due to the high wind I assume. So I passed the time reading some of my Wired magazine and wandering around the house doing little things here and there. Finally the rain stopped and I ventured outside.
It was very brisk and felt even colder with the wind but I had pipe to get in the ground. On Saturday night I tried to save some time by preinstalling the funny pipe connectors into the sprinkler heads and threaded, reducing 90’s. When I put my first sprinkler in of the day I took a quick look and noticed that it was backwards, it would be spraying into the pool area instead of away from it. Then just as a pre-caution I checked the ones that were already in the ground. The two I did myself on Saturday were also backwards. Damn it. Luckily, correcting it just meant turning the sprinkler 180 degrees, I’m just glad I caught it when I did.
So I methodically worked my way around, Ali came out to join me as I was getting to the far corner of the pool. We had a good system going and had the final piece glued in place by 2:30! We both admired our handywork, it looked damn good to us. However we had to wait two hours until we could test it. I spent the time doing prelim work for mounting the control box and wiring it up and constructing my water cannon to drill under the driveway. The control box wiring went ok although I wasn’t able to make the wires looks quite as nice as I wanted. The connections have to be sealed in these big grease cap fittings to keep moisture out and the length of the manifold didn’t give my enough slack from each valve to route them neatly along the pipe layout. Constructing the water cannon involved cementing two 10 foot pieces of pipe together and cementing in the nozzle on one end and the hose fitting on the other.
While the water cannon fittings were curing, I dug out on both sides of the driveway, giving me a trench to ram the pipe through. The theory is the water pressure clears out the dirt as you jam the pipe through. This method is what is used to get under small things like sidewalks, however I was trying to go under a 17 foot driveway, I didn’t know what to expect.
2:30 came and it was time to test our handywork. Ali and I were both nervous. I applied pressure to the manifold and then carefully opened the control valve by hand. You could see the pipe shake as it filled with water pressure. Then within a few seconds, the closest sprinklers spit and then popped up and started spraying beautifully. We were stoked and we walked around the back of the house to the front, inspecting each head. Every sprinkler was spraying strongly and in the correct direction. Finally we made it around to the front of the house to inspect the last sprinkler which just like the others, was spraying great. That is awesome, it means we had plenty of line pressure to power all 11 heads. Then, just as Ali and I were basking in the glow of our success, the head lost pressure and went down. Oh, oh. I quickly walked around the side of the house, knowing that either the well pump shut off or there was a break in the line, which would suck. It was the latter. A joint for the tee at the second sprinkler had popped apart and was gushing water. Quickly I scrambled and turn off the water. I was in disbelief that the pipe could have come apart once it was cemented. I was relieved to see it didn’t. It came apart because someway, somehow, I forgot to cement that one joint. Ok, easy enough to fix, dry the connection off, cement it and wait another two hours.
During the second two hour wait I was ready to find out if the water cannon would work.. I stuck the water cannon in, turned on the water and started jamming the pipe back and forth. It was working great. Each thrust back and forth the pipe would go considerably further. I could see the water bubbling up from the stress relief cut. I was over halfway under the driveway until I started having issues. At that point each thrust went less and less. Eventually it got stuck. I couldn’t move it in or out. F. I turned, pushed and pulled on the pipe as hard as I could, it wouldn’t budge. Son of a bitch. I assumed that maybe I got caught on some concrete or something. Then I had the idea to make another mini-water cannon by just sticking a hose inside a length of pipe and come in from the other side, hoping to blast through whatever was obstructing my progress. I was able to feed the secondary cannon in but it did nothing to free up my original pipe. My next idea was to feed in the secondary cannon on the same side as the original, hoping that I could widen up the hole. It fed in easily to a certain point, then just like that, bang it was stuck as well. I pulled on the hose but it was locked in tight. (yea I know these descriptions sound like a bad porn script but oh well)
So now I was really f’d, I had the water cannon and water cannon junior both stuck. No amount of pulling was going to break them free. I had assumed that I would just have to cut the pipes and leave them buried under the driveway but then I had one last idea. I would attach one of the steel woven dog leads that I used to straighten the oak trees and attach them to the pipe and the truck and have at it. My assumption was the pipe/hose would break but it was worth a shot.
So I wrap the lead around the original water cannon pipe and then back the truck into position. I slowly move forward with the truck until the slack is taken up. The wire goes taut and the wheels start to spin. I throw dirt for a bit and stop. Ali said the pipe actually moved, wow. So I back up, turn the wheel to reset the back tire position and go again. It goes taut and I start to spin the wheels but I keep on it, I see in the rear view mirror that the pipe actually was coming out! I pulled it all the way out, intact! I couldn’t believe it didn’t break. It gave me a sense of just how strong those cemented connections are, damn. Well now I was feeling lucky so I hooked up to the hose of cannon 2. I was sure the hose would snap but what the hell. As I took up the slack the hose stretched painfully. Ali stood way back to stand free of any recoil. Then again, the hose broke free and came out, amazing. I felt very fortunate to get both items out. I wrote off the failed experiment to just being unlucky hitting an obstruction. I vowed to try again on Monday, lower on the driveway where it was less wide. Ali backfilled the trenches I dug by the driveway. I was wiped out from trying to pull the cannons out. Enough time had passed that we could do test number two of the sprinklers. well Ali said we should wait a bit longer but I assured her that the joint should be sufficiently cured.
Test number two went flawlessly, everything held together this time. We walked around for awhile inspecting the spray. It was hard to get a good sense of the spray pattern because it was very windy, blowing water all over the place. Even so, it was thrilling to see the fruits of our labor. I was content to leave it at that for the day but Ali asked if we wanted to start backfilling the trench. I agreed.
By now it was getting late in the day, it was very windy and we were working on the shady side of the house, making it feel quite cold. Backfilling was quite the pain in the ass. First we tried pulling the intact pieces of sod off the pile and then shoveling/raking the left over dirt into the trench and place the sod back in, filling in gaps best we could. Ali was down on the ground trying to delicately place stuff, I was shovelling and raking. It was monotonous and going very slow. Eventually I dropped down on my knees and was pushing dirt around with my hands. We only got down the side of the house before wrapping it up. I told her I would work on backfilling the rest myself on Monday.
Ali headed off to work on Monday and I headed outside shortly afterward. Again it was very chilly. First I wanted to get the control box all setup. I already had it hung on the wall, already had the wires run up to it, all I needed to do was basically cut the wires to length, route them thru a piece of pvc to the controller and make the connections. Trying to cut sheathing off wires with cold hands is not fun. I struggled through it and got the valve for my first circuit connected. I just wanted to test that one first. I set the box for manual, fire it off and nothin… What the hell? I inspect my connections, readjust them, try again, nothing. Hmmmm, so I turn my attention to my connections. The common wire connection was a mess with 6 wires getting tied into one lead so I thought maybe that was not working. I already had encased the wire nut with a grease cap so I had to pull it out of the goo to inspect it. Well it looked ok. I squeezed it a bit and tried again. Nothing. I was getting pissed. Then I noticed the little lcd on the controller had an icon that lit up that said PWR OFF. It has battery backup so even without AC the display works. PWR OFF? It is plugged into the wall. I did some jiggling of the power cord and the message cleared and then came back again. What I eventually determined was that the top outlet was flaky, if you didn’t have the plug in just right it would not get power. THAT must be my problem. So I get a splitter and run the controller and the water softener off the bottom outlet, problem solved. By this time I had my original wiring all pulled apart so I just wired up the one valve just to verify I was in the clear. I hit the button, nothing. Now I am borderline insane. WTF is going on? I rip the controller off the wall, move it over right to the valves and plug the solenoid DIRECTLY into the controller to rule out any cabling issues in between them. It still doesn’t f’in work!! I have run out of ideas, clueless as to why the controller which worked when I tested it on the valves without water, no longer worked. And then I noticed something. The common wire was not in the right spot on the controller. I had removed and reinserted this wire at least 10 times, all ten times I put it in the WRONG SPOT. I was happy to figure this out but extremely pissed at myself for being so stupid at the same time. I put the wire in the right spot, bang it works like a champ. What should have taken me a half hour took two hours of f’ing around instead. Not a good start to the day. I got the box back on the wall, hooked all of the valves up and tested each one, they all work, great.
Next up, water cannon attempt number two. I moved down the driveway to a spot that was maybe two feet narrower. I dug my trenches, positioned my pipe and blasted away. It was an instant replay of the day before. I got about halfway and it got stuck like it was in cement. Again, no amount of pulling would free it. So once again I hook up the truck to attempt to pull it out. This time it wouldn’t budge, eventually I got frustrated and instead of easing the slack out, I built up a bit of monetum. This technique snapped the steel cable while the pipe remained intact, damn. So I had to admit defeat and cut the pipe off in the trench and bury it, forever entombing it beneath the driveway, oh well. My theory is that after a certain point, all the dirt that is displaced by the water just fills in behind the head, when it does there is just nowhere for the pipe to go. It would definitely work for something like a sidewalk, but for a driveway, some other method must be used. Well all that meant was that for the front yard circuit, we are going to have to go the long way around the back of the house, around the other side and up front.
The last part of the this phase of the project was back filling. Given our experience on Sunday, I was not looking forward to it since to do the first 80 or 90 feet took two people an hour of misery to do. I still had at least 160 feet to fill. I decided to start at the manifold side and work back towards where we finished. At first I was trying to use the same techique we did on Sunday, carfully separating the sod from loose dirt and then carefully placing the sod back in place. Well I soon realized this just wasn’t going to work. I figured what the hell, we have sprinklers now, grass will grow back in on it’s own quickly, I’m not f’in around. So out came the rake.
My techique was this, chop at the sod clumps to break them up and then just rake all the shit into the trench and then pound it flat with the back of the shovel. It went much faster that way and in the long term would be just as good as the tedious method we used before. Granted, all that raking, especially up the steep hills wasn’t fun but it beat the alternative. I was able to have it all wrapped up well before Ali got home from work. She was amazed to see that I got it all done. I proudly showed her the sprinkler controller mounted and functional along with my superior backfill job.
The three days were tough on my 39 year old bones. My hands are dried out, cut up and swollen from all of the pushing, pulling, twisting an digging. My knees were not receptive to being kneeled on so often but I’m not limping. All the other major muscle groups just sort of have a dull ache. But hey, it was worth it. I can’t wait till it is all done. It felt good to take on a big project and have it at least so far, come out as well as you envisioned. Of course I took lot of pics that will be up later today.
As I was leaving the gym, I spotted a grossly obese woman waddling towards the shopping center. She was short and had to be pushing 300 pounds. Each step looked painful, no doubt from the crushing weight on all of her joints. As she walked, there was a never ending wave of motion as the fat bounced up and down from her neck down to her ankles. I wondered where she was waddling to. I looked towards the direction of her travel and imagine that, she is going to the physical therapy office. No doubt her elephant-like proportions have taken a huge physical toll on her health. People put as much if not more of a strain on the healthcare system because of their unbridled gluttony as any other vice out there.
Following closely behind any UFC show as one of my viewing favorites is Pros versus Joes. Of course it is also on Spike network. In this show regular guys who are weekend athletes, former high school standouts or guys whom just think they are jocks take on mostly retired pro athletes. The whole premise of the show is based on lots of trash talking from both the “joes” and the pro-athletes which I could do with out. It is interesting seeing the former athletes. Depending on how long they have been out of the game and how far they let themselves go, it can be a bit shocking. For instance Spud Webb was on the show last night, he turned into a little porker. Will Clark, the former first baseman for the Giants was on a few weeks ago, he is old, bald and fat now. John Rocker has a full blown, redneck mullet. However for the most part, most of the athletes still can perform to a decent level.
It is extremely entertaining watching the the Joe’s compete against the pro’s. It is the sort of thing I would love to do if my knees weren’t held together with bubblegum and fishing line. It would be such an awesome experience to try to tackle Eric Dickerson, hit off of John Rocker, shoot hoops against Dominique Wilkins and so on (all those names have been on the show) The only thing I wouldn’t be into was putting on this bullshit, trash talking front that seems to be a pre-requisite on every “Joe’s” audition tape. I would just go all out and do my best and hope that I could at least get a little respect from the pro’s.
A few months ago a monument appeared in one of the common areas around the entrances to the government complex. It has a huge marble square base with the statue of a guy on one knee, holding up a Hungarian flag with a hole in the middle of it. The face on the guy looks like he is crying. The monument is for Hungarian war heroes. Um….. ok…. I am sure there are Hungarian war heroes. The question is why would such a monument be placed in the government complex of a sw florida county? It just seems out of place. It would be like putting the Rocky statue in Canada or something.
After work I am heading back to Home Depot to load up on things needed for this weekend’s leg of the sprinkler project. It’s funny, my trips to HD to get sprinkler stuff almost gives me the same feeling I used to get as a kid going into the toy store. It’s weird.
Charlie got a Nintendo Wii a week or two ago and has been singing it’s praises to me. My take on the Wii when I heard about it was it just is another fad. People would get sick of having to move 
around so much to play a video game. However he swears it is one of the coolest video game experiences he ever has had. I started checking out some videos of it. It does look pretty damn cool. I floated the idea by Ali, since she asked me if there was anything I wanted to get for myself with the tax return. The idea was not received warmly. She assumes that since the xbox sees little use besides acting as media center for my bittorrent videos on my pc, another video game system would just be a waste. However I think the interactivity and simplicity of the Wii might actually be fun for Ali to play too. It would definitely be a fun thing to do when company comes over. We have a big tv, high ceilings and a good amount of floorspace, a perfect setup for it. You just have to be careful when you are flailing around or else you wind up on this web site.
Three day weekend coming up. Government jobs are hard to beat I must say. I will spend the lions share of it on the sprinkler project. If things go just perfectly, by the end of this weekend I would have the controller box mounted on the exterior wall, all the valves wired to it, a little trench under the driveway will have been blasted out by water pressure and I will have 11 sprinklers installed around the border of the house which will be fully operational. That is pie in the sky optimism, but I am going to roll the dice and see how it goes.
Remember how around the holidays I found myself feeling more able to speak without stumbling over my words? Well I am now back to my normal pattern of misspeaking, mumbling and various other speaking issues that make me hard to understand. I really need to try to slow down and think about what I am saying most of the time which probably makes me sound even dumber. It frustrates the hell out of me. It has to be some sort of chemical thing.
We heard back from our accountant yesterday. We are getting back a nice chunk on our taxes. It was plumped up 1300 bucks as a result of our purchase of a hybrid vehicle, quite a nice bonus. I knew we would get a tax bump by buying the Camry but I didn’t think it would be that much. Just another reason we love that car. The tax money will more than pay for the sprinkler project, the zoom bleaching, and whatever fun we do with my Dad when he comes down. It’s a good feeling.
Over the weekend when I was outside scurrying back and forth working on my sprinkler project, I had a moment where I mentally stopped and thought to myself “Damn, it’s mid February and I am outside in shorts, working around the house, that is is awesome” When I first moved down here I had moments like this all the time, almost pinching myself by how great it was to be able to be outdoors during winter and escape the snow and bitter cold that I disliked so much. From accounts I received from PA, yesterday was an extremely miserable winter day with snow, sleet, ice and bitterly cold temps. I just smile when I hear about these days. As with everything else, over time, you take it for granted and no longer appreciate what you truly have. We are very lucky in that regard.
Years ago I stumbled across a website called despair.com. They have made a business of making a mockery of those inspirational posters you see hanging in businesses everywhere that have dramatic pictures and “atta boy” sayings like “Shoot for the moon, if you miss you still wind up in the stars…” and other BS like that. Despair uses powerful pictures along with sarcastic, biting statements that are far more anchored in reality. Their sense of humor is right in line with most of my ideas about existence. Here are a few of my favorites.
These are only a few of my favorites, there are many, many more. Take a second and check out their site if you want a good chuckle.
I started off my weekend after work Friday by stopping at Home Depot after work to buy some stuff for the sprinkler project. I spent a good amount of time perusing the shelves, going through a mental checklist of what I would need to at least start the project. I walked out of there with a couple 10 foot pieces of PVC pipe along with some elbows, caps, pvc primer, cement and a few other things. I decided this weekend I was definitely going to break ground on this monumental project.
I woke up Saturday, excited to get things started on this project I have been rolling around in my head for months. So after my traditional Saturday morning session of playing WoW while Ali sleeps, I put on my baseball hat and work pants and headed outside. I spent a lot of time initially just looking at the layout, weighing the pluses and minuses of different locations for the valve manifold. My initial decision was to put it to the left of the main feed, there was an open area, however it was covered with stones. So I pulled up the wood border and a few of the patio stones that were covering the area to give me room to work.
I shoveled some of the stones away as well. After doing this I reconsidered my initial plan. Putting a 6 valve manifold there would give me very little room to work since the step into the lanai is right there. So after some more prolonged thought and observation, I decided to run a long pipe to the right, behind the plumbing for the pool and position the manifold there. It would afford me much more room to route the six outgoing water circuits. My only concern was cutting off access to the pool heater, however if it needed to be replaced, it could be accessed easily by draining and moving the water barrel next to it. So my plan was in place.
I dug out around the main water feed pipe. Right next to the pipe was the electrical line that goes out to the well pump. I was worried about it being right next to it when it comes to cutting the pipe. I didn’t want to accidentally cut into the electric line as well for obvious reasons. I was happy to see that once I removed the dirt, I was able to move the electrical line a good 6 inches away from the water pipe. So the moment of truth was at hand, the moment when there was no turning back, the moment you CUT THE PIPE. So after making sure the dishwasher and washing machine had finished their cycles, I notified Ali that we would be without water for at least a couple hours (the time the pvc cement requires to cure). I wiped the pipe clean the best I could, marked where I wanted the T to fit in and started at it with a hacksaw. The pipe wasn’t hard to cut through and within seconds the excess water in the line started to run out as I breached the outer wall. It was somewhat awkward trying to use a hacksaw in such close quarters. I cut through the pipe just fine but after I got all the way through, I quickly realized that my cut was far from straight, it had a nasty downward angle to it. One of the things that is stressed when making pvc connections are the cuts need to be STRAIGHT, else you are risking a troublesome, leaking connection. For the second cut, I ditched the hacksaw and instead used my power reciprocating saw. For some reason I feared using the power tool in this situation, however the second cut was done in seconds and was much straighter than my hand tool messy cut. So I had my first issue, I had to straighten out that first cut.
I tried to simply take the reciprocating saw to the top cut and cut out the angled piece. However the pipe vibrated like mad and I was unable to get it started. So I called out Ali and with the assistance of her foot, I was able to cut out a piece to make the cut not perfect, but straight enough that I thought I would be ok. I cleaned off the burrs and sanded down the edges of the cuts with sandpaper, as instructed, to make the connection as clean as possible. I put the T in and connected the long pipe dry to make sure it ended where I wanted it to. When I went to pull the T apart it wouldn’t budge. I had to get a hammer out and knock it apart.
So another big moment in the project was upon me, making the connection permanent by cementing to connections in place. I wiped the pipes down, coated them with purple PVC primer then immediately applied a coating of cement to the outside of the pipes and a thin coating to the inside of the T joint, pressed them together, turned a bit to set the cement and made sure the opening for the new pipe was pointed in the right direction. Then I cemented the extension pipe in, followed closely by cementing in a 90, a piece of pipe up, another 90, another piece of pipe and then the ball valve that would be used to cut off water to the sprinkler system. Everything seemed to fit well and went together with no big issues. However I had no idea how good of a job I did until water pressure was applied, and that couldn’t be done for at least two hours so I had to wait and see.
Of course I would have preferred immediate gratification, I would have liked to have been able to turn the water on and get immediate feedback if I was successful, but it had to wait. So I passed the time making a temporary testing pipe that had a sprinkler in the circuit. I didn’t glue it together, I just pressed the pipe together hard, hoping that friction would keep it together. I also cleaned up what I could, and ate lunch before it was time for me to test my plumbing skills.
I called Ali out for the big moment. Almost two hours to the minute had passed. I made sure the ball valve was fully closed. I plugged the well pump back in and held my breath. Immediately the pump sprang to action, working to refill the main water tank and bringing the water pressure from 0 up to the 70 psi it normally sits at. As water rushed in, you could see my extension pipe bounce up and down as water rushed into it. It was a nervous few seconds as I anxiously scanned the joints to make sure they all looked solid. After a minute or so, the water tank was filled, the pressure was up and my pipes were solid, no leaks! I was very happy. Now I wanted to go a little further and use my test pipe to fire up a sprinkler.
So I go over to the main valve and turn it a very tiny bit to let water past it. I could hear the water running in but nothing else was happening. So I open the valve a bit further. The sprinkler comes to life, spitting the air out of the sprinkler head and then for a few brief moments it pops up and starts spraying water like a champ. Then POP, one of the joints in my test pipe pops apart. I scramble and quickly turn off the valve. Well I got a taste of success so I had a better idea, I would hold the joint that popped apart and have Ali turn on the valve. So I sit down and grab tightly to act as man made PVC cement. Ali turns on the valve and again, the sprinkler springs to life. My grip prevents the joint from pooping loose but then POP, the pipe pops apart at the elbow right past the ball valve, soaking Ali in the process. She is unable to turn the valve off against the water pressure so I spring up and shut off the flow that was streaming out of the valve like a fire hose. Ali had seen enough testing and went inside to change her clothes. Despite the soaking, she was impressed that it basically worked. She made some comments earlier in the day where she reminded me of some of my history of making poor decisions in projects that wound causing me additional headaches. Also we got into an argument when she was walking around helping me to mark where sprinkler heads were going to go with flags. Ali kept wanting to expand the project to include this and that and I was getting annoyed with her. Every suggestion she made equated to extra work for me. I eventually snapped and said something dumb like “All these suggestions are all going to equate for more work for ME” She took that as me saying that I meant she would not help, which of course she would. I was just annoyed to hear all these comments when I was the one who has spent all the time planning this out and then she comes flying in and takes a dump on my grand scheme. Well anyway, we worked it out. I was proud that at least so far, things are going well. So that wound up day one of the project. I supported the valved end with a patio stone with intentions of continuing on Sunday.
Late Saturday afternoon Michelle and baby Parker showed up. They were going to join us for our big trip to the fair. We piled into her brand new Volvo suv to go since she was parked behind our car. The line of cars going into the fair was substantial and the parking lot was very full. We paid our 5 bucks to park and followed the directions of the disinterested parking lot flaggers to our designated parking spot. As we got out of the car, I said jokingly to Michelle, “You have your keys, right?” referring to the incident last week where she locked her keys in the car. She laughed and and said she had them.
The fair seemed pretty much as I remembered from the last time I attended two years ago. They had an incredibly detailed, huge sand sculpture that you passed shortly after entering. It really is amazing how someone could have the patience to do such a thing. I believe the info board in front of it said it took a total of 140 man hours. Wow. We passed various informational, recreational and food stands until we got out on the main drag. We didn’t bring the baby stroller because of the idea of pushing it over bumpy, sandy grassy areas. However we discovered that they paved a large section of the fair area, making stroller use much more doable.
One of the things they advertised was a 20 something thousand gallon aquarium. We came upon it and were grossed out with what we saw. It was basically an aquarium that would hook up to the back of a tractor trailer. It was about the same length as a regular trailer except it had glass sides, an open top and a bunch of yellowish, green water with fish in it. The water looked disgusting. I pitied the fish in it. Furthermore the top of the aquarium was wide open so any asshole could chuck money, food or some other type of garbage into it easily. We shook our heads as we quickly moved from it, good idea, bad implementation.
We went into the animal and livestock area where we saw lots of exotic chickens, turkeys, rabbits, goats and many other barn yard animals. I enjoyed it, baby Parker wasn’t thrilled with it, he was a bit grexy during our time in with the animals but he soon mellowed out. We walked by the various food stands, surveying what unhealthy items we wanted to consume. Then we came up to the giant slingshot ride I have seen from my house the last two years. It looked even more imposing at ground zero, we saw someone get launched as we stood there. As they did, you saw the supporting structures shake in a very unsettling manner. They had some technical facts about the ride posted on a board. The towers were 140 foot high, the rider reaches a height of approximately 220 feet. The top speed the rider reaches is 100 mph and it said that the force exerted was around 6 g’s (which sounded high) Wow. I expected the ride to be expensive, maybe 10 or 15 bucks, I was a bit shocked when I saw the 25 dollar admission price, cripes! Initially the high price made me reconsider my desire to experience the ride but soon I decided I still wanted to do it, but I wanted to eat first, I was hungry.
Michelle and I got burgers and fries at one stand, Ali got a slice of pizza at another. We found a grungy miniature picnic table near the bathrooms to sit down and eat at. It was very close to the slingshot ride so I got a good view of various victims getting shot into the sky. Despite the price, there was a pretty steady stream of people willing to shell out the 25 clams. The burgers we got were on the tiny side, neither of us felt real full. We decided that was a good thing, it meant we could eat more shit later.
I saw they also had the drop ride. It’s the one where you get lifted up high, held there for a brief second and then dropped full speed. I had done this one before but it is a good thrill. It only cost 5 bucks to ride so next to the sling shot ride it seemed like a bargain. I got right on and calmly ascended to the top. As we went up, the extremely flat surrounding terrain meant that even going up 100 feet gave you a view that stretched on forever. It was right around sunset and the view was very pretty. However once we reached the top and you hear that clunk, your appreciation of the scenery vanishes and instead you are consumed with the anticipation/fear of what is about to come in mere moments. All of a sudden the bottom drops out and you are weightless as you free fall for what is only a few seconds but feels longer. The sudden deceleration to stop you from crashing into the earth is pretty intense as well. It was a good rush and I felt adequately warmed up for the “big” ride.
We walk over, they had an option to pay with a credit card, which I considered doing, but then thought better of trusting carnival people with my cc number. I hand over the cash and the girl gives me a big blue laminated ticket that I handed to the attendant. I knew Ali would not consider riding with me so I didn’t bother asking. However Michelle has a bit of daredevil in her and earlier she sort of hinted she might be up for it, but she decided against it as well so it was just me in the cage built for two. I did have a partner though, it was a backpack filled with weight that they strapped into the seat next to me. I guess a big imbalance in weight could be a bad thing in a ride such as this. Right in front of you is a camera and a mic, so if you want to shell out an ADDITIONAL 15 bucks, you can have a video of your ride on dvd.
With the couple riders I saw go, there was a guy on a PA system that would sort of give a countdown to launch. I was just sort of hanging out, the one guy told me to keep my head back on the head rest instead of angled up like I had it. Good advice. Then with no warning, I am launched. It was a bizarre experience as you are facing upward, pressed back into your seat by the g-force, hurtling towards the sky with nothing visible to stop you. Then after the huge rush of speed, sound and pressure, you reach the apex where you reach a dead stop for a moment where you can get your bearings for a second and see everything around you. Then the cage tips forward and you are free falling back to earth head first. It was crazy. Once the elastic bands catch you, it shoots you back up. The movement at the top and bottom resulted in the cage doing a lot of spinning back and forth which was really disorienting. Maybe it was good that the world was spinning much of the time, if I had a clear view of how high I was and how far I fell it may have been worse. My stomach felt a bit uneasy during the descent parts of the ride but nothing that I couldn’t control.
Finally the bouncing and twisting subsides and you are calmly lowered back to earth. I was very aware of the camera in my face the entire time so I made an effort to not embarrass myself too much since the closed circuit feed is splashed all over tv’s for all to see during the ride. When I got back to the bottom the attendant immediately asked me if I wanted to go again. I almost said “Oh is it free the second time?” but I knew better, they were hoping the thrill of the ride would get you to double their already huge profit margin to 50 bucks. “No thanks” I replied and as I got out of the cage I smiled and waved to Michelle and Ali, letting them know I survived intact. As you go down the exit shoot, the guy by the video equipment stops and asks you if you want to watch the ride. I said sure. I did a decent job of not looking too silly during the crazy ride. On launch, all my hair is pinned back on my head from the rush of wind, but after that there is just a lot of me laughing as my face gets red from the blood rushing to my head when I am upside down. The guy asked if I wanted it on dvd for only 15 dollars more. I asked Ali what she thought, I was half considering it for no other reason than it would make good blog a/v material. She said nah, she said since you only see the person and not an external shot of the ride, you don’t get a real good sense of just how wild it is. I agreed so I thanked the guy but said no thanks and we were on our way. Michelle asked me if it was worth the 25 bucks. Without hesitation I said , yes. It was unlike any thrill ride I ever had been on. It’s a feeling I never experienced before so that is worth 25 bucks. This may be the most thrilling/terrifying few seconds I ever had, well at least until I get around to jumping out of a plane.
So after the big ride we walked around some more. I picked up a latin corn patty with cheese concoction. It was two patties made of corn with cheese melted between, no bun. It sounded interesting. It tasted pretty good the first few bites but I don’t know if it was a bit of a queesy stomach after the ride, I quickly lost my taste for it and threw about half of it away. Ali got an apple dumpling that I finished the last third of. Michele was looking for soft serve ice cream at a stand we remember passing, however when we went back to find it again we couldn’t. Either our memories were both really bad or we were seeing things. Michelle said she would grab something later.
Ali and I wanted to go into the petting zoo and Michelle wanted to sit down and feed parker so it worked out well. She went over to another picnic table while we went into the little area, bought two bags of carrots and had fun feeding llamas, goats, cows and even a camel. They were so cute. We came back out to see Michelle still sitting there, digging through the backpack she brought along. I thought nothing of it and sat there while Ali and her were talking. However soon, almost all the contents of the bag were on the table. I casually asked, “What ya lookin for?” “The keys to the car!” Michelle answered back in an embarrassed, upset tone. At first I thought she was joking, she was pulling my chain just because I made that comment as we got out of the car. Nope, she couldn’t find them. Ali assisted in the bag search, looking and feeling in every nook and cranny for the combo key/remote thing. (it’s one of those switchblade type keys) It is not there.
Ok, well I remained calm. She had only gone into her backpack a couple times, once when we got out of the car. I told her I would go out to the car and look around on the ground, she also asked if I could find the lost and found area to see if anything was turned in. I told them to stay put while I searched. On the way out I stopped at the stroller rental area and asked where lost and found is. They directed me to a trailer a 100 feet down the walkway. I poked my head in and asked if anyone turned the keys in to a Volvo, figuring not too many of the largely redneck/hispanic fairgoers drove Vovo’s. The woman was very nice, she said she didn’t think so but she went over to the box. Nope no keys but a whole lot of yellow sticky notes attached to the box. “You see these?” she said, “those are all the people that have lost cell phones” There had to be at least 25 post-it notes there, wow. So I gave the woman my name and number and my sticky note was added to the box in case someone was kind enough to turn them in.
I walked out to the Volvo and looked around. It was pitch dark now so the only light I had was what reached from the fair and the occasional vehicle driving by. I didn’t see anything but just to make sure I drug my foot around the vehicle, hoping to feel something get kicked up, no dice. So I walked back inside the fair and found the girls. You could tell Michelle was hoping I would have the key in hand but she could tell by my expression that I had no such stroke of luck.
So now we had to formulate a new plan of action. I told the girls I would walk back to our house (about a mile away), bring our car to pick them up and then we could go get the extra key from Michelle’s place. I told the girls, since none of us had cell phones on us that they should just hang near the Volvo in 15 minutes or so and that I would park and find them. Ok sounds like a plan.
So I walk towards the fence that is on the backside of the fair. I knew at 10th street there was a gate to the fair that is normally locked but that I could climb and jump over. I approached the gate and wasn’t very happy with what I saw. Evidently in a friendly gesture, the fair attaches barbed wire and a higher gate to that entrance for the 10 days the event runs, great. So I surveyed the situation. There was no way to get over the gate without tearing myself to shreds on the barbed wire. There was lower, barbed wire fencing on either side and propped against it was the gate that is normally in place. So I carefully climbed up the gate while holding the fence post and then jumped over. I later discovered I must have caught my shin a bit as I jumped when I saw the bloody gash. The landing didn’t feel real good on my gimpy knees but I survived.
So now I just started walking, quickly. I thought of the girls being stressed out and the baby getting cold in the dropping temperatures. My walking pace steadily increased until I was probably going close to speed walker pace. Then I figured if I was walking that fast I may as well jog. Well that lasted all of a 1/4 mile until my knees told me to stop. It seemed like a very long mile. Finally I get home, pop inside to get the keys, wave HI to Nicki who is all confused by my arrival without the cermonial meet and greet session, and then I shoot right back out in the Camry.
There is now a long line to get into the fair parking lot. As I sat in it, I was looking for a place to pull off and park. I would be damned if I was going to pay another 5 bucks to pull in the lot only to leave 30 seconds later. I spot an area on the other side of the road that looked wide enough for the car so I spun a quick U-turn, pulled off the road, put my flashers on and walked up into the lot looking for the girls. Luckily they were already out in the area looking for me. They told me they grabbed a deputy and had him looking for the key as well but still had no luck. We all piled into the car and headed back to our house. Michelle, Ali and Parker were in the back. They were afraid of someone seeing them in the backseat with a baby (we had no car seat). We were able to sneak by security and get back to our place. Along the way we realized we had another problem. Michelle can’t get into her house, the keys are locked in the car. Luckily her in-laws had a spare key to the house and were home. Michelle called them and arranged for her father-in-law to go grab the key and then we would drive to their house to pick it up, it would save some time. Michelle was freaked out that someone would find the key to the Volvo and steal it. I didn’t think that was a very strong possibility at all but I wanted to try to get this resolved as fast as we could to make her feel better.
So we took off for her in-laws. As we passed the fair on the way out, the line to get in had spilled out onto the main road. I thought to myself there was no way I was going to wait in that, I would just pull off to the side and walk up. We get the key head back and I pull past the entrance, looking for a place to pull off. Well with the widening project on the road, curbs have been installed that didn’t allow me to pull off. So I wound up parking at the EMS building a 1/4 mile up the road. However I had the flashlight with and figured we could just walk diagonally to the parking lot and be there quick enough. As we walked I noticed Michelle only had her t-shirt on so I made her wear my sweatshirt, despite her protests that she was fine. Our plan was going well, we approached the driveway leading up to the fair but then we hit another fence. There was no opening in the fence. So we had to walk all the way back to the main road and then back track to where we started, just on the other side of the fence. What a pain in the ass. So finally I spot the Volvo, Michelle’s fears are eased and we open it up. We drive back to our place, she pick’s up Parker and heads home, grateful for all of our help and relieved that it didn’t turn out worse. It wasn’t anything she wouldn’t have done for us, no big deal. To top things off, Sunday we actually got a call from the fair office that they found her key, a storybook ending.
Sunday I had the next stage of my sprinkler project planned. I went to Home Depot and bought the valves and associated stuff needed to build my manifold to distribute the water to the different zones. I spend a lot of time when I go to Home Depot just looking at all the different sprinkler stuff, all the time thinking through different scenarios. Finally I settled on six Rain Bird jar top valves, an Orbit 6 zone controller/timer and a bunch of pvc connectors. I had to be doing careful math since I was using my gift cards for the purchase and forgot to bring my wallet to make up for any dollars I spent over the gift card amount.
I took the stuff home, ate lunch and then started on phase 2. Phase 2 wasn’t very hard. I had to put some adapters into each valve, cut a bunch of short sections of pipe and connect it all with T’s. In all I might have spent two hours getting it all together. I glued it up, cut a few pieces of pipe to act as supports and then spent the two hour curing time washing the car and the truck. (of course on que, it rained on Monday) After the connections cured I wanted to do more testing. I redid my test pipe, this time cementing all the connectors. I attached it to one of the valves, held that connection together with my hands and turned on the valve. It worked like a charm. I demonstrated to Ali the three different sprinkler types I had. It was cool. I noticed a few little drips on some of the pipe to valve connections but they were real minor. It was a very successful initial two days of the sprinkler project in my book. The next steps in the project have been mentally laid out. I think I am going to try to mount the controller box, do the one circuit that follows the landscape around the house and pool area by hand and use the little water blasting attachment to see if I can burrow under the driveway for the front yard segment. If I get all that stuff done I think I will be on a holding pattern till my dad comes down. Then I will rent the power trencher and do some serious damage. Pictures of the project can be found here.
This entry actually started Monday and is being finished now due to me being out of the office yesterday afternoon at the dentist. I got the Zoom bleaching procedure done. Wow that was not much fun. The woman that did it was very nice, what she did to me was not. They stick a torture device in your mouth that you are supposed to keep biting down on. It kept your teeth in proper position and kept your lips from touching your teeth. I am sure I must have looked ridiculous. Then they jam some gauze under the lips to push them away further. Next they coat your gums with some goop to protect them from the bleaching gel and the UV light. Finally they apply the beaching stuff to your teeth and then posiition the Zoom! lamp right in front of your mouth.
The woman tells me there are three, 15 minute sessions. She tells me to stay as still as possible. She leaves the room and turns the lights off. So I there I sit, mouth wide open, staring at the ceiling, trying to remember to bite down. It didn’t take long for me to start drowning in my own spit. So I had to master the technique of swallowing with my mouth open. It was boring as hell. I counted tiles in the ceiling, looked around at whatever I could see without moving my head and tried closing my eyes. The Zoom! lamp has 4 little LED’s that light up as time progesses. Each one lit up excruciatingly slow. Finally my first 15 minutes session was up.
The woman comes back in. For some reason I had it in my head that between the sessions the mouth torture device would come out, I would be able to swallow, wipe my mouth and reset. Nope, the mouth stays open and she simply sucks the bleaching crap off, applies some more and then you are right back in the saddle. She asked me if I was doing alright, I lied and said I was fine. So session two begins. Session two was the worst one for me. During session two it seemed the spit production went up, I practically felt like I was drowning. On top of that, my mouth was going numb. My pulse actually was making my head bounce up and down slightly. Then about halfway into the session I started to get very sharp, very painful sensations from my two front teeth. With the door closed and my mouth pried open and filled with spit, I couldn’t really make much noise. Thankfully the pain subsided but then without warning it would come back. It came and went the entire second session. My mouth was totally numb by the end, I couldn’t really feel anything.
When the woman came back in she asked how I was doing. I said “i hurs” the best I could do with a full mouth. She looked and said “Oh what a mess!” I also made some noises and gestures to indicate I needed the suction thing. Luckily she understood and sucked out what she could reach. Evidentally while my mouth was numb, my bite relaxed and that allowed the gauze under the bottom lip to push out which in turn pushed the bleaching gel up, all over my front teeth, including the back of them. She said that was what was probably hurting. So she had to suck out the mess, repack the lip, reapply the protective stuff to my lower gums and then finally we were ready for the final 15 minutes. Keep in mind, the mouth opening device is still in the entire time. The last 15 minutes I just tried to bear down and get through it. I had some more episodes of pain in those two teeth. It came and went in waves. The pain helped taked my mind off the boredom of sitting still for all that time.
Finally I was done. She sucked the gel off, pulled out the gauze and finally removed that damn mouth device and told me I could rinse. I had a mouth of spit so I just said “Uh huh” She said there were no cups, she would get some. I said “I just ruf it..” and I hurried over to the sink and scooped up water in my hand to drink. I wanted that shit out of my mouth. After rinsing I took a quick look in the mirror by the sink, wow my teeth do look a lot whiter. The woman said I went up 8 shades on the top and 6 on the bottom which is outstanding. After I got in the parking lot I took an extended look in the rear view mirror of the truck. Yep, they look much better, I guess it was worth the pain. For the rest of the day and night I had many painful reoccurences of that tooth pain. I would just grimace and wait the few seconds until it passed. So far today I haven’t had any more pain. I have a bleaching kit to use for the next week to really finish the job. The only downside is a restriction on what you intake for the next couple days. Things like cola, coffee, mustard, ketchup, red sauces and anything else with staining potential is a no no. After the week of bleaching I will put an after shot up here.
Holy cripes this is long, sorry.
The county fair is back in town and actually has been going on since last Friday. When we first moved out to our house we thought the fair was really cool. They had some interesting and entertaining things and they even gave people on our street free tickets as a little thank you for putting up with the noise and lights the fair brings every night.
Well a couple years ago the fair decided they no longer wanted to be generous and did away with the free passes for the surrounding neighborhood. Coincidentally the quality of the stuff in the fair went downhill as well. Other than the animal exhibits and the good tasting food that was bad for you, there was really nothing at the fair that was of any interest. Plus by the time you paid for parking and two passes to get in the door you already dropped 20 bucks. I think the last time we went we spent maybe an hour total before we left, pretty pathetic. Last year we didn’t even bother to go.
Well Michell and Parker are coming out to our house Saturday and we are going to go to the fair. They have a couple things that seem somewhat interesting like an aquarium, shark tank and sand sculpture displays. There are a few thrill rides I may do. The one that I really want to try has two long towers with a cage in the middle attached to either tower by an elastic band. It gets pulled to the ground, you get in and then they release, sending you skyward like you are in a giant slingshot. The fair added two giant chaser lights that light up the night sky as the beams of light move around. Each night when I take Nicki out for walks I spend a few moments watching the columns of light dance around. Sometimes they extend all the way out to our property. It looks cool.
While Ali went to the gym after work last night I went to the local Home Depot to do more mental prep for the sprinkler project. The first thing I stumbled upon was a book that covered anything you could imagine about installing sprinklers. It looked great and I almost bought it. However the 19 dollar price tag gave me pause and then I realized that if I looked up the book on half.com I probably could get it much cheaper. (I bought it off half for $2.86 that night) I found my little flags to mark where each sprinkler head would go. The rest of the time I looked at sprinklers, pvc pipe and fittings.
This is going to cost more than my original calculations I think. The little fittings seem cheap enough, a little less than a dollar each, but when you start adding up just how many will be needed, it will be a lot of dollar bills. Even though I have a drawing made up, there are still many uncertainties in my head on the details. Should I use one inch pipe all the way to the end of each circuit, should I reduce to 3/4 as it gets further away? How should the sprinklers be positioned so they aren’t spraying the sides of the house to prevent staining, should I use solid connections to the pvc or use flexible “funny” pipe? Unfortunately, a lot of these answers will only come to me in the heat of the project through trial and error. I have no doubt that it will all come together, eventually, but the road there will without a doubt be a bit bumpy.
Anna Nicole Smith died. I was surprised, yet I wasn’t. She always was a mess and I am 99% sure it was a drug overdose. It’s funny when I used to watch her reality show when she was all fat and a mess, you got to focus on her whacked out personality. After she went on the diet and got her looks back I had a hard time getting past how much of a loser she came off as on the show. It just seemed like such a shocking transformation that it was almost unbelievable. The worst part of the situation is the 5 month old baby that no longer has a mother, not that Anna would have excelled in that duty. Hmmm maybe the kid actually is better off now.
I actually recently heard from the famous Gnome blog commentor extrordinare from a couple years back. He used to be commenting on my posts almost daily. He also used to have a lot of slow time at work that allowed him to do so. He got moved to a new position that was much busier and I also think I pissed him off along the way a bit. Welll anyway, he is alive and well and who knows, we may actually see his smart ass comments popping in there now and then.
How dumb would you have to be to use someone else’s personal information to buy a 2003 Mercedes costing $47,000, keep it two weeks, and then trade it in at the same dealership for a 2007 Mercedes that cost over a 100k, again using the fake information? Oh yea I forgot to mention that you are also a 23 year old Hispanic kid that works as a low paid motor vehicle clerk. Yea, you would have to be pretty damn dumb and we just happened to have employed this idiot. From today’s headlines.